History not repeating itself

[sistermagpie]

I was reading a discussion on a list about...well, at least what I made it about...was what kids in Snape's class are supposed to "learn" from his bad behavior. Snape seems monstrous to Neville because Neville is young and insecure, but Neville conquers Snape with his Riddikulus spell, making him look silly, and that's what he has to do in his

Comments

[joyfulgirl1013]

Dumbledore's telling Harry that James and Snape were like Harry and Malfoy isn't given too much weight in fandom,

I think this is also because we don't see the S/J rivalry very much at all, and I almost feel as if the Snape/Sirius hatred feels much more intense that way because you have all that interaction. True the hatred S/J lives on in Harry, but because Harry isn't James and didn't really know James, one can almost forget at times that that’s the real motivating factor behind Snape's hatred and see it almost as purely directed at Harry.

And Snape/Sirius feels more like the example Dumbledore should have used, in some ways, if you're talking about not growing up/growing out of a rivalry. Both of them felt very immature, and one almost wonders how each managed to go through a war and seemingly not grow beyond petty rivalry at all.

But back to S/J. It seems almost as if Harry has Jame's personality combined with Snape's past and Draco has Snape's personality combined with Jame's past. True, Draco's nowhere near as cunning and Harry's not nearly as arrogant, and perhaps that's why the rivalry hasn't lasted. Neither is as intense, and you have more balance in the individual. You could probably also make a case for Harry's having Sirius's outlook and Snape's past (making him a bit more pragmatic) and Draco's having Snape's outlook and Sirius's past (because I don't think the Blacks actually abused Sirius, far from it). Once again, though, the outlooks/personalities are not nearly as intense. I think, however, that it balances better. In Snape you have someone with a very pragmatic outlook and the scarring past to turn that pragmatism into ruthlessness. In both Sirius/James you have guys with rich, comfortable backgrounds and a sizable enough amount of Gryffindor optimism and arrogance to get to foolhardiness and ridiculous bravado. Extremes on different ends of the spectrum, and so the rivalry itself is made more intense. In Harry and Draco, though, you see neither extreme and begin to approach a happy medium, and so the rivalry, by nature, can’t last as long.

[sistermagpie]

I think this is also because we don't see the S/J rivalry very much at all, and I almost feel as if the Snape/Sirius hatred feels much more intense that way because you have all that interaction.

Good point--ITA. S/J is just whatever someone projects onto it. I suspect people want to make it more simple than it is as well--people were very quick to decide after the Pensive that Harry "was" Snape and Draco was "was" James, and there were parallels there that had never been seen before, but it still wasn't quite that simple. Sirius/Snape seems more like it because we see both of them go at it. As you described, the original pair is sort of mixed up and recombined in different ways--and who knows what Snape may also be relating them to at different times? Does he see himself in Harry at all? Or does he see just his Shadow self so he has to reject Harry? Does Malfoy somehow remind him of something he admires or wants to be? Where does Lucius fit into this? It's a mystery!

[dancinguniverse]

It seems almost as if Harry has Jame's personality combined with Snape's past and Draco has Snape's personality combined with Jame's past.

I like this point a lot. I think this is exactly the reason they won't follow in their predecessors' footsteps. They've been there, in some sense. That's a big part of where the sympathy stems from, IMO. I think they're both smarter than the older generation in that sense, and they'll be able to see past the flaws in each other, and past the House and legacy divides to what really counts. I certainly hope, anyway.