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Jan. 10th, 2005 09:26 pmCommentary post-hack: Thanks to ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
xntrick for helping me recover this!
Look! I finally wrote it!
I've been threatening to write about this for ages and always chickened out, but since Remus The Whore is not cooperating (it's really long. And kind of boring. It's upsetting that I've lost the will to PWP) I thought I'd write about Remus The Half-Blood Prince instead.
What's that, you say? Preposterous? Well, duh.
Okay, here's the deal. I'm aware that Lupin is probably not the Half-Blood Prince. I'm aware that the person described in the spoiler paragraph JKR released early is probably the Half-Blood Prince. I don't care. So, because I'm actually really good at duality, even while knowing that Lupin is not the Half-Blood Prince I am going to give you some reasons that he is the Half-Blood Prince, and invite you to come up with some more.
One.
As far as I can recall, every major character we've met so far has had fairly specific mentions of family. Even Dumbledore has a brother, and his brother has a name. We've theoretically seen Snape's parents (what a lovely pair) and while okay, yes, McGonagall is still a bit solitary, cats are that way. Of the major cadre -- Lupin, Black, Snape, the Trio, Neville, Dumbledore, the Malfoys, Voldemort -- we have some kind of familial mention other than "my parents" which is all we get out of Lupin. When there's a significant lack of information from JKR, there's usually a reason for it, and in this case I think the reason is that Lupin's family is Not Normal, above and beyond having a werewolf for a son.
This isn't a perfect point, of course. Moody is arguably a main character, but JKR clearly has plans for Lupin -- I think a lot of the mental comparisons that Harry makes between Moody and Lupin in book four are there to remind us who he is, since he never actually shows up in four. But it shows that even in book four she had Lupin on the brain.
Two.
As I'm sure everyone is aware by now, Romulus and Remus were the mythical founders of Rome (sort of. Really it was Romulus and later Aeneas, but this isn't a classics senior sem). They were also princes -- the grandsons of Numitor, deposed by his brother Amulius. Numitor's daughter was made a vestal virgin, but Mars fell in love with her and fathered the twins. That makes them half-blood -- half-human, half-divine.
Remus was, in addition, the twin whom Numitor recognised as his grandson when he was grown, the boys having been raised by a wolf, a woodpecker, and a shepherd. Unfortunately, he's also the one who made fun of Romulus' sad little attempt at building a wall, and was thereafter killed. But the point is, JKR's names are often highly significant -- Lupin's already has been -- and the mythical Remus was, in the end, a half-blood prince.
Three.
This is the weakest point, but having three points is nicely symmetrical somehow, so tolerate me. It's actually a combination of two ideas, really. The first is that, if Remus is of some sort of wizarding royal descent, then it's almost archetypal that his parents "searched for a cure", faerie tales being quite obsessed with royal children who've taken ill. This also ties into why he is living in poverty-stricken exile of a sort. If he's been rejected from the Family, it explains his rather downtrodden state; he's not the kind to be turned away because of what he is and then accept a payoff for it.
Secondly, it would explain why James and especially Sirius choose to keep company with him in their first few years at Hogwarts, especially Sirius; the child of royalty would be appropriate company for the scion of a noble house, even if he is a half-Muggle. Peter is pretty clearly an insinuation into the group, to judge from his status in the pensieve in OotP, but Remus, whom we have no evidence is a match (skillwise or socially) to James and Sirius, is an equal.
If anyone would like to continue in the vain attempt to convince me of that which I rather wish were true, feel free. If you demolish my theories, please do so gently. *grins*
Commentary post-hack: A year (two years?) on from the release of HBP, I still like my theory better than the reality.
xntrick for helping me recover this! Look! I finally wrote it!
I've been threatening to write about this for ages and always chickened out, but since Remus The Whore is not cooperating (it's really long. And kind of boring. It's upsetting that I've lost the will to PWP) I thought I'd write about Remus The Half-Blood Prince instead.
What's that, you say? Preposterous? Well, duh.
Okay, here's the deal. I'm aware that Lupin is probably not the Half-Blood Prince. I'm aware that the person described in the spoiler paragraph JKR released early is probably the Half-Blood Prince. I don't care. So, because I'm actually really good at duality, even while knowing that Lupin is not the Half-Blood Prince I am going to give you some reasons that he is the Half-Blood Prince, and invite you to come up with some more.
One.
As far as I can recall, every major character we've met so far has had fairly specific mentions of family. Even Dumbledore has a brother, and his brother has a name. We've theoretically seen Snape's parents (what a lovely pair) and while okay, yes, McGonagall is still a bit solitary, cats are that way. Of the major cadre -- Lupin, Black, Snape, the Trio, Neville, Dumbledore, the Malfoys, Voldemort -- we have some kind of familial mention other than "my parents" which is all we get out of Lupin. When there's a significant lack of information from JKR, there's usually a reason for it, and in this case I think the reason is that Lupin's family is Not Normal, above and beyond having a werewolf for a son.
This isn't a perfect point, of course. Moody is arguably a main character, but JKR clearly has plans for Lupin -- I think a lot of the mental comparisons that Harry makes between Moody and Lupin in book four are there to remind us who he is, since he never actually shows up in four. But it shows that even in book four she had Lupin on the brain.
Two.
As I'm sure everyone is aware by now, Romulus and Remus were the mythical founders of Rome (sort of. Really it was Romulus and later Aeneas, but this isn't a classics senior sem). They were also princes -- the grandsons of Numitor, deposed by his brother Amulius. Numitor's daughter was made a vestal virgin, but Mars fell in love with her and fathered the twins. That makes them half-blood -- half-human, half-divine.
Remus was, in addition, the twin whom Numitor recognised as his grandson when he was grown, the boys having been raised by a wolf, a woodpecker, and a shepherd. Unfortunately, he's also the one who made fun of Romulus' sad little attempt at building a wall, and was thereafter killed. But the point is, JKR's names are often highly significant -- Lupin's already has been -- and the mythical Remus was, in the end, a half-blood prince.
Three.
This is the weakest point, but having three points is nicely symmetrical somehow, so tolerate me. It's actually a combination of two ideas, really. The first is that, if Remus is of some sort of wizarding royal descent, then it's almost archetypal that his parents "searched for a cure", faerie tales being quite obsessed with royal children who've taken ill. This also ties into why he is living in poverty-stricken exile of a sort. If he's been rejected from the Family, it explains his rather downtrodden state; he's not the kind to be turned away because of what he is and then accept a payoff for it.
Secondly, it would explain why James and especially Sirius choose to keep company with him in their first few years at Hogwarts, especially Sirius; the child of royalty would be appropriate company for the scion of a noble house, even if he is a half-Muggle. Peter is pretty clearly an insinuation into the group, to judge from his status in the pensieve in OotP, but Remus, whom we have no evidence is a match (skillwise or socially) to James and Sirius, is an equal.
If anyone would like to continue in the vain attempt to convince me of that which I rather wish were true, feel free. If you demolish my theories, please do so gently. *grins*
Commentary post-hack: A year (two years?) on from the release of HBP, I still like my theory better than the reality.
