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deathtocapslock* And in case there was any lingering doubt as to whether OOTP was too padded, here’s an entire chapter where the most noteworthy thing that happens is Harry getting a bit of careers advice. Oh joy.
* Snape cancelling the Occlumency lessons isn’t (just) because he’s angry at Harry for seeing SWM. Harry’s behaviour also represented a security risk – Snape probably put all his memories showing that he was a double agent in there, and he couldn’t run the risk that Harry would look in the Pensieve again, see some of them, and then get mind-read by Voldemort and reveal Severus’ true allegiance in that way.
* Hermione’s usually very trusting of teachers, but now she’s all “I don’t think Snape should stop until you’re absolutely sure you can control them!” presumably because the plot needs Harry to feel guilty now.
* I’m glad that Harry still has enough empathy to feel horrified at the Marauders’ behaviour, although it’s a pity this never really went anywhere.
* “Harry could not imagine Fred and George dangling someone upside-down for the fun of it... not unless they really loathed them... perhaps Malfoy, or somebody who really deserved it...” Erm, Harry, has it perhaps occurred to you that the Marauders did “really loathe” Snape, and that, from the point of view of a disinterested outsider, the Twins’ behaviour might seem little better than what you saw James and Sirius doing?
* “‘I wish I could talk to Sirius,’ Harry muttered. ‘But I know I can’t.’” Yeah, Harry, I mean it’s not like Sirius gave you a present specifically for use if you wanted to contact him. Such a pity, that…
* Muggle relations jobs don’t need many OWLs, because wizards don’t really care much about interacting with the other 99% of the world’s population.
* Also, “much more important is your enthusiasm, patience and a good sense of fun!” sounds like the sort of thing you’d say to somebody working with children or animals rather than adults.
* Plus, you don’t really need “enthusiasm, patience and a good sense of fun”, just skill at doing memory charms. That seems to be the main method of wizard-muggle interaction, after all.
* Messing up people’s revision time is “the very last thing” Fred and George want to do. Apparently giving somebody boils doesn’t count as messing up their revision, then.
* I doubt that Sirius’ knife open literally any door. If it’s bewitched to resist Alohomora, it could probably resist the knife as well.
* Being given a zero for his potion isn’t that bad a punishment, actually. It’s not like it’s going to contribute towards his OWL score, so he hasn’t really missed out on anything except feedback and possibly the pride of being given a good mark. He certainly hasn’t missed out on enough to justify him being unable to talk to Hermione.
* “[Being an Auror is] a difficult career path, Potter, they only take the best.” Or people who’ve managed, by a series of incredibly lucky coincidences, to beat the most incompetent Dark Lord ever.
* So, the Aurors require good marks and passing a series of aptitude tests. Let’s see, Harry consistently copies off Hermione when doing his schoolwork, charges into potentially dangerous situations without thinking or calling for backup, and seems content to trust whatever he’s told provided it comes from people he likes, whilst refusing to entertain any notion that his personal enemies might be right. Can anybody really see him fulfilling the criteria for being an Auror, let alone rising to become their head whilst still in his twenties? Seems to me like he’ll spend the rest of his career playing off his Chosen One status to get himself promoted to positions well beyond his actual competence.
* “‘I was just wondering whether Mr. Potter has quite the temperament for an Auror?’ said Professor Umbridge sweetly.” Once again, the bad guys’ assessment of the heroes’ qualities and actions is correct, although probably for the wrong reason (cf. Lucius Malfoy).
* We can tell that Umbridge’s note represents trouble because the parchment it’s written on is pink, the evil colour.
* I sort of pity Harry here. He’s so obviously just the pawn for Umbridge and McGonagall’s little power struggle. Although it makes a change from being obviously just the pawn for Dumbledore and Fudge’s power struggle, I suppose.
* Also, getting into a shouting match in front of your pupils is very undignified and unprofessional behaviour. Minerva really ought to have known better than to do so.
* DADA today is centred around “Chapter Thirty-Four: Non-Retaliation and Negotiation”. Because only evil people would prefer negotiations to fighting. I’ve probably said this before, but for a woman who self-consciously borrows so much Messianic imagery for her hero, JK Rowling seems remarkably hostile towards the whole “turn the other cheek” concept.
