Could Harry have saved Snape? (was Reacting to DH...)

[Zara]

No: HPFGUIDX 178084

> lizzyben:
> OK, in my opinion Harry didn't save Snape because JKR wanted Snape 
to
> die. And we weren't supposed to think about how it was tragic that 
he
> was murdered, we were supposed to think he got some karmic justice,
> well deserved. Just like Umbridge did, just like Marietta did. We 
were
> all supposed to think Snape was a baddie, and gloat at his death -
> only to later get the "big reveal" that he was on the good side.

zgirnius:
Yes!! Absolutely.

lizzyben:
> JKR wanted Snape to die horribly, and plotted his death from way 
back
> for the ultimate "irony"/poetic justice. And she did this in order 
to
> get revenge on an old chemistry teacher who gave her a bad grade. In
> her latest interview, JKR confirmed that Snape was based on John
> Nettleship, and that he deserved his fate. 

zgirnius:
Then I really don't see why she did not write OFH! or ESE! Snape 
instead of Snape who always protected Harry and with his dying 
breath, gave Harry the secret he needed to win (and the proof we 
needed to know the above). Then we could go on blissfully revelling 
in his well-deserved comeuppance indefinitely.

I am less confident in my skills at Legilimency that you seem to be, 
but I would guess her hope was that the reader would share Harry's 
experience, that the reader would move from hatred of Snape and the 
vicarious thrill of his death to the emotionally affecting reversal 
of "The Prince's Tale". Which, if it was emotionally affecting, would 
tend to engender in a reader some regret at the previously felt glee. 
It was not effective for me personally, because I had guessed the 
twist, nor for some readers who despise Snape still, but I have 
certainly encountered a lot of readers for whom it did work that way.

Regarding the (snipped) quote - it is not at all clear from what she 
says that the method of death was the revenge. I would have imagined 
that modelling the "mean teacher" Harry and his fans loved to hate 
for nearly seven whole books after her old "mean teacher" could be 
all she meant. That the "mean teacher" was also this tragic figure 
with a love story, redemptive arc, and death by Nagini does not have 
to be part of it.