A Geek History of Time - Episode 236 - The Damnation of Severus Snape Part I

Episode Date: November 4, 2023

I'm saying that we were getting to the movies. Yeah, and I'm only going to get into a few of them. Because there were way too many for me to really be interested in telling you this clone version or this clone version in the early studio system. It's a good metric to know in a story art. Where should I be? Or there's beast. I should step over here.

Uh, yeah. At some point, at some point, I'm going to have to sit down with you like and force you, like pump you full of coffee and be like, no, okay, look. And are swiftly and brutally put down by the minute men who use bayonets to get their point across. Well done there. I'm good, Aimean. And I'm also glad that I got your name right this time.

I apologize for that one TikTok video. Men of this generation wound up serving a whole lot of them as a percentage of the population because of the war, because of a whole lot of other stuff. Oh yeah. And actually in his case, it was pre-war, was pre-war but you know I was joking. Did he seriously join the American Navy? He did. Fuck it. This is a geek history of time. Where we connect Nurgere to the real world.

My name is Ed Blalock. I'm a world history and English teacher here in Northern California. And I have a war wound to show off. I didn't mention this before we started recording this evening. My wife tried to cut my finger off in our garden yesterday afternoon. We have a whole lot of tomatoes now. I don't know how much I've talked about our gardening efforts recently, but our garden beds have turned into a jungle.

And yesterday we went out there and armed with one set of handclippers and one set of old worn out scissors because we don't have any other proper gardening influence. We said about trying to trim back the tomato vines. And at one point, my wife had had a a bunch of tomatoes, like three of them on one on one vine, each of them weighing easily a pound of peace. And she said, can you can you hold this up for me so that I can, so that I can cut them loose. So I can cut off the rest of the vine. I said, yes, of course, I came over and

I held them. And she went with the scissors to cut them loose from the vine. And she managed to pinch my right index finger. So, so literally the dominant finger of my dominant hand in the scissors. The good news is she wasn't actually using the hand clippers because if she had, that would have been an emergency room visit because those are sharp enough. She would have just taken a chunk out of the end of my finger and that would have been it. As it was, it just hurt like a son of a bitch. And I bled for I had to have pressure on the thing for solidly 10 minutes. And it's it's mugly right now. And of course, it's on the dominant finger of my dominant hand. So when I try to do many things, I have to take the bandaid off, like cooking dinner, I can't keep a bandaid on it. And so anyway, this evening, just in order to show it off and get a reaction out of you,

I didn't put it back on yet. But yeah. So, yeah, my wife, my wife committed assault with a deadly weapon on me. She apologized, of course, and I'm, you know, I'm being dramatic like I am. But yeah, so that's what I've had going on. How about you? Well, I'm Damien Harmon. I am a high school, he was his three teacher up here in Northern California. And I got to say, it's not assault with a high school, he was history teacher up here in northern California. And I got to say it's not assault with the deadly weapon, it was the bad scissors. So those by definition have been held up in court as not being deadly weapons. Your honor, I couldn't have killed my husband, I used the bad scissors. And you know, you get enough seamstresses on the jury and you get off.

Yeah, all right. and you get enough seamstresses on the jury and you get off. Yeah, all right. All right. Yeah. That's the same if the seam won't rip you must acquit exactly. So in a quit in time saves judged by 12 rather than buried by say, I don't remember how it goes. But but it occurred to me that like you guys had kind of, I think it was a Mark's brothers

thing of like you hold the nail and I'll hold or I'll hold the nail and you hold the hammer. And when I nod my head, you hit it with the hammer. I did. Yeah. Very much hold up these tomatoes with your fingers and I'll cut one. Yep. Yep. Yeah.

And that's how you should tell the story to her family. I can tell you this is a veteran of two marriages. Okay. But so I had a really cool thing happen. As you know, my partner and I have been together enough years and we are both in our 40s. And so like there's no real time for foolish games and fooling around and stuff like that.

So I go over there the other day and she says, Hey, I got you a gift. Do you want it today or do you want it tomorrow when I come over to do curriculum with you? And my first thought was, we'll give it to me right now in case one of us gets sick. So she runs to the bag of ours. She comes back and she hands me a left-handed banjo

Wow, yeah, oh my cow So much in love like oh my god, I got a left-handed banjo ed like I also figured out that the instrument that you and I both play and I don't know how long it's been since you played it but I need to pick it back up but yeah it's start calling it a loot dulcimer okay yeah yeah all right because if you say it's a wood road nobody will know what that all that is yeah yeah but a loot dulimer. That'll look right, these in their mind. Okay. But now I have a left-handed banjo.

And so I had to buy a left-handed banjo cord book because the normal banjo cord books are all set for right-handed people. And I was getting cords off the middle. And I was just like, I haven't figured out. But yes, I have a left-handed banjo and I am very cool So happy like it is nice. Yeah, nice. So anyway All right as a result I haven't done much to prepare for tonight because I've just been left-handed banjoing

I'm hoping that you've got that sounds like a you like it's that's one of those things that isn't a you from is a but it sounds like it should be a I've been slapped in the back of the skin and it's been plucking away. Yeah. Yeah. Hell. Like, calluses on my fingers now. It's a Jesus, dude, lay off. Man, if you got calluses on your fingers, I don't even, okay, I'm gonna slap in the skin on the back. fingers. I don't even, okay. Never mind. I'm sliding the skin on the back. Well, you know, it's, it's okay that, that you've been busy banging

away on the little banjo. Sure. Um, because, because I have, I have something for us this evening. Um, so here's a question. As an educator. As an educator. What was, well, I don't know, the question I thought I was going to ask when was the last time you apologized to a student? Oh, God. Easily last year. Okay.

I have no problem like admitting to, oh, that bothered you. I'm so sorry. Like, not just I'm simply not saying, but I didn't realize that that is a thing that I should watch out for. I will do better next time. So thing that I should watch out for. I will do better next time. So specifically, I'm terrible with names. That's why in my Latin classes, I used to give people names. Like that was the reason I turned it into a thing. And it was codified and it was all this, but at the end of the day, it was because I'm terrible with names.

There were two kids named Aaron in my class and I called him Aaron the red and her Aaron the black because that was the color of their hair. And then the die ran out in her hair and she also had red hair and I could not figure it out. Oh, you're fucking kidding me. Dead serious. So I'm like, you're fucking. No, I'm like, okay, fine. Y'all get that name. And it just happened to coincide with the end of the first quarter. And so I made it seem like it had been planned all along. And so like any good classroom instructor would do. I mean, so I gave out questionnaires of, you know, describe yourself.

If you were this, what would you be? If you, how can you forward adjectives that describe you? What is a trait that you like to be known for and stuff like that then I would find the Latin was that meant something that they picked And then nice I would never tell them what it meant. They'd have to look it up Right, and I'd always find something like the third or fourth definition. So There'd be a case This means that I have a large forehead and I give good filetio. I'm like, keep reading.

I would never name somebody that or my other favorite. You named my son something that means lazy. I'm like, no, but it's funny that you would say that because if he'd kept reading, he would have seen. Oh my God. And I was like, in 20 years of doing this, I've never, ever given a kid that name, what is wrong with you?

Like, and then the next year, I would do it again, and the kids would get a second name added. And then the third year, they'd get a third year, third name, and then the fourth year, they'd pick their finalize. And what we did, like Latin club activities, if you won an event, you had another name added on, you know, like like Pompey would do. Okay. Yeah. Like. So then like classical Romans, you know, had had how many names have you got, man?

Yeah. Brian Omen, Cogd Omen, Agnomen, and then Autorific names too, you know. Yeah. And so that's a competition amongst the kids about who could get the most names in their four years. So it's just all kinds of cool shit based on the fact that I could remember a fucking name. So, which I think that's how most traditions start. But then on top of that, so I, you know, back to the straight world, no longer teaching Latin. I would teach, I would call kids by pet names. Just real quick. Hey, bud. Dude, guy, fella, pal.

And, uh, Hun, Darlin, Darlin's a big one for me because it's old, timey and shit. Hun, uh, sweetie, could you, you know, blah, blah, blah. Um, and a kid would blanch it that sometimes, but I'm sorry, uh, I call my kids that all day along at home too. So it's just real quick. And so I still wouldn't admit that I was terrible with names. And then, uh, I have kids who are transgender. And I was pretty good about finding the general neutral ones

or using the one that fit with their gender that they now identify us, right? No problem. And then I had a kid and she said, basically, she's like, you know, it's an off-putting vibe to be called pet names. And I hear you do it to other kids and they might not mind, but it bothers me.

