This might be a prickly discussion, but you did get me thinking about why the fandom sleeps on Kingsley...
My knee-jerk reaction is to say "racism", and I think that is probably still an accurate answer - fandoms often gush about every single minor white character with 2 lines or a millisecond of screen time before they remember there's interesting black characters in the story.
But my other argument is - did JKR write him "too perfect" in an attempt to maybe over rectify black representation in books, and therefore, a bit boring?
Again, there's probably way more boring characters who rank higher on the tags list in Ao3, but... Kingsley Shacklebolt the Perfect Just Man Who's Just The Right Amount Of Everything doesn't really excite me. I started caring way more about Kingsley when I decided to pry into the cracks of worldbuilding and asking questions about their justice and law enforcement system, their political system, and how Kingsley be both in the Order and in the Ministry. These questions might not be there for the immediate reader.
Doylist Kingsley seem to be "the right kind of person to run the Ministry of Magic", and he is written like that ā just, respectable, handsome, but ultimately kind of superficial, like a good politician that we never get to know about the inner demons or mommy issues.
Anon my darling not a prickly question at all as I have no qualms about saying what I think something is. Iāve said a number of times on this blog that the reason Kingsley isnāt as well-liked, well-loved, or shipped as he should be is because heās a Black character. This is a fandom that has ābrown Jamesā ā and that brownness is often swapped between Latin and Desi interchangeably. On the whole, this fandom doesnāt handle non-white characters, or even headcanoning canonically white characters as people of colour, particularly well.
So I donāt think thereās anything wrong with calling a spade a spade ā just as thereās nothing wrong with pointing out the misogyny directed at female characters who get bashed for traits that male characters are praised for.
I get where youāre coming from about Kingsley being seen as ātoo perfectā or maybe even boring, but heās really not. Heās one of the only pure-bloods from a Sacred Twenty-Eight family ā and while itās debatable how meaningful that list truly is, it clearly matters to people who take pride in it ā who openly joins the Order and stands against pure-blood supremacy.
He also has a fantastic line on Potterwatch:āIād say that itās one short step from āWizards firstā to āPurebloods first,ā and then to āDeath Eaters,āā replied Kingsley. āWeāre all human, arenāt we? Every human life is worth the same, and worth saving.ā
That line alone captures his moral clarity. Heās incisive, grounded, and humane in a way few other wizards are (theres loads of casual cruelty towards muggles in the series).
And beyond that, heās clearly high up in the Ministry ā leading the hunt for the most-wanted fugitive at the time ā and yet heās openly misleading his own department, sending the man heās supposed to be chasing copies of articles with theories about him. He has a sense of humour and a dark edge. During the Battle of the Seven Potters, he casually mentions he might have killed people.
Heās layered as he preaches that all life is sacred, yet kills without hesitation when necessary. Heās someone who knows how to play the system, how to appear stern when speaking to Arthur at the Ministry, but also how to subvert that very structure from within.
Heās fascinating ā and notably, the only Order member besides Sirius who openly questions Dumbledoreās choices (so thereās a rebellious streak there).
So thereās plenty canonically for people to get their teeth into (especially if people want to explore his darker side).
