Snape and Raistlin Majere

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No: HPFGUIDX 126573


phoenixgod2000 writes:

>What makes Snape so contempable to me and many other people, while 
>similar literary characters can be just as dark and bitter and yet 
>still remain sympathetic and understandable--even in their own way 
>likeable. I do realize that Snape has his fans but he also has many 
>detractors.  For those of you who've read both series or another 
>series with a Snape like character, what seperates Snape from them 
>to make him either more or less likeable and sympathetic?

OMG, I guess it had to happen, but I actually disagree with you, 
phoenix!!!  I do agree there are similarities between the two, but I 
despised Raistlin with every fiber of my being and desperately wanted 
someone to squish him.  (And his annoying brother, but that's another 
story.)  On the other hand, I actually do like Snape, even though I'm 
hoping he's ESE.  I never saw Raistlin having any redeeming 
qualities.  Snape's redeeming qualities pretty much only lie in the 
fact that (ESE!) Dumbledore seems to like him and I'm still in the 
mood to give DD the benefit of the doubt.  For those that haven't 
read Dragonlance, your question can also be included with Thomas 
Covenant from the Lord Foul's Bane series by Stephen Donaldson.  I so 
utterly despised that character that I could barely bring myself to 
read the whole series and it was only through sheer admiration of his 
writing (and the amazing world he'd made) that I could get through it 
all.  Until the sixth book when the whining SOB character finally 
redeemed himself.  Finally.  Barely.  Personally, I think it is the 
whining factor that makes the characters less likeable.  Raistlin was 
a griping, cantankerous, angry whiner.  Thomas Covenant spent so much 
time whining that I nearly threw the book against a tree several 
times.  Snape has never whined.  Not once.  I admire that.

Nicky Joe