What Backstory Would You Have Wanted for Snape?

[reinalobelia.livejournal.com]

Hi, first time poster, long (long, long, long) time lurker. I almost want to apologize for making this post, as it's about one of the most (and yet not enough?!) oft-repeated complaints surrounding DH, namely the handling of the motivations behind one Severus Snape.

A tl;dr background of myself: I read the first six books some time in 2006-7 and become absolutely consumed by the series. And then DH broke my heart to pieces with its release. I spent the next 5 years recovering those pieces and healing, and thankfully I was still able to find fans whose opinions still jived with mine up until 2012, when I woke up one morning and finally threw the series away in disgust and through weariness. For reasons unknown to me, I've started dabbling with fandom again recently - I suspect I'm probably in that stage where I need a new hobby but have nothing new to fall back on so I'm nostalgic. Because I was a fan for so short a time before the series concluded, I've always almost felt like I was never a "true" fan since I wasn't part of most of the discourse pre-DH. And yet I consider myself as being from "that generation of HP fans", and not the newer generation made up of so many Snape-haters I see on more currently relevant social media platforms like Reddit and Tumblr. I hope that doesn't make me sound elitist but, well, fuck it, lol (we can swear, right??).

And that brings me to why I'm here: it's amazing how the general sentiment in fandom has shifted so drastically from the loudest voices pre-DH saying how much they love Snape to the present post-DH era, where he's reduced to a friend-zoned, incel, Nice Guy {insert whatever other labels anti-Snape fans attach to him}. The point I'm really trying to make is: I feel almost completely out of touch with most places discussing Snape on the Internet except for DTCL. I truly want to thank you all for still being around, from the bottom of my heart. I hope this is okay, but I particularly want to thank torchedsong for making her post also talking about how Snape was flattened as a character - it made me realize there are still people around in the fandom who remembered the potential he used to have.

And now to come to the title of the post. I want to wholeheartedly reject the "Lily as end-all, be-all" motivation. So I was wondering:

- What would YOU have liked for Snape's motivation to have been for becoming Dumbledore's man?
- What kind of scenario do you imagine led him to make the change?
- Prior to the release of DH, what were you /hoping/ for his motivation to be?

I have to admit that I struggle with these questions myself. For example, a number of slash fans played with with idea of Snape's motivation to have been Regulus Black. And honestly, while this would have been less of a character-destroying reveal (not that JKR would ever actually go down this route), it would make the matter of Snape's opinions regarding blood politics and his moral development more complicated. So an additional question:

- What kind of motivation/catalyst would you have liked for Snape to realize that not just violence but any kind of discrimination based on blood is wrong? (Unless you would have been fine for him to just have a personal, selfish motive behind betraying Voldemort, that's fine too).

Thank you ♡

Comments

[torchedsong.livejournal.com]

I hope this is okay, but I particularly want to thank torchedsong for making her post also talking about how Snape was flattened as a character - it made me realize there are still people around in the fandom who remembered the potential he used to have.

Thank you for the mention! I posted that rant months ago because I felt similar to yourself about Snape. It seems like ages ago, but whenever I pop back in the HP fandom, the immense disappointment over how Snape's redemption was handled comes back to me like a wave.

As for how I would've have liked Snape's motivations to be written... I've discussed this before, so I'll try to keep it simple: literally anything other than making his entire existence revolve around Lily would've been fine with me. I don't care if it was for selfish or selfless reasons—as long as Snape left the Death Eaters of his own volition, then it would've worked for me.

I didn't mind Dumbledore being a manipulative bastard or Snape being a mean bastard; both of those characterizations made them interesting. What bothered me was how JKR seemed to continue placing Dumbledore on the can-do-no-wrong pedestal even after it was revealed how callous he was. And Snape? Giving the rest of his life to the light side in exchange for atonement meant nothing because it ended up being all about the goodness of pure perfect Lily Evans. His redemption wasn't about his choices or character—it was about Lily. It made him look obsessed, pathetic, and static, effectively demolishing all the potential he had.

