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Dumbledore Gay?
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Author:  pokemon_otaku [ Fri Nov 30, 2007 5:54 am ]
Post subject:  Dumbledore Gay?

I just heard from a friend the other day that J.K. Rowling wrote, in some magazine, that in the entire series she meant for Dumbledore to be gay. Now while my friend thinks that this is true, I think otherwise. I think that J.K. didn't really write that article, I think it was just some lame publicity stunt made up by...er some people. Does anyone else agree with me? Discuss

Author:  2x4b [ Fri Nov 30, 2007 6:06 am ]
Post subject: 

At a press conference J.K. Rowling confirmed that Dumbledore was gay. She said it in response to a fan's question.

Author:  pokemon_otaku [ Fri Nov 30, 2007 6:14 am ]
Post subject: 

But why would he be gay? It makes absoloutly no sense! And there's no evidence in the books. How do you know she just wasn'st trying to please the fan who asked the question?

Author:  Galar [ Fri Nov 30, 2007 6:48 am ]
Post subject: 

Yeah, Dumbledore is officially gay. She did state that at a press conference. Here's the link.

http://www.time.com/time/arts/article/0 ... html?imw=Y

Nothing against gays, but saying that Dumbledore's homossexual when there's absolutely no solid or implied, even suggested evidence in the book, it's just lame. I don't have any problems with a gay Dumbledore, it's just that the "evidence" she used to confirm it was poor.

I honestly can't follow some fans' speculations on that. What reasons do they have, except for "Dumbledore never mentions any woman in his past except for his sister" and "Dumbledore actually fell in love for his old friend that eventually became his worst enemy, and that's why she states in the book it was his 'greatest battle'"? In all honesty, these arguments fail.

Author:  thatnewguy [ Sat Dec 01, 2007 1:09 pm ]
Post subject: 

Yeah, but it has been officialiated. I really don't get it much, either. J.K. Rowling grabs the smallest clues as an excuse to say that Dumbledore is gay? It never said he fell in love with Grindlewald, or anything like that.

Author:  Sapphire118 [ Sat Dec 01, 2007 6:57 pm ]
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i thought she just announced that to get people's attention...

Author:  pokemon_otaku [ Sun Dec 02, 2007 6:46 am ]
Post subject: 

^ EXACTLY! There's absolutely no point in it what so ever. She just announced it to get people's attention!

Author:  Groudon King [ Sun Dec 02, 2007 8:46 am ]
Post subject: 

pokemon_otaku wrote:
^ EXACTLY! There's absolutely no point in it what so ever. She just announced it to get people's attention!


That is just retarded. Saying stuff like that to get people's attention, isn't the book attention grabbing enough for her? Like how you guys say it would be alright, but the lack of evidence only makes it confusing. And when she said that did she really mean it, or was it sarcastic?

Author:  Sparrow [ Sun Dec 02, 2007 8:37 pm ]
Post subject: 

Welcome to months ago.

Why don't people understand that she was asked a question?

Not to mention the fact that you need evidence for every little thing about a person. Assuming that everyone is a white Christian heterosexual is just silly.

Why didn't you just post this in the Harry Potter topic?

Author:  Groudon King [ Sun Dec 02, 2007 8:53 pm ]
Post subject: 

"A swing and a miss"

You need evidence to have support. So you can believe anything even if there is no proof of it?

She had not even the smallest note of something like that in there. If you are going to make a character for a book, movie, so on.... you need the full character in there. The series ended and not one piece of proof? She either made it up or failed at character development when she finished.

Author:  Sparrow [ Sun Dec 02, 2007 9:12 pm ]
Post subject: 

Groudon King wrote:
"A swing and a miss"

You need evidence to have support. So you can believe anything even if there is no proof of it?

She had not even the smallest note of something like that in there. If you are going to make a character for a book, movie, so on.... you need the full character in there. The series ended and not one piece of proof? She either made it up or failed at character development when she finished.


It came out of the author's mouth, what more evidence do you need?

Dumbledore being gay doesn't have any impact on the story, if it was in the book, then people would still be complaining.

"Stop beating a dead horse."

Quotes are lame. :/

Author:  Groudon King [ Sun Dec 02, 2007 9:35 pm ]
Post subject: 

You don't seem to be getting it.....

One the quote was true to what you where saying so it isn't lame.

Two if you are going to develop a character it would be best to have all the characteristics out in the book, movie, cartoon,... well you get it. Having no notice of this and just saying it out of the blue just makes things confusing and does not clear things up. It would be if the maker of Star Wars came out and said, "Luke Skywalker is Emo."

