#and also acting like snape wasn't radicalised himself. like yeah he totally decided to be evil on his own

[seriousbrat]

You're so right about all of this and as a fan of the Marauders as well as Snape it's so hard to find fics that portray Snape in a way that is AT ALL sympathetic or reasonable. You'll find woobified Rosier and Barty who imo aren't deserving of sympathy at all before finding just a normal well-rounded Snape that isn't a sociopath. I don't believe in excusing his actions but like. You? Don't have to? In order to portray him as the complex character that he is. Like not having an ounce of sympathy in portrayals of a bullied, abused boy- and even rewriting the text to imply that he deserved the bullying in the first place is... A Lot. because as you've said he's frequently made out to be randomly homophobic in a story that, to be frank, probs does not need a contrived and insensitive homophobia plot shoehorned in just to add drama.

There's no canon evidence to support this. If he had been intended to be homophobic wouldn't there have been, idk, SOMETHING in his interactions with the only confirmed gay character in the series, probably the character he interacts with most besides Harry?

I mean if I'm being real it is the 70s and I guess DE characters could be homophobic. Personally I see Snape as not giving a shit either way lol but the real question is to what extent is this necessary? To me homophobia plots sometimes just feel kind of... Idk flippant and excessive, ESPECIALLY when there's clearly an ulterior motive behind their inclusion beyond just exploring a sensitive subject, which in this case essentially is to victim-blame Snape. (I imagine the same might go for racism or transphobia plots but since I have no personal experience with that the way I do homophobia I won't speak for others)

As you've so rightly pointed out he's got plenty of canon flaws already to work from so what is even the point? And he literally is brilliant like he's extremely intelligent IN CANON bro it drives me maaaad when he's just this blundering belligerent oaf who is randomly evil and violent to everyone for no reason. If Lily disliked James for hexing random people, why would she be friends with Snape if he was also doing it but worse? Wouldn't this have come up when she confronts him? Like I think it's pretty fair to say that at least prior to SWM he was not doing anything of the sort? Gah

All this to say it's equally as frustrating for me as a Marauders fan!!!! Tbh I used to be a snater (over 10 yrs ago rip but still) and it was seeing so many people whitewashing the characters I DID like and justifying/downplaying bullying that made me start liking him and becoming interested in him hahaha. And that was years ago, now it's morphed into something so totally unrecognisable that it's just boring. I mean write Snape Is Basically Voldemort AUs all you like, but it's just that, it's not canon compliant.

If there was ever a spinoff (which I doubt, at least for many years) Snape would absolutely be a main character, as he should be, and if they do their job properly they'd portray him as the complex, interesting, morally grey, occasionally sympathetic anti-hero that he is so like too bad lol

It's so funny to see a certain type of Marauder stans outright say they want a Marauders Era Netflix series or something of the like – but JKR, the actual creator of the characters, shouldn't be be involved in it at all because she would ruin her own characters and 'give the Snape stans more fuel' etc. They so honestly and unashamedly proclaim that essentially, what they would want out of a hypothetical Marauders era series is not an expansion of canon but a professionally made, high-budget fanfiction that explicitly deviates from canon.

I mean... These people are really out here admitting that they exclusively stan fanfiction versions of their 'favorite' characters. They're really out here admitting they don't actually even like their faves – and ironically also admitting that canon Snape is not as irredeemably awful as their fanon and headcanons make him out to be, since they acknowledge that a story by JKR would portray him more sympathetically than he generally is in the Marauders part of the fandom.