After all, from the end of GoF onward, negotiating the distance between the two is the central conflict in Harry's life and education (and that of the others, for that matter).
It is? Honestly, to me that's just a line Dumbledore throws out that's never really dramatized at all. Except to have the characters imo very often choose easy over right and never look back on it or face any consequences for it that makes them learn from it. If Harry or his friends do it, and it's important, it's probably right or at least not so wrong we should hold it against them.
The problems with what Hermione does, for instance, never seem to occur to anybody in the book at all. If there was anything "hard" about what she did it's that it's presented as a personal sacrifice--poor Hermione that her parents might not remember her if she died because she robbed them of their identities. Their pov isn't important except that they're being protected...though they never actually need protecting in the story and the Dursleys are protected just as well while being given a choice and keeping their memories.
We don't only have to choose saint or sinner for Hermione. She has plenty of good impulses. But it's also in her character to like to solve problems and take care of things on her own while giving others the least amount of information possible. (Within canon she's long overruled her parents' authority over herself--in contrast to the way the Weasleys deal with their parents.) It's also a running joke in canon the way Wizards hex Muggles to do things they don't want to do or take away their memories while smiling at them affectionately for being so silly as to need this sort of thing. It's hard to not assume I'm supposed to laugh at the absurdity of the Grangers' thinking they're some couple who wants to move to Australia the same way I am at the nameless Muggles struck with a desire to go somewhere far away when faced with a Wizard magic barrier.
I don't think the series critiques this. It might be one of those things that some (not all) readers have a problem with on their own.
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Date: 2008-07-03 03:50 pm (UTC)It is? Honestly, to me that's just a line Dumbledore throws out that's never really dramatized at all. Except to have the characters imo very often choose easy over right and never look back on it or face any consequences for it that makes them learn from it. If Harry or his friends do it, and it's important, it's probably right or at least not so wrong we should hold it against them.
The problems with what Hermione does, for instance, never seem to occur to anybody in the book at all. If there was anything "hard" about what she did it's that it's presented as a personal sacrifice--poor Hermione that her parents might not remember her if she died because she robbed them of their identities. Their pov isn't important except that they're being protected...though they never actually need protecting in the story and the Dursleys are protected just as well while being given a choice and keeping their memories.
We don't only have to choose saint or sinner for Hermione. She has plenty of good impulses. But it's also in her character to like to solve problems and take care of things on her own while giving others the least amount of information possible. (Within canon she's long overruled her parents' authority over herself--in contrast to the way the Weasleys deal with their parents.) It's also a running joke in canon the way Wizards hex Muggles to do things they don't want to do or take away their memories while smiling at them affectionately for being so silly as to need this sort of thing. It's hard to not assume I'm supposed to laugh at the absurdity of the Grangers' thinking they're some couple who wants to move to Australia the same way I am at the nameless Muggles struck with a desire to go somewhere far away when faced with a Wizard magic barrier.
I don't think the series critiques this. It might be one of those things that some (not all) readers have a problem with on their own.