But I still don't get why it had to be THEM. The Red King/White Queen could easily have been achieved by Bill/Fleur, for instance - perfect color match, in fact. :P Not that I'd want Bill to die, either, but it still doesn't really explain to me why it had to be Remus/Tonks as the representatives of this couple/leavers of orphan. There were so many other potential possibilities, IMO.
but it is precisely for that reason that they should have, y'know, died where we could see them. I personaly think they had to die (Remus at least), because of who they were in the story and to Harry, regardless of alchemy or whatever, but I was expecting Remus to have a throwdown. Pick a mortal enemy: Snape! Wormtail! Fenrir! Nah. she offs him without comment or chance to show the bravery he seems to have lost. If he was really so important a character, how did he get less than a sentence, really, and Dobby gets a chapter with a hand-dug grave, a homemade tombstone and flowers in a jelly jar? Sure, give us symbolism and another orphan and the purity of Harry's soul, but give it to us with honor to characters who have been around for three-five books!
I was an adamant Remus fan, and I identified with him on a lot of levels, but I never did see his or Tonks' death as "pointless" like so many others did. I had to roughly articulate how I felt about it in a friend's journal...
In the end, I think it was less a matter of gratuitous body count than full circle-type symbolism. Another orphan, raised in the shadow of his parents' sacrifice "for the greater good"--but this time with a Godfather who is whole, strong, free, and fully engaged in his life. THIS orphan will not go it alone in a dangerous world like our Harry did. Harry will see to it, having learned from the mistakes and examples of those he loved and admired. That, after all, is the point of a "coming of age" story. And the series was, above all, Harry's coming of age story.
Does that make any sense? I got swatted away like an annoying gnat for it, and thought it might help to run it by someone else.
That is EXACTLY how I saw it, which is why it crushed me with heartbreak and I had to go away from the book for an hour before coming back to finish reading. (Yes, Remus fan here--but I was more crushed by the effect the whole thing had on Harry, and by the mirroring of Teddy and his parents with Harry and his.)
That makes perfect sense to me - in fact, my first thought when Lupin make Harry the godfather was that Lupin and Tonks were now doomed, so history could repeat itself but with Harry as a present godfather.
I slightly resented Remus/Tonks because I feel like it could have worked if JKR didn't seem to just shy away from romances. There's a legit conflict [Remus is a werewolf!] which was touched upon only briefly and rather half-heartedly.
Honestly, though, I feel like all of the romances could have worked [mainly I'm thinking of Harry/Ginny, though] if it was only written more carefully. They all had potential.
Doesn't mean I like them, though :) Thanks for clarifying all this.
When Remus showed up to try to help Harry and said he'd regretted marrying Tonks, I said, "Yes, because you're GAY!"
ME TOO!!!!!
You say it perfectly. I am pissed about what their relationship did to the character of both Remus and Tonks. Each of them was so strong and yet flawed, complicated and beautiful and intriguing on their own. But the second they got together (earlier for Tonks), they lost that and became completely flat. I loved each of their characters (although I nver wanted them to be together), but JKR killed those characters long before they got to Hogwarts. grr.
It's a good essay. I have no issue with Remus' actions in DH, nor with his argument with Harry. As I said in some post/reply somewhere, I know the panic an expectant parent can feel; if I could have run off with someone much younger than I on a wild adventure to save the world rather than have a baby, I'd have been tempted! There's this moment where you think, I'm bringing a child into a world this messed up?!? I'd better save the environment or get Bush out of office (or defeat Voldemort) before s/he arrives, so I'm not condemning her to a life of misery! And that's without the abnormal dramic/magic stuff of werewolves and evil lords, and the mega baggage of old betrayals and rejections [and I also wasn't mourning my half-acknowledged lover's death
( ... )
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*chokes up again*
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In the end, I think it was less a matter of gratuitous body count than full circle-type symbolism. Another orphan, raised in the shadow of his parents' sacrifice "for the greater good"--but this time with a Godfather who is whole, strong, free, and fully engaged in his life. THIS orphan will not go it alone in a dangerous world like our Harry did. Harry will see to it, having learned from the mistakes and examples of those he loved and admired. That, after all, is the point of a "coming of age" story. And the series was, above all, Harry's coming of age story.
Does that make any sense? I got swatted away like an annoying gnat for it, and thought it might help to run it by someone else.
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Honestly, though, I feel like all of the romances could have worked [mainly I'm thinking of Harry/Ginny, though] if it was only written more carefully. They all had potential.
Doesn't mean I like them, though :) Thanks for clarifying all this.
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ME TOO!!!!!
You say it perfectly. I am pissed about what their relationship did to the character of both Remus and Tonks. Each of them was so strong and yet flawed, complicated and beautiful and intriguing on their own. But the second they got together (earlier for Tonks), they lost that and became completely flat. I loved each of their characters (although I nver wanted them to be together), but JKR killed those characters long before they got to Hogwarts. grr.
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