Snapedom

How much would you have been willing to forgive Severus Snape?

The World of Severus Snape

********************
Anonymous users, remember that you must sign all your comments with your name or nick! Comments left unsigned may be screened without notice.

********************

Welcome to Snapedom!
If you want to see snapedom entries on your LJ flist, add snapedom_syn feed. But please remember to come here to the post to comment.

This community is mostly unmoderated. Read the rules and more in "About Snapedom."

No fanfic or art posts, but you can promote your fanfic and fanart, or post recommendations, every Friday.

How much would you have been willing to forgive Severus Snape?

[info]oryx_leucoryx
12/3/08 09:41 am
Previous Entry Add to Memories Tell a Friend Next Entry
We all remember the great Snape debates before DH came out. About where his loyalties were as of the end of HBP, when they changed if ever, how many times they changed. I think we agree that DH settled this question (even if we don't know the exact time-point we know which events triggered the turning points in his path). Another question was how far he went as Death Eater. After DH the consensus in this forum seems to be that canon suggests either at that he did not go as far as killing, or that if he did he fully repented for such killings and healed his soul to the extent that is possible. It is clear from canon that whatever he was as a Death Eater, the man we see during Harry's Hogwarts years is a man with a strong conscience, with a clear view of right and wrong (despite having to act on the edge due to his role as a spy), who does not make light of having to commit harmful acts for a long-term beneficial goal.

But even without ever killing anyone directly, with his own hand/wand, there is much he could have done. The most obvious is the brewing of poisons and other harmful potions that were then administered to innocent victims by others. Then there is the invention of new harmful, potentially lethal spells, and teaching such spells to other DEs, thus resulting in injuries and deaths among their victims. I think the worst I have seen in fanfics is Mengele!Snape - Snape in his DE days using captives (mostly Muggles) to test properties of newly invented potions. Some scenarios get extremely gruesome, with a team of DEs at Snape's command cutting through a still living victim so that Snape could observe damage to internal organs as it took place.

So my question is, would knowing something like that change anything in your attitude to Severus Snape? Is his complete repentance enough for you as a reader to disregard anything, however cruel, he may have done in his dark period, or would the thought that this was a man who may have been capable of such horrors disturb you enough to feel you cannot forgive him completely? Do you think a man who had commited such actions is capable of abandoning them for good or would he always be at risk of backsliding?
Previous Entry Add to Memories Tell a Friend Next Entry

  • [info]oryx_leucoryx
    12/3/08 08:24 pm (UTC)
    Let's say there was a good reason I used the phrasing 'would you have been willing to forgive' in my question. I am aware that I am asking about hypothetical scenarios, not necessarily supported by canon as it stands after DH. Yet before DH some of us did wonder. And the question still stands - could Rowling have written Severus a past that even his sympathizers would have found too hard to swallow?

    • [info]leni_jess
      12/3/08 08:40 pm (UTC)
      I'm sure she could have done. Forgiveness might have been possible, given his repentance, but not acceptance, for many, if she'd gone over the top, especially if it related to the time after he had repented but had to act the DE - inconsistent as that might have been of readers. But she didn't go over the top, even with Tom Riddle, vile as he and his actions were indicated to be, nearly always off-stage - thank goodness for these being children's books!

      [info]terri_testing has documented what JKR did attribute to Riddle as distinct from the DEs (and reinforced my belief that the Ministry had a terribly direct responsibility for the hell that descended with Tom Riddle on the wizarding world). So I don't think she'd have done it with Snape, even if she seems to hold him in far more contempt than Riddle. (Peculiar woman.)

      God, after all, is better at this forgiveness stuff than mortals, including JKR! It requires a degree of detachment, and of love, we may not have - and may not wish to have, either.

      But I think we can safely say from canon that Snape isn't going to go back to Riddle's way of thinking or wishing. Fanfic that ignores what canon gives us (even if we get the hard evidence so late as DH, unless it's explicitly anti/non-canon) isn't playing fair. That would be comparable (taking a frivolous example) to making Hermione a Valley-girl hottie with purple eyes. People do it all the time, I know, but their writings aren't necessarily respected.
Powered by InsaneJournal