with the Slytherins I almost felt like it was sometimes just clamping them down to make sure the point was made that they were only this and nothing more.
Yep. Even Slughorn, who arguably got the most ... positive treatment, had to be told what he needed to do by McGonegall, was always falling behind everyone else and showed up with reinforcements when the battle, for all intents and purposes, was very nearly won (and are we really supposed think Slughorn brought other *Slytherins* with him when Harry specifically tells us that he and Charlie seem to have shown up with the friends and families of every student who stayed behind -- and we also know that no Slytherins other than Malfoy, Crabbe and Goyle willingly stayed behind? yeah, I think ... not). There wasn't a single person associated with the House who was allowed a truly *shining* moment that had to do with making a right choice for the right reasons and doing it of their own volition and not because someone they loved was in danger or because someone else told them to or because they were doing penance.
And maybe that's my expectations, but I honestly feel as an editor that this wasn't something I just brought to the table myself.
Well, this is where I'm having such a deeply conflicted reaction to how Snape's story ultimately unfolded. Because I've no doubt that we're supposed to view his conduct as heroic and that he really changed, etc., because after all, Harry Potter wouldn't name his kid after someone who was anything less than noble and true and good and yet ... what we're *shown* of Snape doesn't strike me as particularly noble or heroic. *Dangerous*, yes, but danger isn't the same thing as courage. He was fixated on Lily their whole lives, his inability to keep his mouth shut directly contributed to her death and he was miserable enough about it that Dumbledore was able to emotionally blackmail him into being a spy.
I'm not articulating it well, but I think, for me, it comes down to that thing I have about people needing to do the right thing for the right reasons before I'll consider them honorable -- it's not just what you do, but *why* you do it that matters from a moral perspective (this is, after all, why criminal law concerns itself with the question of motive/intent -- if it was just about the fact that a crime was committed, there would be no *degrees* of crime). And Snape's "why" seems to me to be more about trying to assauge the terrible guilt he feels that opening his mouth essentially got Lilly killed than it is because he really changed. I mean, his guilt is how Dumbledore turns him and in the end, I do think that it's because it was *Lily*, not because Voldemort really needs to be put down like a dog or because a ruthless pureblood agenda is whack (and I don't think it can be glossed over that bringing Voldemort down is also getting *revenge* for his having killed Lily).
*waves hands* I just don't know. I mean, on one hand, I do kind of like it when stories recognize that love *doesn't* always cure all, that some damage runs so deep in some people that even their capacity to feel and express love can't make them 'whole'. OTOH, this is a series that had as one of its central ideas the notion that love is the greatest, strongest, most ancient magic of all. So I don't think I'm being wacky to think that Snape's love for Lily might have made him, I don't know, an actually decent, honorable person.
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Date: 2007-07-26 02:48 am (UTC)Yep. Even Slughorn, who arguably got the most ... positive treatment, had to be told what he needed to do by McGonegall, was always falling behind everyone else and showed up with reinforcements when the battle, for all intents and purposes, was very nearly won (and are we really supposed think Slughorn brought other *Slytherins* with him when Harry specifically tells us that he and Charlie seem to have shown up with the friends and families of every student who stayed behind -- and we also know that no Slytherins other than Malfoy, Crabbe and Goyle willingly stayed behind? yeah, I think ... not). There wasn't a single person associated with the House who was allowed a truly *shining* moment that had to do with making a right choice for the right reasons and doing it of their own volition and not because someone they loved was in danger or because someone else told them to or because they were doing penance.
And maybe that's my expectations, but I honestly feel as an editor that this wasn't something I just brought to the table myself.
Well, this is where I'm having such a deeply conflicted reaction to how Snape's story ultimately unfolded. Because I've no doubt that we're supposed to view his conduct as heroic and that he really changed, etc., because after all, Harry Potter wouldn't name his kid after someone who was anything less than noble and true and good and yet ... what we're *shown* of Snape doesn't strike me as particularly noble or heroic. *Dangerous*, yes, but danger isn't the same thing as courage. He was fixated on Lily their whole lives, his inability to keep his mouth shut directly contributed to her death and he was miserable enough about it that Dumbledore was able to emotionally blackmail him into being a spy.
I'm not articulating it well, but I think, for me, it comes down to that thing I have about people needing to do the right thing for the right reasons before I'll consider them honorable -- it's not just what you do, but *why* you do it that matters from a moral perspective (this is, after all, why criminal law concerns itself with the question of motive/intent -- if it was just about the fact that a crime was committed, there would be no *degrees* of crime). And Snape's "why" seems to me to be more about trying to assauge the terrible guilt he feels that opening his mouth essentially got Lilly killed than it is because he really changed. I mean, his guilt is how Dumbledore turns him and in the end, I do think that it's because it was *Lily*, not because Voldemort really needs to be put down like a dog or because a ruthless pureblood agenda is whack (and I don't think it can be glossed over that bringing Voldemort down is also getting *revenge* for his having killed Lily).
*waves hands* I just don't know. I mean, on one hand, I do kind of like it when stories recognize that love *doesn't* always cure all, that some damage runs so deep in some people that even their capacity to feel and express love can't make them 'whole'. OTOH, this is a series that had as one of its central ideas the notion that love is the greatest, strongest, most ancient magic of all. So I don't think I'm being wacky to think that Snape's love for Lily might have made him, I don't know, an actually decent, honorable person.