Post by phantasmkiss on Oct 22, 2005 21:30:34 GMT -5
I was dead-set against Snape from his introduction in SS/PS...until he was proven to not be the baddie, but to have been trying to stop the baddie. After that, I refused to acknowledge all the "Hey, everyone! Look how bad he is!" propaganda that litters the books. C'mon. That would be way too easy. To just finish the series and say "I told you he was bad, from the beginning!" Not Jo's style. But, for all intensive purposes, proving he's the bad guy (circumstantial evidence, I say!), then at the end shouting "Gotcha! Dumbledore was right! I left a trail of well-hidden clues all along!" is precisely what I expect. Read between the lines, try your darndest to ignore the red herrings (ooh! look over there! a red herring! *meanwhile Snape, unnoticed, secretly does a good deed* I've never seen a red herring before! Aw, it's gone...oh, look at Snape glower! he must be bad!) *sigh*
[glow=green,2,300]Point:[/glow]
Here's a passage from the book that we need to look at:
But before he could finish this jinx, excruciating pain hit Harry; he keeled over in the grass. Someone was screaming , he would surely die of this agony, Snape was going to torture him to death or madness--
"No!" roared Snape's Voice and the pain stopped as suddenly as it had started; Harry lay curled on the dark grass...
How logical is it that Snape would protect Harry from other DEs' curses and only block Harry's jinxes while they were trying to escape? Snape hates Harry, and if he were a true DE I'm sure he would feel perfectly within his rights to torment him a little or at least deflect his spells back at him. Think about it: even if Voldemort's orders were to not seriously hurt Harry so that Voldie could have that privelege, there was nothing stopping Snape from immobilizing Harry and taking him with him as a gift to his Master. Wouldn't that be more logical? Why leave him completely unharmed and free to continue to rally and plot to overthrow Voldemort? It doesn't make sense.
Plus you have the fact that Harry called Snape a coward twice. The first time was in front of the DEs and Snape didn't bother reacting to Harry's namecalling. It wasn't until they were alone, and Harry was telling him to "kill me, like you killed him, coward!" that Snape nearly lost it and howled as if he was in as much pain as Fang who was trapped in the burning cottage. Very telling.
Right to the end he protected both Draco and Harry from uttering unforgivable curses (preserving their innocence), and only blocked Harry's spells and gave him more terse advice as to how he needed to close his mind (occlumency) and keep his mouth shut (non-verbal spells) if he was ever going to be able to defeat Voldemort.
[glow=green,2,300]Point:[/glow]
Snape plays an important role in the books. He might not be in every chapter, but he's certainly fleshed out a lot more than other characters. He's easily the most complex. But by making him evil, Jo would be robbing him of his complexity. He really would be the evil henchman who could fool Dumbledore. We can easily find motives for him to do that. His life has given us enough clues to figure out why he could fall to darkness. But to puzzle out why he's trying to do right? That's complexity. Unless he's made into a villian more terrible than Voldemort, I think redemption is neccessary to maintaining his interest as a complicated character.
[glow=green,2,300]Point:[/glow]
Throughout the book DD was INTENSLY preparing Harry for his death. Why else would he do this, unless he knew he was going to leave Harry forever?! He told Harry everything he knew (Horcruxes, Tom Riddle's life story), and left him valuable tips ("I TRUST SEVERUS SNAPE!").
Again, Snape was the one who saved Harry in the last DE encounter (this is about the 10th time Snape saves his butt!!). Because it was crystal clear to me that he wasn't the one who cursed Harry, but the one who stopped the curse from getting to "full size". Furthermore, Snape was helping Harry throughout the term (that book didn't get there by accident....).
" DON'T-" screamed Snape,and his face was suddenly demented, inhuman, as though he was as in much pain as the yelping, howling dog..." Now this is a key! Snape was not jinxed, he didn't fight anyone and he wasn't hurt. He had no reason to show pain. Draco was out O.K. and Harry had made numerous atempts on Snape's ego (none of which he acknowledged). He surely wasn't sorry for the "mediocre wizards and witches" that called themselves DE. Then why would he show pain?! Because he had done the unthinkable! Because the one man who broke all barriers and saw who he really was now lay dead by his own hand...because he hated going to Voldemort and telling him Dumbledore was no longer a concern.
