Gryffindor Qualities

[AidaLuthien]

Perhaps this is the wrong section to post this in (please move if necessary mods!) but I'm having a problem writing a realistic Gryffindor OC.

Gryffindors are brave (sometimes to the point of foolhardy). They have a well developed sense of honor and sense of doing what's right.

What else makes up a Gryffindor?

[OliveOil_Med]

Well, let's see what other adjectives were uses:

Bold, Chivilrous, Daring, Brazen

Those all still kinds sound like 'brave, though, don't they?

I feel like Gryffindor was meant to be the quint-essential 'hero house', though, and brave does tend to be the main characterisitic that comes to mind with heros. But another definition of hero I have heard is a person who is able to head into danger, even when they really are scared, because they know it is what they need to do. I feel like anyone that J.K. wanted to be one of the 'major heros' in the book got Sorted into Gryffindor, even Neville who didn't seem to show his hero side until the last few books.

I also think some unofficial traits (or at least things Snape has said) are that Gryffindors are pig0headed, stubborn, have poor self-preservation, all-brawns no-brains, that sort of thing.

[AidaLuthien]

Ok, how does good ole Dumbledore fit as a Gryffindor then?

He's smart enough to be a Ravenclaw and manipulative enough to be in Slytherin. ... of course, we don't really know what 11 year old Dumbledore was like but still.

[ron lover]

I think Dumbledore is a Gryffindor because he stands up for what he believes in, like with the Order. I'm sure other poeople in different Houses do too, but Dumbledore listens to himself and stays true to his opinions, even if most of the world doesn't listen to him. He was probably like that while he was younger. Or maybe there was some life changing event while he was in his early teens.

That's what I think, anyway.

[OliveOil_Med]

Well, remember in DH where Dumbledore wonder if they Sort their students too early? Depending on how self aware you think he is, he might have been refering to himself as well.

And I have always felt that the traits found in Slytherins would be pretty hard to spot in an eleven-year-old. Perhapes Dumbledore always had these traits to some degree and the just matured over time "while sitting at his mother's knees.". Or he could have just really begged the Hat to put him in Gryffindor too; maybe it was his father's House.

Or, like I said before, it could have just been a literary device to show Dumbledore as the supremem hero while the books were still pretty slanted in good vs. evil.

[AidaLuthien]

So Gryffindors are more likely to stand up for what they believe in, even if it's an unpopular stance? Or do you think a Gryffindor would be more worried about whether people think they are brave?

Also, how does "chivalrous" work out in the case of girls? I think I have a bad reaction to the word because it gets conflated with misogyny sometimes, but seriously, how does chivalrous work for girls?

[memish]

For a girl, chivalry would be more like good manners, politeness, gracious maybe? At least that's how I view the word, but in my mind Gryffindors aren't necessarily always "polite." And that's certainly not the case in the books.

As to your other point, I think that a Gryffindor is meant to be someone who would do what is right...in the end. I also think that realistically, they might feel the pressure of their house turning out so many "hero" type figures and thus worry about being seen as brave. Many Gryffindors that we see in the books, however, don't seem to worry overly much about their public perception. But, for me, the main thing would be doing what THEY truly believe in the end.