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Something I have long expected about Potter is his small problem with exercising logic in the brain department.

Not being able to get the middle part of the Sphinx's riddle in GoF- one of the oldest tricks in the book- wasn;t a great advert for him.

But more recently, Harry rules out his father owning the HBP's rextbook because it was published 50 years ago.

In retrospect, that looks like a pretty dumb reason to have excluded that possibility, yes? Mind you, the Prince himself must have been poorer than we might otherwise have expected.

Unless the Conspiracy theorists wants to make anything of that, of course.

Anyway, does anyone feel that JKR makes him deliberately not all that bright so readers can feel superior by comparison?

Yes. *feels smart when reading the books.*

Originally posted by Ushgarak
Something I have long expected about Potter is his small problem with exercising logic in the brain department.

Not being able to get the middle part of the Sphinx's riddle in GoF- one of the oldest tricks in the book- wasn;t a great advert for him.

But more recently, Harry rules out his father owning the HBP's rextbook because it was published 50 years ago.

In retrospect, that looks like a pretty dumb reason to have excluded that possibility, yes? Mind you, the Prince himself must have been poorer than we might otherwise have expected.

Unless the Conspiracy theorists wants to make anything of that, of course.

Anyway, does anyone feel that JKR makes him deliberately not all that bright so readers can feel superior by comparison?
He dismissed his father being the HBP because he knew that James was full-blood.

I suggest you re-read the part where he asks Lupin about it.

Because on the contrary to what you say, he thought it was his father despite that.

You know, I'm quite glad to see that I'm not the only person who felt that Harry could be quite clueless, and downright dumb, at times.

Originally posted by Lana
You know, I'm quite glad to see that I'm not the only person who felt that Harry could be quite clueless, and downright dumb, at times.
There were times when I just thought: "Huh. No wonder he didn't get into Ravenclaw."

Holy crap, where to begin....?

He does something utterly clueless in every book! Its like...wtf? OPEN YOUR EYES!

Like in the last book, when he's chasing Snape, Snape's telling him to basically shut up and learn to do spells without speaking them, so what does Harry do? Insist on ignoring Snape and continues to cast spells verbally, to no gain.
MORON!

I can't blame him on that situation; anyone would react instinctively if they were attacked.

i agree, he does seem to be extremly clueless at times, however, i must give him credit for picking up on malfoy. He picked up that he had become a death-eater, and that he was up to something quite early in the book, and stuck to it even though everyone else thought he was wrong.

Maybe the Scar Pains or when the spell hit him as a baby causes him to loose brain cells

Originally posted by triniprincess
i agree, he does seem to be extremly clueless at times, however, i must give him credit for picking up on malfoy. He picked up that he had become a death-eater, and that he was up to something quite early in the book, and stuck to it even though everyone else thought he was wrong.


Oh please. That wasn't intelligence. That was downright stubborness and obsessiveness bordering on homoerotica.

Stubbornness indeed- Harry, though understandably, is highly paranoid. That time he was right- but what about OOTP, eh? Wasn't right then, was he? And others paid.

this has annoyed me in every single book, why can't harry just be a little smarter???
every book you think he will learn new spells for instance, but he always has problems, he never understand, he just seems so....STUPID!!
will he never learn????

Doesn't seem so....

And yeah. There was nothing intelligent in him figuring out that Malfoy was a Death Eater -- that was due to pure stubbornness, determination to have a reason to hate Malfoy, and paranoia.

And one of my favorite freaking characters got killed in OotP because of Harry's stupidity and stubbornness

Harry needs to learn to grow up and start using his brain. This will be the only time I will bring up shipping in here, but his stupidness is why he didn't pick up on signs of Ginny liking him earlier or him liking her earlier. Okay, shipping moment over.... HARRY GET A BRAIN!

Originally posted by Lana
Doesn't seem so....

And yeah. There was nothing intelligent in him figuring out that Malfoy was a Death Eater -- that was due to pure stubbornness, determination to have a reason to hate Malfoy, and paranoia.

And one of my favorite freaking characters got killed in OotP because of Harry's stupidity and stubbornness

Why the f*ck didnt he just use the damn mirror to talk to Sirius cry

Yeah he didnt even open up the package the mirror was in because why? He was worried Sirius would come out for him. I mean come on open it up see what it is, then decide not to use it. Geeze!


