Severus Snape rant
Disclaimer: I don't support JK Rowling's views and I'm not a TERF. TERFs, DNI for you.
Sorry for ranting, y'all. I'll try to keep things quick (note from the future: be warned. I failed). Spoilers and mentions of friendship toxicity and bullying under the cut.
By the way, for this I am generally talking about regular canon. When I discuss things people think about this, the headcanons are generally assumed to go alongside regular canon to complement it. I understand that there are fix-it fics out there where everyone is happy, and while I love that, I'm talking about how JK Rowling let it play out.
UPDATE:
Don鈥檛 interact with this post if you only want to insult me/my writing style. I am not accusing anyone of doing this, but I can see that there is a very definitive downward spiral, and I don鈥檛 want to see the bottom of it. However, I am willing to listen to arguments until things turn into personal attacks.
I don鈥檛 care that much about Snape: just a few lines on a page. I understand people have strong opinions on him (me too!). That鈥檚 fine. But I鈥檓 a real person, just like all the people on this platform (well, except bots). Let鈥檚 embrace that, and focus on the fact that we are all, in the end, Harry Potter fans.
Kat out.
Let me start with this: Severus Snape shouldn't be with Lily.
To keep to the simple stuff and the things most people can agree on first, no one "deserves" Lily. In this post, I was nearly guilty myself of talking like this, but please keep in mind: Lily Evans is not some kind of consolation prize, something given out to whoever is deemed the most worthy, the most angsty, whatever. Regardless of Snape's virtues (or lack of them: but give me a sec) he won't somehow earn the right to be in a romantic pairing with Lily. In all the stuff on the table in terms of how Lily viewed Snape, she wanted a platonic relationship. So that's part of what I have an issue with: talking about canon as if there was any part of romantic thing on the table. Lily never had a crush on Snape. It was a one-sided thing.
Now, to controversy. Let's address some common reasons for why people say Lily shouldn't have ditched Snape and why these shouldn't excuse his behavior. Keep in mind I'm talking about things that happened before Lily's death, because after death doesn't really matter to her. She's dead by then.
Snape had a bad home/school life.
That's true. But he then chose to continue the cycle of pain by joining a pureblood supremacist group and calling fellow students slurs?
2. The Marauders did some terrible stuff to him.
I really need a disclaimer here. THIS WAS TERRIBLE, AND I HATED IT, AND THE MARAUDERS WERE COMPLETELY IN THE WRONG HERE.
But this post isn't defending the Marauders, it's arguing that Lily was justified in choosing to let go of their friendship.
Anyway, this is an irrelevant excuse for why Lily should remain friends with him, because she thought this was terrible too... and then Severus screamed a slur at her when she was trying to help him. Way to go, Snape.
3. He loved Lily.
Hold up. Stop the clock.
Wut.
Wut.
Okay, this needs to be a new section. Let's call it:
Being In Love With Someone Doesn't Excuse Your Actions Towards Them
Quick story time, cause this section uses an extensive metaphor. IRL, I used to be best friends with this girl. She was toxic and refused to change.
Her excuses for why I should keep hanging out with her?
Current mental health situation.
Things just "slipped out". (Yeah, Snape LITERALLY USED THIS EXACT EXCUSE)
I was really important to her (So was Lily to Snape)
I stopped being friends with this girl regardless, because her actions harmed my mental health, isolated me, etc.
(And before someone says friendship is different etc. she had a crush on me two Valentine's days in a row and I'm unsure if she still does)
These are all excuses. Let's define that word for a second.
"attempt to聽lessen聽the blame聽attaching聽to (a fault or聽offense); seek to defend or justify." -Oxford Languages from Google.
Contrast with an apology, where someone actually tries to make things better. Snape constantly gives excuses. His apology comes much, much too late in the form of begging Lily. Now, with my own toxic friend, she also claimed to want to make things better.
In the case of both Snape and Toxic Friend, they'd continually insisted it wasn't their fault, ignoring the problems in the relationship and not making an effort to fix them. By the time Lily and I broke things off, we'd made up our minds. We turned away and felt good about it, because they negatively impacted our lives.
Maybe Snape was in love. Maybe my friend really wanted to be friends with me. Both are probable.
Still, neither followed through on the steps necessary for a good friendship.
Depersonification, aka Lily is a Person Not A Shiny Toy, Severus
Crack open your books, hit play on the movie, or simply recall as we all remember how Snape looked at Lily.
In the books (won't mention the movies because I didn't watch them) he looks at Lily and Harry sees "undisguised greed" in his eyes. Um...
Snape's fine with hurting Petunia, figuratively and literally.
He ignores what Lily is actually trying to say to him once she tells him what he wants to hear.
And calling her Mudblood. (Can't help myself interrupting here: I myself never 'just accidentally' call someone a racial slur. That's because I don't use them, so they aren't exactly waiting on the tip of my tongue).
All of the things he does are in there for a reason. JK Rowling is trying to unsettle us, and she succeeded. Snape seems to view Lily as an accomplishment, an achievement, a plaything to be admired.
Why?
He never takes Lily's feelings into consideration. Not once until it negatively impacts him. Look at where he comforts Lily: when it looks like they've made a mistake and hurt Petunia.
When Lily gives up on him.
And I know: there was more, there was more, there was more.
Potions homework done together.
Eager chatter between classes.
It's not black and white.
But these are the scenes JK Rowling has decided will give you the best impression of their friendship. She didn't pick tender scenes with cocoa and cookies because that isn't a theme in this friendship.
And onwards to:
They Used To Be Friends, Why Did Lily Stop Talking To Him Like This
It's hard to know what a person is truly like. You only know what people show you, and they hold back the worst of themselves at first. In Lily's first scenes, she doesn't know everything. She doesn't see the greedy looks he gives her. He is a new boy about her age who understands her like nobody else in town could.
Years go by. He calls people like her "Mudblood", he makes friends with awful classmates who do illegal and immoral things and are rumored to be training for war. The other side of the war, the one that kills people.
He shows her the worse sides.
By the time he calls her Mudblood, she has already tried to stop him from going down the wrong path. He's ignored her and ignored her and she finally snaps.
Can you blame her?
This apology seems like yet another excuse, a means to an end of keeping her by his side.
She's had enough.
Conclusion
So concludes the saga of Lily and Severus.
As he makes his decisions and she hers, Lily perishes saving a son whom Snape will later torment in her classes.
Harry grows up.
Snape oversees the creation of a school designed for indoctrination, watching passively as cruciatus curses are dished out. Her son meets him on the battlefield.
Voldemort gets to Snape first.
And thus, Snape meets his end.
And that's it, because things work out like that sometimes. Snape chose his path in life. Lily responded accordingly. And years later, he continued to stay stagnant in character growth, even becoming a child's worst fear from his unequally distributed cruelty.
A note:
If you disagree, feel free to debate me! I enjoy calm discussions. HOWEVER, please remember that we are all, in the end, people with lives and feelings, so don鈥檛 scream at me if you don鈥檛 agree with what I鈥檝e said here.
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