snapes I have known
Aug. 20th, 2003 03:33 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
All the recent talk about fanon!Snape varieties has inspired me to do some cartooning. I should clean it up and make a Snapes Of The World poster. In the meantime, I've made it into a quiz instead. To be taken with a shaker of salt, of course.

You are an Orthodox Snapeist.
You take Canon!Snape at face value -- like JKR
says, Snape is "a deeply horrible
person". You like to write/read stories
where he's portrayed as supercilious, unfair,
often undignified, and sometimes downright
cruel. You may accept some partial
explanations for his behavior when they're
offered in canon, but you're still pretty hard
on him, and don't like to let him off the hook.
The guy's a nasty, unwashed git -- it says so
in the books!
What kind of Snapeist are you?
brought to you by Quizilla
Oh, and a GIP. General idea stolen from
caesia390. My my, a GIP and a quiz in the same post -- I'm becoming quite the little LJ-er now...

You are an Orthodox Snapeist.
You take Canon!Snape at face value -- like JKR
says, Snape is "a deeply horrible
person". You like to write/read stories
where he's portrayed as supercilious, unfair,
often undignified, and sometimes downright
cruel. You may accept some partial
explanations for his behavior when they're
offered in canon, but you're still pretty hard
on him, and don't like to let him off the hook.
The guy's a nasty, unwashed git -- it says so
in the books!
What kind of Snapeist are you?
brought to you by Quizilla
Oh, and a GIP. General idea stolen from
![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
no subject
Date: 2003-08-20 05:09 am (UTC)And I took the quiz and came out as an Orthodox!Snapist. I would have expected to teeter on the brink of Conservative!Snapist, since I do tend to cut him a little slack from time to time, but I guess maybe I just can't bury my head in the sand and ignore his faults sufficiently for that.
Thank goodness I wasn't revealed as a Reconstructionist Snapist though. I view that as about on a par with insisting that Alex Krycek have a full set of arms in every story you read/write that's set after Terma, whether it's supposed to be AU or not. Sure, the extra arm looks good on him, but I'm a little too wedded to wanting my fanfic to stay vaguely true to its original universe...
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Date: 2003-08-20 11:53 am (UTC)Mwaha! With an author's note explaining "I like my boys with *all* their limbs, thanks!"
And the curtainfic. Can't forget that. (I wasn't sure if "curtainfic" really exists as a concept in HP fandom, or if it's just an XF thing. I think some folks didn't get it.)
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Date: 2003-08-20 06:40 am (UTC)btw, very cute icon. I can so see Peter thinking that...
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Date: 2003-08-20 07:44 am (UTC)Same here. It's hard to resist, isn't it? *G*
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Date: 2003-08-20 08:28 am (UTC)I think you almost have to write him as the man he *could* become instead of the man he *is*, if you want the readers to have any sympathy with him at all.
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Date: 2003-08-20 11:49 am (UTC)I teeter back and forth between the two. Which one comes out depends on whom I'm arguing with at the moment. :)
The test is a little weird, though, and a glance down the friends list reveals that several people have complained that they got a result they didn't like, or that it's too het-oriented, which I hadn't thought of. I would have been more careful... if I'd meant it to be taken seriously. Tongue firmly in cheek, folks. ;)
The number of hits the page has had this morning is boggling my tiny little mind. I vastly underestimated the power of the meme.
no subject
Date: 2003-08-21 12:34 am (UTC)not sure what GIP stands for. glad you like the icons. there's just something so seductive about the Death Eaters... to me, anyway. They're so EVIL. Heartless, shameless... Me with my iota of morality, I would draw the line at actually harming people. But I admire their ruthlessness.
Anyway.... Your fic!!! I loved the relationships you conveyed. Lucius's subtle domination of Severus, the tension as Severus resisted, felt... ashamed? More like embarrassed, I suppose, at being caught in a compromising position. And Lucius emphasizing his power by not acting ashamed at all.
Draco seemed a bit... soft. Perhaps just young. I dunno. It's not a specific grievance, just something that didn't entirely jive with my own mental picture of him.
However, I adore the interaction between Draco and Narcissa. The way they're extremely comfortable around each other, understanding each other but never expressing that understanding. The same thing is on both their minds, but Narcissa cuts herself off, and Draco barely says anything at all. I feel like I understand their entire relationship as well as the way they both view Lucius... The entire Malfoy household, really, just from that fic.
Ahhh so well done! Kudos.
I'm a Conservative Snapeist. I would call that Realist, but ah well... >:}
no subject
Date: 2003-08-21 01:20 am (UTC)Gratuitous Icon Post.
your voyeur!draco fic
::laughs:: I hadn't thought of it that way.
