Harry Potter Vs. Twilight Article: Is Harry Potter one of the worst heroic lead characters?

Is Harry Potter one of the worst heroic lead characters?

posted by cunha27

Harry James Potter

This is not my opinion. It's an excerpt from an article titled link. I have however come across a few people who have voiced the same thing. Just curious to know people's thought on this.

Kenny Herzog

I’ve read all of J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter books—devoured them, really, because whatever her flaws, the lady does a terrific job at building compulsive narratives and enjoyable worlds. But the more time I spend away from the series, the more its problems get to me, and the biggest problem of them all is the main character himself. Harry is, to put it kindly, an absolute no one. He suffers at the hands of the despicable Dursleys because, hey, what’s a hero’s journey without a little suffering? Then one day he learns he’s inherited great powers and wealth, neither of which have any connection to him beyond basic genetics. The news hunts him down like a wretch-seeking missile, and before you know it, Harry’s whisked away to a magical land where he’s repeatedly informed how wonderful he is by strangers, all without ever having accomplished or earned much of anything beyond a passive ability to not die. Yes, Mr. Potter makes his fair share of enemies, and yes, he does do his best to live up to the responsibility of being the most famous boy wizard in the world. But the series never shakes the fact that Harry is destined to heroism less by merit than by fait accompli, and every good fortune that comes his way plays like wish-fulfillment to distract us from the fact that there’s no real center to the kid. He’s as generic as a Hardy Boy, and when Rowling did try and give him some edge, he became just another self-centered, whiny teenager, given to fits of self-loathing that manifested as witless sarcasm and dull surliness. It’s not that Harry Potter is a horrible person, or even the worst fictional character to ever grace a fantasy narrative; fantasy does, after all, rely an awful lot on prophecy and fate. It’s just hard to accept that a writer capable of characters like Severus Snape and Hermione Granger chose to rest the crux of her narrative on a boy whose most memorable personality trait is a facial scar.

BedIntruder Well, as the worst fictional character, That's obviously Bella Swan. Harry never became self-centered, but he had flaws, like every GOOD character has.

missdada15 I personally think Bella Swan is much wors then Harry Potter..but i have to admite i'm not a big fan of Harry(As a character). I never really 'love' the main character.. Anyways,Harry isn't a 'no one',everyone loved him and he could had been the most powerful wizard if he wanted..but Harry DIDN'T want power,he wanted peace.

Helena-B-Carter I'm neutral about Harry. I've thought he was...a little unreal. But I really wouldn't say he is badly written, however, I do prefer a lot of other characters over him. If you want a horribly-written main character, go look at Bella Swan. Meyer was out of her mind making Swan the main character.

bri-marie What does Bella have to do with anything? This article wasn't comparing Harry to other main characters, it what solely about him. There's no reason to bring her up. Especially since the author explicitly states "it's not like Harry is the worst fictional character to ever grace a fantasy narrative." I actually agree with a lot of this (especially the "the more time I spend away from the series, the more its problems get to me"). I actually think that the Trio (and Ginny) are JK's weakest characters.

ClaireVoyant reading the article, i think it's just the matter of opinion. I just wish he didn't expecting harry to be some kind of perfect 'ideal' leader in his age... cause that sounds a little bit gary stu for me. and while I love severus so very much more than harry, I don't think he is the 'worst' lead character despite his flaw he still manage to do his best and it's make him more humane to me. (heck even Dumbledore have some questionable action)

alexisn10 I'm with Helena on this one. But I actually really like Harry because of his determination and heroism. Plus, Bella is a very weak character. @bri-marie I wouldn't really call the trio weak. I think the weakest out of them is Ron (although he's one of my favorite characters). I think Hermione needed more to her, but not really weak. Ginny's character is just "there" if you ask me.

bri-marie @alexisn: No, they aren't weak, but when you compare them to the [i]other[/i] characters in the story, they aren't the deepest, or most developed. They're some of the weakest characters in HP, but they're still strong characters. I don't know if that made any sense.

