mrsvc: weasleytook replied to your post: weasleytook replied to your post I don’t HATE… Oh, I...

mrsvc:

weasleytook replied to your post: weasleytook replied to your post I don’t HATE…

Oh, I personally think James Potter had douchebag tendencies too. At least in his youth. We don’t really know how he was as an adult. And Snape is a character with lots of grey areas. But I just can’t excuse the abuse he heaped on his students.

This is not an excuse (which means it probably is) but I think that when reading Harry Potter, we have to realize that it’s through Harry’s eyes, so we get Harry’s take on things. Harry had an irrational hate of Snape and Snape hated him and I think that makes it look like all Snape did was abuse him. As for Neville, I think Snape held a lot of bitterness because Neville wasn’t chosen, that it wasn’t Alice instead of Lily. It’s selfish and dark, yes, but I think that would cause Snape to react in such a childish and abusive manner towards him. Of course, I’m also the first person to say that it was not okay for him to lash out at children like this, but I can’t stop myself from wondering what depth of emotional damage would he have to have in order to be unable to control himself. He’s supposed to be the best at Occulemency and yet he lets all this pain and bitterness bleed into his lecturing and punishment of the students. Not an excuse, just a thought process.

wakingthegoldenwood replied to your post: weasleytook replied to your post I don’t HATE…

I think the reason I love Snape so much is BECAUSE he’s so flawed

It hurts me to think of the boy whose father hated him, whose mother was so wilted and withdrawn she couldn’t be of any help, whose peers at school mocked him, whose best friend never forgave him, whose master betrayed him, whose students despised him, whose colleagues couldn’t trust him, whose life was doomed from the start. And while it never excuses or forgives his sins, I like to think that by shedding light on the circumstances and the fact that he was presented with a lot of choices and while most of them were bad, he did have the capability to love, to be good, to sacrifice everything for someone else.