Author:  Sparrow [ Sun Dec 02, 2007 10:01 pm ]
Post subject: 

Groudon King wrote:
You don't seem to be getting it.....

One the quote was true to what you where saying so it isn't lame.

Two if you are going to develop a character it would be best to have all the characteristics out in the book, movie, cartoon,... well you get it. Having no notice of this and just saying it out of the blue just makes things confusing and does not clear things up. It would be if the maker of Star Wars came out and said, "Luke Skywalker is Emo."


No, it's still lame.

She didn't say it out of the blue, because she was asked a question
The book is about Harry, not Dumbledore. The fact that Dumbledore is gay is just trivial, something "extra".

Emos don't exist.

Author:  Groudon King [ Sun Dec 02, 2007 10:15 pm ]
Post subject: 

Dumbledore is a main character though, he might not be the 'main' (by that I mean the character who gets the most focus) character but still a character in which makes a large part of the story and it would fall without him.

Even if it was a question by... well I sure as heck don't know who asked it, it would be just as confusing as if she did say it out of the blue.

Quote:
Emos don't exist.

Then a girl I know shouldn't exist and yet she is there.

Author:  Sparrow [ Sun Dec 02, 2007 10:36 pm ]
Post subject: 

Groudon King wrote:
Dumbledore is a main character though, he might not be the 'main' (by that I mean the character who gets the most focus) character but still a character in which makes a large part of the story and it would fall without him.

Even if it was a question by... well I sure as heck don't know who asked it, it would be just as confusing as if she did say it out of the blue.

Quote:
Emos don't exist.

Then a girl I know shouldn't exist and yet she is there.


Sirius Black is a large part of the story, and we don't know his sexuality.

There's nothing confusing about it, Dumbledore had a crush on his friend, and he ended up having to fight him. How could you not understand that?

Your friend isn't emo, she's a loser that follows the crowd because it's the "cool" thing to do.

Author:  pokemon_otaku [ Mon Dec 03, 2007 6:46 am ]
Post subject: 

Sparrow wrote:

Sirius Black is a large part of the story, and we don't know his sexuality.


We don't need to know his sexuality it's irrelevant! Just as Dumbledore's was irrelevant. Basicly if you're not writing a romance novel, most of the time, sexuality is not a big impact.

Author:  Galar [ Mon Dec 03, 2007 12:50 pm ]
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Nobody's complaining about Dumbledore's sexuality. It IS a polemic and interesting topic, everyone has to admit that, and thus we're pointing out our reasons with so much enforcement.

Dumbledore is a main character, and while his sexuality won't change a thing about him in the series, it still affected the fans. The impact would be a lot stronger if it was stated in the book, of course.

We aren't discussing his sexuality, we're discussing how it was introduced; just like that, answering a question of a fandom. Is there a problem in that? Of course not, but it could have been a lot more developed and explored than that.

If she said "oh, Snape had a dog in his childhood as well", just in the same way she said regarding Dumbledore's orientation, fine, there's about as proof for that in the books as there is for Dumbledore's option. However, we're talking about two completely different things here. Sure, we shouldn't be caring about anyone's sexuality, but it IS a polemic topic nonetheless. Even though we should be living in a world were homosexuality is as accepted just as much as heterosexuality is, that's definetly how it works.

I have nothing against gays, I know gay people, and yet, I was like "Huh? I want to see some proof", because Dumbledore is a main character, I like Dumbledore and I want to search about that and find what I missed. Not because it's OMG DIGUSTING HOMOSEXUALITY I'M CATHOLIC I'M GONNA SUE, but because it's interesting and was definetly unexpected, and it definetly changed my interpretation on how that specific character relates to other characters and his environment in the series. Now I see him in a different way. There's no problem with it, but it did change a few things.

I'm sure this would be a 150+ pages long thread if it was about Satoshi Tajiri doing a bit of fan service by simply stating that Ash Ketchum is gay because he's good friends with Brock or Gary.

Author:  goldenquagsire [ Mon Dec 03, 2007 1:00 pm ]
Post subject: 

Well, this has been argued many times across many threads in an infinite number of forums. From what I gather of this, there are three main points:

1. Who cares?
2. Cheap time to reveal it, *after* the final book has been written.
3. lulz rubbish jokes about paedophilia

For my view, see #1. Srsly, wow he's GHEI!!1 If JK Rowling said "Snape's straight", no-one could care less.

