Severus Snape - Tumblr Posts
In the Forest of Dean.
It's been quite a while since I've been on here actually posting. Work and life and severe art block really gave me no time to do any sort of art works. I have hope that I can get back into making more Severus Snape artwork because I really and truly love this misunderstood man. I hope every one of y'all have a great day and rest of the week! 😄
My weirdest headcanon is that at the end of 4th year Remus bites his leg off during a transformation. It's the first moon after his mum's funeral so he's extra distressed and the wolf isn't having it. Pomfrey is terrified when she finds him all mangled and cold from blood loss, and it's the first time James, Peter and Sirius aren't allowed to see him right away. Pomfrey magically sews his leg back together, of course, but like all his werewolf injuries it doesn't heal quite right. Now Remus has to hide his newfound limp to avoid suspicion. It makes Severus question him even more than before though, especially with Professors making up new excuses for Remus' absence after that since, you know, his mum's illness can't be a reason anymore. It also makes James, Peter and Sirius work faster on their animagi master plan cuz "bloody hell he chewed off his leg!"
I found your blog through a few of these hashtags and I think it's crazy that you're losing followers over a Snape post. Now as far as Lily goes, she seems to be someone who not only overlooks the nastiness/ prejudice in people she likes and are mutually beneficial for her, but also someone who is loose with breaking rules, black and white thinking, and someone who clings to societal status subconsciously.
To start off with Snape, she clings onto him because he is her first childhood friend who is magical and that she is very whimsical with. However, we see this friendship fall apart even before SWM where she says they're "best friends" but also fails to ask him about the werewolf incident and says "my friends don't understand why I hang out with you." It's curious to me that she doesn't say "other friends," so I feel like she confirmed Snape's "best friends" question as a way to placate him. Nonetheless, she doesn't formally sever ties until SWM.
Next, with James she she regards him as an "arrogant toerag" to Snape, but in SWM when her attention is fixed on James she notes that he "messes up his hair" and "shows off with the snitch." Those are two observations from someone who has been closely watching him. As some others have said before, I'm pretty sure she was also attracted to the security James offered in terms of social hierarchy as well as related to his black and white thinking and blind loyalty to those he considered friends. As far as Lily goes with rule-breaking, she isn't hung up on it--case in point with two instances: her jumping off swings even when told not to and her letter to Sirius in which she laments that "there is no chance for excursions because Dumbledore took James's invisibility cloak." James would've been fine without the cloak since he could transform, but she couldn't.
Aside from the aforementioned points, I doubt she challenged Slughorn's views on the Slug Club and his covert prejudice in general--pointing out her subconscious desire for a higher social status. This is something that is contrasted when Harry meets Slughorn and immediately catches onto and turns him off.
it’s funny that i’m losing followers over a snape post in 2022 of all things bc i’ve never cared about snape, i’m neutral on snape, have never even really talked about snape but he’s important for perspective on the marauders & lily, and is in my opinion under-consulted in what we can understand about lily’s character.
i do have an appreciation for how snape fans can be objective and neutral and don’t whitewash the marauders and see them in a more human and recognisable way than marauders fans. james and sirius, and lily, were flawed and biased people and i don’t care to whitewash that, it’s actually very boring to whitewash that and i also think snape fans have remus pinned down brilliantly
snape was also obviously morally grey and i don’t whitewash that but i also never talk about snape so that’s sort of that
different perspectives are interesting and the “how did they go from swm to married” is one of the only aspects of jily that is remotely interesting. did james and lily get married bc james got nice or was lily not actually necessarily super nice?
Listen I’ll stop trashing Snape as soon as someone can give me a good reason for Neville Longbottom, the boy whose parents were tortured to insanity by someone who is still alive, to be more afraid of Snape than anything in the world.
Grayness in HP: Author Pet Peeve
Recent pet peeve of mine: I hate when authors whitewash their favorite characters or 'revert" complex characters to being static, and keep emphasizing stereotypes especially in books where we are supposed to embrace the grayness in people and situations.
