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I can understand that he is an annoying character, and a weak character, but I believe that his actions are directly related to how his "friends" treated him in school. If James and Sirius had accepted him as an equal and respected him, he would have developed into a stronger more confident character, and would have resisted Voldemort therefor James and Lily would never have died. Sirius accuses Peter of killing James because he is to ashamed to admit that it is his actions that led to his best friend death. Bullied and humiliated throughout his life, Wormtail is one of the most victimized and sympathetic characters in the series.

anyone agree with me?

Not That I'm Supposed To Defend Anything, But The Book Says He Was A Loser, So Therefore, I Would Have Done The Same As James.

I don't know. If someone was a loser I don't think I would try to put them down even more. Maybe if James befriended him he would have stoppped being such loser.

are you people out of your freakin minds wormtail is bad guy, bad bad bad, he's a freak and no one should be feeling sorry for him, he had the opportunity to build himself up when he was in hogwarts, he was just too much of a greasy prat

wormtail i have no respect for. i think he would still have sided with Voldemort

I think you may be taking his role in the series a little literally. If there is anything that J.K. Rowling is trying to teach us it is that life is far to complicated to simply judge person and label them. No one is truly evil. Even Voldermort was innocent when he was born. But through the situation he was born into he developed into the personification of evil. This isn't even arguable. Why else would J.K. have spent some much time depicting the back story of Tom Riddle's family. It's so we understand why he ended up the way he is. No one is born bad. Everyone is simply a product of the situation in which they live in. This is the dominant theme in modern literature and film. Two films that are very recent dealing with this are Paradise now and Munich. Also, the Lord of the rings strongly evokes sympathy for a very similar, treacherous character in gollum. Harry Potter is simply the most mainstream discussion of how people become evil. This is what HP is about. I don't see how you could have missed what J.K. Rowling is saying when she casts wormtail in such a pathetic tormented way.

It's true that:

No one is truly evil. Even Voldermort was innocent when he was born.
No one is born bad. Everyone is simply a product of the situation in which they live in.

^^ I agree with you there...


But IMHO:
Circumstances often dictate what happens to our lives... BUT it is our actions that determine who we really are...

"Wormtail betrayed his friends..."

^^ and what was his reason? "The dark lord was too strong... so powerful..." not the exact words but... hey...

Betrayal is the worst thing anybody could do to a friend...



Besides... James, Sirius and Remus showed him enough decency and accepted him to their group despite being the loser that he was...
so don't blame Wormtail's actions on the trio...
nobody said it was their responsibility to boost PEter's morale... but they did accept him... did they not?

You make some excellent points. I agree that it is not their responsibility to boost his morale. I apologize if I gave the impression that I was blaming James and Sirius for how Peter turned out. That was not my intent. At fifteen years old, they are far too young to be held responsible for how he ended up. they could not have possibly understood the consequences of their relationship. That said, I still believe that the dynamics of their friendship probably contributed to his future parisitic way of life. They probably thought they were doing him a service by taking him under their wings, though in fact it did little good for him down the road.

Whether or not we blamehis friends, I think we can agree at least that he is a pathetic and sympathizable character. It will be interesting to see how his role in the series will play out in the climax.

^^ Yup!yes I thought hard about that too...


kickingYeah...he is sad... but there is hope for him yet... or so I believe
I think he's gonna play a HEROIC part near the end...
"Harry saved Wormtail's life" whether he liked it or not... he is indebted to Harry...

so Peter will probably do the life-saving thing for Harry...

^^ Sure hope that will happensmile1

Ditto

I have a great deal of respect for Wormtail as a wizard; he outsmarted Sirius, didn't he? That has to count for something, and in my book, it accounts for a big something. I think there's something more to what people think of Pettigrew; as if he's more powerful than what they know about.