[Dilznoofus]

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Too late to edit...

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The sword he puts in Gringotts ended up being a fake. I was sure that this wasn't an accident because I was waiting for Snape's redemption that, as was said, was patently obvious at the end of book 7.

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Meant to say book 6.

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Yeah, clearly he would not have turned good without Lilly, which is certainly a black mark over his character. I cant help but like him a bit less (it seems different than if he just one day realized the error of his ways), but I still love the character.

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It kind of makes you wonder what his motivation was for joining the Death Eaters. His worst memory was of calling Lily a mudblood and he had another memory where he told her there was no difference between muggle-born wizards and pure-blooded ones.

Snape did seem to be a powerful wizard, and I already mentioned it was anticlimactic to see him go like he did. Being able to parry spells and whatnot made him seem so badass in the 6th book. Although we knew he had a thing for Lily early on, I was hoping he had deeper and more magnificent reasons for his return to good as well.

Then again, it was meant to be a children's story, so I guess the sappy "love conquers all" thing should have been expected as opposed to any grandiose plot.

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I think it's partly that Rowling didn't wish to make Snape too redeemable. I see it as a mark of the story's relative maturity that she didn't let him off the hook completely. I also like the way it reinforced the "love conquers all" theme without exactly turning Snape into a hero. A little subtlety is nice even in a traditional epic like this one.