Snape and Lupin's Character Arcs (was: Lupin's Char Arc)

[nrenka]

No: HPFGUIDX 119300


--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "justcarol67" 
<justcarol67 at y...> wrote:
>
> Carol asks:
> Are you sure this isn't just another example of JKR blaming the
> character for her own inconsistency (the classic example being 
> Marcus Flint being held back a year becaus JKR forgot what year he 
> was in)? I don't think that an "error" that isn't obvious to a 
> reader of the HP books alone can really be used to expose Snape's 
> capabilities as a DADA teacher, not to mention that it's out of 
> character for him to make a pronouncement of that sort without 
> being right. And the Pensieve scene seems to indicate that he 
> really is knowledgeable about DADA.

Why yes, I am sure. :)

Think about it this way.  Snape makes the pronouncement in class, and 
tells a student that the answer is wrong.  JKR, with Fantastic 
Beasts, publishes an answer about Kappas that is different--and is, 
moreover, in accordance with traditional folklore.  Kappas are 
Japanese--I knew that, and I boggled at Snape immediately when he 
said they were from Mongolia.  (There's a cute occurrence of them in 
Final Fantasy 6, for you video game fans, under the name of 'Imps'--
yeah, that's a Kappa).  

Here's another link, for the folklorists:
http://www.onmarkproductions.com/html/kappa.shtml

It's only out of character for him because you are *assuming* that he 
is an absolute expert here.  However, canonically (with the addition 
of the schoolbooks), Snape is wrong--and JKR is making absolutely 
dead SURE that we know he is wrong by 'Harry and Ron's' comments in 
the book.  It can't be a FLINT, because it does not smack of back-
pedaling.  It's the deliberate nature of the relevation of Snape's 
error, and in JKR's world, if she says it's an error, who are we to 
argue with basic fact?

One can appreciate your steadfast defense of Snape, but the most 
coherent (yet unfortunately meta) analysis here tells us that JKR 
wanted us to know that Snape messed up.  If you knew what a kappa 
was, Snape's answer was already odd, and then JKR went and confirmed 
it.  No Flint there--that's an inconsistency within the text, and 
this is only inconsistent if you're assuming that Snape should always 
be right.  Rather, we're being told that he is not.

-Nora generally finds the best thing to do when nailed by a class on 
a factual error is to admit it with grace, and thank them for their 
vigilance