deathtocapslock | Snape's Death in DH Part 2 Movie

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Snape's Death in DH Part 2 Movie

This is a movie spoiler so don't read it if you don't want to be either surprised or disappointed.

I'm not sure if it's okay for me to post about the movie as I know this group seems to be mostly about the book. I actually already knew about this change a while back and have discussed it already but not in this group, and now it's sort of been made official.

I wanted to share simply because I wondered what some of you thought. Personally it sounds like a weird change. I am not as picky on the location but then again, it sounds like from what I read there is something wonkey going on with how the death actually happens to. Although it's a pretty hard to understand explaination but anyway I've copy and pasted the info from the mugglenet page below. And if we're not supposed to post movie stuff then please let me know, I just thought it was a unusual change and wondered what everyone thought about it.

'Harry Potter' Art Director reveals new death scene for Snape in 'Deathly Hallows - Part 2'
Andrew Ackland-Snow, the art director for the Harry Potter franchise, has revealed that Severus Snape will have a death scene in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - Part 2 which is different from what's found in the book.

SPOILER WARNING

"We wanted to change a bit where Snape dies. In the book, he dies on the Shrieking Shack, and we wanted to get him out from, not a conventional interior, but from that kind of box, to do it in a more dramatic atmosphere. We asked J.K. if she agreed for that to happen in there, because we hadn't really seen it before. We made a crystal house, and you can see what happens in the boat house from there - Are you listening Harry? -, but also the school is in flames...and she loved it. Besides, it's a very romantic place to die. Snape dies in a extremely good way, I gotta say."

You may remember set designer Stuart Craig commented on Snape's death scene last February, commenting: "The last time I cried was a few days ago when we filmed the death of Alan Rickman's character, Snape. It's quite difficult to cry in rushes -- where we watch the previous day's work -- but he is an extraordinary actor and he dies an extremely good death."

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I haven't seen Part 1, so I don't know how much it differs from canon.

But I think we've agreed in the past that the movies sort of developed into an alternate universe which somewhat parallels the books, but which differ in some important, and sometimes major, aspects.

Now I really disliked the DH book; I'd actually hoped that for once the director and screenwriter would make major changes, specifically severely limiting the Endless Camping Trip, and instead actually show what occurs at Hogwarts and elsewhere in the Wizarding World while The Trio is out hunting horcrii...

But from what I've heard, the camping trip is basically retained in the movie with little change. And from what I've seen of trailers and clips of scenes that are obviously from Part 2, it looks like they've made some really major deviations from canon...

So I don't know what to expect with Snape's death scene; Rowling making the Shrieking Shack Voldemort's command center was sort of wierd, but I guess she felt she needed to place it/him away from the main battlefield...

Changing it to the boathouse is a complete reversal of that, it puts Voldie right AT where the battle is taking place, I just don't see Voldie risking his own neck in that manner.

And we never saw the boathouse in the movies before, except in the distance for a few seconds when the First Years arrive at Hogwarts. In canon there is no boathouse, IIRC, the boats go into a cave I believe...

So they wanted to give Rickman a sexy, romantic setting in which to die...so be it. I'm pretty much prepared to be disappointed by the movie as a whole, so I'm not going to be surprised if the death scene disappoints me.

So they wanted to give Rickman a sexy, romantic setting in which to die...so be it. I'm pretty much prepared to be disappointed by the movie as a whole, so I'm not going to be surprised if the death scene disappoints me.

I don't know what I feel about it. I get the idea, the concept but I really don't know how changing the setting makes how Snape dies more romantic. Maybe it's just me being a Snape fan and that I didn't like how he died anyway.

But the dude says: Besides, it's a very romantic place to die. Snape dies in a extremely good way, I gotta say."

What is really romantic about Snape's death. Okay, so I'll give that in the Prince's Tale we learn about his loyalty to Lily but all that stuff comes after his death.

To me there shouldn't be any kind of romantic feel to his death. OR that it's a extremely good way to die? really? I mean seriously does anyone want to die the way Snape died.

