Dudley, his friends, his family, and boxing.
Since Dudley keeps showing up in my fic, I've been doing a bit of rereading and research. He is not a popular character with readers, perhaps one might even call him a hated character, and yet- he's got some good things going for him.
Why Dudley is Awesome. Let me count the ways.
FRIENDS
Dudley's described as throwing tantrums at home at age 11, and then abruptly stopping when his friend comes over to visit (PS2). So, in other words, Dudley is aware that he won't keep his friends if he throws tantrums in front of them. Dudley is able to anticipate what his friends reactions will be to his behavior and make decisions accordingly.
And why exactly has Harry never made himself some little muggle friends? Eh? Eh?
OP1Vernon: 'Dudders out for tea?'
'At the Polkisses',' said Aunt Petunia fondly. 'He's got so many little friends, he's so popular...'
Dudley goes out with his friends and tells his mum where he's going. He may be lieing about where he's going, but he tells her something nice so she doesn't worry. By age 15/16 Dudley has had these friends for years. They may indeed be bullies who go around beating people up, stealing bikes, and smoking on corners. The fact remains: Dudley has friends. Dudley, who was not described as an attractive child in the early books, has nevertheless made friends and kept them for years. Completely useless, socially hopeless people can not accomplish this feat. Ergo, Dudley has some minimum of social skills. He is, in fact, the leader of his 'gang'. Yes, just as Petunia says, Dudley is popular. And being popular does not suck.
~*~
FAMILY
OOP p. 13 (Dudley and Harry on nicknames...)
"Don't the boys know that's what your mum calls you?"
"Shut your face."
"You don't tell her to shut her face. What about 'popkin' and 'Dinky Diddydums,' can I use them then?"
Well, lookie here. Petunia is still calling Dudley twee nicknames when he's age 15. And Dudley politely puts up with it, even according to Harry. Gosh. That's a heck of an accommodating and understanding son Dudley's being. No way *I* would have put up with my mum calling me stupid names like that when I was a kid. But Dudley just lets it go. Wow.
And he cheerfully helps his Dad out by being nice and polite and trying to help his Dad make a good impression when his Dad's business associate came to dinner. (CS1)
Their style might be disgusting and horrible, but these people actually do love each other.
They certainly do abuse Harry, too. And they're horrible evil people for doing that. But they are still, among their own, a loving family.
~*~
BOXING
(OP p. 12) "Nice right hook, Big D," said Piers.
I've been looking up boxing. We have a couple of different interpretations we could go with here.
OPTION 1
JKR has no idea what she is talking about and is just randomly throwing in this boxing shit as a quick shorthand to inform the readers that Dudley is a stupid, violent brute.
OPTION 2
JKR knows exactly what she's doing and is telling us specific things about Dudley, his boxing style, and his sportsmanship. Okay, let's go with this one. Let's find out WHY does Dudley's friend tell him he's got a nice right hook.
Dudley is 14/15 and he has a nice right hook? Say what?
Boxers throw an assortment of punches. First they learn jabs, straights, and crosses. Hooks and uppercuts are advanced stuff that they only start once they've got the beginner stuff down.
Is Dudley left handed, a southpaw boxer? Because hooks are usually thrown with the left hand if the boxer is right-handed. I suppose it's possible that Dudley could be good at both handed hooks, but to be good at both means he's a very flexible and advanced boxer. Further, if he's winning using hooks, it's *possible* that JKR is telling us that Dudley's boxing style is infighting (a close in, inside of arms length fighter), that he's quick and agile on his feet, with short punches, ferocious, aggressive and intense. I don't know for sure, but it's possible. With his height and his weight he might do better as an outside fighter, but who knows?
So much for JKR's intriguing mention of Dudley's hook here. On page 11 of OOP we are informed that Dudley is the Junior Heavyweight Inter-School Boxing Champion of the Southeast.
OOP p. 14. "...How old was your opponent? Seven? Eight?"
"He was sixteen for your information," snarled Dudley, "and he was out cold for twenty minutes after I'd finished with him and he was twice as heavy as you..."
Perhaps JKR's point here is that Dudley is violent and horrible. And yet, maybe it's not...
If this was a typical school-sponsored competition bout, the rules would have been very strict. Underage boxers aren't especially encouraged to injure each other or knock each other out; they mostly have this whole point scoring system they use. If Dudley obviously outclassed his opponent or if Dudley was inflicting excessive punishment or injury-- then the match would have been stopped. Dudley would NOT have been allowed to brutally beat for a long time on some poor outclassed kid.
What this means is that Dudley likely took his opponent out with one or two hits after he'd felt him out gently for a while. And considering Dudley took Champion, that means those weren't lucky hits. That means that in all likelihood, Dudley's form and technique are pretty freaking awesome. Especially if he's using hooks at all after a mere year of training, nevermind having GOOD hooks.
Let's talk about the training it took to become pretty freaking awesome in ONE FREAKING YEAR.
