Sirius reservations

[jwcpgh]

No: HPFGUIDX 79848

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, B Arrowsmith 
<arrowsmithbt at b...> wrote:
<snip> I'm really not impressed by Sirius.
> 
> I couldn't understand the cries of anguish, the desperate grasping 
at 
> straws, the sense of loss that flowed from keyboards across the 
globe. <snip>
> The results of a highly scientific survey (incorporating two pieces 
of 
> grubby paper, a Post Office pencil and a trawl through back posts) 
> showed a definite, but hardly surprising bias. The overwhelming 
> majority (close to 100%, but some list names defied analysis) of 
the mourners were female. Presumably adult female. They obviously 
find him sympathetic; but they are  not the market the book is aimed 
at. Could it be that they have allowed sympathy to out-weigh JKR's 
plot requirements?
> 

Laura:

Okay, Kneasy, my friend, the gloves are coming off. <grins, while 
flexing fingers menacingly>

I can't tell you how all adult females feel about Sirius, nor can I 
theorize with any validity about how adult males feel about him.  
(Although why on earth any adult male would rather identify with 
Snape than Sirius is beyond me.)  But I can tell you why I, as an 
adult female, love him.  I love Sirius for his passion and his 
ability to give himself completely and without reservation to what- 
or whoever earns his allegiance (and his judgement is pretty sound on 
what or who that should be).  I love him for his unstinting love of 
Harry.  Sirius, alone of all the characters in the books, always gave 
Harry everything he had, without reservation.  I agree that in OoP he 
didn't have as much to give as he did in GoF, but he gave what he had-
including his life.  

I hesitate to make any grand pronouncements about women identifying 
with suffering or with people who are trapped, but I can tell you 
that I found Sirius's situation terribly sad.  It's one thing to come 
from an unhappy home, as Snape seems to have done.  It's another to 
come from a home where the hostility is directed at you, personally, 
even as a child.  If you have that kind of experience in childhood 
you never really get rid of it.  Sirius was in prison long before 
Wormtail set him up.  Despite that, he was bright, funny, charismatic 
and well-liked (by anyone who wasn't into the dark arts).  That's why 
I think the real Sirius is the one we saw in GoF.  That's the person 
he could have-should have had a chance to-become.  

I wouldn't assume that JKR is writing only for children, or ever was.
And just because I'm sad about Sirius's death doesn't mean I don't 
understand why JKR felt it was necessary. 

Kneasy: 
> To most male fans Sirius is not a sympathetic or credible 
character, 
> not in the same way that Snape or DD or Arthur Weasley is. If they 
try 
> to put themselves in his position it doesn't work. His behaviour  
> doesn't tie in with male expectations or projections. Not only 
that, as 
> soon as he appears, so do holes all over the plot.
> 
> His account of his escape from Azkaban is more than a bit 
threadbare. <snipped quotation from text>
> Points to ponder:
> 
> Is there any evidence, apart from this passage, that Dementors are 
> confused by animal emotions?  Other evidence indicates that they 
ignore animal emotions and concentrate on the human.  The Dementor on 
the Hogwarts Express does not seem in the least confused despite the 
> presence of a highly agitated Crookshanks (Neville tries to sit on 
him in the dark). No, the first thing the Azkaban Dementors would 
sense was a lack of Sirius. Or would they? I was under the impression 
that Animagi retain their human intelligence and presumably emotions; 
isn't that the whole point of Animagi? Otherwise transfiguration 
suffices. So why didn't they notice Sirius sliding out the door?

Laura:

I think the implication is that the Dementors were confused by 
sensing something other than a human being in Sirius's cell.  Since 
they feed off humans, they would have no interest in animals in 
general.  

Although people retain their personalities and feelings when they are 
in animagus form (or so we think), the simple fact of the switch in 
form may be enough to confuse the Dementors, which no one ever 
claimed were intelligent.  I would also think that being an animagus 
would allow you to experience the emotions and perspectives of the 
animal you become, while retaining your own awareness of self.
> 
Kneasy:
> Swim back to the mainland? In that physical condition? The Lexicon 
> places Azkaban  in the middle of the North Sea, not Hogwarts lake. 
It's 
> at least 100 miles from shore.
> 
> "I journeyed north" (to Hogwarts). OK He might have landed on the 
> Scottish coast south of Hogwarts. Note there  is no mention of his 
side trip to Privet Drive (another 500+ miles, there and back). 
Sirius as the 'Grim" is described as 'hulking'. Not thin, skeletal, 
worn or starved. And no, not enough time has elapsed for him to feed 
himself up again.

