MadEye & Malfoy - James & Snape - Everyone & Umbridge

[Tom Wall]

No: HPFGUIDX 68080

Pickle_jimmy wrote:
He is an awful person. He's an Ex Death Eater - obviously a good role 
model for a start. He abuses his position as a member of staff. He 
has poor (if any) teaching skills. He belittles students. He plays 
favourites. Bad tempered. Hostile. Poor personal hygiene. He still 
sulks about his life at school. What's to like about the Git?

Tom comments:
Jimmy, I think you're over-simplifying a tad here on most of these 
counts. 

Snape is not simply an ex-Death Eater. He turned spy for the good 
guys. In other words, he's not Karkaroff, who didn't do anything 
productive or worthwhile (as far as we know,) and yet likely still 
hasn't rejoined the Death Eaters now that Voldemort's back. Karkaroff 
is an ex-Death Eater. Snape is a baddie turned goodie.

You say Snape abuses his authority? Okay, you're right, he does. Now 
let's think of all of the teachers Harry *likes* who abuse their 
authority to help him out. McGonagall *rewards* Harry for breaking 
the rules in PS/SS, for starters. Oh, and I can't wait to get going 
on this one again (especially now that there's canon to support his 
obvious bias) – what about Dumbledore rewarding Harry with ridiculous 
amounts of points in the first two books, thereby overturning the 
results of the entire House Competition and undermining the entire 
process? Is *that* okay? What if Dumbledore had rewarded Slytherin 
with absurd amounts of points, enabling them to steal the cup from 
Gryffindor? Would that be okay?

Who has poor teaching skills? Seems like plenty of people do alright 
in Potions... maybe Harry is bad at Potions – after all, it's not 
looking too good for him and his O.W.L.'s. I suppose you'll suggest 
that Snape's unfair to not take Harry into the NEWT class when he 
doesn't qualify? And how come Hermione's the only one who can master 
Transfiguration? Is McGonagall a good teacher? You might think so 
because Harry mostly likes her. I'd argue that if most of the 
students can't do well in a subject, then that might be the teacher's 
fault, not theirs.

Snape belittles students? Okay, he does. What about Hagrid mocking 
Malfoy? You're okay with that `cause Malfoy's a git, right? You 
already said that you were okay with Crouch!Moody transfiguring 
Malfoy into a ferret? Does that mean that Hagrid's mocking is okay, 
but Snape's isn't?

Snape plays favorites? I'll point out here that we have never, *ever* 
seen Snape reward his own house with any points. McGonagall, OTOH, 
has given Gryffindor points before. Again, McGonagall put Harry on 
the Quidditch team for breaking the rules. And again, Dumbledore 
completely undermined the house system by rewarding Harry `n pals 
exorbitantly in the first two books. What about Hagrid 
taking "special time outs" with Harry, Ron, and Hermione during COMC 
classes? Is it okay for Hagrid to favor the Gryffindors, but not okay 
for Snape to prefer his own students?

Bad tempered? I dunno about you, but I've only seen Snape lose his 
temper when Harry gets super rude (and when Sirius escapes in PoA,) 
but let's face it – Harry is frequently, unreasonably rude and 
disrespectful to Snape. So much, in fact, that he is reminded over 
and over again by various authority figures (from Mrs. Weasley to 
Dumbledore) to call the man by his proper title, and yet still he 
doesn't. Look at Harry at the end of OoP – he'll never forgive Snape, 
ever? That's fairly bad tempered, I'd say. Snape isn't bad tempered – 
actually, IMO he's quite the opposite: he's *incredibly* restrained.

Hostile? Where do you get this from? When have you seen Snape be 
hostile? Maybe intimidating, but hostile?

Poor personal hygiene? Are you basing this on the greasy hair bit? We 
don't have any other indications that he's got bad personal hygiene. 
Um, and what about Hagrid?

He still sulks about his life at school? So, are you saying that it's 
okay for Sirius and Lupin to fondly reminisce about life at 
Hogwarts,  but it's not okay for Snape to be upset that the Marauders 
humiliated him? It's not okay for Snape, the unpopular runt, to be 
angry about the fact that the two most popular, good-looking, 
intelligent and successful students in the school bullied him? I 
mean, honestly: *scourgify-in-the-mouth-while-impedimented?* You're 
going to defend that? Yes, I understand that people grow out of their 
ridiculousness in time, but this is unnecessarily cruel. And it's not 
even fair; it's not even an *attempt* to be fair. At least Harry's 
battles with Malfoy involve both of them cursing each other, not 
Harry cursing Malfoy behind his back. As Crouch!Moody points out in 
GoF, that is called cowardice. James Potter was a coward for 
attacking Snape the way he did. Hardly quality Gryffindor material.


So Jimmy asks:
What's to like about the Git?

Tom:
Well, I can't really say that there's anything to *like* about Snape
 
at least, not yet, IMHO. Well, other than the fact that he's made the 
switch to the angels' side. 

What I can say is that he's really interesting. He's really complex; 
he's not as simple a character as your portrayal indicates. And more 
interestingly, he's guilty of most of what you accuse him of, yes. 

But our favorite teachers are also guilty of the same things. 
However, people rarely take it out on them... It's okay for teachers 
to be biased in favor of Harry – he's the hero, so naturally we 
expect it. But it's not okay for people to not like Harry, even 
though there's so much to not like about him, if you want to go 
looking for it. 

So, when Snape is biased, he's a git. When McGonagall is biased, 
she's good? Sounds like a classic case of the double-standards to 
me. ;-)

-Tom