What's Sirius There For?

[nineve_laguna]

No: HPFGUIDX 83743

Ok, you have a point, BUT, JKR said that she had the books edited
so that every one would be an interesting read on itself. You would 
be able to read book 3, for example and enjoy it, and if you wanted 
you could read the others or not (of course you would, but, that's 
not the point). Seeing canon as indepent and yet interelated 
episodes, there is no reason why a character has to live on.
I think Sirius never represented a father figure, Harry has Mr 
Weasley who is far more effective.
As PoA is my favourite book, I thought the plot was the maddest and 
best of all, and JKR worked with "things are not the way it seems" 
concept, which is a great example for kids and adults alike, as all 
where involved in looking at the truth from another angle.
It was a pitty for me that Sirius died, if he is never coming back, 
but Harry will again have to deal with death, as it is his major 
issue.
If you think that loads of main characters almost died, like 
Hermione, Mcgonagal, Arthur, ... then everyone could have ended there 
and they still would have played important parts for future and past 
of the plot. Without Sirius, timetravel wouldn't have happened, 
Buckbeak would be decapitated, Scabbers would still be confy in Ron's 
bed, Voldemort would be alone in the forest, Harry wouldn't have the 
Marauder's map, they wouldn't have gonne to the MoM, Fudge wouldn't 
have seen Voldy, the profecy wouldn't have been revealed, etc etc 
etc. 
Ok, so the story could have been writen diferently, but the plot 
needs short and long influences to work, just like happened with 
Cedric.
Nineve.

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "entropymail" 
<entropymail at y...> wrote:
> Sirius is gone after three books, and I'm still at a loss as to what
> he was ever doing there in the first place.  I used to think that
> Harry would end up living with Sirius, but now that he's dead, I 
think
> there's not much chance of that happening.
> 
> So, this begs the question: what the heck was he there for in the
> first place?  If we assume that all main characters are written in 
to
> serve some purpose toward the development of the story, then what 
was
> Sirius's unique purpose? Here are a few reasons I thought Sirius may
> have been introduced, and why I now believe he wasn't needed.
> 
> 1. As a father figure for Harry.
> Nope, we've already established that this ain't gonna happen.
> 
> 2. To help Harry get a better understanding of James.
> There are lots of others that can and have done that, including
> Dumbledore, Hagrid, Snape, and possibly the person in the best
> position to do this, Lupin. Although the closest to James, Sirius's
> input was probably redundant.
> 
> 3. To explain the workings of Azkaban.
> Harry's had Hagrid around all this time, and he's been there twice. 
As
> a plot device, Sirius wasn't needed to explain Azkaban to Harry or 
the
> reader.
> 
> 4. To explain what happened on the night James/Lily were killed.
> It would have been interesting to hear Sirius's take on what 
happened,
> and it may have been enlightening.  But he never really gave us much
> new info, other than letting us know that Peter Pettigrew was the 
real
> murderer. But that could have been explained by Peter himself.
> 
> So, the logical question now is: why *was* Sirius written in as an
> important character in three out of five books? There must be some
> reason for his presence, but I have to admit, I'm stumped. Unless
> we're going to see Sirius in Books 6 or 7, I can't imagine why JKR
> needed to create him in the first place, just to kill him off 
without
> any real "revelations" on his part.
> 
> :: Entropy ::