life and death;

rizplease:

propheticpeaks:

not-the-very-button:

Sometimes I think that maybe Harry naming his children after two of the most flawed and morally dubious characters in the whole series was meant as an indicator of Harry’s own flaws — outrageous loyalty and black and white morality. 

Harry has the most fucked up childhood yo. And due to that childhood, the expectations placed upon him by pretty much everyone, and Dumbledore’s interference, Harry develops his “hero complex.” Harry learns to identify morality in terms of heroics — a true Gryffindor indeed. Harry wants so much to believe that what he did was right, that the sacrifices others made for him were valid, that he cocoons himself in a fantasy world where the smallest of good deeds can redeem you. 

Maybe JK Rowling didn’t fuck up as bad as we like to think. 

Maybe Harry naming his kid after two corrupted puppet masters was absolutely and utterly in character. 

Maybe Harry is so desperate to not hate himself for anything less than true-red-and-gold brave he ever did that he’s convinced himself heroism is the ultimate good. And by extension he is the ultimate good. And Dumbledore and Snape were the ultimate good. Because the died in grand flourishes and left behind mysteries. Just like his parents did. 

Harry isn’t ungrateful to Hagrid or Remus or Tonks or Molly or Arthur or Fred. They simply don’t fit the showy model Harry was conditioned to accept in terms of greatness. 

Because there is a little truth to Harry’s insolence. To his belief that he is an exception to the rule. And it’s not his fault. It never was. He was groomed and led down a path of exceptionalism. So he rewards the exceptional. the exceptions. Snape. And Dumbledore. And James. And Lily. And Luna. And Sirius. The outlandish and the bold and sentimentally heroic. 

What Harry forgets is that the ordinary can be just as exceptional. Just as heroic. Just as good. 

yes! we always thought this too.  the name jokes are funny and all, but it made total sense in context of Harry’s character to us.

I agree with this.  (And I’d even add that, with Snape especially, he is blinded by his love for his parents that anyone connected to Lily is immediately in his good books.)  But I ALSO think that Albus Severus (obligatory lol) is the name that matters so much because it represents the end of Harry’s story.

Harry is the victim of a lot of mistreatment and hatred from the very first chapter to the end, and even at Hogwarts, the hero-worshipping comes at a price.  His foils–Voldemort and Snape–spend their time at Hogwarts loved by all or hated by all, while Harry gets both the love and the hate.  Voldemort manipulates, he’s selfish.  Snape bullies, he’s spiteful.  Harry is defined by how much he diverges from these two paths, though he could easily have become either of his enemies.  Unlike Voldemort, he’s selfless, and unlike Snape, he forgives.

Athough he and Harry have very little in common, Dumbledore is another foil.  They are both the Heroes.  But Dumbledore’s heroism is cold and calculating, he sacrifices others–even in death, he sacrifices Snape’s “soul.”  If Dumbledore is “God” then Harry is the martyr.

What does this mean for Harry’s character development, though?  DH is punctuated with turning points, moments of forgiveness.  PS/SS begins with Harry being abused by the Dursleys, and DH begins with Harry forgiving Dudley.  He says goodbye to his cupboard, he’s not angry when he gets the Dursleys to safety, he doesn’t look back.  He lets go.  This is how Harry moves on.

Harry obsesses over Dumbledore’s dirty secrets in DH, but in choosing to go after the Horcruxes instead of the Hallows, he moves past his feelings of betrayal.

Before Voldemort’s death, he sees him for what he is and doesn’t feel hatred, but pity.  He shows him compassion.

I think that, while there is definitely some hero-worshiping happening, Harry does realize that Snape and Dumbledore were wrong.  But he’s spent so much of his youth angry and mistrustful.  Honoring these two, his bully and his puppeteer, represents not only Harry’s forgiveness, but that he’s made peace with his suffering.  He’s made peace with his doubts about his father and Sirius being bullies, too.  (Lily Luna is different–while James Sirius is named after Harry’s father figures, and Albus Severus after his heroes, Lily is named after the two characters in the books who represent Harry’s ideal of selfless love.)

Thematically, naming his son after these two characters who were so stuck living in the past, implies a future where Harry’s learned from their mistakes.  Unlike Dumbledore or Snape, Harry really lives.

But at the same time, you don’t see Ron or Hermione worshiping Snape or Dumbledore’s –this is all Harry, and this is how he’s always been.  He doesn’t HAVE to forgive or admire them–but of course he does because he’s Harry.  The names are SO not saying “THESE are the most important characters to Harry Potter and also the best people in the book fuck you Remus.”  The names reveal all those things OP said about Harry’s flawed views of heroism, and more they represent a scar that’s fading, the resolution to a life of pain for the hero whose only superpower was living and forgiving.

ethanakamura:

oh no it’s totally fine you’re not coming off as rude don’t worry!!! so i know you’re referring to the fandom in general but my opinions tend to clash with the majority, so i’m going to give you my perspective instead. Snape is a morally gray character. i have really conflicting opinions about him, but i’ll do my best to explain.

so i actually don’t forgive james and sirius for bullying people in school (like lbr that’s a pretty crappy thing to do, bullying people isn’t cool and never will be) and so i don’t forgive snape, either. for me, snape doing these things while he was an adult is, yeah, part of the reason why i don’t forgive him, because i would’ve expected him to mature by then, you know? in addition to being an absolute dirtbag to Harry, he also treated Neville severely, to the point where neville’s Boggart was snape, and i think that’s ridiculous, seeing as he had absolutely no reason to do that to a child other than out of spite, like come on, grow up. i mean, i know losing lily evans must’ve hurt him a lot, but i just don’t think that that excuses these actions.

speaking of losing lily evans: he did do some stuff as a teen, too. i know the fandom is always saying that his unrequited love for lily evans excuses his actions, but honestly? calling lily a racist slur, a “mudblood,” really isn’t how you’re supposed to handle rejection. as for james and sirius being a bully, well, i think we ought to remember that that one “bullying” memory was snape’s, so of course it’s going to be biased and portray snape as a helpless victim who can’t strike back (which he does; he does strike back). i’m not saying that, god forbid, james and sirius are off the hook, but i thought it would do good to remind you that the memory is going to be biased–just as harry’s POV was whenever he talked about draco. in addition, snape was selfish. he was perfectly content to leave harry and james potter dead so long as lily lived, and, well, i don’t know, that just doesn’t sit right with me.

but i’ve got to call attention to the fact that, yeah, he was a victim. he was lonely and bullied at school and he lost the person he was in love with. unlike draco, however, he wasn’t misguided. he didn’t have anyone to guide him in the right direction or even the wrong one, and while that’s just sad, he made these decisions by himself as a child, and when he grew up, he still had these ideas and he hasn’t changed, he hasn’t matured.

i mean, i like snape, as a character. he’s interesting, complex, well-written and everything i could ever ask for. but i just don’t like him as an actual person.

for further information, here’s an article i found that argues a few of my points (and also uses some of the same arguments as well)