Rules: There may be spoilers for all seven books and 8 movies Each match will last for exactly 24 hours. Any votes after that point will not count. Discussion is encouraged but not required. Make sure all of your votes are obvious. I should know who you are voting for, basically don't bury your vote in the middle of a paragraph. No alt-voting. Ties will be replayed the next day with the rest of the matches. No vote-saves or rallying for specific characters. Telling people to vote is encouraged but don't tell them how to vote! Don't complain about the seeds, they were the result of a save-my. Because matches can overlap, results will be in this topic. http://www.gamefaqs.com/boards/8-gamefaqs-contests/61327435
I don't particularly like Slughorn for reasons I've already stated and I don't particularly dislike Hedwig, but I kind of feel like this is the only reasonable vote.
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Arcanine: The best pokemon ever. Dewott: The cutest pokemon ever.
Oooh. Oooh. Now this is a match. Screen time is pretty close. Both characters that don't have anything particularly standout in their characterization. I could go either way here.
Voldemort gets a lot of his characterization from flashbacks. That's the only place where we get to openly see his desires, rather than guess through a mask. And he's...basically a psychopath--has no particular regard for other human beings, but is able to play the societal game...if it suits him.
There's something that really bugs me about Tom, though. Privately he doesn't really give a damn about the whole discrimination thing. He uses anti-muggle propaganda to recruit a bunch of hardcore racists to his cause, and that's cool and all. But why, once he's basically in power, does he keep wasting his time on this stuff. Like...he's at victory's doorstep, standing victorious over the people who opposed him, and he uses this opportunity to give a speech about...purifying the Muggle-borns? Like...he's already won--this doesn't seem in-character, why doesn't he just spend his speech gloating? It would be different if he were like Hitler, and harboured a deep personal resentment against a race...but he doesn't. (And somehow I suspect even Hitler's triumph speeches when he won a huge strategic battle weren't like "Yay! Now we can kill more Jews!")
Cissy is a pretty interesting half-way character. She's not a death eater, although obviously most of her family is and she agrees with many of their principles. She's openly nasty to "mudbloods". She even basically makes a between-the-lines death threat on Harry at one point. But at the same time, she finds the behavior of, particularly her sister Bella, to be shocking and repulsive at times. And she's very cognizant of the human cost of war--there are obvious parallels between her and Molly Weasly. She's also proud--while she is basically a civilian compared to Bella who is like a military general, she has no hesitation with talking back to Bella, verbally standing up for her family members that Bella smears. And ultimately, she literally saves Harry's life and betrays Voldemort (and by extension granting more rights to muggle-borns) because that was the safest path to saving her son.
Actually, you know what? Narcissa's motivations and actions line up in a pretty dramatic and awesome conclusion where she literally lies to the dark lord, and turns her back on her political ideology. Voldemort's motivations and actions...kinda disappoint me with how he just spouts rhetoric he doesn't even believe in. I think I've gotta go with Cissy here.
(10)Horace Slughorn (2)Hedwig
Yeah, not much to say about this one.
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Cats land on their feet. Toast lands peanut butter side down. A cat with toast strapped to its back will hover above the ground in a state of quantum indecision
Narcissa doesn't play a major role, although I like what she does in book 7. Voldemort on the other hand is kind of a generic evil guy, until book 6 where we get to see some of his background in the Pensieve (although we also see a little bit of it in book 2). The most interesting parts of his character are definitely the parallels with Harry.
(10)Horace Slughorn (2)Hedwig
Kind of a tough match, but I just like Hedwig. Slughorn is interesting though.
-- I made a living on time trial blowing myself off to cross the finish line at ludicrous speed. -transience
From: metroid composite | #009 (spoilers) There's something that really bugs me about Tom, though. Privately he doesn't really give a damn about the whole discrimination thing.
