Yes, the interesting thing about Harry in those situations is yes, they do say something positive about him, that he doesn't kill Peter, that he doesn't happily watch Dudley get kissed by Dementors. But the whole reason they're interesting is because Harry does not operate in this highly compassionate plane where he's only ever inspired by thinking of others by a longshot. He takes back Neville's Rememberall, but brushes off Neville himself plenty of times. He doesn't kill Peter, but *wants* to very much. And that crucio is just ridiculous. OotP is filled with scenes where Harry enjoys getting into it with other people and taking his anger out on him. He's experienced Crucio himself. So when Bellatrix taunts him and makes him angry he wants to hurt her in return, in fact he wants to Crucio her in return.
That makes for a scary moment for Harry, one that's got all this potential to be dealt with...unless you brush it off like he's just a sweet little boy who didn't really mean it, which people sometimes do. Or worse yet, think the scene is proof of how Harry could never throw a "bad Crucio" because he throws one out of righteous anger. I mean...huh? If that's really true in this universe than people should pack their bags before Harry takes control of the world if they don't want to be on the receiving end of his righteous anger! It's not even like you can say Harry was just reaching for the worst thing he could think of (as you could say for other characters) because the books have made a point of Harry knowing just what this curse is about. Plus, he casts it on his first try even if he can't sustain it.
It is a scary way to look at things no matter which character you're doing it to--it's kind of, I don't know...Gollum-like. That cringing, "Oh, it's not my fault! Everybody feel sorry for me because I'm such a victim!" mentality that you just can't trust and gets kind of crazy. Either that or it's a kind of sadistic, "Who cares what happens to anybody who pisses me off?" sort of thing. So if Harry and George beat Malfoy up on the Quidditch Pitch yes, look at the whole scene to see what led up to it. But are you honestly saying that Malfoy's incredibly silly lines about Harry's mother absolve Harry of complete responsibility for his actions to the point where he's a victim in the situation instead of an angry boy fighting with another boy he hates? And that, I think, is also where people start bringing in Slytherin again to turn it around: if Harry insulted Malfoy's mother (as he does in GoF) and Malfoy and Crabbe jumped on him and started beating him up should we see them as victims?
Dumbledore's methods of dealing with the school definitely creep me out. They wouldn't if the storyline wasn't also hammering things about making "choices" and things like that and telling me Dumbledore's doing a good job here. It just seems like too many people are set up as hate objects in a universe that needs more than hate objects.
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That makes for a scary moment for Harry, one that's got all this potential to be dealt with...unless you brush it off like he's just a sweet little boy who didn't really mean it, which people sometimes do. Or worse yet, think the scene is proof of how Harry could never throw a "bad Crucio" because he throws one out of righteous anger. I mean...huh? If that's really true in this universe than people should pack their bags before Harry takes control of the world if they don't want to be on the receiving end of his righteous anger! It's not even like you can say Harry was just reaching for the worst thing he could think of (as you could say for other characters) because the books have made a point of Harry knowing just what this curse is about. Plus, he casts it on his first try even if he can't sustain it.
It is a scary way to look at things no matter which character you're doing it to--it's kind of, I don't know...Gollum-like. That cringing, "Oh, it's not my fault! Everybody feel sorry for me because I'm such a victim!" mentality that you just can't trust and gets kind of crazy. Either that or it's a kind of sadistic, "Who cares what happens to anybody who pisses me off?" sort of thing. So if Harry and George beat Malfoy up on the Quidditch Pitch yes, look at the whole scene to see what led up to it. But are you honestly saying that Malfoy's incredibly silly lines about Harry's mother absolve Harry of complete responsibility for his actions to the point where he's a victim in the situation instead of an angry boy fighting with another boy he hates? And that, I think, is also where people start bringing in Slytherin again to turn it around: if Harry insulted Malfoy's mother (as he does in GoF) and Malfoy and Crabbe jumped on him and started beating him up should we see them as victims?
Dumbledore's methods of dealing with the school definitely creep me out. They wouldn't if the storyline wasn't also hammering things about making "choices" and things like that and telling me Dumbledore's doing a good job here. It just seems like too many people are set up as hate objects in a universe that needs more than hate objects.