Voldemort wanted to be the greatest wizard ever- and therefore was both the most masculine, driven, and oops- evil-character.

Dumbledore was the second most powerful wizard. Therefore to still be a good guy and not masculine, driven, and evil, he had to be gay.

Stories with a predestiny are believable if the predestiny is rooted in character traits, i.e. aggressive, boisterous, or physically fit. Like, “On day one of my life, I knew i would be in for big things: i screamed and screamed and screamed, damn the nurses, my mom, and my dad. I was going places.” Not rooted, as you point out, in a submissive desire. “i just want some friends and a cozy house. Thats all.”

http://thelastpsychiatrist.com/2012/04/whats_wrong_with_the_hunger_ga_1.html

“Though this is an example of the feminist agency problem, you should note carefully that the “society” that forces this false choice on women is actually other women, not men, and it starts with the overly invested way mothers reproach their daughters to “dress like a lady.” Certainly the original energy for this madness comes from men, from “the patriarchy”, but if every man was executed tonight nothing would change tomorrow. It’s on autopilot. Case in point: this story of a girl robbed of agency was written by a woman.”

It distresses rational people greatly when evidence accumulates that the default female decision model is deference. So greatly that they will substitute the word autopilot for genetics. Katniss’s actions fall sway to the cycle of blusterous confrontation followed by accommodation that most women act out. Her fashion choices, social openness, motivation to kill, willingness to become a symbol for the rebellion, and even her feelings for Peeta. All met with initial reluctance and eventual acceptance. Such inconsistency is construed as weakness by most, but allows for room to maneuver when absconding from personal responsibility. Conversely, male hereoes stand firm and want to see things through to the (bloody) end.

The Last Psychologist fails to realize that female agency is impossible in a story like The Hunger Games because women are thoroughly outstripped by men in all facets of combat. It’s one thing if we’re talking about preternatural abilities or alien species, but when you’re stacking up a gender that is 40% deficient in muscle mass, slower due a deformed gait (child bearing hips), mammary sacks that get in the way of handling weapons and maneuvering in the prone, inferior visuospatial abilities and gross coordination, smaller adrenal glands to max out performance at crucial junctures, and lacks the psychological profile for the hard kill; the world the story crafts fails to pass the subconscious bullshit test and slips into the realm of farce. Therefore she HAD to be deus ex’d from one combat scenario to another to prevent this from happening. The “gamemakers” even construct the scenario with terrain, material, and temporal randomizers allowing for dumb luck to squeeze out pure skill. While the second novel is mainly a rehash, the last novel drops any pretense of insulting those of us >12 years old and goes full Endor by having kids with pointy sticks and arrows going toe-to-toe with a force capable of aerial bombardment and genetic engineering. Had Collins any sense for combat, she would have had the Tributes genetically engineered (if there are wasps and dogs, why not the kids?) to specialized combat roles that represent their home district, much like the Romans did with Gladiators. This would have equipped Katniss with the abilities to deal with her problems, and possibly acquire new skills that lead to her growth as a person, instead of bouncing from one fortuitous happening to another.

Speaking of Ewoks, no discussion of feminized heroes is complete without Luke Skywalker. Went from the earnest kid next door that didn’t take shit from Solo or the Princess to having his father metaphorically castrate him, then surrendering to him at a pivotal point that greatly reduced his allies chance for success and insured a pointless death via an S&M electrocution while his perverted old man tormentor orgasms in the background.

Yeah, he goes to “save” everyone. He tells his friends where the last bit of Voldy’s soul is so they can kill him once and for all.

Harry coming back to life was a choice given to him, but the whole thing was annoying.

Vold is an evil genius that cut his soul off the maximum number of times he could, but he still accidentally leaves a bit of himself with harry and despite their connection, doesn’t figure out what that means.

As for Skywalker, Lucas originally had him getting the girl, but the female audience like Han so much more that Lucas adapted (and I think if you look at his original writings, compared to what ended up on screen (with the obvious decay as his power and prestige escalated because he really isn’t that gifted) his major gift was adaptability and the ability to take other people’s suggestions and modify his story.

The less he felt he needed to do that, the shittier his movies became.

Which brings me back to Harry Potter and his companions.

I have a twelve year old niece that loved the books and the movies, but when I have discussed the books with her, she has always been confused about Hermione and Ron getting together.

It didn’t make sense to her. It wasn’t realistic on an intuitive level.

The author wanted the main characters to all be part of one happy Weasley family.

But compare the two choice Hermione has before her:

Harry: Famous, rich, popular, people follow him.

Ron: Obscure, poor, unpopular, follower.