And I said, you know what? Fair is fair. And I even told her, I said, look, the reason quite honestly is because I'm bad at names, but that doesn't mean that I can't change and that I shouldn't try because I'd rather not make you uncomfortable. So I'm sorry. And I will continue to screw it up from time to time. So just call me out on it. And I'm sorry that you even have to do that, but old dog new tricks. But I am sorry that I made you feel uncomfortable by calling other people of a pet names. And I will do my damnedest. Okay. And so that was, yeah, that was last semester.

Okay. So. Okay. So, okay. So, they're, all right, to be fair. I have, I have apologized to my own classes, like not really to an individual student recently. student recently. But I have apologized to my class for getting, reacting with a little bit more force to a particular situation verbally speaking, then was necessary, then was comfortable for a number of them in the room. I'm not going to say it wasn't appropriate. I'm not going to say it wasn't appropriate.

I am going to say it made them uncomfortable. Or made a few of them uncomfortable. And so, you know, I let them know I am sorry for having created a situation in which several of you were uncomfortable. I do not want any of you to have any reason to be afraid to be in my room. And I am sorry that I may have made you feel that way in my room. And then I briefly and kind of broadly explained what my reason was for the particular reaction I had had to the particular situation. I had a student, right, the situation involved students getting into a physical altercation.

And my response to it was very sudden and very loud. And so without getting into too many other details. But I apologized, right? Yeah, because part of what we ought to model to our students as adults who hold positions of power in their lives. And over them, we need to model that as a behavior. Because the reason I bring this up is because tonight I'm going to be talking

about a person in real life and individual in fiction created by that person in real life, who seem to have a problem with the concept of apology, because they never do it. Okay, finally, we're going to do the the professor X expose that I've been waiting for. I'm sure that one will be killer when it when it's done, but that's not actually who I'm talking about. Okay, let me try again. Yeah, we're finally doing the expose on Mr. Moore from head of the by that one because in some ways Mr. Mora's teacher goals for me and I got to go back and see what the fuck it was he did that did it was problematic.

So thank you, you just gave me some homework to do there apparently. But no, we're looking at a different instructor. We're going to be looking at Severus Snape. Oh, okay. And his creator, Joanne K. Rowling. So I'm going to start with Snape. Now, the more redeemable of the two. Well, except for the fact that he dated. And so, yeah, certainly the fandom still are. Okay, you're Lord. I'm already there. I thought it was B.I. Ron. Byron. I don't know. Okay. Daryngy plus being by a racer. Like what?

See now, now I want somebody like anybody in our listing audience, all, you know, 35 view, everyone in there are, um, I want, I want somebody to actually turn that into a thing, a bionic here. It would just be something getting it on with, uh, Ginny's older brother and the guy from Parks and Rec, having a bionic experience. There you go. Yeah. Okay. And And in having a little to do by chronic. Yeah. Oh, oh, oh, oh. Oh, and the thing is that wouldn't really hurt, but I'm not mad about it. I don't know why, but okay. So, but no, in the mold of Mr. Darcy or Heath Cliff, any hero written by the Bronte sisters, you know, generally saturnine, moody, you know, self internally tormented all that kind of crap.

internally tormented all that kind of crap. That's after the model of Mad Baton Dangerous to know Lord Byron. Rolling seems to have wanted, and I don't know if this was her plan, like when she first started writing the books or if it was something that came up as she went. It's hard to tell in an narrative. But toward the end of the series, and especially in the last, I'm going to say three books, we get bombarded with all of this. Well, you know, Harry's dad was actually kind of a prick Harry's dad was actually kind of a prick and serious black and James Potter bullied him. And there's all this stuff that's like trying to turn him into a sympathetic character. And then at the very end, especially in the films, and I think part of the reason that the fandom is works so hard, so bloody hard, to try to to try to redeem him. I mean, aside from the fact that it is technically word of God

because Harry goes on and names one of his kids after the guy. What the hell, you couldn't name your kid Ruby-us like really? Seriously, for fuck's sake. But anyway. But the fandom, this whole episode was built around two things that crossed my perception in the space of about a week. Number one, first, my son asked to rewatch the first Terry Potter movie. So, all right. So we went back and we're watching the first Terry Potter movie. And at the very beginning of the film, and it is also at the very beginning of the book, film and it is also at the very beginning of the book. We see Alba Stumbledore show up on private drive and as he walks up he says I should have expected to see you here a professor

McGonagall and a supposedly you know looks like Stray Cat, trans-migraphized transforms into Professor McGonagall. And they have an exchange, and part of the exchange is McGonagall saying to Dumbledore, are you sure we have to put him here, these people are the worst muggles imaginable? And Dumbledore, Dumbledore responds with they are the only family he has left. Which I've never been okay with that. Yeah, well, and I'm going to, and we're going to, we're going to get to that. Yeah, in a bit, but that was, that was like that, that really twigged for me. And I was like, no, hop. And then about, I don't know, a day or two later, just scrolling through videos on Facebook. There was some fan made video edit that was attached to some piece of fan fix, somebody had written that was a letter from Snape to Harry that was, I was never your enemy.

Oh, for fuck's sake. You know, and look, you know, and just like all this shit that like, in order to write it, you have to willfully ignore so much text. Yeah. But it was, but it was but it was this you know, I You know, I loved your mother so much and you showed up and and you know, I saw her in your eyes and life from the day Yeah, and from the day you showed up. I've been trying to protect you and I did all these things I'm like okay, I'll fuck you and so as has happened with so many other episodes

I've written this was motivated essentially by a fuck you because no has happened with so many other episodes. I've written this was motivated essentially by a fuck you because no. So the title that I have here is Snape is damned and Rowling doesn't understand why. So let's get into it. Yeah. So right off the bat, Snape is a goddamn bully. Like there's no two ways about it. From the literally, snake, snake is a goddamn bully. Like there's, there's, there's no, there's no two ways about it.

From the literally the first time we actually hear him speak, he opens his mouth for the first fucking time. And the very first thing he does is he uses his expertise, like he is doctorate level educated in all of this potion stuff. And he uses his knowledge and his position to bully Harry. Right. Who is literally in day one of boarding school, right? Yeah. Yeah. Having just lived like for the last 10 years in an abusive home. Well, one, but like like, Snape is unaware of the abuse of home part, but he knows that Harry hasn't been living in the hasn't had any contact with the wizarding world. Right.

And not many use of but neglectful to of the education that he is now getting. Yeah. Yeah. And so, you know, snake just like, you know, immediately turns it into the situation of, look how much smarter I am than this 11 year old. Okay. Have we have you holding that though? Oh, oh, yes. Yes. Have we both had to sit on meetings to defend their contract rights because they keep trying to fuck them up. I have been very fortunate not to have to do that yet. It must be nice. I am so sorry. Jesus, crimony.

Hey, but at least that way I can use the contract to defend myself. Okay. Well, yes, this is true. If I defend them, you know, but yeah, no, you got to defend. The process has to be followed. Everybody involved has to follow the rules and whether we like it or not, they have the same rights we do. Yeah. Yeah. I have, well, you know

what? No. I have had a situation, but it was, it was a different kind of thing. Like I categorize it differently than what Snape does, but in the end, in the end, it's similar to what I'm saying kind of thing. So, he also in the same moment, in the same moment that he uses his knowledge and his position of power to bully Harry, he furthermore uses it to then for bonus points deride Hermione. Yeah, he doesn't use his expertise against Hermione because she matches him. He uses his power over her though, right? Doesn't, like, doesn't he take away points from her

house immediately? Yes. Yeah. For her and Harry. They both, they both lose Gryffindor points. Right. Or he takes points from Gryffindor on, on their behalf. How do you phrase that? Of all things, he penalizes her for being a know-it-all. You're an educator, motherfucker. Like, no, my fury towards Snape burns with the lambent righteous fury of a thousand sons and it will never go out. And like that moment right there lights me off so hard. Like, oh my God.

