Deaths in the Series

[pippin_999]

No: HPFGUIDX 192186



-- 
> Dave:
> I agree.  In general, I was very disappointed in the direction JKR went 
> with Tonks -- She started out as a sprightly, somewhat sassy, 
> "Moliere-Maid" type, which I loved.  But then she made Tonks into this 
> tragic character whose intense (perhaps codependent) love for Remus 
> trumped everything.  And we know from interviews that killing off Remus 
> and Tonks was an eleventh-hour decision on JKR's part, in order to make 
> some trivial contrast between Harry and Teddy which, as Sherry points 
> out, has little or no impact on the reader.
>=

Pippin:
The Moliere-Maid is a stock character, and so is the lovesick lass -- but Tonks is both, which is surprising.  She doesn't let her heartbreak over Lupin  keep her from doing her job. She loses her metamorphmagus power for a while, but that allows JKR to show us that Tonks has all the skill she needs to be an auror and isn't relying on her freak talent alone. 

Also, her drippy dependency is the counterpoint to Fleur's flashy egotism, and just as with Fleur, the fact that most people would find it objectionable doesn't seem to matter to the men in question. I think for Lupin, who has struggled all his life with his sense of inadequacy, it was refreshing not to be the needier party for once. JKR is  good at showing when people are put off by clinginess, and I don't read that from Lupin, only a concern that Tonks will find him a burden in the end.  

As for Teddy, it isn't that losing your parents isn't necessarily a disaster -- of course it is. But being raised by other people doesn't have to be. I'm sure JKR heard from many children whose home lives were as bleak as Harry's.  JKR wouldn't want to leave those readers with the idea that they shouldn't expect any better.

But I think for the average reader the point is not to put yourself in the place of Teddy but to put Harry in the place of Sirius. As he journeys into the forest, Harry realizes that he is proving to be as reckless a godfather to Teddy as Sirius was to him.  I don't think Harry realized before then that reckless or not, Sirius  did what he had to do to protect Harry, and whether Harry would rather have had it otherwise was beside the point.

Pippin