(Anonymous)
Wonderful essay!
On reading DH, I saw Dumbledore as a marvellously written character, whom we have been led to believe is the paragon of goodness and the preacher of love, until in the grand finale where we are made to discover to our shock (much in the same way we were shocked at the end of PS/SS at the true nature of evil-looking Snape) that he is an abusive manipulator with some Wizarding World equivalent of a personality disorder. There are no words, none, to describe my sheer horror at the author of this story coming out and telling our children that he is supposed to be read as "inherently good." My God.
Very good points about how Dumbledore started failing Snape's trust since way before he came into his service... It reminds me of my utter shock at discovering that the Shrieking Shack incident came before the OWLs day incident, rather than the other way around. I'd been assuming it went the other way around, as had the Lexicon, apparently, because it wouldn't make much sense that James & Sirius be allowed to bully Severus in such a public manner after the Shack incident. How, I ask, how could Sirius have been made to feel free to set his wand on Severus ever again, after his attempted murder of the boy!?? Apparently whatever disciplinary measures and/or future warnings he got (if any) weren't such that they would make him hesitate, even for a second, about whether or not it would be wise for him to go bullying Severus in the middle of dozens of witnesses. What kind of a school is this, anyway?
Sorry for the ranting, and thanks for the good read!
raisin_gal
On reading DH, I saw Dumbledore as a marvellously written character, whom we have been led to believe is the paragon of goodness and the preacher of love, until in the grand finale where we are made to discover to our shock (much in the same way we were shocked at the end of PS/SS at the true nature of evil-looking Snape) that he is an abusive manipulator with some Wizarding World equivalent of a personality disorder. There are no words, none, to describe my sheer horror at the author of this story coming out and telling our children that he is supposed to be read as "inherently good." My God.
Very good points about how Dumbledore started failing Snape's trust since way before he came into his service... It reminds me of my utter shock at discovering that the Shrieking Shack incident came before the OWLs day incident, rather than the other way around. I'd been assuming it went the other way around, as had the Lexicon, apparently, because it wouldn't make much sense that James & Sirius be allowed to bully Severus in such a public manner after the Shack incident. How, I ask, how could Sirius have been made to feel free to set his wand on Severus ever again, after his attempted murder of the boy!?? Apparently whatever disciplinary measures and/or future warnings he got (if any) weren't such that they would make him hesitate, even for a second, about whether or not it would be wise for him to go bullying Severus in the middle of dozens of witnesses. What kind of a school is this, anyway?
Sorry for the ranting, and thanks for the good read!
raisin_gal