sorry in advance for the essay! i'm always happy to give an introduction to minor character hell :)
the basis of my fascination is this: zacharias is treated pretty much as a mouthpiece for "generic not-a-bad-guy character who disagrees with harry" which would be fine, given he's such a minor character, except that (a) we already have seamus and his disagreement carries a lot more narrative weight, and (b) all of zacharias' disagreements end in him getting humiliated either verbally or physically. i could pretty much list them all but i think the most pertinent example is in the sixth book, when he's doing the whole highly biased quidditch commentary shtick (pretty much lee jordan but not in gryffindor) and it's presented as a perfectly reasonable course of action for ginny to fly into the commentator's stand after the match and knock him down into a pile of rubble. excuse me?! that's so incredibly out of line; he could've been seriously injured. i hate how we're meant to laugh at this. it's not nice! it's bullying!
this got me looking more at zacharias' motivations. he's a chaser on the hufflepuff quidditch team. harry notes this in OotP, which means that zacharias must have been on the team at least since PoA, since there was no quidditch in GoF. which means that zacharias 100% knew cedric well, and perhaps even saw him as a mentor figure, being an older player on the team? hermione points out to harry that nobody has anything other than harry's word for what happened to cedric. it seems to me that someone who knew cedric personally has more reason than most to be questioning harry. the fact that zacharias was on the hufflepuff quidditch team in PoA also means that he was playing in the quidditch match where the dementors came onto the pitch. it's not like he's unfamiliar with dark magic! when you put all of this together, everything seems pretty clear-cut: his motivations for joining the DA, asking all those questions, and continuing to hold a grudge against harry.
sadly, i don't think jkr ever thought this deeply about his character. i think she just wanted someone to question harry and get put off in increasingly violent ways as a bit of comic relief. we're supposed to think it's funny because the good guys are doing it! ugh. i'm even more on zacharias' side because of this.
(side note: i'm by no means a "hater" of any characters in hp, least of all harry & co... i just think a little perspective is in order!)
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timeasmymeasure
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Date: 2017-11-29 11:57 pm (UTC)the basis of my fascination is this: zacharias is treated pretty much as a mouthpiece for "generic not-a-bad-guy character who disagrees with harry" which would be fine, given he's such a minor character, except that (a) we already have seamus and his disagreement carries a lot more narrative weight, and (b) all of zacharias' disagreements end in him getting humiliated either verbally or physically. i could pretty much list them all but i think the most pertinent example is in the sixth book, when he's doing the whole highly biased quidditch commentary shtick (pretty much lee jordan but not in gryffindor) and it's presented as a perfectly reasonable course of action for ginny to fly into the commentator's stand after the match and knock him down into a pile of rubble. excuse me?! that's so incredibly out of line; he could've been seriously injured. i hate how we're meant to laugh at this. it's not nice! it's bullying!
this got me looking more at zacharias' motivations. he's a chaser on the hufflepuff quidditch team. harry notes this in OotP, which means that zacharias must have been on the team at least since PoA, since there was no quidditch in GoF. which means that zacharias 100% knew cedric well, and perhaps even saw him as a mentor figure, being an older player on the team? hermione points out to harry that nobody has anything other than harry's word for what happened to cedric. it seems to me that someone who knew cedric personally has more reason than most to be questioning harry. the fact that zacharias was on the hufflepuff quidditch team in PoA also means that he was playing in the quidditch match where the dementors came onto the pitch. it's not like he's unfamiliar with dark magic! when you put all of this together, everything seems pretty clear-cut: his motivations for joining the DA, asking all those questions, and continuing to hold a grudge against harry.
sadly, i don't think jkr ever thought this deeply about his character. i think she just wanted someone to question harry and get put off in increasingly violent ways as a bit of comic relief. we're supposed to think it's funny because the good guys are doing it! ugh. i'm even more on zacharias' side because of this.
(side note: i'm by no means a "hater" of any characters in hp, least of all harry & co... i just think a little perspective is in order!)