| “ | You dare use my own spells against me, Potter? Yes. I'm the Half-Blood Prince. | „ |
| ~ Severus Snape reveals himself as the Half-Blood Prince in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. |
| “ | You have your mother's eyes... | „ |
| ~ Severus Snape's last words to Harry Potter. |
Severus Snape, also known as the Half-Blood Prince, is one of the overarching protagonists in the Harry Potter franchise. His loyalty was debatable throughout the entire series, but he was finally revealed to be on the side of good near the end of The Deathly Hallows, being unconditionally loyal to Albus Dumbledore and the woman he loved, Lily. He plays a very crucial role in bringing about Voldemort's final defeat.
He was portrayed by the late Alan Rickman, who also voiced Joe in Help! I'm a Fish. He was also portrayed by Alec Hopkins as a teenager, and Benedict Clarke as a child.
His Evil Ranking
His Villainous Deeds
- He falls apart with Lily Evans because he hung out with bullies as a teenager and called her a "Mudblood" in front of James, making their dwindling relationship entirely his fault instead of Lily's.
- He worked for Voldemort as a Death Eater, although he changed sides when Lily was threatened.
- He is the one who told Voldemort about the prophecy regarding the child who will defeat the Dark Lord in the future, leading Voldemort to decide to hunt down the Potters (which motivates Snape's defection), resulting in the deaths of James and Lily. He also asked Lord Voldemort to spare Lily in exchange for James and Harry, something which Dumbledore rightfully calls him out on.
- His extremist and cynical personality negatively affects his relationships with his students. He enjoys bullying students that he personally dislikes. Some of his jerkish acts towards his students, all of which are children and juveniles, include:
- Being consistently verbally abusive to Jacob's sibling, not because they had ever wronged him but merely because he couldn't stand their brother when he had attended school.
- Showing blatant favoritism to Slytherins, students grouped for being ambitious and superficially jerkish (especially Draco Malfoy) and having huge double standards with disciplining them laxly compared to Gryffindors, students grouped for being brave and superficially brutish.
- Being biased against Gryffindor when refereeing a Quidditch match, awarding Hufflepuff penalties for no reason.
- Criticizing Ron every chance he gets, even mocking his poor Apparition ability in front of the class.
- Being consistently unkind to Hermione despite her being one of his most competent students, calling her an "insufferable know-it-all" and not caring when Draco disfigured her teeth on purpose. He even deducted five house points because she answered a question correctly when no one else could answer it.
- Bullying Neville constantly, at one point poisoning Neville's insentient pet toad with a botched potion, and while it never died, the intention counts. He then deducts five points from Hermione for helping Neville with his potion.
- He is eager to see Sirius Black get the Dementor's Kiss, a fate worse than death, and wants Lupin to get the Kiss for helping him, and refuses to listen to their attempts to explain Sirius's innocence.
- He reveals Remus Lupin's condition as a werewolf, forcing Lupin to leave Hogwarts.
- He accuses Harry of putting his own name in the Goblet of Fire, even though there was no way Harry could have done this.
- He humiliates Harry and Hermione by reading Rita Skeeter's article about them in front of the class, inviting the Slytherins to laugh at it and showing no remorse over this.
- He ridicules Tonks over her feelings for Lupin, telling her that her new Patronus looks weak.
- He has Harry sort out records about the misdemeanors of James Potter and Sirius Black during detention, mocking their deaths to Harry's face.
- Though this was consensual, he killed Albus Dumbledore (a Near Pure Good hero) under the latter’s orders.
- When fighting Harry after he killed Dumbledore, he explodes at Harry, mocking him and his father. Despite having been under orders to kill Dumbledore, he clearly provoked Harry out of frustration and hatred rather than to maintain his cover.
- He placed the Sword of Gryffindor at the bottom of a frozen pool, which put Harry in danger of drowning. While the sword had to be claimed under conditions of bravery, Rowling confirmed that he mainly did this out of spite.
Why He Doesn't Stand Out?
- While Lord Voldemort is an unfair comparison, he still fails the heinous standard of Harry Potter to Bellatrix Lestrange, who tortured the Longbottom couple into insanity and killed Sirius Black, and Dolores Umbridge, who tried to collect Harry’s soul and tortured hundreds of Muggle-borns out of pettiness and spite. In contrast, Snape only committed standard villainy, and his killing of Dumbledore was done with heavy reluctance and remorse as he never wanted to take his life. Plus, him starting the rivalry between Harry and Voldemort was a complete accident.
- He has an extremely tragic past due to being bullied a lot as a child and losing the love of his life, Lily Evans. This caused him to gain insecurities that are played for sympathy, making him a scapegoat by extension. His death is also played massively for sympathy when he is killed by Voldemort and succumbs to his injuries while telling Harry that his eyes remind him of Lily.
- He cares for Harry, his allies and his students, and his legacy and astounding heroism made Harry name his son after him and Dumbledore.
- He has standards, a heart, a moral compass and a sense of honor.
- After his redemption, the scenes with him abusing his students and bullying them are played for laughs and thus, they aren’t meant to be taken seriously by the narrative.
- He has committed a multitude of heroic acts. While he was originally On & Off, he later redeemed himself and became a much nicer person causing Harry to tell his kid years later that Snape was one of the bravest men he knew.
Trivia
- The film version of Severus is significantly less heinous and lacks many of the corrupting factors his book version possesses, and might not have been a villain had it not been for the sixth installment:
- He does not insult his students as much as his book counterpart.
- While his hostility with Harry is still evident, he is less cruel towards him and even has moments where he shows him affability (unbeknownst to Harry), such as wishing him good luck on his first Quidditch match and even flashing him a slight smile, along with a sarcastic compliment on Harry's defeat of the mountain troll earlier that year.
- He defended Harry, Ron, and Hermione during their second year from Filch's accusations when Mrs. Norris was petrified, though he did note that there was a set of suspicious circumstances.
- It is never stated that he revealed the status of Remus as a werewolf.
- He does not become angry with Harry after killing Dumbledore, before Harry eventually found out Dumbledore instructed Snape to kill him.
- He asked Dumbledore to protect the entire Potter family, as opposed to only Lily, when Voldemort found out about the prophecy.
External Links
- Severus Snape on the Villains Wiki
- Severus Snape on the Heroes Wiki
- Severus Snape on the Inconsistently Admirable Wiki
- Severus Snape on the Magnificent Baddie Wiki
- Severus Snape on the Harry Potter Wiki
