While the way Snape handled his trauma was messed up, I still find it refreshing that his trauma inflicted by the good guys (always the good guys, if it's the bad guys it's a different story) was treated as valid and that it was long term (of course, how Snape treated people wasn't okay, but the point remains).
Like so many protagonists just *FORGET* about their trauma literally ten seconds after it was inflicted. Like it never happened. Like even if the protagonist was very much in the wrong and deserved the fallout, it still messes with people. A lot. And the idea that they deserved it makes it even worse.
The after affects of being mistreated stay long term. They will influence the way a character acts. And I hate seeing those affects just go bye bye.
Twilight Sparkle is a character I think a lot when I think about this. Twilight's friends have a consistent pattern of abandoning Twilight due to something she did, and that should mess with a person-or pony. In fact, the first time Twilight got abandoned, it was large scale. Brother basically disowned her, friends left her, her mentor left her. Basically everyone she cared about.
Yet Twilight doesn't show any signs that she was affected by that, that she's afraid it would happen again. She literally spends the wedding acting as if nothing happened, and every episode after (even after it happens again and again). And I just find that unrealistic, because there's no way that having almost literally everyone you care about abandon you wouldn't mess you up, wouldn't scare you. Especially since Twilight puts great importance in her relationships with her friends and mentor and especially her brother.
But Twilight's friends and family and mentor are the good guys, you know? So it doesn't matter how much they hurt her. It's all good. Just conflict between the good guys. Nothing more!
And this is a consistent trend in media, where harm inflicted by the good guys is just brushed off like it never happened. There's a reason so many fix its are basically the character reacting to trauma, that so many writing prompts are "mistreated hero chooses the villain because the villain actually treats them with respect and decency."
But Snape's story doesn't do that. Snape's trauma is treated as valid, even if his actions are shown to be wrong. The bullying the Marauders inflicted on him was shown to be WRONG despite Harry and Sirius and Remus's attempts to portray it otherwise. It's not excused (well, Sirius and Remus try to excuse it, but that's not valid because they were the bullies) simply because Snape was the bad guy whom Harry hated and the Marauders the beloved ones of the protagonist. No. It's portrayed as bald and raw and painful as it is. It is not excused.
Snape's trauma is also long term, because what happened to him cannot be brushed away nor forgotten. It affects the way he interacts with people, how he sees them, etc. He has coping methods that, while toxic, are very much there. He does things to both protect himself and others (which is why he favors Slytherin house so much) from what happened to him.
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I dunno. It's just refreshing to see how trauma inflicted by the *good* guys is treated as valid and long term, and it sincerely frustrates me that it doesn't happen more often. That the good guys hurting others isn't waved away but actually shown to have an actual affect on the protagonist. It doesn't have to be long term (though I sincerely doubt anything like that cannot be long term), but it has to be THERE. Stuff like that can't be waved away! It really does affect people, and the people perpetrating it being the good guys cannot be an excuse. And more than that, a person being the bad guy or doing something wrong and therefore 'deserving' it cannot be an excuse not to show trauma either. Actions have consequences.
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