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I firmly believed Snape was evil before reading the last book, and after the last book, I still think he's a terrible human being... but a fascinating one.
While it can be intimidating to wade into the Great Snape Debate, I first dipped my toes in when I decided to give a presentation about him at Aeternitas 2011. The presentation was titled "Snape's Anger," and provided an in-depth look at Snape's behavior in the Prisoner of Azkaban climax and in the "Snape's Worst Memory" chapter of Book 5.
Aeternitas 2011 Presentation Part 1 and Part 2. The hosts of SnapeCast were so intrigued by the presentation, that they interviewed me on their show.
I then made the presentation into an editorial that I sent into MuggleNet, and they published it:
Snape's Anger This essay was MuggleNet's Featured Essay of the Month in July 2011.
Apparently "Snape's Anger" then served as inspiration for an incredibly popular fanfiction called The Syntax of Things by Arrisha - it's the most visited Harry/Snape story on all of AO3.
After becoming a regular MuggleNet columnist in Fall 2011, I revisited Snape, but this time in a negative light.
My Damnation of Severus Snape I point out all the reasons why, although Snape is a fantastic character, he is an awful person. This generated more discussion than any of MuggleNet's other essays of the time, with hundreds of comments debating Snape.
Severus... Please... A sort of follow-up to "Snape's Anger," this examines that fateful night in Prisoner of Azkaban through the lens of Snape and Dumbledore's relationship, and how that relationship informs the events of Goblet of Fire. 2015.
Wormwood & Wolfsbane: The Snape/Lupin Relationship examines the contentious relationship between the two, and whether their animosity ever abated. Written May 2019.
The Secret Flaws of Severus Snape – A Rebuttal was a response to another essay on MuggleNet, which argued that Snape was a perfectionist and emotionally unstable. I disagreed on both counts, and laid out my arguments here. Written January 2021.