He consistently plays favorites. Yeah, consistently plays like throughout the entire series. And his favorites are privileged kids from pure blood families. Oh, yeah, it's not just his house. Just his house. It is specifically, right, an alpha and Parkinson, uh, yeah, pansy Parkinson and, and that, that upper crust,

Aryan blonde, you know, uh, fucking crew, uh, being pure pure blood isn't enough because Ron gets his more than fair share of abuse and Ron's family are noted to be just as pure blooded as the blacks or the mouth voice. That's true. So, so he plays favorites as a way to get the rub off of social cachet from the upper class kids that he's favoring. Favouring, I should say. We never see a slither in, like as much as people in fandom

who identify in slitherin for whatever reason, have created all kinds of wonderful, funny, great stuff about, you know, my life as background Slytherin is a web comic. I'm a big fan of. As much as they've, you know, done self-insert stuff to, to, you know, put themselves in Slytherin in the books, we never see a slither and who isn't a privilege of rich kid. What about the two? None of the codeys to to mouthwear. Are they? Oh no, they're their their fathers there. Yeah,

we get it is noted in a couple of in a couple of places. Okay. That as much as their fathers are not any brighter than their sons are, they are connected from old families. And so they have the social status. Yeah. Yeah. So he favors the Slytherins and more specifically, and he's head of Slytherin House, so he uses his power to favor them. Right. Right. In every way he can. Right. Um, he repeatedly.

Threatening to me. I got I got interrupt. Uh, to me, that seemed like, oh, this is how they run that school. Like where it's just kind of baked in that you're going to have some teachers who play favorites toward their own school. You know, that's what it like, like I could see people using that as the scutche of like, no, see like, you know, McGonagall taught her kids to dance and that's virtually the same thing, you know,

and stuff like that. Like I could see them saying like favoritism takes many forms in there for. But yeah, obviously it falls apart when you bring up any evidence. But yeah, that is like the the shorthand, I guess, the shorthand laziness. Well, yeah. And the other thing is we are, we are talking about a series that is basically a boarding schoolboy series. And so there are tropes that are going to carry over.

And the nasty abusive teacher is one of them. Absolutely. Oh god, now I'm trying to remember somebody, somebody's school days is one of the prototypical boarding school novel series. Tom, somebody's, Tom Jones's, I don't know it. I think, anyway, there's a series that actually spawned a spinoff series. Anyway, it's a whole tangent. But It's a whole tangent, but the genre of school days, you know, boarding, boys boarding school fiction has tropes that, that rolling leans on really hard. And, and one of them is teachers who play favorites.

Right. Um, and, and that's kind of a stock character. And, and so, you know, I mean, you could, you could maybe make the argument that Snape is just kind of stuck in this role because that's the trope EM bodies, but we don't, there's, yeah. And we don't see like the other schoolboy series don't have the rabid global fandom that Harry Potter does and they don't have people trying to redeem those characters. Right. Right. So yeah, I don't see anybody out there on the corner like holding up a sign saying,

you know, that teacher in the pink Floyd the wall that was beating the bull on his ass. Yeah. He's a good guy. I mean, look, his wife was, was henpacking him. He had to finish his meal. Yeah. And so nobody's being that sympathetic like that, that explained his pathos and and added to his patheticness. It did not add to his pitifulness. Yeah. Yeah. Um, so Snape repeatedly, repeatedly throughout the books acts with gratuitous and malicious cruelty toward neverville Longbottom and Hermione Granger, reducing Hermione to tears and giving Neville like an actual no-shit complex. Yeah, that's right, because the thing that he fears the most is Um, and like what kind of just real quick, yeah, devil whose parents were tortured to madness, correct?

Yes. And, and it is known that snake was part of the group that tortured people to madness, right? He was associated with them. The kids, here's the deal. Um, there are, there are adults who know that he was a death eater who got clemency. The kids, I don't know, I'd like specifically Neville, I don't know if Neville knows that Snape was a death eater.

I think Neville would be in a position to know, right? Cause his grandma, I think he could be, his, well, his grandmother, his grandmother, his grandmother might have known, and if, but if his grandmother knew, we also know enough about his grandmother to know that she'd be the kind of like, well, you know, he doesn't need to know that I need, I need to protect this boy because he's, you know, I'm a feeble and, you know, her

attitude toward him is, uh, protectively condescending. Yeah. And so, you know, that might not be something she would, she would let slip to him. Okay. Um, you know, so, but nevertheless, however, like he repeatedly, he just he just intimidates the shit out of poor Neville. I mean, he finds a weakness in Neville and just goes all in on it. Oh, yeah. Like, it's it is almost pathological how much he targets Neville. Oh, yeah. Yeah. And I have a huge soft spot in my heart for Neville as a character. But it is something to see him get picked on so. Yeah. And you're right, he does go after Hermione. Um, and any, anytime there is an opportunity to be cutting to word Hermione,

and to, and to try to undercut her strength. Yeah, he does it because she is nope she is no shit the smartest kid in her class. Oh yeah, like full stop she just is. Yep. And where other teachers look at it and like oh my god, you're amazing, you're wonderful. This is great. He consistently finds a way to make it a negative within the context of his own classroom. Or even if teachers like were irritated with her, you know, and like just put your fucking hand down, kid, we know you know, that's still a different flavor than what he does. Yes.

And even if a teacher was like, oh my God, this I'm never going to like, I'd better make sure I put a comma everywhere it goes on the track. Like that's still different. And if it's a teacher who's like frustrated that, you know, they cannot come up with enough to challenge this child. Yeah. Because we've, I mean, yeah, we've all as teachers. We've been there. Like, you have that kid who you're like, oh my god, this kid is way God dim smart. And I wish they had a better way of exercising those smarts because they're driving me up the fucking wall.

Right. So, I mean, he is the ridiculous teacher who has beef with an 11 year old. Yeah, like he has beef with an 11 year old. Yeah, like he has beef with an 11 year. And with multiple 11 year olds, for multiple different reasons, it's not even like I hate all kids who are like you. It's no. I hate you for this specific reason. And you like my eighth grade teacher. So I was what in eighth grade, what are you 13? 13. Okay. My eighth grade teacher absolutely had beef with me. But I fit the mold of the kid that he would have beef with

He's the guy. Yeah, okay articles on why the Japanese are gonna eat our lunch in the early. Oh, yeah You know right and and he had beef with the fact that I was smart and that a fact that I was you know I had questioned authority buttons in Walnut Creek You know, I will see that that marked you. Yeah, no, that that marked you as a potential revolutionary. And I have a long hair and stuff like that. Yeah, but yeah, um, like I get him having beef with me. And that's still different than that snake.

Yeah, well, because because Snape. Like I have, I have seen teachers have beef with students. I'm fortunate in that I was never the kid that a teacher had beef with. But I saw some of my classmates be the one that teachers had beef with. And it was a, I'm, I'm not going to let you get away with a goddamn thing. You're never going to get a favor from me anywhere.

And, you know, and there's always miserable. And it's like, yeah, and why? Why? Yeah. And, and, and, you know, but Snape, there is an added level of nitriol. Yeah. There is, there is a true genuine no shit toxicity. Like he really wants to hurt them. Because he is a profoundly insufficient personality.

Like, and anyway, I'm getting there. Um, he actively advocates for Harry to get kicked out of school repeatedly, repeatedly. And it's not a, let's get him out of the way so the death eaters don't find him. Let's, let's make him a longshoreman muggle. Yeah, it's not that. No, no, no, it's it's no, no, I want him gone because I hate him. I don't want him to get to be a wizard. I don't want him to get the privilege to be in wizarding society or the skills to defend himself against what I know is coming. Yeah, I don't know if it's like, no, I would say yes because if you go and if I'm stepping all over your ship, specifically has to teach Harry defense against the dark arts in private, he had to private tutor him, complimentize, yes. Yeah, that. At one point, Harry figure something out

or realizes something and Snape shuts the whole fucking program down after him. And I'm sitting there going like, you, okay, if you don't like this kid, you promised your boy, Albus, that you were gonna do this to take care of him. Also, there's a greater good here, but no, you're still gonna withhold this knowledge because you're going to do this to take care of them. Also, there's a greater good here, but no, you're still going to withhold this knowledge

because you're hurt or whatever, and ultimately, you're giving that kid a death sentence by doing it. Because you're embarrassed. Yeah. It isn't even, it isn't even, that's what it was. It's embarrassment.

Yeah. And get the fuck over yourself. So it was, it was at that point where I was like, there's, okay, I don't I stopped caring How much? Yeah, he had whatever Because oh you have a clear duty here and you can't even like if you still want to go back at him harder Like he was earlier in that in that little arrangement of like no, I have have to train you hard because blah, blah, blah. And yeah, I'm totally enjoying it. Um, at least you've got the cover of like, well, this will make him better at it, right? But now it's like, no, okay. Okay.

