Your analysis is quite right. Sirius has been shown to be an unreliable source of information, and extraordinarily arrogant, which is exactly why it irks me when other fans take him at his word about Peter. Fans of Sirius can be just as blinkered as he is himself, it seems, which is why I didn't choose to really go into "Sirius is wrong because he's arrogant", but stuck to "Sirius is wrong because his version of events doesn't align with what we objectively know".
the pressure of always knowing that Sirius and/or James should be better
Yes, exactly. From working with special ed students, the lesson was heavily brought home to me that once a kid gets the idea that he's dumb, it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. And it's not only the idea that James and Sirius are better, but, as you say, that they *should be* better -- the natural order of things. I'm sure he did think he was stupid, and saw everything through that filter, to the point where if he actually managed to do something, he'd assume he was doing it wrong. And even if he had enough confidence to suspect he was right, he'd keep it to himself for fear of threatening James and Sirius's position.
I'm still trying to work out how Remus fit into all of this. Sirius is rude and dismissive to him too, and evidently mistrusted him. My feeling at this point is that MWPP were really not a group of mutual friends at an emotional level. I think Sirius was friends with James, James was friends with Remus, and Remus was friends with Peter. I suspect the other three behaved quite differently towards each other when Sirius wasn't around.
(Of course it's entirely possible that he took the same classes as they did, just to remain with the gang at all times, and they weren't the courses he was best suited for academically. Which could be part of his tragedy.)
Yes, I think this was the case, especially considering that McGonagall says he wasn't a good student -- as she was his Head of House, she would have known and been concerned with how he was doing in all his classes, not just hers.
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Date: 2003-08-27 12:06 pm (UTC)the pressure of always knowing that Sirius and/or James should be better
Yes, exactly. From working with special ed students, the lesson was heavily brought home to me that once a kid gets the idea that he's dumb, it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. And it's not only the idea that James and Sirius are better, but, as you say, that they *should be* better -- the natural order of things. I'm sure he did think he was stupid, and saw everything through that filter, to the point where if he actually managed to do something, he'd assume he was doing it wrong. And even if he had enough confidence to suspect he was right, he'd keep it to himself for fear of threatening James and Sirius's position.
I'm still trying to work out how Remus fit into all of this. Sirius is rude and dismissive to him too, and evidently mistrusted him. My feeling at this point is that MWPP were really not a group of mutual friends at an emotional level. I think Sirius was friends with James, James was friends with Remus, and Remus was friends with Peter. I suspect the other three behaved quite differently towards each other when Sirius wasn't around.
(Of course it's entirely possible that he took the same classes as they did, just to remain with the gang at all times, and they weren't the courses he was best suited for academically. Which could be part of his tragedy.)
Yes, I think this was the case, especially considering that McGonagall says he wasn't a good student -- as she was his Head of House, she would have known and been concerned with how he was doing in all his classes, not just hers.