Cosmic justice, prepaid debt and debt payable

[_rp_zeal_]

This crazy little thread in HPFGU, on top of confirming my suspicion that folks there don't necessarily debate any more sensibly than those in any other forum (I mean, Dudley's "fat, ugly face"??? Come on!!!), also got me thinking about the way 'comeupance' seems to work in Rowling's universe

Comments

[sistermagpie]

Seriously, it's creepy that I think they debate even *worse* to at least what I'm used to. Make up stuff, argue about how fat people and Muggles deserve what wizards throw at them. Very creepy. Wring your hands over Snape's abuse of Neville in poisoning his toad (no, don't check your book that's not actually what happened) and then say it doesn't matter when Draco gets bounced around.

Anyway, this is really an intriguing premise. I mean, why do we have to even hear that Marietta is still hexed? Couldn't that have just been dropped? Umbridge is supposedly being brought back for more torture, and did Zach really deserve a whole new book of getting even more smacked around than he was before--was he just a stand in for Draco there?

It's definitely something to think about. Another thing the ferret thread on HP4GU got me thinking about was Elkins' earlier posts on how Draco's pain was always described as real pain, and I think that, too, was now a build-up to Sectumsempra, which wouldn't have worked as well if he wasn't so primed to be physically vulnerable. I get the feeling that for all fandom's desire for Draco to be nothing, Rowling does seem to see it as important that people get what she's putting across. Not in terms of liking the character or not, but in getting what he's doing and what he's about.

Ironically, this sort of backfires because all too many people are willing to exaggerate what Draco is while at the same time putting him down. They're frankly missing the point as much as the girl who decides he's just misunderstood, imo.

[_rp_zeal_]

Make up stuff, argue about how fat people and Muggles deserve what wizards throw at them.

I know! What a delightful bunch.

why do we have to even hear that Marietta is still hexed? Couldn't that have just been dropped?

The Marietta bit reminded me of Montague & the VC, as in, if Rowling expects me to laugh here then I must say we have very different sorts of sense of humor. So I am assuming that no, she really isn't just begging us to give Marietta's already half-dead dignity one more kick there!

Not in terms of liking the character or not, but in getting what he's doing and what he's about.

Exactly. When Dumbledore said he appreciated the difficulty of Draco's situation, I really felt he said it for a lot of Draco fans. We have never argued for people to find Draco likeable, for that's purely subjective, we have merely tried to put forward our view on how the text seemed to present him. I thought HBP has made it pretty clear whose view the author would agree with more, but I shall not go down the slippery slope of 'you just can't read the books right' ;-P