That is the problem with labels, it doesn't say explicitly what something is. In my understanding monsters aren't human.
In my comment I said explicitly what I said implicitly in the essay: monsters are people. That is, the world's real monsters are human beings.
This might be an area where we are doomed to disagree.
However it is my observation that people will behave in a manner that is reprehensible, not because they enjoy it, but out of peer pressure and fear and because they don't know any different.
In that case, you have been truly lucky not to have met people capable of doing true evil for no other reason than the pleasure it gives them, the power it might confer on them, or a combination of both. I have not been so lucky.
Whatever actions Lucius did during the first Wizarding War, they were not enough for him to be sent to Azkaban, Imperius or no.
There is no proof of that, JKR has stated that wealth and lineage can equal power in the Wizarding World. She went so far as to say that the Malfoys escaped punishment after the second war, not because of their actions during the battle at Hogwart's, but because they were still powerful.
During the second war did he give the diary to Ginny under orders, or was it his own planned initiative?
As I stated before, Lucius was an adult who chose to prey on a child. Following orders is not an excuse* for an adult preying on a child.
*I know you maintain that you aren't trying to excuse him, but when you give reasons for his crimes which seem as if they are meant to absolve him of blame, the reasons become excuses. And these are exactly the sort of conclusions that I've found problematic in many Lucius-fans' arguments in favour of the character.
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Date: 2012-08-29 01:51 am (UTC)In my comment I said explicitly what I said implicitly in the essay: monsters are people. That is, the world's real monsters are human beings.
This might be an area where we are doomed to disagree.
However it is my observation that people will behave in a manner that is reprehensible, not because they enjoy it, but out of peer pressure and fear and because they don't know any different.
In that case, you have been truly lucky not to have met people capable of doing true evil for no other reason than the pleasure it gives them, the power it might confer on them, or a combination of both. I have not been so lucky.
Whatever actions Lucius did during the first Wizarding War, they were not enough for him to be sent to Azkaban, Imperius or no.
There is no proof of that, JKR has stated that wealth and lineage can equal power in the Wizarding World. She went so far as to say that the Malfoys escaped punishment after the second war, not because of their actions during the battle at Hogwart's, but because they were still powerful.
During the second war did he give the diary to Ginny under orders, or was it his own planned initiative?
As I stated before, Lucius was an adult who chose to prey on a child. Following orders is not an excuse* for an adult preying on a child.
*I know you maintain that you aren't trying to excuse him, but when you give reasons for his crimes which seem as if they are meant to absolve him of blame, the reasons become excuses. And these are exactly the sort of conclusions that I've found problematic in many Lucius-fans' arguments in favour of the character.