Sirius the Crackbaby

[brokenquill92]

When doing a marauders RtB why do writers treat Sirius like an ADHD eight year old on crack?

[Kitty279]

That's something that annoys me no end!!! Sure, he's a Marauder and would appreciate a good joke, but that doesn't mean he has to act that stupid and silly. The worst stories are the ones where he reads as an adult (after Azkaban, I mean) and still behaves totally childish. That's just completely OOC. (As is him being afraid of Molly, Ginny and Hermione!) Usually I give up on that sort of story because it annoys the hell out of me.

[jaffaninja]

I think a lot of writers do it to try and add a humour element in; it doesn't really work because most people just get fed up with the OOCness of it all.

[Kitty279]

You're probably right. The humour is just too childish and doesn't work. Maybe it's an age problem - for a 13 year old it would be funny, but for someone much older it's childish.

[jaffaninja]

Maybe. I guess it's hard to get into his mindset - I mean, sure he's immature until Azkaban, but he can be sensible, and he's not some little kid. So he's actually quite a tricky character to write.

[Kitty279]

True, he's not the easiest character to write, but to have him behave like a silly 10-year-old after 12 years in that hellhole is just not realistic.

[dracosfairmaiden]

I think the problem was spending 12 years in Azkaban without any human contact. There have been studies where people in solitary confinement go crazy or have their mental abilities regress. Sirius didn't get a chance to act his age because he was in prison. But I do think there should be a balance between his immature side and his adult side. I think that's why he's so hard to write.

[Kitty279]

He *could* act mature - look at GoF. So it's rather OOC when he's shown completely childish after that. But it's true, Azkaban didn't exactly help. Neither did being locked up at Grimmauld Place.

[G. Novella]

He's the hardest to write, but even pre-Hogwarts, it's difficult to capture the lighter side of him mixed with the Black side. Most people tend to forget he's a Black when writing, but if you remember to incorporate it, the story tends to turn out much better than yu'd expect.

[teflonbilly]

I agree that he is too often written as being a spoiled ten year old on a sugar high.

Sure, he was a jokester, someone who would participate in the occasional prank, and maybe even a little emotionally regressed (for his actual chronological age.)

But he lived to be 21 before he went into Azkaban, that is not someone who would necessarily come out with the mental age of a 12 year old. I would be perfectly willing to accept him acting like a rambunctious college student (drinking a little too much, getting a little overexuberant over quidditch, and procrastinating on chores, etc...) and even couple it with a mischievous streak like the Twins. Maybe even a little bit worse than the twins, if only because he is on an emotional high most of the time to be around people he loves after spending 12 years in prison around dementors.

But the cracked out ADHD sufferer is right out.

TB

[Kitty279]

Well said, TB, that makes much more sense than what I see in some (ok, too many) fics!

[Chameleon]

Oh god, that's one of the things I hate about fanon-Sirius, when he acts like he's five year old. I get that he's rash and reckless, but that's some of his traits. It doesn't mean that he's like a small kid. And James, Remus and Peter act to the other people : "Well, that's just Sirius."

I don't think they would have wanted to be friends with him, if he kept act like that. Maybe when they were eleven to thirteen, but I think it's about that time where you start to mature slightly. You want to be cool and that kind of stuff. He didn't seem that childish in the memory thing in OOTP, alright he was cruel, but he had his head right. And in the books, after Azkaban, he acted responsible. A bit. So he can be responsible.

[Kitty279]

Some people seem to equal 'reckless' with 'childish' - something I never understood. It has nothing to do with each other.

[blackroses77]

I can't stand when Sirius is written like this. I've stopped reading some otherwise good RtBs because the author has written him as broken described. I normally don't mind ooc stories, I actually like them quite a lot but sirius written as an immature, hyper, idiot...just no.

[jaffaninja]

Same with me. I can read lot of OOC too, but not Sirius. Possibly because when written well he's one of my favourites.

[Kitty279]

Glad to know I'm not the only one! For some reason, I have no problem with most people being a bit out of character (or sometimes more than a bit), as long as it fits with how I can see the person acting beyond canon, but a childish Sirius is a big NO for me.

