Andromeda as good Slytherin WAS: Disappointment

[starview316]

No: HPFGUIDX 177615


> Carol:
> However, she must be in
> > the story for a reason, and the only reason I can think of is to 
> show
> > that not all Slytherins are evil. 
> She's clearly a foil (in the sense
> > of a character who mirrors and contrasts with another character) 
to
> > both her sisters. (How nice that the good sister is the middle 
one 
> and
> > not the youngest, in contrast to the tale of the three brothers, 
> which
> > follows the standard fairytale formula of youngest equals best.)
> 
> Magpie:
<snip>
> She seems pretty good via inference. She may have been in 
> Slytherin. I'm not denying these things. I'm saying I think Adam 
has 
> a perfectly reasonably reaction in saying: Her? She's supposed to 
> counteract all the negative Slytherins he sees? The one who is 
> barely on page? 


Amy:

It'd probably be better to ask Adam himself about this, but I don't 
know what's meant by Andromeda's counteracting the negative 
Slytherins we see. In that she's supposed to be seen as a Slytherin 
whose pleasant and on the side of light because that's what she 
believes in?

We don't know Andromeda, though. She's barely on the page. The little 
we have about her in canon indicates she did fine with her family 
until she married Ted Tonks, which put her on the outs -- for all we 
know, she followed the trend of the other Slytherins we DO know, and 
let love lead her away from the bad side, even if she kept a nasty 
personality.

I don't see how this is supposed to make her less negative than the 
others, and I see even less why it should matter. The fact is that 
from the little we know of her, Andromeda IS firmly on the good side, 
by standards of canon and fandom alike. She's not seen negatively in 
the large scheme of things. Her personality has absolutely no bearing 
on this; yet from the comments of both Sirius and Slughorn, she was a 
Slytherin.

> Carol:
> > Carol, who said nothing at all about Andromeda as "poster child"
> > nineteen years later and notes that the future of Slytherin lies 
> with
> > Scorpius Malfoy's generation
> 
> Magpie:
> Except that's what Adam was rather asking for was a poster child 
for 
> an admirable and likable Slytherin--which is why Snape and Regulus 
> and Phineas and Slughorn and the Malfoys didn't suffice for him. I 
> was starting from what he was asking for, agreeing that none of 
> those people give it, and also agreeing that Andromeda is too minor 
> to provide it even if she is it, which is what I thought he was 
> saying. Especially since many Slytherins seem like they might be 
> better if we only heard about them from afar, or wind up being less 
> than one might have expected from what one knew.
<snip>

Amy:

Probably best to ask this from Adam himself, but since you did say 
you agree, what's meant by admirable and likable -- someone who was 
admirable and likable by Harry etc.'s standards, or by fandom? If 
we're getting to fandom, I love Harry, but he's not always that 
likable or admirable -- by the same reasoning, I suppose, Snape has 
bajillions of fans who both like and admire him. 

If we're going by canon, the standards seem even more skewed -- who 
Harry likes doesn't automatically place them on the good side, and 
there are people Harry dislikes who are still on that side (ie, 
Phineas, Snape). If it's an issue of who made the right choices for 
the right reasons...even this doesn't seem to be a huge part of JKR's 
story for any characters. The Trio was ultimately fighting to bring 
down Voldemort, not mainly because of any fervent beliefs they had 
but because he was a danger to society in general. Of course they had 
certain beliefs -- persecution of Muggleborns was wrong, etc, but 
this right and wrong theme wasn't really a strong one throughout the 
book. It's disappointing that Draco didn't make a choice, but (and 
this isn't just for the Slytherins, it's for every character) this 
story wasn't about personal moral choices. It had a lot of other 
messages, but moral choices wasn't really one of them. So why should  
being admirable and likable put a Slytherin any farther above the 
Slytherins we do have, who all seem to play into JKR's larger message?

Amy