Snape: The Heroic Villain

Hi everyone..

For me Snape was not a villain at all. He was a true hero and I put him above many of the Order members as well.

Well for me Snape was an interesting characters: one of the best pieces of writing done by Rowling second only to how she handled Dumbledore's character.

I think, from Snape, JKR wanted to show the power of love.

Snape's dilemma, well, to be honest I find myself comparing him with Kreacher. Why?

Well, the whole Snape reversal came about because of Lily and his love for her which was stronger than any of his perspective on the pureblood-muggleborn issue and even stronger than his thirst for power.

In the first place, I think that Snape joined the Death Eaters to gain power which was his very own way of trying to impress Lily by carving an identity for himself.

Then he goes along with the Death Eater ideology fine enough and sort of brushes Lily under the carpet for the time being. His ideology is not challenged. There isn't much conflict in him of being right or wrong: he thinks he is right. He even goes and tells half the prophecy to Voldemort.

Then Lily comes right back into his mind (even though she never left) when he realizes that the prophecy puts her in life threatening danger. Then he begs Voldemort and tries his utmost to save Lily, all the while never caring much for her husband nor for her child. He cares just for Lily, as Dumbledore tells him (from the Pensieve memory)

Then comes Lily's death and afterwards we see how Dumbledore manipulates and pushes him into saving Lily Potter's son. And to do that, includes joining Dumbledore, going against Voldemort and his own pureblood ideology. He's gained enough magical power and might till now....

Even after Harry joins Hogwarts, Snape sees him only as James and Lily Potter's son. Mostly he sees him as James Potter's son and so the rough and many times cruel treatment of Harry all through the Hogwarts years.
He also knows him to be Lily's son though and so secretively he watches over Harry and when it comes down to it, protects him.

In all this time, I don't think Snape has ever truly seen Harry as he really is, he has always seen him as the son of his mortal enemy and his most beloved and everything he does after he joins Dumbledore: being an active part of the Order, double and triple crossing Voldemort, all the pretense and all the masks he wears are all to save Lily Potter's son.

So there you have the power of love. Everything he's done for most of his life has been for her. For her, he's given up on everything: his ideology, belief.

It is disturbing that Snape would probably follow Lily anywhere: even if she had been going off in the wrong direction. THAT is also the power of love.

And he hated Harry for being James's son (for curiously enough he only saw James in Harry) and wouldn't have thought twice about giving him over to Voldemort IF he had NOT being Lily's son.
Reminds me of a line Treebeard says in Lord of the Rings: "Side? I am on nobody's side because nobody is on my side".
Snape has always been on Lily's side all throughout.

So there you have it, quite a complex character which I can happily deliberate over for several hours!

JKR's brilliant!

@tina59 ..thnx for leaving ur opinion..indeed he is a hero..

For me Snape is an ideal of repentance....he is a man who helped Voldemort, unknowingly, in the horrible crime of destroying a home of a young child...but when he discovers what grave mistake he had done, he takes his wrongdoings to Dumbledore who he swears his loyalty to....but when his only love is lost, he swears to fight against the dark lord...to become what only a brave man can do, betray his friends for the right purpose....for a good cause...he goes to Dumbledore's side, helping him in every way whether it is to his interest or not....and never showing any kind of complaints about the torture he had to suffer in his past....he loathes Harry becuase it reminds him of James, yet he helps Harry out when Harry is cornered alone, with no one....his giving chracter makes him selfless yet his hatred makes him complex....he is the only slytherin that did not back down....he is what I would call a Hero anyday because a hero is not only what others think of you, but what you actually do without bragging about it....and that is what Severus Snape did and that is why he deserves an appluad and a salute by all....

Originally posted by: act12

For me Snape is an ideal of repentance....he is a man who helped Voldemort, unknowingly, in the horrible crime of destroying a home of a young child...but when he discovers what grave mistake he had done, he takes his wrongdoings to Dumbledore who he swears his loyalty to....but when his only love is lost, he swears to fight against the dark lord...to become what only a brave man can do, betray his friends for the right purpose....for a good cause...he goes to Dumbledore's side, helping him in every way whether it is to his interest or not....and never showing any kind of complaints about the torture he had to suffer in his past....he loathes Harry becuase it reminds him of James, yet he helps Harry out when Harry is cornered alone, with no one....his giving chracter makes him selfless yet his hatred makes him complex....he is the only slytherin that did not back down....he is what I would call a Hero anyday because a hero is not only what others think of you, but what you actually do without bragging about it....and that is what Severus Snape did and that is why he deserves an appluad and a salute by all....

