In Defense of Severus Snape (And Those of Us Who Love Him)
Yeah, Snape as a child was drawn to Dark Magic and Death Eaters for his desire of power, due the his belief of it bringing him outta his bad situations. So when he got power, as Dumbledore's man, Voldemort's servant and Professor, he exhibited his power, flaunted it and in Harry Potter case, subconsciously making him pay for James Potter's behaviours, and asserting his power over his students. He became a bully as an adult, and perpetuated in the behaviours he faced as a child.
My most detested argument to hate Snape is people accusing his love for Lily being obsession and something to be creeped out by, a man having feelings and a basic sexuality isn't wrong.
It's only wrong if he forces such feelings to the person without their consent. Snape never stalked Lily, never harassed her, never even told her how he truly felt. He never burdened Lily, he never sought out Lily after she made it clear she wanted nothing to do with him.
Not to mention I believe the only reason he did not move on from her was out of trauma and guilt. He likely has some form of PTSD and is only living out of penance. Severus wanted to die when he learned he indirectly caused her death. I think in more normal circumstances, Severus would have been able to move on.
Quote from Tecolotlz on November 24, 2024, 9:54 pmMy most detested argument to hate Snape is people accusing his love for Lily being obsession and something to be creeped out by, a man having feelings and a basic sexuality isn't wrong.
It's only wrong if he forces such feelings to the person without their consent. Snape never stalked Lily, never harassed her, never even told her how he truly felt. He never burdened Lily, he never sought out Lily after she made it clear she wanted nothing to do with him.
Not to mention I believe the only reason he did not move on from her was out of trauma and guilt. He likely has some form of PTSD and is only living out of penance. Severus wanted to die when he learned he indirectly caused her death. I think in more normal circumstances, Severus would have been able to move on.
Whereas I don’t have any strong opinion of whether Snape would have moved on or not if we put off PTSD occurring in his life (which is likely even in my opinion that he could have C-PTSD), I completely agree on your point and even wrote meta on that topic exactly a while ago (on page 2 of “What is your interpretation of Snape’s love for Lily”, unfortunately I cannot add a link but it’s easy to find and I thought sharing might be an interesting way to return to this topic). Whereas I don’t want to repeat the whole thing over again of what already is accessible on the forum, I’d like to point out that apparently, a lot of Snape haters who do that happen to be people on younger end who participate in the modern standard of western society which’s take on love is very demonizing towards one-sided love, limerence and other lighter forms of obsession (which, I explained further there that it isn’t inherently meaning aggression and most cases of which were documented in completely healthy people!) ignoring the context that it’s not an objective way to perceive it and often shames a person for solely feeling such emotions, no matter if they actually are an abuser, stalker or creep or not and that other cultures and even western culture in earlier historical periods perceived unreciprocated, not combined with violence love of an admirer as something at most tragic or worth pity, not hate.
It reaches even the blown out of proportion levels of witch-hunt that turns out for them to call Snape a creep or stalker as if it was a fact even if it’s not even mentioned anywhere in the book and by no way can be considered canon as well as… simply feels disrespectful to real people at times by ridiculing or minimizing things that can be absolutely realistic part of their trauma or neurodiversity/ways someone can act and process things like because of it. That said, ironically Marauder fans who hate Snape very often decide to ignore the fact of James canonically pestering Lily and blackmailing her to go out with him in exchange for him stopping to bully Severus in contrast to him actually being the one who left her alone after being told off a single time.
Quote from Waldemar on November 29, 2024, 2:20 pmQuote from Tecolotlz on November 24, 2024, 9:54 pmMy most detested argument to hate Snape is people accusing his love for Lily being obsession and something to be creeped out by, a man having feelings and a basic sexuality isn't wrong.
It's only wrong if he forces such feelings to the person without their consent. Snape never stalked Lily, never harassed her, never even told her how he truly felt. He never burdened Lily, he never sought out Lily after she made it clear she wanted nothing to do with him.
Not to mention I believe the only reason he did not move on from her was out of trauma and guilt. He likely has some form of PTSD and is only living out of penance. Severus wanted to die when he learned he indirectly caused her death. I think in more normal circumstances, Severus would have been able to move on.
Whereas I don’t have any strong opinion of whether Snape would have moved on or not if we put off PTSD occurring in his life (which is likely even in my opinion that he could have C-PTSD), I completely agree on your point and even wrote meta on that topic exactly a while ago (on page 2 of “What is your interpretation of Snape’s love for Lily”, unfortunately I cannot add a link but it’s easy to find and I thought sharing might be an interesting way to return to this topic). Whereas I don’t want to repeat the whole thing over again of what already is accessible on the forum, I’d like to point out that apparently, a lot of Snape haters who do that happen to be people on younger end who participate in the modern standard of western society which’s take on love is very demonizing towards one-sided love, limerence and other lighter forms of obsession (which, I explained further there that it isn’t inherently meaning aggression and most cases of which were documented in completely healthy people!) ignoring the context that it’s not an objective way to perceive it and often shames a person for solely feeling such emotions, no matter if they actually are an abuser, stalker or creep or not and that other cultures and even western culture in earlier historical periods perceived unreciprocated, not combined with violence love of an admirer as something at most tragic or worth pity, not hate.
It reaches even the blown out of proportion levels of witch-hunt that turns out for them to call Snape a creep or stalker as if it was a fact even if it’s not even mentioned anywhere in the book and by no way can be considered canon as well as… simply feels disrespectful to real people at times by ridiculing or minimizing things that can be absolutely realistic part of their trauma or neurodiversity/ways someone can act and process things like because of it. That said, ironically Marauder fans who hate Snape very often decide to ignore the fact of James canonically pestering Lily and blackmailing her to go out with him in exchange for him stopping to bully Severus in contrast to him actually being the one who left her alone after being told off a single time.
I agree, people have become increasingly cruel to people who cannot help but feel love for someone who doesn't feel the same way. As long as you don't impose it on the non-reciprocal party, there's no harm. Time is the best healer! I think love and devotion without asking anything in return are beautiful sentiments and not something to ridicule someone for. Love is love at the end of the day!
