Latest Posts by khayltille - Page 6

Otto Octavius: You know, Curt, I could just make you a robot arm.

Dr. Connors (exasperated): That would be very nice for ME, but it's not a solution most could afford. I want to create something accessible to everyone. Everyone, no matter their station or disability, deserves the opportunity to be healed.

Otto: But

Otto: It would be very nice for you, right?

And once again actuator refs. 😊☕

Actuators are love ❤️😊☕

i always find it interesting when fanfic writes papyrus as very emotionally aware and empathetic and sans as nervous and unable to read others' intentions because canonically, it's the other way around.

sans can literally figure out exactly how many times he's killed you by the look on your face. meanwhile, papyrus mistakes your clear disgust with his spaghetti for passion and projects his own feelings about puzzles and friendship onto you.

the difference is that papyrus is extraordinarily COMPASSIONATE, even if he's not super empathetic. he can't always tell what someone is feeling, but he cares deeply and tries to help as soon as he knows that something is wrong. he is also usually pretty good at figuring out what people need! like, for instance, knowing alphys needs a friend in the true lab, or realizing undyne needs a challenge to motivate her to become friends with you.

meanwhile, sans is so depressed and apathetic that he just... doesn't seem able to muster up enough energy to care for other people in the same way. he understands how other people are feeling, but that doesn't necessarily translate to compassion for him. he cares about his brother, and he cares about toriel, and he eventually comes to care about you in a pacifist run but... other than that it seems like he struggles to care about others.

anyway, i just find it interesting that people mistake papyrus's compassion for empathy, and sans' apathy as a lack of empathy.

DELTA_EXPERIMENT - Chapter 3-13

[MASTERPOST]

[Discord]

[Art Blog]

Aaaand because I did end up getting inspired for such…here’s some more elaborations on Alphys and the Amalgams! Following off of part one here.

Extra thanks to Rebmakash for coming up with the Mew Mew Kissy Cutie OP lyrics!

I can’t remember if I’ve said this before but I think that if you make a Batman 1920s AU then you have to take into account that Bertie Wooster often spent time living in New York and Gotham City is just New York Noir and Bruce Wayne would probably cultivate the acquaintance of Bertie Wooster because Bertie is exactly the sort of person Bruce wants people to think he is, so it’s both birds of a feather camouflage and because he wants to observe Bertie for behavioural ideas.

Bertie, ray of sunshine that he is, thinks Bruce is jolly good fun and really quite barmy, but he already has a friend called Barmy and he can’t manage two Barmies so he affectionately dubs him Batty.

Consequently Bruce exists in a state of nagging uncertainty as to whether Bertie is the golden-hearted silly ass he so transparently appears to be, or is in fact one of his villains, knowing who he is and taunting him.

Wholesome content from Teacher Appreciation Celebration in Hogwarts Mystery!

it’s very wild to me that people can earnestly and sincerely say shit like “well snape fought back, so was it really bullying?” and not just like… hear how utterly gross they sound tbh. like do i have to use the “think about if this was an actual, real kid” argument to get people see that fighting back doesn’t erase victimhood or magically turn bullying into rivalry or friendly roughhousing?

idk. i feel like people say that shit really never experienced bullying in their whole damn life. bc how could they truly think that fighting back against bullies, shoving back, throwing back insults and punches, is anywhere near making things “equal”? defending yourself is not nearly the same thing as starting a fight for fun. protecting yourself is not the same as hurting someone else. like do they just like… forget how to use empathy and critical reasoning skills when it comes to snape or are they just really that clueless??

Head canon!: Severus wasn’t actually super powerful magic wise. Like he has a normal magic level. He’s so good at dueling, not because he uses overwhelming force but rather because he knows various spells, when and where to cast them, is extremely creative with them and is very dextrous. All skills he learned at a young age fighting against 4 people at once. He learned to fight dirty and for his own survival and he learned fast! He’s such a unique opponent because at any point he could also pull out a potion bottle or make a wall fall down on you you never noticed. He never fights ‘honorably’ because that will get you a early an shallow grave, he fights tooth and nail using any and all tactics to win and THAT is what makes him a good fighter.

"Given how important the idea of intelligence is to most people’s vanity, it is critical never inadvertently to insult or impugn a person’s brain power. That is an unforgivable sin." - Robert Greene When I read this sentence, I immediately thought of how Snape's immediate response to James and Sirius's Gryffindor aspirations was to impugn their intelligence, and how - for years and years - they insisted that he was in fact the stupid one, from the insults on the marauders' map (I think "padfoot" called him an idiot?) to the party line they all toed, that the underlying reason for the enmity was that James and Sirius were... good at things. Every time I start getting over how angry the whole thing makes me, something occurs to me that makes me angry all over again. Truly, how dare this impoverished nobody suggest that he might be intelligent, and more intelligent than the two rich purebloods! I wonder how come this is not such a sore spot for Lupin. Meanwhile, whenever Sirius does ascribe intelligence to Snape, it's of the "evil" and "wrong" kind. I gotta hand it to Harry and Ron. They got to age 12 (TWELVE!) already able to live with the fact that someone's cleverer than them and love her all the same. Imagine

I genuinely have no clue where this fandom gets the idea that James and Snape were rivals. The definition of rivalry is competition for the same objective or for superiority in the same field.

If James and Snape were rivals, as many like to call them, what were they competing for?

Lily?

No. Snape and Lily were best friends, years before James and Snape even met. And Lily is not a “prize to be won” which many people—including James, as we see in SWM—fail to understand.

Their studies? [I’m including this because I’ve actually seen someone try to use this argument before]

No. That had nothing to do with their feud. And James and Snape excelled in different subjects. Snape was brilliant at potions and DADA. James was highly knowledgeable in transfiguration.

Unlike Harry and Draco (who were rivals when it came to Quidditch), James and Snape had nothing you could argue they were “competing over.”

Another important thing many people seem to forget about rivalries is that it means equality. Rivals’ statuses/dynamics are meant to be balanced. Does that apply to Snape and James?

James Potter: was a rich, well-groomed, spoiled pureblood Gryffindor.

Severus Snape: was a poor, unattractive, neglected half-blood Slytherin.

It can only ever be called a rivalry when both sides are equally powerful, which cannot be said for James and Snape whatsoever.

A huge reason as to why people like to call it that is because Snape apparently “gave as good as he got” (I like how there was not a single time that phrase was ever used in the series). They use a line said by Remus—one of Snape’s bullies, funnily enough—in OoTP as evidence of Snape’s supposed fighting back:

“Snape was a special case. I mean, he never lost an opportunity to curse James, so you couldn’t really expect James to take that lying down, could you?”

To a majority of this fandom, never losing an opportunity (opportunity: a time or set of circumstances that makes it possible to do something, Remus never said anything about Snape succeeding all the time) to curse James—who, in the author’s words, relentlessly bullied Snape for the past six years—in their 7th year (one year) meant “giving as good as he got” and automatically cancels out everything James did to Snape for the six years before that.

Demonising Snape for wanting to get back at James after being subjected to bullying, assault, and even attempted murder (the werewolf prank) for years is complete and utter victim-blaming. If the victim fights back, it is to be called self-defence, not “bullying back” (there is no such thing anyway) or a rivalry. Acting as though in order to be a “good victim”—whatever that’s supposed to mean—you have to take the bullying lying down, and if you defend yourself, you’re reclassified as the bad guy, is genuinely disgusting to me. If a woman were to defend herself against her assaulters, would she be in the wrong, would that negate what the assaulters did to her?

The pro-bullying and victim-blaming attitude that comes from this fandom is revolting. Defending oneself does not alter the dynamic from a person with more power bullying a victim to a rivalry between two equals. When will people learn to understand that.

And besides, there is absolutely nothing to back up Remus’s claim. In fact, there is more evidence that he was lying:

Remus makes it sound like Snape would just come up to James randomly and just hex him there and then. If he did, don’t you think Lily would’ve found out? Or at the very least the Hogwarts staff? That very much suggests that it was James who initiated these fights.

The Marauders had the cloak of invisibility, a map that could track Snape and everyone at Hogwarts’ every move, and the two-way mirror. What did Snape have?

Why would James hide it from Lily? If he was truly innocent and was the one being hexed senseless, he obviously would not have hidden it from her. What would he even have to hide if that were the case? It’s clear that he knew he was in the wrong and that Lily would have never gotten with him had she known what he was doing behind her back.

Remus is canonically a liar, who lied to Harry many times, especially about Snape. Why does this fandom act like his words about the person he used to bully should be trusted?

Moving on, none of the Marauders’ reasons for bullying Snape exactly scream rivalry:

James himself stated that he bullied Snape because he exists.

Remus called it “an old prejudice” when he and Harry talked in HBP, casting the Marauders as bigots (especially when you remember that Snape was a Slytherin whom they bullied because of his existence).

Sirius (in GoF) claimed that “Snape was just this little oddball who was up to his eyes in the Dark Arts.”

In SWM, we are shown that the reason James and Sirius attacked Snape—who was minding his own business—was because Sirius was bored, meaning they had done it for fun.

Lily claimed that James walked down corridors and hexed anyone who annoyed him “just because he can.”

Sirius claimed that “we [the Marauders] were sometimes arrogant little berks.”

Tell me, does this seem like a rivalry to you?

Do you think Snape hate has increased since we found out he was poor?

I think there’s a number of reasons, but yes, I think it’s a possibility.  We can quickly compare and contrast how Draco and Snape are perceived by fandom, or even Regulus and Snape.  I suspect that the poverty that the Snape family were steeped in is too difficult for some readers to wholly grasp, whereas perhaps it is far easier to admire and aspire towards the riches and decadence of the Blacks and the Malfoys.  

Maybe it’s also easier for some modern readers to imagine the psychological impact of not agreeing with the politics of your parents than it is to imagine the undercurrent of domestic violence and living in a destitute environment in a dilapidated house.  Additionally, there are uncomfortable messages for some from Snape - this dirty, unloved, dishevelled child is as powerful and as capable as any other wizard, and given the opportunity, he flourishes.  Depending on your class, you may read Snape’s success as a powerful message of triumph over adversity - or perhaps, a dangerous message about competition from the underclass.  

