Harry Potter: Regulus Black Was a Terrible Person, and You're Ready for This Talk

Summary:

• Sirius Black’s younger brother Regulus never deserved to be treated like a hero, let alone a decent human being.
• Regulus joined the Death Eaters early and remained Voldemort’s loyal servant for years, content with his ideology.
• The only reason Regulus went against Voldemort was his mistreatment of Kreacher and not the heinous crimes the Dark Lord had committed.

The Harry Potter franchise has quite a few divisive characters. Over and over, fans clash debating whether the Marauders and Snape were good people or not or whether Dumbledore was a goody-two-shoes or an evil mastermind. However, some unlikely characters get a universally positive treatment they don’t deserve.

Regulus Arcturus Black aka R.A.B. is one of them. From Kreacher’s revelations in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, fans unanimously decided that he was a great and kind guy — but most things we know about the younger Black state otherwise.

What Do We Know About Regulus Black?

Long story short, Regulus was Sirius Black’s younger brother who completely lacked the rebellious soul of his sibling. Where Sirius advocated for justice and compassion, Regulus kept quiet; where Sirius flipped their parents off for being sadistic psychopaths, Regulus listened to their every word and accepted it as the truth.

To no one’s surprise — and Sirius’s great heartache — the more time went by, the more distant Regulus grew from his older brother. During his time at Hogwarts, R.A.B. became friends with many future Death Eaters and soon joined their ranks. He was among Lord Voldemort’s most loyal and diehard servants at the time.

However, several years after becoming a Death Eater, Regulus Black turned his back on the Dark Lord. He stole one of the Horcruxes, left a mocking message to Voldemort in its place, and tried to destroy the piece of his master’s soul. This sudden change of loyalties was explained by…Voldemort’s attitude to Kreacher.

This story was enough to convince most fans that Regulus Black was a compassionate fellow with a golden heart — but that’s quite a mistake.

Why Was Regulus Black a Huge POS?

Regulus treated his house elf with care and respect. He betrayed Voldemort and tried to destroy him. But all of this doesn’t exactly matter since It all comes down to the only thing that matters: his motivation. And his motivation was…questionable.

For years, Regulus Black was loyal to the Dark Lord, counting among the most devoted Death Eaters. He had no issue with the genocide of Muggle-born wizards and Muggles, terrorizing the population, and killing and torturing his Lord’s foes. All of that was completely fine in Regulus’s eyes, and it’s crucial to remember that.

What changed his mind, then? Lord Voldemort’s cruel treatment of Kreacher!

Think about it: Regulus cared little for human lives as for him, the lives of Muggles and “Mudbloods” were irrelevant; but his house elf getting brutalized was too much for him. What does this say about Sirius’s younger brother as a person?

In Regulus’s eyes, Kreacher was more of a family member than a house elf, so his going rogue should be classified as personal revenge and not a sudden awakening. The younger Black never changed his ways, and even his letter to Voldemort mentions nothing about despising the Dark Lord’s doctrine. See for yourself.

“I know I will be dead long before you read this, but I want you to know that it was I who discovered your secret. I have stolen the real Horcrux and intend to destroy it as soon as I can. I face death in the hope that when you meet your match, you will be mortal once more,” Regulus Arcturus Black wrote.

Regulus Black never changed. By the time he died, he was still the same person who found the extermination of other people and species a worthy aspiration. The sole reason for his betrayal was the desire to avenge his one particular house elf, and that certainly didn’t just turn R.A.B., the Death Eater, into a good person.