[glow=green,2,300]Point:[/glow] I would also like to recommend this amazingly well-thought-out mini-essay on why Snape is not evil, and why Dumbledore trusted him:
www.leakylounge.com/cgi-bin/ikonboard.cgis=18668cf0b3a94ab37443975d0cca2736;act=ST;f=89;t=6875;st=0
It provides a lot of reasons (with documented evidence from the series, especially HBP) which support this cause!
I know this is a lot to read, but I thought it a good idea to just offer some of the best points I'd seen.
[glow=green,2,300]Point:[/glow]
Here's a passage from the book that we need to look at:
But before he could finish this jinx, excruciating pain hit Harry; he keeled over in the grass. Someone was screaming , he would surely die of this agony, Snape was going to torture him to death or madness--
"No!" roared Snape's Voice and the pain stopped as suddenly as it had started; Harry lay curled on the dark grass...
How logical is it that Snape would protect Harry from other DEs' curses and only block Harry's jinxes while they were trying to escape? Snape hates Harry, and if he were a true DE I'm sure he would feel perfectly within his rights to torment him a little or at least deflect his spells back at him. Think about it: even if Voldemort's orders were to not seriously hurt Harry so that Voldie could have that privelege, there was nothing stopping Snape from immobilizing Harry and taking him with him as a gift to his Master. Wouldn't that be more logical? Why leave him completely unharmed and free to continue to rally and plot to overthrow Voldemort? It doesn't make sense.
Plus you have the fact that Harry called Snape a coward twice. The first time was in front of the DEs and Snape didn't bother reacting to Harry's namecalling. It wasn't until they were alone, and Harry was telling him to "kill me, like you killed him, coward!" that Snape nearly lost it and howled as if he was in as much pain as Fang who was trapped in the burning cottage. Very telling.
Right to the end he protected both Draco and Harry from uttering unforgivable curses (preserving their innocence), and only blocked Harry's spells and gave him more terse advice as to how he needed to close his mind (occlumency) and keep his mouth shut (non-verbal spells) if he was ever going to be able to defeat Voldemort.
[glow=green,2,300]Point:[/glow]
Snape plays an important role in the books. He might not be in every chapter, but he's certainly fleshed out a lot more than other characters. He's easily the most complex. But by making him evil, Jo would be robbing him of his complexity. He really would be the evil henchman who could fool Dumbledore. We can easily find motives for him to do that. His life has given us enough clues to figure out why he could fall to darkness. But to puzzle out why he's trying to do right? That's complexity. Unless he's made into a villian more terrible than Voldemort, I think redemption is neccessary to maintaining his interest as a complicated character.
[glow=green,2,300]Point:[/glow]
Throughout the book DD was INTENSLY preparing Harry for his death. Why else would he do this, unless he knew he was going to leave Harry forever?! He told Harry everything he knew (Horcruxes, Tom Riddle's life story), and left him valuable tips ("I TRUST SEVERUS SNAPE!").
Again, Snape was the one who saved Harry in the last DE encounter (this is about the 10th time Snape saves his butt!!). Because it was crystal clear to me that he wasn't the one who cursed Harry, but the one who stopped the curse from getting to "full size". Furthermore, Snape was helping Harry throughout the term (that book didn't get there by accident....).
" DON'T-" screamed Snape,and his face was suddenly demented, inhuman, as though he was as in much pain as the yelping, howling dog..." Now this is a key! Snape was not jinxed, he didn't fight anyone and he wasn't hurt. He had no reason to show pain. Draco was out O.K. and Harry had made numerous atempts on Snape's ego (none of which he acknowledged). He surely wasn't sorry for the "mediocre wizards and witches" that called themselves DE. Then why would he show pain?! Because he had done the unthinkable! Because the one man who broke all barriers and saw who he really was now lay dead by his own hand...because he hated going to Voldemort and telling him Dumbledore was no longer a concern.
[glow=green,2,300]Point:[/glow] I would also like to recommend this amazingly well-thought-out mini-essay on why Snape is not evil, and why Dumbledore trusted him:
www.leakylounge.com/cgi-bin/ikonboard.cgis=18668cf0b3a94ab37443975d0cca2736;act=ST;f=89;t=6875;st=0
It provides a lot of reasons (with documented evidence from the series, especially HBP) which support this cause!
I know this is a lot to read, but I thought it a good idea to just offer some of the best points I'd seen.
