Slytherins are (*not* ) bad (was:Re: Severus as friend)

[sistermagpie]

No: HPFGUIDX 183344

Magpie:
> > because for the most part, all the Slytherins are at worst 
actively 
> > evil and at best have glaringly obvious flaws that make them jerks
> but  maybe learned not to be quite so actively bigoted and evil.
> > 
> 
> Pippin:
> And how does that make them different from the other characters? 
Aside
> from the cameos,  all the characters are jerks on occasion. They
> bully, they make bigoted remarks, and they let themselves be
> manipulated by Voldemort. 

Magpie:
"Jerks on occasion" is not being a jerk. I really don't think the 
author would say her good guys are jerks at all (in fact for some 
characters I'm not so sure she'd *ever* admit to them being jerks). 
They might make mistakes, but that doesn't make them a bad guy.  
There is a difference between Slytherin and the other houses (and 
other people outside of Hogwarts who never went there). There always 
has been in canon and there still is.

 
> Alla:
> But there is no way person can work upon changing their origins, 
their
> blood. Therefore to me Salasar's prejudging was absolutely the 
worst,
> period. He prejudged on something person can never ever change IMO.
> 
> Pippin:
> But it's also something that doesn't exist. I mean, we are all 
agreed
> that there's absolutely no such thing as pure blood, right? The Hat
> can't look inside your head and tell whether you have pure blood,
> because there ain't no such animal.  It can only tell whether you
> think your blood is pure. 

Magpie:
Why wouldn't the Hat be able look into your head and tell whether you 
have Pureblood? Just because no Wizard is truly Pureblood doesn't 
mean the Hat can't actually be taking Salazar's request into 
consideration. It's magic. The Hat could get what he meant regardless 
of what the kid thought. I think Alla's point still stands that 
saying "My school is going to be very academically challenging so you 
have to be a certain intellectual level to get in" is different than 
saying "No Jews." Whether or not the person thinks they're Jewish 
might matter or might not. Though it seems that agreeing with 
Pureblood superiority is indeed a trait that Sorts for Slytherin, 
more so than just being Pureblood (since Purebloods get Sorted 
elsewhere) which is why it winds up as the bigot house.

-m