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

[colebiancardi]

No: HPFGUIDX 134835

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "lupinlore" <bob.oliver at c...> 
wrote:
> > 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. 
snipping away here...
> 
> 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

loved your post.  I think it would be fantastic if JRK made Snape 
gray, and not a black & white character at the end of book 7.  I 
think that up until now, he has flirted back & forth as the gray 
character - we all love him & hate him.  I think he is a bad, nasty 
man who happens to be on the right side.  But it doesn't mean he 
won't save his own skin if need be.  Someone had a great theory a few 
days ago - which is very similar to what you are referring to.  DD is 
now out of the way, and Harry will take out LV.  Snape is a very 
powerful wizard and I am sure he wants to be at the very top - but 
Harry is there as well.  This poster theorized that Snape & Harry 
will work together to get rid of LV and then once that is done, Snape 
& Harry will duke it out, once & for all - to see who reigns in the 
WW.

I kinda like it.  Snape is a Slytherin after all.  He is smart, but 
he can be self-serving.  "Or perhaps in Slytherin, you'll make your 
real friends, those cunning folk use any means, to achieve their ends"

colebiancardi