The thing which disturbs me about Snape is that he repents of causing his best friend, his love's death. He repents only because of Lily.

He doesn't really care about the lives of any other young, helpless child who has been orphaned by the Death Eaters.

When he repents, it is because the love of his life is dead (mostly because of him) and not because he thinks killing innocent people, destroying families is wrong. He switches sides not because of morality but because of love.

The other dark side to this whole issue would have been if Lily had been in love with Severus and for him, if she had gone over to the dark side. This would have been the mirror of the whole Snape going over to Dumbledore's side arc and frankly it is quite disturbing because it makes me wonder whether there IS any sense of logic and morality when we fall in love. )This makes NO sense!!)

Another thing I wonder is whether Lily ever had any romantic feelings for Snape during their school years. I somehow doubt it because of one of the Pensieve scenes in which its shown that Lily knows about severus's feelings for her and she just sort of nudges him away gently. Its been a long time since I have read DH so I don't remember the absolute details!

Originally posted by: Eloquent

The thing which disturbs me about Snape is that he repents of causing his best friend, his love's death. He repents only because of Lily.

He doesn't really care about the lives of any other young, helpless child who has been orphaned by the Death Eaters.

When he repents, it is because the love of his life is dead (mostly because of him) and not because he thinks killing innocent people, destroying families is wrong. He switches sides not because of morality but because of love.

The other dark side to this whole issue would have been if Lily had been in love with Severus and for him, if she had gone over to the dark side. This would have been the mirror of the whole Snape going over to Dumbledore's side arc and frankly it is quite disturbing because it makes me wonder whether there IS any sense of logic and morality when we fall in love. )This makes NO sense!!)

Another thing I wonder is whether Lily ever had any romantic feelings for Snape during their school years. I somehow doubt it because of one of the Pensieve scenes in which its shown that Lily knows about severus's feelings for her and she just sort of nudges him away gently. Its been a long time since I have read DH so I don't remember the absolute details!

Sorry but i disagree with the title of the topic .Snape was never a Heroic Villian or for that matter villian & he was Always a Hero ,yes he was on villians side so that he can protect Harry😊.His actions probably made Harry & co think he is bad ,but snape was doing that so that he can be in good books on Voldermorts Supporters list




For me the true Hero of Harry potter Books & movies is Severus Snape . some can argue Harry fought all the evils & so on ,But If Snape had'nt been on Voldermort's side & if he had not misguided him at right moments then probably harry would have been killed when dumbeldore died😉 .

Can't say he is completely flawless & then who is there .Yes he loved Lily Potter But as he was in bad influence while he was student probably that stopped lily from taking or even thinking of taking their friendship to another level even if she wanted to & the last straw was when he called her that Bad word " M-DBL--D" when he was angry & insulted.

Yes he never liked Harry or his Dad & that is understandable as he lost his love ,But he always Protected Harry as promised to Dumbeldore .He was never good to harry probably partial to his house students especialy Draco😉.For me snape was a Hero from first part when Voldermort (was using that professors body to survive )disclosed that Snape was protecting & from that time i was very much sure he was on Good side .

when he killed Dumbeldore the expression on his face said more than his actions & the way dumbeldore pleaded him Severus Please said more volume & then somewhere i knew there is more than what meets the eyes😊



will add later

Originally posted by: ANJANA

Sorry but i disagree with the title of the topic .Snape was never a Heroic Villian or for that matter villian & he was Always a Hero ,yes he was on villians side so that he can protect Harry😊.His actions probably made Harry & co think he is bad ,but snape was doing that so that he can be in good books on Voldermorts Supporters list




For me the true Hero of Harry potter Books & movies is Severus Snape . some can argue Harry fought all the evils & so on ,But If Snape had'nt been on Voldermort's side & if he had not misguided him at right moments then probably harry would have been killed when dumbeldore died😉 .

Can't say he is completely flawless & then who is there .Yes he loved Lily Potter But as he was in bad influence while he was student probably that stopped lily from taking or even thinking of taking their friendship to another level even if she wanted to & the last straw was when he called her that Bad word " M-DBL--D" when he was angry & insulted.

Yes he never liked Harry or his Dad & that is understandable as he lost his love ,But he always Protected Harry as promised to Dumbeldore .He was never good to harry probably partial to his house students especialy Draco😉.For me snape was a Hero from first part when Voldermort (was using that professors body to survive )disclosed that Snape was protecting & from that time i was very much sure he was on Good side .

when he killed Dumbeldore the expression on his face said more than his actions & the way dumbeldore pleaded him Severus Please said more volume & then somewhere i knew there is more than what meets the eyes😊



will add later