Why I Dislike Snape: A Discussion

Okay, don’t attack me, hear me out. Even if you aren’t in the Harry Potter fandom, you’ve probably picked up that a lot of people get emotional at the word ‘Always’ thanks to the character of Severus Snape. He is something of a hero within this fandom due to his back-story, which was shown to us in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (Part 2 if you’re a fan of the movies), long-story-short, this backstory told us that Snape had a crush on Harry’s mum Lily and for a period of time, he and Lily were friends, however, Snape had a ~slightly~ prejudiced view of muggle-borns and was interested in the Dark Arts, Lily didn’t like this for obvious reasons, but still tried to be friendly until Snape called her a ‘mudblood’. Lily stopped associating with him, fell in love with James Potter etc etc. Snape then became a Death Eater, as a Death Eater he found out about the plans Voldemort had to kill the Potters and sought help from Dumbledore, he went on to be a spy for Dumbledore and played a part in Harry’s success in defeatind Voldemort. Sounds pretty heroic, right? WRONG? I don’t like Snape, and I don’t like the reasons behind his actions, so lets go slightly more in-depth.

Year One

From Snape’s very first lesson, he leaves many people asking themselves what the hell this dude’s problem is, and his problem is ultimately that he is upset about something that happened to him when he was a little boy (I’m in no way saying that events from your past can’t upset you, of course they can, but Snape took out this festering anger on CHILDREN that had nothing to do with the reason he’s upset). Some people kind of justify this by saying that Snape was traumatised by the prank The Marauders played on him and Harry looks so much like James that James is all Snape sees when he looks at Harry, and therefore resulting in anger. To that, I respond, what about my poor, precious little baby, Neville? But more on him later.

Year Two

Year two was more-or-less the same as the first with Snape’s attitude, he is still cruel to all students who aren’t in Slytherin, which shows that his cruelty wasn’t trauma based, he was clearly biased towards his own house, he shows very clearly that he will allow his students to be cruel and bully others because he doesn’t want to take house points away from them.

Year Three

Snape in the PoA is actually Satan’s spawn, I’ve made a list because it would be too long for me to write a paragraph for each thing:

• Literally threatens the life of Neville’s pet because he is a malicious man who is full of spite and finds joy in abusing children
• Goes on to insult Nevilles abilities in other subjects in front of the entire class and the teacher
• The fact that Neville, a boy whose parents have LOST THEIR MINDS DUE TO TORTURE AT THE HANDS OF DARK WIZARDS, fears Snape above anything else in the world shows what a huge impact Snape’s cruelty had
• By teaching the class about werewolves when Lupin couldn’t teach, he took away Lupin’s right to represent himself as a person, and instead he taught a class of impressionable students that all werewolves are monsters
• (this one gets me rly mad because Sirius is one of my faves) HE WAS SO UPSET ABOUT A PRANK THAT WAS PULLED YEARS AND YEARS AGO THAT HE COMPLETELY LIED ABOUT EVERYTHING THAT HAPPENED WITH SIRIUS, HE KNEW SIRIUS WAS INNOCENT, BUT HE WANTED REVENGE SO HE LIED HIS ASS OF MEANING THAT SIRIUS WOULD STILL HAVE TO LIVE THE REST OF HIS LIFE IN HIDING, HE STILL HAD TO LIVE AS A MASS MURDERER, HE STILL HAD TO LIVE WITH BEING FEARED, HE HAD TO LIVE WITH EVERYONE THINKING HE COMMITTED A CRIME HE DIDN’T COMMIT

Year Four

Snape’s treatment of students was pretty much the same in year four, but I did want to bring one thing up: Draco casts a spell that results in Hermione’s teeth growing like crazy, and this grown-ass man had the nerve to look a 14/5 year old girl (who, as all teens, has probably had insecurities about certain things) in the eyes and tell her that he ‘sees no difference’????????? He was willing to destroy a girl’s confidence as a grown man, this is your ‘hero’? lol think again.

Year Five

In the fifth book, Sirius tells the trio that two years ago, Umbridge wrote a law against werewolves making it almost impossible for Lupin to find a job. What happened two years ago? Snape exposed Lupin, a man who was an amazing teacher and kept his condition under-control and away from his students, as a monster. What.An.Ass.

Year Six

I don’t think there was anything new in year six, but he was basically a literal douchebag.

Year Seven

And so, we arrive at the year where Snape becomes a hero, let me tell you why he is not a hero:

• Snape would’ve continued being a Death Eater if Lily wasn’t going to die, he didn’t care about doing something good and not killing innocent people, he cared about his creepy obsession with a woman who was happily married and had a child
• HE DROPPED A TREE BRANCH ON PETUNIA, I KNOW SHE ISN’T THE GREATEST BUT SHE WAS A CHILD, WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOUUUUUU?
• He ripped a photo of James and Lily and Harry being in a happy family and stole the half with Lily on it, that was Harry’s one family photo, and Snape took it to be a creep and stare at it

• SNAPE NEVER WANTED TO SAVE HARRY OR JAMES, HE WANTED TO SAVE LILY, HE WOULD’VE HAPPILY SEEN AN INNOCENT MAN AND HIS BABY BE MURDERED FOR NO REASON AS LONG AS HE COULD HAVE LILY

Conclusion

Snape was a creepy, obsessed man, he bullied children and made them fear him, he did everything he did for selfish reasons and he ruined lives. His morals were never good, he was never a good person and he never will be a good person ‘always’ isn’t cute, it’s a creepy quote about his obsession with his dead ex-friend, who he used slurs against.

Snape is a hero?

---

WOAAAAHH if you made it through this, thank you so much! What are your opinions on Snape? Do you think I’m wrong or that I missed anything out? Please let me know in the comments!