Honestly, the whole “Snape was totally a meninist” or the “Snape’s whole backstory was that he was ‘friendzoned’” posts are REALLY starting to bother me.
I don’t love Snape. I think the way he treated Neville was absolutely inexcusable. I think he did a lot of horrible things.
But:
- Snape was in love with Lily Evans, but he never told her that
- He never made a move on her
- He never asked her out
- He never tried to kiss her
- He wasn’t “friendzoned.” Lily never knew how he felt.
- He didn’t give Harry those memories so that Harry would feel sympathetic towards him.
- He gave Harry those memories so that Harry could 1) Understand why Dumbledore trusted Snape and 2) So that Harry would understand he needed to die in order to defeat Voldemort.
- Lily Evans was the only person (except for maybe Dumbledore) who ever actually cared about him
- It’s strongly implied that Snape was abused or, at the very least, neglected, as a very young child.
I’m not defending all of his actions. But I do wish people would understand his motivation, and I really wish people would stop making posts like “Harry! Name your child after me! I was friendzoned by your mother!”
That’s not what happened. Snape was friends with Lily as a child. He fell in love with her. He didn’t tell her. He didn’t try to get her to date him. He loved her. He became a bad friend. He betrayed her. He regretted it. He tried to save her life. He failed. He tried to protect her child. He wanted to protect Harry for Lily’s sake. He wanted to at least partially make up for the way he treated Lily. That was his motivation, not “he was friendzoned.”
He isn’t a good person. He isn’t a bad person. He’s a person. A human being. That’s why Harry named his child Albus Severus– because the world is not divided into good people and Death Eaters. That’s something Harry didn’t learn for a long time. That’s what Albus Dumbledore and Severus Snape taught him. Harry wanted his children to understand something he himself struggled with-: good and evil are not always easy to see. Bravery does not always equal kindness. Unkindness does not always equal cruelty. Look at J.K’s characters, like Draco, Dumbledore, Snape, Sirius, and Ron, and you will see that is a major theme. PEOPLE ARE NOT HEROES OR VILLAINS. PEOPLE ARE PEOPLE. THEY HAVE BOTH GOOD AND BAD QUALITIES. THAT IS ONE OF THE MAJOR POINTS OF THE ENTIRE SERIES.
You don’t have to like or respect Snape as a person, but please understand him as a character.
I remember seeing a post about Tumblr users not being able to understand that the world isn’t just black and white, that there are gray areas, and I feel like this is an example.
Not OP, but the things mentioned. About Snape always being overlooked and seen as bad, and if you don’t agree, you’re a horrible person.
I always felt bad for Snape, because I could relate to the abuse and being cast to the side, and the fact I’ve had so many chances to go “evil” that I understood how he happened to be that way.
I don’t know, this is just a rant because I have emotions and don’t know how to adequately express them, but… Yeah.
The world and the people in it have gray areas. Learn that.This is why I’m not on here often. I understood “gray areas” in a time when the only media we had was shoving down “the world is black & white” down kids throats every Saturday morning. I figured it out & a lot of things started rubbing me wrong. It’s funny how that still happens.
Tag: good meta
It’s 2016 and I am still trying to figure out why in God’s name so many people hate Ronald Weasley.
Because just-
For a moment, just think.
Harry Potter and Ron Weasley both have what the other desperately wants and needs. It’s right there in the Mirror of Erised from the VERY FIRST BOOK.
Harry is desperate for a family, a loving, caring FAMILY.
Ron is desperate to just be freaking NOTICED for once.
Ron is a part of the most incredible loving family ever.
Harry is famous before he can walk and talk, and gets bowed to by strangers in a shop.
One of the things that makes their friendship so beautiful is this stupid IRONY, and how they are friends despite this.
But Harry cannot ever give Ron what Ron needs. All Harry can do is make the matter WORSE, however hard he tries to do the opposite, because he’s HARRY JAMES POTTER and any friend of his is not going to get a look in, no matter whether they deserve it.
And then we have Ron, who is able to provide for Harry the next best thing to a family of his own, a chance to become part of a family who will treat him as if the only difference between them and him is red hair and freckles.
And Ron knows that if he does this, if he gives Harry what he needs, it will make his own need EVEN MORE UNATTAINABLE.
Because the fact that he has so many brothers and sisters is what gives him that need in the first place.
And welcoming ANOTHER damn brother?
An extraordinarily FAMOUS extra brother?
Can we just consider how selfless an action that is?
And yet he still does it, he still writes to his mum for a Christmas present for Harry, he still invites him to his overcrowded, rickety house ever summer, he STILL flies a car to SURREY just to give his friend a family, the thing he so desperately needs.
Just-
How can you hate someone like that?
How?
Yes!!!
So now let’s talk about the event that most Ron-haters use against him, his leaving during the horcrux hunt.
Now, as much as Steve Kloves wants you to think that it was because of a warped love triangle, it was not.
Ron has shared his family with Harry, the most precious thing, the only thing, he has. This action has put them in even more jeopardy than they might have been in. Ron is sick with worry about them, but Harry seems to not share this concern (he does, but he is not showing it at the moment for a myriad of reasons).
To Ron this is the ultimate betrayal. Here is Harry, who risked his own life, and the lives of others, to save Sirius when he thought he was in danger, but now he is doing nothing to ensure the safety of their family. They are making no progress and Harry seems not to have no urgency to do so.
Does Ron have insecurities? Yes (who doesn’t? especially at 17?)! But he has always dealt with them far better than most; it is only under the influence of the darkest magic that he falters. But, despite it all, he returns. How can you not love someone who would do all that?
I LOVE MY SON
So people who are mad that Ron left… like, totally missed the point of that whole sequence? Like, the feeling of Ron leaving was not at all, “Ron, how dare you leave.” It was, “Ron, please come back.” The entire purpose of that whole business is to show how indispensable Ron is. To show that Ron is wrong to undervalue himself. Everything Harry and Hermione undertake in his absence is doomed. Without him they are brittle and prone to despair. When he comes back, hope comes back.
Depriving Harry of Ron is an incredibly successful attack by the Horcrux; he can’t be held responsible any more than Ginny is responsible for opening the Chamber of Secrets. But we hold him responsible, because he holds himself responsible, and sets out to atone.
Ron comes through like a Gryffindor in that entire business. Coming back and making amends is one of the bravest actions in the entire series.
Loki is the Philosopher King 