Harry- not the sharpest tool in the shed...

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?

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.

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?