Subject: Point by point.
Author:
Posted on: 2016-03-05 19:06:00 UTC
The thing about characters who need to be/get taken down a peg or two is that they're great as secondary characters. Watching that happen from the outside is good. But writing a convincing protagonist who starts off haughty and gets knocked down into something more humble? Very difficult, and quite likely to put people off your character before you get to the change.
The muppet thing: what comes across from her is 'he is so stupid, but I will say nothing because I am better than that', and definitely not anything like 'I guess he knows best'. Which... y'know, isn't a likeable person.
Jumping out of order a bit: it's not about what her final decision was, I've got no opinion on that. The issue I have is with her thought process, which (from memory) went:
-"This Harry is better than the original, maybe I should leave it."
-"But it would be funny to have the agents hit him, so maybe I should send them in."
-"There isn't enough material, so I'll leave it."
The third decision is the only one she should be making. Yes, it's what she settled on - but she considered going with either of the other two, and those are emphatically not her job.
If you order a salad in a restaurant, and after you eat your server comes to you and says, "I thought about bringing you a steak instead because I figured it'd be nicer, but in the end I decided not to," that server would not be doing their job. That's what Kelly did here.
The characterisation of Harry is an extension of the same issue. It's fine that she doesn't like him - but she goes on about it so strongly that it feels like 'and neither should anyone else, the idiots'. Which, again, not a likeable character.
There is nothing here which makes her inconsistent. But she's a perfectly consistent and utterly unlikeable person who is going to be fired before too long.
hS