That damn Harry Potter has done it again.
SLYTHERIN
There is only one pertinent word worth using when describing a Slytherin: ambitious.
Yes, Voldemort was a Slytherin.
Peter Mountain/Warner Bros.; Everett Collection; Warner Bros.
Yes, so was almost every other evil character.
Yes, the parallel between Nazis and Death Eaters isproblematic.
But is it reasonable to argue that everyone in Slytherin is inherently evil?
(If anything, that’s the whole reasonCursed Childexists to shame you for thinking such a thing.)
They all share a laser-eyed focus on the fundamental absence in their lives.
No Hogwarts house takes better advantage of the dichotomy between outward presentation and inward truth than the serpent.
Rude Slytherins have been doing it wrong the whole time.
Slytherins don’t get to the top by just wanting to be there!
They adapt a little something from every other house to do it.
There’s authenticity in the craft of it all.
And by the way:Anyone who self-identifies as a Gryffindor is actually a Hufflepuff.
Ravenclaws are too afraid to really get to know themselves (spoiler alert: we ALL read).
And I think I made my stance fairly clear on Hufflepuffs.
That said, not all Gryffindors are like Harry, Ron, and Hermione.
Also, we don’t all love cats come on, our symbol is a lion!
but it doesn’t hurt if you do (or maybe that’s just me…).
And, Hufflepuffs … never change, guys.
Hardly any characters actually belong to Hufflepuff in those early books.
Where does that leave Hufflepuff?
Well, Hufflepuffs are definitely more than nothing, but what are we exactly?
One reason Hufflepuff might seem less well-defined than the other three houses is that we are far less exclusionary.
What often gets overlooked are the rewards of that kind of work.
Slytherins gain their power and prestige from excluding others and are therefore not to be trusted.
Ravenclaws need to get their head out of a book once in a while and talk to people.
I guess that’s it.
Everybody thinks they’re smart.
What better way to learn than to seek out other people’s perspectives?
Slytherins are never as smart as they think they are.
And Hufflepuffs just break my heart a little.
