Can someone please explain to me why Snape supporters seem to think that if you dislike Snape you must be totally, uncritically in love with the Marauders? I think Sirius is cruel and clings too much to the past. Which, incidentally, is the same reason that I don’t like Snape. They both have the same characteristics that I can’t stand.
Both of them came from abusive families and did cruel things. Other people want to excuse Sirius because he’s fun and he’s always been a good guy and he loves Harry so much. It’s easier to hate Snape (isn’t that exactly why the Maraudets got away with bullying him for so long?), but we should never forget that Sirius tried to kill Snape. Sirius was abusive to Kreacher. Sirius was so obsessed with the desire to have James back that he kept trying to turn Harry into James.
They were mirror images of each other. They make look like opposites, but they’re still the same person.
And James? We have to take the word of Lupin (who has a deep debt of gratitude to James and always allowed him to get away with stuff before) and Sirius (who was James’s best friend and thought he could do no wrong) that he changed during his sixth and seventh year. People change. Knowing Rowling, she probably wanted to show the different ways they could’ve gone. James allegedly became a better person when Lily called him out. Snape did not. I still don’t think they would’ve gotten married if not for the war.
Criticizing Snape does not mean that a person is a rabid Marauders fan. It just means that they recognize that Snape did awful things that were on occasion pretty creepy. Just like Sirius did. Just like James did. None of them are completely good people or completely evil people. They are characters with depth and with complicated motivations and emotions.
