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

[wheresmytower.livejournal.com]

I also think that the nail in the coffin was the statement about Riddle/Voldemort never loving anyone. Could we make him a little LESS human, please?

-I'm going to have to reread this part to make sure this is even possible, but I had always read the line about Voldemort having never loved anyone, as saying that Voldemort had never loved anyone, whereas Tom had. There's a "choices" theme going on in the books, so Tom's choice to undergo transformations and become Voldemort made him forget how to love or understand love, in a manner similar to Smeagol's descent into Gollum. Of course, it's quite possible that I'm giving JKR more credit than she deserves here. I've never thought she was the epitome of writing genius like some people I know continue to do, and I've never quibbled with the fact that there are several definite flaws in her writing where logic and characterization are concerned.

[psychic-serpent.livejournal.com]

Smeagol->Gollum is an excellent example of someone who is EXPLAINED but not EXCUSED. I would need to check, but the impression I had from her response was that Tom Riddle had never loved anyone, and by extension Voldemort, rather than the other way around. I could be wrong. He was a murderous little snot when he was only sixteen, after all. The thing that gets me is that he lived for fifteen years before that, and although eleven were in an orphanage (presumably a hellish one), we never learn about how he found out he was the heir of Slytherin, whether it made him feel connected to his mother to claim that title, whether he felt that his actions were motivated by love for his mother, etc. I'm not saying that anyone had to have loved Riddle back, that he had to have a failed love affair and that's what fueled his hate. (I wouldn't care for that at all, in fact.) But villains with depth are interesting and 2-D ones are not. Another good example, besides Gollum, is Spike in BtVS. Capable of love, somewhat warped, also capable of great evil. But never simple and never 2-D.

[wheresmytower.livejournal.com]

Aha! Have just reread it: Voldermort is the only term used. *Holds out hope for the future.*