Monday 10 August 2015

Snape is not a hero

Professor Severus Snape of Harry Potter shame is seen as a hero by some for putting his life at risk to act as a double agent in the fight against Lord Voldemort. Snape is far from that. The reason Snape puts his life at risk is because his childhood crush's life is at risk and in the hand of Voldemort. Issue is the lives of her young son and husband are also at risk. Snape does not care if they live or die, just that Lily Potter be spared. This is inherently creepy.

I think it is important to recognize that Snape is brave to act as a double agent for Dumbledore. But he is creepy as hell in doing it. He never stops loving Lily and it seems as though he never got over his hate for her husband James. To be fair, James bullied him badly at school, but Snape retaliates for that by bullying their son Harry for 6 years. He abused his position of power to make a student who has been to hell and back feel terrible whenever he had the opportunity.

Does unrequited love have to die at some point? Yes. If one person moves on, then the other person has to accept that. Lily saw the choices that Snape was making at school. He was hanging out with Death Eaters and highly interested in the Dark Arts. On the other hand the boy that had loved her for a while actually grew up and stopped being a jerk. Lily fell in love with him, they got married, had a kid, went into hiding and were killed all before they turned 22. This left their son an orphan in need of protection. Dumbledore ensured that protection was provided, but he needed help from those who were in Hogwarts.

Snape was the only teacher who hated Harry. Professor McGonnagall got frustrated with his constant rule-breaking with his friends, but most of the teachers liked him and somehow he ended up being a well-adjusted and generally smart student...unless you asked Snape. Instead, Snape viewed him as an untalented nitwit who could do no right. Yet Harry managed to do a lot of right that Snape failed to recognize. Instead he bullied and antagonized Harry to no end, constantly trying to make him out to be the bad guy even when he was in the right.

I think it is because of how severely terrible J.K. Rowling wrote Snape that she made his redemption story seem sweet. He loved Lily. He risked his life to try to save hers. He obsessed about her after her death. It was creepy. Instead of being like Harry and finding love after never knowing what it felt like, Snape hated the one person who could have helped him find some closure. Instead of helping her son find success, Snape tried to make him a failure.

Snape is not a hero. Snape is a guy who was okay with two people dying, including a one year old, as long as the "love of his life" lived. Instead, he tried to break the kid when he got the chance.