Still, I suspect the real issue is generational - and not necessarily generational from Harry starting at Hogwarts in 1991 and us discussing this almost 30 years later, but generational from JK.  I’ve spoken a lot previously about how her depiction is of teachers from the mid 70s put into a book set in the early 90s and how that doesn’t wholly translate to the kid of the late 10s.  

With that in mind, I think her notion of a love story is also mired in history.  For someone of JK’s age when she started writing, unrequited love was seen in positive terms - it wasn’t meant to be creepy.  Love is a huge theme throughout the series, and the idea that Snape - who had walked down this horribly dark path and was outwardly a mean and nasty and spiteful man - would completely change his ideology and allegiance due to his unrequited love for Lily was supposed to have been indicative of the power of love.

But we read Potter now with modern eyes, and unrequited love has not aged particularly well.  It seems rare that people genuinely ‘quietly love from afar’ - and instead, fandom insists on applying traits to the character which don’t exist in the text.  For instance, there’s no indication of Snape being a stalker or a creep, there’s no indication that he wanted a sexual relationship with Lily, there’s no indication that he bothered her or harassed her.  He isn’t a ‘nice guy’ or an ‘incel’ - but some readers can’t find the trope that they’re expecting, so they apply others to the series, even if they don’t quite fit.

So, I think the author and the readership are in conflict.  The author wrote a tale of genuine unrequited love, and the readers are trying to view it through modern frameworks, and they draw incorrect conclusions about the character’s motives.

I suspect this is exacerbated by the readership not ageing with the series.  Everyone who read Potter whilst it was being published had to wait for the next book to be written, but these days, they’re binge-read.  I think that lack of distance between each book (and the subsequent lack of maturity, because you’re reading the next one within a week, and not waiting three years, so you can’t have matured further) means that many struggle to separate Snape from being a cipher for their mean teacher at school to becoming the secret hero that he is.

I think that’s my real conclusion.  The problem is that this is an old text which is being read as if it is modern - and that leads to a clash between reader expectation and authorial intent.

Hi! I’m part of the lgbtq+ community and Severus is my favorite HP character and I was wondering (if you have the time and feel obliged) if you could please give me a few examples of how he’s queer? It’s been a few years since I reread the books, and def before I came out, so I’m a little in the dark here lol Thanks!!

First of all, I just wanted to apologize for how long it has taken me to properly respond to your ask. I’ve been dealing with some ongoing health issues that have turned me into something of a moody writer. I’ll get random spurts of energy and inspiration and then hit a wall of absolute writer’s block assisted by a major case of executive dysfunction every single time I try to respond to the multiple asks languishing in my inbox. Fortunately, I found myself involved in a discussion just today that addressed your ask so perfectly that I wanted to share it with you.  In the very least, that discussion has also managed to shake off my writer’s block temporarily so that I have found myself in the right head-space to finally be able to give this lovely ask the thought and attention that I feel it deserves. 

Although, in regards to the Snape discourse I linked above, I feel that I should warn you in advance that the discussion was prompted by an anti-Snape poster who made a rather ill-thought meme (I know there are many in the Snapedom who would rather just avoid seeing anti-Snape content altogether, so I try to warn when I link people to debates and discussions prompted by anti-posts) but the thoughtful responses that the anti-Snape poster unintentionally generated from members of the Snapedom (particularly by @deathdaydungeon whose critical analyses of Snape and, on occasions, other Harry Potter characters is always so wonderfully nuanced, thought-provoking, and well-considered), are truly excellent and worth reading, in my opinion. Also, as I fall more loosely under the “a” (I’m grey-ace/demisexual) of the lgbtqa+ flag and community I would prefer to start any discussions about Snape as a queer character or as a character with queer coding by highlighting the perspectives of people in the Snapedom who are actually queer before sharing any thoughts of my own.

In addition, I also wanted to share a few other posts where Snape’s queer coding has been discussed by members of the Snapedom in the past (and likely with far more eloquence than I could manage in this response of my own).

Source

Source

Source

Source

Source

Source

Source

Source

Source

Source

Along with an excellent article in Vice by Diana Tourjée, in which a case for Snape being trans is convincingly argued. 

Importantly, you’ll notice that while some of these discussions do argue the possibility of Snape being a queer or trans character others may only discuss the way that Snape’s character is queer coded. That is because there is a distinct but subtle difference between: “This character could be queer/lgbtq+” and: “This character has queer/lgbtq+ coding” one which is briefly touched on in the first discussion that I linked you to. However, I would like to elaborate a bit here just what I mean when I refer to Snape as a character with queer coding. As while Rowling has never explicitly stated that she intended to write Snape as lgbtq+ (although there is one interview given by Rowling which could be interpreted as either an unintentional result of trying to symbolically explain Snape’s draw to the dark arts or a vague nod to Snape’s possible bisexuality: “Well, that is Snape’s tragedy. … He wanted Lily and he wanted Mulciber too. He never really understood Lily’s aversion; he was so blinded by his attraction to the dark side he thought she would find him impressive if he became a real Death Eater.”) regardless of her intent when she drew upon the existing body of Western literary traditions and tropes for writing antagonists and villains in order to use them as a red-herring for Snape’s character, she also embued his character with some very specific, coded subtext. This is where Death of the Author can be an invaluable tool for literary critics, particularly in branches of literary criticism like queer theory. 

Ultimately, even if Rowling did not intend to write Snape as explicitly queer/lgbtq+ the literary tradition she drew upon in order to present him as a foil for Harry Potter and have her readers question whether he was an ally or a villain has led to Snape being queer coded. Specifically, many of the characteristics of Snape’s character design do fall under the trope known as the “queering of the villain.” Particularly, as @deathdaydungeon, @professormcguire, and other members of the Snapedom have illustrated, Snape’s character not only subverts gender roles (e.g. his Patronus presents as female versus male, Snape symbolically assumes the role of “the mother” in the place of both Lily and later Narcissa when he agrees to protect Harry and Draco, his subject of choice is potions and poisons which are traditionally associated more with women and “witches,” while he seemingly rejects in his first introduction the more phallic practice of “foolish wand-waving,” and indeed Snape is characterized as a defensive-fighter versus offensive, in Arthurian mythology he fulfills the role of Lady of the Lake in the way he chooses to deliver the Sword of Gryffindor to Harry, Hermione refers to his hand-writing as “kind of girly,” his association with spiders and spinners also carries feminine symbology, etc.) but is often criticized or humiliated for his seeming lack of masculinity (e.g. Petunia mocking his shirt as looking like “a woman’s blouse,” which incidentally was also slang in the U.K. similar to “dandy” to accuse men of being effeminate, the Marauders refer to Snape as “Snivellus” which suggests Snape is either less masculine because he cries or the insult is a mockery of what could pass for a stereotypical/coded Jewish feature, his nose, Remus Lupin quite literally instructs Neville on how to “force” a Boggart!Snape, who incidentally is very literally stepping out of a closet-like wardrobe, into the clothing of an older woman and I quoted force because that is the exact phrase he uses, James and Sirius flipping Snape upside down to expose him again presents as humiliation in the form of emasculation made worse by the arrival and defense of Lily Evans, etc.). 

Overall, the “queering of the villain” is an old trope in literature (although it became more deliberate and prevalent in media during the 1950s-60s); however, in modernity, we still can find it proliferating in many of the Disney villains (e.g. Jafar, Scar, Ursula, etc.), in popular anime and children’s cartoons (e.g. HiM from Powerpuff Girls, James from Pokemon, Frieza, Zarbon, the Ginyu Force, Perfect Cell, basically a good majority of villains from DBZ, Nagato from Fushigi Yuugi, Pegasus from Yu Gi Oh, etc.), and even in modern television series and book adaptations, such as the popular BBC’s Sherlock in the character of Moriarty. Indeed, this article does an excellent job in detailing some of the problematic history of queer coded villains. Although, the most simple summary is that: “Queer-coding is a term used to say that characters were given traits/behaviors to suggest they are not heterosexual/cisgender, without the character being outright confirmed to have a queer identity” (emphasis mine). Notably, TV Tropes also identifies this trope under the classification of the “Sissy Villain” but in queer theory and among queer writers in fandom and academia “queering of the villain” is the common term. This brings me back to Snape and his own queer coding; mainly, because Rowling drew upon Western traditions for presenting a character as a suspected villain she not only wrote Snape as queer (and racially/ethnically) coded but in revealing to the reader that Snape was not, in fact, the villain Harry and the readers were encouraged to believe he was by the narrator she incorporated a long history of problematic traits/tropes into a single character and then proceeded to subvert them by subverting reader-expectation in a way that makes the character of Severus Snape truly fascinating. 

We can certainly debate the authorial intent vs. authorial impact where Snape’s character is concerned. Particularly as we could make a case that the polarizing nature of Snape may well be partly the result of many readers struggling against Rowling subverting literary tropes that are so firmly rooted in our Western storytelling traditions that they cannot entirely abandon the idea that this character who all but had the book thrown at him in terms of all the coding that went into establishing him as a likely villain (e.g. similar to Heathcliff in Wuthering Heights, Snape is also coded to be associated with darkness/black colors and to represent danger and volatile/unstable moods, while his class status further characterizes him as an outsider or “foreign other,” and not unlike all those villains of our childhood Disney films which affirmed a more black-and-white philosophy of moral abolutism, such as Scar or Jafar, the ambiguity of Snape’s sexuality coupled with his repeated emasculation signals to the reader that this man should be “evil” and maybe even “predatory,” ergo all the “incel” and friendzone/MRA discourse despite nothing in canon truly supporting those arguments; it seems it may merely be Snape’s “queerness” that signals to some readers that he was predatory or even that “If Harry had been a girl” there would be some kind of danger) is not actually our villain after all. 

Indeed, the very act of having Snape die (ignoring, for the moment, any potential issues of “Bury Your Gays” in a queer analysis of his death) pleading with Harry to “look at him” as he symbolically seems to weep (the man whom Harry’s hyper-masculine father once bullied and mocked as “Snivellus”) memories for Harry to view (this time with his permission) carries some symbolic weight for any queer theory analysis. Snape, formerly portrayed as unfathomable and “secretive,” dies while pleading to be seen by the son of both his first and closest friend and his school-hood bully (a son that Snape also formerly could never see beyond his projection of James) sharing with Harry insight into who he was via his personal memories. For Harry to later go on to declare Snape “the bravest man he ever knew” carries additional weight, as a queer theory analysis makes it possible for us to interpret that as Harry finally recognizing Snape, not as the “queer coded villain” he and the reader expected but rather as the brave queer coded man who was forced to live a double-life in which “no one would ever know the best of him” and who, in his final moments at least, was finally able to be seen as the complex human-being Rowling always intended him to be. 

