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

[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!