ETA: Just to clarify, because a lot of people are reacting the same way. I'm talking about what I see as inaccurate base characterizations, i.e. what makes up the bedrock of a personality. I'm not talking about secondary or learnerd/acquired traits. So, Snape can be a bastard and like books, but he's not a bastard because he likes books.In no
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Snape is a repressed Victorian prude-- not on its own a convincing characterization. Snape is a repressed Victorian prude AND he's a petty, vindictive, paranoid, angry, greasy-haired mean-spirited bastard-- this, I can buy.
Snape can still carry a torch for his first love, AND be a petty, vindictive, paranoid, angry, greasy-haired mean-spirited bastard! Snape can be revolted by and ashamed of what he's done in Voldemort's service, AND be a petty, vindictive, paranoid, angry, greasy-haired mean-spirited bastard! Snape can shy and socially inept, he can be a thwarted academic, he can even be an insatiable lover-- just so long as he's also a petty, vindictive, paranoid, angry, greasy-haired mean-spirited bastard.
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I don't suppose you'd like to post this at snapesupport where we try to keep our Snapes in line with canon?
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While I had tons of fun reading the rant, and saw so much of it that was true, I also was thinking "but wait... that's every Snape story I've ever read, including some of the ones that I thought were damn good." As someone else said down the thread, since Snape in canon is viewed through the lens of an unreliable narrator, he COULD be any of these things - we just don't know. But if you're going to say he's any of these things, you've got to back up his actions in terms of relating to Harry and co. in terms of the personality you've just assigned him, and do it convincingly. Stories that can do that - not lose touch with canon - without falling back on the "But he had to because he had to look mean and ebil so nobody thought he wasn't a Death Eater!!" line are good stories. Stories that can't are what you're ranting about. ;)
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That said, the characterizations you listed usually make me want to claw my own eyes out... [g]
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You are my god.
That is all.
Sincerely,
pauraque
(aka SoberAlien)
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I do think a fair bit of these are redeemable, for example: intellectual!Snape (though a Ravenclaw AU just sounds silly), Snape leaving the DEs because the evil got too much for him (he's NOT evil, after all, and he did leave them), Masochist!Snape (only with certain pairings; with a student is believable, I think), and Rational!Snape (rational in *some* respects only).
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My fingers are going numb.
And glad you liked it. ^_^
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(which is probably not what you intended. *g*)
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