Review of “Escape” and “Mr and Mrs Percy Weasley”
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:date: 2017-12-14
:category: literature
:tags: review, harryPotter, blogComment
(Update later: this review was written in December 2017, when
the latter story was somewhere around chapter 24; it would be
probably too self-centric to think, that the author read my
review, but the fact is that the later chapters of the story
seem to address some of my objections.)
There is a biblical verse from Galatians 3:3: “Are you so
foolish? Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected
by the flesh?” What I mean is that “Escape_” and “`Mr and Mrs
Percy Weasley`_” started as one of the best fanfictions I found
anywhere. Obviously, from person who writes fanfiction around
the classical literature (namely “Pride and Prejudice”), I expect
better literary quality than your average fifteen-year inserting
herself as the fourth member of The Golden Trio on the run for
horcruxes. Unfortunately, with the continuation of both stories,
it seems to me that the author lapsed more and more into some of
the worst stereotypes in the genre.
First of all, before saying anything else, I really liked Mr and
Mrs-to-be Percy Weasley themselves. It is really delight to read
their story (and of course, it doesn’t hurt they slip for weekend
in Prague, where I am from :)). I really liked they both knew
they are dancing around some elephants in the room, but they so
much wanted to work together, they were willing to trust each
other even against the evidence, which would cause distrust.
I really liked Percy discovering joys of the Muggle world (and
I really hope he will eventually buy that set of the sixteenth
century goblets for Audrey, now when he can explain her how come
they are so well preserved).
I was less enchanted by Harry & Hermione. Even ignoring the
problems with the Harmony ship [#]_ (about which later), they
both seemed to me so perfect, so Mary/Marty Sue (of course, Mary
Sue must be half-Muggle otherwise the author and reader couldn’t
identify with her easily enough), that I lost most interest in
them. Except, of course, Hermione being a cat is the only saving
grace for her persona.
This being a Harmony story, it seems that every alternative
universe shipping inevitably leads to bashing persons which are
really likeable in the books, most usually Ron Weasley. It seemed
in the beginning of “Escape”, that this author managed to avoid
the trait, but it goes downhill pretty fast, and in the end Mrs
Weasley, Arthur, and of course Ron are sworn enemies of the good
guys and gals. And it is happily overlooked that many relational
troubles which blow to their face in the end are caused by the
inexplicable relational idiocy of Harry & Hermione. Why in the
world, they haven’t contacted Ron, their supposedly best friend,
immediately after they got means of communications (mirrors) from
the Weasley twins? I like the Weasley twins in the story, but why
couldn‘t be Ron included as well? Couldn’t the twins smuggle one
mirror to the castle? And still they haven’t bothered to send him
a mirror when they met Ginny, Neville, and Luna in Hogsmead? Of
course, the only reason seems to be that the author may indulge
more in the Ron-bashing (there is no way the Ron from books was
not fed up with Lavender after few weeks of snogging; and
actually, he broke up with her because he looked for more in
books, not necessarily because of Hermione; that is more the film
Ron again).
Harry and Hermione spent five years (or at least summers) in the
Weasley household. And suddenly the Weasley parents don’t deserve
a joint visit from Harry & Hermione before the slandering
interviews are published? If Molly Weasley as we know her from
books would slam the door in their face, I would immediately ship
her to St. Mungo, because some serious disease must be affecting
her brain. That is not Molly we know from the books. And I just
cannot make myself believe that Weasleys’ would be that
prejudiced against Muggles. Ignorant, of course, but not
unwilling to hear an explanation.
When they are repeatedly accused they gave up on the wizarding
world and went Muggle all the way, Harry & Hermione never face
these accusations by explaining what’s going on, by explaining
that they actually finished their magical education already, they
don’t even boast how many N.E.W.T.s they got, they just blow up.
They behave like rebellious stupid teenagers, who they actually
are, demanding trust from everybody, explaining to nobody, and
then they are supported in this stupidity by supposedly mature
and wise Grangers. We’ll get to this more later.