I'm taking my ball and going home. Yeah, you do not give a shit about this kid. Got it. Oh, no. But well, it's, it's actually even worse than that. He actively hates him. Yeah, like it's it's not even just utter indifference. It's okay. But here's the thing though, you and I have also had kids where it's just like, oh my god, count the I'm marking the calendar for when I don't have to deal with this kid. I cannot. It's fucking kid. I have five in my career that are the bottom five, right? And I have one who just dips below all of them. And got that kid, that kid's gotta be like 35 by now. 36, cause yeah, here's a sophomore, I'm gonna start it.

Okay. But I'm kinda curious where he went. But there are five kids that I can actively say, I disliked, I genuinely disliked. I will not get to the point of hate, but I think that those are degree. I will say this though, I still educated them. I still did my job by them.

I still did what was right by them. And if, you know, it's not like I didn't deny them favors, of course I did, but it was based on their behavior. Yeah. Oh, yeah. Right. Yeah. So I had, I've had, I mean, like I didn't say I'm just not educating you.

I'm just going to kick you out of my deck. I didn't even fucking do that. Yeah. And in this one, in the Wizarding world, um, he's, you know, I'm just not educating you. I'm just gonna kick you out of your deck. I didn't even fucking do that. And in this one, in the wizarding world, he's giving me death sense. Yeah. By, by, by, he is, he's leaving him exposed. Yeah. So he's letting his hate guide his behavior

with his kid as opposed to sucking it up. You can still hate the kid and still educate him. And, and still do the job. Yeah. Yeah. So also, so he he he attempts to get Harry kicked out of school repeatedly. And then when he looks like he's going to succeed on a couple of occasions, when it looks like he's gonna get what he wants. It's not enough for him to get what he wants. He fucking glutes about it. Oh, like Braxton. He's about to get mad. Yeah, he lears and

Snape is the Anakin Skywalker of of Hogwarts because of Hogwarts because both of them are incapable of doing anything without flouncing or flinging a cape around or smoldering or glowering or like all the drama. Like, is there a way for me to come into the room, writing, standing outside a tie fighter when I come in or you know, I will never just walk into a room I'm always going to come in with enough speed that my cloak flaps behind me like a pair of Ravens wings like I can't you know The only reason I have my hair this long is so I can flip it out of my eyes, you know of my hair this long so I can flip it out of my eyes. Right. You know, like, yeah.

And, you know, I mean, I say this as the guy who literally wears a cape to school half the year. So, I mean, like, understand where this criticism is coming from. Like, come on, you know, bring it down a notch. He out, remiss loopin' as a werewolf. Yeah, now that's not hairy based, right? No, that's not hairy based. This is just what a shitty person is. Where we're now moving on from just what a terrible

teacher he is too. Okay. No, no, he's also a shitty human being. He out, remiss loop looping as a werewolf and literally, literally tries to get serious black executed for a crime black didn't commit and refuses to listen to the evidence of black innocence. Right.

He doesn't care. Like I don't, he comes within a hair's breadth of literally telling the kids, I don't care. I won't want him dead. Yeah, now I'm going to go back to Lupin. Yeah. What is he gained by outing Lupin?

Lupin was... Lupin was one of James Potter's best friends. Right. No, I got a motive for it. I'm asking if he actually benefit at all from Lupin being out of it. Is there any material? Lupin, Lupin position does he get the parking spot creates the potential to get the position. I don't think he does get it. I'm trying to remember which book was which and who wound up being to fence against dark arts teacher when I don't I because I think the year after that is guildery lock heart. So I don't think he got the job. But by getting Lupin removed from the job, he creates the opportunity for him to take the position. Now is that an all what motivated him? No. Okay.

So that's a bonus. That's that's that's icing on the cake. But yeah. Um, so and and I really want to I want want to bear it down on, on the thing with, with Lupin, right now, first because Lupin's condition is really heavily queer coded. Oh, very much so. And I don't, and the thing is I don't know whether or not that was conscious on rolling's part or not.

It was on the actors part, though. Oh, it was, it It was on the actors part though. Oh, it totally was on the actors part. Totally was, but it's still really heavily queer coded in the book. Right. And you know, initially my thought was that it was intentional, but having now done some more research, I kind of wonder if Rowling just kind of fell backwards into that For reasons we'll get into I would say yes Yeah, well So but the way Lupin is marginalized the length to which he has to go to remain hidden and the cherry on top of the Sunday

The direct quote parents won't want their kids being taught by someone like me. Yeah. Like, I just, there we are. I remember vividly. It's actually, it's odd that this is one of one of the lines that I remember from the evening news when I was in elementary school. from the evening news when I was in elementary school And this is before going to Hawaii. So this probably would have been 19 to That there was some discussion of legislation in regard to gay and lesbian people being allowed to be teachers

Like and I don't remember what the context of it was I don't remember whether it was a bill to protect them or if it was somebody trying to pass a bill to prevent them from doing it But I remember it was specifically homosexuals and teaching and that there was controversy over that and like and teaching. And that there was controversy over that. And like here we have Lupin, you know, literally literally saying this, um, Snape creates the elixir that helps Lupin stay hidden. He helps Lupin as it were, remain in the closet. He knows because this also goes back to years before when everybody was a teenager because everything with Snape does because he's never actually grown up. You're saying it's a development there. Yeah. And part of the issue between Snape and

between a snake and James Potter and in serious black and Remus Lupin was that Lupin being aware wolf did create a dangerous situation for snake while they were at school. So this is personal vengeance. But he only he only creates the elixir on Dumbledore's order. Right. And he creates a situation where he actively works to expose Lupin when Lupin is out and Snape is, you know, inlooming for him while he's, while he's in disposed. Right. He he creates a situation where loop and zone students are being fed information That would incriminate him as being a werewolf Mm-hmm, and he knows Snape knows

And and he hopes that this is going to lead to loop and dismissal and public humiliation right Which sadly he does get at the end of the book. What he doesn't get is Black's execution um and and when he doesn't get to see Sirius executed in in literally like it is referenced by everybody in the book as the most awful way to die imaginable. He takes away Lupin's career as a door prize. Like he doesn't, he doesn't get to see serious black, literally have his soul sucked out of his body and die literally from horror despair. And so instead of, you know, getting his jolly's that way, he's like, well, you know,

I'll just make sure you never get to work again. You know, yeah, I can't kill a man with through the worst way possible. Then I will at least take away a man's ability to feed himself. Yeah, something for the filling. Yeah. And by the way, full knowledge that these guys are friends of the parents of the boy that you're bullying and that these guys are friends of the parents of the boy that you're bullying and that these guys are friends of the parents that you were cool with having killed and now you're not

and I he was getting you you're gonna get to that but like yeah he's supposedly on the side of anti-dumbledore, or not Dumbledore, Voldemort. Yeah, he's on the side of anti-Voldemort, and yet he is actively working to weaken the side that he is on. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So, Snape and Genders, a culture of bullying and racism in the house he's head of. So it wasn't like that already?

Well, here's the deal. We hear prior to Snape, and I don't know whether there was, I didn't do enough research to like get into the deep lore about it, but we know Horace Slughorn, former potionsmaster, was the head of Slytherin House when Snape came to school. Is Slughorn the one that sets up like the really creepy after school special kids club at his house? Yes. Okay. Yes. He always had the same vibe for me as the guy who on the comic book shop

and in different strokes in that very special episode. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. You're not wrong. Yeah. Um, that vibe was there for sure. Um, so Slughorn, he has his own counter of when Hermione turns 18 like that kind of that. Yes. Yeah. So setting setting that aside for a moment. That's a whole other episode we could get into on like all of the creepy shit inherent in like school boy, school child fiction tropes. school child fiction tropes. When he was there, Snape got into Slytherin House, and Snape is a half blood. So sometime between slughorn running the house and Snape running the house, because by the time Snape runs the house, everybody in anybody in slithering is a pure blood And they are pure blood supremacists. Okay, okay And so so that

May have been part of the background of the culture when slughorn was there But it is now definitely part of the culture with Snape in charge of what with Snape acting as the adult overseeing Slytherin house now in the present of the books, right? Rather than learning from his own mistakes, which I'm gonna get into in a minute, and trying to inculcate a non-bigoted culture in Slytherin, he actively participates in his students, repeated

harassment of muggle born students, especially Haryngian Ranger, when the air of Slytherin returns in the second book. Draco fucking Malfoy. Speaking of students like I would hate, like Draco fucking mouth like speaking of students like I would hate like Draco Malfoy embodies every personality trait. I would look at in the sixth grade and be like. I'm gonna have to talk to your parents. I gotta do. They're the ones that are gonna call me. Yeah. Like, oh, you know, um, yeah. or, you know, um, yeah, but like, Drake, Drake, on Malfoy literally starts salivating with excitement at the prospect of Muggle born classmates being murdered. Yeah. Like, like, not just like, you know,

you know, fuck you, fuck you Muggle rules. Yeah. You know, not, not, no, no, like, he is, you know, fucking, fucking mugglers, you know, not, no, no, no, like he is all the way, like, let's go motherfucker all in on, you're gonna die. And I'm happy you're gonna die. Yeah. And Snape doesn't say shit. Like he doesn't, he doesn't egg him on. Snape doesn't say shit. Like he doesn't, he doesn't egg him on. But like he also doesn't look at him and go,

Raco, knock at the fuck off. Like he doesn't even, he doesn't even, he doesn't even look at him and say, like no yelling in the hallway. Right, it's like, like there have been times where you and I have had to dress down a student on account of their behavior or something. And then another guy's like, yeah, yeah.

