I understand it when he was a teenager but even as a middle age adult he isn't over her. I don't know it's almost pathetic at this point still obsessing over a dead women and dedicating the rest of his life protecting her son who he hates. Either he is the most pathetic guy ever or the greatest example of love the world has seen. I'm not sure what to think of it. He comes of as a creepy obsessed freak.

 

It would definitely be pathetic if she was alive and well, but given the situation, he was probably traumatized by his guilt.

 

Yeah. His only friend in life was dead because of him.

 

He's just kind of a loser.

 

Snape was very lonely as a kid and Lily was his first friend. Probably a close one for a while, during his developmental years, which led to a crush. He hung out with a bad crowd that he wanted the approval of, but were likely never actually his friends as we would count them. Then he committed two huge mistakes: driving Lily away by calling her a Mudblood in a moment of weakness, and (in)directly getting her killed by revealing the prophecy to Voldemort.

Those are the kind of mistakes that haunt a person, like missing a suicidal person's last cry for help. You know how you have those occasional moments where you remember some cringey thing you did in middle school and hate yourself for a moment? Take that and multiply it by a thousand.

Now, Snape could have eventually gotten over it. It would have been an eternal moment of regret, like Dumbledore and his sister, but it wouldn't have consumed his life or anything. It had, after all, been ten years since his last mistake and even longer since he'd really interacted with her. As long as he doesn't have too poignant a reminder of her, he would have moved on.

Enter Harry Potter.

 

Because he rejected the only person who truly loved him for who he was, and also caused her death. Guilt is a strong emotion, but I also believe that Snape doesn't think he deserves to be loved, which make him stuck in his own misery, which does not help in moving on.

 

This is a far too generous interpretation of Snape's character (if admittedly an interesting one). So much so, alas, that it is unfortunately very un-Canonical. In Canon, it is simply not the case that Snape's actions are driven by guilt, or that he is 'haunted' by past mistakes, or God forbid, Harry himself. Disregard Rowling's various comments on the matter; when Dumbledore says his famous 'after all this time?' line, he isn't asking Snape if he feels guilty after all these years, something which would be entirely natural and understandable, but if he still loves Lily, to which Snape replies (rather pathetically, given we are given no indication Lily ever loved him back) 'always'. This is also the reason Dumbledore never doubts Snape's loyalty - being the big believer in the power of love that he was, the old author mouthpiece.

But, you may argue, those two things aren't mutually exclusive. Snape could still be in love with Lily and simultaneously wrecked by guilt and haunted by that raven-haired boy with brilliant green eyes and an oversized uniform... (I'll stop before I make myself gag). And to that I say that you've been reading way too much fanfiction, my friend, and not the good kind. Once more, in Canon, things are exactly the opposite. Harry doesn't remind Snape of Lily (and is the reason he can't get over her), he reminds Snape of James, which is why he treats him like shit from day one. So not only is he (quite directly, given once he realises what he's done, he goes to Dumbledore to try to save them - excuse me, save her) responsible for Harry being an orphan, he also bullies the fuck out of him due to some childhood grudge he can't get over with. You cannot possibly reconcile Snape's actions with feelings of guilt. Guilt requires a desire for restitution, a will to make things right, but Snape doesn't seek to make amends for what he's done, he doesn't even see Harry as someone he's wronged, though, again, he's literally the reason his parents were killed. He instead sees Harry as an opportunity to take revenge on his father, the man who not only pushed him around the locker room when he was a teenager, but also, comically enough, stole his girl.

The conclusion is inevitable. As BTT put it, Snape is just kind of a loser. (And James Potter was an absolute chad).

 

I think if it was guitl driving Snape, he'd at least not bully Neville, who's parents likely did get tortured into insanity because of the target Snape put on their back, and whom Snape didn't care to attempt to protect. Hell, he doesen't even have the weak justifcation that Neville looks like his childhood bully.

Like I do believe that Snape probably feels kinda guilty for what he did, since his conversation with Dumbledore in DH shows that he was concerned about saving people beyond his feelings for Lily, but it sure as hell wasn't his motivation.

 

Snape was, by pretty much all measures, a terrible person and a shitty teacher. He bullied children, and showed favoritism and deference toward people who, by his own warped moral compass, he should've hated.

He expressed love toward his only friend by being jealous, possessive, and cruel. And, yes, he expressed guilt via a strange lifelong vow to protect a child who, before Lily's death, he was perfectly willing to be complicit in the murder of.

