Severus Snape (And why he's a brilliant character)

So after my rant about my favorite characters the other day, this post came to mind. Because out of all those characters I'd say probably my favorite is Severus Snape, my favorite character of the Harry Potter series. Especially when Alan Rickman is in mind because he gave such a stellar performance of that character.

I find that I'm not alone in liking Snape. And why should I be? He has a dry sense of humor and a mysterious edge about him... and he switches sides way more than any character ever. Honestly. I think J.K. Rowling just enjoyed throwing him back and forth like that to confuse the readers.

First Snape is bad because he's mean and Harry thinks he wants the philosopher's stone.

But it turns out he was actually protecting Harry the whole time and VOLDEMORT was behind it!

Then in book four it turns out he was a death eater and might still be helping Voldemort.

But it turns out it was Barty Crouch Jr. Disguised as Mad eyed moody and Snape really IS on the good side.

Then in Book 6, Snape kills Dumbledore. Surely he's bad now right?

Nope, in Book 7 the entire thing is revealed and Snape is truly a good guy... OR IS HE?

Yeah. Yeah, he is. But readers everywhere were struggling to figure him out all across the series. Which of course is a mark of a complex character and what makes me love him. He played is role so well that he had the readers confused, therefore it made sense that Voldemort would trust him.

I myself was in denial when I read Dumbledore's death. And when everyone was saying "Well, guess Snape really was evil" I was defending him. Why? Because it didn't make sense that after flip flopping Snape back and forth between good and evil so many times that J.K Rowling would keep him evil. That wouldn't have been a fitting end to his character. Snape is one case where if he had been a straight up villain he would have been less complex. Plus we wouldn't have stumbled on one of my favorite themes in literature.

What is it? Well, I'll tell you.

Redemption.

I love redemption, wherever it is, just so long as it makes sense. I know there are plenty of cynics out there who say that people don't change and once you're bad you're always bad but I've never adopted that point of view. And I'm pretty cynical.

Nothing gives me greater joy (OK maybe some things but, you know) than seeing a character you thought was all bad do something genuinely good. Like when Darth Vader saved Luke from the Emperor. Or when Smegal banished his demons and really tried to help Frodo (Granted he succumbed to Golem again later which was probably one of the saddest things ever, but more on that in another post)

Because I do believe in forgiveness and redemption and change. People are constantly changing because of their environment. Often times evil characters are the product of terrible and heart breaking circumstances. Seeing a "bad guy" triumph in spite of that makes me happy, and it almost assuredly makes them my favorite character in the book.

The sad part about Snape's redemption was he was already dead when it happened and I was beat my head against my bed going "WHY, WHY, WHY!" The chapter where Harry finds out everything about Snape is my favorite chapter in all of the Harry Potter Books. I practically have it memorized because I read it so much.

Not to mention that after I finished the book I went running around to all my friends who doubted Snape going "HAHAHAHA! I was right!" (Including my brother. Best day of my life)

In these next few days I'll be going over my other favorite themes in fiction. Until then!

-Authoress Anonymous

My favorite characters (And how they're predictable)

I'm a predictable person when it comes to what I like. If you know me you can pretty much pick up any book at all and pick out my favorite character. If it's the right type of book. Generally it has to be fantasy, dystopian or adventure based in some way. Not realistic fiction. That's a bit more complex. But with those other genres it's pretty easy.

Basically most of my favorite characters are complex, sarcastic, middle aged men. Which is weird. Because I'm not at middle age yet so you'd think I'd still like the younger love interest.

I do not.

Not that I don't like those characters. I do. I just don't ever find myself as interested in them. Maybe it's because I'm a writer and I'm drawn to a more mysterious character I don't know as much about. If I don't know as much about them then I can fill in the gaps for myself and have a ton of fun thinking what might be their back story before the author themselves reveal it. Maybe it's because I have a very dry wit and you usually don't find that kind of humor in younger characters. Maybe I just like characters with a dark streak or a dark brooding past. Younger characters haven't had much time to have a dark brooding past. They're not even two decades old.

So let's dive into my psyche shall we, and find out why I like the characters I do.

1. I like bad guys

I'm not going to deny it. I have a soft spot for villains. In almost every book, move or anime I have a villain that I just enjoy the hell out of every time they make an appearance. 

I blame this on events deeply rooted in my childhood (Though that makes it sound really dramatic doesn't it?). My main playmate when I was a kid (Four or five) was my brother. My brother was the type of person who loved to stage epic battles between his action figures. Battles between good and evil that involved death and triumph. It's a lot for a five year old to absorb. Especially when said five year old's brother tried to make the battles complex. Like the bad guys sometimes won. Or if the bad guy didn't win and died, he had a son that he left behind. Or he had a tortured past. Or he and the main good guy used to be best friends.

Yep. Guess that explains my dark side. My brother instilled it in me at a young and impressible age.

But I'd like to clarify that my favorite character isn't usually the main bad guy. Like Voldemort wasn't my favorite character in Harry Potter. Sauron wasn't my favorite character in Lord of the Rings. And Lord Citius wasn't my favorite character in Star Wars. I like the side villains because they're generally less evil and more complex. And I can hypothesize a lot more about their fall from grace.

Really villains are just some of the most interesting characters because we want to know, as readers, where they went wrong. How did they fall so far and reach this point? What terrible things brought them to this state? Is there any humanity left in them? Is their hope for redemption?

