Professor of Sherlockology and Advanced Snape Studies

Yeah, I'm sure that's what it is. But all the same, it got me thinking about how much energy I've invested in a single character and how hard it would be to be totally wrong about so much.

I'm beginning to wonder if I've just oversimplified the true multidimensionality of Snape and have missed the big picture. No one is really good or evil all the time, but we all have complex motivations. I'm more worried about having misunderstood his character and the motivations behind his decisions.

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woman-ironing.livejournal.com

I'm sure that lots of HP readers will feel the same if Snape turns out as bad as he appears, but it might in fact be exciting rather than predictable or a cop-out. It could require us to reconsider our response to Snape, and think again about the whole story. All along we've been trying to find a justification for Snape, understand his 'issues' or some such. Why do we want to justify him? - excuse him, really? What is it that makes us unwilling to judge him by his actions? Isn't Snape responsible for his actions? Can there really be any justification for the cruelty and spite that Snape exhibits? If Snape is bad it could be that we've misled ourselves, not that JKR has been misleading us.

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thepinkrabbit.livejournal.com

Neither would I!! omg, I... I don't even know how I'd react to that.

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I'm half expecting now for something completely unexpected to happen concerning Snape. I'm both looking forward to and dreading it.

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thepinkrabbit.livejournal.com

When I think about it my head starts to hurt :O

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It is not important to me that Snape be good, but it is important to me that he has a clear code of honor, even if it is one I personally disagree with. I want justification in his actions that are beyond maliciousness or past wounds. I want to understand that he thinks he's doing the best he can, even if it's just for himself.

Also, since I'm pretty sure he's going to die, I hope he dies well. No snivelling at the end, because he is not a coward.

But I am so not looking at spoilers.

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I think you've touched on a part of what I'm afraid of because it's the opposite of how you're approaching Snape. What if I'm completely shooting blind regarding his motivation or the true nature of his character. The good or evil decision is in some ways merely a superficial difference. I think I know things about Snape and am trusting my ability to predict or make sense of his actions from this lense, but what if that's all wrong.

I'm starting to worry that I'll be overwhelmingly shocked by his actions in DH regardless of what side he's fighting for.

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I'm prepared to be shocked, but really, how much more shocked can we be? What greater sin can he commit? We know well what greater sacrifice, and most of us are expecting it.

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I'm prepared to be shocked, but really, how much more shocked can we be? What greater sin can he commit?

Damn good questions, but it's in my inability to answer these that the most shocking things lie because that is what I fear will happen - something so outside my ability to imagine. I really haven't looked at Snape from all possible angles. I really don't know him.

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Well, it would be terribly ironic for my hubris on this subject to bite me in the ass, but I really do maintain that Snape being evil or simple is like finding out who the murderer is in the first 20 minutes of a Law & Order episode -- not going to happen. And were he just evil or simple would JKR really call him "a gift of a character" -- she's obviously disturbed by fandom's feelings for him, so that can't be the subject on which she places her gratitude, can it?

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woman-ironing.livejournal.com

What greater sin can he commit?

Maybe Snape's greatest sin is despair.

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r-grayjoy.livejournal.com

(How many of you saw that coming before you read the book?)

Actually..? I did. Okay, no, I didn't predict the precise sequence of events that would occur. But I thoroughly expected Snape's ambiguity to come to a head in HBP. I should dig up the old post just for -- as you say -- posterity, but after reading OotP I wrote something to the effect of, "By the end of Book 6, Snape will have done something really big to seemingly cement himself firmly on the side of the Death Eaters. This will all be set up on JKR's part so that no one will see it coming when Snape sacrifices himself in some stupidly heroic fashion and saves the day at the end of Book 7." So yeah, when I read the end of HBP, I pretty much just nodded, and wasn't fooled for a minute.

However, the new 'spoilers' (which I'm taking with a grain of salt, of course) do make me very, very afraid. I'm incredibly worried that Snape's motivations and backstory and such will be something completely bizarre and unpredictable. I've accepted the fact that he's probably a dead man walking (not that I want him to die, mind you), but now I'm scared to death that JKR's written something that's going to radically change my view of him as a character.

And yeah, I really don't know if I could handle that. ::wibble::

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Yeah. I'm starting to doubt my own grasp of his backstory. This unpredictability may make me like him even more as a literary character, but it does have the potential to really turn my world upside down.

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r-grayjoy.livejournal.com

Yeah, you're really expressing the same fear about Snape and DH that I've been having over the last couple of days. I've invested a lot in Snape. He is, hands down, my favorite character to read, write, RP, and otherwise explore. Every time I write him, he turns out a little bit different; there are multiple entirely valid ways to interpret his character, but they're all based upon certain fundamental presuppositions. Having those most basic elements of his character destroyed by DH would be... ouch. Just ouch.

