Snape's bloody, violent death

[oh have faith]

No: HPFGUIDX 71744


Hagridshag aka gryffindora said:

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "Kristen" <jkscherme at a...> 
  I did have a fleeting 
> thought though, that it would be Snape who saves Harry, again, 
> sacrificing his own life...Only this time, from Voldemort. I said 
it 
> was fleeting...
> 
> Frankly, I don't want to see any more deaths. It's all very 
> depressing. I was very content with the first three books where 
the 
> deaths were long past or only the bad guys bit the dust. When 
Cedric 
> died I was stunned. I suppose it was naive of me to expect the 
> story "to stay away from the Dark Side." *sigh*
> 
> hagridshag aka gryffindora


*After I have stopped sniggering at the Hagridshag nick, I manage to 
reply*

*Oh!  I just realised you were going for Hagrid's Hag?   Pardon my 
Britishness!*

Don't get me wrong, I don't want to see Snape die either – I was 
dreading reading the end of OOP just in case it was him who snuffed 
it.  But logically I can't see too many ways that the character can 
progress forward – and I'm seeing him now as a literary creation, 
and not a human being.  I don't see him becoming entirely redeemed 
and well-adjusted. Not only would he lose his essential Snape-ness, 
he has way too much baggage, it wouldn't be realistic if he suddenly 
just decided to deal – if he was ever going to learn to cope, I 
think he would have by now.  I can't see him ever finding any peace 
in his life – I think since the Dark Lord fell, he's managed to make 
an uneasy sort of ceasefire with himself, but with everything 
starting up again and screwing him over royally, I'm not sure he can 
pull it off twice.  This doesn't necessarily mean he's black-
bordered, but it would give his life a sort of poetic circularity, 
especially if he died for the cause and not from complications due 
to his ridiculously high blood pressure.  

I know also that a lot of readers would like to see him get some 
dramatic but non-deadly comeuppance for his nasty behaviour, but to 
me, this would be against the spirit of the books.  Snape is not a 
nice man – he's an absolute ****, let's face it, but he's not happy 
with himself that way.  I think he's horribly unhappy, and he's been 
horribly mistreated – he's the way he's been made.  This is no real 
excuse, I know, but if we take Dumbledore to be the wise heart of 
the Harry Potter books, then if we should be kind to Kreacher, we 
should be kind to Snape.  This doesn't stop people *wanting* to see 
him get his just-deserts (and I don't blame you at all), but it's 
why I don't think JKR will go down that particular route of teaching-
Snape-a-lesson-through-non-violence.   

So, I don't think Snape can be redeemed and live, and I don't think 
he could suffer another public humiliation without turning against 
the Order (admittedly though, that's a theory in itself), and I 
don't think he can just suck it up and do his job, then retire, 
because he's just too full of hate that something's got to give.

Hence, I'll be surprised if he lives.  Pleasantly surprised. Maybe 
I'm making him out to be more of an insecure victim than he really 
is, but something BIG is going to happen to this character before 
the end – something must give!  He is boiling over.  I'm thinking as 
a writer now, what I'd do with him if he were mine, and I'd kill 
him – with the greatest of affection, of course.  (And there would 
be so!much!blood, because I think that would please him.  It's a 
very Slytherin thing – he'll never get his Order of Merlin, but he 
will get such a gruesomely bloody closing number that no one who 
sees it will ever, ever be able to forget it. His legacy!)  (Okay, I 
ramble!) 

Tiger Patronus says:

>I was surprised to hear DD extol Snape's abilities as an Occlumens 
>(sp?) because Snape, IMHO, does allow his emotions to control him 
>all 
>the time. I thought he was refering to himself when he talked about 
>the Dark Lord snapping emotional people in halves, perhaps from 
>experience. He's so emotional, sometimes I think he's not British, 
>perhaps a bloody American git. (No flames, please. I'm a Yank. Just 
>being funny-ish.) <goes onto list a lot of good examples of Snape 
being an absolute emotional nut>

You see, something must give!  If he needs to be in control to do 
good Occlumency, then he's either going to have to take a Well-
Adjustment potion, or he's going to screw up and horribly die.  I 
don't see him just dealing with the Harry-hatred without a lobotomy 
or a hell of a lot of this great new muggle drug called Prozac. The 
man's going to end up in St Mungo's if he doesn't steady on. If not 
in the psychiatric ward, he'll have a heart attack before he's 
forty!   

I'm always open for debate, of course, and I'm not sure I've made my 
reasoning entirely clear, but I have this whole big Lord of the 
Rings analogy in which Snape is Boromir, so, y'know, I have to make 
it work!  ^_^ 

Faith's Girl