Panel 1: The trees and lake are still visible. Moody, facing away from Granger, looks back over zir shoulder.
MOODY: I'll do it. Are you ready?
Panel 2: Granger, looking determined, is set against an empty background.
PAST GRANGER: I am ready.
The next three panels are very angular and slant upwards across the page.
Panel 3: Moody casts the torture curse at Granger; the whole panel is filled with its orange light. Granger is still standing, head bowed, wand held at zir side.
MOODY: Crucio.
Panel 4: Granger falls to zir knees in pain from the curse.
Panel 5: Granger pulls up zir wand, blocking the curse with a shield.
Panel 6: The shield hovers between Granger and Moody.
PAST GRANGER: Is the spell supposed to leave me enough concentration to cast a shield–
Panel 7: Close-up of Granger's face, looking somewhat angry.
PAST GRANGER: –or did you hold back on me?
Panel 8: Close-up of Moody's face. Ze looks astonished.
(hide transcript)
Is Moody shocked that Granger caught zem being a softie, or is ze shocked that Granger is badass enough to cast spells while being tortured at full power? Or something else entirely?
This is the second false dichotomy Granger has made in two pages. Does that mean that Granger cares more about rhetorical effectiveness than about logic?
Approximate readability: 8.42 (275 characters, 57 words, 4 sentences, 4.82 characters per word, 14.25 words per sentence)
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Posted July 24, 2012 · Last updated July 24, 2016 · Permalink
Comments
-That the spell is functioning as intended ("supposed to"), and
-That the spell affects zir as it would anyone else
The first one is possibly just a matter of imprecise wording. Does Granger mean Moody's intent? The intent of the creator of the spell? The effect as defined by the Ministry?
The second is the big issue for me. While many of the spells in HP seem to be binary if correctly cast (Accio will bring a thing or not, Avada Kedavra will kill something or not, Stupefy will stun something or not), it's not unreasonable to think that a spell causing pain will affect different people to different extents (and possibly in qualitatively different ways) just as mundane pain would.
After all, only a couple pages earlier (was it in the last page?) Eli specifically mentioned in the commentary that she could resist the Imperiatus Curse, so it's a given that she's more strong-willed than most, and a couple pages before that, she's musing on how she's more detached and logical than her peers, which would also help her to resist the Curse (remember that if she were really emotional, all the pain would make her emotions overwhelm her mind, while here she can to a certain extent ignore them while she focuses on the task at hand).
Curious that her immediate assumption is that the difference is due to the Curse or due to Moody's casting, rather than to her. Doesn't she know that everyone is different?
EDIT: Lol, of course I go and write a post riddled with gendered pronouns :p (this is, of course, due to us discussing someone specific)
Also, think about what people would have said to Granger after ze was attacked by the troll. They probably said “wow, you are so brave” and didn't say “wow, you are so neurologically insensitive to extreme pain”. And the Muggle psychology Granger has studied mostly ignores neurodiversity (instead, it considers anything particularly abnormal to be a “disorder”). So I don't find it surprising that zir first thought would be “This isn't what I thought it would be” rather than “I guess I have special brain powers”.
(And that's before even considering Granger's tendency to be self-critical.)
That said, “This isn't what I thought it would be” is technically different from accusing Moody of not taking zir seriously. I mean, ze did just observe that it shut off Tonks' ability to cast normally, while Granger was able to cast a spell at full force during the curse's effect.
All that said, the false dichotomy certainly exists, even if why ze is using it is easy to understand (all of the cultural influences you brought up are completely relevant).
"Voldemort's Children, my ongoing Harry Potter fanfic graphic novel, which updates daily.
I think the character that fascinates me most is Luna, as I am unsure of their motivation and of what their personality looks like. Their constant smiling and pleasantry does not feel like a mask, but it feels strange and disconcerting when considering their current agency. Luna was the one who proposed 'becoming Dark Lords'. What is their motivation for that? Do they really genuinely care for the cause they stand for? I don't know, but I hope to find out one day.
That said, I hope this comic will be continued someday, but don't rush yourself or compromise your health. It's already a great thing that this much of the comic exists, and I feel it has greatly influenced both my tendency to question stories as well as my own artistic expression. Thank you for that.