You know, the ending to the first Harry Potter book doesn't make sense.

[conuly]

Harry wasn't really a hero. If he'd just stayed put and minded his own business, what would have happened? Quirrel would have stayed fixated in front of the mirror until Dumbledore arrived and disarmed him. Maybe he would've had a decent shot at Voldemort at the same time. Nobody would have ended up in the hospital wing.

And for this, Gryffindor wins the cup. Pathetic. You know, Snape has a point about favoritism.

Comments

[oneill]

"Harry wasn't really a hero" was the motif of that series, tho.

. . . I mean, that was intentional, right?

. . . . . . Right?

[conuly]

Half of the subtext in that series comes from JKR's inability to do simple math, so I'm thinking no.

[oneill]

Yeah, JKR has an inability to perform a lot of simple tasks, it seems. Then again, she's a former billionaire, so what do I know.

I just got really sick of being told that Harry is this holy avatar of love while he ran around being a complete douchebag about everything.

[conuly]

Well, teenagers....

You know who else can't do basic math? Lois Lowry. OMG The Freaking Giver annoys me so much, because their demographics pretty blatantly do not work.

[oneill]

I got no problem with teenagers, even the douchebags. I just don't need the grown-up characters pointing at Harry and going, "LOVE CONQUERS ALL."

Don't get me started on The Giver. It's the first and only thing I read by Lowry. There's a reason for that.

[conuly]

She's written better books. Number the Stars, for example. People just irrationally latched onto Giver.

Back to "love conquers all", you're not the only one, although this is more about "blood and love!" I think. Gee, the more I think about it, the more that logic is utterly illogical. "Power Vodemort knows not, blah blah blah, so he doesn't need a real childhood!"

[oneill]

I see. Giver is the one I got assigned (well, of course), but a number of people have told me Stars is better. Will have to give it a shot someday.

Thanks for the fic link. Not enough time to read at the moment, but it does sound promising. I've had to stop talking about Harry Potter IRL; I've been labeled a life ruiner on a few occasions.

[conuly]

A life ruiner? Geez, overboard much?

[oneill]

See also: destroyer of childhoods

(To be fair, it's not just about Harry Potter, but the other stuff is comparably petty.)

[conuly]

How could it possibly be pettier? Sheesh.

[wednes.livejournal.com]

Well, Harry also should have exploded at the end of the 2nd book when the basilisk venom hit him. Duh, because he's a horcrux.

[conuly]

That would've been a shocking twist ending.

[oloriel.livejournal.com]

I disagree. Harry could only work with the information that he had, which was
a) "Snape" knows how to get beyond all the obstacles and
b) Dumbledore isn't there to protect the school.
Given that information, he first tried to alert a teacher, and when that didn't help, tried to save the day himself (with a little help from his friends). It may not have been clever to do that sort of thing as a First Year student, but then, cleverness isn't actually a requirement for heroism.

Also, you have no way of knowing that Quirrel would've stayed fixated in front of the mirror. There are various ways in which that could've gone wrong. In time, Quirrel's focus might have slipped from I have to get the Stone so my Master can recover his body to just I have to find the Stone, which might have been enough to do the trick. Or Voldemort in his fury might have made Quirrel return up and set Fluffy on the sleeping student body, or taken a couple of hostages in order to get the stone. We don't know that he just would've stayed down there quietly until Dumbledore arrived, do we?

Finally, note that Gryffindor doesn't win the cup because of Harry, but because of Neville... ;)

[conuly]

Finally, note that Gryffindor doesn't win the cup because of Harry, but because of Neville... ;)

Meh, if Harry et al. hadn't gotten that buttload of points, his ten would hardly have mattered.

[oloriel.livejournal.com]

Obviously. But after the trio had got that buttload of points, Gryffindor still didn't have enough. It did take Neville's ten points to overtake Slytherin.

And yes, of course Dumbledore did that on purpose.

[conuly]

That's because Dumbledore is a drama queen.

[oloriel.livejournal.com]

So true!