A bit of Potter-rant

fernwithy's latest entry, on subversive readings, prompted me to post this.

It really annoys me when people say that Dumbledore is amoral and manipulative, and the Weasleys are abusive or bad parents, while at the same time the Malfoys are the perfect family.

GAH! Yes, the Weasleys aren't perfect, Dumbledore has faults, MWPP were capable of bullying at fifteen, but that doesn't make them bad through and through. I think it's obvious from JKR's writing and interviews where her love lies. Then of course you get the people whinging that 'I can write better than Rowling! She doesn't know what to do with her own characters!'

One person I saw recently saying she hated James and Sirius since OotP. But yet she's a huge Draco fan. She was greatly offended by the recent JKR interview where she said that 'girls like Tom Felton and confuse him with Draco', or somesuch. What is there about Draco that's more likeable than James and Sirius? Draco's capable of the sme sort of bullying as the Snivellus incident--he has Leg-lockered Neville and expanded Hermione's teeth (encouraged by his teacher, the petty...grr). He has carried out a dangerous and potentially fatal 'prank' a la Sirius (Harry falls off his broom when he sees Dementors, let's dress up as Dementors! He had no way of knowing about the Patronus), and on several occasions has expressed pleasure at the thought of the demise of Harry and his friends.

And James and Sirius have shown themselves capable of self-sacrifice, love and courage, unlike Draco.

Now, I'm not saying that Draco isn't an interesting character, because I think he is, in his glorious screwed-up pettiness and malice. I'm not saying it's impossible for him to be improved in canon. But how is he so much better than MWPP, the Weasleys, Harry and Dumbledore?

Erk...I'm addicted!

Gakked from perceval

I am 69.4% LJ ADDICT! Can You Beat Me? View Info In Detail Take the LJ Addict Quiz Today After All, jediowl did.

ETA: Yesterday doyle_sb4 told me that connorbeast spotted me in the Science Library. He knew it was me because 'there can't be two girls in Queen's with a livejournal with a picture of Mark Hamill on it.'
Hem. Well, it's kind of amusing. I have actually met connorbeast in the flesh a couple of times, but I don't know his real name. *grin*

Continuing on the ranty-ness

Gakked from captainbianca

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What I meant to add in my last entry, was the vexed subject of Percy Weasley. Now, I like Percy. Maybe he's a bit pompous and nit-picky, but he's somehow very lovable. I was rooting for him to realise that Fudge and the ministry are lying about Voldemort's return. The subversive reading would be to think that Percy's right for sticking with Fudge and co.

Think of the situation at the end of GoF: A pupil of Hogwarts is dead, and the DADA teacher apparently isn't who everyone thought he was. Fudge silences one witness in a fate worse than death, refuses to listen to the other and ignores Dumbledore's interpretation of events. He's not just sticking his head in the sand, he's quarrying the stuff.

Now Percy. On the one hand is the Harry version, on the other the Fudge version. Percy has know Harry for four years, he's stayed in his house, he's Ron's best friend, he saved Ginny's life. Has Harry ever been known to lie about a major issue or suffer from delusions? The last time people thought Harry delusional, he was right about there being a giant snake roaming Hogwarts. A Weasley of all people knows that. Percy's family believes Harry, and his old teacher. The only reason Percy has not to believe Harry is the Prophet's smear campaign--Molly is castigated for believing the Prophet, and one might almost say that learning about the love lives of one's son and his friends from the national tabloids is an occupational hazard of sending him to an English boarding school.

On the other hand, we have Fudge doing a classic cover-up, up to and including Reckless Deployment of a Dementor. Why is he so frantic not to examine the facts? He sounds like someone afraid. In fact, he could hardly have done Voldemort a better service if he had been his loyal Death Eater.
It's not misplaced family loyalty or a close examination of the evidence that could lead Percy to join the Fudge party, just fear or ambition and self-interest. I long to give my boy the benefit of every possible doubt. Probably he's convinced himself into believing the Fudge-olo reedit. Maybe he's so far entangled in Ministry politics that he thinks he can't get out of it. Maybe he fears that the Death Eaters could use him to hurt his family, and a break from them is the way to protect them. Maybe he's even spying undercover for Dumbledore--that would put a new spin on the 'I'm afraid so' quotation.

But I can't see how joining the 'let's ignore Voldemort and hope he'll go away' party can in itself be better than fighting with the Order. I know that the Order aren't all nice people--Mundungus is a petty crook, etc. But surely letting the truth be known and making a stand against genocidal megalomaniac Dark Lords is better than hiding? Because soon enough there won't be a shadow of doubt that Voldemort's back, and every minute the Ministry spent not fighting him will be regretted.