#ONE problematic thing theyve done and then hold it against them forever even if theyve seriously regretted it

[snapedefender]

It's honestly so unbelievably frustrating when people keep insisting to use the fact that snape was a death eater as a 'gotcha' for how he's a terrible human being, because snape changed, he showed regret, he tried to fix his mistakes, and those people refuse to see that. How awful to be so unwilling to forgive, to insist that one action is enough to condemn someone forever. And it's so damaging to see that, because they're telling us that no one should forgive us for our mistakes.

it’s definitely a symptom of tumblr culture to look at his character like that tbh. in tumblr morality, the moment someone does ONE problematic thing (regardless of the “level” of problematic) they’re immediately and forever a Bad Person EVEN if they apologize for the problematic thing or if it happened years ago when they were younger and didnt know better and theyve done way better stuff since, and so on. it doesn’t matter bc all tumblr culture judges people on is if they’ve DONE a problematic thing, not the circumstances around it, the time it happened, the level of remorse the person feels for having done it, the badness of the problematic thing, and so on. 

so yeah, for tumblr the fact that snape joined the death eaters trumps the fact that he left, that spent nearly half of his life actively working against them, that he was instrumental to their demise, that he shows clear signs of no longer believing in their ideology. none of them matters bc he did the problematic thing. it’s the same with the mudblood incident - bc he said it to lily, it doesnt matter that he apologized for it, that he clearly regrets it, that he hates the use of it afterward, that he was under pretty heavy emotional stress at the moment when he lashed out, and so on. 

when it comes to call-out culture, nuance means nothing. complexity doesn’t exist. forgiveness is a foreign concept. all that matters is: this person/character did something Bad and therefore we must hate them and if you like them then you’re clearly a terrible person or ignoring the Bad thing they did. 

the fact of the matter is that yeah, snape joined the death eaters. he was young, he was stupid, and rowling makes it very clear to us that many of the young people who joined the de have little to no idea of what it actually entails. he makes a pretty huge mistake that ruins the rest of his life. and when he gets out, he doesn’t run away or hide or try and cover up his mistakes... he joins the order. he protects harry, he follows dumbledore, and he spends twenty years undermining the death eaters and helping to defeat voldemort. he changes. he’s a very different man when the series starts than he is when he was 20, and an even more different man when he dies. so it’s beyond frustrating to have people freeze him when he’s 15, when he’s 20, and refuse to see the adult the became - who is still flawed, no doubt, but who doesn’t hold the same beliefs and doesn’t follow the same regime. 

but anyone who’s stuck in call-out culture is never going to be able to accept that and it’s sickening and frustrating and it makes it really hard to discuss snape with them.

#severus snape #Anonymous