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Who was a worse person in their school days, James Potter or Snape?

James or Sirius?

  • James was kind of a jerk

    Votes: 618 62.0%

  • Snape WAS a loser

    Votes: 379 38.0%
  • Total voters
    997
SolVanderlyn

SolVanderlyn

I love pineapple on pizza!
Member
Oct 28, 2017
13,496
Earth, 21st Century
James is played up to be this cool kid who broke all the rules and was well loved by everyone, but to me he always seemed like an asshole jock who made fun of the loser kids.

Snape wasn't a good person necessarily, but he got bullied by him, and had his childhood love interest leave him for the cool kid.

Snape obviously went down a dark path and James wisened up later on as far as we know, but during school it seems to me like James was a worse person in a lot of ways that matter.
 
Seesaw15

Seesaw15

Member
Oct 27, 2017
8,809
Jame's somewhat reformed and matured before he left Hogwarts. Snape joined the Death Eaters while he was still in school. Its no contest.

Snape was calling everyone but Lily a Mudblood. Dude was a piece of shit.

Edit:
I forget dude even called Lily Mudblood.

"I was. I would have done. I never meant to call you Mudblood, it just —"


"Slipped out?" There was no pity in Lily's voice. "It's too late. I've made 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 — you see, you don't even deny it! You don't even deny that's what you're all aiming to be! You can't wait to join You-Know-Who, can you?"


He opened his mouth, but closed it without speaking.


"I can't pretend anymore. You've chosen your way, I've chosen mine."


"No — listen, I didn't mean —"


"— to call me Mudblood? But you call everyone of my birth Mudblood, Severus. Why should I be any different?"
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B-Dubs

B-Dubs

That's some catch, that catch-22
General Manager
Oct 25, 2017
32,711
Wasn't Snape a horrific racist that went on to be a Nazi?
 
ConVito

ConVito

Member
Oct 16, 2018
3,082
Admittedly it's been a while, but from what I recall, while Snape was just a creepy incel who mostly kept to himself, James was that popular kid who picked on others that we all knew and hated back in school. James was worse by far.

Snape was still never a good guy, btw. His motivations were purely selfish.
 

Dongs Macabre

Member
Oct 26, 2017
2,284
Snape was a self-hating incel but Potter was on that pureblood privilege and set up for success from day one.
 
Mirage

Mirage

Member
Oct 25, 2017
9,544
ConVito said:
Admittedly it's been a while, but from what I recall, while Snape was just a creepy incel who mostly kept to himself, James was that popular kid who picked on others that we all knew and hated back in school. James was worse by far.

Snape was still never a good guy, btw. His motivations were purely selfish.
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Snape joined with deatheaters while he was still in school though.
 
DrForester

DrForester

Mod of the Year 2006
Member
Oct 25, 2017
21,627
Snape was worse.


James was an asshole, but he grew up. Became Head Boy in his 7th year, and that's without becoming a Prefect.

Snape never grew up. Left school and immediately joined Wizard Hitler, and only reluctantly joined the good guys out of a complete sense of guilt, and then spent over 15 years relentlessly bullying his own students.



Also, James and Snape had a mutual hatred of each other. Lupin tells Harry that Snape never missed a chance to curse James, it was not one-sided bullying, we only ever saw a few events from Snape's perspective. James had his friends, and Snape had his little group of jr. Death Eaters.
 
Seesaw15

Seesaw15

Member
Oct 27, 2017
8,809
Dongs Macabre said:
Snape was a self-hating incel but Potter was on that pureblood privilege and set up for success from day one.
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Nah. The Potters weren't about that pureblood privilege. Before James was even born the Potters were removed from the Sacred Twenty-Eight list because they liked muggles too much. James is a dick because his elderly parents pampered him too much like Dudley.
 
The Adder

The Adder

Member
Oct 25, 2017
18,085
James Potter didn't bully Severus Snape. Every firsthand source that talks about those two says that Snape gave as good as he got. That's not a victim, that's just an enemy. Moreover, the spell we see James "bully" Snape with is a spell that Snape invented in the first place. Meaning he had to have been using it on people for James to learn it in the first place.
 
