No, I didn't say she was pretending at all with Snape. I said she was shown as compassionate because when faced with an ugly kid in funny clothes she didn't react by teasing him or judging him--like Pansy would do. She was his friend. When I said feel sorry for him I was more thinking of his family situation. She's shown asking about his parents fighting at home, obviously being sympathetic and caring about that.
But she's attracted to James the asshole. She's not attracted to some nice guy who's totally reformed. At 11 James was just some kid who took on her and her best friend. By 15 she knows James better and already likes him despite his being at his worst.
I'm not making her out to be this evil liar who manipulated Snape into thinking she liked him when really she was a terrible friend (not that you're saying I'm doing that but that's the extreme end of the Not!Saint Lily thought). I'm saying that Lily was not, from what we see, any paragon of virtue, or particularly kind by my standards (rather than the author's). She was exactly what Ginny is, a girl who stands up when she sees people bullying the innocent and weak but also enjoys the right people beating up on others. Here, as I've said before, I think she's just mirroring the series' own ideals. So of course James is fine the way he is. The stuff Snape gets bent out of shape about is just James being a little too high spirited for his own good, a little too cocky. James' impulses to bully aren't the sign of anything too bad, they're just the natural downside of his passion for justice (just like Harry's torture impulses, Ginny's put-downs and violent outbursts, Lily's amusement at James, the Twins' more harmful practical jokes). It's Snape's bullying that's the sign of a problem because it's all about jealousy and weakness--he's a racist.
I don't think there's evidence she *enjoyed* Snape's 'smackdown'... certainly not in a gleeful way, which would imply she actually felt the same as James & Sirius about him, which makes no sense.
"Lily, whose furious expression had twitched for an instant as thought she was going to smile, said, 'Let him down!'
That's after everyone is cheering over James hefting Snape into the air. She's not just the same as James and Sirius in the scene, but she's already attracted to James in this scene, and what he does here doesn't put her off. It's obvious to me that Lily already likes James, and here I do have the author backing me up here that yes, she does. She's liking James in this scene, her face twitches because she's conflicted--she's angry about the injustice to Snape but also has positive feelings for James. I don't think her twitch of a smile is at Snape's slashing James' face, since it comes after Levicorpus. She thinks his response to Snape is funny but isn't letting him see that she likes him at all. Or maybe she just automatically laughs at people being pantsed--not a way to show a character as incredibly kind.
James is the guy Lily likes already. And we never see any indication that he changed at all besides that he "grew up" and his head unswelled a bit (which indicates the problem was that he was full of himself not that he was cruel). There's no big change for James, just the vague idea that he was a berk when he was 15. She also comes to consider Sirius a great friend and we know he never regretted anything he did as a teenager--neither did James, from what we see. If this is what she's attracted to--a guy mostly known for being a bully--I think she finds the bullying attractive. (Her relationship with her sister, too, is not destroyed by her being friends with Snape but by her being a witch and her sister being jealous, which Lily throws in her face.)
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But she's attracted to James the asshole. She's not attracted to some nice guy who's totally reformed. At 11 James was just some kid who took on her and her best friend. By 15 she knows James better and already likes him despite his being at his worst.
I'm not making her out to be this evil liar who manipulated Snape into thinking she liked him when really she was a terrible friend (not that you're saying I'm doing that but that's the extreme end of the Not!Saint Lily thought). I'm saying that Lily was not, from what we see, any paragon of virtue, or particularly kind by my standards (rather than the author's). She was exactly what Ginny is, a girl who stands up when she sees people bullying the innocent and weak but also enjoys the right people beating up on others. Here, as I've said before, I think she's just mirroring the series' own ideals. So of course James is fine the way he is. The stuff Snape gets bent out of shape about is just James being a little too high spirited for his own good, a little too cocky. James' impulses to bully aren't the sign of anything too bad, they're just the natural downside of his passion for justice (just like Harry's torture impulses, Ginny's put-downs and violent outbursts, Lily's amusement at James, the Twins' more harmful practical jokes). It's Snape's bullying that's the sign of a problem because it's all about jealousy and weakness--he's a racist.
I don't think there's evidence she *enjoyed* Snape's 'smackdown'... certainly not in a gleeful way, which would imply she actually felt the same as James & Sirius about him, which makes no sense.
"Lily, whose furious expression had twitched for an instant as thought she was going to smile, said, 'Let him down!'
That's after everyone is cheering over James hefting Snape into the air. She's not just the same as James and Sirius in the scene, but she's already attracted to James in this scene, and what he does here doesn't put her off. It's obvious to me that Lily already likes James, and here I do have the author backing me up here that yes, she does. She's liking James in this scene, her face twitches because she's conflicted--she's angry about the injustice to Snape but also has positive feelings for James. I don't think her twitch of a smile is at Snape's slashing James' face, since it comes after Levicorpus. She thinks his response to Snape is funny but isn't letting him see that she likes him at all. Or maybe she just automatically laughs at people being pantsed--not a way to show a character as incredibly kind.
James is the guy Lily likes already. And we never see any indication that he changed at all besides that he "grew up" and his head unswelled a bit (which indicates the problem was that he was full of himself not that he was cruel). There's no big change for James, just the vague idea that he was a berk when he was 15. She also comes to consider Sirius a great friend and we know he never regretted anything he did as a teenager--neither did James, from what we see. If this is what she's attracted to--a guy mostly known for being a bully--I think she finds the bullying attractive. (Her relationship with her sister, too, is not destroyed by her being friends with Snape but by her being a witch and her sister being jealous, which Lily throws in her face.)