Potter! (Or: some belated HP thoughts)

[selenak]

With spoilers for all the books, so skip if you don't want to know. Having had to write Dumbledore meta during my December posting meme made me reread some Harry Potter - not books, I don't have the time, just a few select passages - and reminded me how much I like the (book) series. I don't actively dislike the movies, but I think they get some

Comments

[cherrytide]

Oooh, interesting thoughts! The way JKR slowly strips away the illusion that Harry's parents were saints is one of my favourite things about the series. And Dumbledore too of course. The Marauder generation fascinates me because they were so full of potential and talent and yet so messed up and almost all of them barely had the chance to grow into maturity. That's a good point about Harry and his capacity for compassion. I see a lot of people criticising him for naming his kid after Dumbledore and Snape when they were both so deeply flawed - but I think that's the point in a way. He's able to admire and commemorate the best of them even while understanding the worst.

[selenak]

Yes, it's not that he hero worships them - he understands them now, which is different.

Also, the illusion stripping happening in steps is very age appropriate. Harry at 11 after a childhood of being told by the Dursleys that he was rubbish and hearing nothing about his parents deserved to hear that they were heroes (which wasn't a lie, they had been). Harry at 14, a far more self assured Harry, was ready to find out that his father and Sirius had behaved like bullies towards Snape, and no, his mother hadn't always loved his father. And even later, Harry at 17 could understand that people can come back from worse than bullying, that though he'd loved Sirius and had despised Kreacher it was still true that Sirius had behaved badly towards Kreacher and thus Kreacher's betrayal hadn't simply happened but had cause, that someone like Dumbledore had started not that dissimilar from Grindlewald. It really IS a growing up and coming of age story.

[mamculuna]

I just saw something about Potter (or actually Hermione) on Facebook . Unrelated, mostly, to your points in this post, but thought you might find it fun.

Related to your points, I do like Harry's compassionate side. It's often a problem but, like fairy tales, sometimes a solution, as in his connection with Moaning Myrtle.

[selenak]

LOL re: Hermione link. And yes, Moaning Myrtle! Definiteley a case in point.