Pansy Parkinson Defence Squad
@acciomoonlight tagged me in a post asking why I love Pansy so much n I realised I’ve never made a post about this, even tho I think about it a lot so I’m gonna try and write it down now. Idk whether this is just gonna turn into me rambling about how much I love Pansy or if it’s acc gonna make sense so let’s see.
Anybody seeing this, why do people like Pansy Parkinson?
Do you like headcanons for her? Why aren’t you pissed with her bewilderment that no one would give Harry in to Mr. Voldie? Or are you?
Don’t you think she’s a racist bastard!??? And if not, why not???
I’m just gonna start off by saying that since Harry Potter has been over (what no don’t say that) for a number of years now it has evolved, at least, I think so, greatly beyond canon. I’m not gonna deny canon Pansy was not a nice person, in my headcanons for Pansy she’s not always a nice person either.
One of the reasons I love Pansy is my headcanons for her, if I hadn’t began to think about her a lot more a formed these headcanons I wouldn’t love her as much. I wouldn’t dislike her I would just be a bit indifferent, there’s so many HP characters I just haven’t had the chance to think about yet (so many headcanons so little time). So there’s like the HP universe and then there’s my headcanon universe which has all the same characters (+ some more) but some of these characters are just inanimate waiting for me to work out who they are. This isn’t relevant I’m just saying I’ve thought a lot about Pansy and who she is and that’s one of the reasons I love her so much - the Pansy I’m talking about in this post is my Pansy not JKR’s.
A lot of people bring up Pansy’s comment about Angelina’s hair when they’re trashing her (for want of a better word, you’re all entitled to your opinions [but if they’re anti-Pansy then they’re wrong]).
“Why would anyone want to look like they’ve got worms coming out of their head?”
Pansy makes this comment in Order of the Phoenix, when she is in Fifth Year - this means that Pansy is 15 or 16. Racism is not acceptable or justifiable but I know a lot of us do mean, unkind things as children - I said some horrible things when I was younger that I’m not proud of, and I’m probably doing and saying things right now that I will hate myself for in a few years - we grow and we learn. I want to make it clear that Pansy saying this is not okay, but I think it’s a bit unfair to take this comment she made as a child and let it decide her whole character. Another comment I’ve seen mentioned is a comment she makes towards Hermione in Goblet of Fire (meaning she was 14 or 15).
“Stunningly pretty?Her?” Pansy Parkinson had shrieked,
Again, this is obviously not a nice thing to say to someone, but, again Pansy was a child. I hate that these two comments are used to condemn Pansy when both of them were childish taunts. James Potter bullied Snape as a child, but he grew out of it and we all excuse him and love him despite this, because we know that he grew up. Pansy is never given the chance to grow out of this in canon because she’s such a minor character so I’ve given her that chance in my fanon.
As for her trying to hand Harry over to Voldemort, I think we have to look at that from her perspective, Pansy was on the wrong side of the war not by choice, just by chance. All her friends and family were stuck under Voldemort, I think we can safely assume from Draco’s position in Half-Blood Prince that none of them really had a choice in following him.
“'I haven’t got any options!’ said Malfoy, and he was suddenly as white as Dumbledore. ‘I’ve got to do it! He’ll kill me! He’ll kill my whole family!‘”
I mean yes they could’ve pulled a Regulus and switched sides but imagine the fear they must’ve felt and the courage that would’ve taken, never mind the fact that they would be risking not only their own lives but their families'; it was much safer for them to just keep their heads down. Voldemort offered one life (Harry’s) for the countless that would’ve (and were) lost in the final battle. To Pansy that must’ve seemed a pretty good trade, she was probably terrified, remember Voldemort had been living at Malfoy Manor, who knows how long they’d had to suffer through his presence. One life to end all of that fear and suffering doesn’t seem like such a bad deal when it’s your friends’ and families’ lives on the line.
Why is it Draco is given redemption? James is forgiven for his childish bullying? Hell, people even redeem Snape, a full grown man who taunted and abused his students, but Pansy is the character who is irredeemable? In canon Pansy was a young frightened girl, in my fanon she has grown beyond that but neither of them deserve the hate they get.
I’m not the most eloquent of writers and a lot of these thoughts were helped along by ‘ugly: in defense of pansy parkinson’ by dirgewithoutmusic so I would definitely recommend that if you want to read more on the subject but these are just my personal thoughts on the redemption of Pansy Parkinson and why I love her so much.
