Severus Snape: The grudge and the very long LOLLIPOPS biography...

[dungrollin]

No: HPFGUIDX 111276

"Emily Anne Rude" wrote:

I think that if he had an epiphany of that degree
> we would be dealing with a whole different character.  ...But maybe
> that's just me.

Dungrollin:
No, it's not just you!  This lies at the bottom of my inability to 
find LOLLIPOPS in any way believable.  We have never seen Snape care 
about anyone, he appears to be exactly the same person now as he was 
in the pensieve. Not only is 'doing something drastic for the sake 
of love' (unrequited or otherwise) completely out of character, but 
as a character he doesn't *need* to have anyone he is close to being 
tortured and killed by You Know Who in order to turn him into an 
unpleasant, snide, sneering sarcastic nasty piece of work, because 
he already was.

To my mind there are only two possibilites as to why Snape left the 
DEs, 1. He was afraid for his life, or 2. There was something he 
wanted more than what You Know Who was offering (which, BTW, is not 
as cut-and-dried as it seems) which made working against him and 
having to consort with muggle-lovers worthwhile. 

His treatment of Hermione (and he has no real reason to dislike her -
 she is a perfect student after all) makes me think that he despises 
non-pure-bloods as much as ever. I suspect that he did not *choose* 
to leave the DEs, he was forced to, which would account for a lot of 
his bitterness.


> Tabouli: 
> > > "There even a tiny hint from JKR in a chat I once read (no, no 
> idea
> > which one, though no doubt someone will be able to say).  I 
think 
> she
> > was was asking for questions from an audience and someone asked 
if
> > Snape would fall in love.  JKR laughed and asked what made 
him/her
> > think of that, and said it was an interesting idea and s/he 
would 
> find
> > out why later.  Or something like that which suggested there 
might 
> in
> > fact be something in it."  

Dungrollin:
I can't remember where I read the transcript of this either, but I 
assumed that she was referring to the word 'redemptive' in this 
answer, though I can't seem to find the full quote.  As I recall, 
someone asks if Snape is going to fall in love, and JKR says 'Who 
would want Snape to fall in love with them?'
Then the interviewer asks a more lengthy question, saying something 
along the lines of 'there is a very redemptive aspect to Snape' 
(paraphrased), and that's when JKR says she's stunned that someone 
says that, and that they'll see why in books 6 & 7. 

So many of these interviews are condensed on the web, I have a 
feeling that things get quoted out of context.  Does anyone know 
what I'm talking about, or did *I* get confused by one of these 
paraphrased transcripts?
If we're in the business of picking up on little clues, we ought to 
be accurate...

Dungrollin.x