The deaths of Tonks and Lupin (was: "Bad Snapers," Karma, and the End of Snape )

[lanval1015]

No: HPFGUIDX 175598


> > Lanval:
> > Lupin? Killed unceremoniously in battle, just a short time after 
he 
> > has overcome (at least partially) one of his worst flaws, his 
> > weakness and shying away from any sort of responsibility. He 
choses 
> > to do the right thing and -- bang. Dead. Did not live to see his 
son 
> > grow up, the son he never wanted, but fell in love with the 
moment 
> > he was born. Is that not irony at its cruelest?
> 
> Renee:
> 
> Now that you mention Lupin, I wonder what to make of Tonks in this
> respect? Getting killed for relentlessly pursuing Lupin, even onto 
the
> battlefield, regardless of the fact that she had a baby at home who
> needed her more than her husband? Would that be her particular 
variety
> of karmic justice?
> 
> I have to say hers is the only death in the book that really 
doesn't
> sit well with me; instead of making me sad in a cathartic way, it
> irritates me. Not that I can't see the other side of it: Tonks 
wanting
> to fight because in a Voldemort-dominated world her son would have 
no
> future. But what's the purpose of it, beyond JKR's decision that 
she
> wanted to show a happy orphan in the epilogue (and let me add, for
> those who know what I'm talking about, beyond any alchemical
> considerations).  


Lanval:
You got me at a total loss there. I neither know what to make of 
Tonks's death, nor of the purpose named by JKR. If she wanted to 
show a happy orphan (maybe that was important to her? did she feel 
she had showed orphans, or rather the people who adopt/raise them, 
in a a bit too negative a light?) she didn't have too many choices; 
it was either Teddy, or for Bill and Fleur to have a child and then 
die. There aren't too many young couples around that we've *met*. 
But -- still. 

I never cared much for Tonks either way; she was entertaining, 
sometimes grating. I may have a personal problem with people who 
engage in this relentless pursuing (once I got into a long argument 
with a friend, and found we were worlds apart on this issue; what 
she thought would be welcomed as flattering attention, a display of 
loyalty and real devotion by the 'pursued', I considered outright 
stalking. *g*) so perhaps that's why I never warmed to them as a 
couple.

Can Tonks be blamed for leaving her child, and is her death in 
battle karmic justice? I can't say. As a mother, my first reaction 
would have been for one of them to stay with Teddy. Then again, she 
was an Auror, Lupin was also in the Order, both knew this was IT, 
the all-important battle, and Teddy wasn't left alone (I do hope 
they got Andromeda's consent on the issue). Teddy was also still an 
infant. To leave an older child would have been worse, IMO.

Still, as you say, it doesn't leave me with a feeling of the story 
being the better, or richer, for it. 

And of course, on a side note, this also raises some interesting 
questions about WW family planning. Really.