Coming of Age in the Potterverse was Re: Dumbledore as shameless

[ZaraG]

No: HPFGUIDX 189014

> > > 2007 Bloomsbury chat:
> > > Barbara: I was very disappointed to see harry use crucio and seem to enjoy it his failure to perform that kind of curse in the past has been a credit to his character why the change, and did harry later regret having enjoyed deliberately causing pain 
> > > J.K. Rowling: Harry is not, and never has been, a saint. Like Snape, he is flawed and mortal.
> > > J.K. Rowling: Harry's faults are primarily anger and occasional arrogance.
> > > J.K. Rowling: On this occasion, he is very angry and acts accordingly. He is also in an extreme situation, and attempting to defend somebody very good against a violent and murderous opponent.


> Carol responds:
> Notice, though, that JKR didn't actually answer the fan's question about whether Harry later regretted his action. 

Zara:
Yes, she did not answer that second question. She answered the first question, "why the change"? To me it seems she is stating that Harry always had the potentiality to succumb to anger and Dark Magic. And explaining that we had not seen this before but saw it here, because the situation here was extreme in the ways she enumerates.

> Carol:
> She doesn't seem to notice her own inconsistency (she had Bellatrix say in OoP that righteous anger couldn't sustain a Cruciatus Curse, but here Harry is "meaning it" and *enjoying* it as the questioner points out, yet JKR still seems to think that it's a perfectly reasonable way of dealing with the situation.

Zara:
Where does she state this is a perfectly reasonable way of dealing with the situation? She states "Harry is extremely angry and acts accordingly", in other words, his action has nothing to do with reason and everything to do with (negative) emotion. 

Harry's action is reasonable in the sense that a person with a rational understanding of his character could predict he might act in such a way in such circumstances, but that is different from saying his action is justified.

I do agree her non-answer of the second question may be defensive. I bet she does not visualize Harry feeling sorry about having hurt Amycus Carrow, and I bet she does not have a problem with that. I tend to see it Harry's and her way...this bad thing could hardly have happened to a more deserving person than Carrow. Even if Harry, Rowling, and I all feel this way, however, this does not prevent any/all of us from recognizing that Harry acted wrongly, and better choices were available to him at the time.

If Rowling disagreed with the fan, I think she would have said so, she's certainly done so in the past.