Merope's Plight and Dumbledore's Analyses Revisited

[sweettalkeress.livejournal.com]

So I was originally going to save this for my abridged series, but since I’m afraid I’ll forget if I leave it for that long, here it is now.

I know much has been made of the fact that Dumbledore essentially blames Merope for the whole Voldemort drama and says that she’s a coward just because she died. For her child. Uh-huh.

But anyway, Dumbledore most infamously declares Merope a coward because she happens to die in childbirth. As someone who abuses that trope (dying in childbirth, I mean) like a horribly addictive drug, especially in fanfic, I have a few thoughts on that.

What it really seems to boil down to is that Dumbledore thinks Merope should be blamed for even allowing Voldie to exist (whether this has any basis in Rowling’s head or if it’s entirely Dumbledore’s opinion is up for debate here). This actually kind-of reminds me of a headcanon I worked out for a particularly nasty villain I took a shine to awhile back. In my headcanon (which is neither confirmed nor denied by the original movie) this character has a mother who dies in childbirth much like Merope. The backstory is that her boyfriend/husband/whatever is dead and she wants to have a child to keep around in his memory. But she has a really difficult pregnancy and it kills her. If you were feeling philosophical, you could raise questions about whether she was in the right to go through with something which she had good reason to suspect would kill her, all for the sake of a child who ultimately grows up to be an evil jerk whom only a small proportion of the fandom even likes.

This of course assuming she could have known the last part (which she wouldn’t have, especially since in my stories I almost always shy away from determinism of any sort—psychology comes first in explaining a villain’s behavior).

So, where does Merope fit in with all this? Merope decides to have a child which ends up not only killing her, but growing up to be an evil jerk who kills a lot of people for no reason and loses his soul until his personality is that of a cardboard box. Here’s the thing, though: logically she could have had no idea what her child would go on to do. Assuming, that is, the determinism which the Harry Potter world just reeks of is something known only to Dumbledore and a few others.

What if determinism is common knowledge, though? What if, in reality, everyone has some inkling that things like moral virtue are inherited and your family really will determine what you act like for all eternity? If that’s the case then Merope might possibly have a clue that any children she had would be evil just because she was ugly, had a bad family, and was related to Salazar Slytherin. If, that is, she even had the intelligence to grasp the concept of determinism, fully believed in it and did not dismiss it as coincidence, and that she knew the scope of what Voldie would eventually do.

But whatever. Even assuming that all that is true and she clearly knew that her child, which she felt so compelled to die for, would do morally reprehensible things, then that might make her stupid, and it might make her selfish too (“my own heir is so much more important to me than the lives of all the innocent victims he’ll ultimately slaughter”) but it doesn’t make her cowardly. Not if she had any inkling that she might die (again, contrary to Rowling’s simplistic portrayal of things, bravery is not always good. It’s perfectly possible to be brave and evil).

This is one reason why TVTropes’ portrayal of Harry Potter makes me so furious. Voldemort is clearly who he is because of how evil his family supposedly was, yet they still insist that his behavior is traceable to nurture when it’s clearly meant to be nature!

Anyway, Dumbledore’s comments about Merope are not only mean-spirited; they just plain make no sense! But since he puts it out there that women who die in childbirth are cowardly, think about what that says about maternal mortality statistics worldwide.

Oh, and I apologize in advance if I offend anyone with anything below. It’s meant to be satire and I know very well that a high rate of dying in childbirth is a very bad thing.

Women in Afghanistan must be, in large part, Slytherins or otherwise cowardly, since they have the highest rate of maternal mortality in the sample.

Also, Africa is primarily comprised of Slytherins and cowards. Betcha didn’t know that (well there was a special magic snake Rowling makes mention of in “Fantastic Beasts,” which is originally from Burkina Faso; stay tuned, BTW)!

In addition, while American women are on the whole braver and more Gryffindorish than women in most developing nations, they still have an embarrassingly high rate of evil cowards and Slytherins compared to women in the majority of developed nations, including most of Europe, Japan, and South Korea.

But you wanna know some pure, brave, and true-hearted good countries? One such country is Greece! Women rarely die in childbirth there at all. I guess you’d have to be brave to live in Greece with all the Chimaeras and Manticores lurking around. Iceland is another one, so it looks like I’ll be well protected and looked after when I visit Iceland this summer, yes/yes?

Then again, I said I like Slytherins so maybe not. Fortunately I myself am extremely unlikely to die in childbirth since I don’t plan to ever have kids.

Note: most of this information is based on statistics that the CIA world factbook published in 2008, so I don’t know how reliable it is now. But it seemed to work well enough for my purposes.

Comments

[oneandthetruth.livejournal.com]

Lily and her courage *sigh*
I will never ever understand how the begging, shrieking incompetent, who obviously learned shit all in her year as a full time order member, is supposed to be the same person as nine years old Lily, who flew (well, at least floated) and had perfect control over her magic without a wand or any education at all.
Just like young Tom Riddle(and only him, that we know about). How is that possible? Was it an unhappy marriage, the Hogwarts education or something else that sapped her talent away? Or did she simply lack the 'nerve and daring' Gryffindors are supposedly known for?

