Slytherin as villains / LOTR spoilers

[Carol]

No: HPFGUIDX 179109

Carol:
In
the
unlikely
event
that
you've
never
read
LOTR
or
seen
the
film,
please
skip
this
post.

Magpie wrote:
> <snip>
I love that line, because it's perfectly well chosen (and of course
> I don't think he's referring to non-existant students that un-write
> the ideas given in the text over and over). They *played* their
> part. As a house they didn't *do* their part. The ones who did their 
> part at all are special cases, and even they also supported 
> Voldemort's rise before having personal reasons to act against him. 
> Despite themselves, Slytherins were instrumental in the victory. 
> Just as Gollum had a part to play in the destruction of the Ring.

Carol responds:
Forgive me, but that's not a fair comparison. Gollum did have a few
impulses toward goodness or loyalty toward Frodo but was too damaged
by the Ring itself and by centuries of suffering, hatred of everything
including himself, and abuse by Sauron's servants to have a true and
complete change of heart. In the end, he wanted the Ring for himself
(as did Frodo, but only after a protracted struggle to get it to Mount
Doom to destroy it). Gollum's final, selfish triumph led both to his
death and to the destruction of the Ring (and to the maimed Frodo's
return to himself, as far as that could be achieved).

The Slytherin heroes, Regulus and Snape, are very different in that
both acted selflessly, Regulus sacrificing himself for a House-Elf and
the destruction of a Horcrux; Snape risking his life repeatedly and
finally losing it, but not before he delivered a crucial message
without which Harry could not have won the battle. Neither remained on
the side of evil, or on his own side. (Every character in the books,
from Harry and Dumbledore to Narcissa and Lucius to Bellatrix and
Voldemort to Wormtail to James and Lily to Lupin and Tonks to Ron and
Hermione to the House-Elves to Xenophilius Lovegood to the heroic and
wholly admirable Neville acts for personal reasons. The Slytherins are
no different from the Gryffindors in that respect.) And Slughorn was
never on the side of the Death Eaters and Voldemort. He overcame the
Slytherin tendency (identified by Phineas Nigellus and personified by
Pansy) of putting himself.

If you want to characterize someone as a Gollum who set aside evil to
help in the victory of good without really caring about principle or
right or wrong or anything except personal concerns, I'll grant you
Narcissa. But even she acted out of love, as Gollum assuredly did not.

Carol, noting that Hermione's apparent devotion to principle (SPEW,
etc.) follows her discovery that she herself belongs to a sometimes
reviled minority group