If Snape had left for selfish reasons, like his life was being threatened and he needed protection, I would've preferred even that over the ridiculous True Love story of Snape/Lily. I still have a hard time believing how a resentful man like Snape would continue loving a girl who chose his bullies over him. Even the kindest man would feel some smudge of bitterness towards Lily. But JKR is obsessed with her ideas of childhood love prevailing over all, so Snape had to remain besotted over a girl who was written with no depth beyond the link she had to several male characters.

I also would've been fine with Snape having a gradual growth; his reasons for leaving the Death Eaters starting out as self-serving, but changing into something more meaningful over time. He may not like or love his students, but he learns to value human life and draw the line at needless torture and murder. It would've been a powerful story if JKR showed us how even a nasty teacher like Snape had a moral compass and the capability to care for his fellow man, even if he didn't personally like them. Before DH, I thought that's where she was going with his character and the point she was trying to make. I suppose she kind of did, but the whole Lily Love thing overwhelmed everything and that's all the fandom can focus on when it comes to Snape.

Whoa, there I go ranting away as always lol. I tried to keep it short and simple, but failed. I apologize. But I appreciate the discussion. Thank you for posting your thoughts as well!

[sunnyskywalker]

I don't mind Dumbledore being a callous, manipulative bastard either; what I mind is the books trying to have it both ways. If he's that bad and has made that many mistakes, then the mistakes should matter: they threaten Harry's quest (and survival), and he has to come up with his own plan, and readers come away feeling relieved that he managed to survive despite that now-revealed-as-horrible man's machinations. If he's not that bad, then his actions need to be... not as bad as they were in canon. Either way is fine. But having him be that bad, and make that many mistakes, and his plans still work, and chatting with him and naming a kid after him is supposed to be cathartic and uplifting? No.

And really, all she had to do was include somewhere that Snape was hurt and angry at Lily, but was still horrified at putting her life in danger, and also appalled at stuff happening with Team Death Eaters (maybe at watching some of his friends lose what moral compasses they started with--that would be scary). And perhaps that over the course of years, he realized that she was a confused, scared teenager manipulated by bad "friends" just like him in school, which helped him lose his anger at her and be able to remember happier times again.

It just wouldn't have been that hard to include the Lily/Snape friendship backstory but make it, and Snape's overall motivations, realistically complex. The version we got was just lazy.

[torchedsong.livejournal.com]

I agree with your entire comment! I think JKR struggles with making her characters complex and realistic human beings. She came close with Snape and Dumbledore, but reverted them back to their 2-dimensional characterization of Dumbledore-can-do-no-wrong and Snape-the-terrible-man-who-did-everything-for-Lily. It was lazy.

If Lily was Snape's final straw rather than his sole motivator, I might've been okay with her being his catalyst to leave the Death Eaters. Ditto if he had more complicated feelings about her rather than just straightforward True Undying Love and nothing else.

[sunnyskywalker]

DH came across as ticking off items on a list, not a fully-formed novel. There are some dramatic scenes with (some) answers, and some bits connecting them, but it doesn't quite hang together, either with itself or the series as a whole. It's like each scene has barely enough explanation to support itself (if that), and is at least semi-isolated from the others.

It's a real shame, because it could have been so much better even holding to the same general outline. Awe and peace at seeing Snape's Patronus without knowing it's his? Harry getting incontrovertible evidence that his mentor was dodgy and maybe he should think for himself? The wizarding world finally having a smidgen of literary culture? So much potential! Even the ridiculous Seven Potters thing had some thematic meaning (instead of cutting himself into bits like Voldemort, Harry multiplies himself because he has friends); if it had made any plot sense, it could have been neat. If the pointless contradictions had been ironed out, the disconnected bits connected, and the character complexity not been squashed at the last minute, the book would have gotten a lot closer to being the book it wanted to be.

At least she didn't go so far as to put in some categorical statement that Snape didn't have other motives, or that he didn't have complicated feelings for Lily that were really hard to face after she died (plus Dumbledore manipulated them). Which doesn't help the book be better, but at least she didn't manage to write out all hope of the characters being fully human.

[mary-j-59.livejournal.com]

I wish I could like this response. That is all.