Twist JKR? (was:Re: Dumbledore's pleading...)

[lupinlore]

No: HPFGUIDX 141691

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "horridporrid03" 
<horridporrid03 at y...> wrote:
>
<SNIP>
> 
> Betsy Hp:
> Why do any theories on Snape have to allow for change?  After all, 
> it's *Harry's* coming of age story.  Snape is only important in 
> reference to Harry.  And Harry will either discover Snape is ESE, 
> have his revenge or justice or what not, and run off to become an 
> official Weasley.  Or Harry will discover Snape is DDM, have a 
major 
> moment of self-examination, become a man and... well, probably run 
> off to become an official Weasley. <g>
> 
> Betsy Hp
>

EXACTLY!  And there is where so many of the DDM!Snape theories fall 
down.  It IS Harry's story, NOT Snape's.  To postulate a Snape who is 
a superspy, cleverly inserted into the DEs bosom by Dumbledore's self-
sacrfice and just waiting to realize the fruit of his sixteen year 
labors by striking from behind to insure the ungrateful and deluded 
brat's victory is to miss the whole point of the series.  It makes 
Harry into nothing but a pawn, a piece on the all-clever Dumbledore's 
chessboard whose own decisions and actions have no real meaning 
except insofar as they get DDM!Snape into position to strike.  The 
books are NOT "Severus Snape and His Final Vindication," as much as 
many seem to want them to be.

As to why Snape's theories should allow for change ... well, that 
gives JKR an opportunity to show off her writing skills by showing a 
realistic and dynamic character.  Character, after all, is the very 
soul of literature.  Subjective, of course, as is everything about 
literature, but there you go.  Otherwise, Snape, whatever his 
allegiences, remains the cardboard figure who doesn't change or 
evolve over sixteen years, a pathetic, pitiable, and supremely 
uninteresting child in the body of a middle-aged man.  :-).  Then 
again, that is a very good description of Snape after all. :-)

As to Harry becoming a man, that's pretty much inevitable whether 
Snape is ESE!, DDM!, OFH!, or Tutti-Frutti.  If Snape is culpable in 
the murder of DD (and I really have not seen a single shred of 
evidence that exonerates him from responsibility) Harry will seek 
justice.  If he is not culpable, then he and Harry will work that out 
one way or another.  And either way, there is justice to be taken out 
of Snape's hide for six years of emotional abuse, and if we don't see 
that(probably in the karmic fashion favored by Alla), then JKR has 
fallen very far indeed from the level of writing of which she is 
capable, just as much as if we don't see a final reckoning with 
Umbridge.  (For Snape, I suggest a good spanking and sending him to 
bed without his supper.  Always fit the punishment to the age of the 
child.)


Lupinlore