OoP: What was the Point of this Death?

[Grey Wolf]

No: HPFGUIDX 62855

Megalynn:
> 
> Ok I have to comment on Sirius' death, and not just a me too on 
> the fact that it was a pointless death. It was so quick, it did 
> nothing for the plot, there wasn't a buildup, there wasn't a 
> goodbye. Harry has still never been told by anyone that they love 
> him. This bugs me, and to kill off such an important character 
> and not even well... it's like in Shakespeare, where if the 
> person dies off-stage that meant Shakespeare did not see them 
> as important.  I am not saying JKR finds Sirius unimportant at all, 
> I just feel somewhat cheated that he died off-stage so to speak.

I have mentioned this before, but it has probably been buried in the 
1000 posts. And besides, someone gave me the perfect words to describe 
it, and I want to use them:

The point of Sirius's death is that it *is* pointless. 

First thing, JKR is not Shakespeare. She doesn't follow the same rules 
and she is not writing a theatre play. JKR is writing a book that is 
amazingly real. The death did a lot to the plot - in fact is *is* plot. 
JKR is telling us that people die in wars. That just because we love 
them, and they have had a bad life it doesn't mean that they are 
immune. It is clichè beyond words to spare the angst characters just 
because they are angst, and luckily JKR isn't that bad a writer.

Furthermore, Sirius did not die off-stage. He died in the middle of the 
action, fighting, which is a relief. No Hollywood-y scene with Sirius's 
head in Harry's lap, his energy fading away and a last, cut short line 
"I love..." (and a secondary character saying "oh, no! He's dead"). If 
something like that had happened, I would've puked. Death isn't like 
that. My country has had the sort of war described in the Potter books 
for more than a century, a terrorist war were an undercover group kills 
without warning. In that sort of war, and in a shoot-fest as that 
rescue was, people are bound to get killed. Quickly. Suddenly. If 
nothing else, I expected a few more deaths - that's the only 
unrealistic thing about the scene.

> to kill off such an important character and not even well

Not well? Sirius was rash, imprudent, and was afraid of nothing. If 
asked, I'm sure he would've said he wanted to go down fighting. As has 
been discussed in the list many times, the WW has a warrior culture 
ethos, and Sirius is one such warrior. Honour before life. He was ready 
to give his life to save Harry, and that's exactly what he did. And of 
course, there is a very important lesson here - the good guys don't 
always win. The white hat doesn't shoot the straightest or draws the 
quickest. The bad guys can kill, not only be killed. Those lessons have 
been forgotten, it seems, in what Isaac Asimov once called "these 
Disney-degenerated times of ours".

> Also, I had said many times that the one character that would 
> utterly make me livid if they died was Sirius. He already lost his 
> life once, and suffered dearly for no reason.  He more than 
> anyone  deserved happiness once the war is over. I always 
> pictured him getting married and having kids and making harry 
> their Godfather after all this.

Just because someone deserves to live it doesn't mean it will. Yes, it 
happens on other books, clichéd books were you can outguess the ending 
with little problem. Luckily, the HP books aren't as predictable - and 
I, for one, enjoy them all the more because JKR continues to refuse to 
be outguessed.

> Ok, I know what your going to say, but JKR had to show how evil 
> these people are. Well, that somewhat seems inconsequential 
> in picking who died. Hagrid, or Lupin could have easily made the 
> same point that these people are evil in being killed in battle. 
> Bellatrix didn't kill Sirius BECAUSE he suffered already, she 
> killed him because they happen to be duelling. She also didn't 
> kill him because he was who Harry loved.

Yes, indeed any of the OoP there could've died. So why not Sirius? He's 
the one that went for Bellatrix, being her cousin. And she was the most 
dangerous of all of the DE. So Sirius was the one killed. Those things 
happen. It seems that Harry isn't the only one that'll have to learn to 
live with the death of a close one... maybe that's the "lesson" JKR 
wants to transmit. I won't go there, though. I'm not good at 
metathinking. :)

> I just have to say I feel cheated, and not just because the death 
> scene was so abrupt, but because the one person to die was 
> the one who had already sufered the most.  

Interesting, I feel relieved, *because* the death scene was abrupt and 
the person to die wasn't spared because he had already suffered the 
most. I supose we have different approaches to the books.

Hope that helps,

Grey Wolf, who does predict that Sirius's death will be discussed 
endlessly between now and book 6, and probably beyond it (unless the 
blood bath is so brutal that Sirius's death is just an appetizer).