In Defense of Snape (Against Snape in JKR's words)

[horridporrid03]

No: HPFGUIDX 122135



>>Vmonte again: Betsy, you cut out the most significant part. I will  
quote it again though. JKR: ..."But you must not forget that Snape  
was a Death Eater. He will have seen things that
 Why do you love  
him? Why do people love Snape? I do not understand this." [EBF-04]<
  
>>Pippin:
>But Dumbledore said that Snape is now no more a Death Eater than 
Dumbledore himself, and JKR criticized Sirius on her web site for 
treating Snape as if he couldn't have reformed.<

>>Alla:
>Hmmm, not exactly, Pippin, if we are thinking about the same quote.
>She said that Sirius treats Snape as if there were no "LATENT good 
qualities" there.<

Betsy:
In the interest of being exact, here's the relevent quote from JKR's 
site.  It's in answer to the question, "Do you like Sirius Black?"

JKR: "[Y]es, I do like him, although I do not think he is wholly 
wonderful... 
"Sirius is very good at spouting bits of excellent personal 
philosophy, but he does not always live up to them. [...]
"Similarly, Sirius claims that nobody is wholly good or wholly evil, 
and yet the way he acts towards Snape suggests that he cannot 
conceive of any latent good qualities there."

Betsy:
So she *is* critizing Sirius for considering Snape "wholly evil," or 
unreformed.  Sirius cannot even conceive that Snape had the ability 
to reform.  And that follows with the text.  Sirius, like the other 
children <eg>, doesn't trust that Snape has genuinely changed sides, 
because Sirius cannot allow himself to see anything good in Snape.    

>>Alla:
>Which pretty much agreeable to what I think about this character - 
he is not redeemed yet, but probably will be at the end.
>He may not even be redeemed at the end, because those LATENT 
qualities may never develop.<

Betsy:
But if Snape is not redeemed, then he is still a Death Eater. He is 
ESE!Snape, and his constant saving of Harry's life is part of some 
evil complex plot of... evil complexity?

No, Snape is definitely redeemed.  He's just not sweet and fuzzy.  I 
don't think he'll ever be sweet and fuzzy (thank goodness).  I do 
hope there is development of his and Harry's relationship.  There is 
so much similarity between those two that it'd be a shame if they 
didn't finally see each others good sides. 

Betsy