Snape Survey, Snapeity, Dumbledore's sacrifice

[lupinlore]

No: HPFGUIDX 149153

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "justcarol67" <justcarol67 at ...> 
wrote:
<SNIP>
> 
> As Sydney so usefully points out, Snape is not the villain but Harry's
> chief antagonist, and his destruction, unlike Voldemort's, is not
> necessary to the plot. JKR has something very important up her sleeve
> for him, and I for one interpret the interview in which she claimed to
> be "stunned" (by what I take to be a reader's question partially read
> by the interviewer) to mean that what's in store for Snape in Book 7
> is redemption. 

Possible.  Of course, what is "redemption?"  Does it involve seeing 
Snape as a secondary hero -- thus making a hero out of a child abuser 
and failing in a particularly reprehensible way?  Does it 
involve "cleansing by fire," which would imply a different kind of 
redemption, one that acknowledges that Snape bears stains that can only 
be burned off at the most fearsome of costs?  Does it imply a 
redemption via forgiveness, where the emphasis is not on cleansing 
Snape but on showing compassion for his pain, while still, perhaps, 
punishing his very real faults?  Or does redemption belong not to 
Snape, but to other characters, perhaps Wormtail (now THAT would be 
worth it just to hear the howls!)

> 
> Carol, who can't wait to hear Rickman!Snape chanting a healing spell
> over Draco in the HBP movie
>

Lupinlore, who thinks that one shouldn't bet on any scene making it 
into the movie, as Snape's key scenes mostly don't make it, and who is 
also pondering Sidney's Hollywood Theory of Civilization, by which 
progress accelerates the more you can trick villains into the 
entertainment industry and away from anything important.