In Book 4(GF) Dudley was "the height and weight of a young killer whale", "wider than he was tall", and his school could not provide him a uniform in his enormous size. By book 5 (OOP, p 11), merely one year later Dudley is no longer a whale and he's a boxing champion. That's a heck of a quick change. How did that happen?
Dudley likely had a coach or trainer at his school who made him run two miles every morning, do a billion situps, crunches, pushups, weightlifting, shadowboxing, three different kinds of bags to assault, and that's all WAY before Dudley gets to do any sparring. Boxing training is brutal. That Dudley obviously did it says that he either freaking loves PE or has a heck of a lot of discipline or he was doing it at gunpoint. Sure, maybe he had a pushing trainer he was eager to please, maybe it was a required class that he had no choice but to take, maybe, maybe- yeah, that's all bullshit. No one can make you win. It's not an accident. In order to go from whale to boxing champion in one year, you need to make a personal internal decision and have discipline coming out the wazoo. (And that's not even mentioning the mental and physical courage needed to walk into a fight with someone you know is your own weightclass and approximate skill level.)
Gee, Harry could maybe learn a little something from Dudley, eh? What with Harry having Voldemort to beat and all.
SPORTSMANSHIP
So what's Dudley doing with his friends in his off hours? Beating up 10 year olds as Harry says he's doing? Maybe Dudley might give an obnoxious child a bit of a push around, but this is a boy who can knock someone out in a few blows (and Dudley sounds quite proud that at age 14/15 he can take a 16 year old); beating little kids is not going to be a very satisfying challenge for Dudley the champion boxer, doing so could get him in legal trouble enough to end his boxing career, and beating up people bare-handed could break his valuable fingers. That's why they wear those gloves. So they don't break their fingers, not so they don't break someone else's head. If Dudley likes boxing at all and wants to continue next year, he's not going to risk his bare fingers on some useless child's rock-like noggin. And we don't see Dudley walking along that night with gloves. And when Dudley finally punches Harry, it's after quite a prolonged bit of screaming and protesting and he's quite sure he's being attacked by Harry with magic and in that circumstance- sure, risk breaking a finger to save your life.
If Dudley knows well enough at age 11 that throwing a tantrum will lose him friends, he knows well enough at age 15 that punching a 10 year old will get him called up for assault. Frankly it's more likely that Dudley and friends are watching videos than beating up little kids.
So why does Dudley's friend tell him he's got a nice right hook? ---My guess: Because they've been watching Dudley's championship match on video.
~*~
Crossposted to HatedCharacter, where I got quite a few responses.
http://community.livejournal.com/hated_character/313893.html
Why Dudley is Awesome. Let me count the ways.
FRIENDS
Dudley's described as throwing tantrums at home at age 11, and then abruptly stopping when his friend comes over to visit (PS2). So, in other words, Dudley is aware that he won't keep his friends if he throws tantrums in front of them. Dudley is able to anticipate what his friends reactions will be to his behavior and make decisions accordingly.
And why exactly has Harry never made himself some little muggle friends? Eh? Eh?
OP1Vernon: 'Dudders out for tea?'
'At the Polkisses',' said Aunt Petunia fondly. 'He's got so many little friends, he's so popular...'
Dudley goes out with his friends and tells his mum where he's going. He may be lieing about where he's going, but he tells her something nice so she doesn't worry. By age 15/16 Dudley has had these friends for years. They may indeed be bullies who go around beating people up, stealing bikes, and smoking on corners. The fact remains: Dudley has friends. Dudley, who was not described as an attractive child in the early books, has nevertheless made friends and kept them for years. Completely useless, socially hopeless people can not accomplish this feat. Ergo, Dudley has some minimum of social skills. He is, in fact, the leader of his 'gang'. Yes, just as Petunia says, Dudley is popular. And being popular does not suck.
~*~
FAMILY
OOP p. 13 (Dudley and Harry on nicknames...)
"Don't the boys know that's what your mum calls you?"
"Shut your face."
"You don't tell her to shut her face. What about 'popkin' and 'Dinky Diddydums,' can I use them then?"
Well, lookie here. Petunia is still calling Dudley twee nicknames when he's age 15. And Dudley politely puts up with it, even according to Harry. Gosh. That's a heck of an accommodating and understanding son Dudley's being. No way *I* would have put up with my mum calling me stupid names like that when I was a kid. But Dudley just lets it go. Wow.
And he cheerfully helps his Dad out by being nice and polite and trying to help his Dad make a good impression when his Dad's business associate came to dinner. (CS1)
Their style might be disgusting and horrible, but these people actually do love each other.
They certainly do abuse Harry, too. And they're horrible evil people for doing that. But they are still, among their own, a loving family.
~*~
BOXING
(OP p. 12) "Nice right hook, Big D," said Piers.
I've been looking up boxing. We have a couple of different interpretations we could go with here.
OPTION 1
JKR has no idea what she is talking about and is just randomly throwing in this boxing shit as a quick shorthand to inform the readers that Dudley is a stupid, violent brute.