And it's like, you don't get to add to this. Yeah. Right. Yeah. You doesn't do that. Yeah. By the way, this isn't, now you have to write 50 sentences. This is, Oswald Mosley is now in charge

and you're kind of been deemed useless eaters. Yeah. Yeah. And throughout the second book, Draco Malfoy is an accelerationist. Like you hear the shit coming out of Draco's mouth, and you're like, you're 12 years old. Right. Knowing on 13, what the actual fuck, kid? Well, I wish I could say that that is just too strange

to be real, but... Yeah, I know, I understand, but like, you know, if we were, if Draco were saying that shit as a 50 year, you know, as somebody who's, who's had more time to truly fully develop into being a shithead. Right. Like that would be one thing.

But this, this is a, this is, this is, this is a kid, like not even a young adult yet. And, and he is just quivering with excitement and wishing, you know, it's, it's a thing that he says, you know, I wish my father would, would, you know, tell me more about what's going to happen. You know, I can't wait to see. He literally says that he can't wait to see her mind dead. Yeah. And like there's no, there's no no adult. And this is this is a failing of literally every adult in that goddamn school. And it's one of the few places where I want to point a harsh finger at Minerva Magonigal, who otherwise is like, you know, life goals for me. But it's one of the times where I'm going to like look at all of the, all of the adults

involved. You're like, I'm sorry, fuck all of you. Like, what the hell? And I mean, we'll get to why that doesn't happen because that's blindness of the author. But we find out eventually that Snape is a double agent working for Tumblr to thwart Voldemort's plans. And like, okay, well, the enemy, the enemy of my enemy is my friend. Okay. He looks like a bad guy, but he's really on the side of the angels. Okay. All right. You know, tell me more about this. Well, okay, we'll tell you more. What I'll tell you is he's doing it because he has an obsession with Lily Potter. And he doesn't

actually have any moral objection to what the Dark Lord is doing. You know, the whole setting up a wizard fascist state and, you know, eliminating muggle-borns and then enslaving muggles, he doesn't have any problem with any of that. No, he actually holds like everything else that motivates him. He holds a personal grudge against Voldemort, specifically for the death of Lily Potter. Now, I'm not going to say that when you're fighting against fascists, you won't take all of the help you can get. Yeah, especially if it's somebody who has an operational knowledge of the other organization, or if it's somebody who has a grudge, or if it's somebody who has good grudge or if it's somebody who has good reason

or not even good reason, but compelling for them reason to do that, I absolutely agree, big tent. Yeah, but it also doesn't make those people less of an asshole. Also true. Like, you know, you still looked at the great uniform with the skull on the hat and went, yeah, that looks cool. I would be in those guys. Like, the aesthetic is very pleasing. Zylines, they are so clean. You know, like,

so crisp, I have all of these light yoga boss. Um, like, okay, no. Well, then, um, you know, I'll, I'll totally, I will work with you, but when this is all over, yeah. Yeah, yeah. We're not gonna be friends. I'm still not gonna, you know, you're still not gonna have a seat

at the friends and family table when this is all over, like, you know, and so, yeah, he's on the right side. He's still bullying students. He's still a wizard supremacist. He's still an asshole. And he has still done demonstrably harmful things. Yeah. To a host of people, including children. So like, okay, you're telling me that he's really one of the good guys. I'd kind of like to see him show me that he's actually a good guy and not just a bad guy who's working against the big bad. Yeah.

Can we, can we get some of that please? Well, so then you've you already started talking about this, but as, as you know, part of trying to thwart Voldemort after we find out, no, no, snap, snap is a double agent. Dumbledore tells him, you know, Harry, Voldemort have this psychic link thing going on. We can't have Harry having a ray moment with the Voldemort being, oh damn it, Adam Driver, Shit. Um, uh, Kylo. Kylo. Yeah, we can't, we can't have Harry having a rainbow, but with, with Voldemort's Kylo, Ren, you know, in the middle of anything here. So I need you to teach him how to, how to block off his mind. Uh, Snape is literally the greatest

occupants alive, which is the only reason he's able to successfully be a double agent. So yes, he's qualified. Like, obviously, he's an expert, just like he's an expert at potions, right? But his teaching style, even before we get to what you mentioned, right? His teaching style as a private tutor is even worse than his style as a classroom teacher, which is singularly shitty on its own. Yeah. I mean, because it's just abuse turned off. It's abuse personalized. Yeah. And we're at there than teaching it in a minute, because like what we're talking about here is is literally, I'm going to try to break into your head. And I'm going to teach you how to resist me and how to fight me off. Like, there's already even if it were a saintly Jedi master being

the one teaching this, who is, you know, doing everything right, it would still be potentially damaging and violating and bad, right? I mean, it strikes me as the kind of lesson that requires a lot of aftercare. Like beer's after this. And there's going to be a calm down phase and I's going to and I'm going to, you know, you're gonna You're gonna get to pet puppies. They're gonna be a puppy room out for like Like yeah, there's gonna be yeah I want you I want you to find somebody who is not me Who you will be able to go to immediately after these lessons and and talk to vent with. And if you need it, just hug like exactly, you know, because maybe,

maybe I won't be the right one to do that for you in that moment, right? Right. Right. Um, so like even, even an instructor who was motivated to do it right, it would be a really hard thing to do. And Snape not only doesn't give a shit, he really wants, like, he gets a kick out of hurting Harry. Oh, yeah, he goes both legs in like, yeah, just, yeah. And, and then when Harry fails, instead of, um, saying, all right, so let's, let's learn from that. What do we need to do differently? How, you know, what is it that happened that caused you to not be able to stop me? What happened there?

You know, it was just, you failed. This isn't gonna work, but we have to keep trying. So, again, like, and again, I could understand that if like he is trying to separate himself from Harry, who he correctly calls out Dumbledore for treating like a pig to be led to slaughter. Yes. So if he's having to emotionally detach himself from this kid while doing these things, I could even understand that. But there's no indication of that because he discovers that Dumbledore is going to sacrifice Harry.

It's not a, you know, I've thought about it this whole time. So he doesn't get credit for that knowledge anyway. And so yeah, what he's doing is not. You can't retroactively say that he was trying to even separate himself emotionally from a kid that he knows is going to die. He's preparing to kill. Yeah, no, he, no. So now the Harry Potter wiki argues that Snape didn't actually believe in wizard supremacy, but fandom aside and fan fiction aside in the canonical universe created by Rowling, every single slither and student is a wizard supremacist.

Every one of them we see, yeah, uh, some are more open and blatant about it, uh, Draco, um, but we never see anyone in slithering house telling the racists off. Right. We never see any of them like coming over and quietly expressing solidarity with the muggle born victims of their bigotry. Like no, no second year slithering girl ever comes over to Hermione at some point in year five and goes, you know, look, I'm really sorry about the way they're all treating you. It really sucks. And I just want you to know we don't all think that way. Like, there's none of that. None of that. Not even, not even anything as kind of half-assed and like, I don't want to say cowardly because they're kids, but you get what I mean.

Like, yeah, yeah, yeah. There isn't even anything like that. And when they've used the polyjuice potion to go into the other house. Yeah. Um, there's no like, at least in the movie, I don't recall it also in the book, but there's no like you see somebody off to the side, just like shaking their head at how shitty everybody's being. Yeah, like everybody's all in on that shit. Oh, yeah, they're all they're all full throttle. Yeah. Um, the culture of Slytherin House is utterly steeped in wizard supremacy. And Snape, I want to stress this again, Snape participates in it.

