Snape, mostly (was:Re: My Officially First Deathly Hallows Post!!)

[spaebrun]

No: HPFGUIDX 172328

"colebiancardi" wrote:

> LOLLIPOPS - in its full
> glory, sickly sweet and cloying.  To quote
> the-medium-that-must-not-be-named!Snape, I think I will vomit ;)

Reed:

Well, I was always firmly in the Snape-is-not-evil camp and I am okay
with Snape-loves-Lily in principle and expected it, but nevertheless I
must say, I wholeheartedly agree with everything you say about Chapter
33. It was *awful* - not in the idea, but in the way to present it.

First of all, it was way too long. The kid scenes were much too drawn
out and gave little necessary information (the whole Petunia thing has
no purpose in Snapes memories, in my opinion. It should better have
been addressed at the beginning, before the Dursleys leave). After
that it seemed that JKR tried to address every plot element where
Snape appeared evil and to really rub in how unfortunte and pitiable
he was. And how GOOD! Even George's ear was just an *accident*.
Pleeease! It was all so into your face that I cringed the whole chapter.
I guess part of it is the pensieve trap: By having a device like the
pensieve, JKR had the opportunity to elaborate endlessly on Snape's
backstory (because you life flashes by when you die, right, nicely
ordered, featuring the most sappy scenes concerning your lost love...).

Apart form that, Harry's reactions were very feeble, too. Neither did
his hate for Snape flare up before he witnessed him being killed, nor
was there a
proper reaction when Harry found out that he had been wrong about
Snape all along. Such a *waste*!

"colebiancardi" wrote:
>  And
> can I say, what a crappy death scene.  Even if you hate Snape, it is
> lame.  Snape - a powerful wizard - gets killed by having a snake
> dropped on his head?????   And he didn't *have * to die - he wasn't
> the master of the Elder Wand.  And don't tell me that Snape didn't
> take precautions with Nagini around - what, he doesn't drink an
> anti-venom potion before going into LV's lair?

Reed:
I didn't mind this part so much, actually. It shows once again
Voldemorts absolute coldness and that Snape didn't have to die is
precisely the bitter part about it. And he didn't die from the venom, he
died from the bite that ripped open his neck.


"colebiancardi" wrote:
> What the heck was DD's comment to Snape about "sorting too soon"
> because Snape was brave?  Are we to believe that Dumbledore, a
> champion *against* the whole sorting of the Houses, is stating that
> anyone *not* in Gryffindor is *not brave*?  Was this just a
> back-handed compliment or a snide comment, because Snape certainly
> looked taken aback by that comment.  I thought DD was *against* the
> Houses and their stereotypes.   And I hope I was not the only one that
> was shocked that the House thing was still in play 19 years later!!!
> And the old biases as well....

Reed:
You weren't. It bugged me a lot, too. Why weren't there Slytherin
students hinding in the Room of Requirement? Why weren't there at
least *a few* Slytherins who helped defending the school? Slughorn
stayed, didn't he? Why not show that there are decent Slytherins in
the young generation, too? 

Really the only 'good Slytherin' we learn about in this book was Snape
and then this remark to him - it really implied that he should have
been a Gryffindor. So we learn that all decent people are Gryffindors
at heart, or what?

I was really disappointed that the whole sorting thing was never
really questioned. Book 5 talks so much about uniting the houses, and
what do we get? 3 houses against Slytherin. Bad message. *sigh*



Reed, 
who's mostly lurking, but was so put out by Chapter 33 that she
had to post. ;-)