Snape is weird, and strange, and not a good person. He does not express emotion like a normal, sane person. He peppers his amends with bullying, just like he peppered his love with bullying. And sometimes he's mean to people for literally no reason, because that's just who he is.

Snape's actions in the books would NOT have been the same if Lily had died, but he hadn't been responsible for it. Snape would not have turned spy, nor agreed to protect Harry, if he only felt love for Lily but didn't feel responsible for her death.

Love is the reason for his grief, but guilt is the motivation for his actions. I agree that his actions were always for Lily, and never for Harry. I also agree that Lily would've been like, "This doesn't redeem you. Fuck you."

 

I'm sure there's some bleeding heart explanation about trauma in there somewhere...

But frankly, he was a violent, isolated, awkward, power worshipping, child abusing weirdo and loser who hooked up with a magical white power gang because he was pathetic.

Let's remember, Snape's plan was as follows:

1) LV kills James and Harry
2) ???
3) Lily falls in love with Snape.

That plan in an of itself demonstrates a pretty fundamental break with reality. That ??? ranges from lying to Lily about his role to straight up forcing her into sex slavery.

So yeah, Snape never got over Lily because he's a fucking deranged lunatic.

 

Severus Snape. The original incel.

 

Snape never stopped loving Lily. His feelings for her were intense and enduring. When Lily married James and had Harry, Snape's love for her was mixed with feelings of regret, guilt, and remorse over the choices he had made in his life. He carried the weight of these emotions throughout the series.

Snape's inability to move on from his love for Lily was a testament to the depth of his feelings and the impact of his past actions. It also contributed to his complex and morally ambiguous character. Snape's love for Lily ultimately drove many of his actions in the series, including his decision to protect Harry from harm while working as a double agent for both Voldemort and Dumbledore. Snape's love for Lily was a central theme in the series, and it added layers of complexity to his character, making him one of the most compelling and enigmatic figures in the Harry Potter unive-

Nope, can't do it.

-he was a loser, and his inability to respect Lily's choice to be with James turned simple bitterness and animosity into violent radicalisation. It should be noted, however, that we have little to no examples of Snape actually hurting anyone in the books. He killed Dumbledore, upon request.

He's a morally ambiguous character - and making hard but ultimately right choices based on an ambigous, unreturned 'love' for Lily doesn't score him any points. Never getting over Lily is the problem, not the redemption.

His actions ultimately assisted in defeating Voldemort, but it should never have taken direct consequences to see which side he should be on - Snape is a Conservative: the consequences don't matter until they impact him directly.

 

He's a huge Simp who thought that was the only woman he could get

You have to remember, in the text, Snape is not conventionally attractive.

So an ugly man, thinking he has a chance with a beautiful woman who ends up with his bully is very much realistiic

 

An ugly man, thinking he has a chance with a beautiful woman who ends up with his bully, so the uggo ends up joining a manosphere white power gang is very much realistic.

 

Sounds like it could be a South Park episode.

 

Snape calls her Lily Potter in the conversation with dumbledore. He's accepted that she married someone else, but ultimately that's not what his love is about. Maybe he harbored feelings for her once, but old snape's feelings towards Lily are that of a person who lost his closest friend. Perhaps the only one, due to his own fault.

I really liked drsarcasm's post (which prompted me to login and post, ha). I don't think Harry has much to do with it. But rather Hogwarts, and the whole situation he finds himself in. He's in the same place where he was bullied as a kid, where he made the mistakes that cost him that friendship, the same place where he made biiig mistakes. He's essentially not allowed to move on. Initially, even dumbledore uses his guilt/sadness for her death to make him continue serving him. Harry Potter is just the icing on the cake.

I've never understood the idea of Snape being an incel. I don't think he ever really blames his mistakes on her (or even really badmouths her to Harry?). He's pretty open about badmouthing James. But Lily married his childhood bully. Surely he'd have used this to cast aspersions, if he was an incel?

I don't think he even really glorifies her. She was his friend, his first one. He sees her as she was. He lost her, is sad about it, and the part he played, and he resolves to sacrifice pretty much his whole life to protect her son.

Maybe he'd have moved on if circumstances were different, and he wasn't locked in his role. But he never got the chance, sadly. After the first war he knew he had to prepare for voldemort's eventual return; and he didn't outlive the second

 

First day on the forum, eh?