Re: Slytherin, forgiveness,, etc.
(Anonymous)
I doubt knowing his mum had once been Snape's friend has anything to do with it. The reason Harry doesn't want to see the SWM scene again is probably the reason he didn't like seeing it in the first place: because "...judging from what he had just seen, his father had been every bit as arrogant as Snape had always told him ... He felt as though the memory of it was eating him from inside. He had been so sure his parents were wonderful people ... Harry kept reminding himself that Lily had intervened; his mother had been decent ... she had clearly loathed James ...now he felt cold and miserable at the thought of (James) ... desperate to hear Sirius's own account of what had happened, to know of any mitigating factors there might have been, any excuse at all for his father's behaviour ..."
All of this far outshadows the fleeting references to empathising with the victim, eg "I just never thought I'd feel sorry for Snape." He was so distressed about the poor light it cast on his father that he risked expulsion and wand-snapping - ie his *life*, if you think about it - in hope of hearing it excused, and although dissatisfied with the explanation, he never thought about Snape's pain again or considered, for one moment, whether Snape's attitude to Sirius and James was excusable, let alone justified.
duj
PS As I've had difficulties posting, I'll add this here:
I agree that all characters should be judged by the same standard. My standard is the text - just the text, not the movies or JK's interview comments. I began by giving *all* characters the benefit of the doubt, but when I found a weight of unambiguous evidence incriminated a character - eg Lupin, Sirius, James, Dumbledore - and there was little or no evidence (ambiguous or otherwise) exonerating them or showing that they had changed their ways, I judged accordingly.
All of this far outshadows the fleeting references to empathising with the victim, eg "I just never thought I'd feel sorry for Snape." He was so distressed about the poor light it cast on his father that he risked expulsion and wand-snapping - ie his *life*, if you think about it - in hope of hearing it excused, and although dissatisfied with the explanation, he never thought about Snape's pain again or considered, for one moment, whether Snape's attitude to Sirius and James was excusable, let alone justified.
duj
PS As I've had difficulties posting, I'll add this here:
I agree that all characters should be judged by the same standard. My standard is the text - just the text, not the movies or JK's interview comments. I began by giving *all* characters the benefit of the doubt, but when I found a weight of unambiguous evidence incriminated a character - eg Lupin, Sirius, James, Dumbledore - and there was little or no evidence (ambiguous or otherwise) exonerating them or showing that they had changed their ways, I judged accordingly.