A James Rant - Who was This Guy?

[Mike]

No: HPFGUIDX 181305

> http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/181239
>
> Montavilla47:
>
> I feel like Harry, who felt like his beloved Prince had turned
> savage on him.
> Not that I was ever a big James fan, but I figured what people 
> said about him was more or less correct.

Mike:

James Rant - RAYOR

I'm really quite cheesed at the way JKR portrayed James. Harry starts 
out thinking the world of his dad, because of various things he 
learns and mostly on Hagrid's complimentary words. (And we all know 
how "unbiased" Hagrid is). Yet, his *one* good act seems to be his 
saving Snape in the Prank, and even that is called into question by 
Snape as more of a saving-his-butt move than a purely altruistic act. 
Even Minerva McGonnagall weakly praises James intelligence and 
immediately tempers that praise by telling us what trouble-makers he 
and Sirius were. Only Rosemerta seems to give us an unbiased positive 
opinion on James, "[he] used to make me laugh". Gee, isn't that nice. 
But of course, Rosemerta's praise is also countered by Fudge telling 
us what an idiot James was in trusting Black and turning down 
Dumbledore's offer to be their SK (MM gaves us the last).


But, bit by bit, JKR tears down Harry's image of his father. Harry 
gets to see him in action in SWM and is distraught. Sirius and Remus 
don't really offer any mitigating reason for James' actions, all he 
really gets is "your father was a good person", faint praise from his 
co-perpetrator in crime. Then Harry gets to read about a fileful of 
James' detentions. In DH, he again gets a dose of Git!James in 
Snape's Pensieve memories.  The coup de gras is seeing how feeble of 
an attempt James actually made against Voldemort.

OK, I can understand bringing James back down to earth for Harry. 
He's got to learn that his dad was only human. But JKR really buried 
James. We hardly learn of anything good the boy/man did, almost every 
backstory bit shows him in a bad light. 

If you take out Hagrids praise, you would be more likely to think the 
kid got expelled from Hogwarts than him becoming Head Boy. Dumbledore 
gave him that post, yet about the only thing I remember Dumbledore 
saying about James character was that he mostly used the invisibility 
cloak to sneak food from the kitchens. Criminy, why did he appoint 
him Head Boy, then?

Of course the real killer was having to listen to Snape tear the man 
down for seven years with no real rebuttal from anyone. At first, we 
are invited to think like Harry; "He's just jealous." But as the 
recriminations keep piling up and no contrary evidence is presented, 
we, like Harry, are invited to form our doubts about James' 
character. If you were like me, kept waiting for JKR to *show* us "he 
was a good person", then you were just as disappointed as I was when 
DH added to the git side of the ledger.

I was a James fan because I was a Harry fan. James wasn't my favorite 
character, Sirius was, but I loved the Marauders and their Map. I 
thought people were being fuddy-duddies for decrying the Marauders 
fun with a werewolf nighttime prowling. I thought that qualified as 
good wizarding fun, teenage ingenuity in the hijinks department. But 
without something decent on the other side of the ledger to balance 
the less sensible side, JKR has ruined my enjoyment of the Marauders 
backstory. Something I didn't think possible. ;(

Mike