[HPforGrownups] snape is a dufus

[Amanda Lewanski]

No: HPFGUIDX 32692

jrober4211 wrote:

>  I have read all the posts about Snape

If you genuinely have, all the archived stuff and everything, I salute
you!

> and some of the things people come up with are almost laughable to me.
> Based strictly on previous canon from the four books, Snape is always
> a "day late and a dollar
> short" so to speak. He has always missed the point, or misses integral
> parts of conversations such as the confrontation at the shreiking
> shack.

And not being present and/or conscious for key revelations is his fault
how...?

> Snape is notorious for jumping to the wrong conclusions based on just
> a few facts , instead of having all the
> variables to consider in a situation.

I don't know that he "jumped" there. He does draw the wrong conclusions,
but generally with some justification--circumstantial, mostly, but some
clearly drawn on past experience. One cannot be expected to know that
one does not have all the variables; when it seems to someone that they
have enough evidence to draw a conclusion, they do so. And if evidence
is later presented to change that conclusion, they change. And Snape
does, albeit with small grace--he has clearly been briefed by
Dumbledore, for instance, as to the actualities of the situation where
Sirius is concerned, and has adjusted his conclusions. He still hates
the ground Sirius walks on, but he is not treating him like a deranged
murdering threat to society.

> And Snape isn't interested in hearing all the facts, as evidenced by
> his treatment of Harry when he confronts him sneaking around the
> castle late at night.

If I found a kid sneaking around a castle late at night, I don't know
that I'd listen to him either. I'd be sleepy, for one, and pissed at not
being asleep. But I'm not sure which instance you are referring to; I
can't get more specific.

> With these personality traits so obvious in all four books, I can see
> how Snape got drawn into being a death eater and previously following
> Voldemort.

I just don't see Snape as the impulsive type. His actions and
conclusions seem to me, while generally wrong, to be based on a decent
analysis of the information he's got (I am not talking about his general
nastiness to students, which seems like something he does just to pass
the time; I'm talking about genuine moments where we see him in real
interactions and stressful situations).

> For those members of the group who are not familiar with "the Andy
> Griffith Show" in the states, Snape is a dead ringer for deputy Barney
> Fife, who always had to keep his bullet for his gun in his shirt
> pocket to keep from shooting himself in the foot.

This, I don't see. Snape does not bumble. Lockhart seems more like Fife
than Snape, who kept his head in the duel scene, led the quashing of
Lockhart in the staffroom, walked knowingly into a room holding two very
dangerous people to catch them and save three idiot kids, who carried
out Dumbledore's orders quietly and efficiently at the end of Goblet of
Fire, who unhesitatingly revealed his former DeathEater status in front
of several non-impartial people to help Dumbledore convince Fudge....I
could go on. Snape seems more the in-control-to-the-point-of-repression
type, especially in light of when he *does* lose it in the Shrieking
Shack.

If you're going to throw gauntlets down where Snape is concerned, you
need to back up your assertions with more than "I think this." I'd like
to see examples in canon of *why* you think that.

--Amanda
*whispers* It's spelled "doofus"


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