Why Lily Evans Potter is great and haters can keep on their hateration and holleration (part 2)randomnesesJanuary 31 2011, 00:23:11 UTC
So now I guess I'm going to section off my thoughts of Lily and the various facets of her rather short life~
Her personality:
From the little we see of Lily, her personality is positive overall. She's friendly and inquisitive. She's best friends with a scrawny, weird, Dark Arts obsessed boy for seven or eight years and even at a very young age was caring enough to ask about how he was holding up in his bleak household of quarreling and neglectful parents. She's a Gryffindor with a strong sense of right and wrong, ad we know she fought for what she believed was right for a few years as a member of The Order. But I'd also argue that she can be judgmental and naive even though I think a majority of her judgments were pretty accurate for the most part. Her judgments on Mulciber and Avery were apt, as well as her disdain for the extra curricular activities Snape was getting up to. She also disliked James and Sirius for obvious and understandable reasons for a while. Her language while judging others is strong and uncensored. She thinks Avery and Mulciber are "evil", in Snape's Worst Memory James makes her "SICK". Some think that this shows that she has a rather black and white way of seeing things, and I don't totally disagree. That's a fair conclusion to come to even though she was right about Avery and Mulciber and was understandably not fond of James.
I think her naivety comes from more than just being unfamiliar to the Wizarding World, but with her continued friendship with Snape until everything just imploded. For example, I think she deluded herself into thinking Snape's deplorable behavior was more by association than deep set, but more on that later.
In all, I don't think Lily was a flawless character. She had a lot of positive character attributes, but there are aspects of her personality that can certainly be negative and frustrating in the right situations and circumstances.
Relationship with Petunia:
As the younger of the two sisters, it seems clear to me that they used to be much closer when they were younger than as they aged. I think a culmination of Petunia's jealousy and tendency to be rather petty was a huge factor in their virtual estrangement by the time Lily is receiving ugly vases from her sometime during Harry's infancy.
Though I think Petunia was more at fault for their turbulent relationship, I feel like Lily has pretty much given up trying to restore balance by the vase incident, and I wouldn't exactly be stunned if this was the case. Petunia can really hold a grudge, but so can Lily. I do think though, when it comes down to it, that they still cared for each other. Petunia essentially lost her sister to the Wizarding World in more ways than one: It started with Hogwarts and ended with her murder. Unfortunately she likes to take out a good amount of that blame, anger, and bitterness on Harry. It's not in any way fair, but I can't say it's not understandable or believable. I find it really quite sad, honestly.
Re: Why Lily Evans Potter is great and haters can keep on their hateration and holleration (part 2)improvedJanuary 31 2011, 00:31:57 UTC
I agree with you about Lily's faults. It's not so much as seeing black and white always, because she obviously can change her opinion if proven otherwise.
The relationship Lily and Petunia have is one that I can definitely understand, being in the same family dynamic myself (I have one older sister). It's difficult when you feel competitive and excluded to your sibling, especially when you're simply incapable of being on the same level. It's a sad situation all around, imho, which is why I can't truly hate Petunia. I think she was a terrible "mother" to Harry and, like Snape, was unable to put her own feelings of malcontent and bias aside to care for the son of her sister.
Her personality:
From the little we see of Lily, her personality is positive overall. She's friendly and inquisitive. She's best friends with a scrawny, weird, Dark Arts obsessed boy for seven or eight years and even at a very young age was caring enough to ask about how he was holding up in his bleak household of quarreling and neglectful parents. She's a Gryffindor with a strong sense of right and wrong, ad we know she fought for what she believed was right for a few years as a member of The Order. But I'd also argue that she can be judgmental and naive even though I think a majority of her judgments were pretty accurate for the most part. Her judgments on Mulciber and Avery were apt, as well as her disdain for the extra curricular activities Snape was getting up to. She also disliked James and Sirius for obvious and understandable reasons for a while. Her language while judging others is strong and uncensored. She thinks Avery and Mulciber are "evil", in Snape's Worst Memory James makes her "SICK". Some think that this shows that she has a rather black and white way of seeing things, and I don't totally disagree. That's a fair conclusion to come to even though she was right about Avery and Mulciber and was understandably not fond of James.
I think her naivety comes from more than just being unfamiliar to the Wizarding World, but with her continued friendship with Snape until everything just imploded. For example, I think she deluded herself into thinking Snape's deplorable behavior was more by association than deep set, but more on that later.
In all, I don't think Lily was a flawless character. She had a lot of positive character attributes, but there are aspects of her personality that can certainly be negative and frustrating in the right situations and circumstances.
Relationship with Petunia:
As the younger of the two sisters, it seems clear to me that they used to be much closer when they were younger than as they aged. I think a culmination of Petunia's jealousy and tendency to be rather petty was a huge factor in their virtual estrangement by the time Lily is receiving ugly vases from her sometime during Harry's infancy.
Though I think Petunia was more at fault for their turbulent relationship, I feel like Lily has pretty much given up trying to restore balance by the vase incident, and I wouldn't exactly be stunned if this was the case. Petunia can really hold a grudge, but so can Lily. I do think though, when it comes down to it, that they still cared for each other. Petunia essentially lost her sister to the Wizarding World in more ways than one: It started with Hogwarts and ended with her murder. Unfortunately she likes to take out a good amount of that blame, anger, and bitterness on Harry. It's not in any way fair, but I can't say it's not understandable or believable. I find it really quite sad, honestly.
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The relationship Lily and Petunia have is one that I can definitely understand, being in the same family dynamic myself (I have one older sister). It's difficult when you feel competitive and excluded to your sibling, especially when you're simply incapable of being on the same level. It's a sad situation all around, imho, which is why I can't truly hate Petunia. I think she was a terrible "mother" to Harry and, like Snape, was unable to put her own feelings of malcontent and bias aside to care for the son of her sister.
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