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

[Carol]

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.)

Carol responds:

I don't agree that personality flaws would make his redemption limited especially since, as you said, the good side owes him so much. Look at Lupin, Sirius, and James, all of them flawed and none of them really regretting what they did to Snape. Lupin, of course, dies thinking that Snape is the enemy, so he never gets a chance to lose his newly acquired vengefulness. And yet all of them, flawed as they are, seem happy in the afterlife, and Lupin has his (relative) youth and health back.

I see no reason why Snape, who worked hard and suffered much and was much more important to the good side than any of them, would not also be redeemed, having paid for his major sins, and now, perhaps with their gratitude and understanding, he can finally lose his bitterness and his grudges and become the man he could have been if only Lily had loved him and there had been no Voldemort.

Call it wishful thinking if you like, but I see the afterlife as a condition of peace in which a person can understand himself without suffering the pangs of remorse and misunderstandings are put to rest.

Unless, of course, you die unrepentant. We glimpse the state of Voldemort's fragmented soul, but what about Bellatrix, who created no Horcruxes but was just as evil and just as unrepentant as her master in other ways?

And what about Peter Pettigrew, who felt a tiny twinge of mercy or something like it at the end?

I wish I knew what JKR thinks is in store for them. But Snape's fate would have to be better. Otherwise, remorse is pointless and so is atonement.

Of course, in the living WW, his reputation is restored. He's a hero and he'll have his portrait in the headmaster's office, and Harry has preserved his name in giving it to his second son. Exonerated, I suppose is the word. And, more important, he's completely forgiven. For Harry not to forgive him after all that he's done would be for Harry to engage in pettiness himself.

Carol, who suspects that pettiness in the classroom doesn't count in the afterlife, either, or not for much