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
Road to Division Semi-Finals (3)The Sorting Hat defeats (14)Antonin Dolohov 16-2 (3)The Sorting Hat defeats (11)Alice Longbottom 17-8
Hmm...sadly on a cell phone today, so no essay from me. Unfortunate, because this is an excellent match.
These are two characters who were made for book 1, when it was a children's novel: the Friendly Giant with the Pink Umbrella, and the Singing Hat that decides your destiny. Neither character really transitions well to the later books, when the series is more teen fiction, not children's literature.
Hagrid makes a real try of it, and has some success (Grawp is is a great way to keep Hagrid politically relevant while staying totally in-character.) But...also has a lot of misses, with Hagrid scenes being usually some of the weakest in the later books.
The Sorting Hat, on the other hand, exits stage left. Up to and including being forgotten by the author at one point. (Dumbledore, when speculating on whether Voldemort could have gotten an item of Gryffindor's claims that the sword was the only known relic of Gryffinor...forgetting the hat. Woulda been cool if the hat was a horcrux, especially with how much it wanted to put Harry in Slytherin).
So...my choices are continues to have scenes but they fall behind the quality level I expect in the later books...or exits stage left when he's no longer relevant. Hmm...I think I'm actually leaning towards exits quietly instead of trying to stick around, and demonstrating why he shouldn't.
Sorting Hat
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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
I hate voting for an animate object over a living, breathing character but I have no choice here. Hagrid is like Ron in that he starts off okay but is revealed to be a flawed individual the more he takes center stage (though thankfully these stages are much less abundant than with Ronald). I'll be straight here: I just do not like Hagrid because he's two overused character archetypes in one (gentle giant and lovable oaf). At least the Sorting Hat, in practice, feels like a more unique character.
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MC had a good point that both were designed for a children's series and were less relevant later on. Hagrid obviously has a lot more scenes throughout the books... he's not a bad character, but he's pretty easy to summarize - loyal to Dumbledore, loyal to Harry, likes dangerous creatures, and is an oaf. On the other hand, the Sorting Hat had minimal screen time, but always made the most when it did appear. His songs were great (sadly, you could tell that Rowling didn't really want to write them very much, since she kept coming up with ways to make Harry miss the beginning of term feast - I think we only actually get to hear it sing twice? But the hat is intriguing, I like it when Harry (or was it someone else?) wonders if the hat just spends all year coming up with its next song. And then there are other questions like how did it get him the Sword of Gryffindor in the Chamber of Secrets? I like that there's more to the hat than meets the eye.
-- I made a living on time trial blowing myself off to cross the finish line at ludicrous speed. -transience
Also, the sorting hat indirectly provided one of the best lines in the entire series: "If only the hat had mentioned a house for people who felt a bit queasy, that would have been the one for him."
-- I made a living on time trial blowing myself off to cross the finish line at ludicrous speed. -transience
I really like Hagrid as a character. While in the first two books he's more of an oaf, his characters comes out a bit more in the later books.
He's a great Care of Magical Creatures Professor -- sometimes his lessons don't go so well. But with the Hippogriff, if Malfoy had listened... Care of Magical Creatures would've been a much better class that year. Him bringing young unicorns to class was a great moment that I don't think Grubbly-Plank thought of. His Nifflers lesson was really good. And he showed the class Thestrals long before they noramlly would. He definitely wanted Students to be interested in his class (though in year 3, he had to teach them dull stuff because of Malfoy)
He takes down a bunch of Aurors without magic. And he gave Dudley a pig tail.
And he has more backstory than some of the other professors.
I really like Hagrid as a character. While in the first two books he's more of an oaf, his characters comes out a bit more in the later books.
He's a great Care of Magical Creatures Professor -- sometimes his lessons don't go so well. But with the Hippogriff, if Malfoy had listened... Care of Magical Creatures would've been a much better class that year. Him bringing young unicorns to class was a great moment that I don't think Grubbly-Plank thought of. His Nifflers lesson was really good. And he showed the class Thestrals long before they noramlly would. He definitely wanted Students to be interested in his class (though in year 3, he had to teach them dull stuff because of Malfoy)
He takes down a bunch of Aurors without magic. And he gave Dudley a pig tail.
And he has more backstory than some of the other professors.
And he's against a HAT.
