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tj_roweWarning: Tangents. And Spoilers.
I rather think that Aberforth was a Slytherin.
Thinking back to his trying to convince Harry to abandon his quest, and the Slytherins and their en-masse stand-up-and-get-the-hell-out-of-there - they resonated together with me, and related back to an essay(1) I read once, which hypothesised that Harry Potter itself was about Plot.
I'm not quite done thinking about the Slytherins, but I do realise, following the Walkout, that my perception of the Slytherins until now, as people and as a quarter of the school (of the British Wizarding World, even), isn't what JKR intended for them.
If Harry had been Sorted into JKR's Slytherin, he wouldn't have beaten Voldemort.
However, he could from the Slytherin that Fanon recognises - we have the Slytherin character-mould, not the Slytherin archetype. And there is a difference. Fanon!Slytherin would have taught not-a-Horcrux!Harry the tricks and given him the tools he needed to do the defeating, but JKR!Slytherin would have had Horcrux!Harry die when Tom killed him... or walk away with the rest of the House.
Slytherins are characters that know where they are in the world and where they want to be, and what they're willing to sacrifice to get there. That's how Goyle and Malfoy are in the same house, rather then Goyle being in Hufflepuff or something (can you imagine?) - 'ambitious' is just a word that the Hat uses as shorthand for this trait.
Fanon!Slytherin often ignores Crabbe and Goyle, and I think it's because they are of JKR's Slytherin archetype. We can't fit them into the 'cunning', 'ambitious' mould that we've set for fic-verse Slytherin. 'The evil ones go to Slytherin' has been the explanation for their existence for over a decade now, and fandom has been crying out for a good!student!Slytherin - one that fits our mould so that it can be validated.
Slughorn is a good!Slytherin in that he fights Voldemort, but he isn't in the sense that other characters are 'good' - he still sees mostly in terms of where he is and who he needs to be on good terms with in order to maintain or improve his situation. In practical terms, his deciding to give Harry the memory - deciding to be on the side of 'The Chosen One' - is on par with Crabbe picking the Carrows over Draco Malfoy.
Snape does fit the fanon mould, I think, so it was a shame for me when Dumbledore as good as said that he should have been Gryffindor. (The line itself, when taken out of context, is brilliant, though. It gives cause for certain intelligent fen to say 'I told you so' with canonical backing.)
And, for fandom, fanon!Slytherin is better. It's adaptable to more different authorial worldviews, which is useful for those of us who suspected from mid-HBP that we weren't going to agree with the story that JKR was telling and so should prepare for some serious suspension of disbelief. I'll be sticking with with fanon!Slytherin for my Slytherin!Harry AUs (or, now, Slytherin!Albus Severus canon continuations), and I suspect that a lot of people will, too.
Moving into speculation with regard to the Death Eaters and Slytherin, I think back to Bella's statement at Spinners End about if she had sons, she'd love to give them to the Dark Lord, or some such. I think that that was how it worked - the archetype demands that Slytherins try to better their lot without risking too much.
Tom Riddle's schoolmates (the Abraxases and Cygnuses) weren't true Death Eaters, but they agreed with what Tom wanted to do, and raised their sons (the Luciuses and Rudolphuses and Bellas) to help him, and those sons were the Death Eaters. And then those sons grew up and raised the next generation of purebloods (the Dracos and Vincents and Theos), who then didn't have the benefit of Grandparents who Knew What The Game Was. Oops. And the Abraxas Malfoys and Cygnus Blacks didn't count on their fanatical offspring turning around and killing *them* when they ceased being useful.
This explains Tom's long absence, too - he already had Horcruxes and therefore immortality, so he did random experiments while waiting for his army - exemplified by Bellatrix Black, the eldest child of the five Black cousins that he'd been at school with, and who finished school along with the Lestrange brothers a year or two before the war was realised to be a war - to be old enough to fight for him.
I rather think that Aberforth was a Slytherin.
