is he good bad? saviour or judas wannabe?
2007-05-25 04:04:31 · 13 answers · asked by Anonymous in Arts & Humanities ➔ Books & Authors
Snape is Snape. He is beyond the sort of simplistic categorization as "good" or "evil", IMHO. I do believe he is not as evil as he appeared at the end of HBP. It would take too much space to really go into this in detail, but consider this:
It is well known that Snape played the double-agent prior to the death of Harry's parents, and there is no reason to believe he wasn't still a double agent on the anti-Voldemort side. Why then did he bind himself to the success of Draco's mission and then actually kill Dumbledore?
My answer: Dumbledore knew that destroying Slytherin's ring had fatally wounded him and Snape knew so too. Therefore he allowed himself to be bound to Dumbledore"s death, a death he knew was imminent and against which he knew Dumbeldore had taken precautions to ensure that his death would not derail the anti-Voldemort movement.
Now, on the other hand, if Snape has turned coats; why did he not kill Harry* or disable him and take him helpless to Voldemort? JKR made it clear that Harry is no match for Snape as a wizard (yet). If you look at Snapes "taunts" at Harry and put them into anyone else's mouth, they're very good advice on what Harry needs yet to learn to fight strong adult wizards on anything like equal terms.
My answer is that Dumbledore at some point shortly after Harry was orphaned made Snape take an unbreakable vow to protect Harry. This fits in perfectly with Snape's actions toward Harry in the books thus far. Yes, Snape is a mean SOB to Harry, but that is Snape's personality, and he didn't vow to be nice to Harry after all.
My conclusion is that in Book Seven, Snape will act covertly and eventually overtly to aid Harry, that he will likely live, and that Harry will be just as in the dark over Snape's motivations as when Harry entered Hogwarts. (BTW, the above is why I don't think Harry will die. If I'm right, then Snape dies too if Harry dies, and Snape is the ultimate survivor).
*My reading of the prophecy is that there is no requirement that either has to directly kill the other, just that one no longer lives, so I think Snape certainly could have killed Harry and talked his way out of it afterwards
2007-05-25 04:27:17 · answer #1 · answered by WolverLini 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋
I think he is on his own. I think we will discover some deep, dark secret that is the reason why Snape acts as he does. I think he acts in the moment, in other words he is on whatever side he feels is right at the time. Perhaps he is a mercenary and works for the highest bidder, or perhaps we will discover a third "side" not Voldemort and not Good, and Snape will turn out to be working for them instead. It's all getting a bit cheesy though, to be honest and I find myself not caring awfully much these days...
2007-06-01 19:12:15 · answer #2 · answered by samuraisorceress 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Not Saviour. Not Judas. More like Nicodemus.
He was the guy that had pesonal talks with Jesus (Albus), but when the only one ever feared was about to die, did nothing to help. Then when Peter(Harry), the head disciple, had problems, he spoke up and got him out of trouble.
Snape's number one concern is Snape. Different from Pettigrew since one likes to stay near the leaders while the other hangs out with rats.
2007-05-25 06:22:35 · answer #3 · answered by wizebloke 7 · 1⤊ 1⤋
I dont really kno and im eager to find out in July. here are some things i came up wiht while pondering:
Everyon thinks he must be good because dumbledore trusted him, right? well in one of the previous books, JKR made dumbledore stress how even he could make mistakes, maybe foreshadowing for this one?
Or, remember in Romeo and Juliet, how the apothecary makes a potion that gives the appearance of death? well maybe Snape cast a similar spell.
WolverLini brings up several good points: like he knew that dumbledore was going to die soon, and he might as well kill him to insure Voldie's trust.
Or, maybe he's bi-polar!
2007-05-27 15:32:27 · answer #4 · answered by coolity 1 · 0⤊ 0⤋
I believe that if Dumbledoor could trust Snape, whatever his reasons, so can I. Even though he is only a character in a book, he deserves to be trusted. I don't know why Snape "killed" Dumbledoor. If it wasn't for a good reason, I hope that he will discover that Dumbledoor trusted him because he has potential and power to do great things and help Harry succeed.
2007-05-25 11:34:43 · answer #5 · answered by Rachel H 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
I think he's good. There is a lot of hinting toward it in book 6, but I think the main thing is that Dumbledore trusted him. I think in order for Snape to deeply infiltrate the death eaters, he needed to do something to make them trust him and Dumbledore planned it all. We'll see though, I've been surprised by JK Rowling before.
2007-05-25 04:33:03 · answer #6 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
Hero
2016-05-17 11:30:36 · answer #7 · answered by ? 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
I think he is good. I think he and Dumbledore planned for one to kill the other because keeping Snape close to the enemy and help the good guys was moore important. At least I really hate to think that Dumbledore trusted him for nothing.
2007-05-31 17:40:48 · answer #8 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
He is a little bit of both. He will uphold the right when the last chips fall. but he will do so in a way that makes him look like a dark wizard.
2007-06-01 13:54:18 · answer #9 · answered by Coasty 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
I want him to be the bad guy.
I really want harry to be able to kill him in the end.
Hate Snape forever!!!
2007-05-25 04:22:03 · answer #10 · answered by **meel** 4 · 0⤊ 1⤋