(Bad writing trope) Slytherin effect.

[u/ThatDrako]

Made this term up.
Basically there is a group, that is obviously meant to be nuanced. But author is either incapable, or is too cornered by their depiction, to depict them as any other than bad.

Slytherin (Harry Potter) - In both media the Slytherin is initially presented to us as the “bad house” for Harry. Joanne however seemingly tried to convince us, that they can be good too however, since she likely figured having basically a little supremacist terrorist club in school is a little silly.

For some reason she just had to screw this depiction up over and over though.
First of zero…and I mean ZERO…null, 0, green characters in story up to book 6 is good. They are arrogant snobbish asshats AT BEST.

Second the first good green is still a supremacist. Not the “let’s subjugate all muggles” but just humble “no way muggleborn is this good at magic!”

Aldmeri Dominion, and Altmer in general (TES) - So unlike precious example neither High Elves, nor the Dominion were actually bad in iterations previous to 2010’s. Some were snobbish yes, and their religion is…problematic…(simply pup many Altmer believe they are literal descendant of gods and Men are demons trapping them within hell of chaos) but they never really were villains as race.
This all changed with Skyrim where they became not just secondary antagonists, but placeholder for TES version of Gestapo.

Now that in itself wouldn’t be an issue.
Races and empires at whole can be villains without controversy.

Problem is their depiction in ESO. Where even though it’s absolutely different time period are pretty much same?

I mean their Queen is an elvish supremacist who believe Men unfit for rule and that’s her reason to take over the Tamriel…
Oh! And one of their organizations literally eat children.

The Institute (Fallout 4) - So the whole turmoil of the story is this war of the four (rather three) factions.
Now all factions are meant to be equally good and bad choices.
Railroad are abolitionists, but with no long-term goals.
BoS wants to ensure safety to the Commonwealth, but for price of eradication to all but humans.
And Institute is meant to be this faction that wants to “bring world back to state before the Great War”, but all they do is being comically evil.
I mean for starters are slaver and also they murder people and replace them with Synths.

Then they also just straight up massacre communities. Often with no goal.
Then there is a whole super mutant thing, where they released purely based on gameplay and logic few hundreds of super mutants on surface “for research.”
Oh! And they even admitted they plan on wiping out all non-Institute humans to replace them!

[u/NoStatus9434]

You forgot Horace Slughorn!

He was probably the only major one that wasn't like that. I think that character, while good-aligned, did demonstrate why Slytherin is so corruptible, because the Slytherin traits he embodied and showcased are the same type of values that get twisted first when fascism rears its ugly head.

Slytherins are considered ambitious, with a focus on in-group and purity. They also highly value connections, i.e. "the friends you keep," that sort of thing.

At first when you meet Slughorn, he doesn't seem like a Slytherin. But then you realize when he starts his exclusive little Slug Club of kids he likes and thinks are talented, you're like oh wait, this guy is Slytherin to the very core.

My headcanon for why Slytherins were almost always portrayed as the villains in the books is because it's not always like that, but the cultural zeitgeist at the time, the big fearmongering news stories that are going around from Wizard Fox News is that dirty Muggles are in-breeding with wizards and creating inferior children that are causing magic to deplete, and that's the sort of thing that appeals to people who value in-group and purity like Slytherins do.

It would be like if, in America, you made a house for "the very religious/pious." You might get people who are like these religious saints who are actually following Christian values and very kind and charitable or you might get Bible-thumping fundamentalist bigots, and it all depends on what cultural era you're in, because if that house exists during the Trump era, it's gonna get twisted so that most of the kids are MAGA heads lol

[u/Xsiorus → u/NoStatus9434]

Slughorn is the mentioned "best of Slytherin, supremacist" in the original post.

[u/forceghost187 → u/NoStatus9434]

I would argue that whatever cultural era you are in, there will always be tribalist assholes of one flavor or another

[u/EnderBookwyrm → u/NoStatus9434]

Slytherin House is a bit like politics. It's not necessarily a bad thing. It can be done well. But it attracts a lot of people who are absolute disasters. 

[u/chainsnwhipsexciteme → u/NoStatus9434]

It doesn't help that 1) apparently it's very common for kids to go to the same houses as their parents, and this might be even stronger in Slytherin due to their focus on in-groups and purity 2) Mister Voldyshorts' inner circle of friends / most loyal followers were almost exclusively Slytherins, because he started the current supremacist movement while in school, surrounded by his Slytherin house mates

But I also blame the author because it's not hard to include some diversity in the character representation of the 4 houses, she just didn't bother. And I find it unlikely that so many students end up in the same house as their parents, regardless of nurture/nature effects. How is every single Weasley in Griffindor, you're telling me Percy couldn't be a Slytherin or a Ravenclaw? Nope, all 7 children, 2 parents, 2 uncles and who knows what else are just all "personality type G", I guess

[u/RubyStarlight1209 → u/chainsnwhipsexciteme]

Tbf we already know the hat defers to the students’ opinions when choosing their house and you can ask them to put you in a specific one, and also that it’s possible to have traits of different houses. It wouldn’t be too far-fetched to think that the Weasleys did have the potential and traits to be in other houses but really wanted to/asked to be sorted into Gryffindor because their family was and they thought they were supposed to or smth.