This Character Totally Got the Short End of the Wand in Harry Potter Series
The rich world of Harry Potter has a ton of third- and fourth-string characters that don't have a lot of time on the page, but still invite passionate followers.
Who doesn't love Dobby? Or the hilarious Oliver Wood? Or Ollivander? Or – deep cut here – Sir Cadogan? Even characters like the strict and terse Professor McGonagall have inspired volumes of fanfic.
Of course, a passionate fandom is a double-edged sword. Sometimes it doesn't just mean loving characters: it can also mean being deeply disappointed in how their stories turned out.
One such character is Nymphadora Tonks, who whirled onto the Harry Potter scene as a total breath of fresh air.
With a bubbly personality, bright pink hair, and cheerful demeanour, Tonks is not only a punky young alternative to the dour, serious Aurors – she's also incredibly powerful. She's an amazing duellist and was born with the rare magical abilities of a Metamorphmagus, which allows her to change her appearance at will.
As the protégée of Alastor Moody (another fan favorite) Tonks does some of the most dangerous work for the Order of the Phoenix when she goes undercover at the Ministry. She's also got a very interesting family – her aunt is Bellatrix Lestrange, but her father is a Muggle. Altogether, Tonks whirls into the books with the potential to be one of our favourite characters in the HP universe.
And then she falls in love.
And hey, love is great – we love love. Plenty of characters fall in love without their characters getting boiled down to a single sad characteristic.
But Tonks really got the short end of the wand here. Because suddenly the punkiest, bounciest, most cheerful and positive character in the HP universe just became… bluh. She moped around for most of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, and then she stopped her kickass spy career to be a wife and mother. We didn't hear from her for a long time, except as a plot device to emotionally torture Lupin.
And then she dies "offstage" in the final chapters of the books.
There's nothing wrong with women choosing to be mothers rather than spies, but Tonks' entire personality seems to get subverted in order to serve Remus' story. We wish we could have had a love story that still honoured her as a powerful, bubby, cheerful badass. RIP Tonks. You got done dirty.