#my like. older death eaters era is sooo back and better than ever and i’ve decided it’s time to share w the class

[sugarsnappeases]

what’s that i hear you say ? ‘oh kara, will you please ramble to me about rodolphus lestrange' ?

well... i suppose i could.... if you insist...

to me, rodolphus is outwardly just your run-of-the-mill pureblood heir. he's the spitting image of his father, he's been raised to replace him and ultimately he’ll do it without complaining bc it's his Right. he's the lestrange heir and everything that entails in terms of like. authority and capability and stoicism and just generally having power and wielding it comfortably (and also being a raging blood supremacist xoxo)

and to me the lestranges are very Normal in terms of pureblood aristocracy (and oh i could go into rabastan too, he's the classic like no-responsibilities spare to me, in an ideal world he'd be on one endless Grand Tour, gadding about europe all byronesque, quaffing wine from skulls and swimming nude in the venetian canals. but these are thoughts for another day), like they don’t really have so much of that beautiful inherent crazy that there is in the blacks, or the rosiers or carrows for example.

but that doesn’t mean that he’s not a deeply unpleasant individual, to me he’s very like. surly. like he can do the whole polite charming high society act, maintaining alliances or whatever, but the majority of the time he spends at balls and galas and things is just brooding over a glass of firewhiskey. and he’s like tall, well-built, imposing, and probs glowering into the middle distance so he’s really not very approachable

he’s smart. he’s a skilled duellist. he takes himself very seriously. his involvement with the dark arts is a mixture of family expectation, academic interest, and the desire for some kind of outlet. bc i think also he’s very angry a lot of the time - angry about his responsibilities, and having to interact w the other purebloods, and at his brother, and at his wife (and i could talk forever about bella & rodo’s relationship i’ve been buzzing with thoughts about them recently) and he’s never once dealt w any emotion in a healthy way, he’s very careful about always being imperturbable in public, so he channels those like. violent thoughts into, initially, testing out curses on animals and things, and then, when he joins the death eaters (and also probs even before that), on the people that he views as animals (muggleborns. and i hope it’s clear that this isn’t a view i endorse i just like exploring his character)

when you stiff upper lip so hard that you have to join a terrorist organisation just so you don’t explode from pent-up rage….. happens to the best of us……. anyway i reckon he’s one of the earlier people to join the death eaters, once tom came back to england, bc he’s very convinced of his superiority over muggleborns and he’s got the skills, the social standing, and the violent urges to make tom want him on board. i think that he joined before bella did even and she then joined through him but that’s a different can of worms.

he’s up there w the most loyal and the most trusted death eaters bc he takes it almost as seriously as he takes his role as heir. he’s powerful and he’s ambitious and he’s really fucking angry. he’s got an intense competitive nemesis situation going on with antonin dolohov (they also fuck. i have a lot to say about them. i’ve been concocting lore recently). he doesn’t denounce the dark lord after halloween 1981, he spends the rest of his life in and out of azkaban, consumed by The Cause.

he can never complete his duty as the lord lestrange. like i think his dad died fairly young so rod is the lord for a solid ten/fifteen years before his first arrest but even then, he and bella don’t have kids, there’s no lestrange heir, and he never even succeeds in getting rabastan to marry someone. he doesn’t secure the family legacy, him and his brother are the last of their line, he’s essentially failed in the task that he was born and raised to fulfil, but by that point he’s resigned himself to it. i think he flounders a little after his first escape from azkaban when he obvs can’t really publicly be an aristocrat anymore, bc he’s lost the central purpose of his life, but then he just doubles back down on his little killing torturing bigotry side hustle.

he’s loyal to the dark lord even after his death (both deaths) to the extent of going to azkaban for him (three times) bc he’s leaned into that outlet, that release for his anger (which by that point would’ve changed targets somewhat), so much that it’s become the core of his existence. he is. i feel. a bit of a poster boy for the death eaters. and i think he’s neat.

bosh. thank you for your time 🙏