Rowling humanizing Snape for Harry and the reader and encouraging us to view Snape with empathy opened up the queer coding that she wrote into his character (intentionally or otherwise) in such a way that makes him both a potentially subversive and inspiring character for the lgbtq+ community. Essentially, Snape opens the door for the possibility of reclaiming a tradition of queer coding specific to villains and demonstrating the way those assumptions about queer identity can be subverted. Which is why I was not at all surprised that I was so easily able to find a body of existing discourse surrounding Snape as a queer coded or even as a potentially queer character within the Harry Potter fandom. At least within the Snapedom, there are many lgbtq+ fans of his character that already celebrate the idea of a queer, bi, gay, trans, ace/aro, or queer coded Snape (in fact, as a grey-ace I personally enjoy interpreting Snape through that lens from time-to-time). 

Thank you for your ask @pinkyhatespink and once again I apologize for the amount of time it’s taken me to reply. However, I hope that you’ll find this response answered your question and, if not, that some of the articles and posts from other pro-Snape bloggers I linked you to will be able to do so more effectively. Also, as a final note, although many of the scholarly references and books on queer coding and queering of the villain I would have liked to have sourced are typically behind paywalls, I thought I would list the names of just a few here that I personally enjoyed reading in the past and that may be of further interest should you be able to find access to them.

Fathallah, Judith. “Moriarty’s Ghost: Or the Queer Disruption of the BBC’s Sherlock.” Television & New Media, vol. 16, no. 5, 2014, p. 490-500. 

Huber, Sandra. “Villains, Ghosts, and Roses, or How to Speak With The Dead.” Open Cultural Studies, vol. 3, no. 1, 2019, p. 15-25.

Mailer, Norman. “The Homosexual Villain.” 1955. Mind of an Outlaw: Selected Essays, edited by Sipiora Phillip, Random House, 2013, pp. 14–20.

Solis, Nicole Eschen. "Murder Most Queer: The Homicidal Homosexual in the American Theater.” Queer Studies in Media & Pop Culture, vol. 1, no. 1, 2016, p. 115+. 

Tuhkanen, Mikko. “The Essentialist Villain.” Jan. 2019,  SBN13: 978-1-4384-6966-9

HP META MASTERLISTS

Hey! Here is a big master list of all my favorite Harry Potter character analyses and Metas! I had so many saved and I didn’t know how I should organize them so I figured I put them in a post. I’ll be adding more when I find new metas and will be posting them here.

I DID NOT write these! Please do yourself a favor and check out some of the wonderful and intelligent writers of these metas as they deserve all the praise for their hard and impressive work!

If anyone of the writers for whatever reason wants me to remove their meta from this list just tell me and it will be done!  

Some of these may be contradictory to each other but that is because I like to hear other interpretations. These may not line up exactly with your view of the characters (not all of them line up with mine) but please try to be respectful.

*Almost all of these are from Tumblr except one from reddit and one from a outside blog.

Enjoy!

LUPIN META:

Remus Lupin: in depth analysis

Gentleman Monster: How Remus’s Marginalization and Comparative Privilege Made Who He Is

The Marauders Map scene in POA: Verbal Fencing Between Snape and Lupin

Lupin and his use of pauses and “ers”

Neither Likes Not Dislikes Severus…

Remus And His Use of Language + Sirius’ Dark Humor

Fanon vs. Canon: Remus Lupin Edition (reddit)

Lupin as a manipulator

Lupin is a gold standard for for the male manipulator trope

Lupin and how he presents in front of others

Remus would rather categorize himself with his oppressor than validate his own experiences.

Lupin and how he views himself

Prisoner of Azkaban: When Hostility Meets Passive Aggression

Remus’ “unmistakable signs of trying to live among wizards”

Remus lupin: Repentance vs Regret

Lupin lying to himself and others

Remus did a lot of “growing up” during the lost years

“And I haven’t changed…”

Remus Lupin: ENFJ

If Lupin and Tonks had survived the battle?

Lupin and the boggart lesson

Nearly Always Right: Remus and Harry

Remus with his own special brand of comforting logic

Remus Lupin at his most dangerous

Remus Lupin is so detached from things

Fanon vs Canon: “Remus is always sweet and kindly.”

Fanon vs Canon: “Remus is always sweet and kindly.” pt. 2

Snape and Lupin parallels

Harry/Remus dynamic

Lupin isn’t the middle ground in Mrs Weasley vs Sirius argument

Remus and what his friendships represent

Power game that goes on between Lupin and Snape in POA

SIRIUS META

Shame of My Flesh: Reading into Sirius’ Thoughts on Crouch Family

The Hogwarts Express scene in Prince’s Tale: A Sirius and Snape analysis

Sirius and Molly Argument in OOTP

Someone Like A Parent: The Beginning of Bond in POA

Snape, Sirius, and revenge Arrested Development – Sirius, Snape, Obsessions and Blind Spots

Why Sirius hated Snape so much

Padfoot and Prongs: an analysis of the friendship

Sirius and Walburga: the passive-aggressive Sticking Charm

Sirius and Walburga’s similarities

Regulus and Sirius’s relationship

Sirius and Lily

Sirius and Orion Black

Sirius Black and Complex trauma

Grimmauld Place: Azkaban by a different name

The worse thing Sirius Black has ever done || The ‘Prank’

Sirius Black, Mental Health and Masculinity

Part one

Part two

Part three

Part four

Padfoot and the Liminal Space

Sirius was not an immature man -child

Sirius is both emotionally and academically intelligent

Sirius’ sense of humor

Sirius Black the Loner

Sirius Black and Acts of Service

Part one: Sirius and the shadow of being a Black.

Part two: Sirius Black: the victim of the system he was born to rule

Sirius and Snape both want to be part of a world that they will never truly understand.

Fanon vs canon: James and Sirius are either very saintly or very evil.” pt 2

Sirius’s views on Death-Eaters: The world isn’t split into good people and Death-eaters.

James, Sirius and Snape: privilege and intelligence

Sirius and Regulus’s relationship is Kreacher

Sirius is not as explosive as he is often characterized.

JAMES META

James and Sirius had the best friendship in the story

“the marauders’ is essentially just three people wanting to be james’ best friend but only one of them actually achieving it”

Too Deep for the Healing

How does growing up with elderly parents affect James’s personality?

“the marauders’ is essentially just three people wanting to be james’ best friend but only one of them actually achieving it”

Ashes thoughts on James

Fanon vs canon: James became a reformed character for Lily’s sake

Fanon vs canon: James and Sirius are either very saintly or very evil.” pt 1

James Didn’t Suspect Remus - First War edition

James inner sense of nobility prevents him from killing

PETER META

Peter Pettigrew is emotionally intelligent and uses it in a strategic manner.

Peter is a Beautiful Scum Bag

Peter Pettigrew and the Werewolf Incident (Not as Much of a Key Event for Him)

Peter and Remus

MARAUDER META

Reading Marauders Dynamics in SWM

J/S vs F/G: different types of troublemakers

The rifts that made it possible for the Marauders to fall apart were evident even as far back as Hogwarts.

An Analysis of the Snape’s Worst Memory Pensieve scene

The marauders recklessness

The marauders individual relationships

Fallout of the “prank”

LILY META

Lily’s weakness is her fondness for being the exception

Lily and Altruism

Lily’s cold anger

Lily and her friendships

Slughorn’s favorite student

“Friendzoned”

Lily Evans is attracted to James Potter in Snape’s Worst Memory.

Interpretation of Lily’s blush

Lily and internalized misogyny

Fanon vs canon: Lily is either very saintly or very evil.”

Lily intended to break off her friendship with Severus before SWM

Harry’s relationship to the Prince as a blueprint for Lily’s friendship with Snape

Lily never hated Petunia

What’s Up with Petunia’s Resentment of Lily?

Lily is blind to the flaws of people she admires/loves unless it explodes in her face.

Lily’s feelings for Snape are more complex than fandom gives them credit for.

“Lily in nature”

SNAPE META

Snape and Class

Lily and Sev

How Dumbledore’s death speaks to Snape’s moral evolution

Feminist reading of lily/James/snape

James and Snape were rivals? Nah.

Snape was really traumatized by SWM

Snape being female coded

The extremely dysfunctional friendship of Snape and Lily

Trolly problem: Snape and Lupin

Snape: class and power

Lily Potter’s Son

Two up, two down

Snape and the Order confrontation of the Dursley’s

Severus Snape or the Importance of Body Language

Snape and the prince nickname

Snape was not upset over the lost of the order of merlin

Snape had to practice being a person

Spinner’s End (white hound)

Snape as a “bad victim”

Snape and queer coding

Dumbledoor, Snape and the werewolf incident.

Snape was his own man

a matter of perspective

Snape, Sirius, and revenge

Snape doesn’t want revenge

Snape and lily’s shared spirit

Snape’s use of language

Why does Spinners End matter?

HERMIONE META

Hermione and Ron don’t blindly trust harry

Hermione “character growth” with SPEW

Hermione wouldn’t like fiction

Harry and Hermione understand each other

Hermione can be very ruthless

Hermione and internalized misogyny

Book Hermione

Cool Hermione Things: Magic Under Pressure

Hermione IS soft

Hermione was born a leader and diplomat

Harry is in awe of Hermione

Mr. and Mrs. Wilkins: A Closer Look into Hermione’s Modification of Her Parents’ Memories

Fanon vs Canon: “Hermione is always sweet and kindly.”

