Brava!
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Good GOD I love this essay! * stands and cheers *
No I don't agree with everything you write, but what I disagree with is so minute it's not really worth mentioning.
And best of all you brought me a whole new depth of understanding of the foulness that were the Marauders. I LOATHE James and Sirius. I'm more ambivalent about Remus ( admittedly because David Thewliss is a cutey! ) but I can't fault your arguments.
Okay well there's some light between your view of Severus and mine. He IS terrorized, no doubt. I tend to think it's less because he's seen as natural prey and more because he's the living embodiment of James and Sirius' shadow.
Let me put it this way. In my view, if Severus had an animagus form, it would be as one of the big cats. It might be a cliche but I think of him as black panther. Cats and dogs are natural enemies so that explains Sirius and Remus. And a cat would hunt down a stag - although the antlers actually give male stags something of a fighting chance against a big cat ( Peter of course would be toast ).
So if you see the animagus forms as symbols of each character's personality then I think it means that Severus is all these things that the Marauders can't be, can't understand ( can a canine understand a cat's sinuous grace or non-pack mentality? Only lions hunt in packs. All the other big cats hunt alone ) and might even envy. In other words, he's their shadow. And no one likes to own their shadow.
But hey, po-tay-to, po-tah-to.
Regarding the paternal relationship between Snape and Dumbledore, I've come up with my own reasons for why Albus treated Severus the way he did. You can check it out in For the Price of My Familiar ( http://www.fanfiction.net/s/4782241/1/F
And I agree with Lily being used to begging prettily and expecting it to work. I think Lily comes off worse than the Marauders because they induced her to betray a friend ( a friend who, admittedly, hurt her, but only under intense duress and almost immediately apologized thereafter despite her rejecting him ). And in fact I blame Lily's stupidity in trusting James for causing her death. Had she been with anyone else she probably wouldn't have died so young.
Again, I have my own theory on this. Forgive yet another moment of self-pimpage but you can check out my views in my 2 one shots, As Pretty Does ( http://www.fanfiction.net/s/6047654/1/A
Meanwhile, I'm adding your essay to my offline collection. This is something I'll surely want to read again and again.
(Reply to this)
No I don't agree with everything you write, but what I disagree with is so minute it's not really worth mentioning.
And best of all you brought me a whole new depth of understanding of the foulness that were the Marauders. I LOATHE James and Sirius. I'm more ambivalent about Remus ( admittedly because David Thewliss is a cutey! ) but I can't fault your arguments.
Okay well there's some light between your view of Severus and mine. He IS terrorized, no doubt. I tend to think it's less because he's seen as natural prey and more because he's the living embodiment of James and Sirius' shadow.
Let me put it this way. In my view, if Severus had an animagus form, it would be as one of the big cats. It might be a cliche but I think of him as black panther. Cats and dogs are natural enemies so that explains Sirius and Remus. And a cat would hunt down a stag - although the antlers actually give male stags something of a fighting chance against a big cat ( Peter of course would be toast ).
So if you see the animagus forms as symbols of each character's personality then I think it means that Severus is all these things that the Marauders can't be, can't understand ( can a canine understand a cat's sinuous grace or non-pack mentality? Only lions hunt in packs. All the other big cats hunt alone ) and might even envy. In other words, he's their shadow. And no one likes to own their shadow.
But hey, po-tay-to, po-tah-to.
Regarding the paternal relationship between Snape and Dumbledore, I've come up with my own reasons for why Albus treated Severus the way he did. You can check it out in For the Price of My Familiar ( http://www.fanfiction.net/s/4782241/1/F
And I agree with Lily being used to begging prettily and expecting it to work. I think Lily comes off worse than the Marauders because they induced her to betray a friend ( a friend who, admittedly, hurt her, but only under intense duress and almost immediately apologized thereafter despite her rejecting him ). And in fact I blame Lily's stupidity in trusting James for causing her death. Had she been with anyone else she probably wouldn't have died so young.
Again, I have my own theory on this. Forgive yet another moment of self-pimpage but you can check out my views in my 2 one shots, As Pretty Does ( http://www.fanfiction.net/s/6047654/1/A
Meanwhile, I'm adding your essay to my offline collection. This is something I'll surely want to read again and again.
(Reply to this)