Nitwit? - Remus John Lupin

[lupinlore]

No: HPFGUIDX 168022

> Magpie:
> I like Lupin a lot too, but I wouldn't say he does everything
> possible for his friends (I don't even know if I'd use that
> expression for Harry either--Harry will do a lot for his friends,
> but it's not like he centers his life around their problems). Lupin
> wants to be liked, I believe JKR said, and that's very different
> than being very loyal to his friends. He knew he was doing
> something wrong by roaming the countryside as a werewolf, and he
> didn't have to tell anybody, as wynnleaf said, just speak up and
> say they shouldn't do it. This is the same thing we see in Snape's
> Worst Memory, where Lupin isn't particularly doing something for
> his friends, he's just not standing up for what's right if he
> thinks his friends won't like it.

Well, Lupin's passivity undoubtedly comes from a variety of sources,
some "legitimate," i.e. intrinsic to the story, and some not.  Part
of it is his struggle with his "disease" and the prejudice against
werewolves which helps to create his desire to be liked.

The other problem, I suspect, is that JKR needed him for the plot in
PoA and DH, but didn't really know what to do with him in the
meantime.  PoA was an excellent time to introduce him and, if
speculation be correct, he has a part to play in DH if only
symbolically as the Last Marauder.  But for the three books between
he really doesn't have any purpose other than to exist, like the
proverbial gun on the proverbial wall.

Which is altogether too bad, as his character had the potential for
all sorts of fascinating things that were wasted on wheel-spinning
and unfortunate diversions like Grawp.  Part of the Lupin Problem is
subsumed in the general problem of the last two books.  JKR wanted to
do all seven years but didn't really have stories for years five and
six.  Rather she had plot twists that needed to take place to set the
stage for the Grand Finale.  Therefore out of the last 1600 pages or
so we've had 1200 pages of wheel-churning combined with 400 pages
that actually moved things along.  Lupin, unfortunately, got his
appearances during the wheel-churning moments, giving a throw-away
comment here and a generally pointless cameo there.  Only at the very
end of HBP does he really emerge as anything like a major plot
element, and I suspect even the Remus/Tonks ship was thrown in as a
whim by JKR to give the fans something they would like.

Lupin probably will figure into the Grand Finale -- what was the
purpose of keeping him around otherwise?  But in the end, when people
look back over the entire series and most current speculation seems
quaint and misguided whatever happens, I suspect his story will be
loaded down with a crippling burden of might-have-beens.


Lupinlore, who also likes the werewolf, but really does wish he'd get
up, brush the dandruff out of his fur, and do something uniquely
useful (i.e. something another character couldn't have done just as
easily) for Harry -- or anybody else -- for once