Because next we have to deal with the persona of Albus Dumbledore
as described in the stories. I am the last one to declare
Professor Dumbledore to be perfect. There are obvious problems in
his behaviour. Some of them mentioned by JKR in the books
themselves (excessive secrecy, insufficient information and
training), some are not. For example, there is a situation where
absolutely everything depends on Harry learning Occlumency
properly, and his teacher is not adult enough to get over Harry’s
father bullying him when they were teenagers. So, there are no
results of such teaching. What does Dumbledore do to remedy the
situation? Nothing, just waits until somebody gets killed and
Harry can blame himself for it. What’s wrong with him? [#]_
I believe that both Professors Dumbledore and Snape are
responsible for the death of Sirius Black (perhaps they should be
even criminally responsible for neglect) more than anybody else
on The Light Side (the biggest share of guilt goes to
Mrs Lestrange, of course).
Having said that, I just cringe when I see how Singularoddities
deals poorly with description of flawed personalities. How it is
difficult to describe somebody who honestly fights for The Right
Thing™ his whole life, he is willing sacrifice absolutely
everything for the fight, and yet sometimes he forgets he is not
permitted to demand same sacrifices from others (“The only person
who can die for my ideals is me.” Karl Popper), or perhaps even
how sometimes he fights more to eradicate Evil than to promote
Goodness and Love. The author is not able to keep the hero
balanced, so although he/she starts well, more the story
progresses more it is black-and-white, and more and more it is
hard to distinguish Albus Dumbledore from Tom Riddle. And because
it is not enough, we have to have very light Snape (see above,
nobody questions his part in the death of Sirius), and very very
dark Weasley family (older part). It somehow looks like all
authority persons from the book are deemed bad, and somehow bad
persons are now good? Like …
I know what it feels like! When I was trying to understand what
is the worldview behind those two stories, I started to think
about the Stage Three from M. Scott Peck’s `The Road Less
Traveled`_ (nicely summarized in video by my former pastor `Dave
Schmelzer`_). The stories are all about rebellion against the
authorities. It is all about an inversion, negation of
traditional values without actual wisdom, which for me is in
synthesis of the real personality, authenticity and true values.
All those who were positive authorities in the HP canon
(Dumbledore, Weasleys) are suddenly bad, and not only bad there
is almost nothing positive mentioned about them. All those who
were marginalised, in submission, or outright morally suspicious
(Grangers, Professors McGonagall, Snape; it is interesting that
Professor Flitwick is nowhere to be found) are suddenly main
heroes. Also, the main purpose of adults (especially Grangers) is
to validate youngsters’ (Harry & Hermione, Fred & George) in
their ideas, not to bring much of their own, and certainly not to
bring balance and wisdom. Whole story sounds very much like
a college student ranting against his parents.
That also includes Percy, but here I have to take exception from
the rule: his persona is written really well, I really suspect
that he made some huge mistakes (even Kingsley suggests that he
was originally meant exactly as Weasleys were afraid he was
— a spy on Weasleys and Harry), but he is really an interesting
person. Well done.
I like both of these stories (probably more “Mr and Mrs Percy
Weasley”, but obviously the second take is better than the first
attempt), they are probably the best AU stories of the Harry
Potter universe I have read so far (if it has not been obvious
already, I prefer canon-based stories), but all the good things
on these stories, makes me even more frustrated with things which
could be so much better. Oh well.
.. [#] supporting Harry/Harmione pairing
.. [#] Also, a nitpick: what the hell is wrong with you to leave
one year old boy overnight outside in the English November?
Are you too coward to admit to Petunia her sister died under
your command, so you are not able to press a buzzer? Or
perhaps the grooming (I am not sure I believe that one) was
just Plan B, in case the horcrux was not eliminated by Harry
dying from exposure?
Just for fun: I have found monthly weather report for UK for
October 1981 and `November 1981`_
.. _Escape:
https://www.fanfiction.net/s/11916243/
.. _`Mr and Mrs Percy Weasley`:
https://www.fanfiction.net/s/12373273/
.. _`The Road Less Traveled`:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M._Scott_Peck#The_Road_Less_Traveled
.. _`Dave Schmelzer`:
https://youtu.be/bHyqDGAiEpA
.. _`November 1981`:
https://digital.nmla.metoffice.gov.uk/IO_707667cb-2339-4454-bc5a-c20f638bbd92/
