Harry Potter

Banana · Post by **Banana** » Sun Oct 21, 2007 1:54 am

Well...JK made a rather interesting announcement:

[spoiler]Dumbledore is gay.
http://uk.news.yahoo.com/pressass/20071 ... bb3_1.html
[/spoiler]

silsmile · Post by **silsmile** » Sun Oct 21, 2007 9:10 am

Banana wrote:Well...JK made a rather interesting announcement:

[spoiler]Dumbledore is gay.
http://uk.news.yahoo.com/pressass/20071 ... bb3_1.html
[/spoiler]

I spat my tea out at the screen when I read that. Talk about an out of the blue plot twist. o_0

This makes the quote Hermione says sometime towards the end of Deathly Hallows [spoiler]"But Harry, Dumbledore LOVED you!!"[/spoiler] seem even stranger.

JK needs to lay off the fanfiction.

Post by **Tiff** » Sun Oct 21, 2007 11:32 am

silsmile wrote:
JK needs to lay off the fanfiction.

EXACTLY.

I think this is stupid.

It's pandering, it's publicity, and it's POINTLESS.

-_-

Banana · Post by **Banana** » Sun Oct 21, 2007 1:56 pm

Yeh I guess after 10 long years she couldn't hold it in much longer. :-/ According to some users on IMDb if you don't like the idea then you're a homophobe.

Tempest · Post by **Tempest** » Sun Oct 21, 2007 3:09 pm

I don't think it's so much that people dislike this information because they are against homosexuals (I'm certainly not and most of the people here don't hate teh gays), but more so the fact that this seems to be completely pulled out of her ass.

Unless I missed something in books 1-6 (I'm procrastinating on reading the 7th book) I've never read any indication that Dumbledoor was gay.

silsmile

This makes the quote Hermione says sometime towards the end of Deathly Hallows Spoiler:
[spoiler]"But Harry, Dumbledore LOVED you!!"[/spoiler]
seem even stranger.

I don't think she meant it in a way that he may have implied that Dumbledoor felt "that way" about Harry. She may have referred to it as being more of a fatherly love. I love a lot of people, but if I say "I love you" it doesn't mean that I'm in love with them.
As I've stated earlier, I've never read the 7th book so I'm only going with a more logical interpretation of your spoiler!quote.

Post by **Tiff** » Sun Oct 21, 2007 3:24 pm

Tempest wrote:I don't think it's so much that people dislike this information because they are against homosexuals (I'm certainly not and most of the people here don't hate teh gays), but more so the fact that this seems to be completely pulled out of her ass.

Unless I missed something in books 1-6 (I'm procrastinating on reading the 7th book) I've never read any indication that Dumbledoor was gay.

Yep. That's certainly my pov. It's just...so random.

yoshmaster5 · Post by **yoshmaster5** » Sun Oct 21, 2007 3:47 pm

Yeeeeah... that's...

As much as I admire J.K. Rowling for making the series... now it seems a bit, well... clinging onto publicity. There was never any indication, at all, of any kind, of Dumbledore being Gay. I certainly think that he couldn't have had... romantic love feelings for Harry, it's only fatherly or brotherly love... family-kind. This is just... seems absurd to me. -__-;

the*blue*girl · Post by **the*blue*girl** » Sun Oct 21, 2007 3:58 pm

*shrugs* I'm not too surprised. I kinda guessed he was gay, just by knowing his character, if that makes sense. IMHO, I don't think she's doing this just for publicity. Authors often refer to their characters as writing the story for them; maybe he just WAS gay, and not MADE gay by her. Maybe she never wrote about in the books because there just wasn't a right time for him to be like "Oh by the way Harry, I'm gay =D"
In any case, she's right about the fan fiction -_- good lord, there's probably a million Gridelwald/Dumbledore fanfics on the internet by now.

Cardcaptor Takato · Post by **Cardcaptor Takato** » Sun Oct 21, 2007 4:38 pm

Tiff wrote:
It's pandering, it's publicity, and it's POINTLESS.

-_-

At least now we can make lots of bad puns about Dumbledore being a HEADmaster.

Post by **Tiff** » Sun Oct 21, 2007 5:19 pm

Cardcaptor Takato wrote:
At least now we can make lots of bad puns about Dumbledore being a HEADmaster.

*SNORT*

peachvampiress · Post by **peachvampiress** » Sun Oct 21, 2007 6:58 pm

Tiff

It's pandering, it's publicity, and it's POINTLESS.

Reading the way the question was asked and how she answered it makes me think that too.

She was asked by one young fan whether Dumbledore finds "true love."

"Dumbledore is gay," the author responded to gasps and applause.

....so that's a no then 0___o?

It's a yes or no answer, not a "look how progressive and shocking I am!!!111" answer.

jupiter23 · Post by **jupiter23** » Sun Oct 21, 2007 9:54 pm

I didn't see that one coming, either. I had just thought that for the majority of his life he was just too busy for romance (that coupled with the fact that [spoiler]there was all that scandal surrounding his family between his father and everyone thinking that his sister was a prisoner in her own home because she was thought to be a squib[/spoiler]).

I also agree on the point of the context of Hermione saying that Dumbledore loved Harry. I don't believe that Dumbledore ever thought of Harry that way either, that it was more Dumbledore knew what Harry was destined for and wanted to put him on the right path, like any good father would want to do. There was also the fact that Harry looked up to Dumbledore, and Dumbledore pretty much knew it. I don't think Dumbledore would have wanted to betray that trust, assuming he had any feelings like that at all.

