Would JKR make Lupin evil?

[alhewison]

No: HPFGUIDX 39772

I felt honour-bound to reply to Pippin, the Chief-Protagonist in the 
evil-Lupin forum, but I do admit to be using "gut-feeling" which is 
always dangerous when duelling against a seasoned campaigner. Anyway, 
here goes:-

> --- In HPforGrownups at y..., "pippin_999" <foxmoth at q...> wrote:

>  I don't think it's necessary for Remus to be ever-so-innocent in 
> order to show us that prejudice is harmful and self defeating. I 
> think it's important for Remus to have flaws, and they might as 
> well be big ones. If his only problem  is that no one, including 
> himself, recognizes his real worth,  that makes him pretty much 
> a Gary Stu (Mary Sue) character. Same profession as the author, 
> no character defects, has a terrible secret and the heroes love 
> him. Yawn. JKR's better than that.

But Lupin doesn't have a secret: he has a serious "illness". He has a 
serious character defect, he's a werewolf. The fact that he *seems* 
to be a decent person despite this shouldn't mean that the heroes 
can't love him and doesn't mean he is boring.

> Greg:
> > In short, this war is going to force the WW to start reexamining 
>  some of their old prejudices, but that's only going to happen if 
> the  above 3 men remain loyal to the "good" side.<<
> 
> I can't see our heroes turning against all werewolves even if one 
> of them betrays them. It is their leadership, not Remus' example, 
> good or bad, which is going to affect the attitudes of the many. 

I don't think that the issue is whether Remus is representative of 
werewolves. IMO the point is that JKR has chosen Lupin to represent 
social misfits in general (and perhaps more specifically those with 
medical problems). I believe that it is this symbolic status that 
will keep him on the good side.
 
>  He's coming back for another book, which means JKR will be 
> doing something to change our perception of the character.  
> Otherwise there'd be no story.

 Why? - we're seeing him in a very different environment. He'll be a 
field operator in a war not a benign teacher. Why must he be evil as 
well?

> Catja3000:
> >>> " her overall theme is  that extending understanding to those 
> who are different brings out  the good in them.<<<
> 
> Interesting. Where do we see this? Understanding may allow us 
> to *recognize* the good in someone else, which is the gist of 
> Dumbledore's closing speech in GoF.   I don't see anyone trying 
> to  "bring out the good" in someone else, except Hagrid with 
> Norbert, and we know how that turned out. 

I suppose I would express it slightly differently. IMO JKR is showing 
that those who are "different" have good in them. Their differences 
need to be understood so that the good points can be used and they 
can all function and interact in society, notwithstanding their very 
real limitations. This is a gut feel, so it's very difficult to 
defend.
> 
> Pippin:
 
>  Consider Fudge's conversation in The Three Broomsticks. 
> "Potter trusted Black beyond all his other friends. Nothing 
> changed when they left school."  We're being told that James 
> trusted Sirius more than Lupin, and that some of James' 
> friendships must have altered after he left school. Fudge doesn't 
> know that Pettigrew turned against James, so whom could he 
> have meant?  Only Lupin, assuming Fudge's information comes 
> from Dumbledore and is reliable in this case. 

I don't think this means anything more than James chose Sirius to be 
Best Man, Godfather and then Secret Keeper.The fact that Sirius was 
trusted more, desn't mean that Lupin wasn't trusted.


>I don't think James and Sirius are prejudiced against werewolves. 
What happened  to make them think  that Lupin wasn't reliable? Why 
did they think he was the spy?

IMO they knew that one of their friends was a spy; they didn't think 
that Peter was capable, ergo it HAD to be Lupin.  Imagine the pathos 
for James: dying, knowing that he had wrongly distrusted 1 of his 
friends, that another had betrayed him, and still another would get 
blamed for it.

> It seems that Dumbledore could give Lupin a wizarding 
> education, but he couldn't force the wizarding world to treat Lupin 
> as a human being. Can't you  just imagine Lupin  getting the 
> same treatment as Winky? "That's not the point of a werewolf!" 
> and slam goes the door.  There are plenty of real life examples 
> of people who became extremists under such circumstances. 

I fully accept this but don't think this means that *Lupin* must 
turn. Ultimately, it depends on whether you believe that JKR is using 
Lupin to make a positive message. Evil Lupin gives a warning, but it 
isn't positive.
> 
>snip
> 
> > One more bit of evidence: as the gang was leaving the Shrieking 
> Shack, Lupin "picked up the Invisibility Cloak and tucked it safely 
> into his pocket." That shows a strange presence of mind for 
> someone who supposedly has forgotten to take his potion, 
> forgotten to deactivate the Map in his office, and forgotten that 
*he  is about to turn into a werewolf* . The narrative purpose can't 
be  just to get the cloak out of the way so Timeturned!Harry can't 
use  it. That would have been accomplished just as well by leaving 
> the cloak in the shack, which  was my mistaken impression from
> previous readings.   What was going on?
 
> Pippin

Surely, the circumstances had changed fundamentally: Lupin forgot the 
potion and the marauders maps when he realised the trio could be in 
danger - and 2 former friends, 1 who he believed dead and the other a 
traitor, were with them. When he comes out of the shack, he's 
regained a friend, seized a traitor, seen that the kids are OK. He 
now has the time to clear up the cloak. He's in teacher mode looking 
after the kids, and clearing up after them.

Ali