The two biggest flaws in Harry Potter

[lavivi]

I love the Harry Potter series.  I sincerely do.  I perhaps wouldn't call them my favorite series, but I've certainly obsessed over them far more than I have over any other book or movie.  I think J.K. Rowling is a fabulous, fabulous writer, one of the best of our day.

But despite this, I am forced to acknowledge flaws.  Not the Flints - the real, plot flaws, which make me very sad.  In my mind, there are really only two glaring ones.

1. Lord Voldemort.  It's so sad.  But at this stage, I, and many others, have to admit he has no depth.  Ms. Rowling grounded this when she said somewhere that he's never loved anyone.  That was a mistake.
   But the bigger issue is that his motivation for a pureblood world is cardboard.  He's more of a halfblood than Harry is!  I have difficulty, no matter how much else Voldemort has acomplished, seeing Lucius Malfoy truly respect him.  But his evil plan to kill everyone because his Muggle father was a bad man is a cliche and just doesn't fit with the rest of Ms. Rowling's well-rounded world
2. Peter Pettigrew, as seen in the fifth book.  Before the fifth book was published, I read a fanfic called There Is No Such Place by Liz Barr*.  In short, it's a Marauder-era fic.  And in it, Peter is an equal.  He banters with the rest of the Marauders, they don't mock him.  Yes, he has problems with schoolwork, that's canon, but he's part of the Marauders.  You may argue that McGonagall, who knew them for seven years, called him a "tag-along" - but isn't Colin Creevey Harry's tag-along, and if Harry, Ron, and Hermione made something, would they put Colin's name on it?
   But canon is canon, and what we saw in the Pensieve is how things were - with Peter's applause and Sirius' derision.  I accept it - but I have trouble believing that they would really trust him with James and Lily's life.  Unless he went under the miraculous personality change James allegedly suffered, too. 

But what do you think?  Am I crazy, did I miss even bigger ones?

* No Such Place is an abandoned WIP, so investigate at your own emotional risk. ;-)

Comments

[calliopeia17.livejournal.com]

Hi! Here via Daily_Snitch...I thought your post was really interesting. I agree with you on Voldemort- But his evil plan to kill everyone because his Muggle father was a bad man seems to cover his entire personality, and that's definitely a flaw. Personally, though, I'm holding out hope for a bit more depth of character, and I think there may well be, in the next two books.

Same with Pettigrew, actually. I recently got really into writing Peter fics, because he's so puzzling! I can't figure out anything about him, his motivations, and the contrasts in his character (some of which you pointed out, though I'm also curious as to why such a coward would be in Gryffindor, and what role owing his life to Harry will play). And since there's so much mystery around him, I'm sure that there'll be more revealed- hopefully that will make his actions seem like lessof a flaw.

And I do think you missed one, though maybe it's not something foremost in your mind. JKR seems to think all Slytherins are evil- even on her website, she was talking about thinking it strange that any fan would want to be a Slytherin- and that seems to show a lack of depth like Voldemort's character, too. No 11-year-old, even an ambitious one, is evil- so I don't get why she seems to hate them so much. That's a major flaw in my opinion- she argues against stereotypes in her subtext- them creates her own biases and doesn't seem to be willing to reconsider them!

Anyway, lovely discussion!

[ankhet.livejournal.com]

No 11-year-old, even an ambitious one, is evil- so I don't get why she seems to hate them so much.

ah.. I hate to be the person giving "no!" responses, but...

There are some evil 11-year olds. Mostly they are (clinically defined) psychopaths. They're not common, but they do exist.

[calliopeia17.livejournal.com]

Ok, granted actually...and I suppose one could categorize Voldemort as a clinical psychopath. But what I meant was, you know, more along the lines of there not being able to be an entire House full of eleven-year-old psychopaths. :-)

[driedplums.livejournal.com]

As the parent of a dear sweet sensitive and as-sane-as-the-next-kid boy, I'd say that MANY 11 yr old boys are Slytherin. (I'll leave to someone else the political machinations of 11 yr old girls....) Here's a sample from a midwest suburban elementary school:

(1) Buying votes in 5th grade with candy (the teachers had given up controlling this and the parents bought it).

(2) Fistfight over a girl (all the boys agreed that she was the ONE girl who was a "hottie" in the year. She wasn't particularly physically mature btw; it's a mystery to me - I can only assume an alpha-male type liked her and the others glommed onto the idea).

(3) My own child! "I know how to make money! I'll lend some money to a friend when they've forgotten theirs for lunch, and then I'll make them pay me back double every day until they remember." He sold a single oreo for 75 cents one day. To his friend.

[slinkhard.livejournal.com]

Heh. Fist-fighting could be considered Gryffindor-esque too, though.

(Your kid sounds funny!)

[calliopeia17.livejournal.com]

Well, it wasn't all THAT long ago that I was an 11-year-old girl...and if I remember correctly, nasty politics were just another fun playground game.

I personally think ambition and political savvy is a good thing, even in kids.

[http://users.livejournal.com/_lavinia_/]

[lol] That's a very interesting insight. Thanks for sharing!

[cinnamonblood.livejournal.com]

Here from D_S.

The "Slytherin = evil" thing annoys me, too. Not only is it a huge stereotype, it's illogical. If all Slytherins are going to turn out bad, then why does Dumbledore bother to teach them? Why not kick them out as soon as they're sorted into Slytherin? It makes no sense.

*cough* *is Slytherin and proud* *cough*

[lavinialavender.livejournal.com]

Word. Please to see my related one-shot, Someone to Look Up To (http://www.fanfiction.net/s/1934256/1/).

I consider myself mostly Ravenclaw, with some Slytherin traits.

[cinnamonblood.livejournal.com]

*reads fic*

Oooh... I've always thought it was terribly unfair of Dumbledore to do that, you know. Very interesting fic! I liked it. :)

[lavinialavender.livejournal.com]

Thanks! [supergrin]

[lavinialavender.livejournal.com]

I missed...

It's actually quite funny that you mentioned that. I've written three or four fanfics, but my best one is something called Someone to Look Up To - on fanfiction.net, which is down right now. (My username there is Lavinia Lavender.) But as soon as it's working again, I'll comment again here with a link. Just a one-shot. Check it out then and review, won't you?

But I don't think that's as much of a flaw, because we haven't seen that all Slytherins are evil - only that many are prejudiced against them. Such as Dumbledore.

[calliopeia17.livejournal.com]

I'd be glad to review!

we haven't seen that all Slytherins are evil
Well, not in the books so much, I just see it as a gap in JKR's overall world, encompassing the website and such as well- and she seems to hate Slytherins personally.

[http://users.livejournal.com/_lavinia_/]

Does she? I didn't get that impression. I think it's only how Harry sees them.

What it comes to is how she personally sees the end-of-year feast in first year, and what Dumbledore did.