Remus is the worst

[Mandy]

No: HPFGUIDX 99495

Woa. Hello Ava, OK, here goes:

> > I wrote:
> > Renee you make a very good point.  Life is about choices, and it 
is Easy to say `make a choice between what is easy and what is 
right', But sometimes the choice that has to made, is between bad and 
worse. How then, so you decide which is right and because neither 
choice will be easy?  

> Ava responded: 
>  Just wondering if you could clarify - when you say 'bad' 
> and 'worse', do you mean (A) morally/ethically or (b)in terms of 
how rotten it would make the decision-makers life?  

Mandy again:
Both. Morally/ethically, and in terms of living with the consequences 
of ones actions. The dilemma is how to weight up the results if both 
results are going to be terrible. For example, I just finished 
reading The Dream of Scipio by Ian Pears. (The whole books deals with 
this issue, which is why it's on my mind.)  In the book one of the 
characters, a French man living in Vichy France, is put in the 
position to make the choice between, informing the Nazis of the 
identity of French Jewish families living in his town, (friends of 
his included) or having the Nazis execute 12 random villagers every 
month until he comes through with the information. (Men, women and 
children that he also knows).  I won't tell you the decision he 
finally reaches, but after the war it weighs so heavily on him that 
he commits suicide. The ramifications of such a decision are 
endless.  Both choices are terrible.  It seems to me that you have to 
try and do what is right for the community as a whole, (although 
sometimes even deciding what is right for the community is difficult) 
while knowing that you, as an individual, will have to live with that 
decision for the rest of your life.  You and yours are the ones who 
are going to have to live with the consequences of that.   


> I wrote:
> > I have defended Peter Pettigrew on many occasion.  He's a 
fascination  to me because I see similarities between himself and 
myself at high  school.  Fortunately I grew up to be a relatively 
normal adult.  Haven't killed anyone, although I've though about it 
at times. ;-) 

> Ava responded:
>  No evidence he made any such choice.  In fact, little Petey 
> decided to follow Voldemort even when the Big Cheese was at his 
> weakest & there was nothing stopping him from continuing his 
> miserable ratty little life.  What could be defensible about that?  

Mandy again:
Yes I said that in my post.  My thoughts on Peter are pure 
speculation.  But it was those thoughts that simulated my questioning 
of the dilemma of decision making in extreme circumstances that most 
of us have no understanding of. 


> I wrote:
> Sirius' answer was to die.  
> 
> Ava responded:
>   How so?  If you're talking about Way Back Then, he foisted his 
> duty on Peter, & then tried to kill the Rat.  Arguably, if the 
> thought that killing Peter could send him to Azkaban entered 
Sirius' mind at all, he made a sacrifice in risking imprisonment by 
chasing Peterdown, but at that point, he was already a wanted man for 
the Potters death, so heck, what's another friend's murder, in the 
> scheme of things?

Mandy again:
I was referring to Sirius' comment he makes to Peter in the Shack. 
When Peter asked Sirius what else he should have done when faced with 
Voldemorts power, Sirius answer was simple; if Voldemort asks you 
betray your friends or die, you die.   My point was that that kind of 
bravado comes from a man who has nothing else to live for but his 
friends that he is choosing for. So therefore the choice for him is 
easy.  If he had a family, or wife and kids who depended on him being 
alive Sirius' choice whole have been a whole lot more complicated.


> I wrote:
> <snip>Again, we don't know if Peter has any family 
> > at all either and perhaps he doesn't and Sirius was right. But 
I'm certain the DE and Voldemort used such techniques in converting 
> > people to their side. Threatening to kill children and family to 
> > force someone into committing heinous crimes.   

> Ava responded:
> Know what?  From what we've seen of Peterkins, I bet he's sacrifice 
his 1st born to save his own hide. <snip> Don't see that any of that 
lot, w/ the possible exception of   Potter, had that choice to make.  

Mandy again:
You might be right there, but I was attempting to understand how and 
why people make the choices they do in extreme situations.  It is too 
easy for us on the outside looking in. 


> I wrote:
> > Remus now appears to be alone. Remus lives in fear, a very dark 
and  sad place.  And I have to say it would be, or was, as easy for 
Remus to fall to Voldemort as it was for Peter.

> Ava responded:
> Peter had no compunctions about ratting out his best friend to 
the biggest bully in the playground.  

Mandy again:
But we don't know that.  It looks that way, but it's too easy.  I 
hope that Peter had a deeper reason of doing what he did.  If so it 
will make him a far more interesting, 3 dimensional character worthy 
of the important role he is to play in future books 

I suppose what I'm trying to say is the answer is not always black 
and white as we all know.  And the choice is always simple for us on 
the outside looking in, or looking back with all the facts in hand. 
Especally for us ananlizing avery detail of the books over and over 
again. Jo has created a world in which realism plays such an 
important part, and is the main reason why the books are so popular. 
I'm holding out for the bad guys to become as fully realized and as 
real as the good guys once we get some of their back story.  If we do?

Cheers Mandy