Cheers!

Harry also has a bit of a martyrdom complex, I think.

But rather than this simply being a 'I hate Harry' thread, I was more looking at the literary reasoning behind JKR making him so. We all know a flawed hero is way more interesting than a perfect one.

yep

he is stupid sometimes, but he's not exactly thick is he? I know that Voldy accidently but a part of himself into Harry, blah blah blah, but he is very good at DADA.
Yes, it really got on my nerves when he didnt just use the bloody mirror! Or why didn't he floo his whole body to Headquarters?

I wonder what edition Ush has? In most copies Harry rules out James because he knows he was pureblooded.

Harry is naturally incurious about his surroundings because of the Dursleys' no question rule. That also serves as a device by which the author can conveniently bombard us with info on the WW on a continuing basis as Harry still finds stuff out by accident.

Originally posted by shaber
I wonder what edition Ush has? In most copies Harry rules out James because he knows he was pureblooded.

Harry is naturally incurious about his surroundings because of the Dursleys' no question rule. That also serves as a device by which the author can conveniently bombard us with info on the WW on a continuing basis as Harry still finds stuff out by accident.


Yes, having a main character whose not curious in the slightest is a way to introduce new facts. I mean when has Harry ever opened a book when he did not have to?

That is a rather convienent literary device to keep plot holes at a minimum.


cheers!

Hermione had read up on his history straight away and was amazed at his apathy!

Yes, a flawed hero is definitely more interesting, but Harry's seeming cluelessness irritates the hell out of me. He's probably one of my least favorite characters in the books....

And Harry asked Lupin about the book because he thought it could have belonged to James; it wasn't until after Lupin told him to find out how old the book was that Harry ruled out James.

sometimes he's stupid , like when he completly gave up in oclumency because he wanted to see the rest of the dream, but sometimes he does stuff that impresses me as well

Harry is quite stupid and naive. Yet some people believe he's PERFECT for Hermoine because they are SO alike.

Originally posted by shaber
I wonder what edition Ush has? In most copies Harry rules out James because he knows he was pureblooded.

What a shame some people don't read properly any more. Look at the book again, as I mentioned before you posted, and Lana after.

The whole point is that despite his father being pureblooded, Harry hopes it IS his father and does not rule him out until Lupin tells him to check the age of the book. Harry sees it was published 50 years ago and finally rules his father out.

But that was pretty dumb- not only because logic dictates that you don't have to be using it in the year of publication- after all, Harry wasn't...

... but also practically so, because it turns out to be Snape's book who was there at the same time as James, so evidently that was a dumb reason foe a discard!

yeah Harry isn't that bright, but my main problem with him is his lack of power. Think about it, he is supposed to defeat Voldemort and the last horcrux is in Voldie's body, so that means he has to destroy Voldie's body. Now even if all he has to do is touch Voldie (LV from now on) he still has a major problem, the deatheaters. He will have to fight his way through them, he couldn't take Snape or Bellatrix by himself, how does he hope to take Snape, Bella, Lucius etc. He simply does not know enough magic to do anything, which brings up another interesting problem, when Dumbledore destroyed a horcrux, it still destroyed his hand, so Harry has to be able to destroy a horcrux, yet still come out alive, something that he clearly cannot do in his present state, he does not know enough destructive spells or shields. I will be quite interested in how JK lets him beat LV, because right now, he doesn't stand a chance.

Oh, also we know that he cannot simply touch LV and LV will die, he tried it in the Sorcerer's Stone and it didn't work, same in Goblet of Fire so it won't be Lily's protection that does it.

Oh, one more point, Ush is right, Harry did still think the HBP was his dad, in blatent denial of his dad being pureblood, he only listened when he talked to Remus

Originally posted by Lana
You know, I'm quite glad to see that I'm not the only person who felt that Harry could be quite clueless, and downright dumb, at times. If he could just figure everything out there wouldnt be much story

Gosh yes, Sherlock Holmes books only last two pages, don't they?

Maybe it has something to do with living with the Dursley's and lacking that common sense...however Ron doesn't have it either and Hermoine is there.

I think that is why Rowling makes BOTH of them just not get things sometimes...so that Hermoine's character comes into play....

He's got to have flaws anyways...