Would it be too obvious for Snape to be on EITHER side?

[lupinlore]

No: HPFGUIDX 134830

I have been watching the current flood of Snape posts with, I must
admit, a great deal of pleasure.  Whatever else you want to say about
JKR, she certainly knows how to stir a pot!

The thing that has struck me about most of the posts and theories is
that they seem to start with the premise, "Well isn't it OBVIOUS?"  To
Snape apologists, it is perfectly obvious that the scene on top of the
Astronomy Tower was a set up by Dumbledore with Snape's collusion.  To
those who believe in ESE!Snape, it is just as obvious that Snape has
been a loyal DE all along.

And both sides are right -- which is to say I can see both their
viewpoints.  If I look at things from one angle, it DOES seem obvious
that the whole Astronomy Tower scenario just HAD to be a set up,
indeed it absolutely screams of being an elaborate piece of
misdirection.  If I look at things from another angle, however, it is
every bit as obvious that such an elaborate conspiracy, requiring
specific pieces of forsight and a Puppetmaster!Dumbledore straight out
of the worst fanfic, would be so absurd that it makes Area 51 and the
Second Kennedy Assassin look positively reasonable and sane.

In short, I certainly hope that JKR doesn't come down squarely on
EITHER side.  Many have said that if Snape turns out to have been ESE
all along it would be boring and pointless -- and I somewhat (although
not totally) agree.  Others have said that if the conspiracy theory is
true then we have a Manipulative!Dumbledore so unbelievable that
"jumping the shark" would be a mild description of the havoc it would
work on the entire HP saga and the characters in it, not to mention
earning JKR a reputation for ham-handed manipulation in her writing,
and I CERTAINLY agree with that.

What would a "third option" look like?  I think the problem with BOTH
sides above is that they relegate all Severus' effective choices of
right vs. easy to the backstory as opposed to the saga itself, which I
think would be an uninteresting strategy on JKR's part.  I'm not
interested in a Severus who decided to be evil seventeen years ago and
has TOTALLY remained so, or a Severus who repented seventeen years ago
and has a been TOTALLY loyal ever since.  In other words I find BOTH
versions of Snape presented above to be boring and mostly pointless. 
A third option would incorporate a Snape who, within the SERIES as
opposed to within the BACKSTORY, experiences moments of both GENUINE
loyalty and GENUINE evil, in other words moments of effective choice
that bring effective consequences, both good and ill.  Certainly the
series cries out for such a character.  Voldemort seems never to have
faced such a moment in his life, and Harry has never really flirted
with the Dark Arts in any serious way. Draco is promising but not
major enough of a character to really drive the example home (although
if Snape decided to embrace evil and Draco, without the support of his
mother, father, or mentor, decided to embrace good, he would become an
interesting parallel to Harry).  I can come up with all sorts of
thought experiments, and I will post some of them, but I would never
actually call them predictions.

Anyway.  Thoughts?  


Lupinlore