Regulus Black: naive or evil

[kiricat2001]

No: HPFGUIDX 72890

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "m_warren17" <m_warren17 at y...> 
wrote:
> With the revelations about the Black family in OOP, I was wondering 
> about the character of Sirius's brother, Regulus, mentioned briefly 
> by Sirius when he and Harry were looking at the Black family tree. 
> 
> 
> "...Sirius smiled bitterly and ran his fingers through his long, 
> unkempt hair. 'Because I hated the whole lot of them: my parents, 
> with their pure-blood mania, convinced that to be a Black made you 
> practically royal... my idiot brother, soft enough to believe 
> them...that's him.' 
> 
>  Sirius jabbed a finger at the very bottom of the tree, at the 
> name 'Regulus Black'. A date of death (some fifteen years 
previously) 
> followed by the date of birth.
> 
> 'He was younger than me,' said Sirius, 'and a much better son, as I 
> was constantly reminded.'"
> 
> 
> From the little information that we hear about him, I had the 
> impression that Regulus was somewhat naive and easily led, but 
> certainly not evil on the same scale that Voldemort or Lucius 
Malfoy 
> are. 

I'd say that's a safe assumption, especially as he tried to back out 
of his committment to the DEs, which they didn't take at all well.  
No sense of humor, those people...

> 
> What struck me was that Sirius seemed to be almost dismissive of 
> Regulus when he was speaking about him. He sounded contemptous but 
I 
> had the feeling that the animosity that he harboured towards his 
> Regulus was not on the same level that he displayed towards his 
> parents and Voldemort's other supporters. 

Well, I too have a brother that I'm not fond of.  Certainly my family 
didn't have issues anything like what existed between Sirius and his 
family.  But, he and I are not fond of one another.  We don't wish 
ill for each other; if he needed help or money or a kidney or 
whatever, I'd do whatever I could for him.  And vice versa.  But, on 
the other hand, we don't particularly like each other and are quite 
happy not to see each other.  I refer to him as "my evil brother."  
Anyone hearing me talk about him might infer that there is active 
dislike, when really it's more active indifference.  So, the fact 
that Sirius uses the word "idiot" to refer to his brother does not 
strike me as a terrible sin.

Also, the fact that he 
> tried to back out of being Death Eater once he found out what was 
> involved (and was killed as a result) seems to indicate that he had 
> an aversion to killing (unlike the more hard-core Voldemort 
> supporters). What are people's opinions on this?

I wonder if the whole blood purity thing was something that Regulus 
truly believed in, or if he was influenced by his parents to a 
greater than normal degree by their praising him for his attitude and 
holding him us as a shining example, especially in comparison with 
his brother.

Marianne