Critical Magic Theory: An Analytical Harry Potter Podcast

Episode Summary: Prof Responds – The Repentance, Regrets, and Reality of Severus Snape

Host: Professor Julian Womble
Date: September 24, 2025
Episode Length: ~71 minutes

Overview

In this special “Prof Responds” episode, Professor Julian Womble dives deeply into the community’s extensive commentary on Severus Snape, following an exceptionally engaged post-episode chat. Rather than remaining neutral, Prof. Womble openly shares his own nuanced, critical, and occasionally harsh perspectives on Snape, exploring themes of repentance, student abuse, problematic love, trauma, and the contrast between book and movie portrayals. The discussion is wide-ranging, tackling both the myth and reality of Snape’s legacy in the Harry Potter universe and examining the gendered standards by which we judge "redemption" and forgiveness.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Fandom Passion & Discourse Ground Rules

[02:02–11:08]

• Prof. Womble sets the stage by noting the heated, polarized debates in the post-Snape episode chat (close to 400 comments) and urges listeners to engage with "a touch more grace."
  • “Loving something doesn't mean you can't be critical of it.” (Womble, 02:24)
• Community guidance: If you cannot separate personal investment in Snape from the discussion, it’s okay to opt out, and no one should feel pressured to change another's mind.
  • “If your mind can’t be changed, I don’t know that it’s prudent...to try to change someone else’s mind.” (Womble, 07:36)
• Prof. Womble stresses accountability for both defenders and detractors, emphasizing constructive, community-building discourse.

2. Repentance, Penance, and Snape’s Motivation

[13:39–24:30]

• Repentance Debate: Is Snape truly repentant—or merely regretful?
  • Listener Quotes:
    • “He never apologizes to Harry, not even in his dying breath. Says a lot.” (Liana, 14:44)
    • “Repentance isn’t just switching sides, it’s changing your heart. Snape never convinces me his heart changed—only that his loyalties did.” (Stephanie, 14:52)
• Womble's Analysis:
  • Snape’s actions (spying for Dumbledore, risking his life) are significant, but are they penance or lingering obsession?
  • His motivation circles back to Lily: “His goal was to preserve some living aspect of Lily on the mortal plane…” (Womble, 17:01)
  • There’s little evidence of ideological transformation or true opposition to pureblood supremacy; Snape’s fight was always and only for Lily.

3. Abuse of Students

[25:14–32:20]

• Universal Agreement: Even Snape’s defenders struggle to justify his cruelty as a teacher.
  • “Neville got bullied…instead of dealing with it like the whole adult he allegedly is, he punched down on middle school kids repeatedly.” (Eleanor, 26:06)
  • “There is nothing about Snape's arc that justifies how he treats and teaches children. Nothing.” (Nikki, 26:29)
  • “What Severus Snape does in his classroom to students is deplorable. It is unforgivable…” (Womble, 30:20)
• Covers incidents with Neville (Trevor the toad), Hermione (slut-shaming, body-shaming), and Harry.
• Trauma and past bullying explain but “do not excuse” Snape’s actions: “They are explanations, but they are not excuses…” (Womble, 27:23)
• Womble asserts Snape should never have been a teacher: “He is completely ruining the mental health and the self-esteem of...children.” (Womble, 30:20)

4. Lily, Love, and Obsession

[32:49–43:42]

• Re-Examining “Love”: Is Snape’s devotion to Lily love, or is it selfishness/obsession?
  • “If Voldemort had gone after Neville instead, Snape wouldn’t have cared. That tells me his whole redemption arc is self-serving.” (Amber J, 34:21)
• Womble is “loath to use the word love here”—emphasizes possessiveness, jealousy, and control in Snape’s connection to Lily.
  • Notable moment: When Dumbledore confronts Snape about caring only for Lily, not James or Harry, and Snape offers no rebuttal.
    • Dumbledore: “You disgust me.” (Prince’s Tale, recounted by Womble, 37:50)
• “That to me is not love. That is something else completely.” (Womble, 41:59)

