Snape Doesn’t Deserve Any of It.
yup, you can read that title again. severus snape does NOT deserve the worship or the absolute abhorrence he receives from the fandom.
one of the most problematic things i see about the hp fandom is that there a lot of people who don’t see characters as actual human beings. the fandom often has a tendency of looking at things in a very black and white manner. you either love them or you don’t. that is a SERIOUSLY messed up mindset, because no human being is perfect, and no well-written character is either.
when the movies weren’t released yet, snape wasn’t a very liked character. i mean, why would he be? he was this unappealing, partial guy who bullied our favorite characters. but then came along the movies, and alan rickman’s ICONIC portrayal of snape (combined with the writing erasing most of his flaws) transformed our view of him. he was no longer a vindictive, bullying man. he was now a suave, cool anti-hero, with an aura of mystery and the inklings of a tragic backstory around him.
be it snape-wives, or the horribly messed up pairing of snape with a girl old enough to be his daughter, snape got a lot of love. especially as the movies removed the full impact of one of the most tragic scenes in OotP; snape calling lily a mudblood. all we see is james potter bullying snape. this scene in the books had me holding my breath because of how sad it was, and while it was mainly focused on james not being the man harry thought he was, snape’s anguish and distress is clear.
thankfully, in the past few years, a lot of folks have been calling out the shitty things snape did. bullied two eleven-year-old boys relentlessly throughout his teaching career. failed capable students. would have let two innocent men face a fate worse than death. got an inoccent man fired, despite knowing he would live in poverty. made fun of a fourteen-year-old girl’s looks. willingly and happily read out an article which slandered and slut-shamed a fourteen-year-old girl. invalidated the trauma of a neglected orphan time after time. taunted a sixteen-year-old boy by constantly reminding him of his dead parents and godfather, and taunted him about his relationship. taunted a young woman about her love for somebody (while this is a terrible thing to do in itself, snape’s patronus was literally lily’s! he attacked her for her love when he loved somebody too). willingly participating in racism and torture. called his best friend a mudblood.
but the biggest argument i see from snape-haters online is that “harry and sirius were abused and neglected too, but they turned out decent people”. (and btw, these people are mostly marauder stans). saying this is doing the exact same thing snape does - invalidate someone’s trauma. snape was abused as a child by his father. i’ve seen posts which say stuff like “well i would abuse a child too if it looks like snape”. it’s simply disgusting. trauma is trauma, however ‘big’ or ‘small’ it is. it affects different people in different ways. i’m not saying that the fact snape was abused as a child excuses all his faults, because it doesn’t. but you CANNOT say snape was weak for suffering from his trauma, and seeing the world through a decidedly negative lens. it was his way of coping.
lastly, i just want to make a small point. snape was NOT forced to be a death eater. how much ever you glorify him, he’s not a good person. he’s a morally grey person who did the right thing for all the wrong reasons.
