Quote from
Naaga on July 10, 2023, 3:54 am
Source: Snape doesn’t want revenge
I'm baffled at where the idea that Snape wants revenge on Voldemort came from. He never expresses that, ever. Not once. His reasons for opposing him are quite clear, remorse, desire for atonement, opposition to the deaths of innocents and to blood purism. They are about as explicitly spelled out for us as you can get.
That’s an interesting observation! If I had to take a stab at it, I’d imagine it’s the result of several mental shortcuts that look something like this:
- Snape cares about Lily—>
- Voldemort killed her—>
- Revenge is a natural, strong human motivator, like ~*romantic love!*~ —>
- (plus “vengeance over the death of the woman he loved!” is an antihero staple trope) —>
- Snape works against Voldemort, so he must dislike him—>
- Therefore he must have a burning personal grudge against Voldemort—>
- because he enjoys petty vengeance against Harry, right? —>
- and also seems to enjoy vengeance against Lupin and Sirius, too!—>
- and he also hates James and probably would want revenge against him, too —>
- so he must want vengeance for Lily’s death!
- You hurt me by killing her! Now I will destroy you!
But like you pointed out, Voldemort’s not Snape’s nemesis. He doesn’t think Voldemort victimized him by killing her. He doesn’t blame Voldemort for luring him in or seducing him to the Dark Side—that would give Voldemort far too much credit. Voldemort was bad, but the real problem for Snape is that he willingly went along with the murderer.
All signs indicate that Snape takes full responsibility for his actions and blames only himself for what happened. What’s the point of hurting Voldemort back? Lily’s death wasn’t as painful as it was because Voldemort murdered her, but because Snape’s actions killed her. That’s all that matters. Making up for what he did by reducing harm, protecting people, and stopping Voldemort, who is wrong and dangerous.
Also, if Snape felt the same kind of seething, personal anger that he displays in PoA at the marauders, etc, towards Voldemort, I highly doubt Occlumency would be able to cover it up.
Snape really is Lupin’s inverse. He always takes responsibility for his fuck ups, with his big problem being his utter lack of self awareness. Lupin is the opposite in that he’s extremely aware of his flaws, he just rarely does anything about them.
Source: Snape doesn’t want revenge
I'm baffled at where the idea that Snape wants revenge on Voldemort came from. He never expresses that, ever. Not once. His reasons for opposing him are quite clear, remorse, desire for atonement, opposition to the deaths of innocents and to blood purism. They are about as explicitly spelled out for us as you can get.
That’s an interesting observation! If I had to take a stab at it, I’d imagine it’s the result of several mental shortcuts that look something like this:
- Snape cares about Lily—>
- Voldemort killed her—>
- Revenge is a natural, strong human motivator, like ~*romantic love!*~ —>
- (plus “vengeance over the death of the woman he loved!” is an antihero staple trope) —>
- Snape works against Voldemort, so he must dislike him—>
- Therefore he must have a burning personal grudge against Voldemort—>
- because he enjoys petty vengeance against Harry, right? —>
- and also seems to enjoy vengeance against Lupin and Sirius, too!—>
- and he also hates James and probably would want revenge against him, too —>
- so he must want vengeance for Lily’s death!
- You hurt me by killing her! Now I will destroy you!
But like you pointed out, Voldemort’s not Snape’s nemesis. He doesn’t think Voldemort victimized him by killing her. He doesn’t blame Voldemort for luring him in or seducing him to the Dark Side—that would give Voldemort far too much credit. Voldemort was bad, but the real problem for Snape is that he willingly went along with the murderer.
All signs indicate that Snape takes full responsibility for his actions and blames only himself for what happened. What’s the point of hurting Voldemort back? Lily’s death wasn’t as painful as it was because Voldemort murdered her, but because Snape’s actions killed her. That’s all that matters. Making up for what he did by reducing harm, protecting people, and stopping Voldemort, who is wrong and dangerous.
Also, if Snape felt the same kind of seething, personal anger that he displays in PoA at the marauders, etc, towards Voldemort, I highly doubt Occlumency would be able to cover it up.
Snape really is Lupin’s inverse. He always takes responsibility for his fuck ups, with his big problem being his utter lack of self awareness. Lupin is the opposite in that he’s extremely aware of his flaws, he just rarely does anything about them.
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