HARRY META

Deconstructing Harry: The boy we meet in Philosopher’s Stone to the man in Deathly Hallows

Harry And Personal Conflict: A Meta On Evolving Dynamic With Ron and Hermione

The Resurrection Stone Scene: Culmination Of Harry’s Emotional Arc

The Resurrection Stone Scene: Culmination Of Harry’s Emotional Arc

The Dementors and Harry’s Complex grief

Harry’s intuitive, empathy related approach to morality

Harry identified with and reluctantly admired Snape even before ‘The Prince’s Tale’

Harry and Hermione in The Life and Lies of Albus Dumbledore

Harry and The Dursleys: Examining His Response to his Abusers

The Mirthless Laugh: Sirius and Harry

Harry and intellectual curiosity

The Potters and class

Harry-Hermione Friendship

On Harry and the adults in his life

Harry and masculinity

Harry’s quirks

RON META

Ron and the Horcrux: An Alternate Reading

Ron isn’t a strategist, he’s the heart

GOLDEN TRIO META

Gender Dynamics in the Trio, Part One: Gender and Subordination

WEASLEY META

“Lucky you”

Percy with F&G and Bill

Percy fell through a big crack

Is Ginny Upset That None of Her Family Noticed Her Disappearances/Serious Health Problems/Posession in her First Year? (If She is, They Still Don’t Seem to Notice)

Molly Weasley is a Misogynist

That Time Fleur Exploded at Molly and Became a Member of the Family

The Weasleys Aren’t Evil, Or Anything, But They’re Not Saints Either

Ginny, the diary, and her family’s reaction

Does gender plays a role in Harry and Ginny’s respective interactions with Voldemort?

Percy and Arthur were close without actually knowing each other’s true selves,

Ginny and writing failures

fred and george could be weirdly brutal towards ron

Percy, Fred, and George

Weasley siblings reacting to the expectations put upon them

Weasley analysis

OTHER CHARACTERS META

Bellatrix: Mental health and the feminist lens

Dumbledore as a Mentor

“all draco wanted was to be loved” debunked

Walburga Black: the madwoman in the attic

General Thoughts on the Black Family

Fanon vs canon: “The Evans family treated young Snape very warmly.”

Albus Dumbledore Has Done Great, Generous, Things for People (Though He Also Uses These People as Pawns Later)

Albus Dumbledore is not only respected and feared, but also loved

Trevor and Neville’s Boggart

Wandlore: Remus and Lily

Neville’s Boggart

The Abandoned Boy And His Problematic Fathers: Snape with Voldemort & Dumbledore

The Blacks are a family in decline

WORLD BUILDING

Hogwarts School Uniform

Why the Wizarding World Didn’t Oppose Voldemort

The Blitz Paved the Road to Voldemort

Hogwarts Houses by Muffin

How Old is the Bias Against Slytherin?

No, Really, the Hogwarts Houses Are Awful

House Elves Are Slaves

A History of Magic Brought to You By The Carnivorous Muffin

Light and Dark Magic is Stupid: Here’s Why

The Wizarding World Lacks a Key Understanding of Magic

The Wizarding World and Its Profound Ignorance of Muggles

The Slug Club is Actually Very Necessary

The Order of the Phoenix is a Useless Joke

MISC. META

Harry Potter as a colonial fantasy

Death as one of HP’s themes

The “not like other girls” syndrome in the Harry Potter books.

HP series being ‘ethically mean spirited’

Marauders era and the 70s aesthetic?  

JKR and chirstianity

Harry potter series and how american readers can understand classism a little better

Slytherin and Eton: A Primer on the British School System.

JKR’s absolutist way of seeing the world: gryffindor and slytherin

Dumbledore is someone I find hard to hate.

He used Harry, he used Remus (let's be honest, he only helped him to have an werewolf at his side of the war) and he used Severus.

He could had tryed to bring Sirius outta Azkaban, like he did with Morfin and that elf, but he didn't. He let Sirius stay there because his freedom would disturb his plans.

He let Harry stay in an abusive household.

He let Sirius get away with attemped murder, while forcing Severus to secrecy. (He obviously didn't gave a shit that he was probably traumatised)

He literely did nothing to stop the Slytherins to turn to Voldemort. (Either because they had no one else to turn to or by influence of their familys)

He treated the gryffindors better than he treated the other houses. (He let his precious gryffindor boys getting away with merciless bullying for 7 years)

But I just re-read HBP and man, he is sweet. He is very sweet. He cares. Maybe not about people that had no use for him, but he did. He cared about the Wizarding World. I dunno what was on his head, it is even harder to understand than what is on Snape's head. I really dunno. Help me.

i don’t know how exactly to like… try to put across just how much severus snape must have practised being a person, once he left hogwarts, once he was able to. 

like… the severus snape we see in the flashbacks in the books is…

jittery and tense, constantly on guard

as soon as james even said anything, he was already reaching for his wand, and i imagine he was kind of forced to be that quick for his guns at any point

“he walked in a twitchy manner that recalled a spider”

like… my point here is that not only are his clothes il-fitting, but so’s his body - he doesn’t know how to move in it, doesn’t know how to exude any kind of presence

no control to his speech at all, from what we can see?

he just throws out desperate curses and profanity when james disarms him and has him tied up

an even shorter temper than he has as an adult

the ill-fitting clothes only add to this idea that he’s like, an object of scorn rather than something to be feared

i know they give child snape a posh boy accent in the movies but british movies always give everyone a posh accent, and it would actually make sense for him to have a northern accent, given that he came from slap bang in the middle of the black country with a working class da

people absolutely look down on regional accents like this, and people are p much automatically looked at as uneducated if they don’t sound like a posh twat

but when we see him later on, he’s collected and controlled, walks with a smooth confidence and an easy grace. much of his speech is delicately poetic and very carefully measured, and almost rehearsed

almost rehearsed? no. i feel like he spends a lot of time working on scripts for himself and then working with them, rehearsing what other people might say to him and how he might respond, making little speeches for some things

and he’s very careful about his presentation and how it comes across, how he seems, the energy he exudes

like… he rebuilt himself, ripped himself apart and then kind of put himself back together, because he knew that he wasn’t good enough, that people looked at him and were disgusted with him, so he wanted them to feel something else instead. this kind of like… complete overhaul doesn’t come without work? 

he probably spent hours and hours walking up and down in front of a mirror so that his gait came across in the right way; probably read out loud and forced his voice and his accent into something else, and then read it more, and more, and more, and just changed the whole thing. 

LIKE.

severus snape as an adult is just… artifice built on top of artifice until it calcifies and turns to stone is my point

Severus Snape Gave Up

Essay put together from This Post by freyaboo

Published without permission but these words ARE IMPORTANT. ~That Woman

freyaboo

As someone obsessed with the character of Severus Snape, I guess I’ll chime in and school people on their useless Snape hate. This is gonna be long, be warned.

Facts about Eileen, Severus’ mother:

The Prince family was a Pure family 

Eileen was a genius at potions 

She was a Slytherin 

She was athletic 

She wasn’t a purist, because she MARRIED one 

She was disowned which means her family was - otherwise why would she and her husband have gone to live in some slummy industrial town that is a bang on impression of Salford? 

She was interested in Dark Magic 

Severus learned from her either because he read her old books or because she actively taught him 

She was abused by her husband

Facts about Tobias Snape:

Abusive 

Hated magic 

Hated his son 

Hated his wife 

“He doesn’t like anything, much” 

Fought all the time with his wife

Facts about Severus Snape:

Genius 

Despite the words he uses, there is no indication he is actually a purist - more on that 

He was a halfblood in a mostly Pure House with mostly Pure students who had Pure parents who were probably purists (given the way JK protrays the House) 

Wore ill fitting, old clothes as a kid and well into his teenager years 

Was poor 

Abuse victim of the Marauders, his father and Housemates 

Hated his father 

Never once mentioned his mother 

Abusive 

Used as a tool both by Dumbledore and Voldemort against the other 

Unpopular 

Is said to have known more about the Dark Arts in first year than most seventh years

Is anyone a psychologist? I’m not but even I can see what this trifecta is. The Snape home was a nest of abusive behaviour, negative energy and an apparent lack of concern for a child that seemed to be unplanned or the victim of a failing marriage. There is a reason Eileen and Tobias got married and it was probably a bad one, because they obviously didn’t care for each other in any real way.

For the first nine years of Severus’ life the only things he experienced in life were abuse, neglect and a steady stream of hatred from his father for being something he couldn’t help being. Then he met Lily, a girl who was different than anything he had ever seen before and, as many little boys are wont to do, he fell for her immediately. Despite growing up and watching his father abuse his mother, he knew that Petunia calling Lily a freak for her magic was wrong and stepped into help Lily. He only begins an abusive type of response to Petunia when she begins to abuse him. That’s unsurprising given his background because he likely saw that stuff play out at home. ‘If someone hurts you, you hurt them back’. In my own past that was a running theme and to this day I struggle to control my bad coping issues.

Their friendship was never perfect. Severus was severely traumatized and never got help. No one ever paid enough attention to him or said, ‘can I help you?’. He had no idea how to have a healthy relationship. We have no explanation as to why they were friends for so long but I think that is evidence of Lily being a patient, long-suffering person who recognized that her best friend was messed up. From the snippets of conversation there was with them in the past about Severus’ life, Lily must have known of the abuse Severus went through. Yet she was unable to help, being a child. Maybe her parents didn’t like Severus and didn’t want to help. Maybe they didn’t know of the abuse. Who knows? All we know is that their friendship was real. Six years of hanging out with the same person isn’t a fluke. When we see Severus and Lily as teenagers there is tension there because Lily is frustrated with Severus’ choices but there is obviously at least a half-way positive relationship there. Why else would a strong-willed witch like Lily (who was a genius in her own right) choose to stay around with someone like Severus?

There is absolutely no indication that Lily was abused and accepted abusive treatment from Severus. There’s no indication that he stalked her. There is nothing in canon that says Severus ever admitted his feelings or that Lily ever turned him down romantically.

I’m going to let that bit sink in for a second. Snape-haters seem to have thick skulls regarding that bit so please repeat it a few times until you think you can remember it as I continue.

So. Most of what we see of Lily and Severus’ relationship was shortly before, during or just after ‘the incident’. At that point, there was already tension in the friendship for multiple reasons.

