varying views of characters

[sistermagpie at earthlink.net]

No: HPFGUIDX 190893

> Alla:
> 
> You know, one can argue that he did handed Harry to Voldemort when it suited his plans ;). Remember triwizard Tournament? Remember how everybody thought that Dumbledore should withdraw Harry and there were those mysterious rules that he supposedly cannot withdraw. Did anybody doubt that Dumbledore could withdraw him if he actually wanted to? So here we go, while even as a joke I will not claim that Dumbledore predicted Cedric's death and went along with him (although I personally would not put it past him), Dumbledore could have avoided Harry's ordeal and did not do so.
> 
> June:
> I think some people need to re read and understand the books. Dumbledore was not evil, he was one of the good guys. The villain in these books is Voldemort. If you want to create a headmaster who is the villain, you should write your own book. Personally I am getting tired of this crap too.
> 
> 
> 
> Sherry:
> 
> One of the wondrous things about the Harry Potter books is how differently we can all see the characters.  Sure, Voldemort was the villain, but some of us do not see the other "good guys" as so great, just because they were opposed to Voldemort.

Magpie:

Also, I think as a list for grown-ups we should all be able to deal with times when meta issues with the books bleed into the characters. Dumbledore's plan in DH is obviously the way the author wanted the story to work, and that naturally relies on the author pulling strings to make sure victory happens as a result of Dumbledore's elaborate secrecy and hints. Since Dumbledore often winds up having to direct things to the plot JKR wants (rather than the most efficient handling of Voldemort ever), it's only natural people are going to sometimes see Dumbledore as a darker character. It's not a case of not understanding that Dumbledore is the good guy, it's more like saying "Dumbledore's the good guy but..."

On the other side, people are also going to look Voldemort's plots sometimes and wonder how someone who's supposed to be so smart comes up with plans that seem to undermine themselves in order to drag things out until the last month of school.

Sometimes those kinds of readings don't really hold up, but sometimes they do. That's the chance you take with fiction. Sometimes people really *are* reading "different books" without either book being wrong.

-m