I'm glad you enjoyed the story. It really makes my day when someone takes the time to offer commentary beyond "I liked it". Thank you very much.
And Lucius emphasizing his power by not acting ashamed at all.
Yes, that's it exactly.
Draco seemed a bit... soft. Perhaps just young. I dunno. It's not a specific grievance, just something that didn't entirely jive with my own mental picture of him.
For what it's worth, I agree with you, and I think it's a weak point in the story. He's not written very clearly, which may be partly because he's playing the role of the passive observer, and partly just because I hadn't thought very hard about what makes him tick. I'd like to try writing him again sometime... his voice doesn't come easily to me.
I adore the interaction between Draco and Narcissa
Thank you! I was pretty pleased with the way that worked out. I'd never even given Narcissa a second thought when I started writing, but she seemed to fit in quite naturally. I'd like to write her again too, now that we know a bit more about her background.
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Date: 2003-08-21 03:12 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-08-21 03:36 pm (UTC)It would be interesting to test this theory and try to write canon!Snape in a relationship, as strictly true to JKR's portrayal of the character as possible. I can *almost* see JKR doing it as a comedic subplot (probably pairing him with someone just as horrible as he is), but an enterprising fan writer might be able to pull it off in a more interesting way than that.
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Date: 2003-08-22 12:03 am (UTC)I should imagine that people attempting to do this would start off with the best of intentions but soon run up against the barriers of 1) his unattractive appearance and hygiene problem 2) his petty vindictive nature, which extends to bullying defenceless first-years 3) his inability to find humour in anything that doesn't tear people down ("I see no difference"). So the writer who starts to write Canon!Snape will be subtly drawn over to the Snape of Hidden Depths, in which all negative actions are accorded a positive interpretation ("He persistently bullied Neville Longbottom, a traumatized little first-year away from home for the first time, even though he knew perfectly well what the Death Eaters had done to Neville's parents? Erm... Er... It was Tough Love! Yes, that's it! He wanted to get Neville to stand on his own two feet and he throught the best way to do that was repeated abuse and humiliation! It all makes sense!" etc.)
IMHO any character who'd want a relationship with Orthodox!Snape would have to be a card-carrying masochist.
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Date: 2003-08-23 01:28 am (UTC)That, or the Snape of Surprising Sexual Prowess. (Which, IMO, is nearly impossible to justify. How would Orthodox!Snape have had enough practice at lovemaking to get good at it? And when has he ever cared enough about another person's well-being to even bother?)
IMHO any character who'd want a relationship with Orthodox!Snape would have to be a card-carrying masochist.
Yes. The only character that comes to mind as a likely candidate is Peter Pettigrew, who certainly seems to get off on being dominated and abused. I was very disappointed when I realized that they can't have been lovers, for reasons of canon (unless you're writing Evil!Snape).
no subject
Date: 2003-08-23 10:26 am (UTC)Indeed! Unless he's one for paid sexual encounters, or frequents the sort of sauna where "Hello, my name is..." is judged to be irrelevant chit-chat.
Yes. The only character that comes to mind as a likely candidate is Peter Pettigrew, who certainly seems to get off on being dominated and abused. I was very disappointed when I realized that they can't have been lovers, for reasons of canon (unless you're writing Evil!Snape).
True, but who says Pettigrew is the only card-carrying masochist in canon? I think the characters of both Percy and Quirrell scream "Abuse me, I love it!"
no subject
Date: 2003-08-23 08:04 pm (UTC)And I see that your WIP features Snape/Quirrell. I haven't had a chance to read it yet, so I don't know what angle you're working, but it does seem to me that Quirrell would have been intensely interested in Snape, being as Snape is an ex-DE. I can see how that might develop into something more.
Percy does seem to be one for discipline, but I think it's self-discipline more than the desire to be controlled that I see in Quirrell and Peter. At school, Percy revelled in his own authority. And I think that if he did kiss some faculty ass along the way, it was only so that he could gain that authority. After he graduates, he's at the bottom of the ladder again, and goes back to licking his boss's boots to get ahead. But when he deals with his younger siblings, he still takes the position of the authority figure. Can you imagine Quirrell or Peter ever writing the kind of letter Percy wrote to Ron?
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Date: 2003-08-21 06:52 pm (UTC):-)
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Date: 2003-08-21 10:10 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-11-18 07:36 am (UTC)When random, barely-remembered fandom experiences collide!
...never mind what I'm doing commenting on teh old entries... *whistles*