* So Harry’s sitting around moping and thinking of the knife which Sirius gave him and which he plans to use so he can talk to Sirius. Somehow, he doesn’t think of the mysterious present which Sirius gave him specifically so they can talk to each other if Harry has any problems.
* Ron keeps saying that Harry should make his own decision. This is quite a consistent view for him to adopt, but I’m not entirely sure what to make of it – sometimes (as with the House Elves) this seems like principled support for not imposing your ideas of what’s best on people, other times (like now) it seems like he’s just too cowardly to express an opinion and risk upsetting anyone.
* Snape was “up to his eyes in the Dark Arts”, whereas James wasn’t. So, how exactly do the Dark Arts differ from normal magic? Is it that they can’t be used for good purposes (as opposed to normal magic, which can be used for both good and bad)? But then, why should using Dark Magic be considered any worse than using normal magic to attack somebody?
* James was “everything Snape wanted to be” – so awesome, in other words, that even scenes where he bullies people with no provocation indicate just how awesome he is.
* Funny, from the way Sirius and Lupin talk about SWM, you’d think they were just partaking in some high-spirited schoolboy antics, rather than a rather serious piece of abuse.
* James was “a good person”, despite acting like a bad one. Seems like an example of the pseudo-Calvinist outlook of these books: if you’re good you’re good, no matter what your actual behaviour is like.
* Are we meant to be thinking badly of Filch for wanting to whip the twins? Because whipping somebody doesn’t seem particularly bad for a society with such a cavalier attitude to physical danger (even McGonagall gives eleven-year-olds detention in the Forbidden Forest, which has the potential to turn far nastier than a spot of light corporal punishment would).
* Besides, it’s not like regular punishments seem to work particularly well on Fred and George. I suppose a bit of corporal punishment might be worth a try.
* I’m surprised Umbridge or the IS don’t do more to stop Fred and George from escaping. Like Stunning them, or conjuring a brick wall in mid-air to block their path.
* Snape cancelling the Occlumency lessons isn’t (just) because he’s angry at Harry for seeing SWM. Harry’s behaviour also represented a security risk – Snape probably put all his memories showing that he was a double agent in there, and he couldn’t run the risk that Harry would look in the Pensieve again, see some of them, and then get mind-read by Voldemort and reveal Severus’ true allegiance in that way.
* Hermione’s usually very trusting of teachers, but now she’s all “I don’t think Snape should stop until you’re absolutely sure you can control them!” presumably because the plot needs Harry to feel guilty now.
* I’m glad that Harry still has enough empathy to feel horrified at the Marauders’ behaviour, although it’s a pity this never really went anywhere.
* “Harry could not imagine Fred and George dangling someone upside-down for the fun of it... not unless they really loathed them... perhaps Malfoy, or somebody who really deserved it...” Erm, Harry, has it perhaps occurred to you that the Marauders did “really loathe” Snape, and that, from the point of view of a disinterested outsider, the Twins’ behaviour might seem little better than what you saw James and Sirius doing?
* “‘I wish I could talk to Sirius,’ Harry muttered. ‘But I know I can’t.’” Yeah, Harry, I mean it’s not like Sirius gave you a present specifically for use if you wanted to contact him. Such a pity, that…
* Muggle relations jobs don’t need many OWLs, because wizards don’t really care much about interacting with the other 99% of the world’s population.
* Also, “much more important is your enthusiasm, patience and a good sense of fun!” sounds like the sort of thing you’d say to somebody working with children or animals rather than adults.
* Plus, you don’t really need “enthusiasm, patience and a good sense of fun”, just skill at doing memory charms. That seems to be the main method of wizard-muggle interaction, after all.
* Messing up people’s revision time is “the very last thing” Fred and George want to do. Apparently giving somebody boils doesn’t count as messing up their revision, then.
* I doubt that Sirius’ knife open literally any door. If it’s bewitched to resist Alohomora, it could probably resist the knife as well.
* Being given a zero for his potion isn’t that bad a punishment, actually. It’s not like it’s going to contribute towards his OWL score, so he hasn’t really missed out on anything except feedback and possibly the pride of being given a good mark. He certainly hasn’t missed out on enough to justify him being unable to talk to Hermione.
