J. K. Rowling presents Umbrigde's backstory

[t0ra-chan.livejournal.com]

In time for Halloween JKR gave us another short story (more background info to be honest, it's not like it has a plot). You can read it at Pottermore (if you have an account and can actually remember your user name and password) or you can read it here: J.K. Rowling writes Harry Potter Halloween tale profiling 'malicious' Dolores Umbridge

My personal take on this little story is that it's wholly pointless. It just repeats that Umbridge was always a nasty person with no depth to her and she's worse than blood purists. Nothing really new or insightful is revealed, nor do I believe did anybody care to know this sort of stuff about Umbridge. I also found it very unbelievable that anybody would buy her claims of being a pureblood, considering how small the wizarding community is. And of course she was a Slytherin, because where else could an evil person in HP have come from.

Comments

[arcanetrivia]

Hmm. Yeah. I guess there are hints that some of Umbridge's unpleasantness links back to what sounds like an unhappy childhood and difficulties between her parents, but mostly it just seems JKR went with the "you're born that way" explanation. Bother.

I've seen fanon readings of Umbridge as a "dark side of Hufflepuff", if you will. Too bad JKR went with the stereotypical Slytherin, but I suppose she is rather the ambitious, personal-power sort...

[jana-ch.livejournal.com]

I go along with the "dark side of Hufflepuff" idea. Dolores is loyal to the Ministry, as is that supposedly contemptible fellow, Percy Weasley, but people forget that the Ministry is the legal government of Wizarding Britain, while the Order of the Phoenix and the Death Eaters are both vigilante organizations. I'm not about to say a government can never be wrong, but one should think long and hard before deciding to undermine or overthrow it by extra-legal means. Faithfulness to one's nation and its government is a legitimate form of loyalty, and belongs within the purview of Hufflepuff House.

P.S. Making Umbridge a Slytherin because "she's evil" shows just how bankrupt JKR's moral imagination has become.

[t0ra-chan.livejournal.com]

Yeah, OotP made it seem like she was actually loyal to Fudge, for whatever reason, but nope, just power-hungry.

So with this revelation we still have no other non-Slytherin bad guy apart from Peter Pettigrew. Unless you count Lockhart, who was a Ravenclaw (not seeing it, to be honest) with Slytherin tendencies.

[jana-ch.livejournal.com]

I can't see Lockhart as a Ravenclaw either. Mr Flamboyant Adventurer who wants everyone to admire his heroic deeds is a Gryffindor. His problem is lack of competence, which is why he avoids actual danger. Perhaps it's best to call him a Gryffindor with Ravenclaw leanings: heroism combined with sufficient intelligence to keep from attempting things he can't actually achieve. And enough Slytherin to carry off the masquerade through a dozen books.

But Gryffindor first. I'm sure when he was eleven years old and put under the Sorting Hat, he really, truly wanted to do all those great deeds, and had no idea he didn't have what it takes to pull them off.

[oryx_leucoryx]

He does try to heal Harry's broken arm, and messes up badly.

[jana-ch.livejournal.com]

True, but that gives no hint at his House.

[oryx_leucoryx]

Just an example of him over-estimating his own abilities, in contrast with the cases of dealing with various monsters.

[oryx_leucoryx]

And Quirrel, another Ravenclaw.

Umbridge loyalty

[terri-testing.livejournal.com]

Yes, I think it really weakens her as a character. Before this, she looked like an object lesson how even loyalty, while good in itself, can go bad when taken to blind excess.... (cough, Harry, are you listening? Hermione?)

But nope, can't have that. She was just rotten from the start--Slytherin, y'know, ambitious.

[aikaterini.livejournal.com]

/Too bad JKR went with the stereotypical Slytherin/

I’m not surprised. I commented in a much earlier post that I wouldn’t be surprised if JKR said that Petunia Dursley would’ve been in Slytherin if she’d been a witch. Slytherin is said to be the House of ambition, but when it all comes down to it, it’s the House of villains, with a few exceptions to the rule.