Villain!Dumbledore (was: re:HatingDH/Dementors/...Draco/.../KeepSlytherin Ho

[prep0strus]

No: HPFGUIDX 177692


> 
> Magpie:

 I don't consider Snape the more admirable of the two; they're 
> screwed up in different ways and objectively Dumbledore pretty much 
> spent most of his life working for the right things while Snape 
> joined a murderous organization of terrorists supporting a maniac 
> and spread nastiness wherever he could outside of his one single-
> minded quest to make right getting Lily killed. So he makes a more 
> interesting good guy than villain, while I think Dumbledore makes a 
> more interesting villain. As a villain all his goodness gets 
> deliciously twisted and creepy. As a good guy who's just supposed to 
> be flawed it's like the twisted creepiness and egotism that I sense 
> is just supposed to be a forgivable mistake. 
> 

Prep0strus:

It's an interesting way of looking at it, but not that surprising,
really.  Villains I guess make the most interesting heroes and heroes
make the most interesting villains because it means there's already
such a duality of character.  In order to accommodate both of what
we're shown, there had to be real complexity.  It obviously doesn't
work without a believable backstory - can you just imagine Arthur
showing up and slaughtering people one day, or Voldemort explaining
how this was all part of his larger plan to make babies laugh?  But
with appropriate background, a one dimensional character becomes
ambivalent.  

I'm not sure it really applies in Harry Potter... certainly not with
our stated good guys.  Though I see where taken a little further, in a
different story, Dumbledore, Hermione... these and others could be
interesting villains.  And I suppose it's part of the attraction to
Snape and Draco.  Though, for me, both of them wind up being more
pathetic the more I see of them, not more interesting.  So in the end,
their being 'good' intrigues me no more than their being 'evil'.

I think it's possible to have interesting duality in a character that
is on one stated side, in a character we don't have to adjust our
opinions about or who doesn't switch allegiances.  But I certainly
agree that a character that walks the edge  or defies expectations can
be quite interesting.

Having said all that, in this story, Dumbledore isn't a villain, and
it's strange to me that he appears more villainous to some than our
Slytherin friends.

In bizarro world, he would be quite the adversary, though.

~Adam (Prep0strus)