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.
Loki is the Philosopher King 