5. Trauma, Radicalization, and Accountability

[43:54–55:07]

• Snape’s tragic childhood and Slytherin/Death Eater pipeline discussed.
  • “Trauma explains behavior, but it doesn’t excuse it.” (Carmen, 44:27; echoed by Womble and others)
  • “At a certain point, we have to…hold them accountable. And so I’m actually pleased to find out when. And I guess it’s when we’re in our 30s…” (Womble, 45:17)
• Radicalization as a process rooted in loneliness, community, and exploitation of vulnerability.
• Womble notes that Snape repeatedly chose not to change paths, even after losing Lily—"there were opportunities...but he doubled down.”

6. The “Baby Girlification” and Alan Rickman Effect

[55:33–62:00]

• The “baby girlification” of Snape: fandom’s softening of his image, credited substantially to Alan Rickman’s sympathetic portrayal.
  • “Do we forgive Snape, or do we forgive Rickman’s Snape?” (Womble, 56:13)
  • “They definitely watered down his nastiness in those films.” (Jazz, 56:32)
• The films omit or clean up many of Snape's worst moments, contributing to the perception of him as a misunderstood antihero.
• Womble advocates future comparison of character book-vs-movie dynamics: “There are very few characters...where the movie character is a drastically different character than the book Snape.” (Womble, 59:55)

7. Reflection: Gender, Redemption, and Uneven Grace

[62:00–70:05]

• Prof. Womble’s major critique: Our forgiveness and “complication” of Snape is a gendered phenomenon.
  • “If Snape were a woman…Dolores Umbridge is hated…seven years emotionally tormenting children…Yet somehow we forgive him more…” (Womble, 64:36)
  • Comparison to Merope Gaunt and Petunia Dursley—both traumatized, both “kept Harry alive,” both judged far more harshly than Snape.
  • “Gendered patriarchy trains us to forgive men. It tells us to trace their bad behaviors back to pain, heartbreak, tragedy…but with women, we demand perfection…We don’t imagine their inner lives.” (Womble, 68:15)
• Snape’s legacy is "the asymmetry of our own grace."

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• “Repentance isn’t just switching sides, it’s changing your heart. Snape never convinces me his heart changed, only that his loyalties did.” (Stephanie, 14:52)
• “We don’t know that his politics ever changed. We don’t know that he abandoned an ideology that led him to Voldemort in the first place…What we do know is that he acted because Lily was gone and because living with the consequences of his actions was unbearable.” (Womble, 63:39–64:00)
• “If Snape were a woman…we never granted her the complication we’re so eager to grant Snape. We simply said, she is wrong, she did a bad thing.” (Womble, 66:15)
• “Severus Snape doesn’t just show us the complexity of one character. He shows us the asymmetry of our own grace.” (Womble, 69:28)

Timestamps by Segment

| Time | Topic/Discussion | |------------|-------------------------------------------------------------------| | 02:02 | Prof. Womble introduces the episode and defines goals | | 03:39 | Addressing polarization in fandom and respectful engagement | | 13:39 | Assessing repentance and penance: is Snape’s change genuine? | | 25:14 | Snape’s abuse of students and classroom behavior | | 32:49 | Snape’s relationship to Lily: love or obsession? | | 43:54 | Trauma, radicalization, and the limits of explanation | | 55:33 | The “baby girlification” of Snape and Rickman’s role | | 62:00 | Womble’s final reflection: gender, grace, and literary legacy | | 70:41 | Wrap-up, thanks, and outro |

Episode in a Nutshell

This episode is an unsparing, thoughtful, and at times biting analysis of Severus Snape anchored in both textual evidence and community perspectives. Prof. Womble acknowledges Snape’s crucial narrative role and sacrifice, but refuses to gloss over the abuses and selfishness that define his character. Ultimately, the podcast challenges listeners to reflect on their own biases and on the cultural forces that shape who we forgive, why, and at what cost.

Critical Magic Theory isn’t interested in easy absolution, but in hard truths—and in the magic of seeing beloved characters, and the world, with clear, critical eyes.