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Jul. 26th, 2007 10:03 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
helsinkibabySo I found this link on ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
vicki595's journal - JK Rowling talks about the Deathly Hallows
First of all, let's cut to the chase here - Bitter Bus, party of one, right here!
"Lupin and Tonks were two who were killed who I had intended to keep alive. … It's like an exchange of hostages, isn't it? And I kept Mr. Weasley (Ron's father) alive. He was slated to die in the very, very original draft of the story."
I think the entirety of fandom had guessed the first bit, if only for the entirelycrappy random way that they were killed off... off page, with the revelation written in such a way that at least half the comments I've read either missed it completely or actually thought they were sleeping. As for Mr Weasley, I thought a Weasley would die, didn't think it was going to be him, but then again, I read somewhere else that he was supposed to die with the snake attack in OoTP, but that she spared him there and another father died instead.
But that's not what irks me. *THIS* is what irks me.
There were deaths that were traumatic to write, she says.
"Fred (Weasley, brother of Harry's friend Ron), Lupin (a former teacher at Hogwarts, the school for wizards and witches that Harry attended) and Tonks (Lupin's wife) really caused me a lot of pain," Rowling says.
Fred? Killing Fred I can understand being painful. (Though I love how the last thing he ever did in life was turn around and tease Percy, not in a snarky way, as so often was his habit in life, but with actual fondness and respect and happiness....oh Fred!)
But Tonks and Lupin painful? In thatcrappy crappy crappy random sentence that just got thrown in out of nowhere? *THAT* was painful?
This is my whole problem with the Tonks/Lupin deaths... it felt to me like they were just thrown in there to ratchet up the body count. OK, I think fandom and its aunt expected Lupin to die, I expected Lupin to die, that's not the point. And don't talk to me about a huge cast of characters, and it's a war and people die and we can't expect everyone to get a death scene. None of that is the point.
Nor do I care that Teddy as an orphan is an echo of Harry/Neville, because, and this is my point, what does that add to the story of Harry?
If you're going to go on, and write lots of stuff about Harry being a godfather to Teddy and helping him through the experience of not having both your parents, then fine, write it in. But it's the last book, there was never going to be any such explanation. Therefore, what does killing off Remus and Tonks add? What is the point of it?
Lupin, I can understand, because then that way he's there for the scene in the Forest, where Lily, James, Sirius and him walk with Harry to his not-death. (And I will admit I got choked up there, as apparently did JKR, that's the scene that made her bawl in the hotel room.) But why Tonks? (And I did say, way back in the original DH post that I made, that if one of them had to die, it had to be Remus; he couldn't handle losing Tonks after everything else he's lost.)
But yes. Bitter. And also in denial.
*hangs head* I appear to have fully immersed myself in HP fandom. Help me.
vicki595's journal - JK Rowling talks about the Deathly HallowsFirst of all, let's cut to the chase here - Bitter Bus, party of one, right here!
"Lupin and Tonks were two who were killed who I had intended to keep alive. … It's like an exchange of hostages, isn't it? And I kept Mr. Weasley (Ron's father) alive. He was slated to die in the very, very original draft of the story."
I think the entirety of fandom had guessed the first bit, if only for the entirely
But that's not what irks me. *THIS* is what irks me.
There were deaths that were traumatic to write, she says.
"Fred (Weasley, brother of Harry's friend Ron), Lupin (a former teacher at Hogwarts, the school for wizards and witches that Harry attended) and Tonks (Lupin's wife) really caused me a lot of pain," Rowling says.
Fred? Killing Fred I can understand being painful. (Though I love how the last thing he ever did in life was turn around and tease Percy, not in a snarky way, as so often was his habit in life, but with actual fondness and respect and happiness....oh Fred!)
But Tonks and Lupin painful? In that
This is my whole problem with the Tonks/Lupin deaths... it felt to me like they were just thrown in there to ratchet up the body count. OK, I think fandom and its aunt expected Lupin to die, I expected Lupin to die, that's not the point. And don't talk to me about a huge cast of characters, and it's a war and people die and we can't expect everyone to get a death scene. None of that is the point.
Nor do I care that Teddy as an orphan is an echo of Harry/Neville, because, and this is my point, what does that add to the story of Harry?
If you're going to go on, and write lots of stuff about Harry being a godfather to Teddy and helping him through the experience of not having both your parents, then fine, write it in. But it's the last book, there was never going to be any such explanation. Therefore, what does killing off Remus and Tonks add? What is the point of it?
Lupin, I can understand, because then that way he's there for the scene in the Forest, where Lily, James, Sirius and him walk with Harry to his not-death. (And I will admit I got choked up there, as apparently did JKR, that's the scene that made her bawl in the hotel room.) But why Tonks? (And I did say, way back in the original DH post that I made, that if one of them had to die, it had to be Remus; he couldn't handle losing Tonks after everything else he's lost.)
But yes. Bitter. And also in denial.
*hangs head* I appear to have fully immersed myself in HP fandom. Help me.
