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Sirius business
OK, sorry for the bad pun--I couldn't resist! A little rant about Sirius follows...
I was listening to the recent Alohomora podcast episode about Sirius (Episode 230) plus the recap episode (which is linked on the Episode 231 page). There was a lot of debate about Sirius, with strong feelings from both fans and anti-fans, about whether he was redeemable and whether he should be forgiven for the Shrieking Shack prank. The consensus among the hosts in the recap, along with many of the fans, was basically, "Teenagers do dumb things because they don't think before they act, but they grow out of it, and the dumb things they did shouldn't be held against them for the rest of their life." (To be fair, they say that the bullying and the prank are not OK, but are trying to make the point that Sirius isn't irredeemable.)
Now, don't get me wrong--I think Sirius is redeemable, but they're brushing off the bullying and the near-fatal "prank" too lightly as "dumb teenage stuff". Hell, I also think the bullying should not be excused as "oh, teenagers being dumb." Because I was a teenager, and me and my friends may have done some dumb things, but we never bullied anyone and we never almost killed anyone. To me, "dumb teenage stuff" might be sneaking out of your house to attend a party without your parents' permission, or underage drinking and smoking. Maybe stealing a rival school's sports team mascot to borrow a cliche from teen/college movies. But sending someone to be attacked by a werewolf? The closest real-world equivalent I can think of would be something like sneaking into a zoo after hours and locking someone in a cage with a wolf (or maybe lion or tiger), except that the zoo animals have some contact with their human keepers and might be less likely to attack and kill a person than a werewolf would be. Plus, even if you don't get killed, there's the risk of becoming a werewolf yourself if you get bitten.
I don't believe Sirius meant to get Snape killed, but regardless, I think potentially lethal consequences go beyond "dumb teenage stuff". It's like getting drunk at a party might be "dumb teenage stuff" but drinking and driving and getting into a car crash that kills or seriously injures someone changes from "dumb stuff" into something way more serious. Also, there's a degree of cruelty and malice in the bullying and the Shrieking Shack prank that goes beyond a simple dumb prank like, say, TPing your neighbor's yard on Halloween.
Also, as someone who was viciously bullied in grade school (though thankfully, not high school), I'd be pretty pissed if someone said of my bullies, "Oh they were just kids being dumb, but they grew out of it." I haven't let it ruin my life, but honestly, those memories are still painful today, and it trivializes bullying to chalk it up to "kids being dumb". (I admit, it also makes it hard for me to be objective about the Marauders sometimes.)
Is Sirius redeemable? Sure, but I don't think he got all the way there before he died. To me, redemption means acknowledging what you did wrong and expressing remorse, and doing what you can to make up for what you did. We see that he expresses some guilt and shame when Harry reacts with horror to the Shrieking Shack incident, but we also see that he's still defensive and puts part of the blame on Snape for being, well, Snape. To be fair, his emotional growth is stunted by his stint in Azkaban, and part of what I like about him is that he's so messed up (same reason why I like Snape, too), and I wish we'd had the chance to see him live long enough to grow and mature and maybe reach some sort of mutual grudging respect with Snape. But as always, I guess that's what fanfic is for.
I was listening to the recent Alohomora podcast episode about Sirius (Episode 230) plus the recap episode (which is linked on the Episode 231 page). There was a lot of debate about Sirius, with strong feelings from both fans and anti-fans, about whether he was redeemable and whether he should be forgiven for the Shrieking Shack prank. The consensus among the hosts in the recap, along with many of the fans, was basically, "Teenagers do dumb things because they don't think before they act, but they grow out of it, and the dumb things they did shouldn't be held against them for the rest of their life." (To be fair, they say that the bullying and the prank are not OK, but are trying to make the point that Sirius isn't irredeemable.)
Now, don't get me wrong--I think Sirius is redeemable, but they're brushing off the bullying and the near-fatal "prank" too lightly as "dumb teenage stuff". Hell, I also think the bullying should not be excused as "oh, teenagers being dumb." Because I was a teenager, and me and my friends may have done some dumb things, but we never bullied anyone and we never almost killed anyone. To me, "dumb teenage stuff" might be sneaking out of your house to attend a party without your parents' permission, or underage drinking and smoking. Maybe stealing a rival school's sports team mascot to borrow a cliche from teen/college movies. But sending someone to be attacked by a werewolf? The closest real-world equivalent I can think of would be something like sneaking into a zoo after hours and locking someone in a cage with a wolf (or maybe lion or tiger), except that the zoo animals have some contact with their human keepers and might be less likely to attack and kill a person than a werewolf would be. Plus, even if you don't get killed, there's the risk of becoming a werewolf yourself if you get bitten.
I don't believe Sirius meant to get Snape killed, but regardless, I think potentially lethal consequences go beyond "dumb teenage stuff". It's like getting drunk at a party might be "dumb teenage stuff" but drinking and driving and getting into a car crash that kills or seriously injures someone changes from "dumb stuff" into something way more serious. Also, there's a degree of cruelty and malice in the bullying and the Shrieking Shack prank that goes beyond a simple dumb prank like, say, TPing your neighbor's yard on Halloween.
Also, as someone who was viciously bullied in grade school (though thankfully, not high school), I'd be pretty pissed if someone said of my bullies, "Oh they were just kids being dumb, but they grew out of it." I haven't let it ruin my life, but honestly, those memories are still painful today, and it trivializes bullying to chalk it up to "kids being dumb". (I admit, it also makes it hard for me to be objective about the Marauders sometimes.)
Is Sirius redeemable? Sure, but I don't think he got all the way there before he died. To me, redemption means acknowledging what you did wrong and expressing remorse, and doing what you can to make up for what you did. We see that he expresses some guilt and shame when Harry reacts with horror to the Shrieking Shack incident, but we also see that he's still defensive and puts part of the blame on Snape for being, well, Snape. To be fair, his emotional growth is stunted by his stint in Azkaban, and part of what I like about him is that he's so messed up (same reason why I like Snape, too), and I wish we'd had the chance to see him live long enough to grow and mature and maybe reach some sort of mutual grudging respect with Snape. But as always, I guess that's what fanfic is for.