Why we'll get no further revelations that Snape is Really Evil (even if he i

[Neri]

No: HPFGUIDX 169767

"wynnleaf" <fairwynn at ...> wrote:
>
> Many posters who believe Snape is either Ever So Evil, loyal to
> Voldemort, or loyal to Dumbledore, but still really nasty, speculate
> that DH is going to have further revelations showing us new Bad Things
> about Snape.

Neri:
Umm, you seem to forget the most obvious possibility -- that Snape is
loyal to himself, but must save Harry because of his debt to James, as
Dumbledore implies in SS/PS.


>wynnleaf:
> These include (in part) 1.  Snape wanted to kill
> Were!Lupin while in school 2. Snape tried to get Sirius killed in OOTP
>  3. Snape's actions in "alerting" the Order and Dumbledore in OOTP
> were really part of a plot he had going with Voldemort.  4.  Snape
> only saved Harry in PS/SS because he had to maintain Dumbledore's
> trust.  The list can go on and on and on.
> 
> But we're not going to find out those things.  Why?  JKR doesn't need
> to convince Harry, or any other character, that Snape is a Bad Man,
> hates Harry, is disloyal to Dumbledore, and EVIL.

Neri:
But it appears that she still needs to convince certain readers <g>. 

Clarifications of the Snape plot that are directed to the *readers*
rather than to Harry were already included in HBP. For example, Snape
explains in Spinner's End that he was sent by Voldemort himself as a
spy to Dumbledore, thus solving the mystery of why would Voldemort
accept Snape back. Note that Harry wasn't present in Spinner's End,
has never heard this explanation in any other way, and doesn't need to
since he has never wondered why would Voldemort accept Snape back. But
the *readers* obviously wanted and needed to know this, as well as
many other things, so Bella was sent to Snape by the Author with a
detailed laundry list. Since we're still missing a few key items it's
a good bet that we will get a revised laundry list in DH. It may be in
another chapter that isn't from Harry's point-of-view, but this time
featuring Snape with Voldemort himself (I find it telling that Snape
is the only major DE we haven't yet seen together with Voldemort). It
also seems likely that Lupin will be drafted to supply Snape's
definitive history at school. As JKR promised: "by the end if Book 7
you will know everything you need to know" (and note she didn't say
"*Harry* will know everything he needs to know")


>wynnleaf:
> JKR, in her
> interview with Emerson and Melissa back in 2005, commented that
> Harry's hatred of Snape is now "personal" and that his greater hatred
> would be important for when they meet again.  

Neri:
I can't remember JKR mentioning Harry's "hatred" in this context. The
theory that Harry's hatred to Snape is going to play the central role
in their next meeting is only a theory. What JKR actually said was this:

**********************************************************
http://www.accio-quote.org/articles/2005/0705-tlc_mugglenet-anelli-2.htm

MA: OK, big big big book six question. Is Snape evil?
<snip>

JKR: Well, okay, I'm obviously – Harry-Snape is now as personal, if
not more so, than Harry-Voldemort. I can't answer that question
because it's a spoiler, isn't it, whatever I say, and obviously, it
has such a huge impact on what will happen when they meet again that I
can't. And let's face it, it's going to launch 10,000 theories and I'm
going to get a big kick out of reading them so [laughs] I'm evil but I
just like the theories, I love the theories.
************************************************************ 

The way I read the above, when JKR says "it has such a huge impact on
what will happen when they meet again", by "it" she means the original
question "is Snape evil", *not* Harry's feelings about Snape. You will
also notice that JKR is quite aware that HBP launches 10,000 Snape
theories, implying she's also aware that DH needs to include the
definitive Snape answers for the *theorists*, not necessarily for Harry. 


>wynnleaf:
> Sorry, but JKR has no
> reason at all to show Harry or anyone else that they need to hate
Snape.  
>

> No one needs to learn "by the way, Snape is really even Worse Than You
> Thought," because there's nothing much worse than betraying the
> prophecy to Voldemort which led to the Potter's deaths, killing
> Dumbledore, and being a Death Eater.  
> 

Neri:
The "hatred" to Snape is a secondary issue here, certainly for the
readers if not for Harry. The main issue is that JKR has spent the
entire series building the mystery of Snape's background, motives and
loyalties, and it's now pay time. The readers demand definitive
answers and JKR knows that well. 

"Betraying the prophecy" was presented as something Snape did
unintentionally. Being a Death Eater was also kept very vague - we
pointedly were not told of any crimes that Snape had performed during
his career. Killing Dumbledore is still theorized by many readers to
be some kind of a "ruse" or a trick, and JKR knows this too. She has
purposely built ambiguity into all of Snape's actions and background,
but in DH this ambiguity needs to end. 


>wynnleaf:
> This is a long book coming up and JKR isn't going to be spending time
> explaining to us things that won't move the plot or change any
> opinions of the characters.  
> 
> Learning that Snape really *was* working with Voldemort in OOTP, or
> really *did* help in getting Sirius killed tells us absolutely nothing
> if Snape is Evil -- because if JKR isn't going to show us Snape is
> really Loyal, then we can just assume he had generally bad motives for
> whatever he did, and we don't need explanations of How He Did It or
> Exactly What He Did.  
> 

Neri:
You seem to assume that the only readers that are really interested in
Snape's motives are DDM!Snapers, and the rest of us don't care about
them and will just be happy to find out that he's generally Evil. Not
so. We too have spent a lot of time analyzing Snape, we too have
contributed our humble share towards of the above 10,000 theories, and
we too need our questions answered. Why did he make the Unbreakable
Vow? Why did he save Dumbledore in the beginning of the year and
killed him in its end? Why does it appear that he didn't plan on
killing Dumbledore at that time and was forced to it by Draco's
unexpected action? What exactly was his game as a
double-triple-quadruple agent during all these years? What was he
trying to achieve during the Occlumency lessons? During the MoM
battle? What are exactly his connections with the Malfoys? Why did he
care about what happen to the Potters so much that he warned Dumbledore?

The answer "Snape was just generally Evil" is far from being
sufficient here and JKR knows it. It certainly wasn't sufficient that
Peter or Crouch!Moody were "just generally evil" – JKR still supplied
us with detailed explanations of their characters, motives and
schemes. Naturally this involved some interesting revelations, like
Peter spying for Voldemort for a whole year before GH or Crouch
murdering his own father. Note that at the points when these
revelations were given they didn't move the plot anymore, nor did they
change our opinion that these characters were evil, but JKR still
spent the time on them.

If, as I suspect, the life debt magic is the key to the Snape mystery,
then the culmination of his plot will be when he pays his debt and
saves Harry's life from Voldemort, and this must come to the readers
as a big surprise sometime in the climax of DH, so by then the readers
must be convinced that Snape isn't DDM. Therefore I see an obvious
plot reason for JKR to reveal before that most of the details about
his Evilness. I'm sure it's going to be at least as interesting as
Crouch's and Peter's stories <eg>. 


Neri