This is as a 30 something grown man. So there's no excuse like, well, you know, he's a kid, he doesn't know what he's talking about. Like you can look at the kids in Slytherin House, and you can say, well, you know know children are the product of their environment And they all come from these you know, you need to be you know shitty families, right? Like that argument can be made Um, and I've and I've actually I've initially gotten into arguments With my own students. This is this is back

Before we really knew what a shit head JK Rowling is. When when I would openly talk about the Harry Potter series with my students in in moments of of that and and I had one of my brightest ever students like one of the smartest kids I've ever had. I remember you talking about her. Yeah. Was, was, proudly, like, no, no, I tested in its Litheran. And there was, there was a certain amount of just, you know, backing, you know, back and forth, you know,

giving each other a hard time there. Right. Because I'm a Gryffindor, you know, I have no chill. As we've established is the actual core trait for being a Gryffindor. But, and it was banned her back and forth until I wound up at one point, I just looked at her and I said, I don't understand.

Because I don't remember what it was that she threw out some point about something. I said, okay, no, that's not supported in the text though. That's not provably true. What everything we see about Slytherin House is built around the idea of pure blood supremacy. And I had to be in the moment, even as I was saying all of that, I was editing the way it was coming out of my mouth because the student in question was black and part of my own internal like looking at it and not understand like this is this is fantasy

racism. I don't get like in my own head, I was having a re I was trying to try to interrogate how she could overlook the fantasy racism of it. And essentially the answer kind of was, well, you know, there, there are these outside sources outside of the text that say that that isn't really necessarily always a thing. Right. And okay, like, and, and, and, and, you know, the argument stopped at that point because, okay, you know, whatever you got to do, I don't, you know, I didn't want to turn it into a thing from there. But right now, just between you and me, I'm going to say, I don't care what the wiki says. I don't care what J.K. Rowling says outside of the books in the books. This is what we know.

Well, you can also, can we expand the books to include the movies? Oh, yeah. Okay. So these are those are the two primary texts that we're using. Those are, yes, okay, so these are those are the two primary texts that we're using those are yes, those are canon Yes, okay, yeah Monopoly literally every slither and we see Is a wizard's supremacist is a fucking racist? So Snape participates in all of that.

Uh-huh. Now in his backstory, the part of his story that is supposed to make us all, oh, this poor man, this, this, this redeeming quality that he has, Snape had grown up in the same villages, Lily Evans. He had known her since early childhood and he loved her unrequitedly. He was absolutely sodden, just completely, you know, consumed with his love for her. And she had cared about him, but it had never been the same kind of thing in return. She was, of course, muggle born. And during their time at Hogwarts, Snape's time in Slytherin surrounded by wizards, premises, classmates led to the death of their friendship. At this point, I will mention James Potter and Sirius Black bully snake. Okay. And snake burned to be

revengeed on the two of them. Sure. And Lily had done something we never see a slither and do. And she had called James and serious out on their bullshit. We see this. This is this is a memory That that hairy accesses and it's part of the reason that that snake, you know flounces off and says I'm not I'm not training you anymore She turns around until both of them to knock it off grow up. You're being assholes Right, and they then do something that we never see anybody in slither and do They then do something that we never see anybody in slither and do. They actually reflect on their behavior and that seems to have motivated both of them to start the process of turning into better people. Very important point I want to make here. I can't already set this.

They reflected. Yes. And then they worked to get better. Yeah. Snape never made that decision. Never. Never. After calling the object of his affections by a horrible slur and shattering their longstanding friendship, Snape decided through some level of in-cell logic that the way to win her back from her Chad boyfriend was to join a terrorist group devoted to the oppression of

Muggles and Muggle-born wizards, which she was one. Like, how exactly this was supposed to work? I don't know. Part of my criticism of this being his backstories, like this, she's supposed to be smart. Like he is smart. She's demonstrably a smart guy. This doesn't make any fucking sense. Like what the hell? But during Voldemort's campaign of terror and murder, state was cool with it until Lily was threatened because Lily, who he still carried a torch for, was endangered and ultimately killed out of a sense of guilt because he had given Voldemort the information on the prophecy about Harry and personal indignation because he had begged for Lily to be spared. Not not the baby. Not her child. Not James, her husband. Right. But only her. It wasn't pissed about James getting murdered. He wasn't pissed about Voldemort trying to kill a literal

infant. Well, I mean, he didn't he didn't consider the hurt that would cause Lily if she had been spared. Right. But because Lily was killed and he had personally asked the big guy not to do that, he decided to switch sides. Yeah, I mean, it gets to, you know, you call them in in cell already and I think that we're scratching something very important there because at the end of the day, he didn't love Lily. He wanted Lily. He didn't. And maybe in the beginning of the day, he did love her. I'm fully fine with like, he took a dark turn at some point. I don't know when and where, but eventually, he wanted to possess her.

I don't know when and where, but eventually he wanted to possess her. Yes. I don't know when that breaking point is, but at that breaking point, I dare say that that was the... I just came into my mind. The scene where a card is being put on a drumhead trial, and he just stops. He says, you know, there's a certain set of words that I've memorized. And so the very young, you know, young man, when the first link is forged, it enslaves us all. You know, it's when you're having the thing about, you know, a lieutenant or

ensantarsist, the guy who lied about being Romulan, that his grandfather was Romulan, you know, et cetera. And it is a great, I mean, you know, how can you not like? I mean, you know, but he does this great speech where he quotes the prosecutors, fathers, words back to her and causes her to hate shit. But just the first link is forged. And I wonder if maybe that was the first impossible to take back moment was when he wanted to possess her and he stopped loving her. You know what I mean? Like thereafter, everything is

forever. I mean like yeah, after everything is forever Forever fucked up because that and leading him no matter how good he tries to be And he doesn't but It it's always forever stained after that, and I wonder if that's not the moment, you know Yeah, he didn't love her. He wanted a possessor and That's The you know, what can you say that that's not love? No, you know, what can you say to that? That's not love. No, you know, it's not. Um, is, is series black? Um, Slothron?

No, black was a Gryffindor. He was a Gryffindor as well. Yeah, black, all of all of all of the, all the boys, all the more orders. Okay. We're, we're Gryffindor. Uh, in black writing. Itindor. And in Blacks. It really is. It really is. Yeah.

It really genuinely is. And, and especially when, when you look at the, the theme that we wind up seeing when we look at the four houses and family had gone slither and he for him choosing to go into Gryffindor was a fuck you to his family, which is admittedly just about the most Gryffindor thing you can do. I'm fine with him. But like you could have absolutely

put Remus Lupin into Ravenclaw. Ravenclaw, you know, you could have done that. It had the deal. You could have James Potter be Hufflepuff. Yeah. You know, you could. I mean, it doesn't really change the nature. You know, fuckers dead anyway. Yeah. Um, but putting all the main characters support in, in the red

and well, I think it's, it's, it's tropey. Like it's lazy. Yeah, well, yeah, yes, it it goes past trope and into lazy. Yes. So, um, in the end, I am going to say, um, snake does show considerable physical courage. say, um, Snape does show considerable physical courage. He is, I gotta say, in many ways, for people like, for people like him, uh, I have trouble using that phrase, but, you know, for, for people who, who are so up their ass about their own shit. Yeah. Um, physical courage is the only way to enact your masculinity? There is that. I hadn't, I hadn't considered that. Um, I was, yeah.

So, so in many ways, I consider it like the least of the courage is to see that that's what I was, that's, that's what I was going to say is I think as virtues go physical courage is is near the bottom of like ranking of of importance or or moral value it is physical courage I mean it is it is something to be admired but it's it's not it doesn, it doesn't gain you enough points in other areas. He is undoubtedly a very smart and a very strong willed man. Yes. He was certainly the victim of bullying and a bad upbringing. This is true.

Yes. But he chose, he chose to cause a massive amount of hurt that he never owned up to or apologized for. He didn't sacrifice himself in the end to save Harry. Like everybody who, like the individual who created this video that I talked about that I saw that got me going on this whole thing. They framed the clips from the film in a way that makes it look like, you know, he winds up giving his life to save Harry. And no, that's not what fucking happens.

