Sirius and those bikini posters

[sunnyskywalker]

For a long time, I saw Sirius’s posters of Muggle women in bathing suits as a typical teen thing, with irritating his parents by sticking the posters on permanently (permanently for wizards with no imagination, anyway) as a bonus. But I wasn’t giving him enough credit. The girlie posters are direct threat the to entire value system and prestige of

Comments

[sunnyskywalker]

Oh yes, that could definitely be a factor. We never see him interested in actual girls--in fact he's specifically noted as uninterested in that one memory. And you're right that we don't see anything to suggest he'd have role models. Given the pressure kids in families fanatical about their blood status probably face to marry and have lots of pureblood babies, there could be a culture of, "Well, do whomever you want on the side, discreetly, but it doesn't count and you can't have a public, legally-acknowledged primary relationship with anyone who isn't on this list of acceptable spouses we have selected for you."

And yeah, more than anything, he seems to want James to like him. Their first meeting involved Sirius instantly caving to James's peer pressure. So if James thinks girls are hot? Bring on the posters to prove how much Sirius agrees with James!

But he also has great instincts for striking at people's weak points, and really, really wants to show his family how much he is not like them. Threatening their core values with posters was probably one of the most rebellious things he could do without involving real live girls.

[chantaldormand]

I also think some of Teenage!Sirius behaviour towards Severus partially comes from him projecting his situation onto poor Severus. Teenage Snape wasn't described as particularly masculine, so him hanging out with pureblood Slytherins probably conjured very unsavoury images in Sirius head.
I imagine it contributed to Sirius' decision to act like he was batshit insane and try to feed Snape to Remus. Endangering his supposed friend in such way sounds too personal for simple dislike and wanting to get society rid of another dark wizard :/

I have no doubts that pureblood part of WW society works this way. They are way too stuck in the past to work this way. Unless wizards have way to create... let's call it "caldron babies". Then either elites turn up their noses as it being unnatural (and probably grumbling about stolen magic) or... purebloods keep birth rates low on purpose.
Which would be neither unusual nor that surprising. Less children means each of your kids keeps more of their inherence. Money and potentially inheritable positions are good enough motivators to keep number low... but wizards have very strange ideas about how people gain magic, don't they?
Strange enough to accuse muggleborns of stealing magic. So it wouldn't be that surprising if purebloods kept birthrates low so their kids could get all magic "allotted" to that family. Would certainly explain why some pureblood families looked at Weasleys like they were freaks of nature.

It's... kind of creepy how easily Sirius bends to James. It says nothing good about his home-life. And while I can't blame young James for not knowing better it doesn't make him look like a good friend. Kind of like he never interacted with kids of his age...
Did Potters kept James as isolated from magical kids before Hogwarts as Harry was? Does it mean he was suspected of being squib?

I believe Sirius' good instinct for spotting weakness is him being trained from very young age at it. Blacks- until recently- were very influential family involved in politics. Heir of such family should have this kind of skill when going to elite school full of heirs to family's political rivals. If they are really lucky, kid might even unearth a big secret. Like for example your rival has a secret stash of dark magic artefacts hidden under their ballroom ;P

[sunnyskywalker]

Sirius is devoted to James in much the way Sev is to Lily, I think. Which, yes, says very bad things about life in Grimmauld Place. Possibly another reason Sirius can't stand Severus--he wants very much to think that he isn't desperately clinging to his first-ever friend and basing his identity around pleasing that person. No, he's totally cool and valued. Which he will prove by trying to smash his ugly reflection to bits.

Another motive behind the prank might have been pleasing James, who came out of that incident looking like a hero to Dumbledore and Lily, which eventually got him picked for Head Boy and convinced Lily to date him. It all worked out so that Moony could run joyously free and James got everything he wanted? What a lucky coincidence! But Sirius is a true friend and brave enough to take the risks no one else will, see? This proves it! He's the best friend!

I can't see having such compliant friends as good for James, either, especially if he was already spoiled as hell. He might have seen it as his friends not always "realizing" what was "right" until he could "explain" (i.e., pressured or badgered them into doing what he wanted and accepting his point of view). Yikes.

And neither of them realized how much they were like the awful families they supposedly despised, or how much Sirius (and James?) hadn't broken free from his family's "character-building" at all, just re-skinned it in different colors. Or that they were victims of a charismatic manipulator who had just a little too much in common with other Dark Lords we could name.