OotP - feeling just a bit resentful...

[guardianapcelt]

No: HPFGUIDX 61685

  Shelaghcol wrote:

> Resentful just a tad towards JKR on behalf of Sirius.
> I'm having a "what was the point" kinda time here about the books.
> To elaborate:
> Sirius Black is declared guilty of all those deaths without trial, 
> manages to stay sane for over a decade in Azkaban, escapes and   
  meets 
> his parentally challenged godson, establishes a parental    
  relationship 
> with said godson, is out for less than three years and....
> he gets snuffed....
 
> The poor man basically had no life at all, spent nearly half of it 
> either in prison wrongfully or on the lam, is never cleared and 
> that's about it - so sorry, Messrs. Black and Potter.
> 
> Anyone else having similar resentments about that whole thing?
> 


  Me:  YES! Not just that though...while I certainly loved the book, 
it had far too much angst and suffering in it. Angst followed by 
happiness is a good thing, and tragedy is easier to deal with in a 
book when most of the book is (fairly) happy. That's what I like 
about Goblet of Fire, it was, largely, a happy story, subtracting the 
tragic end. 
      Now we have Order of the Phoenix. I was expecting a dark book, 
which I was looking forward to. I was expecting a bit of a depressing 
book as well, death is obviously a necessary element 
in 'realistically' portraying a major conclict between good and evil. 
But OOTP started out angsty and got worse (from the point of angst, 
not quality) and worse as the book progressed. The amount of 
depressing things happening to Harry seemed to stack higher and 
higher, and even things which should have been uplifting, like his 
relationship with Cho (which I admitably didn't want to last, being a 
faithful H/G shipper). It was obvious to me that if she were to have 
anything with Harry it wouldn't last but geez...she could have made 
it a bit less heartwrenching. 
     The book was largely a sad story, though there were a few parts 
that were uplifting, such as the D.A. meetings, and especially Fred 
and George's escape from Hogwarts. 
    As for Sirius, that was like the last blow in a long string of 
depressing things that make this book qualify as 'tragedy'. I am only 
glad that he didn't meet his end from a Dementor's kiss. Sirius had 
darn well better get pardons, recongiztions, posthumous medals, and a 
memorial service early on in book six! 
                                 - Joe S.