Addressing the whitewashing of characters: One of JKR's favorite characters Remus Lupin received a sanitized profile on Pottermore which in essence downplayed some of his glaring flaws as seen in canon and attributed characteristics to him which contradict events seen in POA. The characteristic I refer to is the notion of supposed "respectful politeness" displayed to Severus Snape. Sure, Remus may appear pleasant on the surface, but he frequently shows the audience and his students how he views Snape as an authority figure by dressing his boggart in an old woman's clothes (a trans-misogynistic action depicted as humorous), gaslighting him about the Marauder's Map even while withholding crucial information about supposed mass murderer Sirius Black, and reducing the extent of the Snape-Marauder relationship to one of a "schoolboy grudge" and claiming that "Snape was jealous of James's quidditch talent." Granted for the last one Lupin didn't know Snape was there, but how one talks about people especially behind their back reveals their true nature. Whitewashing one's favorite character not only reveals one's blind spots but also sets double standards in objectively assessing the grayness of all characters, regardless of an author's personal feelings.
Snape: He was a victim of some gruesome acts and had a primary redemption arc working behind the scenes of his vindicitive behavior. However, when analyzing him after the books were written, her takeaway is that he "smells of bitterness and old shoes" (Twitter 2015), thus re-emphasizing his unsavory aspects.
The Prince's Tale Memory: The "I think we sort too soon" line from Dumbledore to Snape. This is extremely problematic, especially coming from a character known for his sage advice, in that it is implied that good or brave people cannot be Slytherins which in turn sends a damaging message to people in real life that the stereotype of the group/school you associate with defines you even if you possess and act on other good qualities.
This notion is backed up by JKR when conducting a Q&A with fans on Twitter:
"@RainDragon182 Not all Slytherins think they're racially superior. But all those who do are Slytherins" (JKR Twitter, 2015).
Going back to my example of schools, there are some high schools in my city with a fantastic reputation, but that doesn't mean that every person in a "good school" is an exemplar human being. It would be naive to think that in a superb school there aren't kids who constantly get into fights, truant, or are underachieving students in standardized tests--all hallmarks for a "poor school."
In a book series which emphasizes that people's flaws are to be acknowledged and ascertains that people aren't wholly wonderful nor irredeemable, the author contradicts this notion with her subsequent words on public platforms which will undoubtedly reach a much wider population than those who are solely fans of Harry Potter.
I have to laugh at the two dunderheads on reddit who made a separate server called "snapewasanincel." I think they forgot about Instagram and Twitter being perfect niches for them. Bonus: They are the sole commenters on the others post in that sub. The jokes truly write themselves.
This!
I'm not sure why people fault Snape for refusing to teach Harry Occlumency (and I've noticed that some do). I mean, all right, he might've done better, but the fact remains that:
1- Harry invaded his privacy. And no, that wasn't justified in the slightest (Don't get me wrong. Harry's one of my favorite characters. But he's also done some not-so-cool things, which shouldn't be overlooked).
2- Harry wasn't learning his lessons properly, despite Dumbledore's injunction that he should.
The memory Harry had witnessed was very personal and painful for Snape. I've even found people arguing that he'd wanted Harry to notice it because he'd left the Pensieve out in the open.
Did Snape have to insult Harry during the lessons? No.
But is he a bad person for not having continued to teach someone who clearly wasn't interested and disrespected his instructor's boundaries? No.
Unperceptive Harry is definitely coming thru! Also if he were Hermione he’d have probably connected the dots solely based on the “small, cramped” handwriting seen in SWM and once again in the book.
the half-blood prince literally wrote “just shove a bezoar down their throats” in the antidote section of advanced potion making, like how did harry not know it was snape for even a second
The #snegulus ship I’ve been seeing on my timeline confuses me since it can go both ways: Regulus could be a walking trigger since he’s described as closely resembling Sirius or teen Snape might’ve chosen to befriend him since he was a rich pureblood in Slytherin.
The take from a small sect of Snapedom asserting that Lily should’ve remained friends with Snape and that she “shouldn’t have abandoned her friend who was having a tough time fitting in” as well as “she should’ve inquired more into his home life” even when he showed signs of not being willing to talk about the full extent of it are ones rooted in misogyny. Women should be allowed to be supportive to an extent but also have boundaries on what they are willing to accept. We aren’t therapy centers for men. Let Snape be someone who was both a victim and had agency over making his ultimate decisions-it makes his character more compelling.