I’m going on a tangent for a second, but follow me, please…

I grew up in an abusive home. No details, just trust me when I know what it’s like to be abused by a parent. I grew up in a private ‘Christian’ school where rich children made fun of me for being poor and where the ‘pretty’ and ‘thin’ girls made fun of me for being fat. I had boys pretending to like me and making fun of me when I finally admitted I had a crush on them. ‘Don’t wear that you look fatter than you really are’. Had rocks thrown at me. We’re talking serious bullying. Even my friends eventually turned on me one year and began making fun of me. Blah, blah, blah. Again, I understand abuse from my peers.

In my personal life, the day I went to a public school and the angry, ‘I hate authority and everyone, fuck you’ punk/goth kids showed up and invited me to be friends with them…I threw myself into the deep end of their fucked up social circle and didn’t look back until I was older. Even now I struggle to maintain healthy relationships. Many friends have written me off for one reason or another. I’ve called friends horrible things. I’ve used them. I’ve been abusive. I admit this. I know that I am damaged and traumatized and I know that my brain chemistry got rewired because of those traumas and that as an adult I have to actively work at undoing it all.

So imagine a small boy, abused and traumatized and terrified of being alone without the one person in the world who accepts him despite his huge, overwhelming flaws. Imagine going into a House where people know who your mother was. They know she fucked a Muggle and had you. Hell, maybe he had cousins in Slytherin, Prince cousins, and they made it all worse. Then imagine that one or two them, for some reason, reach out to you. Offer protection maybe. Obviously they wanted something but Severus was desperate for anything positive in his life.

By the age of fifteen he’d been dragged deep into their shithole and couldn’t get out. Not even Lily could save him, which is evident in the scene where he calls her ‘that word’; let me end this sentence by saying that Lily was not responsible for saving Severus in any way…I’m simply saying that not even his best friend could get to him. Having grown up in a deranged home, Severus was already a bit deranged himself. Being scooped up by the clever, cunning boys of Slytherin was probably Severus’ doom from the beginning.

There is no explanation as to why Severus got so in with the Death Eaters but I suspect it’s the same reason I decided my soul was black, that washing my hair was stupid and that threatening to suck the blood from people’s jugular’s was cool. Children, who are wildly immature, weak and stupid, are prone to doing stupid shit to get accepted. I believe that’s what it started as. He couldn’t be with Lily in Gryffindor.

Which brings me to another point. Gryffindors. If you notice in the books, the majority of Gryffindors have all sorts of nasty, hateful things to say about Slytherins. None of them are kind about it. I can’t recall any scene where a Gryffindor says anything positive about Slytherins but correct me if I’m wrong. Who wants to bet that the moment Gryffindors found out Lily was friends with Severus, they told her how bad Slytherins were? Maybe Lily, a child herself and vulnerable as many children, bought into some idea of what Slytherins were. Maybe her Housemates began to discolour her view of Severus.

Maybe their friendship became strained because both of them were trying too hard to be accepted by those around them. But maybe not. There’s nothing that indicates this, but I believe it’s a realistic idea.

Back from the tangent…

The day Severus called Lily a ‘Mudblood’, she also called him ‘Snivellus’, a word James Potter had been using for four years to abuse Severus with. They both said awful things to each other. Yes, the term Mudblood was a terrible slur, and yes Severus shouldn’t have said it but he was fifteen. Mortified that the girl he loved was seeing him like some dangling, broken mess while James Potter, the rich and popular boy of Gryffindor - who constantly threw himself at Lily (and yes this is canon I will fucking find every mention of it if you disagree) - stood looking like some clever, windswept bad ass to those around him. Everyone was laughing at Severus. His own Housemates included. Probably his Slytherin friends too.

It’s all well and good to say that you would not have done what Severus did, but as someone who has been abused more than I want to admit, I will tell you that it is FAR easier to take the angry, dark way of things than to step back and be the bigger person. Severus said an awful word but he was a stupid, traumatized, abused little boy who had reached a breaking point. He was not an evil, child-killing Death Eater. He wasn’t a dark wizard looking to murder Muggles. Yes, he ran his mouth, he was crude. He hung out with the wrong crowd. But he was still a child when he was thrown into the air, turned upside down and used as a living laughingstock to anyone and everyone who wanted a look.

And no one saved him. Even Lily let it continue when he called her a name. In the end, Severus was left to his abuse because everyone gave up on him.

So you know what Severus did? He gave up on them. He was left without his best friend, was left to be a laughingstock even more than he had been before. There was nothing in his life except those Slytherins who had 'befriended’ him. Not even his Head of House gave a shit about him. He was too busy doting on Lily, a seemingly well-adjusted, clever, pretty girl (which creeps me out tbh). Severus became exactly what everyone assumed he was when he was eleven. Because what else was there? There were no friends at school. No friends at home. His parents obviously didn’t care. The staff obviously didn’t care.

Severus Snape gave up.

The character of Severus Snape is a realistic portrayal of someone who has been severely abused and never gotten help. He perpetuated the abuse that was done to him. He held grudges. He never learned how to interact with people properly. He never let go of his anger.

But at the age of twenty, after handing over secrets to the Dark Lord - someone else who manipulated him and got him to believe he was useful, it seems - Severus was faced with the reality of what he’d signed up for. I believe he shut down after that day he lost Lily. I believe he stopped being anything but what people expected him to be. He had no way of coping with the shit in his life so he just…gave up. But when he found out that his actions were going to get Lily killed, he panicked. She had gone off and married his worst tormentor, but his knee-jerk reaction was to run to Dumbledore and grovel and beg to make things right.

Remember how when they meet up, Dumbledore says 'you disgust me’ because he assumes Severus wants Lily for himself? He hates Severus, a boy of twenty, a boy who was never shown an ounce of mercy as a child. Dumbledore knew the abuse was going on when Severus was a kid, because Dumbledore is shown to have somehow known everything going on around him. There’s no way he was ignorant of what was being done to Severus. But he never stepped in, did he? He left Severus to the 'mercy’ of James Potter and his friends. Why? I think that’s a question that needs to be answered - but not by me, not here, because this is already too long.

Severus asked for Lily to be spared in exchange for Harry. Voldemort was a monster incapable of love or mercy or anything positive. Asking for any kind of altruistic mercy would have been stupid and Severus knew that. He played the situation the only way he could, but with Dumbledore he readily asked for the entire Potter family to be saved.

“And what will you give me in return, Severus?”

That was Dumbledore’s answer. For the rest of the memories involving Dumbledore, there is nothing but Dumbledore reminding Severus over and over and over again of what he did. Of how he is responsible for Lily’s death - which is simply not true. Even when Severus hands his whole existence over to Dumbledore, becomes a fucking pawn, he is never allowed any mercy, only reminded that he is nothing, that he is a mistake and that all he ever does is make mistakes.

No wonder Severus Snape never healed. No wonder he never became a kinder person.

*drops mic*

the most accurate snape quote i’ve ever read by someone on a forum: “

Risking himself to save others is the pattern of a man who believes in a good beyond himself, his own interest, his own loves and hates. For those who believe Snape can only be motivated by revenge- keep in mind- he had his chance at revenge on Black when Black was unconcious after the Dementors attack. What did he do? He conjured a stretcher and delivered him to Pomfrey for medical attention, in sharp contrast to Black’s own recent treatment of the unconscious Snape, dragging him and bumping his head into things. Snape changes over the course of his lifetime. Snape never becomes a nice person. He does become a good one.”

Just like Slughorn, Albus Dumbledore collects people. Only, instead of focusing on those with influence, he looks to the outcasts.

The expelled half-giant. The young werewolf. The repentant Death Eater.

He protects them and gives them a second chance. All he asks in return is their loyalty.

And, if on occasion he requests that they undertake a certain task, invoking their debt of gratitude - well, that is no more than he is owed.

He once thought to add a certain disowned Black to his collection, but quickly realised his mistake.

Sirius is not an outcast, but a rebel. He knowingly chose his path, and chooses what price he is willing to pay for it. He refuses to be used.

So Albus Dumbledore abandons him.

Severus Snape

This is an Anti Snape rant. I was to preface it by making it clear that I appreciate Severus Snape as one of the most interesting, important and well written literary figures of our time and possibly in history. I respect anyone who says that Snape is their favorite. That’s perfectly fine. Harley Quinn is one of my favorite comic book characters. She’s bubbly and funny and intelligent and strong…that doesn’t mean I don’t recognize that she’s criminally insane and that her relationship with the joker is in fact terribly abusive from both sides. These multi-dimensional characters become our favorites BECAUSE there are so many sides to them. Harry Potter happens to be a series where nearly every primary character is several layers deep. To quote my own personal problematic favorite; “The World isn’t made up of Good People and Death Eaters.” - Sirius Black, Order of the Pheonix, Chapter 15, Percy and Padfoot.

 Snape is a bad person. I don’t care what he did to “redeem himself”. You can die to save the world, that doesn’t mean years of verbally and emotionally abusing children just didn’t count. I know plenty of people who served in the military and fought for the country but they abuse their families…does it not count because they fought a war? 

 FACT: Severus Snape was interested the dark arts from an early age.

 FACT: Severus Snape had other friends besides Lily Evans. 

FACT: Severus Snape provoked James Potter and Sirius Black, often spying on the Marauders to try and find out Remus Lupin’s secret and also hanging around with Slytherin Pure Blood Supremacists who bullied other students. He was not an innocent unpopular kid that the big, mean popular boys picked on. He wasn’t. Stop victimizing him. He was just as much at fault as they were. 

FACT: Severus Snape created his own spell by the age of 15 that was potentially lethal and used it on James Potter…reason? Well, James pantsed him….

are…you…kidding…me…?

FACT: Lily Evans ended her friendship with Severus Snape because of his affiliation with these other students and his interest in The Dark Arts. She did not end the friendship in favor of James Potter. She didn’t even start dating James for AT LEAST another year after ending her friendship with Severus. He called her a racial slur and his friends physically attacked one of her friends. 

“I never meant to call you a Mudblood. It just-” 

 “Slipped out? It’s too late! I’ve been making excuses for you for years! None of my friends can understand why I even talk to you! You and your precious little Death Eater friends. See? You don’t even deny it! You don’t deny that that is what you’re aiming to be! You can’t wait to join You-Know-Who, can you? I can’t pretend anymore. You’ve chosen your way and I’ve chosen mine.”