Riversands

Riversands

Banned
Nov 21, 2017
5,669
I think james is like the real definition of "white people privilege". For some reason i just couldnt stop thinking about that, like a typical bully who oppressed gay people or something.
 
BossAttack

BossAttack

Member
Oct 27, 2017
42,926
They both sucked, but Snape edges out since he joined the Nazi Club and basically went around calling everyone except Lily racial slurs. James was just a bully. But, at least not a racist bully.

The Adder said:
James Potter didn't bully Severus Snape. Every firsthand source that talks about those two says that Snape gave as good as he got. That's not a victim, that's just an enemy. Moreover, the spell we see James "bully" Snape with is a spell that Snape invented in the first place. Meaning he had to have been using it on people for James to learn it in the first place.
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He absolutely bullied Snape. The whole "Snape gave as good as he got" came from James's friends, unreliable sources. And, is typical rationale of a bully. So, it's okay to pick on someone because they fight back?
 
demosthenes

demosthenes

Member
Oct 25, 2017
11,568
DrForester said:
Snape was worse.


James was an asshole, but he grew up. Became Head Boy in his 7th year, and that's without becoming a Prefect.

Snape never grew up. Left school and immediately joined Wizard Hitler, and only reluctantly joined the good guys out of a complete sense of guilt, and then spent over 15 years relentlessly bullying his own students.



Also, James and Snape had a mutual hatred of each other. Lupin tells Harry that Snape never missed a chance to curse James, it was not one-sided bullying, we only ever saw a few events from Snape's perspective. James had his friends, and Snape had his little group of jr. Death Eaters.
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Perfet.
 
Toxi

Toxi

The Fallen
Oct 27, 2017
17,546
DrForester said:
Snape never grew up. Left school and immediately joined Wizard Hitler, and only reluctantly joined the good guys out of a complete sense of guilt, and then spent over 15 years relentlessly bullying his own students.
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This can't be emphasized enough. Snape's central motivation for most of his life, up until his death in his late 30s, has been the girl who was nice to him on the train when he was 11.
 
excelsiorlef

excelsiorlef

Bad Praxis
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Oct 25, 2017
73,315
Pagusas said:
Yep, then through acts of love and compassion found his soul and save the world. History is full of monsters saving us, Snapes a good fictional version of that.
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Oh he did it out of infatuation

It wasn't love , and it wasn't fucking compassion

Get real he treated Harry like fucking dirt. Snape was an obsessed creep who did the right thing for creepy fucking reasons
 
Cheerilee

Cheerilee

Banned
Oct 25, 2017
3,969
Snape was a racist asshole to Lily's sister before any of them went to Hogwarts. But he was in love with Lily because Lily (unlike her sister) was racist-approved, despite her filthy Muggle heritage.

Lily was sorted into Team Gryffindor before either James or Snape (alphabetically, it went Evans > Potter > Snape), and when James was sorted into Team Gryffindor, Snape got jealous because he he saw James making eyes at his waifu. And yet, that jealousy still wasn't enough to get Snape to turn away from Team Slytherin, because Slytherin is the house that aligns with all of his racist ideals. Racism was more important to Snape than love, despite his incel whining about his unrequited love being the most important thing in the world.

James Potter made friends with Sirius Black, a kid who was thrown out of his house for rejecting racism, and let Sirius stay with him. James Potter learned how to become an animal in order to bridge the gap between himself and a kid who was afflicted with lycanthropy.

James and Lily became matching animals because they loved each other. They developed matching Patronuses because they loved each other. Snape made a copy of Lily's Patronus because he's an unhinged stalker.

Lily regularly stood up for Snape, despite everything Snape did and everyone telling Lily that Snape was trash. Until finally one day she took Snape's side after losing a fight with James, and Snape couldn't handle her pity, so he attacked her by revealing that he's disgusted by her Muggle heritage.

Snape went on to become a literal Wizard Nazi, and was fine with killing and torturing people, until the bridge too far was a threat against his unrequited waifu.