What you can criticize Lily for is turning a blind eye to the flaws of those close to her such as choosing to date James in her later years despite him being a horrendous bullying ass and Snape as mentioned previously. You can also say that her brushing off Snape with a “you should be grateful” after the werewolf incident was an extremely callous response to someone who went through a very traumatic incident.
Thanks @snapesnailtape for the idea to post this.
Not James’s puppy 🤣. But seriously it’s ok to accept their flaws and their assholeness as part of the character it makes them more interesting-more Sirius than James for me. (I loathe James).
something I find annoying about snape stans is the fact we do not know the context of what happened between the marauders and Snape excluding two flashback chapters
and remember the conversation about SWM included Sirius a man who spent 12 years of his life in a prison that has guards who suck out souls ( so he probably doesn’t remember everything properly)
It’s a bit scary to me how much people deferred to Dumbledore during the war effort. It makes it satisfying when characters like Snape and Harry (in DH) question and challenge him.
This is coming from someone who actually likes Dumbledore-it’s both astounding and amazing how he has people wrapped around his finger.
It is very odd to me when some people downplay what Harry went through with Dudley like Harry hunting pre-Hogwarts because Harry “baits him.” There are explicit parallels in the text between Harry empathizing with Snape after seeing SWM as he “knew how it felt to be humiliated” and the recounting of general humiliation both during SS and during Occlumency lessons.
Here is a friendly reminder that abuse victims don’t need to be “perfect” for their abuse to be valid and they can cope with it in different ways.
Yeah I recommend the blog by Lorrie Kim if you’re a fan of both characters, but like ashes said—I do think the ending of it is a huge reach.
Side note: Lorrie Kim’s book on Snape is a very good analysis of him for the most part
Another interesting indication that Sirius irrationally projected his fam onto Snape…in OOTP he’s characterized as “breathing heavily as though he had run a long distance” after the Occlumency confrontation and the only other time he’s described similarly is after shutting the curtains of his mother’s portrait- “panting slightly” and a task that required a “stupendous effort.”
I like the examples you have brought up, but tbh, I think it just means Snape really knows how to get under his skin.
That said, if you enjoy reading Sirius and Snape parallels and dynamic, I suggest Lorrie Kim: Snape and Sirius in canon
I don't agree with all of it, but it was interesting nonetheless. This was brought to my attention by @indihpblog (thanks for this one)
Except make this Cokeworth Snape who picks ingredients from other people’s yards for his own use.
Little Sneep harvesting potions ingredients from the neighbourhood allotments 🌿
Regulus Black is the highly discounted Severus Snape. In fact he’s best compared to a much braver Narcissa/Draco combo. But, some will say Snape “bullied kids and did a one off brave act, but Regulus was the kid that slipped through the cracks.”
Yeah I’ve read the books too, but people like the “brave Slytherin DE switched sides” only when it fits their cookie cutter view of them.
I mean Dumbledore did the same thing too. He only stopped pursuing Grindelwald’s agenda when Ariana was killed.
Double standards in this fandom are becoming my main pet peeve one post at a time.
'severus only changed sides because of lily >:(' yeah so what, still changed sides and helped a lot of people, my dude.
Snape lovers, canon text, word of God: Snape was morally grey and did both good and bad things. He is an imperfect, messy, realistic victim of trauma and abuse and he also perpetuated some of that abuse in his own way. His redemption arc is only meaningful because of the bad things and because he recognised them as such and gave up the entire rest of his life to atone for it, doing miserable things he hated, being a person he hated, never experiencing love again. He couldn’t undo the things he had participated in, but he was a necessary piece in winning the war and without him Voldemort would have won. There is nothing more he could have possibly done; if he had gone to Azkaban or killed himself he would not have been able to play that part. He did not get off without punishment because he punished himself every day by giving up his life and any chance of happiness to do it, believing he would always be hated and no one would know his true loyalties or sacrifice. He was murdered before he could even know it hadn’t all been in vain, a death that even the murderer recognised was for petty reasons. He is a jerk, he is selfless, he is mean, he is a victim, he is a former Death Eater, he is a hero. He is all of these things at once and that’s what makes his story compelling.
Snape haters: lol he was the devil and he died because he was bitten by a snake, which he deserved because he was mean to students sometimes