Post by **Tiff** » Sun Oct 21, 2007 11:19 pm

peachvampiress wrote:
....so that's a no then 0___o?

It's a yes or no answer, not a "look how progressive and shocking I am!!!111" answer.

Yeaaah that bothered me, too. it's like...WTF you didn't even answer the question!

Cardcaptor Takato · Post by **Cardcaptor Takato** » Mon Oct 22, 2007 10:06 am

As a gay Harry Potter fan, I admit that I have mixed feelings about this. On the one hand, I think Dumbledore would make a great role model for gay teens, but on the other this just feels so out of left field to me. But I've always felt like romance was the weakest part of Rowling's writing. With the exception of Ron/Hermione, almost all of Rowling's couples feel like they were pulled out of thin air. Like she wastes four different books on Harry's crushing after Cho only to decide to turn Cho into a bitch and[spoiler]break them up[/spoiler]. By the end of book five and most of book six, there's all this subtext that seems to be pointing towards a Harry/Luna pairing, but then she suddenly decides out of the blue to have Harry start [spoiler]having wet dreams about Ginny even though she basically ignored Ginny's character in books three and four. And personally, I think Harry's obsession over Ginny is more creepy than romantic, particularly when he starts dreaming about doing things to her that he could never tell Ron.[/spoiler] [spoiler]Lupin/Tonks[/spoiler] also feels out of left field to me and even Lily/James feels forced to me. After reading book seven, I personally feel like Lily/Snape would make a more compatible couple than Lily/James. Of course it would probably help if Rowling would give more than a one sentence explanation as to how James and Lily got together in the first place instead of spending whole chapters on a couple the reader already knows isn't going to happen. I guess the fact that almost all her relationships feel forced is why I wasn't so surprised when she announced Dumbledore is gay but now I wonder how this is going to affect the sixth and seventh movie's adaptation and how much more book burning this is going to cause.

Post by **Tiff** » Mon Oct 22, 2007 10:27 am

Oh, come on. As if it's not normal for a teenage boy to fantasize =P

Cardcaptor Takato · Post by **Cardcaptor Takato** » Mon Oct 22, 2007 10:41 am

It's not so much that he fantasizes about her that bothers me but more so that his obsession just comes out of nowhere with no sort of buildup or development at all. Of course it also just seem creepy to me because I've never had these types of dreams myself. Sure, I've fantasized when I was a teenager, but I was always conscious whenever I did or maybe but then I don't really like Ginny's character in general.

silsmile · Post by **silsmile** » Mon Oct 22, 2007 4:03 pm

Tempest wrote:I don't think she meant it in a way that he may have implied that Dumbledoor felt "that way" about Harry. She may have referred to it as being more of a fatherly love. I love a lot of people, but if I say "I love you" it doesn't mean that I'm in love with them.
As I've stated earlier, I've never read the 7th book so I'm only going with a more logical interpretation of your spoiler!quote.

I just re-read the scene and I believe you are correct. I kinda just rushed past that part when I read the book the first time, so I think that's why I went "ZOMG what did she say??" about it. Thank you for showing me my error ^_^

Post by **AnimeGuru0** » Mon Oct 22, 2007 7:13 pm

All I have to say is I'm pretty upset with Rowling revealing this. I mean, there already had been a lot of "speculation" but she should have just left it at that. There was no real reason to reveal this. She should have just let the characters be. Now i'm nervous to this "encyclopedia" she wants to release -_- Maybe she should just let the Harry Potter series die.....

Jeff · Post by **Jeff** » Mon Oct 22, 2007 7:54 pm

I'm kind of surprised by the reactions here. Tolkien included a lot of canon outside of his Lord of the Rings series, this isn't some new thing.

I'm too tired to read the article again, but on CNN.com's version they quoted Rowling as saying that when she read the movie script for Order of the Phoenix she had to speak with the director about Dumbledore because the film was going to indicate that he was attracted to a girl. So, basically, it's not something she just pulled out of left field, it's how she has written the character from the beginning. Rowling has said over and over again that she mapped the story ahead of time. I don't think, with a character as important as Dumbledore, that she would just make things up about him a few months after the final book's release. To the contrary, I think writing Dumbledore the way she did and then only later filling in the holes is the less "Look at me, I'm progressive!!1" way to go about it.

And he loved Grindelwald, not Harry >_>. I actually think this adds more dimension to the story... it doesn't seem like pandering to me at all...

Let's not forget the Christian themes that finally became apparent with Deathly Hallows, and which Rowling only began discussing after the completion of the series. Are we going to accuse her of just "tacking those on" as well?

Starscream · Post by **Starscream** » Mon Oct 22, 2007 7:59 pm

Jeff wrote:Let's not forget the Christian themes that finally became apparent with Deathly Hallows, and which Rowling only began discussing after the completion of the series. Are we going to accuse her of just "tacking those on" as well?

In my mind, the biggest difference is that no one really saw Dumbledore as gay as there were no indications of it whatsoever throughout the seven books, whereas people have been actively talking about the Christ-like qualities of Harry since the first or second book; whatever was made apparent in DH was just the culmination of what many people had already inferred from the other stories.