#canon interpretations

personality

james potter:

cons: in his childhood/earlier hogwarts years, he was arrogant, a bully (to snape especially, who was a much weaker party and easier to pick on as he was poor and unpopular. he hexed him without reason and harassed him in public for enjoyment/bc he was bored), an attention-seeker, bias towards slytherin (seen in first meeting with snape), risk-taker, possessive towards lily and continually ignored her rejections. he grew out of majority of these traits towards the end of his schooling (presumably) but continued to bully snape

pros: he was extremely loyal to his friends and supportive of his friends to a fault (taking in sirius, becoming an animagi for remus, supporting remus), joined the order to contribute to the fight against voldemort, was against blood-supremacist ideals, saved snape despite despising him

severus snape:

cons: bullied a child because of the actions of his father and based on unfounded assumptions, bias against gryfindors, extremely unkind to his students to the extent of being harsh and cruel (neville, hermoine), joined the death eaters of his own volition, practiced dark magic, was not above taking violent action against those he dislikes (dropping a branch on petunia in his childhood), agreed with blood-supremacist ideologies like the inferiority of muggle-borns personally (before hogwarts, in hogwarts as he conversed with lily), switched sides only because lily (someone he loves) could die not because of the negative impact of his side, continued to protect harry out of guilt only, was completely fine with an innocent man and child dying if he could protect the woman he loved

pros: took action once he recognised the way his actions could endanger lily, did not continually harrass lily after she asked him to leave her alone, continued to try his hardest to protect harry at the expense of his life(despite the intentions behind this, it is still a good/semi-good act)

Important points to consider:

james:

positives: grew up in a rich, comfortable household with loving parents. was adored by all in hogwarts, students and teachers alike. he had friends he could trust. was sorted into a house of "good" and so did not face prejudice. he had all the resources he needed and was rich enough that he did not need support. had close relationships to poweful people like dumbledore and the order, making supporting the right side so much easier

negatives: because he was doted on by his parents throughout his childhood, grew up to have a very high view of himself. this also meant that he did not often recieve criticisms about his behaviour even when he needed it because of how loved he was, which led to the promotion of further bad behaviour. It seems that once he received repeated criticisms from one he respected, he tried to change his behaviour.

snape:

grew up in a poor, abusive household (his father was said to be abusive and his mother was unattentive). did not have much stability as conflict was always present, did not have comfort or much love. he was raised on blood-supremacist ideals despite being a half-blood himself

in school, he was sorted into the house of the "bad" wizards which meant he immediately faced prejudice. he was bullied by people who were above him in the social hierarchy (the marauders), alienating him from a large part of the student population since his bullies were admired. his only allies were slytherins who had the same blood-supremacist ideals, which was probably a large factor in pushing him towards the path of a death eater (social pressure, convenience, protection, chance for revenge against those who wronged him who were coincedentally on the opposite side).

[however, he did have access to large amounts of information in the hogwarts library and since he was said to have been smart and educated, he must have come across evidence going against this. this still doesn't mean that he wouldve as if he did, he would’ve had no allies and protection in a tense political climate. It makes sense that he sided with the dark lord since the only available side was voldemorts]

if he was aware of the faults of such ideals, he did not admit them even when lily pointed them out, which shows how much he agreed with them since he always tried to agree with her to gain her approval

I think we can safely say that both character's are complex and the product of their upbringing and environment. james obviously had the advantage with his privelage and had a very large negative impact on snape’s life. it is still very very very wrong that he decided to bully and harrass snape along with many other students. he was said to have "grown out of it" but there is no mention of him every apologising or taking responsibility of his mistakes, which must be remembered. snape had a horrible childhood and grew up in a hostile and alienated environment, which is why i completely understand his hate towards the marauders. however, something which cannot be excused is his treatment of his students. he was bullied and so to turn around and do that to someone else is so incredibly hypocritical and again, cannot be forgotten.

I think at this point I can say that in canon, both characters have issues and both have positives and I don’t think I can lean in one direction for either (which was maybe the point of this analysis but it’s fine)

again, this is about the canon characters, not those from fanon who's interpretation and expansion is up to the reader. but i get conflicted when i find differing opinions to mine so i needed to do this :) if you hold differing interpretations of what happened in the books, I would love to hear it!