Snape: The Real Protagonist of the HP Series

[harmony_bites]

Found this article via sylvanawood's post in dh_oh_shit. It’s chock full of spoilers, so don’t read it unless you’ve finished Deathly Hallows, but it expresses eloquently and succinctly something I think a lot of us feel about Snape.

Missing from ‘Harry Potter’ - a real moral struggle

Oh, and how does Rowling feel about Snape now?

Comments

[harmony_bites]

Some moderated HP archives will hold that anything that drops from JKR's lips is canon and will enforce it. I once had a story rejected by Mugglenet because I was told it contradicted something Rowling said in an interview. I resubmitted it later and it went right through :-)

And I'm sure some among the canon shippers and Snape haters want to make us go away, who feel threatened by other interpretations as if it threatens the validity of their own--I've seen that in other fandoms.

And yes, in some ways "anti-hero" in that definition fits Snape (and interestingly enough, in some ways "anti-villain" in that article fits Dumbledore). But I'd prefer "flawed" or "dark" hero and I doubt somehow it's what Rowling had in mind. As someone pointed out in a comment to Sylvannawood, when Snape makes the remark that the people he saw being killed were "only lately those I haven't been able to save" it's being implied he's long looked well beyond Lily for his reasons.

And I'm not particularly a fan of or trusting of altruism anyway. I think things like honesty, integrity are inherently selfish, and see nothing wrong with that. To me Snape isn't any less a hero because his love of Lily motivated him. And certainly not because he's flawed.

[catherinecookmn]

As someone pointed out in a comment to Sylvannawood, when Snape makes the remark that the people he saw being killed were "only lately those I haven't been able to save" it's being implied he's long looked well beyond Lily for his reasons.

Yes, yes, yes, yes, YES! Thank you for pointing out the single greatest thing for showing that Snape isn't the drip JKR keeps saying he is.

[harmony_bites]

Astonishing isn't it? That's her character. She's the one that put those words into his mouth, who has had him act in heroic ways.

But then, I'm still seeing some readers claiming that Snape was just probably playing both sides, and edited what got shown to Harry.

::headdesk::