Don't get me wrong: I dislike the Twins as profoundly as anyone here, since their idea of "humour" is strongly dependent on other people's discomfort. However, what we're forgetting is their context. The HPverse is a universe of casual cruelty both in description and in action, where remarks describing disorientation and pain are casually inserted for a bit of a laugh. Quidditch referees disappearing in the middle of a game and then turning up weeks later in the Sahara Desert? Hahaha. First-years sent out into the Forbidden Forest, with all its dangerous widlife, in the middle of the night as a dentention? Teeheehee. People risking "Splinching" during Apparating, leaving body parts behind them? Oh my sides, that's just too funny.
If this is typical of the HPverse's humour - and I would argue it's mostly like that, hazards and even picturesque death at every turn - then the Twins fit in rather well. Except that they're actually superior to most of what goes on, because whilst the HPverse's cruelty is often random and unwarranted, JKR has written the Twins as meting out Prank Justice to those who objectively deserve it.
Look at the list of their victims:
- Quirrell. F&G send snowballs to pelt the back of his head; since we only retrospectively know who's on the back of his head, couldn't this be interpreted as a sign that F&G's pranks unerringly grativate towards punishing evil?
- Montague. The situation is presented very much as "he was going to snitch on us, it was us or him"; not only does this make it a matter of self-preservation (fair enough) but if the Vanishing Cabinet does cause brain damage, what's it doing in a school where anyone can access it? It's the school's responsibility to provide a safe environment, and it could easily be argued that F&G had no malicious intent beyond getting Montague out of the way before he squealed on them.
- Percy. Most of the Twins' tricks are focussed on him, and it becomes a bit of a chicken/egg situation (did Percy leave the Weasleys because of F&G, or did F&G start playing tricks on Percy after Percy intimated he was too good for his family?) Whatever the truth of that matter is, Percy shows bad judgement generally - his idolization of Crouch in GoF, his pompous letter and support for Umbridge in OotP - and his story arc isn't looking healthy at the moment. I think he probably will turn evil and, if he does, F&G knew it before everybody else.
- Umbridge. Do we deny that she's a valid target for the Twins' pranks? We don't? Good.
- Dudley and the Dursleys. Do we deny that... We don't? Good.
As for their other "victims", the kids who tested the sweets in OotP were volunteers (and the nature of Wizarding medicine and spells made their discomfort short-lived in any case). Finally, they teased Ron and unwittingly gave him the phobia of spiders, but can anyone reading this who has siblings honestly say that there wasn't any that sort of thing going on in their family? Kids are cruel to each other, often unwittingly but also as a means of exploring boundaries. Younger siblings can often be left with lasting traumas as a result of what their elder siblings did to them at a tender age. It's life, unfortunately. It doesn't excuse F&G, but it doesn't make them calculating sadistic monsters either.
What I get from Fred and George is the uncomfortable feeling that they have inbuilt Evil Detectors, and that their tricks are unerringly directed towards Those That Deserve Them. This leads, in turn, to the even more uncomfortable feeling that we're not supposed to regard them as the bullies they would so obviously be in the real world. I believe JKR likes them, and that because she likes them she's going to ensure that they never do anything objectively Wrong. It's the spectacle of bullying, but with the proviso that the people being bullied deserve everything they get.
Devil's Advocate Time
If this is typical of the HPverse's humour - and I would argue it's mostly like that, hazards and even picturesque death at every turn - then the Twins fit in rather well. Except that they're actually superior to most of what goes on, because whilst the HPverse's cruelty is often random and unwarranted, JKR has written the Twins as meting out Prank Justice to those who objectively deserve it.
Look at the list of their victims:
- Quirrell. F&G send snowballs to pelt the back of his head; since we only retrospectively know who's on the back of his head, couldn't this be interpreted as a sign that F&G's pranks unerringly grativate towards punishing evil?
- Montague. The situation is presented very much as "he was going to snitch on us, it was us or him"; not only does this make it a matter of self-preservation (fair enough) but if the Vanishing Cabinet does cause brain damage, what's it doing in a school where anyone can access it? It's the school's responsibility to provide a safe environment, and it could easily be argued that F&G had no malicious intent beyond getting Montague out of the way before he squealed on them.
- Percy. Most of the Twins' tricks are focussed on him, and it becomes a bit of a chicken/egg situation (did Percy leave the Weasleys because of F&G, or did F&G start playing tricks on Percy after Percy intimated he was too good for his family?) Whatever the truth of that matter is, Percy shows bad judgement generally - his idolization of Crouch in GoF, his pompous letter and support for Umbridge in OotP - and his story arc isn't looking healthy at the moment. I think he probably will turn evil and, if he does, F&G knew it before everybody else.
- Umbridge. Do we deny that she's a valid target for the Twins' pranks? We don't? Good.
- Dudley and the Dursleys. Do we deny that... We don't? Good.
As for their other "victims", the kids who tested the sweets in OotP were volunteers (and the nature of Wizarding medicine and spells made their discomfort short-lived in any case). Finally, they teased Ron and unwittingly gave him the phobia of spiders, but can anyone reading this who has siblings honestly say that there wasn't any that sort of thing going on in their family? Kids are cruel to each other, often unwittingly but also as a means of exploring boundaries. Younger siblings can often be left with lasting traumas as a result of what their elder siblings did to them at a tender age. It's life, unfortunately. It doesn't excuse F&G, but it doesn't make them calculating sadistic monsters either.
What I get from Fred and George is the uncomfortable feeling that they have inbuilt Evil Detectors, and that their tricks are unerringly directed towards Those That Deserve Them. This leads, in turn, to the even more uncomfortable feeling that we're not supposed to regard them as the bullies they would so obviously be in the real world. I believe JKR likes them, and that because she likes them she's going to ensure that they never do anything objectively Wrong. It's the spectacle of bullying, but with the proviso that the people being bullied deserve everything they get.
Gah. Real Life doesn't work like that.