His death at least in book seems like a frightening, sad, pathetic, dark, terrifying way to die. Being attacked by a giant snake and bleeding to death with nobody to help you and you are all alone till 'the hero' shows up. I mean, It doesn't seem like you'd want to visually portray that as 'romatic' and I don't know about anyone else but I don't see that as a good way to die or that it should be portayed that way.

Plus at that point we're not supposed to be thinking Snape is good right? At that point we know nothing.

Anyway, I could say more but my train of thought is just stuck on whats good about how Snape dies or how it can be viewed romantically at the moment he is dieing =p

What is really romantic about Snape's death.

It's not the definition of "romantic" meaning snogging a Significant Other, it's the definition meaning a place that is exciting and/or adventurous and/or mysterious...

I mean seriously does anyone want to die the way Snape died.

Cleopatra? Shakespeare made it work. :-)

(altho recent historical discoveries tend to put the She-Killed-Herself-With-An-Asp story into question)

What are the major deviations from canon you've mentioned? I haven't noticed anything, so I'm curious...

And yeah, I don't even recall a boathouse ever existing, so that's out of left field there. O.o

What are the major deviations from canon you've mentioned? I haven't noticed anything, so I'm curious...

Eliminating Lily from the Snape's Worst Memory scene for one; basically ALL of HBP, namely focusing on teen romance/angst and eliminating most of the Tom Riddle backstory, and actually practically eliminating the HBP himself from the story that has his name in it. Also that Burrow scene that made no sense.

If I wasn't so tired from shoveling slush, I'm sure I'd remember a few others...

Oh, yes, of course! Sorry, I misunderstood, I thought you were referring to DH canon deviations specifically, and I hadn't seen or heard of anything significant til this death scene nonsense. But yes, agreed on HBP. So pissed off, that movie was completely worthless. Well, I love Emma Watson and Alan Rickman, but other than that. :P

I wanted to rip the screen off the wall when I saw it.

Well, maybe that's a *slight* exaggeration. I was furious, though. WTF were they smoking?

(Then again I'm generally unhappy with the filmmakers' portrayal of Snape, especially the casual violence in the earlier movies. The one change thus far that I liked was the moment on the top of the Tower where he shushes Harry: totally not canon, but for me it hit precisely the right note about how their relationship changes with DD's death. At that point Harry 'hates' him, but still *trusts* him on some level, and that trust is exactly what Severus is about to sacrifice when he kills DD. I'll watch that bit of HBP again, but not the rest of the tripe. NOT ONE DADA LESSON? They cut his speech!)

(hit Post Comment instead of Quote) :-P

And yeah, I don't even recall a boathouse ever existing, so that's out of left field there. O.o

It's barely noticeable in the first movie when the First Years are arriving at Hogwarts by boat. But it apparently plays a big part in a HP video game that I saw online somewhere when this whole change of Snape's death scene first broke...and it seems the designers for the movie have based the movie boathouse on the video boathouse.

But I still don't understand how they're going to be able to have The Trio be able to eavesdrop on Snape and Voldemort without being seen...

Cloak?

Cloak?

Yet by DH we're told that just two of them can barely fit under the cloak, and that their feet still show. So unless The Trio get, uh, very chummy by crouching and huddling under the cloak together, I don't see how that can work, either...especially doesn't explain how they can approach the boathouse with all its windows and not be seen.

Now's their big chance to fix up one of the most colossal flaws of Rowling's horrible amateurish writing in DH.

All throughout the book Voldemort uses the Killing Curse exclusively to kill everyone who annoys him. We see it all through the newsflashes that Harry receives from the Dark Lord Mental Broadcast Network. Gregovitch's housekeeper and children - a flash of green light. Gregorvitch - a flash of green light. Grindlewald - a flash of green light. Goblins and Death Eaters bringing bad news - flashes of green light.

Then it's time to kill Snape. A flash of gree--

Oh. No. Rowing needs Snape to linger in his death, so Harry can receive the memories.