“No, listen, I didn’t mean-”

 “To call me a Mudblood? But you call everyone of my birth a mudblood! Why should I be any different?” - Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Chapter 33 The Prince’s Tale.

FACT: Severus Snape never got over his romantic feelings for Lily Evans and was angry that she married his school rival, James Potter.

“After all this time?”

 “Always.”  - Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Chapter 33, The Prince’s Tale.

This is actually creepy. One of my biggest qualms with The Harry Potter Fandom as a whole is how infatuated people are with this quote. James and Lily died at age 21, a good 6 years after Lily ended her friendship with Severus and he’s still holding a torch for her? This isn’t love, it’s obsession and it’s unhealthy. He harassed her after she ended things, too. He threatened to sleep outside the Gryffindor common room until Lily agreed to speak with him (See: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Chapter 33, The Prince’s Tale). It’s not sweet that Severus was still in love with Lily after all this time. It’s scary. Severus’ patronus being a Doe is CREEPY, not a sign that they are soulmates.

FACT:  Severus Snape joined the Death Eaters BECAUSE HE WANTED TO ALL ALONG. Upon learning that Lily Evans had been targeted, he ran to Dumbledore, begging him to protect her. Only Her. 

“If she means so much to you, could you not ask The Dark Lord for mercy for the mother in exchange for the son?”

 “I’ve tried!” 

“You disgust me. You do not care then about the deaths of her husband and her son, as long as you get what you want?” 

Snape said nothing. - Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Chapter 33 The Prince’s Tale

If Lily Potter hadn’t been on Voldemort’s death list, would Severus have switched sides? It didn’t have to be Lily. It could have easily been Alice Longbottom instead. Had Neville been The Chosen One, Severus Snape would have remained a Death Eater. He only became a double-agent to repay Dumbledore for protecting Lily.

After Lily dies, Dumbledore has to bribe Severus to help him keep Harry safe.

 “He has her eyes, Severus. Her exact eyes. Surely you remember the shape and color of Lily Evans’s eyes.”

 “DON’T!” Bellowed Snape. “Dead…gone…”

“You know how and why she died. Let it not be in vane. Help me protect her son.” 

 “He doesn’t need protection! The Dark Lord is gone-”

“He will return.”

 “Very well. But never tell, Dumbledore! I cannot bare it…especially Potter’s son!” - Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Chapter 33, The Prince’s Tale.

Yikes, Severus. You loved this woman so much, or so you claim, but the idea of helping to protect HER CHILD, for whom she gave her life, is so unbearable to you because his father, who died trying to protect both of them, was mean to you in grade school? That’s…pretty messed up. 

FACT: 11 years later with a nice cushy job and protection at Hogwarts, Severus Snape continues to be a bitter adult man who is still not over his school yard crush, a woman who has been dead for over a decade and refused to speak to him for six years prior to that. He is in fact so bitter about it that he frequently takes it out on her prepubescent son.

Why? Because he looks a hell of a lot like James Potter.

 “-Mediocre, arrogant as his father, a determined rule breaker, delighted to find himself famous, attention seeking and impertinent -” 

 “You see what you expect to see, Severus. Other teachers report that the boy is modest, likable and reasonably talented. Personally, I find him to be an engaging child.” - Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Chapter 33, The Prince’s Tale.

But Snape doesn’t only pick on Harry. He picks on many of his young students just because…well…Because he’s an asshole, really! Honestly, the man humiliated 13 year old Neville Longbottom in front of the entire class for messing up on his potions assignment and then attempted to murder the kid’s pet. (See: Harry Potter and The Prisoner of Azkaban, Chapter Seven, The Boggart in the Wardrobe.)

Not to mention this lovely scene 

Ron forced Hermione to show Snape her teeth. She was doing her best to hide them with her hands, though this was difficult as they had grown past her collar.

 Snape looked coldly at Hermione and then said, “I see no difference.” - Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, chapter 18, The Weighing Of The Wands.

I could name probably a dozen more times that Severus Snape abuses his position as a Professor and treats his students with disrespect and potentially damaging behavior, but we would be here all day and there are other points I’d like to move on to. 

FACT: Severus Snape was uninterested in the possibility of Sirius Black’s innocence and overjoyed at the idea of being the one to turn him over to the Dementors. 

“Two more for Azkaban tonight,” Said Snape, his eyes gleaming fanatically. I shall be interested to see how Dumbledore takes this. He was convinced you were harmless, you know, Lupin…a tame werewolf.” 

 “You fool.” Said Lupin softly. “Is a school boy grudge worth putting an innocent man back inside Azkaban?” - Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, chapter nineteen, The Servant of Lord Voldemort.

 Okay, look, Sirius did try to kill Snape when they were kids. That’s a thing that happened…although there are not enough details of The Willow Incident known in canon to explain exactly what happened and why Sirius would do such a thing knowing that he could have potentially gotten James and Remus killed in the process…but that’s beside the point. What really gets me is that not only did Snape want to have Sirius given the Dementor’s kiss, but Remus also.

 BANG! Thin, snakelike cords burst out from the end of Snape’s wand and twisted themselves around Lupin’s mouth, wrists and ankles, he overbalanced and fell to the ground unable to move. With a roar of rage, Black started towards Snape, but Snape pointed his wand straight between Black’s eyes. 

 “Give me a reason and I’ll do it, I swear.” 

…

“I’ll drag the werewolf. Perhaps the dementors will have a kiss for him too.”  - Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, Chapter 19, The Servant of Lord Voldemort.

And it doesn’t stop there. Unable to get what he wanted and have his school rivals killed or imprisoned for absolutely no reason, Severus Butthurt Snape decides to just ruin Remus’ life instead and tells the entire school about his Lycanthropy - oh, wait, I’m sorry…did I say the entire school? I meant the world. 

“Amung these ‘eccentric decisions’ are undoubtedly the controversial staff appointments previously described in this newspaper, which have included the hiring of werewolf Remus Lupin.” - Harry Potter and the Order of the Pheonix, chapter 15, Hogwarts High Inquisitor. 

 …

“I know she’s a nasty piece of work though- you should hear Remus talk about her.” 

 “Does he know her?” 

“No, but she drafted a bit of anti-werewolf legislation two years ago that makes it almost impossible for him to get a job.”  - Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, chapter 14, Percy and Padfoot.

Two years ago, you say? What happened two years prior to this? Remus was working at Hogwarts and Snape outed him. 

No where in canon does it say that Remus ever did anything to Severus Snape, when honestly out of all the Marauders, he had the most reason to. Snape was always spying on them to get to him, after all. There is no reason for Severus to hate Remus enough to completely destroy his life like this. Only the fact that Severus Snape is without a doubt the biggest grudge holder to have ever lived.

FACT: Severus Snape is a war hero. 

Yes. He was. He was a key player in the defeat of Lord Voldemort, though not necessarily by his own choice. He was dragged into it by Dumbledore and by his own guilt, feeling this was the only way he could truly make amends for what happened between him and Lily when they were fifteen. 

So does begrudgingly becoming a double agent in the war as payment for Dumbledore’s attempts to keep Lily Evans safe for his own selfish reasons really negate every awful thing this man did from the time he was a young child to his guilt-driven ‘heroic’ death? 

No. It doesn’t. 

Severus Snape is a bad person. 

One of the things that make me really mad/upset is when people are so enraged that Harry named one of his children, Albus Severus.

What makes me sad is that it shows a refusal to engage with one of the most important messages in the series.  Harry’s forgiveness, understanding, respect and acceptance is fundamental to the story, and Albus Severus as a name is predominantly about Harry - and not Albus or Severus.

Severus is a clear depiction of what can happen when you fail to move on from abuse.  He is a damaged man, mired in history, who cannot forgive or forget, who then repeats the cycle of abuse by bullying others.  Harry is a direct contrast to this; he was treated horrifically, but due to several factors, he was able to succeed where Severus failed - and was seemingly able to move past the horrors of his childhood.

Severus had no reason to forgive his bullies, who were seemingly unrepentant even two decades later.  Harry, on the other hand, discovered a wealth of evidence that proved that whilst Severus was a bully and nasty towards him, he’d also secretly been fighting to keep Harry safe from harm - and had dedicated his whole life to doing so.

Importantly, Severus is the resentful character who is shown to be stuck in the past, unable to separate James Potter from his son, unable to forgive or forget.  Severus’ hatred and resentment doesn’t punish James et al, and only ate away at Severus’ own happiness.  You could even argue that this hatred became even more of a punishment, preventing him from creating a positive relationship with Lily’s son, because he saw Harry solely as James’ son.

So, why would we wish that for Harry?  Isn’t it far better that Harry experienced the love and support which enabled him to come to terms with what happened to him at Hogwarts, and led him to a point where he was able to forgive?  Harry being able to reconcile Albus’ and Severus’ actions, and accept and forgive them both, is a sign of strength, contentment and peace.  We should be pleased and appreciative that Harry seems to be equipped to break the cycle of abuse.

When people sigh about Albus Severus’ name, they’re really saying, “Harry, you got it wrong.”  Ironically, in doing so, they’re proving themselves to be less like Harry and more like Severus himself - blinkered and blinded, unable to accept, unable to forgive and unable to move on.

Two up, two down

We talk about Potter as a timeless series, as quills and parchment will never date, but there are a few key elements which are of their time, and I sometimes suspect that eventually, their original meaning may be lost.

Snape’s house in Spinner’s End is one of these.  If you visit Surrey, a house akin to Number 4 on Privet Drive can be found on hundreds of identical estates.  Indeed, the three-bedroom house with a garage, and both front and back gardens, situated on a private housing estate in leafy surburbia is one that most British people will have strolled through at some point.

But Snape’s house in Spinner’s End is the opposite of the Dursleys’ aspirational abode, and is somewhere that few modern readers will have seen in its original form with their own eyes.  Snape’s house in Spinner’s End is a traditional two up, two down through terraced house, mired deep in a maze of identical cobbled streets, overlooked by a looming mill chimney, and seemingly – by the 90s – entirely abandoned.

The difficulty that some may have in accurately picturing this scene is because these houses, in this state, no longer exist.  A large percentage of two up, two down terraces were demolished as part of slum clearance, which should tell you all that you need to know about the state of the houses.  

