Snape-the Hero -- Snape-the Abuser

[lupinlore]

No: HPFGUIDX 143269

Betsy Hp <horridporrid03 at y...> wrote:
> <SNIP>
> Betsy Hp:
> Ooh, I totally disagree.  I get the sense JKR *loves* Snape.  
> I know he's one of her more fun characters to write (per 
> interview), but I'd also bet that she likes him too.  For one, 
> it's from JKR that Snape gets all his too-cool moments.  And 
> when he's going through an agony, JKR is the one who enables 
> us to see that he is agonized.  But most importantly, Snape is 
> so much like Harry, and I know JKR loves Harry.  So how could 
> she dislike Snape?  I don't doubt he'll *die* in book 7, but 
> I'm betting on a hero's death.  (Probably taking Harry's place 
> so Harry can get to baby-making in the epilogue.)

Well, it depends on what you mean by "love," doesn't it?  She 
loves to write the character, certainly.  But is loving to write 
the character the same as loving the character himself?  I don't 
know, but I rather doubt it.  I mean, in a sense she loves to 
write the Dursleys, as well, as she says it's fun to torture 
them.  But does that mean she loves the characters, or that she 
just loves the activity of writing the characters?  And what IS 
the difference?  Interesting psychological question, that.

> JKR does seem to have a taste for random acts of cruelty that 
> I don't share (though I'll wait for the final word before I 
> fully accept that she does), but I've never gotten the sense 
> that she's about any sort of unclean!character writing.

But then, it depends on what you mean by "cruelty" and "unclean."  
I think this is the root of the whole "poetic justice" question.  
Why is poetic justice cruel, when after all characters only 
receive what they RICHLY deserve.  And, especially, why is it 
random when what happens is so well deserved?  As punishment of 
Snape most definitely would be.

Lupinlore, who doubts that Radcliffe has any better idea of what's 
in JKR's mind than anybody else, and who further observes that
Movie!Snape and Canon!Snape are not at all the same creatures.