Well, we know one thing that explains both the certainty and dark side, and does not require any unhappiness or accidental magic in his childhood: influence from a Voldemort horcrux.
You know, if it weren’t for everyone else taking it so seriously, I would have (and did, before I started following discussions) dismissed Harry’s so called dark side as a perfectly normal personality quirk which he makes a big deal of because once he’s told he’s a prophesied hero he feels he ought to have something dramatically appropriate like a mysterious dark side.
In his place, I wouldn’t be thinking “My mysterious dark side is good at X,” I’d be thinking “I’m good at X when I put myself into the right frame of mind.”
Well, actually, in his place, I might be thinking “my mysterious dark side is good at X,” but that’s because if I were in his place, I’d be eleven.
In his place, I wouldn’t be thinking “My mysterious dark side is good at X,” I’d be thinking “I’m good at X when I put myself into the right frame of mind.”
Sometimes I’m all simplistic and think to myself “I’m good at X when I get pissed off.” Combined with a little emotional regulation with respect to pissed-off levels it amounts to much the same thing.
Especially if the ‘frame of mind’ has lots of other stuff going on as well: the implication is that he can’t get the competence without the rest of the baggage. So it’s like ‘slightly drunk me is good at pool (but it also wants to drink more and thus become very bad at pool), rather than ‘thoughtful me is good at understanding where other people are coming from’.
You know, if it weren’t for everyone else taking it so seriously, I would have (and did, before I started following discussions) dismissed Harry’s so called dark side as a perfectly normal personality quirk which he makes a big deal of because once he’s told he’s a prophesied hero he feels he ought to have something dramatically appropriate like a mysterious dark side.
In his place, I wouldn’t be thinking “My mysterious dark side is good at X,” I’d be thinking “I’m good at X when I put myself into the right frame of mind.”
Well, actually, in his place, I might be thinking “my mysterious dark side is good at X,” but that’s because if I were in his place, I’d be eleven.
Sometimes I’m all simplistic and think to myself “I’m good at X when I get pissed off.” Combined with a little emotional regulation with respect to pissed-off levels it amounts to much the same thing.
Especially if the ‘frame of mind’ has lots of other stuff going on as well: the implication is that he can’t get the competence without the rest of the baggage. So it’s like ‘slightly drunk me is good at pool (but it also wants to drink more and thus become very bad at pool), rather than ‘thoughtful me is good at understanding where other people are coming from’.