[HPforGrownups] Re: The dynamic Snape (was: Twist JKR? )/ Which characters are dynamic?

[Magpie]

No: HPFGUIDX 141869

>> >>Hickengruendler (post #141769):
>> <snip>
>> But is this the same as dynamic? Sure, McGonagall behaves
>> differently according who is around her, but don't we all? She
>> doesn't develop over the course of the books.
>> <snip>
>
> Betsy Hp:
> Hmmm.  I seem to be operating under a completely different definition
> of dynamic than Nora and Hickengruendler (and Alla and Lupinlore, I'm
> guessing).  You all seem to expect some sort of huge change within
> the character in order to define that character as dynamic.  In which
> case, Hickengruendler is right.  Few of the Potterverse characters
> are dynamic.  Including Harry, Ron and Hermione.  Even Neville is
> still quiet and unassuming with no close friends.

Magpie:

You know, I really don't think most of the characters change and develop in 
the way that's being described as dynamic.  Part of the appeal of the books, 
I suspect, is the familiarity of the characters.

It's more, imo, that all the characters tend to be based aruond a conflict, 
for lack of a better word, and they're most themselves when they're facing 
that conflict.  This is why I'm surprised when people describe, say, Neville 
as having "developed" in Book V, when he gets the exact same story in book V 
as he did in Book I: He's very timid, but when he sees something he sees as 
Right he makes himself do something really brave, be it standing up to the 
Trio, throwing himself on Ron and Draco, or fighting at the MoM.  Hermione 
is a stickler for the rules until they conflict with her greater ideas of 
How Things Should Be, and then she breaks them--this happens over and over. 
Ron goes through a whole story to gain confidence at Quidditch in OotP and 
then in HBP he's back with the confidence problems.

I would assume that Snape, like Sirius and Lupin, also has his thing he 
keeps doing over and over.  It's possible we just don't see it exactly what 
that thing is from our pov.  He could, for instance, keep trying to be the 
man he wants to be and keep failing when faced with demons from his past in 
the form of Harry or Sirius or whoever.  I don't think learning that was the 
ultimate answer to Snape would make him any more flat than many other 
characters, though it wouldn't make him the most complex either.  It might 
make him more interesting if we find out that his constant belittling of 
Harry has something a little more interesting behind it from his pov.

-m