> Laura
 Harry never got a clear look at Padfoot until the Shack.  So what he 
saw combined with his imagination (especially after he learned about 
Grims) could account for what he thought he saw.

Kneasy:
> It is just possible that before the confrontation with Pettigrew or 
> while awaiting trial, Sirius heard that Harry had been placed with 
the Dursleys. But why go there? First, foremost and apparently 
exclusively he wanted revenge. It wasn't Harry he moaned about in his 
sleep at nights, it was Pettigrew. Scabbers was the obsession. Why 
didn't he try and find the Weasleys? They are an apparently well 
known family and that's where Scabbers was. If he was going to be 
heading anywhere before Hogwarts it was the Piggery.

Laura:

No, I don't agree that revenge was foremost in Sirius's mind.  
Protecting Harry was always his first priority.  While Harry was at 
the Dursleys and Wormtail was at the Weasley's, there was no threat 
to Harry.  So Sirius could indulge his wish to see his godchild for 
himself, after so many years had passed.  Sirius is a man of great 
passion, as I suggested above.  This seems perfectly in character to 
me.  Then once he knows that both Wormtail and Harry are headed to 
Hogwarts, he turns his attention to eliminating the immediate threat 
to Harry, which is from the presence of a servant of LV in rat form.  
Even if he hadn't had personal reasons for wanting to expose 
Wormtail, he would have acted the same way in response to any threat 
to Harry's safety.

> Kneasy:
> Godfather - Godson relationships vary. But Sirius' actions in going 
to 
> Privet Drive are more those of a parent than those of a close, even 
> intimate friend of the family. More believable would be an all-out 
> effort to knock off Scabbers and then contact Harry to try and 
explain  himself, if he had time before recapture.
> 
Laura:

It's my understanding that one of the resposibilities of a godparent 
is to take over parenting if the original parents are unable to care 
for the child.  But I don't know very much about that-we don't have 
this tradition in my religious practice.  (I wish we did, though-I 
think it's very lovely.)

Kneasy:
> As an ex-pupil of Hogwarts, why did Sirius think the Fat Lady would 
> admit him without the password?
> Since when have Animagi been able to communicate with other animals 
as Sirius said he did with Crookshanks? Even as a dog, can he talk 
cat? Hermione is the closest to Crookshanks and she doesn't have this 
level of understanding or communication. How come Sirius does?
>"I've been living in the forest ever since.." Nearly an entire 
school year. With no problems from Acromantula, Centaurs, Werewolves 
or other friendly forest folk. Hagrid never noticed either, despite 
being the forest expert. Still, it explains his gaunt and hairy look.
>
Laura:

This stuff is all trivial, it seems to me, and can be explained in a 
variety of ways that don't affect their believability.  (I.e., he was 
frantic, how do we know they can't, and how big is the Forest anyhow?)

Kneasy:
> After the Shrieking Shack fracas the Dementors mass and close in. 
There is Harry, Sirius and Hermione. Sirius passes out, so does 
Hermione. The Dementors ignore them and go for Harry. Why not Sirius? 
Isn't he the one they are implacably hunting? Why Harry? It's almost 
a repeat  of the  Quidditch match incident. Ignore everyone  else, we 
like the smell of Potter!

Laura:

I got the idea that the Dementors weren't looking for anyone in 
particular at Hogwarts, just for the fear they fed on.  If Sirius and 
Hermione are both unconscious and Harry is awake and terrified, 
wouldn't they go for, shall we say, the full banquet rather than a 
snack?

> Kneasy:
> Needless to say -  I have a theory. Well, a partial theory. What if 
> Sirius is not just an Animagus but also an unwitting catspaw. Maybe 
he 
> was sprung from Azkaban - 'accidentally'  let loose by the 
influence of 
> friends of You-know-who in the Ministry and hotly pursued by 
Dementors. 
> The Ministry instructs Dementors after all. And what  a 
coincidence! We 
> think Black will be around Hogwarts, just where Harry is!   But the 
> Dementors have modified orders. Don't worry about Black - Get 
Potter!
> Umbridge must have got her idea from somewhere, she's nasty but 
hardly 
> an original thinker.
> 
Laura:

As to that, well, I wouldn't put it past JKR.  We'll see if your 
theory pans out in the end.  And I guess we'll just have to agree to 
disagree about Sirius.  

Gee, I've just written a love letter to a dead fictional character.  
Does this mean I'm having a mid-life crisis?  :-)