Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-6025653-20150222154650/@comment-24805602-20150223214612

I actually JUST had a conversation like this with my roommate XD At the end of Breach, when the Vale Council showed up, she said: "Oh, look, it's the Ministry of Magic! Let's just hope Dolores doesn't show up." And then I realized that General Ironwood is a semi-parallel to Dolores Umbridge. Both are sent in by a governing body, both are involved in making military/political decisions, both send reports to the government about the efficacy of the school's leadership, and both have a tense relationship with the 'deputy headmistress' character (though Glynda seems to soften towards Ironwood).

That's where the similarities end for me, but my roommate takes this parallel as proof that Ironwood is evil (she falls into that camp; I don't).

As for Port and Oobleck, I'd definitely liken Oobleck to Lupin - both form close bonds with our main protagonists, both have noble reasons for their chosen career choices, both are clearly highly-educated, both have concerns about descrimination, both try to push their students to excel (not that other teachers don't, but we actively see it happening with Lupin and Oobleck), and both are given much more character development - and Port to Gilderoy Lockheart and/or Horace Slughorn - both of which should be pretty obvious.

I wonder if there's a traceable source for the typical 'teacher' archetypes that we see in modern media?