Werewolves and RL equivalents (was:Re: Snape - a werewolf bigot?...)

[pippin_999]

No: HPFGUIDX 170371

> Lanval:
> Right. Which always has me going tsk, tsk over that detention in 
> SS/PS, where Hagrid takes the kids into the forest and then splits 
> them up. What was he thinking? And did Professor McGonagall not 
> enquire on the nature of the detention that Hagrid planned? 

Pippin:
IMO, he was thinking that it wasn't a full moon. <g>
That part of the forest was frequented by centaurs, 
who are powerful enough to keep dangerous 
creatures away and won't harm foals themselves. The unicorn
had been attacked earlier, and no doubt it was thought 
that the attacker had already drunk the blood and 
wouldn't linger.  


Lanval quoted in 170360:

> Lanval:
<HUGE SNIP>

> Just IMO, of course. I freely confess to my Lupin bias, just as
> others who have argued this question clearly seem to have a Snape
> bias. Some believe that nothing Lupin does is ever sincere. *g*
< HUGE SNIP>

Alla:
<snip>
Okay, here is a funny thing, for me anyways. I do not **have** any
Lupin bias, LOL. I mean, I of course have antiSnape bias, but I
cannot say that I had ever been a big fan of Lupin. I mean,
sympathize with him of course more than with Snape, if that counts
as bias and giggle every time I hear Lupin being called evil, but I
had never had especially high opinion of him. For the most part I
find him weak and boring

Pippin:
I don't think I have Lupin bias either. No, really. I don't hate him. 
Of course I have proSnape bias, LOL, but I'm not determined to
hate Lupin because of it.

It's just that  EverSoWeak!Lupin doesn't work for me. Lupin's 
weaknesses don't matter because things always turn out 
all right anyway, or so it seems.  Well, if  they don't matter, 
why should I care? Why should any one? Why on earth
would JKR make her favorite adult character *boring*?

I wouldn't mind seeing Lupin triumph over his weaknesses. But
if Lupin triumphing over his  weakness was the story, we should
see his weaknesses as dangerous, not dull. 

But every time Lupin fails to honor a commitment, 
it's brushed aside, and no harm done.  That's very different than 
Sirius's rashness or Harry's illogical conclusions or Hermione's 
insensitivity or Snape's vile temper and sadism. 

That doesn't make Lupin's compassion insincere, although 
I have previously posited that it might be. I think, two books later,
that he has a genuine sense of compassion.  But compassion,
in JKR's world, can take you only so far. It's not enough to
feel sorry for others, you have to act on their behalf. Lupin
won't,  not if he thinks it will cost him. 

He often expresses remorse, but, as I've said before, it's always
for something that might have happened, or something that he
could have done but didn't do. Show me, just once, where he
accepts responsibility for something that he actually did and the
consequences that actually happened. He doesn't shut down
his compassion, but he shuts down his sense of responsibility,
and I think, though others may disagree, that to do that is
evil.

Pippin
who doesn't think Lupin "accidentally" forgot  his
potion any more than Snape  "accidentally" let slip that Lupin
was a werewolf