On the brilliance of Sirius Black

I am currently re-reading Harry Potter 5 again (because life's too short to not re-read your favorite books every couple of years). And I wanted to write a post about my favourite character of all time, but then I realized I already did this on my old blog. So, no harm in posting it again because it is as true as ever:

On the brilliance of Sirius Black
(originally posted on http://sunitaanja.buzznet.com/user/journal/17485940/brilliance-sirius-black/ at March 22, 2014)

Yesterday I've seen a picture of some children and teachers dressing up as their favorite book character. And I wondered: Who is my favorite book character? I have read a lot of books so it's hard to choose but I realized that without doubt my all time favorite character is Sirius Black from the Harry Potter series.

I believe that Sirius Black is just perfectly created by J.K.Rowling.

He is the ultimate tragic hero. He grew up in a family obsessed with dark magic which he despised. He was always the odd boy in his family, at last when he was sorted into Griffindor instead of Slitherin. But in Griffindor he met James Potter who offered him a better life. You can learn from Sirius and Remus Lupin talking about old times and from Snape's memory in book 5 that James and Sirius were popular boys. Sirius was this good looking, easy going rebel-type. He and James both dedicated their lives to fighting dark magic which means for Sirius that he fought his own family.

But then Sirius lost his best friend, James Potter, who he would have died for. And even worse he was accused for James' death and was sent to the most horrific prison ever where gruesome creatures slowly sucked his soul out of him. But Sirius managed to escape and now made it his new life goal to protect James' only son Harry Potter. He had to hide but he manged to join up with Harry. After three years being "free", he was murdered by his own cousin.

Sirius is such an incredible sad character that it is suprising that he still remains so charming and energetic. I mean, it can't be denied that everything that happened to him broke him physically and mentally and that it made him bitter and depressed. But Sirius never stopped fighting. And the unconditional love he had once given James he then gave Harry. Sirius was the only family Harry ever had and he, in fact, died for him.

Sirius is loving and caring. He is also often described as extremely impulsive, reckless and hot-tempered. I adore his personality so much because he is such a complex person. He is truely loyal and righteous but at the same time he is always on the urge of exploding and picking a fight.

Every character I read about has to measure with Sirius Black and noone compares to him. He inspired my own writing a lot.

I mean Harry Potter has many awesome characters (Harry, Remus Lupin, Ginny, Bellatrix Black etc) but it is in Sirius Black were J.K. Rolling has really created a masterpiece. It's no wonder she dedicated a whole book to him (Harry Potter and the prisoner of Askaban). My favorite Harry Potter book is book 5 because Sirius is so present in this book. Even if he is not there, he is always there for Harry and he has definetly shaped Harry into a stronger person.

I've read that J.K. Rowling originally intended to kill of Arthur Weasley in book 5 but then switched to Sirius Black because she was afraid of what his father's death would do to Ron Weasly and she feared that he would loose his humor which defines him. Harry was never  humorous but always very serious and sad, so that Sirius' death just contributed to his obsession with killing Voldemort.