"Bad Snapers," Karma, and the End of Snape (was Re: Of Sorting and Snape)

[lupinlore]

No: HPFGUIDX 175474

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "lizzyben04" <lizzyben04 at ...> 
wrote:

> lizzyben:
> 
> At least I'm not alone! It does seem like the "bad Snapers" like the 
> ending more than the "good Snapers" - probably because it did come 
> as surprise & they may have had less invested in the character.
> 


Well, I think it's a little more complicated than that.  I agree that 
there are people this fits.  However, many "bad Snapers" as you call 
it did not really expect Snape to be on Voldemort's side.  They 
expected Snape to be OFH or DDM but with decidedly dark 
characteristics.  Both of those camps can reasonably claim to have 
been vindicated by DH.

Why the fact that they like the ending?  Well, I was in the Dark Snape 
camp (i.e. a Snape who was not a good person but nevertheless was 
probably working against Voldemort).  The ending (and I assume we mean 
the end of Snape, here) seems perfectly fitting on multiple levels as 
numerous karmic arcs found their end. The nasty, cruel man ended up 
dead and abandoned like a rag doll, a fitting symbol of the way he had 
alienated himself from people during life.  The venomous, bile-filled 
man was killed by literal venom, thus ending his physical life in much 
the same way he had ended his emotional life.  The potions master, and 
presumably master of poisons, was killed by poison.  The man who spent 
so much time showing favoritism to the House of the Snake was killed 
by a snake.  The spinner of webs was caught in a trap that he 
evidently did not see coming (i.e. he seemed to know nothing about the 
Elder Wand).  The sarcastic, cruel voice he used to torment his 
students is silenced by the symbol of his own house.  The man who 
loved the Dark Arts was slain by the Dark Arts.  The man who has 
abused Harry for years must rely on Harry for one last glimpse of the 
woman he "loved."  And Severus Snape, who brooded and nursed his 
bitterness about the Prank for twenty years, ends up dead on the floor 
of the Shrieking Shack after all.

There are other karmic arcs as well, of course, that are better for 
Snape.  Most of them play out later, however.  We are talking now 
about Snapey-poo's end, and why "bad Snapers" find it satisfying.


Lupinlore