[HPforGrownups] Re: Sirius's Future

[annegirl11 at juno.com]

No: HPFGUIDX 117886

Hannah said:
>Why does 
> everyone want and hope (and in some cases believe) that Sirius will 
> be back?  Because so much is left undone, because his death is so 
> sudden, so abrupt, so untimely.

Yes. Except I don't think JKR pulled it off. She meant that Sirius' death
was supposed to be a 'real death', ie a death without purpose or meaning.
I wasn't at all convinced that Sirius' death was 'real' so much as
contrived. If this was the point JKR was trying to make, she could have
done it in a better, more examined, relevant way.

I'm going to make an extreme statement here: Sirius' death was bad
writing. Because:

1. Sirius' story is so ridiculously, over-the-top tragic that killing him
at the pit of his depression -- rather than working with the problems in
the character -- is a cop-out. It's soapy, it's lazy writing, and it's a
waste of a complex, interesting character.

2. Sirius' character arc wasn't finished. When Sirius was young, he was a
brilliant wizard, an important order member, devoted friend, and, if you
will, imperfect boyfriend. As a man, post-Azkaban, he's emotionally
immature and depressed. And then he dies. His character arc was cut off
in mid-swing. Sirius was presented as a troubled character, except his
troubles were never resolved. (Note: resolution doesn't mean fixing the
problems; but it also doesn't mean sticking him in stasis in his family
home and never letting him grow beyond who he was when we first met him.)

3. There is a HUGE well of character development that Sirius could have
provided Harry. Development that, I think, would have done a lot more for
Harry than turning him into Caps!Lock typical whiny teen. All Harry did
in Foot was be isolated and angry; 15 is an important year in a kid's
life, but Harry showed no growth whatsoever. (Even his one triumph, the
DA, was overshadowed by Hermione.)  

4. The writing in Foot, particularly towards the end, is not JKR's best.
It's just not good. How many of you were confused with the whole MM
scene? I know I was, and others have agreed with me. Whether the author
was rushed, bored, burned out, distracted, whatever, the end of that book
is not well done. The point I'm trying to make is that if JKR had a plan
for the significance of Sirius' death, she didn't pull it off. As a
reader, I was not convinced that Sirius' death was "real," or that it
impacted Harry in some positive, life-lesson way. Cedric's death impacted
me in a dramatic way; Sirius' was contrived and obvious. 

I've been in fandom for a long time, and experience has shown me that
sometimes you have to accept that writers fuck up. They're human. This is
their job, and not everyone performs 100% all the time at work. JKR is a
brilliant storyteller and is worth all her fame and accolades. But this
particular plot point in this particular book wasn't her best work.

So I'm angry. I love this character. If I felt like he had died for a
dramatically relevant reason, I'd be satisfied. But he didn't. So, like
all the other times writers do things that just don't make sense, I'm
refusing to accept it. 

Aura

~*~
"What he didn't like about heroes was that they were usually suicidally
gloomy when sober and homicidally insane when drunk."
- Discword
http://archive.skyehawke.com/authors.php?no=606

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