Werewolves and RL equivalents (was:Re: Snape - a werewolf bigot?...)

[justcarol67]

No: HPFGUIDX 170417

Lanval wrote:
<snip>
> 
> Snape and Sirius -- what clinches it for me, I think, are their
adult characters. Both were bastards in their younger days. But 
what's the worst one can accuse post-Azkaban Sirius of? Attempting
murderous revenge, when he's still half-crazed from his years in 
prison (and a thirteen year old boy manages to talk him out of it in 
the end). What else? He's grumpy at times. He gets depressed. He once
makes a not-so-nice remark to Harry. Anything else? Well, he also
still knows how to LOVE. Deeply. And on the whole, he seems a nice and
generous enough fellow to have around. Unless your name happens to be
Severus Snape, of course (and Molly Weasley on one occasion).
> 
> The worst about Adult Snape, IMO, and the reason why I so heartily
dislike him (and why on a shallow level *g* I cannot. Ever. Find him 
sexy, as so many of his fans do. It's not his looks!) is his sheer 
patheticness. All that self-pity, the endless dwelling on real or 
imagined past insults and injustices, those constant nasty swipes at
helpless kids, the amount of hatred he harbors for a boy whose only 
sin was to resemble his father -- geez, Severus. Pitiful indeed. As 
> for everything else he's done in those six years, much of which is 
> cited as evidence for him being a Good Guy, I shall await DH. All 
> cards will finally be on the table then, I hope.
>
Carol responds:
Obviously, our reactions to Sirius Black and Severus Snape are
individual and emotion-based and can't be argued (unlike their motives
and Snape's loyalties). It seems to me that they're both stuck in the
past and bring out each other's worst tendencies (though now Snape is
very much on top of his game and it's Black who gets the worst of
their exchanges). Both of them see James in Harry and react to him
accordingly. They're oddly alike in their arrogance and self-certainty
and refusal to see good in the other.

At any rate, I find Snape's intellect and power and mystery and
sweeping movements, and, yes, even his sarcasm sexy (especially when
it's directed at Bellatrix or Wormtail or Umbridge). And Harry does
quite a bit to validate Snape's initial view of him as an arrogant
rule-breaker like his father, more so as the books go along. I don't
see the self-pity, actually, except on the rare but memorable
occasions when he's attacking James's arrogance and rule-breaking
tendencies in front of Harry or extremely angry at being thwarted in
turning Sirius Black over to Fudge. Most of the time, he's coolly in
control, which is one of the things I find attractive about him. (The
duelling club, for example, would have been a complete disaster had it
not been for Snape, who easily cleaned up the spell damage and taught
the kids Expelliarmus.) 

As for self-pity, Sirius Black is wallowing in it throughout OoP, and
when he gets to the MoM, he reverts, fatally, to recklessness. Against
Snape, all he has is the old nickname "Snivellus" (which grates on my
nerves more than it apparently does on Snape's) and "this is my house
and Harry is my godson, so there" (Yes, I know he doesn't use those
exact words, but that's his childish attitude in my view). He gives
Harry bad advice, particularly regarding the Occlumency lessons, which
he undermines by suggesting that Snape will try to hurt Harry. 

And, though it's no fault of Black's, his death causes Harry, who has
just reached out to Snape for help and been saved by him, to revert to
hating Snape and using him as a scapegoat for Black's death rather
than acknowledging his own and Black's contributions (believing
Voldemort's vision in Harry's case and fighting Bellatrix Lestrange
with his back to the Veil(!) in Black's) or blaming the real culprits,
Bellatrix, Voldemort, Kreacher et al.). If Harry hadn't been blaming
Snape for Black's death, he might have realized that Snape's idea of
"helping" Draco was trying to keep him alive and out of trouble, not
helping him in his mission from Voldemort (assuming DDM!Snape, of
course) and might not have reacted so dramatically to the
eavesdropping revelation. He might even have succeeded in persuading
DD that Draco was up to something dangerous in the RoR if he hadn't
exploded in an anti-Snape tirade and kept Trelawney from coming into
DD's office and telling her story.

Oh, well. I suspect that Behind-the Veil!Black and Secretly-DDM!Snape
will both play small but crucial roles in DH, and I suspect that our
feelings about them as individual characters won't change as a result.
I don't know how I'll feel about Snape himself if he turns out to be
OFH (ESE, as in loyal to Voldemort all along like Bellatrix and Barty
Jr., is highly unlikely, IMO). I'll probably just be angry with JKR
for deceiving me. :-) If he turns out to be DDM!, I will, of course,
feel that my opinion has been validated, and if he survives to become,
say, a St. Mungo's researcher, I'll celebrate. 

But I can't help it; I'll never like arrogant, reckless, Snape-hating
Sirius Black, whether he's helping James Potter to insult and bully
Severus as a teenager, setting him up to be bitten by a werewolf,
preparing to murder Wormtail, or sulking in 12 Grimmauld Place because
he's foolishly revealed himself in dog form to Lucius Malfoy and can't
go out any more without risking being recognized and killed or
arrested. I do have one or two moments of sympathy for him, for
example when he's listening to Harry's story in GoF and tries to
comfort him, and I do realize that his arrested development is the
result of all those years in Azkaban, but I just can't like him. Even
his love for Harry is really, IMO, fraternal love for James redirected
to a James lookalike (combined, maybe, with regret for the years that
he and Harry never had together because he brilliantly tried to take
justice into his own hands after GH). I certainly don't see him as a
"nice and generous fellow to have around" except maybe, briefly, when
he's decorating the house for Christmas. (Wonder why the "generous"
Black didn't will some robes and money, or even his house, to *Lupin*,
who needs them much more than Harry does. And, of course, there's his
treatment of Kreacher, but I won't go there as I don't like Kreacher,
either, though I do feel a tinge of pity for him.)

Carol, just sharing feelings, which, of course, won't persuade anyone
to share them