"I do not fucking get why people romanticise this bullshit. Like, did you actually read the books at all? Dumbledore sent Harry to live with the Dursleys in the first place so the fame he’d had from infancy wouldn’t turn him into a giant, smug douchecanoe." - Foz Meadows, from her response to Harry Potter's son being portrayed as potentially taking over Hogwarts, which spawned from an innocent question about why a ferret is being brought over there. Yeeaaaah...
So yes, I have only known bits and pieces about the series, books and movies. But I have seen enough of Sorcerer's Stone (the movie) to make this rebuttal.
Why would Dumbledore do that if it is to teach Harry humility? Without Harry knowing the plan until MUCH later? Wouldn't it just entirely backfire on everyone? Harry would be perfectly fine being a Slytherin because he'd get pretty fed up being everyone's footstool, and THEN everything would go downhill from there.
Instead, why shouldn't Harry get taken into firm, but nonetheless caring parents that he'd later look back to and say, "Thanks adoptive mom and dad. :D"
If the Hogwarts staff had a vote from any muggle family in the world, would they still choose to ditch Harry at a family that wouldn't give two ones about him?
Does storytelling need to go into extremes, just so the hero would stay in line? Again, there's a pretty massive chance that everything would backfire entirely.
But wait, if it did backfire, then the hero would become demonized as a horrible villain instead. Then all his attempts to seek peace would come to naught.
Damn, this choice of backstory...
Edit just to clarify - I suppose I should clear this up: Abusive backstories, ESPECIALLY if caused by relatives or other adoptive people, ESPECIALLY if it lasts for what would seem like several chapters, is massively overdone. Not to say that the Durseys segments do last forever - The movie version I saw seemed to last around... 20 minutes, maybe? But if the only purpose of this part is to show what a horrible life the protagonist has, you're probably not doing it right.
I should present a contrast though in the form of the TV Movie of Maniac Magee. The titular character simply saw his aunt and uncle approach him, and suddenly realizing that they were bad news took off. Take away from that what you will.
So yes, I have only known bits and pieces about the series, books and movies. But I have seen enough of Sorcerer's Stone (the movie) to make this rebuttal.
Why would Dumbledore do that if it is to teach Harry humility? Without Harry knowing the plan until MUCH later? Wouldn't it just entirely backfire on everyone? Harry would be perfectly fine being a Slytherin because he'd get pretty fed up being everyone's footstool, and THEN everything would go downhill from there.
Instead, why shouldn't Harry get taken into firm, but nonetheless caring parents that he'd later look back to and say, "Thanks adoptive mom and dad. :D"
If the Hogwarts staff had a vote from any muggle family in the world, would they still choose to ditch Harry at a family that wouldn't give two ones about him?
Does storytelling need to go into extremes, just so the hero would stay in line? Again, there's a pretty massive chance that everything would backfire entirely.
But wait, if it did backfire, then the hero would become demonized as a horrible villain instead. Then all his attempts to seek peace would come to naught.
Damn, this choice of backstory...
Edit just to clarify - I suppose I should clear this up: Abusive backstories, ESPECIALLY if caused by relatives or other adoptive people, ESPECIALLY if it lasts for what would seem like several chapters, is massively overdone. Not to say that the Durseys segments do last forever - The movie version I saw seemed to last around... 20 minutes, maybe? But if the only purpose of this part is to show what a horrible life the protagonist has, you're probably not doing it right.
I should present a contrast though in the form of the TV Movie of Maniac Magee. The titular character simply saw his aunt and uncle approach him, and suddenly realizing that they were bad news took off. Take away from that what you will.
RSS Feed