graystone Harry isn't the worst lead character ever written(of course, Bella Swan tops my list). He is sometimes impatient, which is character flaw(which every good character should have). He is never described as a brainiac, although he is more of a instinctual survivor.

mr-cullen what the hell!!!! he's best

MISS_ATTITUDE2 Harry is good.........But Bella is also nt bad............

tsmith120 He's not the best character in the series, but to be fair, main characters are meant to be easy to relate to a lot of the time. This is might be why people don't like him so much, he's a bit less defined than people like Snape and Luna (two of my favourites). Having said that, he's still alright. With relation to saying he's only considered good because of his inability to die, I think it's more than that. You see his character achieve some pretty cool stuff even without his powers and fortune, which require the courage and compassion that are probably central to his character. And his wizard angst.

emilykuru Harry is not bad. He is the best. There are so many people in real life who have got inspiration out of him. He is very determined and he is selfless and his bravery is great. He has flaws like every normal person has. Nobody is Perfect. But atleast he isn't a Mary-Sue like some protagonists.

DR76 I don't know what to say about Harry. He has never been one of my favorite characters. Rowling does bring out his flaws, but I notice that other characters and fans of the saga tend to dismiss or overlook them. And that irritates me.

virjoo actually, i think bella is stronger than harry... she was uttely reckless and dumb and selfish but still kept going, believing what she was doing was right. I've actually noticed that when you believe in yourself, people tend to hate or love. Personally, I DO like Bella. She's relatable in how ridiculously flawed she is. And she's funny too. harry so many times is guarded because he thinks something bad is going to happen and is the biggest pessimist. and he's extremely self-absorbed. he's always thinking of what HE thinks is right. i understand that feeling of "i feel this person is not good" and yet life gives you surprises so that kind of thinking is actually sort of stupid. personally i love harry... because he's so much like i used to be. the biggest difference is that even though my parents were extremely wealthy, strict and bitter, they were still loving, and i felt that love. so i was brattier, but also more giving. i almost feel like rowling is saying "don't make mistakes" when writing harry. mistakes can be good for you, can make you happy, and can eventually help you. you can earn the love of people by being you and that's ok. harry is very judgemental and because of this judgement he might have alienated people who actually DID like him. not everyone has to be like him. now, i think im more of a ron... but still have a bit of harry's fragility. i used to have the biggest crush on him and the young daniel radcliffe back in the day haha. my sister wears her heart on her sleeve and despite some bad moments, she's loved by everyone for her honesty and realness.

luv_warriorcatz It's really hard to make a likable protagonist these days.

RoperTwo Hyperbolic titles will attract every literate person in the world!!! I'm not a fan of Harry and partially agree with the article. Except that it's too much in love with exaggerations, it's one-sided, and the title is ridiculous. If anyone thinks Harry's even among the Top 50 worst leads though: Most of the actual bad heroes probably left no impression on you to remember them, or you never realized they were supposed to be heroes. Or you never watched bad movies / read bad books. Harry's not given many actual hard choices, it's often someone else who does all the work for him. He often doesn't deserve the good OR the bad that comes to him. It's good luck, bad luck, someone being mean, someone saving his butt. But sometimes, he DOES use his smarts and his skills, and makes decisions. His personality doesn't carry the series, which is a shame, but probably done to keep him relatable even to children. At least the series has a huge, detailed and powerful supporting cast, who often steals Harry's spotlight. Snape, Dumbledore and Hermione do that so much, they push him into the background towards the end. Heck, even Neville ends up kicking ass when push comes to shove, and how can you not love Luna? There's so many supporting characters that are done so well, many of them could have been the series' protagonists and it would have worked just as well, if not better. This pushes Harry into the background, but it's not bad storytelling at all. @ the other comments: Many of you misunderstand the article. Nobody disputed that Harry should have character flaws like any other interesting character. The argument is that HIS character flaws make him more generic and annoying, or at least luke-warm, and that he's not the real hero as he's supposed to be.

ursmeshi To the other commentators who say that Bella Swan is a worse protagonist than Harry Potter. Have you ever heard of the phrase damned by faint praise?