#but it's been in my drafts for like a month

[leogichidaa]

Mine!: James Potter and Regulus Black

I feel like I stumbled upon an interesting parallel between James and Regulus sort of by accident and it felt worth discussing. I wrote Regulus delivering the "his existence is offensive" line in PS #23, a reference to the infamous "it's more the fact that he exists, if you know what I mean", because I thought it was amusing to have him refer to James in the way James refers to Snape. But I found that it was also incredibly natural for Regulus. It really feels like a Regulus Black line. Regulus is raised to believe that others are less worthy of existence than him. He buys into the blood supremacy ideals and does not believe in the inherent worth of a human being. It's entirely expected that he would object to the mere existence of someone that he considers lesser or unworthy or just personally annoying.

Which is not to say that it feels any less natural coming from James.

There's a tremendous amount of privilege in the statement. It's delivered for laughs by James and it is absurd in the magnitude of entitlement. The idea that someone does not have the right to exist because the great James Potter does not care for them...it is disconcerting. Or hilarious, I guess, depending on your point of view.

James does not share the blood supremacist mindset. He does not look down on others for blood status, nor for things like lycanthropy. He is shown to be accepting of others' right to exist in whatever form they happen to be born in. Unless, of course, he doesn't personally like them. Or they are personally threatening to him. Then their existence is a problem.

Now to be fair, when James says it, he is half-joking. He's not being sincere and he doesn't truly think that Snape should cease to exist, as evidenced by him saving Snape's life (earlier that year, actually, if I have my timeline correct?). To an extent, Snape's existence there, in that moment, is because James made the decision to ensure it. But, to quote the analyst in PS, the statement still "revealed something very honest" about James: possessiveness. Not wanting to share. That is really what is at the heart of Regulus' hatred of James and James' hatred of Snape. I like the thing, give me the thing, you can't play with the thing, it's mine. But with people, with Sirius and Lily.

I imagine for James a lot of this has to do with being a spoiled and beloved only child to wealthy, older parents. He's probably never really had to share anything, nor has he had much experience in going without something that he wants. He wants Lily, he's going to get Lily, and anyone who gets in his way needs to be eliminated. Again, not killed, but removed from the equation through targeted humiliation and whatnot.

And Regulus, who likely grew up pretty isolated, may be used to sharing with Sirius, but he's isn't used to having to share Sirius with others. He's honestly probably had more experience than James of going without something he wants (i.e. the love and approval of his parents), but still, he is more used to having his needs, wants, and whims met than not. And in PS he is similarly single-minded in his pursuit of Sirius' attention at the expense of anyone who gets in his way. He has less qualms about what eliminating James would look like too. He and Sirius come from a darker family and killing, maiming, and/or permanently disabling the competition isn't out of the question for either of them.

That possessiveness is really dehumanizing to the object of their affection. As the analyst tries to explain to Regulus in PS, destroying James shows a complete lack of consideration for Sirius as a person with his own wants and needs. It reduces Sirius to an object to be fought over and won. And, practically speaking, it's an ineffective strategy because Sirius is never going to put up with that. He isn't going to want to spend time with the person who took his best friend away.

The same goes for Lily. Lily, like Sirius, is strong willed and values her independence. She's not going to put up with being treated like an object to be won either. We see that James does not endear himself to her by humiliating her friend (at least not initially). For years it is an ineffective strategy. Arguably, in the end, James does succeed in indirectly causing an irreparable rift between Snape and Lily, but only because their friendship was already fraying for other reasons. And we're led to believe that he only truly wins her over when he realizes that he needs to listen to what she wants and not get in pissing matches with Snape over her (in her presence, anyway).