Those which remained have been extensively modified – usually knocking down the privy (outside toilet), and then building a two storey extension across the bulk of the yard to create a third room downstairs, and a bathroom upstairs.  Some houses only have a single extension; it is rather common in some areas of the Midlands to have a bathroom that leads off the kitchen downstairs – because the bathroom was the missing room, and it was cheaper to build one storey than two.

Pottermore had an article earlier in the year which explained how the filmmakers originally wanted to film on location, but could not, because the houses simply did not exist in their traditional state.

The houses were typically constructed with two rooms downstairs and two rooms upstairs with a tiny backyard entry leading to the outhouse. Craig actually considered shooting on location, but even though the buildings were intact, they had been brought into the modern era, with up-to-date kitchens and plastic extensions, so the set was built at the studio.

Throughout the 20th century, cobbled streets were routinely replaced by various other road surfaces, namely tarmac and asphalt – and, of course, the scarcity of cobblestones now means that such streets are aesthetically desirable.  However, the cobblestones in Spinner’s End are not an indication of affluence, but an indication of an area left behind. This is further illustrated by the rusted railings, the broken streetlights, and the boarded up windows.

These were workers houses, often funded by the owners of the mill, and therefore tied – meaning that rent was deducted from your wage before you received it.  There were benefits to being in tied accommodation, including being close to work and having a guaranteed landlord – but that was as much benefit to the mill owner as the worker.  Seeing great competition, some mill owners invested in their properties to entice workers – but Spinner’s End is not an example of this; Spinner’s End would’ve been regarded as little better than a slum even when fully occupied.

The narrow streets are indicative of when these houses were built, presumably in the late 1800s – cars were not a concern, and the attitude was to build as many houses on as small a piece of land as possible.

By the time the 90s roll around, and we see Narcissa and Bellatrix descend upon the street, Spinner’s End appears to be mostly deserted.  With the closure of traditional manual industries, families would be keen to relocate to where work could be found.  Estates which hadn’t already been cleared by the 60s would find themselves left to rack and ruin, their former occupants long gone – whether seeking a new life elsewhere, or having died.

For once, Bellatrix is not being anti-Muggle when she sneers at the Muggle dunghill; she is unnervingly accurate. It is a slum by her standards, but most importantly, it was a slum by everyone else’s standards as well.  By the time Severus was born, work should’ve been well under way to clear the area, or to renovate it.  This evidently did not occur – which itself explains how undesirable the area is; nobody wanted to spruce it up - they wanted to leave.  There were no jobs, no amenities, no services – and eventually, no people.

We often ponder why Snape remains at Spinner’s End, but perhaps there lies the answer; he wasn’t just hiding from the magical world, but he was also hiding from the Muggle world as well…

I’m reading the essay on John Nettleship, the character whom Snape was based on, and some parts are really interesting.

It gives a new perspective upon Snape. Like the fact John was assaulted as a teacher. The owner of the essay states that the students kicking John in the balls repeatedly or supposedly throwing him out of a window were like the real-life Marauders. The fact John refused to can his students and was kind of a saviour from physical discipline is a nice parallel on how Snape tried to protect the students in 7th year. How John, after recieving much violence as a child and as a teacher, had the tendency to think verbal violence was kinder than physical violence (although John didn’t approve of Snape’s handling of a class). How ironically it was Mr Mooney who canned the students the most (if I remember well). Or finally how he was eccentric in class because slightly Aspie and suffering from chronic insomnia because he was going through a nasty divorce.

Did you know he made a poem called The Wizard, where the protagonist glorifies a mysterious “dark” wizard staring at you with a terrible smile? It was made before the first HP book came out, as if without knowing it yet, John had the idea of a Snape-like wizard inside. John and his inner wizard — very poetic.

You can read the poem on this essay. Here’s the link:

http://www.whitehound.co.uk/Fanfic/A_true_original.htm

Here’s a shorter version of the essay:

no one asked but i never saw snape's story as a redemption arc, mainly because it turns out that for the entire length of the series he was already working on the side that is meant to be good so more like a revelation arc? not all of his actions were entirely great and they are not supposed to be, but many of the ones that made harry and co. hate him have different meanings when you see them in their full light like always being in the hallways catching harry out when the kid was wandering around (or making a beeline for the exact thing that is trying to kill him), he's not just trying to get harry in trouble but also trying to stop him from getting dead (a sisyphean task if there ever was one) i suppose snape's over-arching narrative must be considered a redemption narrative since it exists in a very strict good vs. evil/black-and-white world, but i don't know something seems "off" about that at least to my very specific brain...

How do you view Albus’ and Severus’ relationship? Do you think Albus’ genuinely cared for Severus’ or was he just - using him?

(Once again, disclaimer that I am working from memory and don’t have the books on hand to double-check the details.)

Anon, thank you so much for asking, because this relationship is an absolute goldmine. My tl;dr is “it’s a mess and I love that”.

To start with though, I need to address the framing of your question. Because “genuinely cared” and “using” are not mutually exclusive categories, especially when it comes to Albus. Albus cares about people, just in general. He can be clumsy about showing it when it’s too much for him, or when he’s conflicted, or when he thinks he needs to hold back, but he undoubtedly cares. I don’t say this often because I’m a big believer in the subjectivity of interpreting literature, but - any interpretation that says he doesn’t is wrong, and probably deliberately misreading out of spite. (Am I being uncharitable here? Maybe. But I’m tired of reading some people’s takes so I’m going to be uncharitable.)

People are Albus’ greatest strength and he wins their loyalty not by manipulating them into following him but by genuinely caring about and understanding them. But he also knows what needs to be done, and is capable of distancing himself, and prefers to keep his cards very close to his chest - because he might care for people but he doesn’t trust them. A lot of what gets deemed manipulative or “using” from him stems from his desire to take sole responsibility for things, and unwillingness to let other people in. He’s warm to people but shuts down emotionally when it’s too much or he’s conflicted. He’s never actually been the cold chessmaster fandom likes to paint him as. (Chessmaster? Yes. Cold? No.)

When Severus first approaches him, he’s quite harsh with him. But at this point, as far as Albus knows, Severus is a Death Eater who’s only interest is protecting Lily. (I firmly disagree with the interpretation that Lily is the only reason Severus ever did anything good, but she was his main concern at that time). His harshness doesn’t show that he sees Severus as a tool to me, but quite the opposite - that he sees him as a person capable of growth, wants to see him grow and holds him to that standard. If he were a discardable tool, Albus would have just told him what he wanted to hear in order to win his loyalty. Instead he gives him what he needs - an anchor he can use to pull himself up. Albus places himself as a figure that can offer Severus forgiveness and absolution, and there’s definitely a power imbalance there, and Severus probably resents it quite a bit, but he still latches on to it. Albus and Lily are probably the only two people in his life at that time who’ve ever seen him as someone worth expecting something from.

I don’t think, at this point, that it’s personal for Albus. I doubt he would turn away any Death Eater who genuinely wanted to change, and he is aware of the massive advantage that having a potential spy on his side would offer. He cares, but he’s also in the middle of a war and has other people to protect who take priority. You could say he’s using Severus to an extent - Severus is emotionally vulnerable and desperate, and Albus sees that and knows how to make use of it. A part of him is aware that he needs to use Severus and tries to keep an emotional distance. But his “making use of it” isn’t so much calculated manipulation as offering Severus a way out, which Severus chooses to take.

Albus and Severus make excellent foils that both mirror and contrast each other. Albus plays the role of the hero (I say plays not because I don’t consider him genuinely heroic but because it’s a role he deliberately assumes for others even when he thinks he doesn’t deserve it) because people need him to look up to, but also because it’s hard to shatter the image others have of him. Severus plays the role of a villain out of practical necessity as a spy, but also because he’s so used to it that it’s easier and more comfortable than trying to change people’s perception of him. Both are uncomfortable with emotional vulnerablity or letting people see behind that mask. Both are lonely and isolated and secretive. Both have a lot of guilt bottled up that they don’t talk about. Both are willing to sacrifice themselves to win the war. And both harbour enough self-hatred that they probably strongly dislike seeing themselves reflected.

I wouldn’t be surprised if Albus harbours a touch of envy towards Severus - if only subconsciously - because Severus got to rely on love to redeem himself, which is so far from Albus’ own experience. And Severus almost certainly resents Albus for having seen him emotionally vulnerable and getting to hold the upper hand and remain a distant, unassailable figure. I think a part of each of them senses an emotional rawness in the other that they shy away from because it hits too close to home, so while they may care for each other they have too many rough edges between them to fully like or feel comfortable with one another. That’s a part of why Albus can seem cold and harsh towards Severus; projection and a discomfort with intense emotion that’s too similar to his own. There’s also the fact that he knows Severus is in a precarious position and might have to be sacrificed. There is a slightly mercenary slant to their relationship - both know exactly what they want from the other, and what the other wants from them. And on Albus’ side, I think he feels a certain fragility in his position over Severus - he’s been playing a role that allows him to pass judgement, but he doesn’t feel that role is fully deserved. But he never demands more of Severus than he’d demand of himself - and maybe seeing himself in Severus is what allows him to demand as much of Severus as he does of himself, which is a fairly high, unyielding bar. And this doesn’t preclude emotional attachment to each other, and on Albus’ side, while their similarities may make him want to keep an emotional distance they also, almost paradoxically, allow him to sympathise with and understand Severus.

And with all that, Albus does trust Severus by the end, which is something much rarer for him than simply caring for someone. Severus is the only one who knows the entirety of his plan. Severus is the only one who knows he’s dying. By this point the dynamic of emotional vulnerablity has come full circle and Albus is desperate and forced to show vulnerablity. He hates showing weakness because he’s always been the one that everyone - Severus included - has looked to for strength and certainty, but now he’s willing to beg Severus to kill him. At the start, Severus needed Albus because he had no-one else to rely on. By the end that dynamic is flipped. If there’s one thing I would define their relationship by, it’s “vulnerablity and mutual reliance forced by circumstance” - but I think that circumstance leads to a situation where they understand and trust each other more than anyone else, however uncomfortable it might be for them.

So, I made a post about Severus Snape headcanons and in it, I mentioned:

-   He can hold his drink, but always gets caught out by the potency of the punch at Christmas parties. -   He’s slept with four members of staff.   -   There is a direct correlation between the last two points.

