my baby

I don’t understand why there are people who don’t like Harry as a character like do you hate life

PS I know he’s not perfect but perfect characters are boring

Seriously. I don’t get it at all. It makes me mistrust them.

His imperfections make him all that more perfect, though. :D

Well, I won’t say that I don’t like Harry, because I do. I like him as a person. But as a character, I don’t find him particularly appealing (*gasp*). I come to fiction for the morally ambiguous characters (shocker, right?), or the villains. I find fiction to be a safe way to explore these types of people, and I typically just find them more interesting.

Harry’s a good person, an amazing one really, even with his flaws (which, yes he does have quite a few). He’s the type of person that I would love in real life, but in fiction he’s just not what I’m into. Good people (both in fiction and in real life) behave in very predictable ways. They’re always going to do the right thing, so to speak. There’s no suspense. There’s no speculation. You know what motivates them.

It’s like the quotation, “Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.” I feel this is true of characters as well. Good characters are all good in the same way, while unhappy characters are all unhappy in their own way. Of course this is simplistic and there are huge exceptions to this rule, but as a general rule it’s worked for me.

We’re coming from opposite ends, I guess. :) I don’t find “good” characters (And I’m not all that interested in dividing characters into good and evil. A gift writer makes labels like that irrelevant.) less interesting or less complex. The opposite in fact. I love exploring the tension between doing what’s right vs doing what’s easy. Watching characters who have the core of empathy I need to find them relatable struggling to make positive ethical choices in the face of seemingly insurmountable obstacles. The right thing isn’t always obvious, it’s not always the same thing. The right thing can be incredibly complex and is often tinged with a helping of not so right. Look at Harry, using two of the Unforgiveables in his quest to defeat Voldemort. Look at Katniss manipulating the system at the end of Mockingjay.

Heroes in fiction are just as diverse as villains, if you’re going to use those lables. Ron is a very different character than Harry, thanHermione, thanDumbledore, than Snape, yet they are all heroic in their own ways. (While villains tend to be very samey imo.

Weaker writers will write heroes as one dimensional and predictable, sure. But good writers write complex characters who are all equally interesting and psychologically believable, regardless of where they fall on the ethical spectrum. JKR is a good writer, as far as characterisation goes. As far as the characterisation of her most visible and important characters, anyway.

And the scene depicted above. Well it didn’t happen in the books, so I’ll say the choice Harry makes that this scene depicts. I find it so fucking beautiful. What he’s willing to give, what he’s willing to sacrifice for love. It’s not an easy choice, even if everything we’ve learned about Harry thus far makes it somewhat predictable.

The world is full of villains. If I want to explore human evil, I just read a newspaper. I need characters like Harry to feed my soul, to give me something to aspire to, to give me hope in humanity.