Comments on: Percy and Padfoot

By: Lauren Young

Lauren Young — Mon, 02 Jan 2012 15:54:44 +0000

“You’re less like your father than I thought,” [Sirius] said finally, a definite coolness in his voice. “The risk would’ve been what made it fun for James.”
I was very shocked after I read that and everyone seemed to think that Sirius was being mean; when I first read it, I thought he was saying that Harry has more of his Mother’s personality in him. We don’t know it yet but James and Sirius didn’t get on with Lily until their last year of school and Sirius, known to be reckless, might have thought she was a bit of a ‘goody-two-shoes’.

By: Amanda

Amanda — Sun, 11 Sep 2011 07:34:59 +0000

I agree with the thoughts on Sirius, but I’m really going to be commenting about Percy. I definitley think he’s a “prat”, like the book says, but I also think he is a very realistic character that people fail to see from his perspective.
What makes the HP books so real and easy to relate to is, among other things, how the Wizarding world is inhabited by characters who are just the same as in our world – we see the self-absorbed celebrity and the outcasts with prejudices haning over their heads, we see the caring mother and the father with a crazy hobby – all people we are recognizing from our world and our reality.
I think Percy is definitley one very real person, the teenager who desperatly wants to put distance between himself and his family in order to become more of his own. Just like Ron, I think Percy suffers from being “just” a Weasley brother, easily over-shadowed by his other siblings. His way of coping is to try and be as good as possible at everything he does, a bit like Hermione. Percy is so absorbed in trying to be his own, and finding his own identity, that he turns towards his family the moment his plans of rising above them is interrupted by them.
I do think Percy is really not a character to hate, but rather someone to pity.

By: Jeremy

Jeremy — Thu, 18 Aug 2011 14:34:15 +0000

There is a line in Percy’s letter that bugs me: “the people who count have a very different – and probably more accurate – view of Potter’s behavior”

[sacasm] Yeah Percy, tell Ron, who is usually with Harry, that the Ministry has a better understanding of Harry. [/sarcasm]

By: Adele

Adele — Wed, 27 Jul 2011 17:09:48 +0000

The thing I’ve always admired about J.K Rowling is how she portrays her politicians. The way I’ve been seeing it lately is that Voldemort and Fudge are like communism and facism (not in ideology, sort of metaphorically) in the sense that in theory they’re complete opposites but when put into practice they’re exactly the same. Or… maybe a better example would be Cromwell, taking power after abolishing the monarchy to make life better for British people but really becoming a terrible dictator.

By: Tonks

Tonks — Mon, 27 Jun 2011 14:42:10 +0000

Sirius is one of my fave characters, but there is one line that I’ll always kind of hate him for, and that’s “You’re less like your father than I thought…” He says it just to make Harry feel like bad (especially consitering how highly Harry thinks of him)!

Plus, even Sirius should know better than trying to fool Harry into lose his only father figure.

By: John Kearns

John Kearns — Sat, 25 Jun 2011 23:19:33 +0000

Casey, I do see what you mean, and I’m sure that’s what was intended by it. Perhaps I’m just having a hard time seeing it that way because the line’s meaning in the book is so different, and also because the line in the book is a concept that is important to me personally – I’ve run into a few Umbridges, Lockharts, and other people in my time who were well-meaning, I suppose, but really just awful people.

Still, though… there *had* to be a more eloquent way of getting that point across than cutting and pasting a line from a completely different scene that was written to address a completely different situation. Ugh.

By: Casey

Casey — Sat, 25 Jun 2011 22:13:46 +0000

John, I can’t help but think that you aren’t getting the broader idea of “the world isn’t split into good people and Death Eaters” in the movie, because right after, Sirius says “we’ve all got good and bad inside of us. It’s what side we choose to act on that show who we truly are.” (paraphrase, as it’s off the top of my head). In the movie, Sirius isn’t telling Harry it’s “okay to be bad”, he’s saying it’s okay to have good and bad feelings inside of us, as long as we choose to act on the good in the end, which I think is a very powerful and meaningful message that a lot of people don’t understand very much. He’s really discussing the feelings inside, not Harry’s actions themselves. Harry is worried that after everything he’s been through, he’s starting to go evil, that he’s turning into Voldemort. Sirius clearly states, “I need you to listen to me very carefully Harry: you’re NOT a bad person.” So I’m just going to have to politely disagree with you that Sirius is telling Harry it’s okay to be bad, cause that really isn’t what he’s telling Harry at all. He’s just saying that nobody is perfect, we all think of good and bad things, but that’s okay as long as you choose to walk the good path in the end. Does that make sense?

By: Christa

Christa — Thu, 28 Apr 2011 19:36:28 +0000

LMRourke’s picture of Sirius looks so much like Hugh Jackman. That’s awesome.

By: elizabethauthor

elizabethauthor — Sun, 31 Oct 2010 12:10:44 +0000

“To me, the line is a fancier way of saying ‘There are bad people in the world who aren’t Death Eaters.’” – John

That’s how I understood it in the book, that not all bad people become, or would even want to become, Death Eaters. That doesn’t mean they’re not just as evil. In the movie he’s kind of saying the opposite. He’s using the term Death Eaters as synonymous with evil, in order to say to Harry that good and bad are not extremes of black and white. It annoys me, though not nearly as much as flying down the Thames. Ugh! Lol.

By: Rowena

Rowena — Wed, 27 Oct 2010 02:00:31 +0000

LMRourke’s picture of Sirius is absolutely amazing! That is really the first time I’ve ever seen a picture/image that really captured that “sunken” and “waxy” look that Sirius has after years of Azkaban! Brilliant job!