OMG, I LOVE Phineas as Blackadder especially in that episode. That really is one of the things I loved about him, that he realized that a big part of being a teenager is being an idiot. ("I've written a poem about it..." says Pitt the Younger.)
I love the idea of being able to see different versions of the same types in the different houses instead of having this idea that one house contains all the bad stereotypes. Slytherin really does have the makings of individualism along with their DE heritage. It's one of those times when fandom conventions offer great insight, imo. There's a reason Slytherin is often imagined as seeming like the 18th century French Court.
I remember pre-OotP also really wanting to challenge the widely held assumption that the Trio's style of friendship was, for example, what "true friendship" was about while Draco's group clearly wasn't really friends. I mean, leaving the individual personalities aside there seemed to be this idea that the Trio were real friends because they were "all equal" while the fact that the Slytherins obviously had Draco as a leader and C&G following (with Pansy then becoming basically Draco's girl whether platonically or romantically) was somehow bad. But really, they're both simply different ways of arranging a group, both of which have strengths and weaknesses. At times the "equality" (which sometimes isn't really) of the Trio makes them less stable while the Slytherin's hierarchy makes them more stable. That's not to say the Slytherins are better, just that we shouldn't pretend that there's one model of friendship to strive for.
The funny thing was I never wound up writing about that because in OotP Harry's group shifted a lot. Harry became more of a leader in ways he hadn't been before (and in the past I thought his not taking the lead might have sometimes caused tension), Hermione was more obviously supporting him and Ron sometimes really had to take a backseat. Unfortunately I feel like this might be another time where rather than consider the idea that the Trio dynamic became anything like the Slytherin one, people might instinctively just explain how that didn't happen because Harry being a leader is different than a Slytherin being a leader etc.
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I love the idea of being able to see different versions of the same types in the different houses instead of having this idea that one house contains all the bad stereotypes. Slytherin really does have the makings of individualism along with their DE heritage. It's one of those times when fandom conventions offer great insight, imo. There's a reason Slytherin is often imagined as seeming like the 18th century French Court.
I remember pre-OotP also really wanting to challenge the widely held assumption that the Trio's style of friendship was, for example, what "true friendship" was about while Draco's group clearly wasn't really friends. I mean, leaving the individual personalities aside there seemed to be this idea that the Trio were real friends because they were "all equal" while the fact that the Slytherins obviously had Draco as a leader and C&G following (with Pansy then becoming basically Draco's girl whether platonically or romantically) was somehow bad. But really, they're both simply different ways of arranging a group, both of which have strengths and weaknesses. At times the "equality" (which sometimes isn't really) of the Trio makes them less stable while the Slytherin's hierarchy makes them more stable. That's not to say the Slytherins are better, just that we shouldn't pretend that there's one model of friendship to strive for.
The funny thing was I never wound up writing about that because in OotP Harry's group shifted a lot. Harry became more of a leader in ways he hadn't been before (and in the past I thought his not taking the lead might have sometimes caused tension), Hermione was more obviously supporting him and Ron sometimes really had to take a backseat. Unfortunately I feel like this might be another time where rather than consider the idea that the Trio dynamic became anything like the Slytherin one, people might instinctively just explain how that didn't happen because Harry being a leader is different than a Slytherin being a leader etc.