So - for no reason at all - Voldemort doesn't cast a Killing Curse. Instead he sics Nagini onto Snape.

Which is doubly stupid, because Voldemort is killing Snape to assert his ownership of the Elder Wand. In this one case where it is vital that Voldemort demonstrate his mastery of the wand by directly defeating the previous owner ...

... he instead delegates the murder to another, Nagini. Preposterous.

And finally, of course, Rowling commits one of the most cliched and ridiculous mistakes right out of the "Evil Overlord's Manual" ... she has the dark lord abandon the scene while Snape is still alive, so Harry can conveniently pop out and have a leisurely chat.

Horrible, horrible writing, with Voldemort making these three mistakes for no stated reason; it's simply because Rowling needed it to be so to prop up her amateur story. But it's all the worse because it's the complete stark opposite to Voldemort's rampage of AK curses right up to that point.

Anyway, as they did for Hedwig's death and the "trademark spell" silliness, I hope the movie people manage to make another canon correction in this instance.

(Sadly, there were so many DH flaws and errors the movie would be totally unrecognisable if they committed to fixing all of the mistakes ...)

most cliched and ridiculous mistakes right out of the "Evil Overlord's Manual"

LOL! Funny. And here the movie people say a boat house is a romantic place to die.

Yea, I always feel romantic about dieing in a boat house!

I guess Voldie is gonna after killing Severus, jump on his jetski and speed off. Or maybe he confiscated the malfoy yacht.

And I didn't finish my comment before posting, bad me. Thats what I get for doing 2-3 things at once.

Oh. No. Rowing needs Snape to linger in his death, so Harry can receive the memories.

Yes to this. The thing is, it's another example of Harry being handed info without working for it. And again, JKR kills an important character in a disappointing way JUST so she can hand the lead hero the info he needs.

Me, I wanted some kinda dialogue between Harry/Snape, something. I didn't want huggy, touchy feeling lets make up and be best friends...I just wanted something other than Harry being handed the info he needed without much effort on his part.

And Snape had to die just to impart to Harry, he had to go do a death mission on himself.

Yea, I always feel romantic about dieing in a boat house!

More romantic than dying in a sewer... ;-)

I guess Voldie is gonna after killing Severus, jump on his jetski and speed off. Or maybe he confiscated the malfoy yacht.

Naw, he's got a submarine! He parks it at the Octopus's Garden, an upscale condo for wizards that has a huge fountain/pool system... :-o

Now's their big chance to fix up one of the most colossal flaws of Rowling's horrible amateurish writing in DH.

I've noticed that in everything I've read about the movie death scene, no one's actually come out and said "When Nagini bites Snape"...

So perhaps they will give Snape a different manner of death.

Personally, I think Rowling could have had a duel between Voldie and Snape; there are plenty of high places in and around Hogwarts, Snape could have had a misstep avoiding Voldie's killing curse, and fallen to his death.

This would have had the benefit of affording a type of symmetry with Dumbledore's death, and Snape could have lingered long enough to dispense his memories to Harry.

Sounds good to me! Much more credible than Rowling's I'll-write-it-this-way-because-it's-convenient-and-I-can't-think-of-a-plausible-reason approach.

You know what, I totally agree with you on the crappy writing- but this the ONE case where I'm thankful for it. Because it means there is still room for my head canon to be plausible. If he'd been AK'd, he's dead and gone, there's little-to-no room to fix that. But a snake bite? On a Potions genius like Snape? Well, there's always a chance he might've taken an antidote or something... (none of the trio bother to take a pulse, they don't know he's dead, just that his eyes are blank- which, er, they were so blank and lifeless that Harry was surprised when he spoke a few minutes earlier, so that's not conclusive!)

So yeah, I'm hoping this ambiguous (to a fan of the character! Obv everyone else is happy for him to die *wibbles*) death remains.

Yes, I've seen that loophole exploited a couple of times. Long live fan fiction!

