...Remus is weak. This is difficult to admit, because Remus Lupin is a likable and, in many ways, admirable character. Nevertheless, he is far from perfect. As a teenager, he did not intervene to rescue Severus from James’s and Sirius’s bullying, ... One could argue that Remus was a boy at the time, but he showed exactly the same moral weakness as a young man in Prisoner of Azkaban when he failed to inform the headmaster that Sirius Black was an animagus, ... By neglecting to tell Dumbledore what he knew, Lupin was potentially endangering every person in the school, particularly Harry. Lupin is too eager to have people like him;
Hello Mary, I found my way here from our conversation at snape_the_hbp fest. You said that you had started to like Lupin less, but after reading your essay above, I don't think my feelings towards him have changed any.
Sure, he's made mistakes, mostly through wanting others to be happy/wanting others to like him. Compare that to some of his classmates - Snape (joined the racist murdering Death Eaters) Peter (ditto, plus a traitor), Sirius (an arrogant bully) and he doesn't seem so bad. Plus, I think his failings stem from his genuine empathy with others, which is a very attractive quality.
On the other hand, your take on Snape as a soldier/guardian makes me like him less. I'm not one of those people who thinks that bullying 'toughens you up'. This argument cuts no mustard with me. Studies show that kids that have been bullied are less able to cope with stress in later life compared to those that have had a happy, supportive childhood. Snape bullies because he is an immature prat who gets away with it, pure and simple. It's interesting to analyse why he does it, but I'll always despise him for it.
I liked your essay. I agree that Snape and Tonks are likely to have known each other quite well in the past - at the very least when she did her Potions NEWTs - and Snape would have known several other members of her family too. That scene where Snape insults Tonks' new Patronus has intrigued me for a while. It's described so dramatically, too, with the harsh uplighting from Snape's lantern. I've been working on several drawings of it and hope to get some decent art out of it eventually.
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Date: 2006-05-17 10:29 pm (UTC)Hello Mary, I found my way here from our conversation at
Sure, he's made mistakes, mostly through wanting others to be happy/wanting others to like him. Compare that to some of his classmates - Snape (joined the racist murdering Death Eaters) Peter (ditto, plus a traitor), Sirius (an arrogant bully) and he doesn't seem so bad. Plus, I think his failings stem from his genuine empathy with others, which is a very attractive quality.
On the other hand, your take on Snape as a soldier/guardian makes me like him less. I'm not one of those people who thinks that bullying 'toughens you up'. This argument cuts no mustard with me. Studies show that kids that have been bullied are less able to cope with stress in later life compared to those that have had a happy, supportive childhood. Snape bullies because he is an immature prat who gets away with it, pure and simple. It's interesting to analyse why he does it, but I'll always despise him for it.
I liked your essay. I agree that Snape and Tonks are likely to have known each other quite well in the past - at the very least when she did her Potions NEWTs - and Snape would have known several other members of her family too. That scene where Snape insults Tonks' new Patronus has intrigued me for a while. It's described so dramatically, too, with the harsh uplighting from Snape's lantern. I've been working on several drawings of it and hope to get some decent art out of it eventually.