The more I think about it, though, the more I think that isn't going to happen. JKR's written this character consistently through six books; she's not likely to radically alter him now. Besides, there's only so much room in the book, and therefore she can't insert a great deal of detail about Snape's history. Right?? ::wishful thinking::

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firescribble.livejournal.com

The only thing that I would have problems dealing with is a altogether good "I did it all for Harry" kind of Snape. I need Snape to be Snape no matter what his motivations are, no matter what side he's on. I want him to be petty and cruel and childish and wonderful. If he stays in character I think I'm ok with everything. I just want to know.

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Yeah, that would be really nausea-inducing. I'm sure it will be alright in the end, but I'm a little bit afraid of the shock to my system if Snape does something I really don't want him to do (e.g. Crucio Neville and REALLY enjoy it)

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firescribble.livejournal.com

Aaawwww Neville *wibbles*

It doesn't seem unlikely that he might kill more people. We must prepare ourselves and be brave. =P I'm sure Rowling will do something awesome with him, no matter what it is.

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Yeah, she will. It's just, there's only so much my heart can handle. The minute Snape AKed Dumbledore in HBP, I had to step back from the book a moment, and it took me a few days to recover from that.

Currently, I expect Snape to have to kill more people, it's just how it's down and why that might upset me.

*cuddles poor Neville*

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summerborn.livejournal.com

That sounds like how I feel! I am perfectly willing to get totally unexpected - as long as it seems somehow consistent. The "truth" about him could really be a lot of different things, and most of them work fine for me. Schmoopy isn't one of them, though. :)

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firescribble.livejournal.com

Oh please god not schmoopy *wibbles*

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r-grayjoy.livejournal.com

Hahaha, you've just hit upon my greatest fear right there. So help me, I will set my copy of the book on FIRE if it turns out Snape has a wife and kids squirreled away someplace, or he secretly runs a home for war orphans and plays the fiddle. LMAO

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I would also add that we do know far less about Eileen and Tobias Snape than we think we do.

We don't know what is what with the Prince family in terms of blood, power, reputation, etc. Nor do we know really anything about Tobias except a lot of fandom assumptions we've now decided are fact.

If we get blindsided by something Snape-related in book 7, it's going to come from there.

After all, who expected Narcissa to be a Black?

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This is a distinct possibility. I know that

chaeche is adamant that Snape had an abusive childhood. So much could go wrong with the assumptions we've made based on very vague snapshots of his past.

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I think I'm less concerned about that, although chances are his home life was at minimum choatic and prone to loud outbursts.

What I am concerned is our class assumptions about Snape. As Americans we make class about money. Class issues are not just about money, especially in Britain and especially historically, and historically matters in a world that seems to have stopped developing in the Victorian era. What Snape is and isn't in terms of blood and status may yet surprise us, Half-Blood Prince moniker aside. Certainly, I suspect the Prince's are an important family, hence this use of "Half-Blood Prince" -- it's not just clever, it differentiates him from other Princes.

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First: Where can I find these Spoilers? I have no fear in reading them...

Second: Ive always maintained that if JKR makes Snape the true villain in Book 7, it will be unforgivably mundane and predictable. He would pretty much be the stereotype she made him out to be with his greasy git looks... the abused, bullied reject that turned bad and wreaked havoc on the world. That may have been the path he took to becoming a Death Eater, but to have come this far and made him the most complex character in the while series...

Im in the camp that says even if I dont agree with his ethics, I want him to have a code that he lives by. Even if he ultimately only serves himself...

I think JKR has changed her strategy along the way. The 'bad guys' in HP have a strong following and especially the Potions Master. I think we needed a wake up call with book 6 and she gave it to us. She's been playing the fandom ever since it exploded. Ive always maintained that and I stand by it. She checks out the forums, reads fan fiction - and has come out and said that she's read stories that have come pretty damn close. I only wish I knew which ones they were, not one of mine that much I am sure of!

I dont believe for one second that with all the essays Ive written that I have Snape figured out, but my how fascinating it is to try to fill in the blanks..

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http://community.livejournal.com/hptheories/426860.html

They're not very spoilertastic, very general, but still...

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Thanks for the link. Id love to see where these originally come from since this person refers to other posts that theyve done.

I wouldnt call these spoilers as they arent saying anything specific. Id like to think this is all faked if for no other reason JKR and her publishers seem to want to go after anyone who "spoils" the release of Book 7...and it wouldnt take much to track down where posts are coming from...

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I found the original thread here

http://boards.gamefaqs.com/gfaqs/genmessage.php?board=245&topic=34534414

Taking it all with a grain of salt but I am having a ball reading...

(deleted comment)

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Where o where can these spoilers be found??

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cedarlibrarian.livejournal.com

Oh but really, when has JKR EVER done something we expected? See Figg, Arabella, NOT THE DADA TEACHER. It's one of the things we love about the books.

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