Snape is and always was 100% worse than James Potter. Doesn't matter if James kinda had some rough edges as a kid.
 

rude

Member
Oct 25, 2017
12,812
The quotes in here reminded me of how shitty Rowling's dialogue and prose are. How did I ever enjoy reading this shit?
 
excelsiorlef

excelsiorlef

Bad Praxis
Member
Oct 25, 2017
73,315
Seesaw15 said:
Harry was never going to become the DADA teacher. He was always going to be a middling pro Quidditch player or an Auror.
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Cop or a Jock

Heaven forbid we pay off the running theme of the DADA being cursed by having someone who was damn good at teaching take the position and stabilize it in a time of peace...

A fucking cop

Jesus.
 

meow

The Fallen
Oct 27, 2017
1,094
NYC
I only read through the last few books once, maybe twice, and it was years ago. I don't remember the details but my leftover impression was that James was a total jackass. This thread is making me re-think that.

Actually though I think Rowling just kind of sucks at characters because I realized I don't like a lot of the HP characters.
 
The Adder

The Adder

Member
Oct 25, 2017
18,085
BossAttack said:
He absolutely bullied Snape. The whole "Snape gave as good as he got" came from James's friends, unreliable sources. And, is typical rationale of a bully. So, it's okay to pick on someone because they fight back?
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And the whole "James bullied Snape" is from an unreliable source. Snape. From Snape directly and from a single memory of a day where Snape lost that he explicitly pulled from his memory and stored in the pensieve so Harry wouldn't accidentally see that embarrassing moment. Even Dumbledore blamed Snape's hatred of James on James saving him from Sirius taking shit too far, not on James being a bully.
 
Cheerilee

Cheerilee

Banned
Oct 25, 2017
3,969
meow said:
I only read through the last few books once, maybe twice, and it was years ago. I don't remember the details but my leftover impression was that James was a total jackass. This thread is making me re-think that.

Actually though I think Rowling just kind of sucks at characters because I realized I don't like a lot of the HP characters.
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Harry (as an orphan) had an idealized image of the father he never knew. Then he met Snape, and Snape showed Harry a vision of James as seen through the lens of Snape's eyes, and it shattered Harry's worldview.

James Potter was not the paragon that Harry idealized him to be, but he was also very, very far from the villain that Snape told Harry about.
 
DrForester

DrForester

Mod of the Year 2006
Member
Oct 25, 2017
21,627
BossAttack said:
He absolutely bullied Snape. The whole "Snape gave as good as he got" came from James's friends, unreliable sources. And, is typical rationale of a bully. So, it's okay to pick on someone because they fight back?
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If it came from Sirius, I would agree. But Lupin was the one that said it, and Lupin was pretty upfront about his behavior in school. Lilly also mentions to Snape how the people he hangs around with are always cursing people, and Snape shrugs it off as "just joking"

And again, in the end, James grew up.
 
Toxi

Toxi

The Fallen
Oct 27, 2017
17,546
Pagusas said:
Yep, then through acts of love and compassion found his soul and save the world. History is full of monsters saving us, Snapes a good fictional version of that.
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Snape never found his soul.

That's why he's interesting and compelling despite being a horrible child bullying former nazi fuckwad. He's never redeemed, nor does he have any pretensions he deserves redemption.
 
QuinchoOsito

QuinchoOsito

Member
Oct 10, 2018
545
Cheerilee said:
Snape was a racist asshole to Lily's sister before any of them went to Hogwarts. But he was in love with Lily because Lily (unlike her sister) was racist-approved, despite her filthy Muggle heritage.

Lily was sorted into Team Gryffindor before either James or Snape (alphabetically, it went Evans > Potter > Snape), and when James was sorted into Team Gryffindor, Snape got jealous because he he saw James making eyes at his waifu. And yet, that jealousy still wasn't enough to get Snape to turn away from Team Slytherin, because Slytherin is the house that aligns with all of his racist ideals. Racism was more important to Snape than love, despite his incel whining about his unrequited love being the most important thing in the world.

