Did you LIKE Snape?/ and other characters too

[dumbledore11214]

No: HPFGUIDX 183291

> 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.


Alla:

Oh absolutely. But what she did with Barty to me feels like wonderful 
clever trick. After the end of the book I do not feel like she 
tricked me with Marauders, you know? She just chose to reveal 
different parts of their lives at the time and place of her choosing 
if that makes sense.


Potioncat: 
> 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?

Alla:

Depends to me on what part of Snape's story would be revealed. If she 
would have revealed everything ( of course she wanted it to be a 
surprise so she would not, hehe) that we know now, probably he would 
have been more sympathetic character. BUT that is only because of him 
looking suicidal when he comes to Dumbledore. That moment would have 
tugged on my emotions for sure and I would have felt some sort of 
sympathy for Snape, remorse and all that. I am a sucker for it, 
usually anyways.

But revealing it when I know how Snape treated her son all his life. 
Oh man. I do not care for his remorse, I want to tell him to shove 
it, you know? And oh dear, I must really hate the character if I am 
not feeling for moment like this.


Potioncat: 
> 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?

Alla:

Cannot speak for all other antiSnape readers, and cannot confirm or 
deny because I certainly did not feel that Snape deserved such 
treatment. I mean, I did sort of but only in the carmic sort of the 
way. Exactly because I knew already how he treated Gryffindor kids. 
But it was completely emotional response. I certainly did not feel 
that kid Snape deserved that, I totally thought that it was ugly.

Now it did not change my opinion of Marauders for sure. I mean, I 
discovered that they were bullies in their youth. Oh well. I already 
knew how much Sirius paid for any and all sins or mistakes in his 
youth.

I embraced that his personality had some ugly traits too and that was 
it. I already a lot of good things and he just became even more 
interesting and complex too.

I wholeheartedly wished that Snape would pay too, but that I only got 
in DH.

Potioncat:
> 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.


Alla:

Me too.