Author:  CharmedJoey [ Mon Jan 07, 2008 7:53 am ]
Post subject: 

Galar wrote:
I have nothing against gays, I know gay people, and yet, I was like "Huh? I want to see some proof"

What exactly do you people want? Did you want Dumbledore to randomly mention, as he was explaining about Horcruxes or why Voldemort wanted to kill Harry in the first place, that he had feelings towards men?
I think that a lot of people are just bitter that they aren't as bigger geeks as they originally thought by knowing everything about Harry Potter's characters.
Dumbledore's sexuality doesn't affect the character or the story; like someone said, J.K. was answering a question, she didn't blurt out "Oh, everybody, Dumbledore's GAY!!"
Harry - and anybody in the book - had no right to know his sexuality because it isn't bloody important and would be completely off topic to say at any point.
Considering how the majority of men are or feel towards women compared to there being no mention of Dumbledore having a relationship, I thought it was pretty obvious, especially when the book mentions the guy Dumbledore appeared to loving being with.

Author:  Galar [ Mon Jan 07, 2008 8:31 am ]
Post subject: 

CharmedJoey wrote:
Galar wrote:
I have nothing against gays, I know gay people, and yet, I was like "Huh? I want to see some proof"

What exactly do you people want? Did you want Dumbledore to randomly mention, as he was explaining about Horcruxes or why Voldemort wanted to kill Harry in the first place, that he had feelings towards men?
I think that a lot of people are just bitter that they aren't as bigger geeks as they originally thought by knowing everything about Harry Potter's characters.
Dumbledore's sexuality doesn't affect the character or the story; like someone said, J.K. was answering a question, she didn't blurt out "Oh, everybody, Dumbledore's GAY!!"
Harry - and anybody in the book - had no right to know his sexuality because it isn't bloody important and would be completely off topic to say at any point.
Considering how the majority of men are or feel towards women compared to there being no mention of Dumbledore having a relationship, I thought it was pretty obvious, especially when the book mentions the guy Dumbledore appeared to loving being with.


sigh

Of course I didn't want Dumbledore to public announce he was gay, but it would have made a hell lot more sense if it was at least slightly bit implied, and not as if she just said it to pick on some people's nerves, or something that she just made up at that moment and has no importance whatsoever. We're talking about a polemic topic in here, not about someone's pet or anything stupid, and while you little kids insist that this is ROFL BUT PEOPLE'S OPTIONS ARE UNIMPORTANT, I'm sure it would affect you at least a little bit if you were more into the character. If you honestly don't care at all, and not pretending you don't care because you want to pass of as mature or tough, excelent, it's another step humanity has taken towards a time where such things are uninteresting.

Of course it affects the character. It changes the way he relates to other characters, specially the love of his life. It changes how you interprete that character's intentions towards others, it makes you think differently about them. Not badly, as I've said countless times, but differently.

I'm not a Harry Potter nerd, and I don't want to be one, but this was an interesting fact that caught my attention, and one that I really wanted to be dealt with more deeply. It has nothing to do with the fact that he's gay, but to the fact that it's an information that I'm interested in; if JK Rowling said "oh, yeah, Dumbledore learned to speak dragon language during his childhood", I'd be as much interested, because it's something that catches my attention, pretty much as his sexuality does.

If you assumed that Dumbledore was gay because no relationships were mentioned, then that argument is about as valid as saying he wasn't gay because there was no mentioning it either. To me, that guy was a big friend of Dumbledore's, not a person he wanted to be his lover; that's how I interpreted. I'm not pissed because I was wrong, but because she could've developed it some more.

Author:  CharmedJoey [ Mon Jan 07, 2008 8:41 am ]
Post subject: 

Galar wrote:
sigh

Of course I didn't want Dumbledore to public announce he was gay, but it would have made a hell lot more sense if it was at least slightly bit implied, and not as if she just said it to pick on some people's nerves, or something that she just made up at that moment and has no importance whatsoever. We're talking about a polemic topic in here, not about someone's pet or anything stupid, and while you little kids insist that this is ROFL BUT PEOPLE'S OPTIONS ARE UNIMPORTANT, I'm sure it would affect you at least a little bit if you were more into the character. If you honestly don't care at all, and not pretending you don't care because you want to pass of as mature or tough, excelent, it's another step humanity has taken towards a time where such things are uninteresting.

Of course it affects the character. It changes the way he relates to other characters, specially the love of his life. It changes how you interprete that character's intentions towards others, it makes you think differently about them. Not badly, as I've said countless times, but differently.

You're only a couple of years older than me so don't try to go with the maturity or age argument because first of all, I'm legally an adult in my country and secondly, I'm probably more mature than you considering I don't let someone's sexuality influence how I see them.
Again I ask the question, where in the book do you think this should have been mentioned?

