Summary
- James Potter is not the saintly figure he was initially portrayed to be, showing problematic behavior and bullying towards Snape and others.
- He justified his bullying as a result of his attraction to Lily, using it as an excuse for his actions.
- James became reckless, relied too heavily on a small group of friends, and disregarded the consequences of his actions, losing the moral high ground to Snape.
A significant point to be noted in the Harry Potter series is the fact that the titular character’s father, James Potter, is far from the good guy he was initially made out to be. For being billed as a children's series, Harry Potter has a surprising amount of characters of dubious morality. While Professor Snape and Albus Dumbledore are usually the characters brought up when viewers discuss this matter, James Potter is another prime example of the fact that people aren't wholly good or wholly bad, as he shows problematic behavior in the series, especially during his youth.
While James Potter doesn't get as much attention as other adult figures in the Harry Potter series due to his untimely death, Harry grows up idolizing the man he believed his father was. Harry was proud to be told by everyone he met that he looked exactly like his father. However, in Order of the Phoenix, Harry discovers during his Occlumency lessons while traversing through Snape's memories that James Potter was a ruthless bully who essentially targeted and assaulted a young Snape. James' behavior is even more despicable in the books than in the movies, and not just toward Snape.
He Justified His Bullying As His Attraction To Lily
James Potter had it out for Severus from the moment he saw him on the Hogwarts Express, as made clear by Snape's memories in The Deathly Hallows. His earlier bullying could be excused as the immaturity of a young child, but James made it worse by actually trying to justify it by diverting this bullying toward his attraction to Lily. Harry’s visit to Snape’s worst memory in the Pensieve confirmed that James targeted Snape more because he was friends with Lily, something that made him jealous. Rather than change his ways, James came up with an excuse and made up his mind that it was down to love.
He Became Too Reckless
It makes sense to those who read the books rather than purely watched the movies why James Potter was shown dead within seconds of Voldemort’s entrance into the Potter house. This was because he attempted to fight Voldemort without a wand. It was a result of James’ reckless mentality, something that had gotten worse after his school days. James started having a false sense of security due to the number of times he’d escaped Voldemort, not realizing that there were no magical solutions. He was also said to have continued getting into reckless adventures with Sirius, which contributed to his overconfidence.
He Tried To Be The Alpha Male All The Time
Snape and James’ fight in the Pensieve was most definitely a hard-hitting Harry Potter fight scene, where James won only because he was the one to target Snape first. He did so in public mainly to show off that he was the top dog in school, having reveled in feeling superior. While he’d initially started out simply being a troublemaker, James’ liking for the alpha position became worse when he encouraged his friends to storm the grounds with the werewolf Remus as it made him feel powerful to have control over such a dangerous situation. His constant need to impress, ruffling his hair for attention and keeping an old snitch around to catch, bothered Harry greatly.
He Became Limited To His Friend Circle
While there are a lot of things similar between the Golden Trio and the Marauders, Harry actually improved upon himself by making more friends and allies over the years. This was instrumental in him winning the war, as help was always there. Meanwhile, James Potter put himself into a corner before his death, as he was far too reliant on the few friends he had. His social life took a hit after his friends had other important things to do, and James was left feeling isolated with nobody to visit when he was in hiding. He could’ve even had other friends to take baby Harry in after his demise but didn’t grow as a person to form new connections.
He Started To Disregard Doing Magic In Front Of Muggles
Tying into James’ recklessness was his growing disregard for the consequences of his actions. This got worse after James Potter left school and was free to do magic, with a special Harry Potter prequel piece written by J.K. Rowling revealing that James and Sirius did magic right in front of the muggle police. The incident saw the two speeding in Sirius’ motorbike, before engaging with Death Eaters while using a police car as cover. They didn’t bother to wipe the Muggles’ memories either, confirming how James had gotten to the point where he started seeing himself as above Wizarding law.
He Became Trusting To A Fault
Lily and James’ death was obviously one of the major things that led to the finale in Deathly Hallows. In-universe, his demise was his own fault in many ways. That’s because James Potter put way too much faith in his friends. So much so, that he didn’t even realize there was a traitor in the midst. He agreed to whatever Dumbledore or Sirius told him, not bothering to make up his own mind. James also failed to see Pettigrew for the bad guy he was, which came down to his worsening judgment. This was a result of James becoming so trusting of his friends over the years that he couldn’t see what was in front of him.
He Became Prone To Mood Swings
Part of maturing is to understand where one has to sacrifice their preferences for the betterment of others. However, while Lily was okay with staying in hiding, James Potter was said to have become moody and annoyed with the constant isolation in her letter to Sirius Harry found in Deathly Hallows. It would’ve made sense if he was like this in his teen years, but it seems James became worse at controlling his emotions as the years went by, similar to how Sirius became during his isolation at Grimmauld Place. He didn’t develop the maturity needed to make peace with the fact that his hiding was supposed to be for the safety of his family.
He Became Predictable
Throughout the series, each person who knew James Potter told Harry they expected his father would have reacted to a situation a certain way. That’s because James became so open with others that he became far too predictable, to the point where people knew what his actions would be, making him somewhat of a liability to the Order of the Phoenix. It was due to this that Pettigrew was able to betray him, as he was certain James wouldn’t suspect him as the traitor. His predictability was also one of the reasons why Sirius chose to give up being the Secret Keeper, as he knew that Voldemort would expect James to choose him.
He Started Chasing After Danger
There’s a difference between looking for trouble and chasing after danger. James’ troublemaker days eventually transitioned into bigger kinds of problems, with the Marauders discovering most of the dangerous things that were kept at Hogwarts. This escalated after their graduation. It wasn’t as if Voldemort had been trying to kill him before the prophecy, yet James Potter had gone out of his way to fight the Dark Lord. This was a more troubling trait of his when considering Harry had only just been born, meaning James’ thirst for danger only got worse after becoming a father. With this trait in mind, it makes sense that he and Sirius were close friends.
He Lost The Moral High Ground To Snape
Severus had the moral high ground over the Marauders several times, as proven by various memories in which James Potter targeted and humiliated Snape. After all, not only did James not stop his bullying of Snape, but he abused his powers as Head Boy by following Snape with the Marauders map and continuing to wreak havoc on his life. His justification for this was that Snape was “a special case,” which showed how his mind became darker over the years. His hatred of Snape only got deeper, as Sirius shared this loathing into adulthood, and it was obvious that James would have been the same.