Everybody loves Hagrid, right? I shouldn't have told you that.
I should not have told you that. Heeeey, Brotheeeeeeeer. Boy howdy, y'all, if there was one thing
I assumed to be universally agreed upon, it was love for what I had previously assumed
to be everyone's favorite half giant, Hagrid. Which, now that I'm saying it, I realize that
the sample pool for half giants is quite small and only includes Madam Maxime and ol' Rubeus
himself, who we get way more time with. So... huh. But just here recently I was conversing with a collection of friends when, to my utter shock and surprise, this very notion that Hagrid was anything but just swell
was thrown into question. And then when I thought things couldn't get
any worse, I found this Reddit post titled: Now, granted, it only has one upvote
and was posted nine years ago and the 34 comments are mostly refuting this very idea and the uploader is an account that no longer exists- probably out of shame-
but still. Actually I do feel like I should clarify- you should never feel shame if you need to take a step back. You have my full support for taking your energies elsewhere. But if I'm not using my platform here to argue a nearly decade old point about a fictional character against an anonymous poster- who by my own admission's decision I fully support-
then what am I even doing with my life? I mean, Hagrid? Hagrid?!
First of all, how dare you? And also, second of all?
[rage robot echo] How dare you?! But third of all, I can kind of see where you're coming from.
I mean, with all the dangerous creatures and the information slipping and I should not have told you that. Leaning on your 11-year-old best friends to
solve all your problems, the drinking, and the overall, you know, lack of character growth across seven books. But you know what? I won't stand for it. So today,
we come to the defense of Rubeus Hagrid. [Music] Hey Brother! Okay, let's tackle this point by point. First off,
the dangerous creatures. Of which there are a lot. And, yeah, okay, this is kind of a big one. Not just
in the size of potential dangers but also the size of the actual monsters.
The first one is not so bad. I mean, who doesn't love old Fluffer Nutters,
the giant three-headed dog? [Golden Tri-scream] I mean, we all love Fluffy, right? But
perhaps the more pertinent question is, who doesn't ol' Fluffer Nutters love?
And the answer: pretty much everyone. Actually, it's this chief characteristic in
particular that makes Fluffy a part of the plot in the first place. If all three
of its heads were just fun loving and wanted to lick your face, it wouldn't make
for such a spectacular piece of defense. Now, to be fair, maybe Fluffster is friendly
to Hagrid, who, despite actually owning Fluffy, we never get to see interact with him. In the
meantime, though, Fluffy definitely has a more "bite heads off first, ask questions...
never, who cares, I'm a dog" kind of disposition. Though some something deep inside of me
likes to think at least one of the heads is, like, really sensitive and less sure about the
governing body's overall mission statement to, you know, bite off heads, citing the
self-reflection incident of '87. You know, wherein the majority shareholders
aka two other heads saw their reflection and realized other creatures were
facing a serious head scarcity. Which is, of course, to say other
creatures only have the one. Fortunately for Hagrid, though, Dumbledore
had a very niche use for such an animal, but I have to imagine that if the stone didn't
need guarding that year, and Fluffy was just chained up outside of Hagrid's hut, he might
not have been so welcomed by the students. But, hey, let's give Fluffy the benefit of the doubt.
Maybe the real reason he was so angry all the time is because he was locked in a room
with nowhere to go for a year. They don't even put the mirror in place until
after Harry sees it over Christmas break. What's Fluffy even defending
for the first 4 months? But moving on. Let's talk about beast number two: Norbert. Who, I'm not going to lie, is a real low point for Hagrid. Here's the premise: Hagrid owns a baby dragon. Look, he knows his mummy. The reaction? Think about that. This feels like a Hermione citation.
But if an 11-year-old Ron knows a History of Magic fact, just, like, off his head, you better believe it's common knowledge. And if a fact like that is common knowledge, it's because of just how illegal it is. And I feel like I just got to say that it's pretty poor judgment for Hagrid to do something as illegal as breed/hatch/own a dragon when you're already convicted of murder via giant monster. Now, of course, granted, we the audience know
he's innocent. But, for one, this is still against the law. And two, the Ministry of Magic does not
think you are innocent. Like, what are you doing, man?? Actively poking the bear. Which, to be fair,
does seem like something Hagrid would do. But it's not only that. The means
under which he acquires the dragon egg are drinking and gambling. But also,
it is during this particular occasion when he also reveals the secret way past Fluffy, ironically giving the information to the very person who framed him for murder in the first place! And then to get rid of the Dragon, rather than, you know, going to Dumbledore, he allows first year students to wander around the school at night with the illegal cargo. Which, by the way, includes possibly one of the broadest stroke sentences used in the entire series. Like, have you ever wondered how Harry and Hermione managed to get a live, fire breathing dragon through the castle
to the topmost tower undetected? Let me just provide you with a summary.
