Why Lily Evans Potter is great and haters can keep on their hateration and holleration (part 1)randomnesesJanuary 31 2011, 00:23:09 UTC
Lily, as a whole, seems to either be loved, hated, or treated with complete and utter indifference. While I'm firmly in the "love" category, I take issue with HP fans that loathe or dislike her (usually for no legitimate reason) as well as fans who really don't think her limited presence in the books is nothing more than her dying for her child, being an object of desire of men, etc. But despite not seeing much of her in the series apart from the recollections of living characters, what we DO see and gain from the experiences of others paints not only a much fuller character than most give Lily credit for, but also an incredibly admirable woman beyond the act of dying to protect her infant son. It doesn't take a lot of reading between the lines to paint a fuller picture of Lily, but I believe that the fact that she is essentially a character of "minority" status in the Wizarding World makes it easier for me, a person of color, to have a different sense of empathy for Lily. So here are my not so coherent thoughts on this fierce, awesome woman. ♥
SO!
People think it's strange that Lily Evans, a character we hardly see and is dead as the Harry Potter series begins is my favorite character. I'm sure several think that most of my love for her is pure fanon or straight up projecting, and that really can't be further from the truth. I've had others debate with me, claim that I'm simply trying far too hard to look for things to make her a more interesting character than just a shell of a woman. By the end of this people will definitely think all of these things still, but for me, it really doesn't take much digging.
We know lots of things about Lily from the opinions of other characters, and I'm of the belief that any information given to us by characters that aren't contradicted and confirmed somewhere in the canon should generally be perceived as truth. From others we know that Lily was bright and talented, or, if you're Petunia, a bit of a weirdo who apparently dabbled with magic illegally during holiday (we can definitely assume that Petunia was over exaggerating about turning teacups into rats or carrying around frog spawn, but negl, I'm not totally opposed to the idea because I think it's pretty amusing). Either way, it's established by JKR and others that Lily is pretty, rather popular, and talented. Unfortunately, in this fandom rampant with causal among the worst people in all of fiction. God forbid any woman be pretty, smart, and skilled, auto Mary-Sue emirate? But the sexism often coupled with the Mary Sue label aside, these should not be seen as things that limit Lily as an interesting character, but they also shouldn't be left just at that.
ANYWAY!
Other things we know from canon: Lily is a Muggle-born during the "Voldwar I", she and her sister used to be close but not so much as they aged, she lived near and was besties with Snape (who loved the hell out of her), she was originally none too fond of James but eventually married him after he got his act together and wasn't as much of a dick, she was Head Girl, she fought for the Order at a very young age, defied Voldemort three times at a young age, and gave birth to Harry and died at a young age as well.
Obvs right? Yeah, well, some people really don't like context.
SO!
People think it's strange that Lily Evans, a character we hardly see and is dead as the Harry Potter series begins is my favorite character. I'm sure several think that most of my love for her is pure fanon or straight up projecting, and that really can't be further from the truth. I've had others debate with me, claim that I'm simply trying far too hard to look for things to make her a more interesting character than just a shell of a woman. By the end of this people will definitely think all of these things still, but for me, it really doesn't take much digging.
We know lots of things about Lily from the opinions of other characters, and I'm of the belief that any information given to us by characters that aren't contradicted and confirmed somewhere in the canon should generally be perceived as truth. From others we know that Lily was bright and talented, or, if you're Petunia, a bit of a weirdo who apparently dabbled with magic illegally during holiday (we can definitely assume that Petunia was over exaggerating about turning teacups into rats or carrying around frog spawn, but negl, I'm not totally opposed to the idea because I think it's pretty amusing). Either way, it's established by JKR and others that Lily is pretty, rather popular, and talented. Unfortunately, in this fandom rampant with causal among the worst people in all of fiction. God forbid any woman be pretty, smart, and skilled, auto Mary-Sue emirate? But the sexism often coupled with the Mary Sue label aside, these should not be seen as things that limit Lily as an interesting character, but they also shouldn't be left just at that.
ANYWAY!
Other things we know from canon: Lily is a Muggle-born during the "Voldwar I", she and her sister used to be close but not so much as they aged, she lived near and was besties with Snape (who loved the hell out of her), she was originally none too fond of James but eventually married him after he got his act together and wasn't as much of a dick, she was Head Girl, she fought for the Order at a very young age, defied Voldemort three times at a young age, and gave birth to Harry and died at a young age as well.
Obvs right? Yeah, well, some people really don't like context.
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