Hyper what are your thoughts of the actor being cast for Severus Snape? Do you think it's going to be racist? Since every time (I think) there is a problem Harry would point out that Snape did it. And the fact that Harry's father, James Potter, is Snape's bully. So it would be like- not only James bully Severus for being a half-blood but also because his black!- .... Yeah... Thoughts?
iiiii eeeeeerm well...honestly ive been-staying out of it?? i dont...care about the reboot, i have no feelings towards it if i have to be honest. its just a cash grab and a last ditch effort to regain control of the world the terf created because many of the og actors are vehemently against her.
but, from a general standpoint, knowing the very basis of Snape...
he is one of the characters that should've NOT been race-swapped. for many characters, their race does not impact their character story or development. There are only a few characters that, if you do change their race; it impacts them greatly.
The fact that there are so few poc characters in harry potter, does not help.
Snape has a complicated story, a morally grey person who has done terrible things and said horrible things. Abused by his wizard-hating Muggle father and horrendously bullied by his own school mates, and eventually drove away his only friend with his BAD school decisions(hanging out with people who hated her just because of her blood purity and refusing to listen to her hurt about it) eventually becoming a death eater, aka a wizard nazi; joining a regime that only wanted the death of his friend that he claimed to love.
that, for me, only sounds like the actions of a very stupid, scorned, incel white man could take.
reboot race swapping is a fine line, sometimes-it works out *amazingly*, like with Annabeth from Percy Jackson, who was a white girl in the books and movies, but her being black in the show just-elevates her character, pushes her forward and makes every choice and her background far more impactful.
Snape being black now very much feels like a 'damn here you go', because we had very few black characters in the movies or books, i legit can only think of like-4 i remember seeing, and only TWO spoke, in prisoner of Azkaban, during the tea cup grim scene, and Kingsley Shackbolt, which i'm not even going to GET INTO how racist his name is like holy fuck(like bro, Cho Chang? The Patil girls? its like she asked the most racist people she knew what she should name her Chinese and Indian characters?? they are the most 'well fuck here you go heres the diversity you wanted' characters ever.)
but anyway, Snape being-so far-one of the only few race swapped characters just feels...very forced, and does not work for his character; they have this whole cast, and they chose...Snape...to be black, when he is one of the few characters with a very very exact description.
personally, if they wanted to race swap any of the professors, it should've been McGonagall, and maybe even sprout, not the one character that is under constant suspicion by our main character because hes a cruel bully to his own students who refused to grow up and refuses to see Harry ISNT James.
but yeah, i dont have an issue with race swapping-WHEN done right, and not just to make people of color 'shut up' because 'here, heres your character of color, go away and be happy' isnt good enough. alot of the time, poc characters are far more interesting and are often my favorite characters. but snape being black now isnt done with purpose, they're most likely not going to change anything of his story or back story or his school years or choices, so if nothing changes, if there isnt any-purpose-for his character now being black just to be black...its not a good choice, its an insult to people who just want proper representation.
