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letsgetthisbread A lot of children's and YA books like to use the whole "adults are incompetent so the teens have to save the world" bit, and it makes enough sense when your main characters are the same age as your target audience. But, really, why does the Ministry suck so bad?
Justice is at the core of PoA, and is introduced super early when Harry has to write an essay about the Salem Witch Trials. JK narratexplains that most of the people convicted weren't even witches/wizards, and those who were could easily fake their deaths and go off doing their thing elsewhere. (Side note, but has anyone read the poem "Half-Hanged Mary" by Margaret Atwood? It's soooo good it's one of my all-time favs.) There's a lil recap in the beginning of the book where it mentions how Harry got his scar, and inadvertently defeated Voldemort as a baby. It's kinda funny, that it wasn't the Ministry or the (old) Order of the Phoenix or anyone who defeated Voldy, but a 1-year-old.
When Cornelius Fudge waves away the rules governing using magic outside of school when he finds Harry (post-Aunt Marge blow-up), he's pandering to a 13-year-old. When the Ministry effectively sets up a "witch hunt" to find Sirius Black, it's basically just another pointless way to make a statement of "justice." The Committee for the Disposal of Dangerous Creatures is shown as corrupt and immoral (easily swayed by Lucius Malfoy's power) and basically useless as well. In the end, it's *spoiler* up to Harry and Hermione, two teens, to fix the timeline and administer their own kind of justice (saving Buckbeak and Sirius), at the advice but otherwise without the help of Dumbledore. Magical or not, bureaucracy is always lame :/
Justice is at the core of PoA, and is introduced super early when Harry has to write an essay about the Salem Witch Trials. JK narratexplains that most of the people convicted weren't even witches/wizards, and those who were could easily fake their deaths and go off doing their thing elsewhere. (Side note, but has anyone read the poem "Half-Hanged Mary" by Margaret Atwood? It's soooo good it's one of my all-time favs.) There's a lil recap in the beginning of the book where it mentions how Harry got his scar, and inadvertently defeated Voldemort as a baby. It's kinda funny, that it wasn't the Ministry or the (old) Order of the Phoenix or anyone who defeated Voldy, but a 1-year-old.
When Cornelius Fudge waves away the rules governing using magic outside of school when he finds Harry (post-Aunt Marge blow-up), he's pandering to a 13-year-old. When the Ministry effectively sets up a "witch hunt" to find Sirius Black, it's basically just another pointless way to make a statement of "justice." The Committee for the Disposal of Dangerous Creatures is shown as corrupt and immoral (easily swayed by Lucius Malfoy's power) and basically useless as well. In the end, it's *spoiler* up to Harry and Hermione, two teens, to fix the timeline and administer their own kind of justice (saving Buckbeak and Sirius), at the advice but otherwise without the help of Dumbledore. Magical or not, bureaucracy is always lame :/
