Apology - Sirius again...

[monika at darwin.inka.de]

No: HPFGUIDX 22477

--- In HPforGrownups at y..., "Amy Z" <aiz24 at h...> wrote:


> Koinonia wrote:
> 
> >The question should be 'is Sirius really a good guy?'
> 
> I find that very easy to answer:  YES.  Like Snape, he isn't always 
> *nice*, but he's definitely *good.*  I find his flaws more 
tolerable 
> than Snape's because while Sirius has shown himself to be 
thoughtless, 
> I don't ever see him being cruel, and cruelty is the hardest thing 
for 
> me to forgive (and, ::turns on broken record::, he was thoughtless 
> when he was *16* and grudge-filled when he was *just out of 
> Azkaban*--I can cut him some slack).  But I know this is one we 
have 
> to agree to disagree on.

Ok, I didn't want to say anything about it this time, but here I am 
again (I therefore left the "apology" in the subject line).
I am utterly bewildered that anyone can think that Sirius is *not* a 
good guy, and I won't repeat everything I have already said a dozen 
times or so, but someone who has been tortured for 12 years *does 
not* behave in a way that we would conceive as "normal". That's a 
fact, I am sorry to repeat it, and anyone who objects here should do 
some reading about what happens to long-time political prisoners 
and/or victims of torture. So, the behaviour we see in PoA is what is 
to be expected from someone who has spent the last twelve years under 
such inhuman conditions like Azkaban. 

As for Sirius' presumed sexiness, I don't think he really is 
physically attractive right now, so I don't think it plays such a 
great part in why I like him so much. And btw, good looks are only so 
much, they aren't everything. Of course he is attractive - he was 
written to be attractive - but it doesn't mean we let him get away 
with anything just because of this. Agreed, I let him get away with 
what he did in PoA, but mostly because I am convinced he can't be 
held responsible for it. This does *not* mean that I think that what 
he did was right (slashing the Fat Lady, slashing Ron's bed curtains 
or trying to choke Harry in the Shrieking Shack), I just believe 
those weren't acts of cruelty, but incidents IMO caused by his PTSD.

Sorry, just had to point this out again.
Monika