*bashful thumbs up* thank you. it’s very nice to see i’m not alone in this.
the james/draco parallel was the most obvious thing to me. i wish i could be suprised that this comparison isn’t very popular, but considering that marauderfen are practically manning the hp fandom, i’m really not.
finding
a counterpart for snape is so difficult, because snape has a very long
specific list of characteristics that are not exactly applicable to very
many people.
like, the only other half blood slytherin dark arts enthusiast is voldemort, so that’s obviously out of the question. that’s about as accurate as comparing draco to voldemort: misguided and inaccurate.
harry is a tempting choice, an obivious one. like you said, the main difference between snape and harry, is that snape was entirely isolated, while harry found a support system to help heal and grow. but i’m hesitant, because that’s basically where the association ends.
i hesitate to look at any post that attempts to find snape’s counterpart, because they all end with “and that’s why they’re better than snape”. which is an absurd statement to make.
in order to be comparable to snape, they have to include: double spy while full time teacher and head of house, halfblood, and (in my opinion, most importantly) sacrificed healing for saving the world. because let’s face it, the only way to heal from trauma like his is to let go and forgive. but snape can’t let go, his entire reason fo rinvolvement is his best friend’s death.
i’m rambling and you’re very kind. have a nice day! (or evening, or morning! ah, time zones.)
The beauty of Snape’s character is that he has so much depth and that each character from any side relates to him in their own way which determines how they deal with him and that in turn moves the story forward. Obviously it’s intentional because he’s spying and all but that’s why finally seeing his memories and seeing who he was underneath all the varied perceptions of him was so important. He’s not really meant to have a counterpart. To simplify him and water him down just for the sake of comparison and not going beyond that isn’t fair. “Comparison is the thief of joy”. He relates to Voldemort in a lot of ways. Being a half blood without anywhere to really belong, hates his Muggle father and feels a need to be accepted by peers. Voldemort can use those similarities to seem appealing. You really think he didn’t jump on the opportunity to bond over their hatred for their dads? The sense of family loyalty sucks people into some pretty messed up shit if they don’t pay attention. Whereas Dumbledore sees a dumbass kid who got caught up in something he would have seen coming and got scared when things got personal just like what happened between him and Grindelwald. Dumbledore’s disgust had a lot more to do with himself than he let on for a long time. Think about it. And Harry eventually sees just how alike he and Snape really are down the road. They have a very similar backstory with the obvious differences that were game changers. Harry’s situation improves when he gets to Hogwarts while Snape is harassed, threatened, and most importantly SILENCED. So Snape isn’t really meant to have one counterpart. He had several mini ones that hold together a much larger story than himself. He is so integral to how the story panned out that had anyone else without his particular flaws and misfortunes been in his place it wouldn’t have nearly as much emotional impact. His storyline is so complicated and well written and necessary that when people drag it or dismiss it because it pisses them off, especially when I go on their profile and see that they are English or creative writing majors (which happens surprisingly often) , I just…WTF?! (This is going to be formatted all wrong I can just tell. As if mobile tumblr didn’t suck enough)