i wanted to write about it for quite some time already and i actually mentioned this topic before (not that deeply as i'm planning to now) and that made me realise something. still big hp tumblr community believes snape was good. and you have no idea how surprised i was by that (one of the very few good things in hp tiktok is more snape slander comment).
the way snape grew up was indeed sad and i do feel sorry for that cause no matter what, no matter fiction or real life, no child should go through so many parents' fights.
but that's not the excuse.
snape is not the only character abused in childhood. the best example is harry and we can see how he turned out. there's also a very important difference between those two.
i don't like nor really agree on comparing traumas cause everyone goes through those things differently, but we all have to agree that snape had it little better by having this one person that loved him (platonicly) and wanted to help him. this person he could talk to. he had lily, while harry had no one.
snape had his best friend yet turned out to be a death eater while harry who never had anyone in childhood turned out to be an amazing person.
yes, snape had one friend before hogwarts, but not in hogwarts. he was stated to be part of the slytherin boy group aspiring to become death eaters (together with mulciber for example).
snape didn't become a death eater by accident. it was a long process of him changing his views and priorities already at hogwarts. i do believe that the group friend he got himself into might have been partially responsible for changing his views, but it does not justify snape's views.
lily wanted to help him. snape was stated to be getting deeply interested into dark magic already as a teenager and lily noticed it too. she noticed the people he's hanging out with and didn't approve it as she knew what type of people they are. yet she was still there, she cared for him. lily said herself she tried to ignore things he was doing even though others didn't approve it.
yet he called her a mudblood. it isn't a random slur, that's what death eaters called people they mainly wanted to kill. who they believed to be less skilled, unworthy even living. i've seen a lot of people calling lily too sensitive but it wasn't just a word. it was as if he believed her to be worse sort, someone unworthy magic or even living. after all she did for him, after being there for him since before hogwarts.
and i think one of the funniest hypocrisy in hp fandom is how snape's fans bash lily for marrying a bully, yet they forget how back when snape and lily were friends, she confronted him about being friends with mulciber (a literal death eater) who did a nasty thing towards mary macdonald. and snape just said it was a joke.
and i do agree marauders (mainly james and sirius, as this is what we mostly got to see) were bullies towards snape. but snape wasn't any better and even dumbledore himself said this. let's not forget that it was snape who was obsessed with finding out the truth about remus. he wanted them to be expelled. and yes, what sirius did was higly dangerous and stupid, i fully agree, but snape played his part in it too, let's face that. and the damn sectumsempra. a curse for enemies. remus stating it was snape's speciality. we all fucking know he made it for james. both marauders and snape were bullies for each other.
but you know why it's marauders who are more commonly considered better? cause even though we had a very little content of them in canon, at the end of a day they were better people (not counting peter obviously). they joined order of phoenix, stood up against pureblood supremacy, fought against death eaters. james died for his son and wife, all that trying to protect them.
i once saw a good summary. the thing snape and james had in common is that both of them would let james die for lily.
in the same time snape joined death eaters. it was fully his decision. he was a half-blood after all, there wasn't really any pressure for him to join there.
he heard the damn prophecy and gave it to voldemort immediately. and got two families with little babies in danger. and you know what? he didn't give a damn about longbottoms. nor he did for harry and james. all he cared was to save lily. even dumbledore was disgusted by that. he didn't care that lily would be devastated after james and harry's death. he just wanted her. that shows his selfishness. and i think this comes to that line between healthy love and obsession. he didn't care what she wanted, he later said to hide them all cause dumbledore wasn't happy with his previous words.
if longbottoms were targeted instead of potters snape would never resigned from being a death eater and never become a spy. the whole spy persona was just for dumbledore to agree on helping. not that he cared much about changing the views. he regretted being a death eater because he got lily and lily only in trouble, not because of all the bad things he did towards other people.
he didn't change after becoming a spy.
he kept bullying children. he had a great knowledge for potions but all he did on the lessons was writing instructions on the board, without trying to help the students more - while potions are indeed dangerous subject. he kept favoring slytherins by taking away points from gryffindor for all the little things, slytherins never got scolded on the lessons, golden trio would get super long detentions but slytherins only when he really had no choice but to give them. even during the duel between harry and draco in 4th year he was way nicer to draco. he was the only teacher whose newt's class required O (everyone else wanted at least E) and with the way of teaching he made it almost impossible to get to this class. by this he probably ruined some future careers. he bullied neville to the point of being his boggart, all because his parents didn't die, but lily did. he made fun of hermione's physical appearance. screamed at students several times. kept bullying harry only because he looks like his father (cause in fact harry has a lot of lily's personality), which only showed his immaturity.
things he did during the war really don't count. he wouldn't have done them if not for sake of promise to dumbledore. if not for sake of obsession towards lily. jkr herself even stated that if harry wasn't lily's son he would give a fuck about him. let's begin with the fact that he wouldn't have to do anything if he simply didn't tell the prophecy. his fault.
he was the one who told the whole school about remus being werewolf. because he didn't get his order of merlin. due to that, remus again didn't have a job. he was ready to give both sirius and remus to dementors without even knowing the truth and he ignored golden trio trying to explain him that. all for sake of old rivalry, even though remus treated him like a civil. cause despite remus having flaws too, at least he grew up from the teenage rivalry. unlike some others.
oh, and i've seen people saying that he was rude cause he was a spy and he had to. well, no. rationally looking at this, he would make a better spy if he acted nice towards student. i can assure you if students were asked who out of teachers is most likely to be a death eater everyone would pick snape. honestly from his behaviour since beginning of the book it was obvious he did work with voldemort. anyone who thought of this rationally knew that, golden trio literally suspected that since 1st year before the knew he was a death eater. if he acted nice then he would make people surprised by joining voldemort after killing dumbledore. it's not like he was rude for spy's job, he was just overally rude.
as much as i love alan rickman, the movies changed snape's character much. they made him so stoic all the time while in canon he had some severe anger issues problem (even fudge stated that in poa). not to mention how they cut off a lot of moments of him being an absolute asshole.
i hate him with passion, i'm glad he's dead and i'm just crying over the fact what's albus' second name. i see what jkr's intentions were but she should have given snape a redemption in order to make this work. but she didn't. snape had no redemption, he never regretted things he did to people other than lily. he wasn't a grey character, he was just a bad character who later worked on a good side for sake of obsession after dead love and promise he made to an old guy
waiting for snape's fans to come at me again ✌🏻