[jaffaninja]

Exactly. Sirius went through the First Wizarding War, his best friend died, another friend betrayed them and then he was sent to Azkaban for twelve years. He is not going to be childish.

[Kitty279]

And still, many authors insist that he couldn't grow up in Azkaban and has to be so childish ... oh well, there's always the back button.

[Chameleon]

People come with that, that his 'growing up' got stopped in Azkaban. Well, I thing it might have made him even more reckless, but it doesn't backtracks him to his chlldhood. He was 21, when he got put in prison.

Yeah, you're right. He went to war and had several of his friends die, not just James, but I bet that the most of the Order were his friends. And most of them die. I've just realized something ... If you're a Order member, the death rate is pretty high there. More than the half of the people who got in that group, died.

[Kitty279]

Exactly, and he wouldn't turn into a 5-year-old on a sugar high because of Azkaban, so I really don't understand it.

True. But between Dumbledore giving Death Eather second, third, fifth, tenth changes and preaching forgiveness, and Peter as the spy, able to blab to Voldemort about Order missions, it's not so surprising.

[Chameleon]

Yeah. Some of them make it before Azkaban, but I imagine Sirius as a kind of player-type, as he seemingly looked good and was arrogant. I wouldn't want to be with someone who acts like he's on my little brother's age.

Nope.. It seemed like there weren't many left of the original Order... Yeah. Dumbledore kept giving them chances, which annoyed me. If they had captured a death eater, Dumbledore would have let him out again with an preach : "We must forgive." I almost expected that Dumbles would make Harry to forgive Voldemort.

[Kitty279]

He was a prankster, no doubt, and a bit arrogant, and a bit of a player is possible, too. But not that childish, not even at school. Plus, that tendency to make him afraid of Lily and later Hermione, Ginny and Molly annoys me. It's not canon, and he grew up with Walburga, for heaven's sake!

That's how I see him, too. What the good man forgets is the fact that he gives further chances to proven murderers who would just laugh about him and continue to maim, torture and murder. And the ones who are their victims don't get a second chance. That's my problem with the whole thing. That way it's only the dark side who gets more chances, not the light side.

Oh, he would have tried, no doubt. I still can't get over Harry so easily forgiving the old codger and the greasy git for everything and even naming his son after them.

[Chameleon]

Hm. I can easily see Harry name his son after Dumbles, but not Snape.

Yeah. He didn't give Sirius a second chance, before he was 100% sure that Sirius was innocent, but gave Snape a second chance, just betting it on, that Snape's love for Lily, would keep him on his toes.

Lol. I can't see Sirius being afraid for a teenager, much less two. Walburga was definitely much worse than them all,

[Kitty279]

I guess it was mostly how he could profit - believing Snape had reformed and giving him a second chance gave Dumbledore a spy. Not giving Sirius a chance gave him control over the BWL and the chance to raise his secret little weapon. So he gave the enemy more chances than his own Order members.

[physicssquid]

Sept 8, 2012 7:51:55 GMT -5 Chameleon said:

Lol. I can't see Sirius being afraid for a teenager, much less two. Walburga was definitely much worse than them all,

Unless they are scary in different ways. I'm sure Sirius knew what Walburg was capable of, having grown up with her, but he didn't know Hermione and Ginny all that well. He'd probably heard other people talk about how Hermione was the smartest witch of her generation, and heard the twins talk about how scary Ginny's bat-bogey hex was, so he assumed that they could come up with new ways to humiliate him, and that might be why people write him being scared of them.

[Chameleon]

Eh... They were teenagers, and Sirius was said to be one of the cleverest students in school. I'm pretty sure he could easily evade Ginny's bat-bogey hex, and Hermione, well. She is the kind of person who would never use it on an elder person. She used it on Snape, but she pretty much freaked out, so he would have gotten the idea, she wouldn't curse anyone without a reason. And when she used a hex on Ron, well, then he was pretty much dead then.

[blackroses77]

I agree Sirius acting afraid of teenagers is ridiculous. Him being afraid of Molly makes no sense either.

[Kitty279]

Indeed. He was the one who stood up to her about telling Harry more, after all.