Snape's Worst (and Best!) OoP Moment?
phoenixgod2000
jmrazo at hotmail.com
Tue Jul 12 21:29:34 UTC 2005
No: HPFGUIDX 132568
--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, Magda Grantwich
<mgrantwich at y...> wrote:
> You say that like it's a bad thing.
>
> What Snape wants - and is getting - in this scene is
> simply...payback. He's taunting Sirius and getting him riled up
> because he knows he can turn the tables now and there's jack-all
> Sirius can do about it. He's enjoying having the control.
>
> I suppose I should feel outraged about it but after the pensieve
> scene I figure that Sirius had it coming. (And I'm not open to
> changing my mind on this, just to cut short the deluge of email I'm
> going to get over it).
I think one of the things we are going to learn in the upcoming
books is some more about Snapes background that is going to balance
out the *apparently* unjustified attack against him. I find it
difficult to believe that Snape was always just book up his nose
innocent when it came to the Marauder/Snape battles. Really if he
was just a shy studious boy who was forever being picked on by
others he would have been a Ravenclaw like Luna. Remember, this guy
is a Slytherin. Ambition and Cunning. Just because he didn't give as
good as he got in that scene doesn't mean he was always a victim.
As for what Sirius has coming. I think you need to keep perspective.
Sirius (and James) were obnoxious schoolboys who performed the
magical equivenlent of pulling down someones pants during PE class.
Snape is a terrorist. I would say that he has a whole lot more
coming to him than Sirius, who spent thirteen years in Azakban
paying for sins, real and imagined. IMO, I would say that you are
severely whitewashing Snape's actions in that scene.
> Well, it really wasn't Harry's business, was it? This was the
latest
> outburst in an old feud between two peers.
Well, Sirius is Harry's godfather. I would say thats enough to make
it Harry's business.
I should probably get around to giving my two cents on Snape's worst
moment in OOTP. I don't think it's Snape/Sirius. Its not great but
the two of them are adults and peers. For that reason alone it
cannot hold a candle to the way Snape treats Harry. I would say his
worst moment is the whole Occulmency debacle. From the moment he
decided to announce that it would be under the guise of something
designed to humiliate Harry to every insult and invasive mind
invasion, the lessons were an excercise in just how small and petty
a man Snape is.
> > And just to try to keep things *POSITIVE*, how `bout nominations
> > for Snape's BEST moment in OoP, too?
It depends on what you mean by best moment. Do you mean the moment
where he is the most human and likeable? Or the part where I cheered
him on? Or the part where I thought he was the most entertaining?
I thought he was the most human and likeable when he seems to
express genuine pleasure at seeing Proffessor McGonagall healthy at
the end of the OOTP. Maybe it was the way I read it but I thought it
was probably the warmest and most decent Snape had ever been in the
entire series.
I cheered him on and found him humorous in the poison/Vers scene
with Umbridge. I liked it because he was using his powers of sarcasm
and bitterness on an appropriate target instead of children. He was
finally cutting down someone who deserved it. I find sarcastic and
bitter characters very entertaining in almost all cases but until
this moment, Snape had always used sarcasm to reveal his own
pettiness instead of revealing the pettiness of others (which is the
genius of many characters in this mold).
phoenixgod2000
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