The List update

[nkafkafi]

> Pippin:
> > If  JKR shifts to the epic scale, I would expect some characters 
to
> > meet their fate in a sentence or two, each "but a drop, though a 
> > shining one, in a vast and sparkling sea" . That's the nature of
> > the beast.
> 
> Geoff:
> JKR has been very terse in getting some of her characters to 
shuffle 
> off this mortal coil.
> 
> As an example, from the beginning of the Basilisk's entry in COS to 
> Tom's exit occupies just under four pages. If you include the 
friendly 
> and uplifitng exchanges of conversation between Tom and Harry as 
well, 
> that only produces eleven pages.
> 
> Odds bodikins, at that rate you could dispose of a dozen or so of 
your 
> favourite villains and still have time to write about five or six 
> Quidditch matches....
> :-)

Neri:
But getting rid of Diary!Tom in CoS wasn't really disposing of his 
character. We get plenty of Voldemort and even young Tom Riddle in 
following books.

Granted, JKR killed Quirrell, Cedric, Karkaroff, Sirius, Crouch Sr. 
and Crouch Jr. pretty quick. She clearly doesn't like drawn out death 
scenes (for which I personally am thankful). But the death itself was 
typically the culmination of a well-developed plot that took many 
pages per character. Crouch Sr. and Cedric each got at least a 
chapter overall in GoF. Even Karkaroff got at least half a chapter 
overall. Crouch Jr. got a whole chapter just for his confession and 
Sirius got more than a chapter overall in OotP despite contributing 
very little to the plot itself. 

So killing a character *isn't* an economical way of disposing of it. 
The most economical way to handle Lupin, for example, in Book 7, 
would be to give him several useful tasks for the Order and Harry, 
let him take care of Greyback and perhaps an additional DE or two, 
each with a one-sentence counter curse, and then spend another 
paragraph in the epilogue about his happy marriage and many children 
with Tonks. Hardly satisfying, but it would be only about 3 pages 
overall, and most of it needed anyway for advancing the plot. 
However, if JKR is going to give Lupin a hero's death, then before 
that he'll have to fill some key role in the plot, and he'll need to 
say things like "you don't understand, there are things worth dying 
for" and tell us how happy he is with Tonks, and Harry will have to 
try saving him but fail, or try avenging him with several 
unsuccessful unforgivables, and after that we need to be told about 
Harry's feelings and Tonks' mourning, and you're already looking at 
20 pages at least. Not to mention the possibility of ESE!Lupin, in 
which case he'll need a whole chapter just for his confession.

Now if Lupin was one of a short list of secondary characters that 
wouldn't be much of a problem. But JKR also need to take care of 
Ginny, Neville, Luna, Draco, Molly, Arthur, the twins, Percy, Hagrid, 
McGonagall, Tonks, Moody, Krum, Firenze, Dobby, Kreacher, Snape, 
Wormtail, Lucius, Bellatrix, Narcissa and even Moaning Myrtle (oops, 
she can't be killed. But she can finally find peace for her troubled 
soul and go behind the veil). A satisfying resolution, either happy 
or sad, for each of these characters seems to require half a chapter 
minimum, even if death itself is mercifully quick.

Neri