OPTION 2
JKR knows exactly what she's doing and is telling us specific things about Dudley, his boxing style, and his sportsmanship. Okay, let's go with this one. Let's find out WHY does Dudley's friend tell him he's got a nice right hook.
Dudley is 14/15 and he has a nice right hook? Say what?
Boxers throw an assortment of punches. First they learn jabs, straights, and crosses. Hooks and uppercuts are advanced stuff that they only start once they've got the beginner stuff down.
Is Dudley left handed, a southpaw boxer? Because hooks are usually thrown with the left hand if the boxer is right-handed. I suppose it's possible that Dudley could be good at both handed hooks, but to be good at both means he's a very flexible and advanced boxer. Further, if he's winning using hooks, it's *possible* that JKR is telling us that Dudley's boxing style is infighting (a close in, inside of arms length fighter), that he's quick and agile on his feet, with short punches, ferocious, aggressive and intense. I don't know for sure, but it's possible. With his height and his weight he might do better as an outside fighter, but who knows?
So much for JKR's intriguing mention of Dudley's hook here. On page 11 of OOP we are informed that Dudley is the Junior Heavyweight Inter-School Boxing Champion of the Southeast.
OOP p. 14. "...How old was your opponent? Seven? Eight?"
"He was sixteen for your information," snarled Dudley, "and he was out cold for twenty minutes after I'd finished with him and he was twice as heavy as you..."
Perhaps JKR's point here is that Dudley is violent and horrible. And yet, maybe it's not...
If this was a typical school-sponsored competition bout, the rules would have been very strict. Underage boxers aren't especially encouraged to injure each other or knock each other out; they mostly have this whole point scoring system they use. If Dudley obviously outclassed his opponent or if Dudley was inflicting excessive punishment or injury-- then the match would have been stopped. Dudley would NOT have been allowed to brutally beat for a long time on some poor outclassed kid.
What this means is that Dudley likely took his opponent out with one or two hits after he'd felt him out gently for a while. And considering Dudley took Champion, that means those weren't lucky hits. That means that in all likelihood, Dudley's form and technique are pretty freaking awesome. Especially if he's using hooks at all after a mere year of training, nevermind having GOOD hooks.
Let's talk about the training it took to become pretty freaking awesome in ONE FREAKING YEAR.
In Book 4(GF) Dudley was "the height and weight of a young killer whale", "wider than he was tall", and his school could not provide him a uniform in his enormous size. By book 5 (OOP, p 11), merely one year later Dudley is no longer a whale and he's a boxing champion. That's a heck of a quick change. How did that happen?
Dudley likely had a coach or trainer at his school who made him run two miles every morning, do a billion situps, crunches, pushups, weightlifting, shadowboxing, three different kinds of bags to assault, and that's all WAY before Dudley gets to do any sparring. Boxing training is brutal. That Dudley obviously did it says that he either freaking loves PE or has a heck of a lot of discipline or he was doing it at gunpoint. Sure, maybe he had a pushing trainer he was eager to please, maybe it was a required class that he had no choice but to take, maybe, maybe- yeah, that's all bullshit. No one can make you win. It's not an accident. In order to go from whale to boxing champion in one year, you need to make a personal internal decision and have discipline coming out the wazoo. (And that's not even mentioning the mental and physical courage needed to walk into a fight with someone you know is your own weightclass and approximate skill level.)
Gee, Harry could maybe learn a little something from Dudley, eh? What with Harry having Voldemort to beat and all.
SPORTSMANSHIP
So what's Dudley doing with his friends in his off hours? Beating up 10 year olds as Harry says he's doing? Maybe Dudley might give an obnoxious child a bit of a push around, but this is a boy who can knock someone out in a few blows (and Dudley sounds quite proud that at age 14/15 he can take a 16 year old); beating little kids is not going to be a very satisfying challenge for Dudley the champion boxer, doing so could get him in legal trouble enough to end his boxing career, and beating up people bare-handed could break his valuable fingers. That's why they wear those gloves. So they don't break their fingers, not so they don't break someone else's head. If Dudley likes boxing at all and wants to continue next year, he's not going to risk his bare fingers on some useless child's rock-like noggin. And we don't see Dudley walking along that night with gloves. And when Dudley finally punches Harry, it's after quite a prolonged bit of screaming and protesting and he's quite sure he's being attacked by Harry with magic and in that circumstance- sure, risk breaking a finger to save your life.
If Dudley knows well enough at age 11 that throwing a tantrum will lose him friends, he knows well enough at age 15 that punching a 10 year old will get him called up for assault. Frankly it's more likely that Dudley and friends are watching videos than beating up little kids.
So why does Dudley's friend tell him he's got a nice right hook? ---My guess: Because they've been watching Dudley's championship match on video.
~*~
Crossposted to HatedCharacter, where I got quite a few responses.
http://community.livejournal.com/hated_character/313893.html