Both were assholes propped up by the system in a world full of fantastical elitism and deserved none of the praise or redemption respectively that they gained by the end of the series.
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Who was a worse person in their school days, James Potter or Snape?
- Thread starter SolVanderlyn
- Start date
This post makes 0 sense in regards to James. The least charitable interpretation of him is that he was a jerk when he was a fifteen year old. It's insane the bending over folks do to equivocate this.
Snape is basically the original incel and the fact they paint him out to be a good guy in the end is one of the biggest red flags in the Harry Potter series. James is just a cool guy who correctly identified a creep.
James Potter actually saved Snape's life once.
Snape wanted to know what James and Sirius Black and Remus Lupin were up to, what with all of their sneaking around, so Sirius flippantly told Snape to go through the Whomping Willow and find out for himself.
Lupin was werewolfized at the time, and could have killed Snape, and when James learned what Sirius had said/done, James ran over there and risked his own life to pull Snape safely out.
What an asshole. [/sarcasm]
Snape wanted to know what James and Sirius Black and Remus Lupin were up to, what with all of their sneaking around, so Sirius flippantly told Snape to go through the Whomping Willow and find out for himself.
Lupin was werewolfized at the time, and could have killed Snape, and when James learned what Sirius had said/done, James ran over there and risked his own life to pull Snape safely out.
What an asshole. [/sarcasm]
I think the poll result is really a useful statement about how platforming can engender empathy and sympathy
Snape gets so much more platform in the book series so people are inclined to empathize with him more even if it's so blatantly obvious the odious shit he did and believed in
Snape gets so much more platform in the book series so people are inclined to empathize with him more even if it's so blatantly obvious the odious shit he did and believed in
Snape was a biggot that looked down on "mudbloods" and hated them way before he ever met James.
The fact that he also joined the hitler youth equivalent and went on to be a deatheater just shows how much of a hateful person he was. Even as a "reformed" teacher he was a shitheel that loved to bully students.
James was an asshole at 15 and got better.
Pretty easy choice imo.
The fact that he also joined the hitler youth equivalent and went on to be a deatheater just shows how much of a hateful person he was. Even as a "reformed" teacher he was a shitheel that loved to bully students.
James was an asshole at 15 and got better.
Pretty easy choice imo.
Or it could be a useful statement about how people are more sympathetic towards an interesting character than a moral one.
Right. It's like calling Harry and George bullies because they beat the shit out of Draco in Order of the Phoenix. We know what an asshole Snape is, if he's beefing with James he probably started it.
But the question wasn't who is more interesting but who is more moral
Yeah this is true.
Though i have to say i never warmed up to Snape as a character. His supposed sacrifices and moral doubts rang hollow to me.
And, considering that the one time we see James "bullying" Snape, James is using Snape's own "public humiliation" spell against him. Snape literally invented the spell that James was seen using in the "bullying" scene. It's literally impossible for James to have "started" that.
Hitler Youth member Snape humiliated the shit out of people often enough for James to see exactly how it was done. Snape just doesn't consider what he did bullying because he doesn't think of Mudbloods as real people.
James gave Snape a taste of his own medicine once, and Snape considers that to be the height of injustice (so he invents a laceration shotgun that causes permanent incurable injuries, and brought it to school, intending to use it on James). Meanwhile, James got chewed out for doing that by a girl he liked, and James is eventually kinda sorry that he did it.
Also, we know for a fact that Snape's beef with James began when Snape saw James and Lily speaking to each other, and Snape got crazy jealous because Lily is his waifu and he thinks that she's his property. And the pathetic part is, Lily wasn't even interested in James (not until sometime after Snape ruined any shot he ever might have had with Lily by pointing out that he's disgusted by Lily's Mudblood heritage).
The weird thing is that Snape really could have been a cool character. A guy who had been radicalized at a young age and then devoted himself to mentoring the children of his old magic Nazi youth buddies, and guiding away from that path. Hell, he even could have a pretty tragic story of someone who wanted to try and change the Slytherin house but couldn't to preserve his cover.
Instead we just got a creepy guy lashing out at his high school bully's 12 year old kid. Looking back at the whole series he's just a creep, slightly elevated by Alan Rickman playing him in the movies.
Instead we just got a creepy guy lashing out at his high school bully's 12 year old kid. Looking back at the whole series he's just a creep, slightly elevated by Alan Rickman playing him in the movies.
Even if we ignore how Snape is a Nazi who was Wizard-Hitler's number 2 dude, Snape literally made it his mission in life to make Harry's experience at Hogwarts as miserable as possible, all for the crime of...being James' son.
It takes a special kind of petty, vindictive little shit to do something like that, more so when Harry was also the son of the ONLY WOMAN IN THE WORLD WHO WAS NICE TO HIM.
