But the books completely fail to present racism as something that needs to be stopped.
I mean, why is Slytherin still a House? They’re explicitly evil and bigoted, and everyone is like, oh well, that’s just how they are.
Rowling could have made it make sense. She could have said that because Slytherin’s trait is ambition, and people often take that too far, dark wizards tend to be Slytherin, but they can come from anywhere. And also, most Slytherins are actually good, even though that’s where the bad wizards tend to come from.
But no, every dark wizard is Slytherin, and every Slytherin is bad.
Snape isn’t an example of a heroic Slytherin so much as he’s an unbalanced stalker who sides with Dumbledore while still being a terrible person. I could overlook that if even one other Slytherin was good, but they’re just not.
Draco Malfoy’s redemption arc was the opportunity to redeem Slytherin. Instead it ends without him ever actually doing anything right. His evil plan fails because he sucks, then he gets saved by Harry and everyone’s just cool with it.
After all the death and destruction, everyone just goes back to school alongside the wizard Nazis.
Because the bigotry and all the things that led to Voldemort just aren’t a big deal as long as they stop short of full-on war.
Harry didn’t meet any good Slytherins during his school years, that’s why there weren’t any talked about in the HP books. But then his son got sorted into Slytherin.
But the books completely fail to present racism as something that needs to be stopped.
I mean, why is Slytherin still a House? They’re explicitly evil and bigoted, and everyone is like, oh well, that’s just how they are.
Rowling could have made it make sense. She could have said that because Slytherin’s trait is ambition, and people often take that too far, dark wizards tend to be Slytherin, but they can come from anywhere. And also, most Slytherins are actually good, even though that’s where the bad wizards tend to come from.
But no, every dark wizard is Slytherin, and every Slytherin is bad.
Snape isn’t an example of a heroic Slytherin so much as he’s an unbalanced stalker who sides with Dumbledore while still being a terrible person. I could overlook that if even one other Slytherin was good, but they’re just not.
Draco Malfoy’s redemption arc was the opportunity to redeem Slytherin. Instead it ends without him ever actually doing anything right. His evil plan fails because he sucks, then he gets saved by Harry and everyone’s just cool with it.
After all the death and destruction, everyone just goes back to school alongside the wizard Nazis. Because the bigotry and all the things that led to Voldemort just aren’t a big deal as long as they stop short of full-on war.
IIRC Professor Slughorn was a decent Slytherin.
Harry didn’t meet any good Slytherins during his school years, that’s why there weren’t any talked about in the HP books. But then his son got sorted into Slytherin.