Fuck JKR but most importantly fuck me for reading Harry potter in 2025 and talking about it
Anyways after my most recent re-read I was finally able to pin-point exactly why I never really liked Snape's plot twist of being in love with Lily for all those years, and why I don't believe his retroactive redemption works.
And I mean ignoring the fact that he has beef with teenagers as a grown man. That is for another post.
One thesis the saga offers is that love is the most powerful magic there is. Voldemort isn't able to win in the end, in great part thanks to Lily's love for Harry, and later on because of Snape's love for Lily.
But it doesn't work because book!Snape never actually acts out of love.
First let me bring up Alam Rickman's portrayal of the character for comparison. In AR's take, there are little gestures, words, expressions, that make us understand he actually cares about Harry. Yes, he has to keep his Death Eater mask, and he dislikes Harry because of his father, but you can rewatch the movies after knowing the whole story and see how his behavior can be re-contextualized. A case can be made that, despite his conflicted feelings for Harry as his bully's son, he sees him first and foremost as what is left of his one true love. In short, his love for Lily outweighs his hate for James.
But in the books, his hate for James is stronger than his love for Lily.
JKR is HELL-BENT on making you understand book!Snape does not care for Harry. Every single one of Snape's gestures, words, expressions for Harry is filled with nothing but contempt and spite. None of the bullying and belittlement is ever explained in a way that doesn't relate to his past with James. Snape sees Harry as an extension of James, first and foremost. He is unable to see him as Lily's son. Already this is not an excellent writing choice for your book that is trying to prove that love conquers all, but there's more.
The event that tips him over and convinces him to switch sides is Voldemort threatening and eventually killing Lily. This is pretty pathetic, because he only starts to care about the cause after he was personally inconvenienced by it. Like at that point Snape is not acting out of love, he's just mad at Voldemort for killing his highschool crush and having a vendetta against him.
It wasn't Lily that changed him, it was Voldemort. The event that defines and drastically changes the course of this story about love, was born out of hate.
We're just lucky his hate for Voldemort happens to outweigh his hate for James.
It's only made worse by the fact that this is actually called out by Dumbledore in the text. JKR knew she was writing this character that is supposedly a martyr of love, as a hypocritical, spite-filled piece of shit, and just ignored that and went with it anyways.
Am I supposed to believe this guy represents unconditional love? Am I supposed to be moved to tears when he says "Always"?
I don't think this is AT ALL a good way to write your character who was, supposedly, secretly a good guy (if not a hero) all along and only ever acted out of love. It's terrible actually. I hate it.
