Did you LIKE Snape?/ and other characters too

[potioncat]

No: HPFGUIDX 183290

Alla:
snip 
> In any event I was thinking about something else in the story, as 
>to how interestingly JKR plays with our likes and dislikes.
snip

> 
> I just find it interesting that she introduced such an ugly scene 
>late enough in the story for me not to be enough to experience any 
> significant reversal as to my likes and dislikes of the characters.


Potioncat:
I think the way JKR strung us along with certain characters was part 
of the fun. Take Barty, Jr. Just the way we were introduced to him 
made him seem possibly innocent, while his father seemed horrible. 
Not till the very end do we see how horrible Barty, Jr. is.

Back to your example. It made me think how different the books would 
have been, if JKR kept the main plots, but told the story 
differently. Say, if we had known the Marauder generation story 
before meeting Harry. How different would Snape have seemed to us, if 
we knew from the beginning that he had loved Lily?

SWM came at an interesting time. It changed how I felt about the 
Marauders. I'm not sure it changed anyone's mind about Snape. Many 
anti-Snape readers decided he must have deserved the treatment. Would 
they have thought that if they hadn't yet met the adult Snape?

I hope at the next charity event, JKR writes about the process of 
Harry Potter, rather than creating a new add-on-story. I'd really 
like to read about the decisions and changes and such.