A James Rant - Who was This Guy?

[Tom Kish]

No: HPFGUIDX 181400

>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. ;(


Tom:

The back story isn't there because JKR is writing everything 
first person, so you are seeing things only from each persons 
point of view. Since it was irrelevant to the story as a whole 
to see James from any other point of view other than Snapes, 
to show why he felt the way he did towards Harry. Even when 
Snape forced Harry to copy the detention cards in HBP you 
notice he had him start where he would see his father and 
Sirius's detentions. It would not only be pointless to 
introduce any extra back story about James but, the last 
few books were rather lengthy and doing so would be adding 
yet another chapter to those hefty tomes. Even if James was 
a bit of a hellion it's not to say that he didn't mature by 
the time he reached his sixth and seventh year. I highly doubt 
that Dumbledore would have named him head boy if he had not.

Whybnormal