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Jul. 13th, 2005 09:29 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
gmonkey42So I caved in yesterday and read some "confirmed" spoilers about who the Half-Blood Prince is and who dies.
Namely, they said Dumbledore dies and Snape is the Half-Blood Prince. First, I don't care if Dumbeldore dies as long as it's not Snape or Lupin. Hagrid dying would also make me sad. And we already know the trio survives into book 7. Second, woo! I was right about Snape not being a pureblood! But third, I don't want Snape to be the Half-Blood Prince. That's lame. The thought popped into my head last night that maybe he's the prince of Transylvania. But that means he'd eventually be the king of Transylvania and that sounds totally lame. I dunno, somehow "prince of Transylvania" sounds better.
Now I'm dying to find out. Here's my wild speculation, assuming the spoilers are correct and that the "Half-Blood Prince" is 1) a half-blood and 2) a prince (which might not be true. Back to that in a minute):
We have hints (mainly from the Penseive, in which Snape appeared to have shabby clothes) that Snape wasn't rich growing up. He wasn't popular, even, it seems, among the Slytherins (if he really had a "gang" of Slytherin friends then why did none of them come to his aid when James and Sirius were attacking him?) and Sirius described him as a "little oddball." I have a hunch that if Snape's a prince, not many people know about it. This does provide a tantalizing hint about what Dumbledore might have sent him to do at the end of GoF. Because I'm convinced that it wasn't to go back undercover (see Snape theories page for details).
I'm also convinced that the man Harry saw in Snape's memory was Snape's biological father. Why else would there be such a strong physical resemblance? Having an abusive father also goes a long way to explaining Snape's personality.
Um... I just got an e-mail ad for a penis extender. And there's a picture of it. I sort of lost my train of thought.
Anyway. Snape's parents. I've thought all along, based on nothing other than that it would be a good story, that Snape's father wasn't very powerful, and maybe was even a squib or a muggle. Snape could have royal, magical blood on his mother's side. If Snape's father couldn't do magic then why would a witch put up with him mistreating her, you ask? For the same reasons why women who are physically capable of defending themselves put up with abusive boyfriends and husbands. And I can see Snape harboring a lot of anger over that, knowing that his mother could have defended herself - and him - but was too afraid. And that could explain any animosity he might have towards muggles; if he's on the Order's side then he doesn't hate muggles as a matter of principle (like the Malfoys and Voldemort do) but he could have issues about them if his abusive father was one.
So what about Snape being a prince? If my hunch about where he went at the end of GoF is right then he and Dumbledore knew about it at that point. Erm... I can't go much further than that. It'd just be wild guessing. But I guess the royalty (and possibly all the magic) is on his mother's side. Which is why the Snapes don't appear on the Black family tree (see this part of my Snape theories page), since the surnames are inherited patrilineally. Therefore members of his mother's family could appear on the tree, assuming royalty is important in the Magical world and a royal family would be represented there, and if Sirius & co. didn't know who Snape's mother was then they wouldn't realize Snape was related to them (because Snape himself, being a half-blood, wouldn't have been included in the first place).
But what if "Half-Blood Prince" doesn't mean what we think it means? The most obvious meaning is that it's a person but it could be something else and even if it's a person, that person might be neither a half-blood nor a prince. I've heard several ideas: that it refers to a statue, ghost, book, or some other non-human thing. I've also heard that it might be someone who helps half-bloods but not necessarily a half-blood himself. And even taking the most obvious meaning, is it the prince of the half-bloods or a prince who happens to be a half-blood? Does that make sense? For example, the "American President" could be a president who's also American (like the president of a company) or it could be the President of America (a.k.a. "Shrubya").
Something else occurred to me last night: this is the second book title that's referred to a person (the first being Prisoner of Azkaban). The other person who had a book named after him died. That's not a good sign. Just a thought.
Argh, how am I going to stand these next three days?
That would be Harry Potter book 6, in other words. So don't read below if you don't want possible spoilers!
Namely, they said Dumbledore dies and Snape is the Half-Blood Prince. First, I don't care if Dumbeldore dies as long as it's not Snape or Lupin. Hagrid dying would also make me sad. And we already know the trio survives into book 7. Second, woo! I was right about Snape not being a pureblood! But third, I don't want Snape to be the Half-Blood Prince. That's lame. The thought popped into my head last night that maybe he's the prince of Transylvania. But that means he'd eventually be the king of Transylvania and that sounds totally lame. I dunno, somehow "prince of Transylvania" sounds better.
Now I'm dying to find out. Here's my wild speculation, assuming the spoilers are correct and that the "Half-Blood Prince" is 1) a half-blood and 2) a prince (which might not be true. Back to that in a minute):
We have hints (mainly from the Penseive, in which Snape appeared to have shabby clothes) that Snape wasn't rich growing up. He wasn't popular, even, it seems, among the Slytherins (if he really had a "gang" of Slytherin friends then why did none of them come to his aid when James and Sirius were attacking him?) and Sirius described him as a "little oddball." I have a hunch that if Snape's a prince, not many people know about it. This does provide a tantalizing hint about what Dumbledore might have sent him to do at the end of GoF. Because I'm convinced that it wasn't to go back undercover (see Snape theories page for details).
I'm also convinced that the man Harry saw in Snape's memory was Snape's biological father. Why else would there be such a strong physical resemblance? Having an abusive father also goes a long way to explaining Snape's personality.
Um... I just got an e-mail ad for a penis extender. And there's a picture of it. I sort of lost my train of thought.
Anyway. Snape's parents. I've thought all along, based on nothing other than that it would be a good story, that Snape's father wasn't very powerful, and maybe was even a squib or a muggle. Snape could have royal, magical blood on his mother's side. If Snape's father couldn't do magic then why would a witch put up with him mistreating her, you ask? For the same reasons why women who are physically capable of defending themselves put up with abusive boyfriends and husbands. And I can see Snape harboring a lot of anger over that, knowing that his mother could have defended herself - and him - but was too afraid. And that could explain any animosity he might have towards muggles; if he's on the Order's side then he doesn't hate muggles as a matter of principle (like the Malfoys and Voldemort do) but he could have issues about them if his abusive father was one.
So what about Snape being a prince? If my hunch about where he went at the end of GoF is right then he and Dumbledore knew about it at that point. Erm... I can't go much further than that. It'd just be wild guessing. But I guess the royalty (and possibly all the magic) is on his mother's side. Which is why the Snapes don't appear on the Black family tree (see this part of my Snape theories page), since the surnames are inherited patrilineally. Therefore members of his mother's family could appear on the tree, assuming royalty is important in the Magical world and a royal family would be represented there, and if Sirius & co. didn't know who Snape's mother was then they wouldn't realize Snape was related to them (because Snape himself, being a half-blood, wouldn't have been included in the first place).
But what if "Half-Blood Prince" doesn't mean what we think it means? The most obvious meaning is that it's a person but it could be something else and even if it's a person, that person might be neither a half-blood nor a prince. I've heard several ideas: that it refers to a statue, ghost, book, or some other non-human thing. I've also heard that it might be someone who helps half-bloods but not necessarily a half-blood himself. And even taking the most obvious meaning, is it the prince of the half-bloods or a prince who happens to be a half-blood? Does that make sense? For example, the "American President" could be a president who's also American (like the president of a company) or it could be the President of America (a.k.a. "Shrubya").
Something else occurred to me last night: this is the second book title that's referred to a person (the first being Prisoner of Azkaban). The other person who had a book named after him died. That's not a good sign. Just a thought.
Argh, how am I going to stand these next three days?
