Eneasz Brodsky

He's extremely intelligent and competent and rational.

And so to even compete with that in the battle for Harry's soul, Hermione has to get some massive level ups too, to the point of almost being a Mary Sue.

But,

Dumbledore is having his own fight with Voldemort, but Dumbledore is not the other side here of the siege.

It's Hermione.

Dumbledore is on Hermione's side.

He's one of the allies in that siege.

I guess I'm just thinking like- If Korra is the devil on the shoulder, then on the other side is Hermione and yeah, not Dumbledore.

Yeah, I think not just battle-hardened and slightly broken.

Dumbledore is the Hermione that cracked.

And he's still mostly good, but he's not as good as Hermione anymore because the forces of battle wore him down enough.

And that's one of the reasons that people, I mean, I also kind of thought that one of the major conflicts was between Quirrell and Dumbledore.

And that is, I mean, that's kind of what is tried to be portrayed in the text.

But that is one of the reasons that all the analyses in the past have gotten it wrong, because we didn't see that it's Quirrell versus Hermione.

And, you know, the fact that Harry is not at the center of the Dumbledore versus Voldemort conflict should have been a clue.

Like, the protagonist has to be at the center, and that is why it's Quirrell versus Hermione fighting over Harry.

Dumbledore and Quirrell have their own separate battle, which is not, which is this one is kind of tangentially involved in, but it's not the primary one of the story.

It's also great because I do urge everyone to go and read the essay entirely for themselves or to listen to Askew's AI narration of it.

But he always pulls things from the text to back up his points.

It's like, my God, if I had just been reading this with my eyes open enough, it is right there with anyone for the eyes to see.