Snape's the Rescuer - Really?/Justice to Snape

[bfiw2002]

No: HPFGUIDX 170802

> Magpie:

> You still wind up with Snape needing to be acting as a
> professional person taking care of people efficiently,
> being shown lifting the injured onto stretchers in a scene
> where he's alone. If JKR had just come up with any other
> way to avoid this scene--and there are many--you wouldn't
> have to find a negative explanation so that Snape is acting
> (as another person might think he was "acting" when he's
> mean to Harry because he's a spy).

Biff:

I don't disagree with you at all on this, but I think that we
perceive different motivations for his actions. I believe that
part of what does is almost a reflex, from years of spying and
doing what either side expects him to do. I don't necessarily
beleive that he is at a point where he acts much differently
when he is by himself than when others are present.

<snippage>

> Magpie:

> But JKR said she felt sorry for Draco as well in that interview.
> I don't think that saying his bad qualities were real, precludes
> the real character being sympathetic. I would be wary of taking
> JKR's statements about bad boys and making them into character
> statements that are more revealing that I think she would be
> about characters.

Biff:

I don't believe that I said that JKR's comments about Draco
should be meant as character statements, at least I didn't mean
it to sound that way. I brought up her comments only because I
feel that only she knows exactly what motivates these characters.
For this reason, I personally have to give pause when she talks
about fans getting the wrong idea about her characters. I see
similarities in both Draco and Snape and how they have been
shaped for us. I don't believe that Snape is all bad- no one
is, and I agree with many of your points. I just don't see his
motivations as being good, I see them as being for the profit
of Snape, regardless of which side they fall on.

Again, just my opinion.

Biff