Redemption of Anakin and other redemption stories (moved from Main)

[sistermagpie]

> > Magpie:
> > Or maybe the problem is that it's the opposite. I mean, Snape started out as an innocent kid who loved Lily. But then he turned into a DE who loved Lily. And then he got Lily killed, and wanted to make that up, so he did.
> > 
> > And that's all he did. That's why I don't really see it as redemptive. It's redemption in the most literal sense since he does pay back the crime he wanted to pay back, but it's just not a greater redemption that I can see. He continues to reject that, as we see in his relationships with other people, old and new.
> 
> Carol responds:
> 
> I'm not sure what you mean by "he continues to reject that." He doesn't want to be thought of as "weak," perhaps realizing that continuing to love a dead woman is a weakness. At any rate, he doesn't want to "wear his emotions on his sleeve" where others (especially Voldemort) can see them and manipulate them, which makes perfect sense in his position. 

Magpie:
I mean he continues to reject forgiveness and friendship or trying to get over his old resentments. 

I did say that he fulfills the literal sense of the word. He commits a crime in his mind in setting Voldemort against Lily and pays for it by devoting his life to defending her son. He's not in debt when he dies, sin-wise. He was heroic and self-sacrificing. The good side owes their success to him.

But I don't think what I'm talking about requires a personality change. Scrooge may have had one in Dickens, but his change of heart didn't require it either. Alla said she didn't see him paying for things like bullying Neville and that's the kind of thing I'm talking about. Or his failure to get over the same resentments that led to his original trouble to begin with. I really don't see him ever seeing any place he was wrong except for the one big one. The guy continued to make his life more miserable than it needed to be, because there's a lot he just never got.

Alla:
However that does not mean that I think that such change is not possible. No, I do not think Snape stop to hate Harry would necessarily be complete personality transformation.

Magpie:
Exactly. He had no actual reason to hate Harry anyway. His hatred of him is, for me, part of the sign that his redemption is limited. (Not that Snape's alone in not looking at himself that clearly, he's just unfortunately not one of the people with all the qualities that make up for it.)

-m