See, that's why I suggested the Hogwarts dishes caused lead poisoning to the students and staff. It would explain how a smart, competent child like Lily could turn into a helpless, dimwitted adult.

She obviously didn't have an unhappy marriage; I mean, she was married to James, for heaven's sake! The superawesomehero who was her One True Love! And she certainly didn't lack nerve and daring. She was Harry Potter's mother! She just had to be awesome, or she wouldn't have been chosen by the universe to birth the WW's savior! Besides, she had the guts and self-respect to tell off that greasy Death Eater wannabe--in public, no less! Obviously, insulting someone who's lying helpless on the ground, with two people beating up on him, is perfect training for facing down the most powerful villain in 80 years.

But how would Twinkles even know, what either Lily or Merope did? He wasn't there, nor did he see their memories about it. He had hearsay and conjecture. Not one real fact.
Riddle sen. complaining about being hoodwinked doesn't have to mean what some unworldly, gay old geezer thinks it means. Albus makes assumptions about what might or might not attract a straight guy of muggle gentry, when it's really not his area of expertise at all.

Wouldn't it be hilarious to see Judge Judy tell him off about that?

"You're an idiot! What do you mean, she died in childbirth because she didn't have the courage to live? Do you have some mental problem? Are you on medication? What do you know about it anyway? How many children have you given birth to? I have five children, and let me tell you, nobody chooses to die in childbirth!

"Everything you say is completely irrelevant anyway because it's hearsay. You weren't there. You didn't talk to anyone who was there. You can't call any witnesses to support your statements. The only person who could testify to what she was thinking and feeling is long dead.

"It's insulting to women who die in childbirth to say they die because they want to, or because they're cowards. There's something wrong with you."

[oneandthetruth.livejournal.com]

Wow! Thanks. That might be difficult though, since we're both females, and I'm past menopause. Besides, since you're over 40, it would be a high-risk pregnancy, and as one of those wimpy Slytherin lovers, you'd probably die in childbirth because you didn't have the courage to live for your child. Best all around not to risk it. ;-)

It is fun to imagine our offspring carrying on our grand tradition of tormenting the JKR dittoheads, though, isn't it?

[condwiramurs.livejournal.com]

Oh that is a lovely and terrifying vision, haha. :D Where's the popcorn?

[aikaterini.livejournal.com]

/She obviously didn't have an unhappy marriage; I mean, she was married to James, for heaven's sake! The superawesomehero who was her One True Love! And she certainly didn't lack nerve and daring. She was Harry Potter's mother! She just had to be awesome, or she wouldn't have been chosen by the universe to birth the WW's savior! Besides, she had the guts and self-respect to tell off that greasy Death Eater wannabe--in public, no less! Obviously, insulting someone who's lying helpless on the ground, with two people beating up on him, is perfect training for facing down the most powerful villain in 80 years./

Ha, that’s funny. XD

Yes, Lily had to have been brave and special and awesome because she was destined to give birth to the story’s hero. Just like Merope had to have been distasteful, pathetic, and contemptible because she was destined to give birth to the story’s villain.

As for Lily’s shameful behavior during Snape’s Worst Memory, I think that someone here said in an earlier post while there’s a lot of fuss made about Gryffindors’ *physical* courage, many of them lack emotional courage. Many times they fail to stand by their friends, stand up to their friends, or be morally brave in the sense of making the difficult yet morally superior choice.

But as for Lily and James’ actions on Halloween…really, what can you say? What kind of courage can you say they had that night? Was it physically or morally courageous for James to just lunge at Voldemort without a wand, without even relying on his Animagus form to help him? Was it physically or morally courageous for Lily to conveniently lose her wand as well and beg Voldemort to spare her baby without having any plan to trap him or stop him in any way, other than hope that he’d somehow show mercy on her and Harry? Was it physically and morally courageous for James and Lily, both of whom were members of the Order, to be completely unprepared and taken off-guard when Voldemort showed up? I don’t know, either way you look at it, something doesn’t add up.

[oneandthetruth.livejournal.com]

Ha, that’s funny. XD

Thank you.

But as for Lily and James’ actions on Halloween…really, what can you say?...I don’t know, either way you look at it, something doesn’t add up.

I've always wondered why they stayed in Britain at all. Since their child was the prophesied savior, why didn't they guarantee his safety by leaving the country, preferably for someplace overseas? They were in hiding and not fighting anyway, so their departure wouldn't have hurt the war effort any. One could make the argument that "Gryffindors don't run away," but hiding out is a form of running. The whole situation is completely contrived, just like Snape's death/Voldemort's battle time out/Harry's viewing the memories sequence in DH.

[oryx_leucoryx]

Other countries don't exist, except as plot contrivance. I thought you knew that?

[sionna-raven.livejournal.com]

I've always wondered why they stayed in Britain at all. Since their child was the prophesied savior, why didn't they guarantee his safety by leaving the country, preferably for someplace overseas?

Are you sure they knew about the Prophecy? I doubt it.
I think they believed that Voldemort was after them,especiaölly after James, the bloodtraitor, because they are the most popular example for mixed marriages and thrice defied him. Nothing Lily says to Voldemort makes sense, if she knew that Harry was his main target.