James as Remus

[sophineclaire]

No: HPFGUIDX 70262

  I went hunting for the BBC newsround interview that JKR did on 
November 2nd, 2001 has a reader or two have pointed this as being the 
one with HINTS regarding james actually being Remus...

Here are the relevant questions:



PART 3

-Now the future. Lupin's going to come back in book five isn't he? 

You'll see Lupin again in five yeah, yeah - do you like Lupin? 

-Oh yes, he's my favourite. 

Yeah and me. I always looked forward to writing book three because of 
Professor Lupin, I love him. You see a lot of old characters in book 
five. I'm not even going to try and tell you what happens in book 
five, I'm just recovering from the stress of book four. 


PART 4

-You wouldn't fancy Defence against the Dark Arts? 

No I'm too much of a coward. I'd have to be really in a corner before 
I come out fighting but then I don't generally. 


http://news.bbc.co.uk/cbbcnews/hi/tv_film/newsid_1634000/1634400.stm

Lots of Hints there. Unless the wrong interview has been Cited.

What really irks me about this whole theory is that it would be a 
real cop-out for JKR on many levels. 

    Lupin is a well-written character and the connection is often 
made between his Werewolfism and JKR's mom who suffered and died due 
to mutiple Scelrosis (sp! I know). JKR knows (hopefully) and is 
probably trying to integrate into Harry's World the fact that some 
People are sick ( If you wish to call Lupin's condition a sickness) 
and they will never get better. 

     You can live years with an illness, keeping one step ahead with 
drugs and surgeries adn therapies, but in the end, one has to accept 
that the sickness is winning. Lupin is described in Book 5 ( I 
believe, FLAME me f I'm wrong, no text at work you see...) as looking 
paler and thinner, rattier clothes and greying hair. I get the sense 
that he's gradually wasting away ( Or it could be the stress of the 
Order, but he had grey hair in POA so I say it's the year of full 
moons that have occurred inbetween. 

         I also think Lupin's bravery and gryffindor courage comes 
from having to go through this alone, even with MWPP during their 
school years. Sappy as it is, I have yet to hear him WHINE about the 
pain and other after effects of changing on page. To take all this 
and this character ( WHom I've seem to have made a little 2-D) and 
turn him into James no longer makes him an individual, but Remus the 
Persona, something that was never really there. Someone who really 
didn't deserve our interest or compassion. I'd rather read about a 
CHaracter who has qualities A,B,C then about a Character who has 
pretended to have them, no matter what the purpose.
 

   In terms of James, well, how brave and and forward thinking of him 
to switch bodies with Remus. To free Remus from all of the hard-stuff 
that comes with being a werewolf by giving Lupin the body of a man 
who's son is being hunted by Voldemort, gee, how thoughtfull or 
cowardice, or Stupid depends on how you look at it. We'll just let 
Harry pretend for 15,16,17 years that he has no family alive outside 
the Dursleys. We'll just let him pretend so that he can be proud of 
the sacrifice his mother and father made becauase of him. The soul 
that came out of Voldemort''s wand in GOF, That's just Remus keeping 
up the Ghost after all these years. 

  I think, especially after OOTP, we want something to not go sour on 
Harry really really badly that we are willing to make extreme 
concessions to buffer Harry's fall. I know this theory popped up 
before OOTP, but it seems that the way people wanted Harry to recover 
from the Special Fan's death was to discover that his father is 
actually alive and kicking and everything can be glossed over as best 
as it can. Poor Sirius! Or in another sense, the reader really wants 
REmus to have some R&R from his condition because, really, a lifetime 
is just to long to be suffering as a werewolf. What better way to 
give Lupin that peace then to reveal that he's been dead all along 
and the Lupin we have seen never truly existed but was just an act of 
sorts. But at the same time, we've resurrected one of the people 
Harry has wanted to have in his live ad since Lupin never existed no 
time is wasted in truly mourning him.

-SophineClaire
   Who likes her Lupin as a werewolf and her James both Dead and a 
vengeful spirit in the GOF graveyard scene.