Why we're sure that Snape is Evil

[lupinlore]

No: HPFGUIDX 153849

chrusotoxos wrote:
<SNIP>
> 8. Now, if we accept all this, what good is there in forgiving a
> good man who made a mistake? We're all capable of that: as Jesus
> said, we must instead pray for our enemies, because the sick man
> needs the doctor, not the healthy one


I think you are onto something very important here.  Most versions
of DDM!Snape fail at this point, because it simply doesn't play into
a forgiveness and redemption theme very well.

In most (but not all) versions of DDM!Snape, Snape has been on the
good side all along.  He has not done anything really bad, or if he
did it was because he made a mistake and has been atoning for it.
Therefore, the confrontation with Harry would unfold as Snape
putting forth his case and Harry reluctantly accepting that "OK, you
are a mean SOB but I've been wrong about you and I'm willing to work
with you."

Okay, but where does forgiveness come in, particularly of the
Christian type being discussed?  Where is the particular Christian
message in admitting that you have been wrong about someone's
motivations?  A pagan Roman would recognize that virtue quite
easily.  It isn't forgiveness, it's reason and practical logic.
Where is the particular Christian foregivness in saying "You were
wrong to betray my parents, but I recognize that you've been atoning
for it?"  Once again, that is something any virtuous Greek or Roman
or Egyptian or Sumerian or Celtic or Slavic or Norse or Teutonic
pagan could say in exactly the same words.

I guess, if you are bound and determined for Snape to be a suffering
and misunderstood hero, you could argue that the forgiveness would
be Snape's, in forgiving Harry for being so unfair to him and
misunderstanding him.  I wouldn't put two cents on it, but you could
say that.

Rather, the forgivness theme means the power of forgiveness for both
the one who forgives and the one who is forgiven.  And in order to
experience the power of forgiveness, you have to be in the wrong.
Not a suffering and misunderstood hero, not a double agent doing the
will of good, not someone who made an honest mistake and has been
atoning for it -- you have to have done something wrong from which
you need to be redeemed.  You need to accept forgivness from someone
who has every right to despise you -- NOT put forth a coherent case
that you are a good but misunderstood person who has made mistakes
but been atoning for your sins and working for the cause of
righteousness all along.


Lupinlore