Did I miss something? I don't remember that being established. I thought he hated Muggles because of his muggle father - and of course, there was more than a little bit of self-hatred in there (mirroring the stories of Hitler having Jewish ancestry, although it seems like the accuracy of that one is questionable)
-- I made a living on time trial blowing myself off to cross the finish line at ludicrous speed. -transience
Kaxon posted... From: metroid composite | #009 (spoilers) There's something that really bugs me about Tom, though. Privately he doesn't really give a damn about the whole discrimination thing. Did I miss something? I don't remember that being established. I thought he hated Muggles because of his muggle father - and of course, there was more than a little bit of self-hatred in there (mirroring the stories of Hitler having Jewish ancestry, although it seems like the accuracy of that one is questionable)
Let's see...
Book 2, diary Riddle literally says that he doesn't care about Muggle-borns, and literally the only thing he cares about is Harry.
I'm pretty sure Dumbledore at some point explicitly says something along the lines of "he was angry at Muggles when he was younger, but he kind-of lost interest, and only keeps it up to gain political points with his rabid followers".
Look at every book 6 memory--when does Tom ever go on a Muggle hate-rant? He bullies fellow orphans, but he bullies people at Hogwarts, too. He doesn't like the name Tom, but that's because he thinks he's such a unique snowflake that he is greater than a common name. And whenever we catch up with him, he's obsessing over horcruxes and founder items, never Muggles.
Look at all of Harry's insights into his mind in Book 7. It's wandlore, and more wandlore, and torturing people who let Harry get away, and Horcrux panic, and taking pleasure in letting Lucius suffer at the probable loss of his son, and Snape. It's never "Man, I just killed some Muggles. Soooo satisfying." In fact, does he even break the international statute of secrecy? It's not like he does the Grindlewald plan of Wizards coming out in the open, and Muggles being slaves. If Muggles are mistreated under Voldemort's rule, it's more because he lets his snatchers do whatever they want to Muggles and doesn't really give a damn. I mean, no: he's no humanitarian Muggle lover, but he really doesn't care--he's overseas searching for Gregorovich, not at home setting up Muggle concentration camps.
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Cats land on their feet. Toast lands peanut butter side down. A cat with toast strapped to its back will hover above the ground in a state of quantum indecision
(6)Narcissa Malfoy I found MC's arguments very persuasive. Voldemort is probably going to win... and I"m ok with that. Narcissa was kinda a cool character though.
(10)Horace Slughorn
Not voting for an owl.
-- Warning_Crazy Winner of Board 8 Big Brother! i may be running for senatorship (thanks nio) but i'm no SUPERNICEDOG
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When you've got a pretty-boy monkey on your back constantly calling you a puppet, you hardly want to seem like you're happy to be used. - DSakaCharanJ
(3)Lord Voldemort I like Narcissa as a character somewhat. She's a bit different from the other death eater families. But when it comes down to it, she's up against the Main Antagonist of the series. Voldemort is flawed -- and in all the right ways.
(10)Horace Slughorn Hedwig is probably the best pet in the series, but he's still a pet. Slughorn is a pretty good character -- he shows the other side of ambition. And like I said last time I voted for him -- he duels with Lord Voldemort. And that makes him pretty awesome in my book.
Users Pokewars, Silver_Ermine, and Vishje teamed up and voted Hedwig on the grounds that "Owls are cool". Vishje might actually like her character (what little there is of it anyway), but that was pretty much the only voiced reason for the other two voting for her. Since W_C kept the required save number so low, there was pretty much nothing the rest of us could do about it as Hedwig advanced round after round until she was finally stopped just short of the top ten. Thank goodness imo. An animal character with a 1-seed would've just been ridonkulous. Interesting to note, Hedwig outperformed Bellatrix in the Save My.
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Arcanine: The best pokemon ever. Dewott: The cutest pokemon ever.
Hey don't blame me I didn't vote for her one time. Its not like I can just ban people if they have crappy votes, otherwise whipper would have been banned a long time ago.
-- Warning_Crazy Winner of Board 8 Big Brother! i may be running for senatorship (thanks nio) but i'm no SUPERNICEDOG