I wondered if you could just clarify something please? I'm not quite clear on whether your argument is that JKR is purposely writing the twins as never hurting (in her own view) 'innocent' victims; or that every character the twins have 'teased' is inarguably deserving and evil.
Probably more the former than the latter, but as far as I can see they never seem to attack the "good guys" (unlike, say, Draco). The "teasing" is what they did to Ron as an infant and a first-year; actual physical contact (pelting a teacher with snowballs; shoving another student into a cupboard; trying to shut their brother inside a pyramid; tempting a greedy boy with a Ton-Tongue Toffee) is what they do to the "bad guys". Hence my remark about their inbuilt Evil Detectors somehow justifying, either immediately or in retrospect, their actions.
There seem to be a lot of parallels drawn in the books between MWPP and the Twins. So I guess perhaps this would apply to them - their 'inbuilt Evil Detectors' was set off by Snape and his interest in hexing and gang of friends who eventually became DEs? And yet JKR presents this as very definite bullying...
I can think of one important difference, and that's the structure of MWPP. Sirius and James are the sort of jerks who need a weaker student around to praise them, whilst Remus is the sort who will side with authority on the whole but turn a blind eye to violations of the rule whenever it suits him. Peter - well, either he was a kid with good intentions who got blackmailed or trapped into betraying his friends, or he was an opportunist who hung around with the "popular kids" to avoid being bullied himself, or he genuinely admired MPP only to draw back in loathing once the scales fell from his eyes. Who don't know for sure what exactly made Peter betray his friends; what we do know is that they - MPP - thought very little of Peter and treated him with contempt. MWPP ultimately did not fall because they were bullies, they fell because they underestimated Peter.
Fred and George do not have that problem. Unlike Sirius and James, they're not after adulation from a professional admirer; unlike Remus, they're not wishy-washy when faced with the demands of authority. Sad as it is to say it, F&G have more personal integrity and character than MWPP, and I'll bet JKR factored that in deliberately. That is, I think, why F&G will stay "good guys" whilst MWPP were destroyed from within.
Re: Devil's Advocate Time
I'm not quite clear on whether your argument is that JKR is purposely writing the twins as never hurting (in her own view) 'innocent' victims; or that every character the twins have 'teased' is inarguably deserving and evil.
Probably more the former than the latter, but as far as I can see they never seem to attack the "good guys" (unlike, say, Draco). The "teasing" is what they did to Ron as an infant and a first-year; actual physical contact (pelting a teacher with snowballs; shoving another student into a cupboard; trying to shut their brother inside a pyramid; tempting a greedy boy with a Ton-Tongue Toffee) is what they do to the "bad guys". Hence my remark about their inbuilt Evil Detectors somehow justifying, either immediately or in retrospect, their actions.
There seem to be a lot of parallels drawn in the books between MWPP and the Twins.
So I guess perhaps this would apply to them - their 'inbuilt Evil Detectors' was set off by Snape and his interest in hexing and gang of friends who eventually became DEs?
And yet JKR presents this as very definite bullying...
I can think of one important difference, and that's the structure of MWPP. Sirius and James are the sort of jerks who need a weaker student around to praise them, whilst Remus is the sort who will side with authority on the whole but turn a blind eye to violations of the rule whenever it suits him. Peter - well, either he was a kid with good intentions who got blackmailed or trapped into betraying his friends, or he was an opportunist who hung around with the "popular kids" to avoid being bullied himself, or he genuinely admired MPP only to draw back in loathing once the scales fell from his eyes. Who don't know for sure what exactly made Peter betray his friends; what we do know is that they - MPP - thought very little of Peter and treated him with contempt. MWPP ultimately did not fall because they were bullies, they fell because they underestimated Peter.
Fred and George do not have that problem. Unlike Sirius and James, they're not after adulation from a professional admirer; unlike Remus, they're not wishy-washy when faced with the demands of authority. Sad as it is to say it, F&G have more personal integrity and character than MWPP, and I'll bet JKR factored that in deliberately. That is, I think, why F&G will stay "good guys" whilst MWPP were destroyed from within.