But, while you and the fanfic authors are profiting from Rowling's lousy writing, that doesn't affect in the slightest that it is lousy. You're just looting the premises after the walls have crumbled. :-)

The movies have repeatedly assassinated Severus' character. Giving him a more 'respectable' death scene doesn't compensate for that. I don't know what they are planning for the movie, but the important thing is that he died as a successful undercover agent - he wasn't killed because he was found out but because he was so good playing his part that Voldemort believed he really defeated Albus for him. And he does not attempt to betray anyone else to avoid death. The specifics I don't care about. I'm sure my husband will buy the movies, so I'll watch them on DVD at home. I expect to be disappointed. Who cares.

I haven't seen DH Part 1 and I don't expect to go see part 2 either. Well for one thing, they darn well put the Malfoy Manor scene online before the movie was out in theater - it was a fricking trailer. So I'm almost imagining that for part 2 I am expecting the same treatment.

What I'm a bit more curious about is what they're going to do with the Prince's tale or maybe I should say not do. I know the Worst Memory scene in OOTP was so cut down and watered down it was barely there. I'm curious as to what treatement they'll give that chapter.

I know I probably shouldn't care, but I just get that little annoyance that pops up in my brain when I read this over and over again on every change they make in the movies. It goes something like this: We asked J.K. if she agreed and she loved it. Okay so I cut some of that comment out - but really. This was I thought an important moment to show, and what does the author agree to - sure, put it in a random place nobody has seen before and doesn't have a lot of meaning to the whole story as we know it. Change the atmosphere of a key death, yes, lets make the scenery romantic and really different from how it was actually portrayed.

Another question I might ask them is, hay what changes did you make that the author didn't agree to? Becasue a number of times I have seen when they talk about the 'amazing' changes they've made, they always have to remind us that JKR approved. I guess thats to save their ass if we are really disappointed! LOL! or either they have a easy out and can blame it on her (Well she said we could do it) =p

but the important thing is that he died as a successful undercover agent - he wasn't killed because he was found out but because he was so good playing his part that Voldemort believed he really defeated Albus for him. And he does not attempt to betray anyone else to avoid death.

I guess that's something, it will I suppose depend on how the movies going to change it. If it's only location then maybe thats not so bad but then again for some reason when I hear the location is Boat House - I just think...lame.

And I seem to remember there was an interview before DH part one came out, where Dan Radcliff and the director stated that the Deathly Hallows movies were going to be the most faithful to the books.

Oh damn, now I get it! I know why they decided on the Boat House.

Romantic.

It's....

The LOVE BOAT!

(I'm sorry, I had to write it!!)

The LOVE BOAT!

...with your activities director, LORD VOLDEMORT!

(Cue theme music)

...with your activities director, LORD VOLDEMORT!

Naw, Voldie's the captain!

Bella's the activities director, Snape's the bartender...

No, he is the ship doctor (healer) who gets all those girls.

No, he is the ship doctor (healer) who gets all those girls.

He's both. He's the bartender (with Wormtail's assistance) as a preventative measure, he's the ship's doctor when the libations from the bar don't work (or conversely, work too well!)

KarentheUnicorn needs to take those pictures of her Snape doll surrounded by those bevy of beauty dolls -- instead of James Bond, it needs to be The Love Boat.

With a hot tub... ;-)

Can't take my eyes off dancing bartender Snape pic avatar you've got.

Can't take my eyes off dancing bartender Snape pic avatar you've got.

Yeah, he is kinda hypnotic, ain't he? LOL

That's a strange way for Snape to go out, but what the hell. :)

Besides, it's probably a little better than the death-by-Nagini thing he got in the book. :/ *Shrugs*

Besides, it's probably a little better than the death-by-Nagini thing he got in the book. :/ *Shrugs*

They haven't said that they've changed how Snape dies, only the location of where he dies.

Edited 2011-02-10 00:02 (UTC)

I kind of meant I hope Snape's death is handled better in the movie than it was in the book. *Slaps self for being an idiot* XD

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Snape's Death in DH Part 2 Movie

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