What those fics seem to ignore is that neither character is in Slytherin by mistake. The fact that they're Slytherins pretty much indicates they at least tolerate each other's company, and the company of other within their House. Did that sentence make any sense?
Oh it makes perfect sense and I agree tha it's the same thing. So basically, the writers of these fics and theories seem to have unquestioningly bought into the whole Gryffindor=Nice thing, and thus they're making Snape or Draco into a Gryffindor, because they want to think the character in question is Nice/Alright, or, they may not actually think so, but want to make him so in their fic. And so these kinds of fics/theories become hard to swallow both for those of us who don't necessarily accept Gryffindor=Nice, and those of us who don't want to see Draco/Snape "nice" (because we can love them anyway! *looks defiant*)
I think she personnaly dislikes the character too much, and for other reasons than she dislikes Snape.
Not that I want to give you false hopes or anything, and heaven knows I'm worried about this as well, but I still think that if I look at the interviews and such objectively, there's no real proof that she dislikes him quite as much as the fandom makes it out to be. Not that I think she secretly loves him or anything, but the types of comments about him, if you look at all of them, are not that different from the types of comments she's given about Draco throughout the years. After all, she was asked directly which character she hated most and it was middle-class, adult Vernon, not teenage, upperclass, snobby Draco. I also found the comment she made about Dudley years ago, kind of hope-inducing (she said she thought he had been just as victimised by the Dursleys as Harry, only a diferent kind of abuse.) I'm clinging on to the hope that she's giving characters who are children more of a break than characters who are grown-ups. And if you compare Draco to Dudly, JKR has really been a whole lot "nicer" in her characterisation of DRaco. I mean, Draco isn't only there to serve as a comic relief, he gets much more air time, and he's even positively good-looking when you compare him to other unpleasant characters. This is hardly an accident. (I do think JKR could show a little more mercy to poor Dudley in her books, though!)
But yeah, all the above is said by someone who will try very hard not to read more JKR interviews, because yeah, either that woman is someone who I would have a hard time getting along with, or she just comes off that way in transcripted interviews. I would like it if it were the latter, but am not holding my breath.
That Dudley quote was up recently, and to my surprise JKR says in it that we should, "keep our eye" on Dudley. Yet post-OotP didn't she say something completely the opposite, saying there was nothing to him and if anybody was expecting more about him that was it? She also, in that original quote, I think, said something about how while she might kid about Dudley she feels he's been wronged, which I hope holds true for her other brat as well. Though at the time, whenever that quote was, she said Dudley basically wasn't given any skills he needed to succeed in life because his parents coddled him. Yet in Book V Dudley has a bit of a makeover, doesn't he? He's not smooth by any means, but I could certainly see him having a life, even if it was a life of petty crime.
So it makes me wonder if she's had some real changes of heart about characters over the years. I mean, OotP is so dark with some characters so aggressively shoved at you (like Ginny), and her interviews have suddenly gotten so focused on not liking Slytherins and things, whereas in the past she didn't much care about them and showed more compassion for Dudley. I don't know what to chalk that up to--it seems almost more like a change in her persona, like she, like Ginny, now fancies herself a Source for Sass and puts that on more.
I agree on all accounts here, she DOES really seem to have changed, and if that's so, one rightly wonders if the books will also be changed from what she originally intended.
But that's also why I don't really trust the interviews anymore. I mean in one, she says she won't reveal any pairings because "it would spoil all the fun", and only six months later she does exactly what she said she wouldn't do. But the question is, under these circumstances, how reliable are her words? On anything?
What those fics seem to ignore is that neither character is in Slytherin by mistake. The fact that they're Slytherins pretty much indicates they at least tolerate each other's company, and the company of other within their House. Did that sentence make any sense?
Oh it makes perfect sense and I agree tha it's the same thing. So basically, the writers of these fics and theories seem to have unquestioningly bought into the whole Gryffindor=Nice thing, and thus they're making Snape or Draco into a Gryffindor, because they want to think the character in question is Nice/Alright, or, they may not actually think so, but want to make him so in their fic. And so these kinds of fics/theories become hard to swallow both for those of us who don't necessarily accept Gryffindor=Nice, and those of us who don't want to see Draco/Snape "nice" (because we can love them anyway! *looks defiant*)
I think she personnaly dislikes the character too much, and for other reasons than she dislikes Snape.
Not that I want to give you false hopes or anything, and heaven knows I'm worried about this as well, but I still think that if I look at the interviews and such objectively, there's no real proof that she dislikes him quite as much as the fandom makes it out to be. Not that I think she secretly loves him or anything, but the types of comments about him, if you look at all of them, are not that different from the types of comments she's given about Draco throughout the years. After all, she was asked directly which character she hated most and it was middle-class, adult Vernon, not teenage, upperclass, snobby Draco. I also found the comment she made about Dudley years ago, kind of hope-inducing (she said she thought he had been just as victimised by the Dursleys as Harry, only a diferent kind of abuse.) I'm clinging on to the hope that she's giving characters who are children more of a break than characters who are grown-ups. And if you compare Draco to Dudly, JKR has really been a whole lot "nicer" in her characterisation of DRaco. I mean, Draco isn't only there to serve as a comic relief, he gets much more air time, and he's even positively good-looking when you compare him to other unpleasant characters. This is hardly an accident. (I do think JKR could show a little more mercy to poor Dudley in her books, though!)
But yeah, all the above is said by someone who will try very hard not to read more JKR interviews, because yeah, either that woman is someone who I would have a hard time getting along with, or she just comes off that way in transcripted interviews. I would like it if it were the latter, but am not holding my breath.
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So it makes me wonder if she's had some real changes of heart about characters over the years. I mean, OotP is so dark with some characters so aggressively shoved at you (like Ginny), and her interviews have suddenly gotten so focused on not liking Slytherins and things, whereas in the past she didn't much care about them and showed more compassion for Dudley. I don't know what to chalk that up to--it seems almost more like a change in her persona, like she, like Ginny, now fancies herself a Source for Sass and puts that on more.
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But that's also why I don't really trust the interviews anymore. I mean in one, she says she won't reveal any pairings because "it would spoil all the fun", and only six months later she does exactly what she said she wouldn't do. But the question is, under these circumstances, how reliable are her words? On anything?
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