Even a twelve year old girl recognizes that Hermione wouldn’t be in love with Ron.

This is one of the reasons, despite their huge popularity and the obvious wealth J.K. has accumulated, I don’t think these stories or movies will be remembered over time.

Not that wikipedia is the greatest source for everything, these sentences are apt.

After victory had been finalized in 1783, Washington resigned rather than seize power, proving his opposition to dictatorship and his commitment to American republicanism. He retired from the presidency in 1797 and returned to his home, Mount Vernon, and his domestic life where he managed a variety of enterprises.

At the moment of victory, he got the hell out of Dodge as quickly as he could and back home. He was forced to come out of retirement to make sure the fledgling government didn’t collapse, but then, he once again retired as quickly as he was able to, echoing the stories of Cincinnatus.

I just don’t believe turning down power like that makes a man any less.

Yohami, I am quite sure George Washington was far more manly than Harry Potter has any chance of being. I was merely stating that the desire to head back home and live a quiet life seems to be pretty common among veterans, especially when they witness and participate in so much death and destruction.

As far as getting into trouble on purpose, that’s not the archetype Harry Potter represents. He’s more in the mold of the reluctant hero, like Bilbo Baggins, Han Solo, or Rick Blaine. Just because you don’t want to save the world doesn’t mean you’re a squishy mangina.

P.S. Harry Potter is definitely no Han Solo either.

Thanks for the Last Psychiatrist link and your own additions.

Harry Potter isn’t a good example of anything. He is the product of a divorced single-mom’s feverish imagination, conceived poorly, and written inexpertly. The epic scope of that story allows us to read all kinds of metaphors into it, like any single portion of a trash heap might conjure thoughts about the potential “meaning” behind its journey to the landfill.

I didn’t read any of the books. You are correct that they were written by girls for girls. But of the films, The Hunger Games is clearly the best. The hero’s femininity is a non-factor. The trilogy is a classic bildungsroman with sexes reversed. If you can look past that bit of politically correct revision, Katniss is essentially a young man and “Peeta” is a chick. Beyond that it is a classic tale classically told, first seen in the legend of Theseus and the Minotaur.

You are getting a little too subtle with your observations about agency. Katniss is the least passive agent of this popular sub-genre’s trinity of heroes. What makes her (him) manly is her choice not to play by the rules of the game. Her (his) refusal to kill is an audacious rejection of her masters’ command. Her in-arena enemies are slaves to the dictates of the game. And Katniss challenges and eventually vanquishes the gamemasters’ authority through that disobedience.

Many more observations, but you and the Last Psychiatrist are clearly on the right track, seeing through the postmodern-feminist authorial intent to the ancient archetypes even they cannot help but perpetuate.

Matt

Interesting, hadn’t thought of any of these series since having the red pill

Like a commenter mentioned earlier, the HP series started sucking and going down hill after book four. Before that Harry acted fairly believably, had goals, dreams, and strives to meet them. After that he becomes much more a victim of fate and most of his reasons are of a victim mentality. Plus the fact that he just behaves like a girl going through puberty thinks a boy going through puberty acts instead of how a boy going through puberty actually acts.

I haven’t seen the movie, but what I loved about the Hunger Games books is that Katniss serves it cold. She’s huge on doing whatever it takes to stay alive, sacrificing Peeta if need be to protect herself and her family. She follows the rules only when she has to because she sees she couldn’t survive breaking them – all the other times she acts in her own self interest.

She definitely acts like a man. I honestly never felt like she held any attraction as a woman and thought those parts of the books where she had to garner public favor through femininity were hilarious with how awful she was at it and unbelievable that she was able to do it.

As for Star Wars – originally the story was written so that Han Solo was going to die in the second film. It was a much darker story. Then George saw how much people loved the character, worked up deals with selling action figures, and changed the scripts so that he could make money. I don’t remember if the people that helped him write the original script walked away from the other films or were fired, but they were definitely out of the picture. Either way, that was the first of the still continuing decisions Lucas makes in order to milk everything he can for profit instead of creating a nice dark story that I personally would much rather have seen.

I did read them. I’m a fairly fast reader and its also how I deal with my bouts of insomnia to help me sleep. TV keeps me awake unless its a movie or series I’ve seen multiple times already. Each of the books is a few hours of reading, so either a couple nights or an afternoon and I’d be done with it.

Agh, fuck my blog theme. Here’s the comment again.

Hey Gabe, welcome here.

“It’s sort of surreal to see all these big dicked, Nietzchean supermen analyzing Harry Potter and The Hunger Games.”

Nice putdown. So what color of bra are you wearing?

“Voldemort feared Dumbledore.”

