I'm someone who loves Lupin as a character but finds a lot of really huge flaws in his person; I do see him as being weak (not to mention passive-aggressive, indecisive and sometimes a bit maudlin). For all his good traits, his compassion and his overarching decency, he can be pretty irritatingly emo at times.
Where I sympathise and elevate him above Snape is probably in his perspective and the fact that he has seen a connection between his behaviour in the past and its consequences, whereas to me (and I emphasise this is purely subjective) Snape really hasn't, and he hasn't learnt that he shouldn't bully others even though from his own experience he knew it felt dreadful. I think Lupin genuinely feels dreadful over the instance because he has applied this compassionate insight, and when he said that he doesn't hate Snape for what he did at the end of PoA, I genuinely believe it, if only because I've found myself in that situation before too.
I can understand the mindset of a victim of bullying never forgiving the perpetrators and being suspicious of others for the rest of their lives, because their feelings are absolutely justifiable and are so complex I couldn't pick into it. As a victim of childhood bullying, though, I don't feel hatred and anger or a desire for vengeance because it involves a lot of mental effort, really. I became friends with a lot of the people who bullied me when I was younger, and the rest of them barely cross my mind these days. Probably because of my own experience, this is why I feel more sympathy for Lupin and Snape, and therefore think his path is probably smarter and nicer anyway. (As you can see, bullshit subjective judgement. Mea culpa.)
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
from quibbler_report...
Date: 2006-06-01 12:55 am (UTC)Where I sympathise and elevate him above Snape is probably in his perspective and the fact that he has seen a connection between his behaviour in the past and its consequences, whereas to me (and I emphasise this is purely subjective) Snape really hasn't, and he hasn't learnt that he shouldn't bully others even though from his own experience he knew it felt dreadful. I think Lupin genuinely feels dreadful over the instance because he has applied this compassionate insight, and when he said that he doesn't hate Snape for what he did at the end of PoA, I genuinely believe it, if only because I've found myself in that situation before too.
I can understand the mindset of a victim of bullying never forgiving the perpetrators and being suspicious of others for the rest of their lives, because their feelings are absolutely justifiable and are so complex I couldn't pick into it. As a victim of childhood bullying, though, I don't feel hatred and anger or a desire for vengeance because it involves a lot of mental effort, really. I became friends with a lot of the people who bullied me when I was younger, and the rest of them barely cross my mind these days. Probably because of my own experience, this is why I feel more sympathy for Lupin and Snape, and therefore think his path is probably smarter and nicer anyway. (As you can see, bullshit subjective judgement. Mea culpa.)