'this is the end...my only friend...the end'
I ran across a comment on LJ this morning referencing the deaths of some various characters--Sirius, Snape, Ianto....I didn't really read the comment, and this isn't actually a response of any type to that comment (since I didn't really read it). It was just the topic alone that got me thinking along the lines of these characters' deaths, and fan reactions to them....and my reactions, being a fan..... ;)
Sirius' death didn't upset me at all. I felt sorry for Harry, but not particularly for Sirius himself. And I found his death to be quite apropos: he dies in a meaningless manner, in a show of foolish bravado and overconfidence. Allegedly, he goes to the Ministry to save Harry--but, mostly, it's Sirius' ego at work again; his focus in the fight is simply on the fight....not Harry's safety. Sirius just likes to fight: the man of action, as Dumbledore calls him, later. Man of action--and man of very little actual thinking. The character dies as he lived.
The same pretty much goes for James, Lupin, and Pettigrew--with the latter the one obvious villain of the Marauder group and eventually hoist by his own petard. The others? Well, James is fairly similar to Sirius, in the overconfidence department: not wary or cautious or prudent enough to ensure he has a wand at the ready at all times; he dies to buy time for Lily and Harry, and it fits with his other spasm of conscience, when he saves Lupin's reputation and, by association, Snape's life in the Werewolf Incident. Lupin does as he lived--basically, a nonentity. He's the character without a backbone, who follows and accepts others' decisions and is never able to formulate his own plan of action. James and Sirius choose for him in school, and any attempt on his part to protest is feeble and ineffective. He is equally feckless on his own (such as it is, 'on his own'): he appears to be bullied into marriage by Tonks and her coterie; having a child appears not be a possibility that ever occurred to him. He dies in battle--but unseen; it sort of gives the flavor that he fought because, well, that was what he was supposed to do, because the people he associated with did it.
Snape's death....mocked a lot by a group of fans in a certain place. But at least Snape died doing something for a cause he consciously chose, with a complete lack of the ego demonstrated by James and Sirius. I really like how JKR staged it: Snape dies as he lived--right out in the open in his defiance of Voldemort, but cleverly cloaking it so that it goes right over Voldemort's head. As always, in his redemptive role as spy, Snape's only concern is Harry and Harry's welfare: he doesn't plead for his own life, but to be allowed to "go to the boy." Voldemort reads that as he wants--as he myopically has always interpreted Snape, even as Snape is blatantly declaring his priority. Hiding in plain sight, trying to fulfill his mission.
What makes the deaths in JKR's books work is that the characters still behave as the characters they are, right up to their ends.
Therein lies the problem with Rusty's debacle. Not just Ianto--but Ten's exit, as well. In fact, Ten may be even worse, because Rusty revamped the Doctor in order to up the angst--or, rather...Ten's intensely irritating, whinging self-absorption: suddenly, the Doctor was afraid of dying....which, of course, the Doctor doesn't do........
Sirius' death didn't upset me at all. I felt sorry for Harry, but not particularly for Sirius himself. And I found his death to be quite apropos: he dies in a meaningless manner, in a show of foolish bravado and overconfidence. Allegedly, he goes to the Ministry to save Harry--but, mostly, it's Sirius' ego at work again; his focus in the fight is simply on the fight....not Harry's safety. Sirius just likes to fight: the man of action, as Dumbledore calls him, later. Man of action--and man of very little actual thinking. The character dies as he lived.
The same pretty much goes for James, Lupin, and Pettigrew--with the latter the one obvious villain of the Marauder group and eventually hoist by his own petard. The others? Well, James is fairly similar to Sirius, in the overconfidence department: not wary or cautious or prudent enough to ensure he has a wand at the ready at all times; he dies to buy time for Lily and Harry, and it fits with his other spasm of conscience, when he saves Lupin's reputation and, by association, Snape's life in the Werewolf Incident. Lupin does as he lived--basically, a nonentity. He's the character without a backbone, who follows and accepts others' decisions and is never able to formulate his own plan of action. James and Sirius choose for him in school, and any attempt on his part to protest is feeble and ineffective. He is equally feckless on his own (such as it is, 'on his own'): he appears to be bullied into marriage by Tonks and her coterie; having a child appears not be a possibility that ever occurred to him. He dies in battle--but unseen; it sort of gives the flavor that he fought because, well, that was what he was supposed to do, because the people he associated with did it.
Snape's death....mocked a lot by a group of fans in a certain place. But at least Snape died doing something for a cause he consciously chose, with a complete lack of the ego demonstrated by James and Sirius. I really like how JKR staged it: Snape dies as he lived--right out in the open in his defiance of Voldemort, but cleverly cloaking it so that it goes right over Voldemort's head. As always, in his redemptive role as spy, Snape's only concern is Harry and Harry's welfare: he doesn't plead for his own life, but to be allowed to "go to the boy." Voldemort reads that as he wants--as he myopically has always interpreted Snape, even as Snape is blatantly declaring his priority. Hiding in plain sight, trying to fulfill his mission.
What makes the deaths in JKR's books work is that the characters still behave as the characters they are, right up to their ends.
Therein lies the problem with Rusty's debacle. Not just Ianto--but Ten's exit, as well. In fact, Ten may be even worse, because Rusty revamped the Doctor in order to up the angst--or, rather...Ten's intensely irritating, whinging self-absorption: suddenly, the Doctor was afraid of dying....which, of course, the Doctor doesn't do........