Snape Survey, Snapeity, Dumbledore's sacrifice.

[sistermagpie]

No: HPFGUIDX 149273

eggplant:
> Well one second Dumbledore is ill but cool calm and collected and the
> next second he's pleading, so something has certainly changed in
> Dumbledore's mind.

Magpie:
Or, more simply, something has changed in the environment: Snape has 
just entered the room and Dumbledore wants him to do something he 
knows he must plead with him to get him to do.

eggplant:
 True, we don't hear Dumbledore thinking "I just had
> a terrible thought and I don't like the look on Severus's face"

Magpie:
We do hear about the look on Severus' face.  He's just sweeping the 
room with his eyes.

eggplant:
 but we
> never hear what Dumbledore is thinking or any other character except
> Harry. 

Magpie:
We don't hear what people are thinking, but we get signs in their 
words, expressions and actions. 

eggplant:
And it's true Dumbledore didn't explain his change of mind
verbally either, but then Snape only gave him time to say 2 words
before he blasted him to death. 

Magpie:
I'm going to try to analyze the way these kinds of sentences are so 
subtly frustrating.  Again, you seem to put me in the defensive 
position by default, as if I have to prove your theory could not have 
happened while you don't have to provide evidence that it did.  Here, 
although you've provided no evidence that Dumbledore has any intention 
of explaining a change of mind here, nor any evidence that Dumbledore 
has had a change of mind here, nor good reason for Dumbledore to have 
a change of mind here, it's somehow significant that Snape hasn't 
allowed him a chance to explain it.

As it happens, Dumbledore actually does have time to indicate a change 
of mind here (as opposed to the way he doesn't have time or reason to 
have a change of mind between the time Snape enters the room and the 
moment he starts pleading).  One way he can indicate it is by not 
pleading until his second "Severus, please." It is not Snape's fault 
that the beat isn't there. 


eggplant:
Let me repeat, he blasted Dumbledore
> to death. Why are we still debating if Snape is a villain?

Magpie:
We're not.  We're debating what happens in the scene, and whether this 
can support the idea of Dumbledore having a big realization about 
Snape in the six seconds between Snape entering the room and 
Dumbledore pleading.  The only reason I can see to debate that Snape 
is a villain is that either it's the thing one wishes to debate or 
that one thinks "Snape blasted Dumbledore" somehow covers every moment 
in canon in ways that it doesn't.

-m