No, but neither is it univariate. As with many words ‘wuss’ means rather a lot of different things depending on the context.
If Harry makes himself unduly subordinate to Hermione, does that eliminate the effects of him taking on Dumbledore in regards to Snape?
Let’s leave the word ‘wuss’ aside for the moment, to look at the implications of those scenarios has on Harry’s credibility. I’ll also note that subordination isn’t always wussy. Grand Viziers are subordinate and far from wussy. In fact, I just got back from playing board games—something that I am extremely good at and in which I make extensive use of subordination to further my goals. Humans are heavily biased towards dominance and I find that a useful trait to exploit. No, neither subordination nor apologies are something that are intrinsically ‘wussy’.
But back to the question:
When Harry takes on Dumbledore he shows that he is clever, somewhat ruthless, and erring on the side of being ‘brittle’ rather than ‘soft’ in social terms. It makes me more likely to trust him as a source of effective social strategies and schemes but not necessarily good judgement on when to use them.
Harry’s grovelling shows that he is poor at risk assessment, lacks mature boundaries, is somewhat desperate for approval and who is completely incompetent at achieving social objectives. This last part is particularly important. A lot of Harry’s ‘genius scheming’ is actually related to Harry trying to achieve social goals. Trying to turn Draco, orchestrating alliances between generals, giving lessons on how to work with his team, developing Neville, etc. Yet the Harry from the chapter in question shouldn’t be expected to have competence in any of those things.
Harry...is completely incompetent at achieving social objectives. This last part is particularly important. A lot of Harry’s ‘genius scheming’ is actually related to Harry trying to achieve social goals.
Being incompetent at achieving social objectives seems like a good reason for using ‘genius scheming’ instead of standard methods. The fact that he does this is one of the reasons that I sympathize with him as a character.
No, but neither is it univariate. As with many words ‘wuss’ means rather a lot of different things depending on the context.
Let’s leave the word ‘wuss’ aside for the moment, to look at the implications of those scenarios has on Harry’s credibility. I’ll also note that subordination isn’t always wussy. Grand Viziers are subordinate and far from wussy. In fact, I just got back from playing board games—something that I am extremely good at and in which I make extensive use of subordination to further my goals. Humans are heavily biased towards dominance and I find that a useful trait to exploit. No, neither subordination nor apologies are something that are intrinsically ‘wussy’.
But back to the question:
When Harry takes on Dumbledore he shows that he is clever, somewhat ruthless, and erring on the side of being ‘brittle’ rather than ‘soft’ in social terms. It makes me more likely to trust him as a source of effective social strategies and schemes but not necessarily good judgement on when to use them.
Harry’s grovelling shows that he is poor at risk assessment, lacks mature boundaries, is somewhat desperate for approval and who is completely incompetent at achieving social objectives. This last part is particularly important. A lot of Harry’s ‘genius scheming’ is actually related to Harry trying to achieve social goals. Trying to turn Draco, orchestrating alliances between generals, giving lessons on how to work with his team, developing Neville, etc. Yet the Harry from the chapter in question shouldn’t be expected to have competence in any of those things.
Being incompetent at achieving social objectives seems like a good reason for using ‘genius scheming’ instead of standard methods. The fact that he does this is one of the reasons that I sympathize with him as a character.