JKR characterizations--oversimplification?

[Jen Reese]

No: HPFGUIDX 115143


Magda:
> And yet Sirius treats Kreacher as if the elf were capable of 
changing
> after all these years and of being something other than he is: old,
> deranged, pathetic and mentally warped.  If anything, Sirius should
> understand what its like to be a captive in a horrible place and 
felt
> some empathy, even if he didn't like Kreacher at all.

Jen: Yes, just as Snape should have put aside his hatred of James 
and been a better Occlumency teacher, and Harry should have put 
aside his anger & curiosity and followed through with Dumbledore's 
orders. If any one of these characters had done as Dumbledore 
*planned* for them to do, we would have a very different story. As 
it is, all three failed. And Dumbledore should have realized he was 
asking more than any of them could give.  

Dumbledore asked these three to complete almost insurmountable 
tasks, given their individual pasts and shortcomings. Did any of us 
believe for a minute that Snape would successfully teach Harry a 
skill, especially one requiring both parties to set aside strong 
emotions? Did it ring true that Harry would just follow orders 
compliantly without any information as to why? Or that Sirius could 
ignore, or even summon up empathy, for a creature who constantly 
taunts & belittles him and worships the family he hates?

Of course they all *should* have followed orders and put aside 
personal feelings, but none of them did. And I'm not saying 
Dumbledore is to blame for everything that went wrong in OOTP. But I 
do think he remembered the corollary to "know thy enemy" is "know 
thy friend".

As an aside, it's been interesting to read everyone's POV on this 
thread. I re-read JKR's comments on Sirius tonight and felt a little 
better about them, could understand her thoughts. It's still hard 
not to mutter under my breath, "well if Sirius *is* this way it's 
only because *you* did it to him" but I realize the futility of 
having imaginary conversations with JKR over a fictional 
character ;). 

Jen, laying to rest her JKR/Sirius angst and movin' on.