The Death Eaters

[Athena]

No: HPFGUIDX 182841

Hello, long time lurker. This is my first post. I have to say
that from my e-mails from this group Carol and Magpie are very
deep thinkers and I applaud their analysis of the series.

I've posted this elsewhere and pretty much nobody really cares
about what I have to say on this specific topic, I am hoping
that this group is different than the others.

"I have to say that two very specifically named and described
Death Eaters have like ZERO PLAY in HBP, or DH and it really
irritates me to no end. I speak of course about the LeStrange
brothers, Rodolphus and Rabastan. Why if JK wasn't going to
use them at all did she bother naming or even creating them
in the first place? I mean the scene in GOF would have played
the same if it were only Bella and Barty on trial. Was it really
necessary to create two characters that we know nothing and I
mean nothing about? Granted Rodolphus gets mentioned ONCE in
DH, but Rabastan is nowhere to be found. If JK found it that
important to give Bella and Barty a co-conspirator on the
Longbottom affair, then Rodolphus would have served that
purpose 100% but to add Rabastan to the fray, and not use
him later, felt like a slap in the face of all us fans of
Lord Voldemort and his merry band of Death Eaters! If they
truly were The Dark Lord's most faithful then I believe that
they deserved more mentions than Yaxley, and Dolohov. The
Carrow's got more play than the ones that Voldemort mentions
as the most faithful. I can only hope that with this encyclopedia
that Rowling is releasing that the brothers LeStrange will get a
biography, perhaps a backstory...."

Granted my LeStrange obsession comes from reading a fanfiction
in which Rodolphus was paired with Hermione, and treated her
amazingly well. I have always imagined that Rodolphus did love
his wife, I can imagine the hurt he must have felt knowing that
he was a trophy husband. I can see him leaning on Rabastan for
support and advice. At the same time battling his own decision
to follow the man that for all intents and purposes stole his
wife from him. These brothers really needed more information.
All we know about them is that their father possibly was in
school with TMR, they were with Snape and MWPP in school. And
were Slytherin. It would have been better plotting at least in
my eyes if JK had included them in more of the action. Even a
mention of Rabastan dueling someone like Bill Weasley while his
brother dueled Charlie. Maybe I am over thinking things here.
But I firmly believe that the most compelling DE's are the
LeStrange brothers. I believed that so firmly that when a RPG
came along I happily played their half sister (actually since
there weren't enough players I played pretty much the entire
LeStrange family, Bella included). There are so many characters
that JK could have used in so many ways and yet I focus on the
ones we know least about...

Anybody have any thoughts on this subject?

freddykruegerre