With the main character and love interest, we nearly always know the good guy is going to make the right decision in the end, even if there are challenges and they are tempted by the bad side. Unless the book or movie is some character study about a fall from grace. Or a Shakespeare play. In YA in particular, the main good guys usually overcome the challenges. It's the side villains who are less predictable. We want to see if maybe there is more to them or if they'll do something good in the end.

And even if they don't we can always write alternate endings.

2. If they aren't a straight villain: They're still screwed up.

Even if my favorite character is on the "Good side", they still are very messed up. They still have done something bad in the past or make a huge mistake over the course of the book, they've had something horrible happen to them and they're jaded because of it, or it's just hard to get a read on them.

Or in my ideal character: All four.

Let's take a look at some of my favorite characters shall we?

Snape (Harry Potter): He's done something bad in the past, he's had horrible things happen to him, he's jaded, he's hard to get a read on and he switches sides about fifty thousand times (Or not really. We just think he does. I LOVE SNAPE!)

Darth Vadar (Like I need to tell you): He's screwed up, has made mistakes but was ultimately redeemed. My favorite kind of villain!

Basta (Inkheart): He's a villain, it is implied that he has had terrible things happen to him and he's not a nice guy over the course of the book. We also never find out in detail what happened to him so gues who's imagination got to go wild!

Joe Solomon (Gallagher Girl's series): He worked for an evil organization in the past, he's made mistakes, it's hard to get a read on him, and he's bad ass (Like James Bond if he wasn't a sexist pig and was actually an interesting character)

Boromir (Lord of the Rings): He was tempted by the ring and almost killed Frodo to get it. That's a pretty big mistake. (Also my second favorite character is Golum so... yeah, do I even need to list what's wrong with him?)

Haymitch (The Hunger Games): Horrible things have happened to him, he's made mistakes, he's jaded and he's a sarcastic drunk as an extra plus!

Spotting the trend now? I could list a lot of others and honestly the only reason that a sarcastic, mysterious, middle aged man with a bad streak isn't my favorite character in every single book I read is because sometimes there isn't one of those in the book.

Funny enough, they aren't my favorite characters because I'm attracted to them or anything like that. I would not want to date these guys. They would be trouble. I do feel like this kind of character is often liked by women who really want a project. Someone to fix. That's fine for them but I'm just that nerdy writer who likes characters because they're good characters.

It's a concept that a lot of people fail to understand when I say: My favorite character is Haymitch. They reply "You like him? Peeta is the hottest."

Since when did your favorite character have to be the one you're attracted to? Thank God I didn't say Effie.

-Authoress Anonymous

Women in Fiction (And their evolution over time)

So moving away from romance... (The imaginary crowd that I pretend reads my blog breaks out into cheers)

Yeah, yeah, OK. I think I've exhausted the topic of romance for now. I'll probably come back to it soon with an inevitable love triangle rant but today I'm going to launch a series of blog posts centered around women in fiction.

Obviously roles have been changing in fiction. The woman was once just a background decoration or reward for the hero and most of what she did was scream, get captured, be rescued and kiss. Which isn't to say we don't have plenty of those in Urban fantasy today! (Trust me, the Bella Swan rant is coming. Just not yet.)

But I like to look at when the first strong woman came on the scene in fantasy. And I trace it back to one of my favorite novels of all time: Lord of the Rings.

Yeah, talk about a male heavy cast. There were only three prominent female roles in this series: Arwin, Lady Galadriel and Eowyn. Each of these characters was interesting in their own right. Arwin could handle a sword, ride a horse and enchant rivers to eat up Nazgul (I love that scene) but much of her motivation was focused on a man. An awesome man, but a man none the less.

Lady Galadriel is the third oldest person on middle earth (Bet you didn't know that did you? Hooray for having a brother with a photographic memory who knows every single solitary thing about LoTR) And she wise and awesome and powerful but she doesn't ever join in with the guys in fighting. She's reserved, which I would expect from an elf.

Yeah, I bet you can guess who my favorite character is: Eowyn.

This. Woman. Kicks. Ass. And I think she was one of the first to do it in this genre. Especially considering Lord of the Rings was one of the first great fantasy epics. Eowyn was pretty ahead of her time, let's be honest.

And sure I cheer when the ring is destroyed and when the tower falls and when everyone kneels to the hobbits and Frodo leaves Middle Earth (Actually those last two involve significant tears. When I make a list of the movies I've actually cried at, that's going to be on it). All of those scenes are awesome. But the scene that really makes me jump out of my seat, pump my fists and give a triumphant "HECK YEAH!" is Eowyn's scene.

You know the one.

The Witch King says "No man can kill me. Die."

Merry helpfully stabs him in the leg.

Eowyn takes off her helmet and reveals she's a woman.

"I am no man."

And with a wild cry she kills the KING OF THE NAZGUL! Holy crap! That's the most awesome line before killing something ever and that's probably the most bad ass thing anyone in the movie did (Besides Legolas killing that one elephant and all the men riding it. That was awesome)

Think about the main villains. No one actually fights Sauron he's just taken down by the ring in the fire. While that is AWESOME, he couldn't actually fight back because he was a tower. Sauroman (In the movie version, I know it's different in the book) is left to die in his tower. No one actually kills him.

The next main baddy is the witch king and Eowyn is the one who takes him down, with the help of a hobbit.

Eowyn was truly the first fantasy female badass and I think she still is one of the all time greats.

So for the next week before I go out of town for awhile with no internet access I shall be looking at the evolution of the woman in fiction, analyzing steryotypes and favorite characters, and talking about them in general.

Until tomorrow! Where I will talk about Disney princesses!

-Authoress Anonymous