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After posting my rantings I had to run, and I've been away for a few days, so now I return and, wow! How am I ever going to respond to all these posts?!
Thanks to everybody who commented on my incoherent babbling above. I hope I made people think outside of the box. People in fandom tend to stick to 'first impressions'. For instance the 'Snape knew more spells in first year than seventh year'. Who says this? Sirius. Do we believe Sirius? Are we *shown* that what Sirius claims is true? No. Even more damning; who should he have learned them from? His muggle father? His cowering, ineffective mother? Lily?! So why believe the babblings of a character like Sirius, whose veracity is questionable, to say the least.
And this is but *one* of the things characters or even the narrator *say* that is totally in contradiction to what people *do* or what is *shown*.
So, keeping in mind that what is *said* in the Potter series should be neglected in favour of what is *shown*, we can look anew at the Lily-Severus friendship.
What are we shown about Lily? We are shown that she is Severus' friend before coming to Hogwarts. We are shown that when she and Sev encounter rich, snobby, spoilt git James, Lily reacts angry towards him and chooses Sev's side. We see that five years later, she seems to have changed her tune. We see how Sev tells her that he wants to show her that James and his cronies *aren't* all cool and wonderful, but she cuts him off, telling him that *his* friends (housemates?) aren't wonderful either. We are shown that five or six years after that, when Sev and Lily's ways have long past, Sev still wants to save her, still cares about her and he will do anything, betray anyone, to save her life.
So, we can ask ourselves the following question: what changed between first years and fifth year? Why is Lily choosing James' side, even when she will readily claim that James is a git.
The easy answer would be 'Lily is a shallow bitch, a golddigger who ditched her poor, halfblood friend to marry a spoilt, bullying jock and good riddance to her', and that was *my* first reaction too.
But if this is the case, the consequence must be that Severus is a sad, puerile puppy who is stuck in his mind in the false belief that his childhood friend cared for him, even though she clearly never did. And that doesn't sit well with me, because in the whole sad, bloody awful series, Snape is the one character who acted as an adult; he looked at his own actions, saw the consequences of them and changed. This is adult behaviour that Harry or Dumbledore never reach.
So we look the evidence again. How else has Lily changed? Well, we see that before and during Hogwarts she was a girl who was never afraid to open her mouth to say what was on her mind. She was 'spunky'. Yet when the Big Bad enters her house, she doesn't even raise her wand? She sits there, cowering? She *begs*?
Enter the 'James has an manipulative, abusive personality' theory.
If James is indeed a manipulative, nasty git, who charmingly fed Lily bullshit about Slytherins in general and Severus in particular for *years*, who actively, by bullying Severus in such ways that Sev looks pathetic, drives a wedge between her and Sev, then this will explain how:
* Lily has turned from a feisty young girl into a cowiring, ineffective moomy.
* Severus still feels responsible for her even though she clearly made her choice by marrying James.
* Severus feels guilty for her death for twenty years. It can't have been that stupid McGuffin prophecy. Any Voldie sympathiser could've gone to the Ministry and checked out that prophecy. Besides, James and Lily were on Voldie's hitlist anyway. Severus pleading for her live was Lily's only chance, not her doom. So why the guilt? Because if only he had played things better, James would've been demasked and Lily would've realised what a cunning piece of shit he was and she would never have married James and wouldn't be on Voldie's hitlist etc etc.
The 'James Was A Manipulative, Possibly Abusive Bastard' theory gives us a likable but tragic Lily, a lovable but tragic Severus and a Very Nasty Wanker (instead of a plain Stupid Wanker) James.
What's not to love?
Thanks to everybody who commented on my incoherent babbling above. I hope I made people think outside of the box. People in fandom tend to stick to 'first impressions'. For instance the 'Snape knew more spells in first year than seventh year'. Who says this? Sirius. Do we believe Sirius? Are we *shown* that what Sirius claims is true? No. Even more damning; who should he have learned them from? His muggle father? His cowering, ineffective mother? Lily?! So why believe the babblings of a character like Sirius, whose veracity is questionable, to say the least.
And this is but *one* of the things characters or even the narrator *say* that is totally in contradiction to what people *do* or what is *shown*.
So, keeping in mind that what is *said* in the Potter series should be neglected in favour of what is *shown*, we can look anew at the Lily-Severus friendship.
What are we shown about Lily? We are shown that she is Severus' friend before coming to Hogwarts. We are shown that when she and Sev encounter rich, snobby, spoilt git James, Lily reacts angry towards him and chooses Sev's side. We see that five years later, she seems to have changed her tune. We see how Sev tells her that he wants to show her that James and his cronies *aren't* all cool and wonderful, but she cuts him off, telling him that *his* friends (housemates?) aren't wonderful either. We are shown that five or six years after that, when Sev and Lily's ways have long past, Sev still wants to save her, still cares about her and he will do anything, betray anyone, to save her life.
So, we can ask ourselves the following question: what changed between first years and fifth year? Why is Lily choosing James' side, even when she will readily claim that James is a git.
The easy answer would be 'Lily is a shallow bitch, a golddigger who ditched her poor, halfblood friend to marry a spoilt, bullying jock and good riddance to her', and that was *my* first reaction too.
But if this is the case, the consequence must be that Severus is a sad, puerile puppy who is stuck in his mind in the false belief that his childhood friend cared for him, even though she clearly never did. And that doesn't sit well with me, because in the whole sad, bloody awful series, Snape is the one character who acted as an adult; he looked at his own actions, saw the consequences of them and changed. This is adult behaviour that Harry or Dumbledore never reach.
So we look the evidence again. How else has Lily changed? Well, we see that before and during Hogwarts she was a girl who was never afraid to open her mouth to say what was on her mind. She was 'spunky'. Yet when the Big Bad enters her house, she doesn't even raise her wand? She sits there, cowering? She *begs*?
Enter the 'James has an manipulative, abusive personality' theory.
If James is indeed a manipulative, nasty git, who charmingly fed Lily bullshit about Slytherins in general and Severus in particular for *years*, who actively, by bullying Severus in such ways that Sev looks pathetic, drives a wedge between her and Sev, then this will explain how:
* Lily has turned from a feisty young girl into a cowiring, ineffective moomy.
* Severus still feels responsible for her even though she clearly made her choice by marrying James.
* Severus feels guilty for her death for twenty years. It can't have been that stupid McGuffin prophecy. Any Voldie sympathiser could've gone to the Ministry and checked out that prophecy. Besides, James and Lily were on Voldie's hitlist anyway. Severus pleading for her live was Lily's only chance, not her doom. So why the guilt? Because if only he had played things better, James would've been demasked and Lily would've realised what a cunning piece of shit he was and she would never have married James and wouldn't be on Voldie's hitlist etc etc.
The 'James Was A Manipulative, Possibly Abusive Bastard' theory gives us a likable but tragic Lily, a lovable but tragic Severus and a Very Nasty Wanker (instead of a plain Stupid Wanker) James.
What's not to love?