Wait, how is he a good teacher? Blast-Ended Skrewts are what we see him spend most of his time on when he's not under pressure. Instead of the thousands of creatures he could talk about for hours, he shows a creature he doesn't know how to take care of at all. Great lesson plan. When he is under pressure he completely cracks: not a good thing for a teacher as they tend to be under pressure a lot. He wouldn't have done unicorns if Grubby-Plank hadn't started the subject. Threstals would have been a good lesson except...who the HELL knows Hermione and doesn't take her advice when entering an unknown situation.
Don't get me wrong: he knows the subject, but knowing and teaching are different things. He reminds me of my friend who gave an hour-long lecture about aquatic flatworms to High School students. He was excited about the subject matter, but they weren't.
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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
Again, his Niffler lesson was really good. And his Hippogriff lesson was good too. And how do you know he'd not have taught Unicorns if Grubbly-Plank hadn't started them? The important part is he does a better job of it than her. She didn't even think to get young Unicorns so that the boys would be able to approach them.
And why should a teacher let a student plan their lessons for them?
Not to mention Hagrid improves as a teacher as time goes on. You can't expect him (who never got through proper schooling) to jump into teaching and be great at it.
And under pressure he did a good job with the Thestrals. That was with Umbridge impeding the lesson the best that she could.
Hogwarts has it's share of horrible teachers (Lockhart, Quirrell, Umbridge, Trelawney, Binns just to name a few). I wouldn't put Hagrid among them.
I would put Hagrid below Binns, but above the other four, FWIW. Those four are deliberately bad, or don't know the subject at all, and sure: that's not the case with Hagrid.
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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
It's been a long time since I've read Book 1. What was so bad about Quirrell other than the stutter which would make it increasingly difficult to learn defensive spells? I mean that's bad, but not compare this guy to sadistic Umbridge or talentless Lockhart bad.
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GenesisSaga posted... It's been a long time since I've read Book 1. What was so bad about Quirrell other than the stutter which would make it increasingly difficult to learn defensive spells? I mean that's bad, but not compare this guy to sadistic Umbridge or talentless Lockhart bad.
He's better than those two, but it also pretty much gets said that they don't learn anything in his classes, and he's described as terrified of his subject, and terrified of his own students.
Oh, on the subject of "But Hagrid has no teaching experience" know who else doesn't?
Harry Potter: great teacher Firenze: decent teacher Lupin: great teacher (in fact, Harry learns about more magical creatures from Lupin's one year than from Hagrid's three). Barty Crouch Jr: great teacher Amycus Carrow: ethics aside, managed to teach previously useless Crabbe and Goyle to cast Avada Kedavra. Wilhelmina Grubby-Plank: I'm not aware of her having prior experience.
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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
Harry Potter Yeah, he's a great teacher. But he's got plenty of examples. And he's been through more school than Hagrid. Harry is arguably one of the best DADA teachers during his time there. And I think he really benefits from NOT having to teach Draco Malfoy.
Firenze: I disagree. He's only marginally better than Trelawney on the fact that he actually knows stuff. Divinations is such a silly subject anyway so it's hard to tell. But does anyone really learn anything from him? Not to mention a lot of Trelawney's predictions actually come true.
Lupin He may actually have experience. He may have done some private tutoring (thus explaining his tattered briefcase saying Professor R.J. Lupin".
Barty Crouch Jr: He also achieved OWLS in every subject. Something even Hermione didn't do. So I'd say he's in general very smart.
Amycus Carrow: Disagree. Sure, he teaches Crabbe and Goyle something. But they did manage to get through most of their classes before then. And it's not like Crabbe can actually CONTROL his fiendfyre. If he could, then I'd be impressed.
Wilhelmina Grubby-Plank: She's a substitute. She probably has lots of experience, given that the previous Care for Magical Creatures Professor was injured enough to retire.
Astronomy: the OWL where he spends most of it distracted?
HoM: the OWL where he literally falls asleep during the exam, and then leaves before time was up?
Divination: I already agreed Hagrid's a better teacher than Trelawney. Trelawney's so awful Hermione drops the class.
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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
He fell asleep during the HoM exam. But Ron didn't, and Ron didn't pass it either. I'd say he and Ron are about the same in most subjects outside of DADA.
Binns was clearly a pretty awful teacher too - basically every time he's mentioned, it's to say how boring his lectures are and how everyone falls asleep in his class. And Trelawney is awful as well.
-- I made a living on time trial blowing myself off to cross the finish line at ludicrous speed. -transience