I don’t want to be mean or step on anybody’s toes, but I feel like people have James Potter in a chokehold.
You can interpret James however you want but if people want to make him a real person than they can’t have him be perfect; I.e. never being rude or mean to people, never doing bad things with bad intentions, always having an open mind and always being accepting of things right away
Some people get really mad when ffs make James mean, or a bully, or not accepting of the people around him coming out to him(this one doesn’t happen that often but it’s fine) and it’s ok to get mad but it’s very strange to me.
For example, someone will say that James would be really hurt after all those years of Lily rejecting him and that causes self-esteem problems for him in the future.
Ok then, so he turns those problems in on himself, why can’t he turn those problems onto others like every other character? Why can’t he make fun of someone he doesn’t like for not having a girlfriend, why can’t he get mad or snippy with Lily about it when they’re dating instead of just forgiving her immediately?
When these stories do get told, people begin to say ‘he definitely wouldn’t say that! He knows how much that could hurt someone. He would never intentionally hurt someone unless it was for the greater good!’
Unless you think James Potter is God, then that is just not true. People do bad things sometimes, that’s how they learn to be better people. Just because someone has a sunny disposition doesn’t mean they can’t have bad or prejudiced thoughts. It doesn’t mean they wouldn’t take advantage of people or take out their anger on others.
Sirius, Remus, Regulus, Lily, etc. They all get to be mean, all except James Potter who is the same age as them, goes to the same school as them, and has more privilege than most of them. Why is he exempt?
If you want James to be real then you have to let him get mad, you have to let him make mistakes so that he can learn from them. You have to give him time to understand things he’s never seen or only heard bad things about. You have to let him have a full range of character and emotions.
Nobody is that perfect from the start.
If you don’t want these characters to feel real then that’s totally fine. Just don’t interfere with or critique others trying to do so.
I love James Potter as much as the next person, and I would love him even more if I got to see him grow into the man we picture him to be now.
Idk