Author:  Galar [ Mon Jan 07, 2008 9:22 am ]
Post subject: 

CharmedJoey wrote:
Galar wrote:
sigh

Of course I didn't want Dumbledore to public announce he was gay, but it would have made a hell lot more sense if it was at least slightly bit implied, and not as if she just said it to pick on some people's nerves, or something that she just made up at that moment and has no importance whatsoever. We're talking about a polemic topic in here, not about someone's pet or anything stupid, and while you little kids insist that this is ROFL BUT PEOPLE'S OPTIONS ARE UNIMPORTANT, I'm sure it would affect you at least a little bit if you were more into the character. If you honestly don't care at all, and not pretending you don't care because you want to pass of as mature or tough, excelent, it's another step humanity has taken towards a time where such things are uninteresting.

Of course it affects the character. It changes the way he relates to other characters, specially the love of his life. It changes how you interprete that character's intentions towards others, it makes you think differently about them. Not badly, as I've said countless times, but differently.

You're only a couple of years older than me so don't try to go with the maturity or age argument because first of all, I'm legally an adult in my country and secondly, I'm probably more mature than you considering I don't let someone's sexuality influence how I see them.
Again I ask the question, where in the book do you think this should have been mentioned?


x(

I don't think you understood my point. I'm saying it influences the way that character relates to others, from my point of view. I don't like or dislike Dumbledore more or less than I used because of that. It changed the way I used to think he related to others; now it's clear that he meant more than just friendship towards that wizard, it's a different emotion, and thus could've implied a different behaviour. That's what I'm saying.

As to where in the book, perhaps in his memories. Maybe JK could've described Dumbledore's feelings in a different way, or mentioned how he reacted differently towards that wizard, I don't know. He didn't have to say it, but it could've been described on a scene or something, like, I don't know, blushing, or feeling warmer, something that implies love.

And how do you know how old I am? :O

Author:  goldenquagsire [ Mon Jan 07, 2008 9:30 am ]
Post subject: 

Galar wrote:
And how do you know how old I am? :O

Galar - September 17, 1986 (21)

CharmedJoey - May 8, 1989 (18)

:P

Author:  CharmedJoey [ Mon Jan 07, 2008 9:32 am ]
Post subject: 

Fair enough. Maybe. I don't remember how it was described so I can't really comment on this, I just remember what a big deal everyone made of them duelling and how they were good friends before that. I'd check the book but my mum only just began reading it :|.

Magic, that's how... (I checked the Psypoke Birthday topic.)
*Receives notification email* As GQ just pointed out.

Author:  The Obsidian Wolf [ Wed Jan 09, 2008 9:14 am ]
Post subject: 

Thing is Galar, why does it actually have to be implied? If the whole world is going on about equal rights for everyone, then they would accept that gay means nothing else other than that you are attracted to men.

Look, take Sirius Black (like someone else did.)

Is there anything in the book that 'drops hints' about his sexuality? MOre to the point, does anyone actually care? I haevn't seen topics saying 'y no siruis x girl action in teh harry potter bookkz' like we have in this one. Sirius' sexuality is not integral to his character, therefore Rowling wasn't going about saying "And then the dog transformed back into Sirius (who is gay cough)'

Quote:
I'm not pissed because I was wrong, but because she could've developed it some more.


But why? Why must his sexuality be such a big issue that screams "EXPLAIN ME MOAR!" ? As I've said, there's nothing in the book to say that Sirius is straight, yet I haven't seen you complaining that there hasn't been enough development into his sexuality. There hasn't been any 'and then Sirius went over to Tonks and felt all warm and snuggly inside." Evidently, everyone assumed he was straight, and that's just fine. Assumption of a person's sexuality is okay, and if it turns out you were wrong, a simple 'meh' would suffice, as opposed to demanding long extracts elaborating that. Christ, if Rowling had done that for every one of her characters for the sake of the reader knowing the sexuality of each and every person in her book, she's have written something the size of a library of Bibles!


Quote:
Two if you are going to develop a character it would be best to have all the characteristics out in the book, movie, cartoon,... well you get it. Having no notice of this and just saying it out of the blue just makes things confusing and does not clear things up. It would be if the maker of Star Wars came out and said, "Luke Skywalker is Emo."


But by that argument, you assume that every character is straight. Perhaps JK ROwling should have had a 'sexuality margin' that she could put little asterisks in to denote those that are gay, those that are bi, those that are black, those that have an accent, etc.

And does it really matter whether or not Dumbledore is gay? Does it really need to 'clear things up' as you put it? Either way, his friendship/relationship with his friend has the same impact on the story and changes nothing whatever way you look at it.

[/rant]

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