Meta Monday- August 1.0

[sassy_cat]

Severus Snape and the author's abandonment of his character in DH---
Severus was a crucial character in the series, especially the later books, and his death scene provided Harry with vital information. Aside from the favorite fandom answer: Severus didn't die. (I assure you that I won't argue against that.) Why do you believe JKR failed to provide

Comments

[akatnamedeaster]

Why do you believe JKR failed to provide closure or evidence of death for a key player in her universe? Is Severus a disposable character?
I believe she did provide both of those things for the character, the way his end is written, it's very clear that we're meant to know that he's dead once that light goes out of his eyes and his hand thuds to the floor. As much as it leaves a little wriggle room for those of us who love the character and want to write his survival, the text is pretty clear that he died

[torino10154]

I believe she did provide both of those things for the character, the way his end is written, it's very clear that we're meant to know that he's dead once that light goes out of his eyes and his hand thuds to the floor. As much as it leaves a little wriggle room for those of us who love the character and want to write his survival, the text is pretty clear that he died.

This. As you say, it's great for fanon but I don't pretend that my wishful thinking is canon.

[akatnamedeaster]

It's funny, I'm on the outskirts of another fandom where recently a character who's popular with one segment of fandom died a pretty unambiguous death and watching the mental gymnastics that part of the fandom has (and to some extent still) going through to try and leave room for their survival reminds me very much what many of us (me included) did when Severus met his end. It's been pretty illuminating watching it from the outside.

[torino10154]

Well, I mean I remember after book 6 one person in particular came up with a HUGE theory about how Dumbledore was still alive based on the dose of Felix Felicis Harry took and a million other things. I have IDK no trouble with people coming up with ways to save characters in very believable ways for fic purposes but it seems silly that the book not only has to say on the page "Snape is dead" but also somehow prove it. Even a coffin being lowered into the ground would have someone say, "Transfiguration!" or something. What could ever be good enough evidence in a world with magic?

[torino10154]

He's not disposable, he's crucial. Snape is the catalyst--he starts the story with his love of Lily--that is what makes it so HER sacrifice matters. And he ends it. As much as it pains me to say it, Snape's job was to show Harry how to die, to guide him to that point. He was never going to get a happy ending. I think JKR wanted to try and not allow him hero status, which is why he's denied a portrait among other things. But then she allows Harry to give it to him anyway because we know Harry's ability to forgive is greater than most.

I don't think he wanted to die but I actually think it saves us from seeing that he wouldn't have changed at all. He is more noble in death than he would have been in life.

[akatnamedeaster]

I don't think he wanted to die but I actually think it saves us from seeing that he wouldn't have changed at all. He is more noble in death than he would have been in life.

This is a really good observation.

[goddess47]

Well, JKR left a *lot* of open threads with the ending... to this day, it still feel rushed. Voldie's dead and -- blammo -- it's over. There's minimal attention paid to anyone else who died, also; Severus isn't the only one who is abandoned. Remus and Tonks barely get a mention. Even those that lived are given short shrift; what really happened to Lucius Malfoy and did he escape prosecution?

I agree that her intent, and it is pretty clear, that Severus dies in the books... but it's left open enough that fandom can certainly do its thing with that scene. The truly dedicated (me among them!) can believe that Severus may have passed out from the trauma.

While JKR could have written another book after DH following up on all her characters, by not doing so she has left us plenty to play with!

[sassy_cat]

Yes! That was the spirit of the post. There are loads of unaddressed details.

I don't actually think Snape lived, but I do enjoy that we only believe he died because of Harry's observations. Don't get me wrong, Harry is one of my favorite HP characters, but that poor boy has terrible deductive reasoning skills. We spend the entire series shaking our head at his presumptuousness, but suddenly, in DH he's an entirely credible narrator

[perverse_idyll]

Snape's death is horrible and cruel, lonely and ironic - dying in the Shrieking Shack, where years earlier he'd come face to face with a werewolf and escaped by the skin of his teeth. Dying by the wand of the monster he'd served, set up by the master he'd sworn allegiance to. He is unequivocally dead at the end, and he's not mourned - Harry uses the mention of him to insult Voldemort, Dumbledore dismisses him with "Poor Severus," and that's it. Harry memorializes him at the end with a statement that infuriates a lot of readers who think he shouldn't forgive Snape; that Snape did nothing to earn forgiveness. And perhaps they're right. But I'm glad the homage is there, because it's the only resonance after the fact to say that Snape's sacrifice mattered. He would otherwise be remembered by no one at all (within the world of the books, I mean

[droxy]

that's a very elegant explanation! ^^^^

[shyfoxling]

With his purpose fulfilled, who knows what he would have gone on to do with his life? I simply like the idea that he'd be out there, a thorn in the side of the Wizarding World, an outsider to the last. I wanted this character who couldn't be 'fixed' by victory, who had no reason to feel cheered by a return to business as usual, who was dark and perennially unsatisfied, to exist, in the face of everyone who thought he had no right to.

Ooh yes, quite.

[snapes_witch]

All she had to do was give him the headmaster's portrait that he was entitled to. Instead when she's asked about it in a post-DH interview, she says he didn't get one because he'd abandoned his post. Really??

[droxy]

You are correct because the CASTLE refuse Umbridge access to the HM office, but Snape was there according to the Maurauders map. Snape fleed because in the books he could have easily hurt the staff. =)

[drinkingcocoa]

That hurt me at first, but that was right after the book was published and I think she's softened a bit on Snape since.

My takeaway is that he was so successful in his Occlumency that he even fooled the castle about why he did everything he did.