Our impressions

[Heather Moore]

--- In HPFGU-Movie at y..., "David" <dfrankiswork at n...> wrote:

<snip>
 
> Ruth thought Rickman was brilliant.  (OK, one comment from me - he 
> did well, but he conveyed, except for that first lesson, a 
> misunderstood good guy, not someone who hates Harry - the script's 
> fault, not AR's, IMO)
> 

I'd venture here to suggest that, at least as far as we know so far in the books, Snape precisely *is* a "misunderstood good guy." 

Uptight - certainly. 
Bitter - to be sure. 
Markedly poor social skills - hey, we can't all be Ed Sullivan! 
Little to no sense of humor - true dat.
Prejudiced - yup.
Plays favorites - demonstrably.

But all that adds up to "difficult," not to "bad guy." It's important to always bear in mind that Dumbledore counts Snape on the side of the good, and continues to trust him *enough to use him as a spy* in the face of the coming threat. 

In addition -- as I recall, his displaced resentment for Harry jumps up considerably *after* Dumbledore so publicly fixes the House Cup results during the Farewell Banquet. (I always thought this was a rather unattractive way for Dumbledore to do this, frankly.)

And my final commentary is that according to rumor, both Alan Rickman and Robbie Coltrane were tutored in the *entire* history of their characters, including everything we don't yet know about their past AND what will happen to them through the next three books. So we can assume that Rickman more fully understands what motivates Snape than we do, and that this informs his portrayal.