Characters Welcome discussion

I know this series has been discussed to death. I know I've read it to death! I'm a re-reader by nature, but I don't think I've ever re-read a series as often as I have re-read this one. At this point, I am trying to wait until my 7-year-old is 13 to read them again. He tells me he'll be ready to read the series then. :)

Yet I can't imagine talking about character without talking about Harry, especially in terms of how he grows and changes over the series. A lot of people who like this series point to the imaginative world but I can't pinpoint a single element of this world that is truly unique or awe-inspiring. It's fun, but the reason I re-read this series is for Harry.

Agree, disagree?

THE character I love seeing in Harry Potter is Severus Snape. He does not change so much but we pretty much always see him through Harry's eyes and Harry's point of view on him changes, of course. I like his hidden depths.

*Spoiler Warning -- if you haven't read all 7 Harry Potter books, and plan to, don't read*

I've never been as enamored of Severus as many others. Then again, I never exactly feel he redeemed himself. I guess in the end, he wasn't a bad guy, he wasn't a good guy, he was just a guy who hated Voldemort, which wasn't hard to do. Voldemort was bound to tick people off before long by killing so indiscriminately. He even managed to turn the Malfoys against him in the end. I thought they, like Snape, were an object lesson in the nature of normal evil: It still has the capacity for love. Voldemort had gone beyond that, honestly not understanding the nature of love at all. It was his undoing.

Snape himself may have worked against Voldemort because of Lily, but Snape never loved anyone else. To me, it felt like he simply hated Voldemort more than he loved the dark arts. So when I think of Snape, I think of a man who served a purpose, but in the end, it was just as well that he died.

(view spoiler)[I am not "enamored" of Severus, but I certainly feel like he's the most interesting character of the series. I don't think he redeems himself. For example, how could he see baby Harry cry, terrified as his mother was killed in front of him, and just leave? He was brave, that's for sure. But that does not make him a good guy through and through. In the end, his love for Lily was sincere, but selfish. I like that, because it would have been so easy for J.K. Rowling to make him a good guy disguised as a bad guy, but really he is in shades of grey. That's not something you often find in youth literature, which makes me like this even more. (hide spoiler)]

Rowling certainly did do a good job with demonstrating shades of gray in a YA series. It was one of the things I most liked about the books...one of my favorite lines was by Serius Black in the fourth or fifth book. He said, "The world isn't split into good people and death eaters."

Which is why it made me mad to see what they did in the fifth movie (and after, I believe)- the good guys leaving white traces and the bad guys black traces behind them as they "fly".

I never noticed that! I didn't care for the movies on a lot of levels, though.

Me neither. I really hope my kids get to read the books first.