* “[Being an Auror is] a difficult career path, Potter, they only take the best.” Or people who’ve managed, by a series of incredibly lucky coincidences, to beat the most incompetent Dark Lord ever.
* So, the Aurors require good marks and passing a series of aptitude tests. Let’s see, Harry consistently copies off Hermione when doing his schoolwork, charges into potentially dangerous situations without thinking or calling for backup, and seems content to trust whatever he’s told provided it comes from people he likes, whilst refusing to entertain any notion that his personal enemies might be right. Can anybody really see him fulfilling the criteria for being an Auror, let alone rising to become their head whilst still in his twenties? Seems to me like he’ll spend the rest of his career playing off his Chosen One status to get himself promoted to positions well beyond his actual competence.
* “‘I was just wondering whether Mr. Potter has quite the temperament for an Auror?’ said Professor Umbridge sweetly.” Once again, the bad guys’ assessment of the heroes’ qualities and actions is correct, although probably for the wrong reason (cf. Lucius Malfoy).
* We can tell that Umbridge’s note represents trouble because the parchment it’s written on is pink, the evil colour.
* I sort of pity Harry here. He’s so obviously just the pawn for Umbridge and McGonagall’s little power struggle. Although it makes a change from being obviously just the pawn for Dumbledore and Fudge’s power struggle, I suppose.
* Also, getting into a shouting match in front of your pupils is very undignified and unprofessional behaviour. Minerva really ought to have known better than to do so.
* DADA today is centred around “Chapter Thirty-Four: Non-Retaliation and Negotiation”. Because only evil people would prefer negotiations to fighting. I’ve probably said this before, but for a woman who self-consciously borrows so much Messianic imagery for her hero, JK Rowling seems remarkably hostile towards the whole “turn the other cheek” concept.
* So Harry’s sitting around moping and thinking of the knife which Sirius gave him and which he plans to use so he can talk to Sirius. Somehow, he doesn’t think of the mysterious present which Sirius gave him specifically so they can talk to each other if Harry has any problems.
* Ron keeps saying that Harry should make his own decision. This is quite a consistent view for him to adopt, but I’m not entirely sure what to make of it – sometimes (as with the House Elves) this seems like principled support for not imposing your ideas of what’s best on people, other times (like now) it seems like he’s just too cowardly to express an opinion and risk upsetting anyone.
* Snape was “up to his eyes in the Dark Arts”, whereas James wasn’t. So, how exactly do the Dark Arts differ from normal magic? Is it that they can’t be used for good purposes (as opposed to normal magic, which can be used for both good and bad)? But then, why should using Dark Magic be considered any worse than using normal magic to attack somebody?
* James was “everything Snape wanted to be” – so awesome, in other words, that even scenes where he bullies people with no provocation indicate just how awesome he is.
* Funny, from the way Sirius and Lupin talk about SWM, you’d think they were just partaking in some high-spirited schoolboy antics, rather than a rather serious piece of abuse.
* James was “a good person”, despite acting like a bad one. Seems like an example of the pseudo-Calvinist outlook of these books: if you’re good you’re good, no matter what your actual behaviour is like.
* Are we meant to be thinking badly of Filch for wanting to whip the twins? Because whipping somebody doesn’t seem particularly bad for a society with such a cavalier attitude to physical danger (even McGonagall gives eleven-year-olds detention in the Forbidden Forest, which has the potential to turn far nastier than a spot of light corporal punishment would).
* Besides, it’s not like regular punishments seem to work particularly well on Fred and George. I suppose a bit of corporal punishment might be worth a try.
* I’m surprised Umbridge or the IS don’t do more to stop Fred and George from escaping. Like Stunning them, or conjuring a brick wall in mid-air to block their path.
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Date: 2011-10-27 02:05 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-10-28 07:57 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-10-28 08:27 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-11-04 03:50 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-10-29 12:34 am (UTC)I could see it if James was the muggleborn. I mean, he would not have been raised around magical people, carrying a wand would maybe not be second nature.
But James was raised a pureblood, raised around magic, raised from birth around people who used magic daily and on a regular basis. It should have been second nature to him to have his wand at all times. It's not like for 11 years of his life he wasn't exposed to magic and then suddenly he had to learn about it.
