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Whitewashing characters to the extreme
Posted by
coppertop1
,
11 April 2012
·
679 views
Sometimes when I read how people make Snape or Draco into some sort of misunderstood nice guy, I get annoyed. While neither of them turned out to be completely evil, they were both far from nice. Snape was a bully and bitter. I know, I know, he did all for his love of Lily etc etc. But he was still a bully and extremely cruel. Harry hadn't even done anything to him, Snape picked on him from the moment he saw him. He was so horrible to Neville that he became Neville's bogart. He was in many ways stuck in his teen years in his bitterness. However, Snape was also far from evil. He WAS loyal to Dumbledore, he was extremely brave. He died for his love. In other words, Snape was a very complex character. Whitewashing him would make him lose his interest as a character.
With Draco, though he wasn't a killer, for much of his life, he was an elitist snob. He bulled everyone for various reasons, those who weren't as rich, or as pureblooded as him. He wasn't a cold-blooded killer in the end, and does humble but is he really a saint for it? He does have people swoon over him, and think so. He turns out to be "not entirely bad". But it's a far cry from being a good person.
This type of thing though is not though restricted to Harry Potter. Nor would I say it's the worst examples.
In Wuthering Heights, Heathcliff is a genuinely nasty piece of work who goes out of his way to torment Cathy and her family and destroy them since Cathy didn't marry him. He marries Edgar Linton's sister, Isabella, and abuses her and makes her miserable, he marries her to hurt Cathy and Edgar because he hates Isabella. He takes over Wuthering Heights and torments Lindley (Lindley is a jerk and was horrible to Heathcliff, so you can argue that payback can bite). He also trains his children to hate the Lintons and marry them to torment them! Sounds pretty twisted? Yet he's somehow often thought as a romantic hero!
In Phantom of the Opera(Both the book and the musical),Erik is definitely a tragic figure. He is desperate to make Christine Daae love him. However, he goes over the deep end in a pretty big way. He pretty much stalks her and she is terrified of him. He murders two people. Christine is in love with her childhood sweetheart, Raoul. Erik is going to force her to marry him in the end. Christine is willing to stay with Erik to show him love and kindness, and this makes him break down and he lets her go. So he restores his pathos and I sympathize. Several people often think Raoul somehow stole her from Erik, and whitewash everything he does.
What are your thoughts? any character you think tends to get whitewashed or adulated way too much? Why do you think it happens? What character drives you nuts to see people totally rewrite?
PS: This is my opinion, and my thoughts. So please don't tell me "You just don't get it". I'm not talking about anyone on here, I mean in general
With Draco, though he wasn't a killer, for much of his life, he was an elitist snob. He bulled everyone for various reasons, those who weren't as rich, or as pureblooded as him. He wasn't a cold-blooded killer in the end, and does humble but is he really a saint for it? He does have people swoon over him, and think so. He turns out to be "not entirely bad". But it's a far cry from being a good person.
This type of thing though is not though restricted to Harry Potter. Nor would I say it's the worst examples.
In Wuthering Heights, Heathcliff is a genuinely nasty piece of work who goes out of his way to torment Cathy and her family and destroy them since Cathy didn't marry him. He marries Edgar Linton's sister, Isabella, and abuses her and makes her miserable, he marries her to hurt Cathy and Edgar because he hates Isabella. He takes over Wuthering Heights and torments Lindley (Lindley is a jerk and was horrible to Heathcliff, so you can argue that payback can bite). He also trains his children to hate the Lintons and marry them to torment them! Sounds pretty twisted? Yet he's somehow often thought as a romantic hero!
In Phantom of the Opera(Both the book and the musical),Erik is definitely a tragic figure. He is desperate to make Christine Daae love him. However, he goes over the deep end in a pretty big way. He pretty much stalks her and she is terrified of him. He murders two people. Christine is in love with her childhood sweetheart, Raoul. Erik is going to force her to marry him in the end. Christine is willing to stay with Erik to show him love and kindness, and this makes him break down and he lets her go. So he restores his pathos and I sympathize. Several people often think Raoul somehow stole her from Erik, and whitewash everything he does.
What are your thoughts? any character you think tends to get whitewashed or adulated way too much? Why do you think it happens? What character drives you nuts to see people totally rewrite?
PS: This is my opinion, and my thoughts. So please don't tell me "You just don't get it". I'm not talking about anyone on here, I mean in general
As for Draco, as you mentioned, the only good thing you can really say about him is that he wasn't a murderer, which means that he wasn't totally evil, but certainly doesn't mean that he's a nice guy. But of course, we all know that his tale is just the buildup for him to fulfill his destiny of becoming Head Boy at Hogwarts and sharing a dorm with Head Girl Hermione.
JK created some really complex and layered characters, and whitewashing them really doesn't do them justice and really takes away from the story.