LID!Snape rides again (was: High Noon for OFH!Snape)

[horridporrid03]

No: HPFGUIDX 149987

> >>Neri:
> <snip> 
> Another speculation I recently suggested is that Snape's very     
> strange screaming of pain during "The Flight of the Prince" is     
> also an effect of the Life Debt...
> <snip>
> It's precisely the thematic value of the Debt. Since the Debt
> represents true remorse, Snape will not succeed in repaying it and
> still remain on the side of Evil, no matter how hard he tries to do
> just that. This is why he had failed time and again in repaying it
> throughout the series. Dumbledore knew this must happen, and      
> therefore in the end he will prove right in trusting Snape        
> completely.
> <snip>
> You mean, like using the prophecy to make Harry want to kill      
> Voldemort? 
> <snip>
> If Snape feels any remorse, it's obvious that it is limited in an
> extremely artificial and arbitrary way. It's only working for     
> trying to save Harry's life, but not for any care for Harry's     
> feeling. So what is the more likely explanation for that? That    
> these restrictions on his remorse are a result of an arbitrarily   
> schizoid character, or that they are a result of a magic with     
> arbitrary clauses?  
> <snip>
> That's what makes this series so wonderfully intricate and        
> complex. And these clauses can be thematic and reflect RL         
> feelings, like loyalty, like commitment, like remorse. 
> What the Potterverse *doesn't* have are artificial, arbitrary,
> schizoid *characters*. Except for DDM!Snape, that is. No other
> character of JKR gets even close to be so convoluted, so          
> conflicted. It's almost like DDM!Snape wasn't created by JKR.     
> Maybe he was simply created by somebody else. Say, by 100,000     
> Snape fans?
> <snip>

Betsy Hp:
I did some massive cutting and snipping to try and draw together all 
the statements that, to my mind, point out a huge weakness in your 
theory, Neri.  And that is the use of magic to subvert or replace 
actual human feelings.  Snape cannot feel *actual* remorse, it must 
be of a magical variety.  Harry cannot have his own sense of 
responsibility and justice, magic must have put it there.  There's 
no such thing as real loyalty, just magically Unbreakable Vows.  
Frankly, I think you're arguing for the antithesis of what JKR is 
writing.

Because in her universe, magic ain't all that.  Sure, it'll get you 
from point A to point B, but you'll be dizzy and sore at the end of 
it.  And yes, moving staircases are great, except they might move 
when you least expect it.  It's the human connections, the human 
feelings and emotions that have true power.  It wasn't Lily's super 
ninja magic skills that brought down Voldemort; it was a mother's 
love for her son.  (With a nice redeux from Narcissa in HBP.)

Harry isn't going after Voldemort because magic is making him; he's 
taking down the creature that would destroy everything Harry cares 
about.  Dumbledore doesn't trust someone because he makes them take 
an Unbreakable Vow; he gets to know them really, really well, and 
then takes it from there.  That's the whole point of the lessons 
Dumbledore gave to Harry.  It was all about knowledge rather than 
magical power.

You seem to be trying to turn Snape into some sort of automaton, 
incapable of messy human desires and foibles and moments of extreme 
nobility and extreme pettiness all stuffed into one incredibly human 
character.  And yet, to deny Snape his humanity is to deny all the 
Potterverse characters' their humanity.

So Lupin is incapable of both caring for Harry and letting his own 
self-hatred put Harry in danger.  Sirius is incapable of saying one 
thing and then doing the exact opposite.  Hermione is incapable of 
both extreme sympathy and extreme ruthlessness.  Ron is incapable of 
being both jealous and loyal.  Draco is incapable of loving his 
mother and chafing under her protectivness.

And of course, Harry isn't a real boy, he's a puppet being 
skillfully manipulated by Voldemort and Dumbledore who are, I 
suppose, being manipulated by their chosen forms of magic.

I just don't read the Potterverse this way.  I think JKR has taken 
great care to have all of her characters (those not in walk-in 
roles, anyway) express some level of complexity and nuance.  So 
remorse will be represented with, well, remorse.  Loyalty will be 
represented with loyalty.  Love will be represented with love.  
Magic will just get the proper players onto the stage.  Their 
humanity is what will motivate them.

Simplicity is a good thing, especially where theories are 
concerned.  But a simplicity that wipes out all traces of humanity 
from the book... it just doesn't fit with any of the characters as 
I've read them.

Betsy Hp