Lily (was Complimenting a character WAS: Re: HBP CHAPTERS 7-9 POST DH LOOK

[sistermagpie]

No: HPFGUIDX 184417

> Montevilla:
> 
> I'm sure that's all just because JKR is trying to hide the secret from
> us, but it makes Lily look like a hypocrite and a terrible friend. 
Imagine
> if it were Hermione and Harry, and Hermione pretended not to be
> friends with Harry and instead flirted with Malfoy while Harry was
> being hung upside-down and pantsed.
> 
> Lynda:
> 
> Does it? Lily "puts up with" listening to Snape insult every other
> muggle-born witch/wizard than her. She turns her back on the trio for 
years,
> simply due to her friendship with Snape. She only turns from him when 
he
> publically
> insults her.

Magpie:
I would imagine the response to that is that we don't see Lily put up 
with anything in canon. We more see scenes where Snape seems to be 
courting her favor, so that's what many readers remember. I would 
actually assume that Snape never insulted other Muggleborns in her 
presence--knowing Lily as we know now, if he ever did that she would 
have told him off (with good reason!). So it's more like she's just 
been privately disapproving with Snape's other friends. Their argument 
sounds like the first time she reveals that she knows he uses the word 
Mudblood elsewhere. Since James and Sirius attack Snape right off on 
the train, her turning her back on him could be on principle rather 
than loyalty to Snape. Snape comes out looking like quite an idiot on 
this score--how could he possibly not connect insulting other 
Mugglesborns with insulting Lily? But according to JKR he thought being 
a big bad DE would impress her. Is Lily supposed to be enjoying James' 
show because she already dislikes Snape? 

I would also agree wtih the idea that watching people get smacked down 
in fiction is satisfying, especially if it's something that wouldn't 
happen IRL. I think when there's a problem with it in the series it's 
often because there's a disagreement about who needs to be smacked 
down. I couldn't stand watching Ginny crash into Zach Smith, but I 
would have loved it if Zach put up an invisible shield so when Ginny 
tried to pull another one of her super cool Mary Sue smack downs she 
wound up in the hospital wing. Canon is, after all, not half as 
consistent on this matter as it sometimes seems to feel like it is. 
Some people who do this get righteously smacked down, some get a 
conspiratorial wink, some get a sort of "tisk tisk" head shake and some 
are a lesson in the way the world works. In the end it feels to me not 
so much like the author is making a point about it but just that she 
herself naturally comes up with these scenarios and therefore it comes 
up everywhere because everyone's coming out of the same head. When 
people don't do it they stand out, not the other way around.

-m