Why down on all the characters?

[horridporrid03]

No: HPFGUIDX 179310

> >>leslie41:
> > <snip>
> > A third reason might have to do with Snape.  There were a lot of 
> > Snape haters out there--more, probably, than there were Snape 
> > lovers/admirers (of which I count myself in number).  
> > It's got to be hard to reconcile Snape as a hero for people that 
> > hate him so, and within the context of the book he's in many ways 
> > as much a hero as Harry.  
> > <snip> 
> > I can only say that if I had > > been wrong, and he'd been on the 
> > side of evil all along, I'd now be feeling terribly ill-served,   
> > and angry, and I imagine that's how some people that have always 
> > hated him must feel.

> >>Alla:
> But this Snape hater is so very happy with the book.
> <snip>

Betsy Hp:
Hee!  And meanwhile, this Snape-lover was so very, very disappointed. 
<bg>  It's odd isn't it?  And while I agree that "within in the 
context of the book" Snape is a hero, JKR has such a low bar for 
heroism (apparently) that in *my* book Snape ended the story rather 
pathetic and lame.  A victim, certainly, and I have a great deal of 
pity for him.  But I think of him as someone within in an abusive 
relationship that kept going back to his abuser and was finally 
killed for it.  It's exhausting trying to care for such a person, 
especially when they pull children into the cycle (as Snape did with 
his Slytherin charges, IMO).

> >>Susan:
> Alla, reading some of these posts makes me feel really sorry for
> the people who were so disappointed.
> <snip>

Betsy Hp:
I feel sorry for myself the same way I do when confronted with a 
dessert table made up solely of white chocolate. <g>  It sucks for 
myself that I won't be eating any dessert (the horror!), but I have 
no pity for myself in my preference for dark chocolate.  It's my 
personal taste and I'm happy with it.

For me to have enjoyed DH, it would have had to be an entirely 
different book with an entirely different thrust and an entirely 
different cast.  It's part of the reason I've stuck around the list, 
trying to figure out why (to stretch a metaphor to the breaking point 
<g>) I thought JKR was working with dark chocolate when it was white 
chocolate all along.  Was there dark chocolate there in the beginning 
and then she overwhelmed it with the white?  Did she *think* it was 
dark chocolate for some reason and so described things badly?  Was 
there a willful misuse of food-dye at work?

I spent too long anticipating the dessert table to just shrug and 
walk away. 

> >>Susan:
> <snip>
> The whole morality thing -- what I don't understand is that some   
> people seem to think that J.K. Rowling should have been absolutely 
> consistent and clear about morality in the book -- but who amongst 
> us is always clear about morality?
> <snip>

Betsy Hp:
I wasn't necessarily looking for consistency and clarity, just 
something a little less... evil.  

Betsy Hp (who has finally changed her computer's wallpaper from a 
Slytherin motif to a Stargate Atlantis one -- baby steps, baby steps)