That's been bugging me for AGES, so I wholeheartedly agree with this post.
The Draco and Regulus stuff is more recent, but I've been reading Snape fic that whitewashes him to a sparkly shininess ever since I joined fandom. It used to be 'Oh, he never *really* killed anyone. He joined Voldemort so he could play around with potions, and the poor dear never even saw what his potions were used for!' (usually followed by 'Snape doesn't really hate Harry, he's pretending for the DE's children' and me frantically hitting the 'back' button). Of course, post-HBP nobody can deny that Snape is a killer, so all the rationalisation is centered on the reasons he joined the DE.
Because it would illogical to hate Muggles or Muggleborns when your own hated father was one--especially if you called yourself the Half-Blood Prince. That must be proof he was proud of his heritage (hmm..funny how he's identifying himself with his mother's name there...).
Funny how all the half-blood=automatically not prejudiced stuff seems to simply skimp over the fact that Tom Riddle was a Half-Blood too.
It's perfectly possible to hate somewhere you've come from yourself. In fact, from the one brief look we've gotten at Snape's father, the man would seem to fuel resentment of Muggles rather than prevent it. If Eileen's marriage was as bad as the images from Snape's head suggest, I could very easily generalise a young Severus thinking this would have never happened if his mother hadn't married a Muggle, and just kept the bloodline clean.
I do think the other factors you mentionned (a need for revenge, a quest for power/knowledge) played a part, but they certainly weren't the only factors. Personally, I think the overwhelming reason for Snape to join was pride-a need to come out on top for once, to be respected, to no longer be humilated, but I think the blood prejudice actually ties in neatly to that stuff. For all their Pureblood rhetoric, the DE aren't above to let a Half-Blood embrace it, as long as they're dedicated to the cause.
And as for Draco, it's almost as if half of fandom doesn't know what to do with him post-HBP. I agree with your asessment-Draco was certainly down with the mission Voldemort gave him, at least initially. Partly because he bought into Voldemort's ideology, partly because it would give him (from his perspective) a chance to shine, and partly a need to take on his father's role in a sense with Lucius in prison. And yeah, along the way he found out it wasn't what it was cracked up to be, but he started off with a completely different state of mind.
I see the circumstances of Regulus and Draco joining as quite similar, in the sense that they were both continuing the family tradition, so to speak. And I find it laughable that Regulus had some naive, idealised picture of what that entailed (and Draco somehow didn't). I mean, if all the spec about the identity of R.A.B turns out to be true, Regulus is actually quite brilliant.
I have no problem accepting that characters I like have done some Very Bad Things in the past. What's the point of a redemption journey if there's nothing to redeem oneself from?
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The Draco and Regulus stuff is more recent, but I've been reading Snape fic that whitewashes him to a sparkly shininess ever since I joined fandom. It used to be 'Oh, he never *really* killed anyone. He joined Voldemort so he could play around with potions, and the poor dear never even saw what his potions were used for!' (usually followed by 'Snape doesn't really hate Harry, he's pretending for the DE's children' and me frantically hitting the 'back' button). Of course, post-HBP nobody can deny that Snape is a killer, so all the rationalisation is centered on the reasons he joined the DE.
Because it would illogical to hate Muggles or Muggleborns when your own hated father was one--especially if you called yourself the Half-Blood Prince. That must be proof he was proud of his heritage (hmm..funny how he's identifying himself with his mother's name there...).
Funny how all the half-blood=automatically not prejudiced stuff seems to simply skimp over the fact that Tom Riddle was a Half-Blood too.
It's perfectly possible to hate somewhere you've come from yourself. In fact, from the one brief look we've gotten at Snape's father, the man would seem to fuel resentment of Muggles rather than prevent it. If Eileen's marriage was as bad as the images from Snape's head suggest, I could very easily generalise a young Severus thinking this would have never happened if his mother hadn't married a Muggle, and just kept the bloodline clean.
I do think the other factors you mentionned (a need for revenge, a quest for power/knowledge) played a part, but they certainly weren't the only factors.
Personally, I think the overwhelming reason for Snape to join was pride-a need to come out on top for once, to be respected, to no longer be humilated, but I think the blood prejudice actually ties in neatly to that stuff. For all their Pureblood rhetoric, the DE aren't above to let a Half-Blood embrace it, as long as they're dedicated to the cause.
And as for Draco, it's almost as if half of fandom doesn't know what to do with him post-HBP. I agree with your asessment-Draco was certainly down with the mission Voldemort gave him, at least initially. Partly because he bought into Voldemort's ideology, partly because it would give him (from his perspective) a chance to shine, and partly a need to take on his father's role in a sense with Lucius in prison. And yeah, along the way he found out it wasn't what it was cracked up to be, but he started off with a completely different state of mind.
I see the circumstances of Regulus and Draco joining as quite similar, in the sense that they were both continuing the family tradition, so to speak. And I find it laughable that Regulus had some naive, idealised picture of what that entailed (and Draco somehow didn't). I mean, if all the spec about the identity of R.A.B turns out to be true, Regulus is actually quite brilliant.
I have no problem accepting that characters I like have done some Very Bad Things in the past. What's the point of a redemption journey if there's nothing to redeem oneself from?