This is the actual description from the book. And actually, I lied before. That's not even
a summary. That is the entire story. Like, how did they do it?
Even they don't know. Well... All right, then. Even after that, Harry and Hermione get caught
out of bed. Hagrid is literally the one to carry out their punishment, and doesn't vouch for them at all. If anything- and to be fair, this is directed at Malfoy in particular, who's also there- but still, the whole incident spawns from Hagrid's
actions, and Hagrid, like, doubles down. And like I said, this is really a low
point. The only defense I have is that Dumbledore knows Hagrid very well, and
anticipated and intended for Hagrid to let slip the information so that Harry could meet
Voldemort. It was all part of the big plan. Actually, on that exact note, I do personally
subscribe to Dumbledore's big plan, which if you'd like check out, you can do so right over
here. Basically it's just that Dumbledore planned everything from the very beginning, and everything
that Harry does is all part of a big test. But either way, that would just
mean that being reliably clumsy with vital information is hardly
anything for Hagrid to be proud of. Should not have said that. Moving on, though, let's talk about Aragog.
You know, the giant spider. Which feels like more poor judgment on Hagrid's part.
I mean, even though Aragog didn't murder Moaning Myrtle, he goes on to prove he's a very dangerous
creature who'd be totally fine with killing students that aren't Hagrid, even
if they are friends with Hagrid. But I cannot deny them fresh meat when
it wanders so willingly into our midst. Basically when Hagrid sends Harry and Ron to
talk to Aragog, Aragog fully intends to let his family eat them. Hagrid is a bad judge of danger.
However, I will say that in this particular case, Aragog is truly Hagrid's friend and, at the
very least, this speaks to Hagrid's ability to see the good in others, no matter how
large and hairy and spider-like they are. Which absolutely clouds his judgment
at times, but his heart is pure. Mad and hairy? You wouldn't be
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his first ever lesson with the hippogriffs, as well. He perhaps jumps the gun a little and doesn't warm
the class up with, you know, smaller creatures first. But it's because he has such utter confidence in the students to be able to handle such creatures. Like, honestly, his actual poor judgment here is that Malfoy would listen to him,
which nearly cost him his job. It's killed me! Like, almost the question is more in between, like, "Should I, Hagrid, trust the hippogriffs with the students?" Or "Should Hagrid have been able to guess that Malfoy would ruin things after he threatened to turn him in for owning a dragon in year one, and then Lucius escorted him to Azkaban in year two?" I mean, probably. But, if anything, like everything else with Hagrid,
he doesn't give up on Malfoy, either. He gives him another chance and just because that turns out to be a bad choice, I still think it's kind of the correct one. Well, okay, at least, to be just
absolutely crystal clear here, I don't think that the students should learn
from getting hurt. But I appreciate the fact that Hagrid could have looked at his students
and thought the worst of them but didn't. Meanwhile, though, the following year with the
Skrewts, it's a little bit harder to defend. Again, looking back at year three, he kind of,
like, overcorrects from hippogriff to flobberworm for the whole year. Like, what a complete
waste of class time, Hagrid. But then Hagrid sort of, like, overcorrects again to his original position and goes right back to breaking the law by illegally creating brand new creatures
by breeding fire crabs and manticores. Which, by the by, here's what those two things look
like. Why would you even think it was possible for them to procreate in the first place?
