A James Rant - Who was This Guy?

[montavilla47]

No: HPFGUIDX 181313

> Mike:
> 
> James Rant - RAYOR
> 
> I'm really quite cheesed at the way JKR portrayed James. 

<snip>

> 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.

Montavilla47:
I hear you, not even being, as I said, a big James fan.  But I didn't
need him torn down.  (Although, perhaps that's because I was 
already a Snape fan.  All I really needed to know was that Snape
was acting on Dumbledore's orders to think well of him.)

It seems like the thing that bugs a lot of people is James not 
picking up his wand when Voldemort comes in.  I don't find it
that damning a thing, myself, but I find it interesting that it's 
so disappointing for people.

I can't help but wonder why JKR did that?  Was it to make James's
death more poignant, like Cedric's?  Does she think it's more 
virtuous or heartrenching for James to die helplessly than to take 
arms against an enemy he had been fighting for over a year?  Was
it to point out how devastating Peter's betrayal was because James
didn't even think of defending himself?

Did she think that we'd think less of James if Voldemort defeated
him in a "fair" duel?  

It wouldn't have been that hard or illogical to have him pick up
his wand, even if he was surprised.  I guess, though, as I try to
imagine that scenario, it would be more impressive had he been
able to fend Voldemort off long enough to warn Lily.

Which is the sequence most of us were probably imagining 
prior to DH.

Mike:
> 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. 

Montavilla47:
Yes.  He was torn down quite enough in OotP, as far as I was 
concerned.  I liked that in HBP, we did get a small bit of positivity 
when Lupin talked about James calling his lycanthropy his "furry 
little problem."

What put it over the top for me in DH was learning that the Prank
took place before SWM.  There's no way to connect the James that
appears in SWM with the Head Boy he becomes, other than a wanton
disregard for character by Dumbledore.  Not that I think the honor
should have gone to any of the other boys we see in that year.  But
still, there must have been some deserving Hufflepuff around....


Mike:
> 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. ;(

Montavilla47:
I hear you, Mike.  And I don't think it was necessary at all.  I would have
preferred leaving the books with fond thoughts toward the Marauders
*and* their scrappy little opponent.