James Potter made friends with Sirius Black, a kid who was thrown out of his house for rejecting racism, and let Sirius stay with him. James Potter learned how to become an animal in order to bridge the gap between himself and a kid who was afflicted with lycanthropy.

James and Lily became matching animals because they loved each other. They developed matching Patronuses because they loved each other. Snape made a copy of Lily's Patronus because he's an unhinged stalker.

Lily regularly stood up for Snape, despite everything Snape did and everyone telling Lily that Snape was trash. Until finally one day she took Snape's side after losing a fight with James, and Snape couldn't handle her pity, so he attacked her by revealing that he's disgusted by her Muggle heritage.

Snape went on to become a literal Wizard Nazi, and was fine with killing and torturing people, until the bridge too far was a threat against his unrequited waifu.

Snape is and always was 100% worse than James Potter. Doesn't matter if James kinda had some rough edges as a kid.
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All of this.
 
Jotakori

Jotakori

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Oct 25, 2017
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Maybe if bullying wasn't a factor and Snape managed to form a more lasting and supportive friendship with Lily he might have avoided going down the path he did, but ultimately he didn't and that choice and his actions were all on him. He was a wizard racist and became a wizard nazi.
James was just a dick and a bully, and even if he didn't grow out of all of those tendencies he still would have went on to actively fight against Voldemort. I don't think you can go down a path like that without having a lot of good still in you. Objectively, Snape was 100% the worse person.

Between the two, I do like Snape way more as a character, though. Granted, I guess it's a bit unfair to compare a long dead character to one with an active role in the story, but still, Snape was much more interesting. Shit was his own damn fault, but his character was still really tragic to me.
 
BossAttack

BossAttack

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Oct 27, 2017
42,926
The Adder said:
And the whole "James bullied Snape" is from an unreliable source. Snape. From Snape directly and from a single memory of a day where Snape lost that he explicitly pulled from his memory and stored in the pensieve so Harry wouldn't accidentally see that embarrassing moment. Even Dumbledore blamed Snape's hatred of James on James saving him from Sirius taking shit too far, not on James being a bully.
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In other words, that's how Snape perceived it. If he himself believes he was bullied who are you to say he wasn't? Did James not pull Snape's pants down and wave him around to everyone?


DrForester said:
If it came from Sirius, I would agree. But Lupin was the one that said it, and Lupin was pretty upfront about his behavior in school. Lilly also mentions to Snape how the people he hangs around with are always cursing people, and Snape shrugs it off as "just joking"

And again, in the end, James grew up.
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Yes, that is undisputed. But, that doesn't discount his prior actions before "growing up." James was a bully. Snape was equally foul as a Nazi. One of them grew up, the other remained an incel until his death.
 
ScoobsJoestar

ScoobsJoestar

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May 30, 2019
4,071
To be real, Snape was 1000 times worse. Whether James was guiltless or not depends on stuff we didn't get to see. Like if Snape was being a racist asshole to people (which would not be out of character AT ALL) and James started his "make Snape's life hell" in retaliation, it's fair enough, honestly zero blame there. If it was pettier than that, and his target of abuse happened to be a wizard nazi…ehhhhhhhhh…then James was a shitty kid who grew up to be a decent dude by all accounts, and Snape grew up to be a nazi. So. Still James is the better guy.

Like he was a douchey kid, but Snape was a literal wizard nazi. Like. It's hard to lose in that comparison.
 
The Adder

The Adder

Member
Oct 25, 2017
18,085
BossAttack said:
In other words, that's how Snape perceived it. If he himself believes he was bullied who are you to say he wasn't? Did James not pull Snape's pants down and wave him around to everyone?
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Because nazis start shit and then have a victim complex about people not letting them get away with it all the damn time. Victimhood is kind of the nazi MO. Motherfucker hangs out with a group that hangs around cursing people as "jokes" and when literally hoist by his own petard (because, again, Levicorpus is his curse. He invented it), goes crying about how he's the fucking victim.
 
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