Why is Luna Lovegood a Great Character in Harry Potter?

Why is Luna Lovegood one of the best characters in the Harry Potter series? She is a character that has so many layers of complexity. Somebody seeing her on the outside may see her as this dreamy kid who's got eccentric ideas and mannerisms. And there are some people in the school that a found her very frustrating or irritating made fun of her.

A great example of people being mean to Luna is Romilda Vale who calls her a multicolored owl because of her unique dressing sensibilities. But at the same time, Luna Lovegood has a very unique ability, one of which is her ability to comfort people who are going through difficult life experiences. When Harry Potter first encounters the thestrals and none of his other friends are able to see the thestrals and he's very confused. Luna love good comes to him and explains to him that she too can see the Thestral, becoming a comforting presence to him in the midst of his confusion. And this ability that Luna Lovegood brings of being a comforting presence when people are struggling, when people are confused is something that she does multiple times.

In the final battle, when Harry is distressed, she again becomes this comforting presence and calming presence for Harry Potter. And it's not just Harry Potter. Even the wand maker, Ollievander tells her as they are released from Malfoy’s prison, " I you, my dear. You were an inexpressible comfort to me. In that terrible place."

So what helps Luna Lovegood to be that person that brings comfort to people when they are there, when they are in distress? And how has she developed that ability? A part of this goes back to Luna Lovegood's own life history. When she was about nine her mom died accidentally. She witnessed that death. Anytime somebody witnesses death, in the Harry Potter world, they become people that can see the thestral, which are invisible until then.

This is an important part, right? So when Luna, Lovegood encounters death, and grief in her life that changes the way she sees the world, it helps her to be sensitized to things that other people are blind to. The Thestrals is a great metaphor of that. And it is that ability to be more sensitive, to be able to see things that other people are blind to is what helps her to be sensitive to people's needs that others don't notice. And that is what helps her to be this comforting presence for people around her. So this is the place in which we see how her own trauma in life helped her to become the person that she ultimately became.

And this trope of experiencing trauma as a kid, and then working through the trauma and finding a strength through the trauma that later on helps somebody to become a uniquely gifted in certain things it's something that we see in many different superhero characters as well. For example Batman where as a young person, he encounters the death of his parents and that becomes a trauma to him. Eventually he works to through the trauma by developing different skills that helps them to save the world in different ways. Right?.

So getting in touch with our own grief helps us to develop our own unique gifts which Lovegood did really well. This also reminds me of a verse from Isaiah 53:3 which is a prophecy about Jesus, "he is despised rejected off men, a man of suffering, acquainted with grief." So this idea that Jesus himself was somebody who was rejected by men, knew what it meant to suffer and was acquainted with grief, of pain and loss. And this is important, especially because we live in the world where people often try to avoid pain. People often try to avoid sitting in grief and try to shut that out. But instead of trying to shut that out, being acquainted with grief is an important virtue that helps us to have empathy for other people, as in the case of Luna Lovegood, or even Batman, helps us to develop a deeper sense of gifting and talentedness.

In the case of Luna Lovegood, it's not just that she's a person that has empathy, she's also a warrior. Because in the final battle we see her Petronas is the silver hare which she uses to scare away the dementors who themselves are very scary creatures. So Luna Lovegood is not just this person who's always a comforting presence and can't do anything else, she is also a warrior who can go to war and fight for the right cause, and at the same time she's got a heart, a heart that is sensitive to things that other people couldn't see, a heart that loves people well. her last name is love good! Right?

Luna Lovegood being a warrior with a heart, who has the ability to defeat dementors and also comfort people in distress a very unique character in the Harry Potter series and definitely one of my most personal favorite characters And what gives to us is the sense that when we encounter grief when we encounter pain that grief and pain can change us in positive ways that can benefit our society.