fannish5: Five Needing-To-Quitters

[selenak]

Five characters who should quit their jobs (and why).

1.) Severus Snape (Harry Potter). During the time canon was still open, of course. Let’s face it, Snape was a fascinating character but a really horrible teacher, even if you discount anything to do with Harry. The two most glaring proofs about Snape’s unsuitability as a teacher that come

Comments

[sculpturelle]

I must agree with you regarding Snape and Thomas, esp. Thomas!

[selenak]

Good to know!

[lizbee]

4.) John Sheridan (Babylon 5).

"Don't blame us, we voted for G'Kar." /a significant minority of the Interstellar Alliance.

[selenak]

:) :) :) 'Tis funny because it's true.

[nenya_kanadka]

LOL!

I had actually never considered this issue at all, but it suddenly makes a lot of sense out of "Two years before he dies, he and Delenn switch jobs." She's definitely better at the leader-in-peacetime thing, and he'd probably be better at leading the Rangers than running the Alliance. Hmm.

Guess the show had to give him something to do when he got fired from his old job and Lochley got it, but I think I have to agree with you.

[lizbee]

In-universe, I'm quite convinced that the only reason Delenn or G'Kar didn't get the job was because they would have been unacceptable to the Humans and Centauri respectively. Sheridan wouldn't be the first second-rate politician to get into office as a compromise!

[airie_fairy]

True that Snape was a very bright man in his field (it always sort of touches me that he was imparting his improved potions recipes to his students, as it turned out, though honestly he was most probably doing it for the mere fact that it was an improvement) who really did nooot want to be in that job, BUT, consider that, given his long game, Dumbledore probably wouldn't let him out of it. So we should blame him. XD

[leviathan0999]

it always sort of touches me that he was imparting his improved potions recipes to his students

Was he? I saw no sign of that. He wrote them in his own taxtbook, then discarded it. When he suspected Harry had it, he was livid.

In class, he seemed only ever to teach directly from the book. This fits his petty, bullying character, making sure that no-one who learns potions from him will ever be as good at them as he is.

[airie_fairy]

Well, no, a hint that the half-blood prince was Snape was that the notes in the old textbook had the same extra "turn counterclockwise" touch that his recipes on the board did over the years, while the non-half-blood text Hermione was using in sixth year didn't have that. And I think it suits his personality that he thinks enough of his cleverness to impose it on others and his sneakiness that he never mentions it.

[leviathan0999]

Severus Snape is the most undeservedly-admired character I've ever come across. He's a brilliant potions-maker, and otherwise simply the most awful human being you can imagine, on every possible level. He's a bigot, a bully, a bitter, angry, vengeful man. He's a teacher who openly plays favorites among his students, and a man who, having got his high-school nemesis killed, still bad-mouths him to his orphaned son.

Just because he fought against Voldemort, that doesn't make him a good guy, and no, neither does the fact that he loved Lily Evans. He loved her, but he'd have been perfectly happy to see her husband and son slaughtered, as long as he got to keep her like a prize. (It was only when Dumbledore called him on that that he grudgingly allowed that Dumbledore should save them, as if their continued existence was a high price he'd be grudgingly willing to pay for hers.) And when he fought for the death of Voldemort, he was motivated, not by protecting the innocent, but merely by vengeance

[night_train_fm]

a man who, having got his high-school nemesis killed, still bad-mouths him to his orphaned son

The standard Snapewife handwave is that he only mentions James by name once or twice, and only when Harry does something weally weally nawty. I find it fascinating that they think there's a set quota on how many times a teacher can insult a pupil's dead parent - how exactly does it change if the teacher was an (all too willing) accessory to the murder?

[selenak]

I thought the standard Snapewive handwave is that James is an evil bully who deserved to die (while Snape as a teacher, of course, only tries to toughen up his students for the war against Voldemort) and Harry deserves everything Snape dishes out anyway?

[night_train_fm]

Bugger, I can't even keep track anymore.

[zahrawithaz]

Let’s face it, Snape was a fascinating character but a really horrible teacher, even if you discount anything to do with HarryOh, yes yes yes yes YES. Having just finished listening to HP3 on audiobook, where the Snape-as-boggart scene appears, I've been thinking about just how much time Harry spends as an unwittingly unreliable narrator, and how clear Rowling makes it that Snape is a terrible teacher apart from his interactions with Harry

[selenak]

I've been thinking about just how much time Harry spends as an unwittingly unreliable narrator, and how clear Rowling makes it that Snape is a terrible teacher apart from his interactions with Harry.

Quite. Sometimes people seem to assume the two are mutually exclusive, but they're not.

re: Thomas, I hope for at least boyfriend, too, but, like you, not with much hope. Well. Then again, next season will include Shirley McLaine. I somehow can't see how you can cast Ms. McLaine and not do a sing and dance number at some point... maybe Thomas will get inspired?