Why is Tonks clumsy?

[justcarol67]

No: HPFGUIDX 112199

"Lindsay W." (Lawless) wrote:
<snip> 
> Tonks.  She's clumsy, we know this.  In practically every scene
where we see Tonks, she's clumsy.  It's overly exagerrated, to a
point. <snip> WHY is Tonks clumby?
> 
> She's a Metamorphagus...in theory (it would seem obvious to me, at
least) she should be able to change her body so that it "feels" right, 
> correct?  The correct height, correct build...everything.  So why
doesn't she? Barring a "it just doesn't work like that" explaination.
> 
> Maybe Tonks as we know her...is a disguise.  OR...Tonks spends so
much time 
> in disguise that she can't easily adjust to her "original" body.
> 
> Bear with me, here, because I go out on a limb.  Men and women have 
> different centers of balance.  If you suddenly turned a man into a
woman, 
> he would, theoretically, have to get used to the lower center of
balance, 
> and vice-versa.  Perhaps the reason for her clumbsiness is:
> 
> A) She's "really" a he and has a hard time adjusting to the female
center of balance.
> 
> or
> 
> B) She is a she, but spends a majority of her time as a he, so that
when she finally becomes a female again, she has an extremely hard
time getting used to it, again.
<snip>

Carol responds:
The problem with this interesting theory, as I see it, is that on the
only two occasions when Tonks "metamorphs" completely in OoP (as
opposed to merely changing her hair or her nose), she transforms into
an older woman. Whether this is by choice (because she has a female
personality and is only comfortable in a female body) or because a
metamorphmagus can't change his or her sex, I don't know, but note
that the animagi retain their sex (and some personality traits) when
they transform into animals, and maybe a metamorpmagus does, too.

I also think it would be almost as difficult for a metamorphmagus to
sustain the appearance and personality of another person for a school
year as it must have been for Barty Jr. using the polyjuice potion. He
had the advantage of being a fanatical lunatic--and of being able to
adapt some of his own personality traits, such as a hatred of "Death
Eaters who walked free," so that they appeared to be Alastor Moody's.
Tonks would be unlikely to have such luck in whatever person she chose
to impersonate.

In fact, we don't even know whether she can transform herself into the
likeness of some living person. Just being able to change your nose or
hair or body build at will doesn't mean that you can exactly duplicate
another person from memory or a photograph.

I'm sure we'll see more metamorphasis on Tonks' part and that it will
play a somewhat important role related to Order business, but I doubt
very much that she'll change into anyone we know or become a
teacher--unless she violates the unwritten "rule" of an unknown
character becoming the new DADA teacher in each book and does so in
her own person. If so, expect to see her dead or fired by the end of
Book 6.

Carol