Yep. Vodemort is a coward, you need that to become evil.

“In the universe described by Ms. Rowling, there was a power that was greater than either of them, and Voldemort opposed it, which is why he did not achieve his goals, big dick or not.”

I didnt read the books, I dont remember Voldemort opposing to something greater, do you mean God? Death? Magic? Truth? is God present on that universe?

“You can say this is stupid and unrealistic, but we’re talking about children’s fiction here.”

What is stupid and unrealistic? that Voldemort feared Dumbledore? that he opposed something greater? please elaborate. And how does that relate to it being a children’s fiction?

The thing I hinted as unrealistic is the relationship between Harry’s manliness and his outcome and influence, which could be explained by switching his gender, and its probably due to the author being a female. Most male authors cant get female characters right and viceversa.

“You guys sound like the Athenians railing about Socrates corrupting the youth.”

Another putdown! your panties must be wet now. Still, please explain the relationship between talking about Harry Potter and Socrates and the youth.

“I know chivalry and honor cannot be invoked unironically now, but these were once considered components of manliness.”

Agreed. Chilvalry and honor are masculine as fuck.

http://yohami.com/blog/2011/12/03/living-by-a-code-is-masculine-as-fuck/
http://yohami.com/blog/2010/12/16/i-think-chivalry-is-fine-as-an-alpha-trait/

Harry Potter exhibits neither.

“Someone mentioned George Washington walking away from public life when he could have become a king, and even though you don’t exactly know why, you see him as an admirable man.”

I dont know anything about Washington and I dont see him as an admirable man, but nice guess.

“And then your hamster starts spinning. (Yes, you have one too.[...]”

Women have hamsters, men have goats.

“[...] I’m sorry.)”

Dont be.

I don’t see your latest comment. What Nietzsche and his followers can’t accept is that evil can win in this world, because it doesn’t play by the rules. It isn’t bound by honor. So he says good isn’t really good, because it is (can be) weak. Voldemort got messed up pretty good by the power of love when he tried to kill Harry as a baby. Yet his horcruxes saved him from oblivion. You’re a biological realist, right? Ms. Rowling seems to be as well, in some sense, because she implies that magic isn’t just practice, effort, and knowledge accumulation. Some wizards and witches are born with more power than others. She could have gone another way with the story and had Harry accumulate more and more power until he could go toe to toe with Voldemort, but she wanted to convey that achieving that level of power would cost Harry something of his humanity, literally a piece of his soul. And Harry believed that this was worse than death.

Also, I don’t remember the end very clearly, but I don’t think it’s accurate to say he surrendered at the end. He met a vastly more powerful opponent on the field of battle, right? You fault him for giving up a weapon that could have made it more even, and I can’t remember why he does that. But I’m skeptical that the real reason is that he is a girl.

The story you are looking for is Rockie. Nothing wrong with that, it’s just a different story, and if you ask me, even more far fetched.

Regarding my tone and put downs, I’m really not trying to be a jerk, but I know I can be because my wife tells me all the time. I will try to be less combative.

There’s nothing wrong with walking away from power. Washington achieved his goal (I think?). Im not versed on American history. But it’s not like he surrendered to the french and then walked away. I hope the guy had a happy ending.

“unaware of hte fact that Christ was”

unaware of THE fact. Damn it all, I hate these sluggish keys.

“Conversely, male hereoes stand firm and want to see things through to the (bloody) end”

Soldiers cna and have to react to and adjust to their environments all the time. Katniss stood firm in her goal, to protect her family and herself.

Glad you agree that Ron is manly.

Ron is manly, just not a strong man

“But in your response to Ted, it was considered masculine to just go with the flow.”

No, masculine is to be the flow.

“No, masculine is to be the flow”

The world already has a flow, and it’s like a sewer line. True manhood, and womanhood for that matter, in my faith, is to defy the flow. There’s always been another, carved by the greatest Man; that’s what we follow.

“If she had killed all these horrible people in the capitol I would have liked her. Or if she had a stand and decided NOT to kill anyone, aka gandhi. Or if she killed the evil ones and saved the innocent, or if she killed the innocents and became evil… anything”

If it makes you feel better Yohami, I have my own story. You see, I can be a real “mother” when I want to. You mess with people’s boundaries, you piss me off; you mess with children, you’ve made a mortal enemy of me. My vision of MY interactions in the THG story involves me taking a double-barreled machine gun, going into the capital, and creating a massacre of every single person who treated those kids like they were anything less than human, something that would make the events at Columbine look like a paintball game at a picnic. Then, I’d take all the children I could save to a safer place. I guess I have a bigger tool than Katniss *shrugs*

LOL Thanks!