The Bad Guy[tm]

[sean dwyer]

<rant>

The main list is getting bizarre these days: what to make of the
pro-Snape/anti-Snape lobbies marshalling JKR into their arguments? It's
turning into a referendum on whether JKR condones abuse, and there's a
borderline tendency to insist that she doesn't understand her own characters.

Putting JKR aside for a moment, let's be clear about it: The Bad Guy[tm] is a
legitimate tool to drive plots. These days, it's the only way to differentiate
The Good Guy[tm] on TV and movies. Snape is the fallback Bad Guy, otherwise
Voldemort would be way overused. So he's smart and bitter and twisted. We can
relate to this. Uncle Vernon is mean and stupid and twisted. We live with
these people in RL. 

Bad Guys grab our interest in stories, we choose that. Advancing the Snape
cause is going a little far though, he's just a Bad Guy. Maybe that's what
takes JKR aback, but it's not as if she'll change him. The League for
Anti-Bad-Stuff In Potterverses is equally unrealistic, of course we have bad
people doing bad things. Not all bad people are going to get caught or go to
Hell either. Some people are acting like it's a writer's JOB to make them pay,
but it isn't. Or if that's not going to happen, Bad Guys should cease to exist
so kiddies don't have sad thoughts. JKR is not responsible for keeping people
infantile, that's a parent's problem.

</rant>

-- 
I come from a LAN down under
Where the packets flow and routers chunder