Spoilers, duh.
I realize this is Not Exactly What the Book Was About, but okay. One thing that is nagging me about the Remus/Tonks relationship is Tonks' oblivious happiness, at least in the beginning of the book before she more or less drops out of sight. I'm not saying I want Tonks to be miserable, not at all. But I don't like how her happiness seems to be dependent on her marital status to Remus: she falls apart in HBP; she perks right back up in DH. And she remains more or less effervescent throughout, despite the massive bug up Remus's ass, despite how unfairly he treats her - though who knows how differently he might have acted in private. (Teddy Lupin?) Much as I might dislike/totally not get them as a couple, I wish Tonks would've given some indication that she knew she was getting the short end of the stick, and tried to straighten Remus out - no pun intended, goddamn it.
In general, I don't like the idea that theirs is a love that conquers all,* probably because the first thing it conquered was Tonks' personality. I can't dislike her in OotP so much anymore because there, at least, she is much better than the Hair Color/Fragile Mood du Jour to which she is reduced in the last books. In the same way Remus, all his complexity, becomes filtered in the light of his relationship with Tonks. And even that is diminished; the problem of Remus's commitment and the cavalcade of issues associated with it just...evaporate. I can buy that they could be good for one another; what I don't buy is the panacea aspect of the relationship. That's probably too simple, but so is the "resolution" to their problems.
(Incidentally I keep imagining this scene between them, probably at the breakfast table. Tonks asks, Hey, how's that whole self-hatred thing going? And Remus is like, Oh, fine, fine, I think it might actually have cooled down to resigned loathing tinged with disgust.... Good! Tonks says, and pats his hand.)
*Maybe I am imagining what their relationship is supposed to signify, but I can't help but think that Rowling has afforded them some special status, especially with the way they or the mention of them keeps cropping up in the strangest places. (Sickbeds, the wake of death, tense reconnaissance missions, Death Eater board meetings, etc.)
I dunno.
In general, I don't like the idea that theirs is a love that conquers all,* probably because the first thing it conquered was Tonks' personality. I can't dislike her in OotP so much anymore because there, at least, she is much better than the Hair Color/Fragile Mood du Jour to which she is reduced in the last books. In the same way Remus, all his complexity, becomes filtered in the light of his relationship with Tonks. And even that is diminished; the problem of Remus's commitment and the cavalcade of issues associated with it just...evaporate. I can buy that they could be good for one another; what I don't buy is the panacea aspect of the relationship. That's probably too simple, but so is the "resolution" to their problems.
(Incidentally I keep imagining this scene between them, probably at the breakfast table. Tonks asks, Hey, how's that whole self-hatred thing going? And Remus is like, Oh, fine, fine, I think it might actually have cooled down to resigned loathing tinged with disgust.... Good! Tonks says, and pats his hand.)
*Maybe I am imagining what their relationship is supposed to signify, but I can't help but think that Rowling has afforded them some special status, especially with the way they or the mention of them keeps cropping up in the strangest places. (Sickbeds, the wake of death, tense reconnaissance missions, Death Eater board meetings, etc.)
I dunno.