I was asked, several times…on anon and off, who the members of staff were - so I said I would write a fic.  This, as you might have already gathered, is that fic.  However, my regular followers may already have gathered that this fic is also this fic - which utterly refused to behave itself and be what I’d originally intended.

I’d intended that this story would be about an interpretation of Severus who was a little guarded, and the copious amounts of alcohol at the Christmas Party brought down his defenses…

This is not that Severus.  This Severus had a very different story to tell.  It also appears that his counting might be a little off.  I hope you enjoy it nonetheless.

@ch4n71c0 @mysecretsnapeobsession @all-for-the-love-of-rocknroll @fandomwankinz @xseaxwitchx @forwhomtheteasteeps @hostile-invasion @raven-star7 @sayruq

Look, I know we in the Snapedom always talked about Severus as this genius prodigy and all that. We take a hollow comfort in his mastery of potions. He might be a lonely spy. He might not be able to have friends that he didn’t lie to half the time. But maybe he could be at peace while brewing some potions for the medical wing.

But this is sad Snape AU o’clock, so think about this:

As an overworked professor swamped with the mundane work of grading essays and supervising classes, does Severus still have the time to be a genius? To study, research, and innovate?

And if what some have theorised is true, and Severus for one reason or another didn’t publicise his research, imagine his feelings as his school-day discoveries were slowly found out by others and publicised by them.

Imagine him finding out the Ravenclaw that ranked just a bit under him in potion was now in Alaska, working with an international potion organisation to study the property of a rare magical herb in there.

Imagine him having to make the nth batch of headache potion. Gritting his teeth because he knew he could've done better than this.

Imagine him being so tired, stressed, and uninspired that even when he's on break he couldn't maintain any productivity.

Severus who tried to brew a high level potion or write a paper, but failed again and again.

Imagine a burnt out Severus.

Severus who wanted to be a DADA teacher because he couldn't even care about potion anymore.

Severus who lost his passion.

Why is Count Dooku's characterization vastly different in The Clone Wars then Attack of the Clones? In AOTC he's all like, "I'm sorry old friend" and "Back down", in TCW he seems to take pleasure in killing Jedi. What happened?

Okay, so I lightly touched on this back in this post where I compare the Dooku we see in the Legends continuity to the Dooku we see in Canon and in this video. George Lucas quotes used as sources can be found at the end.

To start with: there's a dichotomy to Dooku.

On the one hand... he makes good points. His concerns are the same that many Jedi share: the Senate is corrupt, and its representatives are abusing their power for their own selfish needs, sometimes even using Jedi to do so.

On the other hand... Dooku's a Sith. Which means he - like the Senators - is also after power, if not moreso. He's greedy, selfish and ambitious. Sure, he makes good points but he’s part of the problem; he knows it, but he doesn’t care.

More importantly, like Maul and Grievous, the primary purpose of Dooku, as a character, is to show us who Anakin is going to turn into:

An evil, corrupted old man. A prodigal son of the Jedi Order (with closet fascist-leanings) who, in his unquenchable thirst for power, was reduced to being a slave of Darth Sidious.

One of the big differences between Dooku and Anakin, however, is that Dooku was always more politically savvy.

Count Dooku has a public image.

He uses his past as a Jedi to cultivate this persona of a wise intellectual, a rational man with fair and just demands, one who fights for the little guy.

He is the head of the Separatist movement, a charismatic figure known throughout the galaxy for his political idealism, even giving lectures at universities.

But it is just a persona.

I mean, that's probably how he started out, sure, but by the time we see him in Attack of the Clones, Dooku is a Sith Lord, and he's been one for over 10 years, because we know he was going by "Tyranus" while ordering Sifo-Dyas' death and hiring Jango Fett a few months before the invasion of Naboo.

QUICK NOTE: In Canon, Dooku left the Jedi Order 10 years before Qui-Gon’s death. So chances are, he's actually been a Sith for almost 20 years, as we know he was already a darksider 8 years prior to The Phantom Menace because he tried to recruit Rael Averross at the end of the book Master & Apprentice.

Which means he's pure evil.

Deep down, Dooku's the guy we see in The Clone Wars: Darth Tyranus, a ruthless, sadistic killer whose only goal is to destroy the Jedi Order and bend the galaxy to his will.

But the galaxy can't know this, right? They think he's Count Dooku, a kind-hearted man whose beliefs are controversial but ultimately altruistic. Hell, even the Jedi remember him fondly.

So, like Palpatine, he keeps up the facade.

He does this with Obi-Wan, as he secretly tries to recruit him to overthrow Sidious (who Lucas compares to Vader trying to do with Luke in Empire Strikes Back):

He does this with the Jedi, calling Mace "old friend", telling him he's sorry he's about to have them executed.

He plays this charade up to the very end...

... but when Obi-Wan still won't back down, he is left with no choice but to kill him the fastest way he can: with a lightsaber.

A red-bladed lightsaber, in signature Sith fashion. One he’s been careful to keep a secret.

But Obi-Wan's seen it, he's seen the Force Lightning... he's been given a peek behind the curtains, so now he has to die. 

And you see the change in Dooku’s behavior. He starts to taunt Obi-Wan, he’s grinning, there’s a sadistic glimmer in his eye. For a brief moment, he drops the mask and goes to town.

Oh and Anakin joins in, whatever the more the merrier. But then Yoda joins in... and Dooku can't beat Yoda. Crap, he's gonna tell everyone. 

The secret of him being a Sith Lord is gonna get out...!

But this is Palpatine and Dooku we're talking about. Political geniuses, masters of spin and flipping the story. If the secret got out... who cares?

Seriously, who cares if the Jedi know he’s a Sith, now? The war's already started, Order 66 is right around the corner. He won't even bother pretending he's a good guy, with the Jedi.

Him playing the role of the "villain" when facing the Republic also makes it so that the Senate will want to keep the war going until he's captured or dead.

And because they're at war, he can simply wave the fiendish acts the Republic lays at his feet as "slanderous propaganda" in front of the Separatists, they'll just eat it up.

Furthermore, Dooku being his true, ruthless self when engaging with the Republic also has a second perk: it'll make the Jedi look bad.

'Cause the galaxy doesn't really get what a Sith Lord is, they think it's just some Jedi variant. So that's still a Jedi, right?

As such, Dooku's cruel actions and cruelty then feed into the anti-Jedi conspiracy theories about them "starting the war" and the growing distrust that'll make it so that - when the Jedi are eventually wiped out - the general public will just go "good riddance".

Which was the main goal of the entire Clone War conflict.

TLDR:

The guy we see in most of Attack of the Clones is Count Dooku, political idealist, AKA who he presents himself to be.

The characterization we see at the end of Attack of the Clones, in The Clone Wars and in Revenge of the Sith is that of Darth Tyranus, Sith Lord, AKA his true self.

George Lucas Quotes:

About Dooku’s valid points:

“I wanted a more sophisticated kind of villain. Dooku’s disenchantment with the corruption in the [Republic] is actually valid. It’s all valid. So, Chris plays it as, “Is he really a villain or is he just someone who is disenchanted and trying to make things right?”” - Starlog Magazine #300, 2002

“The confrontation between Obi-Wan and Dooku originally was a confrontation between Padmé and Dooku, and it was a political thing. I decided, after seeing the movie, that I didn’t need that scene with Padmé and Dooku, it was in the wrong part of the picture, and this one, with Obi-Wan, would be more appropriate. It would work better if Dooku would actually tell the truth about what’s going on and then create a situation where nobody believed him. And it also allows you to kinda have some sympathy for Dooku in that he carries the sympathies of most of the Jedi which is that the Senate is corrupt and is incapable of carrying out any meaningful actions because they argue about everything all the time.” - Attack of the Clones, Director’s Commentary, 2002

About the similarities between Anakin and Dooku:

“[In the garage scene, Anakin] sort of lays out his ambition and you’ll see later on his ambition and his dialogue here is the same as Dooku’s. He says “I will become more powerful than every Jedi.” And you’ll hear later on Dooku will say “I have become more powerful than any Jedi.” [...] And Dooku is, kind of, the fallen Jedi who was converted to the Dark Side because the other Sith Lord didn’t have time to start from scratch, and so we can see that that’s where this is going to lead which is that it is possible for a Jedi to be converted. It is possible for a Jedi to want to become more powerful.” - Attack of the Clones, Director’s Commentary, 2002

“I needed to get across the point that Jedi can leave the Order, to set up what happens with Anakin later on. Also, in the end when you realize that Dooku is Darth Tyranus, it explains what Darth Sidious did after Darth Maul was killed: he seduce a Jedi who had become disenchanted with the Republic. He preyed on that disenchantment and converted him to the dark side, which is also a setup for what happens with Anakin.” - Mythmaking: Behind the Scenes of Attack of the Clones, 2002

About Dooku’s true nature:

“If you put two Sith together, they try to get others to join them to get rid of the other Sith. Dooku's ambition here is really to get rid of Darth Sidious. He's trying to get Obi-Wan's assistance in that [...] so that he and Obi-Wan could overthrow Sidious and take over. And it's exactly the same scene as when Darth Vader does it with Luke to try to get rid of Sidious.” - Attack of the Clones, Commentary Track 2, 2002

“In the midst of this turmoil, a separatist movement was formed under the leadership of the charismatic former Jedi Count Dooku. By promising an alternative to the corruption and greed that was rotting the Republic from within, Dooku was able to persuade thousands of star systems to secede from the Republic. Unbeknownst to most of his followers, Dooku was himself a Dark Lord of the Sith, acting in collusion with his master, Darth Sidious, who, over the years, had struck an unholy alliance with the greater forces of commerce and their private droid armies.” - Shatterpoint, Prologue, 2004

they are totally arguing and bickering from the two opposite lines of the war because it's the funniest thing ever like there is a mess of droids and clone fighting up on the ground and then you have two sith/jedi masters howling at each other through the force to cover the noise "you had at least FIVE BILLIONS OCCASIONS to introduce me to your padawan and you tell me YOU FORGOT" "excuse me i would have said something if i wasnt distracted by how horrid your tea and cookies are" "QUI GON"

Dooku being more outraged by Qui-gon’s comments about his tastes than the actual battle is 👌🏻👌🏻