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

[lizzyben04]

No: HPFGUIDX 175481

lupinlore:

> 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.  
<snip>
 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
>

lizzyben:

Yes, I agree about the "karmic arcs" inherent in Snape's death. 
Which is why I've earlier stated that he got a "villian's death", 
not a hero's death. The "good guys" do die quite often, but they 
don't get that ironic end that the bad guys get - essentially 
hoisted on their own petard. Just as crucioing Carrow is crucioed, 
cursing Crabbe is killed by his own curse, etc. Tragic irony or 
poetic justice? You be the judge. It's the way Snape died, more than 
anything else, that convinced me that JKR truly does loathe this 
character. And I can see why that would satisfy people who really 
disliked him too. As someone who mostly pitied him, it seems a 
little cruel to me, but that's how justice seems to be dispelled in 
these novels.