Thinking back to his trying to convince Harry to abandon his quest, and the Slytherins and their en-masse stand-up-and-get-the-hell-out-of-there - they resonated together with me, and related back to an essay(1) I read once, which hypothesised that Harry Potter itself was about Plot.
I'm not quite done thinking about the Slytherins, but I do realise, following the Walkout, that my perception of the Slytherins until now, as people and as a quarter of the school (of the British Wizarding World, even), isn't what JKR intended for them.
If Harry had been Sorted into JKR's Slytherin, he wouldn't have beaten Voldemort.
However, he could from the Slytherin that Fanon recognises - we have the Slytherin character-mould, not the Slytherin archetype. And there is a difference. Fanon!Slytherin would have taught not-a-Horcrux!Harry the tricks and given him the tools he needed to do the defeating, but JKR!Slytherin would have had Horcrux!Harry die when Tom killed him... or walk away with the rest of the House.
Slytherins are characters that know where they are in the world and where they want to be, and what they're willing to sacrifice to get there. That's how Goyle and Malfoy are in the same house, rather then Goyle being in Hufflepuff or something (can you imagine?) - 'ambitious' is just a word that the Hat uses as shorthand for this trait.
Fanon!Slytherin often ignores Crabbe and Goyle, and I think it's because they are of JKR's Slytherin archetype. We can't fit them into the 'cunning', 'ambitious' mould that we've set for fic-verse Slytherin. 'The evil ones go to Slytherin' has been the explanation for their existence for over a decade now, and fandom has been crying out for a good!student!Slytherin - one that fits our mould so that it can be validated.
Slughorn is a good!Slytherin in that he fights Voldemort, but he isn't in the sense that other characters are 'good' - he still sees mostly in terms of where he is and who he needs to be on good terms with in order to maintain or improve his situation. In practical terms, his deciding to give Harry the memory - deciding to be on the side of 'The Chosen One' - is on par with Crabbe picking the Carrows over Draco Malfoy.
Snape does fit the fanon mould, I think, so it was a shame for me when Dumbledore as good as said that he should have been Gryffindor. (The line itself, when taken out of context, is brilliant, though. It gives cause for certain intelligent fen to say 'I told you so' with canonical backing.)
And, for fandom, fanon!Slytherin is better. It's adaptable to more different authorial worldviews, which is useful for those of us who suspected from mid-HBP that we weren't going to agree with the story that JKR was telling and so should prepare for some serious suspension of disbelief. I'll be sticking with with fanon!Slytherin for my Slytherin!Harry AUs (or, now, Slytherin!Albus Severus canon continuations), and I suspect that a lot of people will, too.
Moving into speculation with regard to the Death Eaters and Slytherin, I think back to Bella's statement at Spinners End about if she had sons, she'd love to give them to the Dark Lord, or some such. I think that that was how it worked - the archetype demands that Slytherins try to better their lot without risking too much.
Tom Riddle's schoolmates (the Abraxases and Cygnuses) weren't true Death Eaters, but they agreed with what Tom wanted to do, and raised their sons (the Luciuses and Rudolphuses and Bellas) to help him, and those sons were the Death Eaters. And then those sons grew up and raised the next generation of purebloods (the Dracos and Vincents and Theos), who then didn't have the benefit of Grandparents who Knew What The Game Was. Oops. And the Abraxas Malfoys and Cygnus Blacks didn't count on their fanatical offspring turning around and killing *them* when they ceased being useful.
This explains Tom's long absence, too - he already had Horcruxes and therefore immortality, so he did random experiments while waiting for his army - exemplified by Bellatrix Black, the eldest child of the five Black cousins that he'd been at school with, and who finished school along with the Lestrange brothers a year or two before the war was realised to be a war - to be old enough to fight for him.
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Date: 2007-07-30 12:17 pm (UTC)I don't read HP purely because my mother won't let me. -.- It warps your brain with all the witchcraft, apparently.
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Date: 2007-07-30 07:10 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-07-31 01:30 pm (UTC)Wow, I never realized those potterpuff icons were transparent...
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Date: 2007-07-31 02:19 pm (UTC)Neither did I, until I set that one as my default. *g*