He was killed by Voldemort in order for the Dark Lord to gain mastery over the elder want. Yeah, he was just a tool. He was just, he a tool. Yes, that's that's it. That's it. Yeah. Harry, Harry finds him. It's not even like he, he said, okay, I know I'm going to get killed by this asshole. I'm going to make sure I lure him away to the boat house so that he won't find Harry. Yeah, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, again, like you said physically very brave and and I'm not going to rank it low like that Unless the person doesn't do the other work. It's almost like if you don't do the other shit to be brave in all the other forms of

G-HOD that we face in this world. Yes, then your physical G-HOD of jihad that we face in this world. Yes. Then your physical jihad doesn't mean as much to me. Thank you. Thank you so much for bringing that term into this conversation using it in the proper context. Oh my god. But if you do, if you do, if you do, but no, if you do, all the other work, that your physical courage matters a lot more because look what you are losing. Yeah, you are losing a complete version of yourself. That is more at rest. That's fair. Yeah. Okay. So yeah. So Rowling spends an inordinate amount of time in the final book, trying to show us all through Snape's memories, how tragically misunderstood he's been throughout the series. Oh, he loved Lily so much because she was kind to him as a child and he held a grudge

against James and series because they were bullies to him and just look at all the things he did help stop Voldemort. He was instrumental in so many ways. That was Winston Churchill, but he said, Parker, like, you know, I didn't, I didn't mark it on my bingo card that you were going to, like, I didn't, I didn't predict that you were, that you were going to bring up Churchill there, but I should have. Yeah. I mean, we're in a British story. Yeah. You know, so there you go. Look, I'm not going to deny any of those, any of those statements, any of those claims by Rowling.

I'm just going to add, yes, and he was all of the shit I mentioned above, and he never repented. So he gets no redemption. And Rowling doesn't get that like in the afterward in the epilogue to the story, we see that Harry has chosen. Yeah, at the train station. I love that scene so much because his wife is just a vessel. I mean, it's like, yeah, I mean, and I got to name all of my children too, but it was a choice that my partner made to get me that, right? Yeah, or something that we made together, but it's like, yeah, I'm gonna name one kid this. I'm gonna name another kid that honey. Keep up like. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. All right. So they're there at the train. There's a whole there's a whole sub theme that like I didn't spend any time researching,

but Jenny, Jenny Weasley, or Jenny Potter, nay Weasley deserves a whole episode on her own, because she deserves so much better than Rowling gave her. But like we find out that he's he's named one of his kids after Alba stumbled or and the man who killed him Who and and he reassures his child by saying your named after or two of the bravest men I ever knew and Okay, that's that's great up until your kid learns the whole backstory there. And it's going to look at you. Like, why did you give me?

Why is one of my names that of my grandmother's stalker? Like the fuck? Yeah, why didn't you give me a third or a second middle name of Vernon while you're at it? Yeah, while you're at it, all the people who abused you, like just made me after all of them. You know, and, and, and my, my very good friend Maggie, who doesn't listen to the podcast, but Bishop doesn't hill, hill teller I mentioned by you two or good friends.

She, she, her, her argument is, no, no, the kids name should have been Rubius. Like for fuck's sake, why is the kid not named for Hagrid? Like all the people, all of the adults in your life, you could have named one of your children after. Come on. Now, I will say this. I will say this, naming your kid after the man who tried to sacrifice you. And the man who basically sentenced you to death.

Yeah. Regardless of the reasons, like that's the reality. Has some real naming your kid Anakin vibes, if you're layin'. Like, and in the EU, she named her son Anakin. And Han was like, are you fucking kidding me? And she's like, now, keep in mind, this is the EU, it's now considered legends, it's not canon, right?

You've had the great schism. But in the EU, she names her third kid Anakin and he's the most powerful of all our kids. And she does it to redeem the name. Yeah. And I would have been cool if he said that. Yeah. Like, all right, cool.

And I will also point out, mm-hmm, anonymically, because force magic, we know that Anakin did turn in the end. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Like she didn't, she, well't. She didn't have those discussions. In fact, if if we're going to go canonically, here we go. All right, all right. All right. All right. And I hope in the old. Okay. In the legend series now, um, Vader's ghost or Anakin's ghost shows up like two or three times to talk to her.

And she's like, get the fuck out of here, dude. I want nothing to do with your ass. I don't give a shit if Luke forgave you. You can go eat a bag of dicks. And I go all cybernetic. And she just goes off. And like, he's like, he's like, he's sad at some of the shit she's doing because she's kind of going darkish on something

Okay, and he's kind of the weeping ghost in some way, okay, okay, and then she kind of finds a way to make peace with it but like her relationship with Luke is still pretty distant after everything like They keep getting called into different realms in this world, you know, so yeah, yeah, she never really gets Much more than just a narrative story not so much a, you know. So yeah, yeah, she never really gets much more than just a narrative story, not so much, you know, let's do the therapy work on this story. And in the one where he shows up, I forget which one it is, but like, she's like, fuck you dude, tortured me. Yeah, fuck yourself. Like, you tortured me, you froze the man I love. Yeah, like, yeah,

all that hand like fuck off. Like, and, and she still ends up naming her kid, Anakin, and that's, and I think her dad shows up as a ghost when she's pregnant. Um, but she, she ends up naming Anakin to redeem the name. And she makes her piece through doing that. Okay. Which is such a lay a thing to do. Well, yeah, I mean, I'm not going to do any of your work. I'm going to do my own work. And I'm going to do it my way. Yeah. Hard to talk like he didn't do. Yeah. But that's all legends. So it's irrelevant. But okay. So he names his son after the two men he admires most, missing all the lessons. Stockholm Central much. Yeah. Yeah. So, so rolling gives us all of this stuff.

That would be like Ron naming his kid after the the the German dude that like Hermione had a thing for a little bit. Yeah, from Victor. Yeah, naming their kid Victor. Yeah, but Ron choosing to, you know, like what? Yeah. Yeah. So, so, Joanne desperately wants him to be this redeemed by Ronic figure. Like look at this tragic backstory.

Look at, you know, he was this, this brooding, you know, dark unpleasant figure know dark unpleasant figure but in the end he was good you know he was fucking gollum. That's what it was. It really was. He was, he was, he was, he was, he was a great, that was a great analogy. She co-opts Harry into it like like we just talked about. And I have here again overlooking Hagrid who is demonstrablely a better person and more deserving to have somebody named after him. Yeah. But Rowling shows that she understands neither byronic heroes nor how a redemption is actually supposed

to work. Like, it's just not there. Um, and so, so, so, you know, and this ties in and this then leads into kind of the rest of my thesis. But very quickly, according to the church, because I am the surly Catholic of the two. The sacrament of reconciliation, which is how you get right with God, requires four parts. You have to confess your sin. You have to recognize that you've done wrong. Donatella. Oh no, you're still on confession. Confession means I've done a bad thing. You have to express contrition or sorrow for your sin, for the thing that you have done. You have to genuinely

regret what you did and you have to have the desire to make it right. So if you commit asin and you recognize I did the wrong thing, but you have not yet gotten to the place where you say I regret that I did it. It doesn't do you any good. And it's not, I'm sorry I did it. It's, I see why what I did was bad and wrong. Yeah. I feel bad about that. Not even just I see why it was bad and wrong. I feel bad about it. That part. Okay. There's that contrition. Yes. You have to do penance. Mm-hmm. Okay. And this is step three. You have to do part three. Okay. You have to do penance, meaning you have to undertake some level of outward action to show your desire to make things right and not make the wrong choice again. There is this conception that non-catholics kind of have about confession is that, well, like, okay, just do it and go confess and it's all okay. And it's like, no, in order for me to get right with God,

I have to not plan on doing it again. Like, if I go in and I'm like, no, no, this is wrong, this is bad. And I know I'm totally going to go out tomorrow and do the same thing all over again. Right. Here. That's no. I dare say you're missing the fucking point. Yes, you are, you're missing the point.

You're confusing ceremony with sacrament. Yes, precisely. Wow. Really good. Um, and the reason I'm in atheists is the same reason you're a Catholic. It's the same source material. Yeah, that's a good point. So, um, this is like, so and then, and then finally, um,

there is, there is reconciliation, which is official recognition of forgiveness, which is, which is the part of the sacrament where the priest says, you know, go forth and send no more. Um, so the, the priest says, you know, go forth and send no more. So the, the, there's, there's a great moment in the TV series bones, for example, the, the male lead whose name I'm forgetting, David Boreanis at the actor who plays him. He is a, a devout Catholic. And of course, bones herself is an atheist. And

they're in a relationship that is moving in the direction of them getting married, but because of differences between them, they haven't gotten there yet. Right. But they are, they are living together. Mm-hmm. And they are doing what consenting adults who live together do sure and somebody And I think it's bones actually actually says to him Well, you know if if it's bothering you so much. Why don't you go go to confession because you can you you believe in that stuff You can go confess Yeah, he says in order for me to get credit for confession, I'd have

to plan on not doing it again. Right. I can know. Right. And it's this, it's a great, it's such a great character moment because it is. Yeah. I'm on some levels. It's like you're recognizing your flaws and you're, you know, your unreadiness to do whatever. But on the others, I'm sitting there going like, how much you're really going to mean it when you do it then? You already kind of knew. Yeah. Yeah. There's as a fierce dogmatist that I am. You all have dogma. you should fucking stick to it. Yes, yes, like dude. Yeah, and you know, but also I get it.