It takes a special kind of petty, vindictive little shit to do something like that, more so when Harry was also the son of the ONLY WOMAN IN THE WORLD WHO WAS NICE TO HIM.
Snape was a literal piece of shit racist nazi and the love he gets from the fandom is as bizarre as the pseudo-incestual shipping of Harry/Hermione.
I ain't mad at anyone who punches nazis.
I ain't mad at anyone who punches nazis.
I think this would be an interesting character, but not for the same reasons.
The Snape we got is a miserable little ball of self-loathing who never got past his childhood. Every good thing he did, he did for the wrong reasons. And honestly? That's fine. Not every character has to be noble. Not every story needs to end in a classical redemption.
In the school days, James for sure, bullying the poor goth kid. Didn't he hang him in the air and remove his pants in front of all his friends? That's pretty damn crushing, the type of bullying people take their own lives over. But yah, James grew up to become a standup dude. Snape dug his heels in some dark shit.
Snape was already going around during his school days calling other people mudbloods.
Snape was already digging his heels in dark shit when that happened. The spell used on him was one he created.
I ship Hermione and literally anyone she met after starting her adult life because Jesus Christ not everyone needs to marry their childhood friends or sweethearts.
The "poor goth kid" who was already a wizard supremacist and called his only friend in the world the wizarding equivalent of a racial slur?
The poll options is not in anyway relevant to the question in thread title, what the hell. Misleading even.
James was an asshole jock in high school (specifically towards Snape, nacht) sure but wtf Snape was way worse than merely a "loser" or "bullied victim" as so many ppl seem to think in this thread.
James was an asshole jock in high school (specifically towards Snape, nacht) sure but wtf Snape was way worse than merely a "loser" or "bullied victim" as so many ppl seem to think in this thread.
He was a racist twat. Also forgot that he was already cozying with the death eaters by then, so maybe no clear winner. And I meant "poor" meaning wealth not that anyone should pitty him. James was kind of a psycho. I haven't read the books in like a decade but that part of the book made me cry. Weird sexual humiliation.
James spent his entire adult life fighting wizard Hitler. He wasn't a psycho.
If you consider ERA's demographic and what Snape represents it's really not that surprising ;)
If you consider that spell weird sexual humiliation, blame Snape. It was his spell. As in the spell he himself invented.
We're only talking school days. I said James grew up and became a standup dude.
The spell where he took off his pants? Fuck my bad. Been a long time.
I think it's the opposite, most members hate "cool jock/asshole" types more than racist murderous incel types.
Levicorpus is a spell that hooks you by the ankle and hangs you upside down. He didn't take Snape's pants off, Snape's robe flipped up since he was hanging upside down. Levicorpus, however, is a spell that Snape invented. And as Lily pointed out, Snape's friends (and likely Snape himself) went around cursing people for fun. And as Lupin pointed out, Snape never missed an opportunity to curse James. Meaning at some point Snape hit James with that spell or hit someone with the spell while James was watching.
James spent his school years fighting Hitler Youths too.
Look, the dude invented Sectumsempra when he was a teenager. Snape was never a good person and anyone who stands up to such a person is not a psycho.
Yahhh I don't remember the books well enough to be posting shit. Thanks for the clarification. Fuck Snape.
I like how Snape was apparently the only wizard in thousands of years to ever think to come up with a spell that dishes the flashy shit and just guts your opponent like a fish. Typical Rowling...
First wizard in thousands of years to think "you know what, a guarantee kill just isn't good enough." Avada Kedavra already ditches the flashy stuff. It's just death. The only reason to make Sectumsempra is to make people suffer.
You're not alone. as you can tell by the poll. And it isn't revealed that Levicorpus is Snape's until the next book, so younger you's reaction wasn't unreasonable. But it is brought up in that very scene that Snape's friends curse people for fun. And Lupin later explains to Harry that Snape gave as good as he got.
I'm guessing people are forgetting that Snape was a straight up nazi and only remember the books/movies wanting you to feel bad for Snape.
Harry himself did say Snape was one of the bravest people he knew.
*checks wiki* *James dies at age 21* Damn, that's an intense adult life
They were both terrible people in school but one of them grew tf up while the other stewed in his own hatred and became a fucking wizard nazi and a professor that bullies children.
For some reason, when I read the books I thought that Slytherin had mudbloods, and that the reason they were missing from the BoH was because they were killed. Then again I quick read the books when I was 17 and didn't get the hype for this series. Didn't get it then and still don't.
For some reason, when I read the books I thought that Slytherin had mudbloods, and that the reason they were missing from the BoH was because they were killed. Then again I quick read the books when I was 17 and didn't get the hype for this series. Didn't get it then and still don't.