So him not having a wand and just running to the door like someone who never used magic? WTF?
no subject
Date: 2011-10-29 03:09 am (UTC)I really don't know what JKR was thinking. Maybe she just forgot about what she had said in PS/SS, but even so, how could she think that that sorry excuse for a confrontation made James look good? Like you said, it just made him look like an idiot!
(And Lily's complete inability to do anything but scream, beg for mercy, and barricade the room also made *her* look like an idiot, but that's another story.)
The only things that I can think of that we're supposed to like about James are as follows:
1. He was a great Quidditch player.
2. He was presumably nice enough to befriend Remus despite Remus being a werewolf (though we see in "The Prince's Tale" that James didn't care very much about possibly revealing Remus' secret).
3. He's Harry's dad.
4. He's a Gryffindor.
5. He was Head Boy.
6. He's the one that Saint Lily supposedly "reformed" and chose as her husband (despite there being no evidence aside from Remus' and Sirius' word that he was anything other than the cruel and arrogant bully that we saw in OotP and DH).
7. He was clever enough to invent the Marauders' Map and become an Animagus along with his friends.
no subject
Date: 2011-10-29 03:23 am (UTC)9. Together with Lily he defied Voldemort 3 times (how?)
10. His parents took Sirius in when the latter ran away from home.
11. He never used the word 'Mudblood'. Couldn't even bring himself to say it when talking about other people saying it.
12. He hated the 'Dark Arts' whatever those are.
Not using the word Mudblood
Date: 2011-10-29 03:58 am (UTC)What he actually SAID was, "I'd never call you [Lily] a--you-know-what."
Not that he didn't regularly use such a term of people he didn't like, such as Slytherins.
That he wouldn't use it directly to someone whose pants he was trying to get into, and that he wouldn't use a term which denotatively referred to a group of which that person was a member, as an insult in her hearing.
For anything we can know from SWM, James was using "Mudblood" as the insult-of-choice for every non-relative he harassed, outside Lily's august presence.
Re: Not using the word Mudblood
Date: 2011-10-29 04:28 am (UTC)IOIAGDI
Date: 2011-10-29 10:57 pm (UTC)Re: Not using the word Mudblood
Date: 2011-10-30 06:00 am (UTC)And he implied strongly (didn't, note, affirm), that he wouldn't use the term in front of her when she might be offended.
Not, never. that he hadn't regularly been tossing it, and other blood-prejudice terms, around as insults.
Just that he laid off where Lily specifically was concerned.
You know. Jsmes was NOT the sort of racist who calls all dark-skinned persons "niggers" to bolster his self-esteem at being paler than they, even if whitey is equally impoverished and probably less well-educated.
More the sort of rich, well-educated, privileged-WASP who rarely lets such a (VULGAR, sigh) term escape his lips, and then only if well-merited.
James would NEVER call LILY a YOU-KNOW-WHAT.
He says so.
And everyone present, all the witnesses, know what that establishes about James and Lily's relative statuses.
no subject
Date: 2011-10-29 02:17 pm (UTC)We should make up a list of totally dumb reasons.
They defied Voldemort by not attending his super awesome surprise birthday party.
They defied Voldemort by giving Dumbledore a totally awesome coupon to bath and body works and Voldie only got a coupon to Sports Emporium.
Lily defied Voldie by wearing a ugly shade of purple that he hated.
no subject
Date: 2011-10-30 12:25 am (UTC)James and Lily were disco/Top 40 devotees, while Voldemort was nothing but New Wave/Punk.
James and Lily snowboarded while Voldie only skied.
Voldemort was a sushi afficianado, while James and Lily mockingly gorged on fish and chips in front of him.
James and Lily encamped themselves in Diagon Alley outside of Gringotts, with a large sign boldly proclaiming that they represented the 99 percent majority and that Voldemort belonged to the one percent minority trying to rule everyone else.
no subject
Date: 2011-11-02 01:27 pm (UTC)Lily had a bunch of My Little Pony's and Voldemort wanted to buy them but Lily wouldn't sell them to him.
(evil grin)
no subject
Date: 2011-10-29 04:20 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-10-30 04:46 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-10-30 06:01 pm (UTC)