If Severus is nuanced, so is Lily
(Anonymous)
Quoted in the OP:
"I'd love to see what some of your ideas are for just how Lily went from treating Snape so harshly and talking back to James, to being the stereotypical "saintly mother" at the end of her life. There's something about her personality that doesn't add up."
But most people are a mixture of saint and sinner. All of us are capable of being selfless, even possibly self-sacrificial ... what parent WOULDN'T be prepared to lay down their life for their own child? Even occasionally selfish people are capable of that, and who isn't moderately or occasionally selfish during their lifetimes?
You might as well say that Snape's personality 'doesn't add up', since he is committed to protecting the life of the son of the woman he loved and the man he hated. But of course, as Snape fans, we think he is the most complex and interesting character in the series ... and he is. :) To quote Frank Cottrell Boyce in The Guardian, 31 October 2010: "In these touchy feely days, it says a great deal for Rowling's skill and courage that she ever gave a central role to such a chilly and morally complex character as Snape." (YAY.)
Again, from the OP:
"That is to say, how her apparently selfless decision to die for her baby makes sense in light of the way she treated Severus or even James. With possibly a side comment about how despite being so powerful and gifted she didn't really show any of that by dying pleading for her baby's life without even trying to take on Voldemort."
Hardly anyone could 'take on' Voldemort -- even our Severus, brilliant as he is, lost at that. (GRUMBLE.) And Severus was a highly skilled and experienced wizard in his late 30s when he was murdered. Lily was only 21.
James and Lily have a sort of mythology built up around them about being a brave young couple who defied Voldemort ... but what struck me during their death scene in DH was how painfully young and vulnerable they both seemed. :(
As for the way Lily treated Severus and James, what are her crimes, exactly? She ended her friendship with Severus for hurling a racial insult at her and she called James an 'arrogant toe rag'. I fail to see how these supposed failings cancel out her courage in taking the hit for her own child. As I said: we're all a mixture of saint and sinner. Human beings are complex and nuanced. So these supposed contradictions in one of Rowling's backstory characters are hardly a big deal, IMO.
-- Pearlette
"I'd love to see what some of your ideas are for just how Lily went from treating Snape so harshly and talking back to James, to being the stereotypical "saintly mother" at the end of her life. There's something about her personality that doesn't add up."
But most people are a mixture of saint and sinner. All of us are capable of being selfless, even possibly self-sacrificial ... what parent WOULDN'T be prepared to lay down their life for their own child? Even occasionally selfish people are capable of that, and who isn't moderately or occasionally selfish during their lifetimes?
You might as well say that Snape's personality 'doesn't add up', since he is committed to protecting the life of the son of the woman he loved and the man he hated. But of course, as Snape fans, we think he is the most complex and interesting character in the series ... and he is. :) To quote Frank Cottrell Boyce in The Guardian, 31 October 2010: "In these touchy feely days, it says a great deal for Rowling's skill and courage that she ever gave a central role to such a chilly and morally complex character as Snape." (YAY.)
Again, from the OP:
"That is to say, how her apparently selfless decision to die for her baby makes sense in light of the way she treated Severus or even James. With possibly a side comment about how despite being so powerful and gifted she didn't really show any of that by dying pleading for her baby's life without even trying to take on Voldemort."
Hardly anyone could 'take on' Voldemort -- even our Severus, brilliant as he is, lost at that. (GRUMBLE.) And Severus was a highly skilled and experienced wizard in his late 30s when he was murdered. Lily was only 21.
James and Lily have a sort of mythology built up around them about being a brave young couple who defied Voldemort ... but what struck me during their death scene in DH was how painfully young and vulnerable they both seemed. :(
As for the way Lily treated Severus and James, what are her crimes, exactly? She ended her friendship with Severus for hurling a racial insult at her and she called James an 'arrogant toe rag'. I fail to see how these supposed failings cancel out her courage in taking the hit for her own child. As I said: we're all a mixture of saint and sinner. Human beings are complex and nuanced. So these supposed contradictions in one of Rowling's backstory characters are hardly a big deal, IMO.
-- Pearlette