brttny32194:
d0nt-p4n1c:
iwasateenagehorcrux:
holiclover:
Deleted scene - Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1
WHY WAS THIS DELETED
THIS IS VERY SIGNIFICANT CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT
WHY THE FLYING FUCK WOULD YOU DELETE THIS
oh my fucking god this makes me really mad.
okay i never read the books, but i have seen the movies like fifty hundred times. and if we only go by the movies, i can tell you right now that even if this scene had been in the films, IT WOULD STILL NOT REDEEM THIS CHARACTER.
let me put this clearly, in plain words, because obviously the last time i did this no one really gave a shit and ignored what i commented.
— Aunt Petunia was given the purpose of caring for her infant nephew, after both his mother and father were murdered. She inherited a life, a little boy, that witnessed his parents death.
—Aunt Petunia then raised this boy in the same way she treated her sister (from all the movies you can infer that Petunia was very cruel toward Lily as they grew up. examples are the flashbacks).
—Petunia treated her nephew like he was worthless, and a lesser being than herself. Because this is how she treats all magic users, and all magic anything — Harry obviously would not have been treated with anything other than disdain and contempt.
— Petunia DID NOT care for her sister, in any obvious way in any of these movies. She shames her in every way, anytime she can. and while she may have cared for her — it was only out of familial obligation.
— Petunia LOCKED THIS LITTLE BOY IN A CUPBOARD UNDER THE STAIRS. She abuses him, verbally and emotionally AND ENCOURAGES HER HUSBAND AND SON TO DO THE SAME.
— Petunia only does this because of how much she despises magic.
— Petunia forces him into becoming little more than a slave — preparing food, cleaning. She blames everything on him.
— another obvious thing is that Harry never ever has clothes that fit him properly — most likely because any clothes he may have are probably Dudley’s old, ruined hand-me-downs, and the clothes that he protested against wearing.
PETUNIA IS A CHILD ABUSER. THIS SCENE WOULD NOT MAKE HER ANY LESS OF A VILE PARENT, THE ONLY THING THAT WOULD REDEEM PETUNIA IS IF SHE ADMITTED TO HARRY HOW HORRIBLE AND CRUEL SHE WAS, AND APOLOGIZED. BUT THAT WOULD STILL ONLY BE THE TIP OF THE ICEBERG.
Now please think about this before you say this is character development.
Because Petunia doesn’t even like Lily, nor does she like Harry, there could be no way this is character development. Petunia is looking for sympathy just because she wants people to feel bad for her — to manipulate them into liking her. Petunia is a manipulative and cruel woman that looks for ways to gain control over people.
Petunia knows she is losing Harry as the timid little boy that does what he’s told — she is talking to someone right now to put them back into her pocket. Petunia wants to be the most adored — wants to be idolized like Lily was. Petunia is a jealous woman, and knows that the way to control people — to gain their favor — is to use their emotions against them.
This is not character development. This is just another method of control and child abuse.
Wow. I could have just let this rant go by, but not this time. Not after you tore into something that you obviously do not fully understand. And before you argue with me on that point, I’ll note that you literally said that you’ve never read the books. You should have just stopped right there and quit while you were ahead.
You seem to not understand the difference between justify and redeem. No one’s saying that this moment justifies anything Petunia had done to Harry in the past, but it does give her a bit of redemption and absolutely is character development. In the movies, she was a two dimensional bad character that was only associated with evil. The books actually gave us much more background than you are aware of, making her a real person and exploring her past to understand why she is the way she is. This scene would have been a very small step in that direction, but a step nonetheless.
DO NOT EVER SAY THAT PETUNIA EVANS DID NOT CARE FOR HER SISTER OR HER NEPHEW. READ THE BOOKS AND YOU WILL MAYBE BEGIN TO UNDERSTAND. FOR EXAMPLE:
In Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, Chapter 2 A Peck of Owls, Vernon is trying to throw Harry out of the house and Petunia refuses to allow it. She stands up to goddamn Vernon Dursley after he’s made his mind up and though she would never explicitly state it and she explains it away in so many ways, she did it to protect him.
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Chapter 33 The Prince’s Tale. We get to see memories of little Lily and Petunia as children, playing and swinging. Petunia is highly protective over her little sister when Snape arrives, even going so far as to watch over her as the two talk.
As for why Petunia was the way she was, no. She wasn’t looking for sympathy or for people to feel bad for her and she certainly wasn’t manipulating anyone. She wasn’t trying to gain control over people. As a child, she and her sister were best friends but her sister had a gift. Petunia had to watch as that gift took the girl away to a fantasy world and left herself back at home as a Muggle. Something they didn’t mention in the movies: Little Petunia Evans sent a letter to Albus Dumbledore asking to be allowed to go to Hogwarts. When he had to unfortunately decline, it hurt her deeply. Pretending like she didn’t care was much easier than admitting the truth, which is what turned her cold.
When Harry was sent to her, she could have chucked him out right away, given him away and gotten him out of her life but she didn’t. She made sure he had a home. Vernon was the abusive one and I will agree that she hurt Harry just as much by not stopping her husband in his ways, but she physically never locked him anywhere. Yes, Harry’s clothes were always hand-me-downs from Dudley but families do that all the time.
This was by no means a healthy homelife for Harry, but your gross misinterpretation of Petunia infuriates me. This scene absolutely should have been in the movie so people like you can understand that the world is not split into good and evil. Petunia was not a hero, but she wasn’t a monster either.
“The world is not split into two sides, good and evil. We all have light and dark inside us. It just matters what we choose to act upon.” -Sirius Black
