a Lupin Rant

[guzuguzu]

No: HPFGUIDX 173449

Sherry wrote:

> >I was disgusted with Lupin in the scene of the argument with Harry. .
. . I
> liked Lupin in every previous book, but I wanted
> >to shake him in DH, and no other supposedly good character came off
looking
> >so disgusting to me.

  Then Ginger wrote:

> Authors have to show some inner conflict in characters or the
characters
> will look flat and uninteresting.  Lupin has a serious problem.  If
Rowling
> never showed that he doubted himself and agonized over the proper and
> responsible way to behave, critics would (rightly) accuse Rowling of
writing
> a cardboard book with flat, uninteresting and predictable characters.
> However, every time she makes one of the main characters have flaws or
> doubts, even when those doubts are resolved well, many fans become
unset.
> Lupin has doubts and has to resolve them.  That doesn't make him
disgusting;
> it makes him responsible.  If he didn't consider the possible negative
> consequences to his wife and child, he would show an amazing lack of
insight
> into the difficulties he and his family are likely to face.

Now guzu:

I need to disagree with you here. Ditching your new wife and unborn
child because you have doubts is not responsible; it is disgusting. Of
course he had to consider all the negative consequences, and you are
right, that made him a realistic character-- but that's what the entire
somewhat-silly red-herring Tonks-Lupin subplot in HBP was. When Harry
first came to the burrow in HBP, Tonks was there, upset, and refusing an
invitation to a dinner that Lupin would be at, which means Lupin's
doubts have been going on for over a year, and then we had the big
confrontation in the hospital wing where his friends and even former
Head of House told him to get over himself. Enough already-- he is
supposed to be an adult and a teacher. And up to this point, he's seemed
to have a healthy sense of humor about his "furry problem".

And none of this explains his "deranged" look and him slamming a 17-year
old into a wall. Speaking of lack of insight, I think Rowling could have
made a wonderful point (in the epilogue perhaps) about the difficulties
which he and his family were going to face in the world, however she
chose to resolve the problem by simply killing both parents. So, it
didn't even matter... he may as well have gone with Harry after all. In
fact, if he had, Tonks probably would have lived to raise her son.