Unpopular Opinion: Popular Characters We don't Like
Quote from JaySM on August 1, 2023, 2:03 amQuote from Naaga on August 1, 2023, 1:22 amI never got why so many people like him.
An unpopular opinion is I hate the Weasley twins. Fanon perception of them being those funny and jolly guys is not accurate representation of them.
They are quite cruel and even JKR admits it despite liking them.
They permanently gave Ron fear of spiders, beat a pufferskin to death, talked about releasing a potential poisonous gas in school, jeered at an eleven year old for getting sorted into Slytherin, they could've permanently injured Montague through vanishing cabinet etc.
They often escape criticism in Weasley bashing fics which dial up Molly, Ron and Ginny bashing to monstrous proportion.
No way! What? They did that? How horrible.
*hides Weasley Twins fanfiction stash*
I can't believe they did that. Not to Ron of all people. 😅
You are welcome to like them, I expressed my own opinion on them.
I'd say Weasley twins treated Ron worse than Dudley treated Harry, and leave it at it. 😸
I've just gaslit myself into believing characters like Molly, the twins, Hagrid, McGonagall are good people despite knowing full well that some of the stuff they do is so irresponsible that it borders on (and sometimes is) abuse.
Weird opinion: For some reason I'm convinced that certain characters were meant to be good and JKR just failed to present them as such by making them do things that look good through Harry's eyes, not bothering to see if they were the right thing to do objectively. So I see their flaws as JKR's mistakes, not their own lol
Quote from Salvyus on August 1, 2023, 3:32 amWeird opinion: For some reason I'm convinced that certain characters were meant to be good and JKR just failed to present them as such by making them do things that look good through Harry's eyes, not bothering to see if they were the right thing to do objectively. So I see their flaws as JKR's mistakes, not their own lol
I feel it's not failure of JKR to present those characters that way, rather she actually created flawed characters because no human being is perfect and I like it that way. People like Hagrid, Weasley twins, McGonagall, Molly etc. were not meant to be paragons of all good and well in the world, Harry liked them because they treated him well, that's the reason.
Whole books were about Harry's POV and he liked those characters who were nice to him and demonised those he hated. We often saw awful acts of beloved characters but since Harry liked them, he didn't think much about it. Contrasting his narration of every bad thing of characters he hated which included comments on their behaviour, uglifying their features and thinking worse of them, it was Harry's opinion readers were being fed and readers have to objectively analyse good and bad based on their own perception.
I confess I didn't hate characters much after reading the books, my hate actually started after interaction with fandom especially Snaters. They gave free pass to worst behaviour of other characters while hating or even inventing worse headcanons about Snape like nazi, incel, obsessed, creep, child abuser etc, which led to my hate for seemingly good characters. I'm not denying they were good, I'm denying that they were really and perfectly good.
Quote from Naaga on August 1, 2023, 4:10 amI feel it's not failure of JKR to present those characters that way, rather she actually created flawed characters because no human being is perfect and I like it that way. People like Hagrid, Weasley twins, McGonagall, Molly etc. were not meant to be paragons of all good and well in the world, Harry liked them because they treated him well, that's the reason.
Whole books were about Harry's POV and he liked those characters who were nice to him and demonised those he hated. We often saw awful acts of beloved characters but since Harry liked them, he didn't think much about it. Contrasting his narration of every bad thing of characters he hated which included comments on their behaviour, uglifying their features and thinking worse of them, it was Harry's opinion readers were being fed and readers have to objectively analyse good and bad based on their own perception.
Beautifully articulated, and I 100% agree. One of the best things about this series is that (other than the occasional true baddie), every single character has flaws and virtues. That includes Harry, who (like any other human) has his own biases and can sometimes be petty and/or self-serving. We can't expect his point of view on other characters to always be fair or unbiased… as @naaga suggests, it's important to read between the lines.
That said, the double standards that Harry (and many fans) have can be frustrating at times. One of the biggest examples is how Snape is compared to the other teachers, especially McGonagall. We know she treated certain students far worse than he ever did… it's just terribly hypocritical when non-Snape fans call him a bully while treating her like some paragon of virtue.
I don't like Dobby, despite the fandom's obsession with him. He obstructed Harry and even nearly killed him in CoS.
He did have a good friend arc later, and his sacrifice saved Harry and friends, but his death never hit me hard, and I don't get the reasons for his popularity. I like Kreacher more because his behavior and motivation feel better than Dobby's.
