Let's talk about Lupin

[Jen Reese]

No: HPFGUIDX 146103

> Marianne:
> I'm going to come off as completely unfeeling here. But, that
> line, while very understanding of Arthur with regards to Bill and
> to Fleur's evidently undiminished love for her man, is a bit 
> condescending to Remus.  After all, Remus spent a good part of the 
> previous year living in Grimmauld Place with a friend, Sirius, who 
> had once been very handsome and who was now anything but handsome 
> and whole. I think Remus was already well aware of what can happen 
> to young men when caught up in a war.

Jen: That's a good point, and Remus certainly understands how 
suddenly and mercilessly life can change for a person. The reason I 
liked that line so much from Arthur was because it sounded like an 
acceptance to me toward Remus, an acknowledgement that he IS a man 
like Bill who happens to change into a werewolf for a few days a 
month, not a werewolf who happens to be a man occasionally. That 
he's standing with group of people who consider him much more than a 
comrade in the war, who care for him and want him to find happiness.

OK, you can gag now. ;) But I don't think you unfeeling if you read 
the scene differently, FWIW.

> Marianne:
> Maybe it does.  But, does that mean the love theme requires all 
> unattached people to become attached to someone before the series 
> ends? Maybe the barometer for whether or not characters are killed 
> off shouldn't be based on if their birthdays are celebrated on 
> JKR's website.  Maybe the real key is that, if you're an adult,
> and you're not paired off, you're dead.  Doesn't look good for
> Snape or Peter, does it? ;-) I'm undoubtedly making too much of 
> this. I accept everyone's counter opinions that Remus and Tonks
> are a real couple, are really in love, etc. But my reactions are
> colored by the way the scene felt when I first read it, and it 
> didn't come off to me as a particularly convincing.

Jen: Hee, it's going to be a bloodbath in Book 7 then with all the 
unattached people around. 

Seriously though, I agree with you that we don't see evidence of 
Remus' feelings and the moment in the hospital ward seemed to come 
out of the blue. The reason it didn't bother me is not because I see 
true love in bloom, but that the shipping aspect of the books 
doesn't hold my attention. It's funny, while the shipping in the 
books seems like a diversion from the *real* story, my favorite 
section in the GOF movie was the time from the dancing lesson all 
the way through the ball (the music helped). And that made me 
realize as Magda said, perhaps JKR is not really the world's 
greatest romance writer :). I think in the case of Tonks/Lupin she 
sacrificed moments of building up their relationship to play up the 
red-herring of 'what's going on with Tonks?' Letting her mystery and 
adventure writing expertise win out over the romance. 

So, I just accept they're meant to be another canon couple and move 
on to the stuff that really grabs my attention.

Jen