It's not the sex that kept me from being Catholic or anything like that. But I do get the, the the urges that exist outside of the bonds of marriage. Um, but yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So there's something deeply wrong to me about that though still of like, no, I will go get, I will go get forgiven when I'm done doing the thing that I know is already wrong. It's like, it, you know what that is? Yeah. That's having a safe word that's four syllables. know is already wrong. It's like, you know what that is? That's having a safe word that's four syllables. That's some bullshit. I love that. That's what that analogy. Yeah. Yeah. Have a good, you know, for syllables. Well, my safe word is linoleum. That way I can get

too extra thrusts in by the time they finish saying it. And it's like, oh, hey, technically, you listen, no, fuck you. No, screw you. Yeah. Yeah, no, I get that. I totally get that. Yeah. And so I think this is where I'm going to draw this episode to a close because now we're going to be getting into the nature of apology. And we're going to get into why it is, I think, that Rowling doesn't get it. Okay, cool. Cool. I'm loving that there's a second episode

to this. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. It felt like we're winding down. You finished your thesis on him. But okay, there's there's a whole other layer. I love this. Cool. Yeah. Because this gets, yeah, we're gonna, we're gonna get into rolling a lot. Okay. And by that, I mean, I'm going to be taking manful flax at her, I don't know for reputation, but yeah, no, I'm going to be calling her out on her bullshit. Yeah. I'm pretty hard. So which is kind of a cheap shot now, but I'm okay. You know what? You you start by fencing at a post. There you go.

Yeah, using a bell. Yeah. So yeah. So now what do you what do you take away from this at this point in this conversation? What is what is your um what in this conversation? What is your? What do you have? What is your response? I wrote down a question early on and you can certainly answer this in the next episode

or speculate here for a few minutes. Okay. When did the pro-snap stuff really get going? I think the pro-snap stuff really started probably about the some some time around the middle of the movie series. So like movie three movie four. were. Yeah. And the reason for this is because Alan Wichman is, I know, there was, there was some level of charisma. Yeah, no matter his size, shape, age, or weight, he's always sexy. Yeah, I mean, he is. Yeah, he always, he always, he was always on some level charming. Yeah. You know, even when he was like, you were looking at him like, you wow, you're

fucking evil. Like, what a holy shit. And, and arrogant. And like, oh my god, what a jacket. But, but yeah, I'll still give you a hand job. Like. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, I mean, if you lean that way, yeah. I know quite had that specific reaction, but I'm the, you know, head guy here.

But, you know, but like, I was always looking like, oh my God, I can't, I to see what you're gonna do next like And in every fucking movie that he's been in too Everything like is he is such a prick in love actually But you still are kind of sympathetic to him like Absolutely And I think I think the deal is the charisma and the charm and the innate goodness of Alan

Rickman, who by every account, anybody who ever worked with him talked about just what a wonderful human being he was and how collegial and friendly and kind and everything he was. And you watch the guy in interviews and he was just he was just a wonderful human being. Yeah. Yeah. I think so. I think I think maybe that's some bad casting then. In in a way, it kind of is. Yeah, but I think because he did everything he was directed to do. Yeah. He did everything as good as he can do it. I'm not saying it's bad directing or bad acting or even bad writing. Um, but I would say it's bad casting. Like you, you, yeah, there's like you should never cast Tim Curry as your earnest white meat baby face like no right because

because no matter how hard he tries to do it you're always going to think he's winking at you right you know like so same thing like I think that was some bad okay so that's what kind of got to start I was wondering if there was any kind of a fan-fick resurgence in like the mid-2010s. That I can't speak to, but what is it in the 2010 that you were thinking of that was two different things? One, the rise of the cult of the serial killer, and two, the thing that always starts with the rise of the cult of like true crime shit is the creeping fascism. So the fashy haircut, the handsome proud voice kind of shit, but also, you know, I just I'm remembering when what was it? It was the TV series Waco. It was like a

many series and it starred Taylor Kitch or Kish or however you say Michael Shannon Taylor Kish and Taylor Kish and I remembered how many people talked about how sexy David Koresh was yes, yeah, and it's like we don't need sexy David Koresh We don't we don't call this stupid sexy David Koresh right and but like everybody started like oh, I joined that you know And again, it starts in the same way that people started saying like birds weren't real But now you got assholes who actually believe actually like yeah, so and the'm ready is dead. Yeah. And the same thing. Yeah. The same thing with the, oh God, what's his name? Jeffrey Dahmer series. And I forget who played Jeffrey Dahmer. But it was somebody that that had enough sex appeal. I almost want to say it was Michael Sarah, but I don't think it was him.

Um, I, um, we'll figure it out next. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. But everybody talked about Jeffrey Dahmer and the same kind of, I'm being seduced by him way. And it's like, you know, everybody likes a bad boy blah, blah, blah funny, funny, but it's like, no, y'all are fucking sick.

These are people who like hurt. He literally, he literally ate people. Yeah, well, not only that, but like he hurt marginalized communities in a horrible way. And you're sitting here just gnaw off on how sexy he is. Oh, he could eat me. It's like, fuck you. No, like, but there was this thing that was happening in the 2000 or mid 2010s. Yeah. And into the 2020s. And I was just like, I was curious if, if the rise of the snake stands coincided with that. But I didn't, I didn't look at the timeline. For the fanfic, mostly because I didn't feel like I needed to,

based on the point I was trying to make. Oh, sure. Because that's, I mean, that's a whole, that's a whole vein of, of inquiry that would have been great. And now I regret not thinking of it, but, but, as usual, when you ask a question, like this, one of my episodes, but, uh, Oh, it's, by the way, that played every Dahmer and everybody's just, he's, he's the guy that played fast guy

in X-Men. Oh, okay. So that guy playing Jeffrey Dahmer, you're like, you fucking gross twit. Yeah. But anyway. So yeah. I wish I had researched that, but you know, I was mostly just like looking at the text and You know, Rowling and and kind of my point more focuses on on Rowling when when we get into the next episode

I talk about that what I'm what I'm looking at is kind of how she Fucked that up and why So yeah, yeah, anyway, that's that's what I've cleaned to the next episode. Um, so where can you find our well, no, before we get there, uh, what are you gonna recommend for people to read that doesn't enrich JK Rowling? Um, I'm going to re recommend because I know I've recommended it before, but I am re-reading Two Gun Witch by a friend of the show, Bishop O'Connell. It is a kinetic adventure story

with an amazing protagonist and yeah, and it manages to examine some really important stuff out of our own history here in the United States, in a way that I think is very powerful and just awesome. So, two gunwitch by Bishop Buckano. Okay. How about you? I'm going to make two recommendations. First one I'm going to recommend is guest of the show actually, Teresa Halverson's warehouse dreams dystopian romance for adults but it absolutely has to do with kids going to a school and learning to go to do dope shit so if you got your like hog warts brain kind of

itch scratch it with that Jamie Rowling doesn't need more of your money. No. So, yeah, that's warehouse dreams. Right. And then the other one I'm going to recommend is actually a book that I'm really looking forward to getting tomorrow. It's called The Last Ronin. And it's by Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird. And it's a... Oh, yeah.

...to the cover alone. I'm so... Ooh. It's a turtle, clearly. And he's got strapped to his back. None shucks. Katana's a sigh and I think he's carrying or and a bow staff. So I'm like what happened to the turtles. So I'm very nothing good. Yeah. Yeah. So that's what I'm recommending. Cool. Neither of here to be found, but where can you find the show?

The show for the moment can still be found on Twitter, because they're refused to call it X at a geek history time. And our website is woebowoeboeboeboeboe.geekhistorytime.com. And there we go. Is there any place? Didn't know you already said there's no place for you to be found. Of course, you're listening to us. So you have likely already found us on Stitcher or Spotify or the Apple podcast app.

Wherever it is that you have found us, please take the time to subscribe and give us the five-star review that you know we deserve. Or at least the Damien deserves putting up with my bullshit. So wait a minute, no, I'm a straight man. Anyway, literally, but anyway, so there we go. What have any any any final words from you, sir? No, just for a key history of time, I'm Damien Harmony. And I'm Ed Blalock. And until next time, hello, Amora.