Also, also, just a genuine question from me to you... Why is a fire crab a turtle? Answer me
that. That's actually a real question. Like, in different parts of the world, are, like,
crabs and turtles more, like, interchangeable for some reason? Because I personally wouldn't
think that this could work. But that's where you've almost got to hand it to Hagrid a little bit. Like, unbridled curiosity, am I right? Because ultimately, guess what? They can, in fact,
breed and before unleashing them to the wild, he has the good sense to study them by, you know,
letting his fourth years raise them. And sure, we could ask questions like, "Are they
dangerous enough to help guard the Triwizard Cup? The trophy in a competition for only 17-year-old
and up wizards?" They are! And we never would have known that if
he didn't test them on 14-year-olds first. Science! Yeah, science! Then, of course, moving on, we also have
his little brother, the 16 foot giant runt, Grawp. Arguably a win for the good guys
in the end, but also, he seems unwilling to trust them with the information that
he has Grawp in the first place. Like, I love how the plot of Order of the Phoenix is
that the order is guarding some kind of secret weapon which turns out to just be, like,
you know, some kind of boring glass ball. But Hagrid legit has a giant weapon he's
hiding, too, and rather than trust the order with it after he's gone, he just gets,
you know, Harry and Hermione to do it. Safety first. But also, you know, here's the thing. Like,
I'd love to say that this is an absurd request, but at this point, the trio really
has spent a lot of time interacting with creatures way outside the scope. So, who
knows? Maybe this one is just, you know, fine. It's really not, though. But you know what? Harry has been complaining
about Grubbly-Plank all year long. This is basically what he wanted. And at least
Harry and Hermione got to miss out on the first cool thing that Ron got to do
since he was knocked unconscious playing chess back in year one. Which, to be fair,
that incident is actually super cool. But, without context, being knocked out while playing
chess seems otherwise so just completely unlikely. That's totally barbaric. But back to Hagrid, the man we're supposed to be
coming to the defense of. Something that I dare say we've barely accomplished
this far into the video. Thank you for sticking around, by the way. So, let's circle back to a sentiment we expressed
very early in today's video. Hagrid doesn't have a ton of overall
character growth, it's true. But I think that's kind of because he does have that far to go. I mean, he's already 12 foot tall, how much more
growing do you want out of the guy? [canned laughter] No, but all kidding aside, I do genuinely believe that Hagrid is just already the best version of himself. If your worst trait is overestimating the goodness of something, then, on the whole, that's not so bad. Seriously misunderstood creatures, spiders are.
It's the eyes, I reckon. They unnerve some folk. Not to mention the pincers.
[clicks tongue] And I think the proof basically resides in none other than
our good ol' boy HP. Harry Potter. Harry Potter. Harry Potter. Harry Potter. Harry Potter. Harry Potter. The main character of the story.
The Chosen One. Okay, sorry. Harry's delivery to the Dursley's in the very first chapter comes thanks to three key players, who all contribute to Harry's overall character. They each provide their own unique roles as a surrogate father figure, if you will. There's Sirius, who provides the motorbike that Hagrid
takes to deliver Harry. Whose talent and spirit to fight against evil and emphasis on friendship, above all else, is deeply rooted in Harry. Dumbledore, whose plan it is to leave him
with the Dursley's in the first place, Whose wisdom and determination to look out for the welfare of others is central to Harry's own arc. Like, I don't know if Harry enters the forest on his own
to accept death without Dumbledore. And then lastly, you have Hagrid. The one who
actually delivers him to the Dursley's. Arguably the most humble of the three, but no less vital. Hagrid does exactly what we said: he sees the good where maybe others do not. He loves creatures for being unique in their own ways. Honestly, it's not terribly dissimilar to how Harry himself loves Hagrid. Or how Harry treats Dobby as an equal, accepts Lupin for who he is or respects
a goblin's way of life. What I'm ultimately trying to say is that, sure,
a dragon is certainly dangerous, but that doesn't mean it's not useful or fascinating
in loads of other ways. And I think all of this is Illustrated thanks to Hagrid. So, boom, there you go, guys. Honestly I was completely mind blown to hear any of my friends suggest the idea that they weren't otherwise
enamored with Hagrid. So, be sure to let me know in the towel section down below, what do you think? Is he a good character? Good guy? Overall positive force on Harry? Or is he just constantly throwing potentially dangerous situations at the students? Let me know all of your thoughts
down below. [Music] Hey, Brother! But otherwise, guys, thank you so much for watching. Be sure to like this video and subscribe to the channel
if you haven't already. If you'd like to check out Dumbledore's Big Plan- it basically outlines every single thing that Dumbledore orchestrated from the very beginning-
you can do so right over here. But otherwise, until next time, bye!
