Maeglin vs Snape

So @Tyelkormo the Fair, have you heard all you care to hear on the original post issues on this one, or is it still open to further commenting?

Lots of good stuff has been shared already, and it has opened a more in-depth study for me on both Maeglin and Snape.
In the one case, (Maeglin), we have an entire lifespan presented us, with some - shall I say - more 'general' or high level presentation in view, bringing us mainly into the arena of deductive reasoning (though some inductive reasoning can be applied here and there as well.)

In the other, (Snape), we have a great view of a very short time span - a few short years - with but little of a 'larger picture' meaning we need to take a more inductive approach with only some small amount of deduction available to be done.

Both Tolkien and Rawling have presented rather interesting characters here.

Presently, I see more contrast than comparison between the two, but I've a long way to go. And, you've specifically brought in a comment narrowing the perspective to a posture taken by "Gen Z", which further complicates the issue, and requires some careful evaluation for a much, much older generation such as myself.

Of course, Maeglin was always an inward-focused and long-range determined person, seeking rule, power and control from the beginning, and devoted himself in any and every way necessary to try to get there.. in the end, becoming bitter, unable to overcome his defects.

Snape on the other hand appears to me so far to be a classic representation of arrested development, which is what made him, from the very first time we meet him, be so mean to 11-year old children in the classrooms, demeaning and degrading them intentionally, and constantly exercising prejudicial and preferential treatment of his 'pets' on an ongoing basis - actually, the real 'leader' of the Malfoy and his group types - Snape apparently without overall goals and objectives, more or less 'going with the flow' along the way, but with a kernal within him ultimately bringng him to making a better decision in the end. (I believe it was the grace of Dumbledore enabling him to ultimately do so, but I need to flesh that out a bit.)

But there's so much more to both characters than this...

Anyway, if the thread is still open to further input, when I'm done with this I'd like to post some stuff for chewing on, more directly related to your original post, and to your later added 'intent' for what you were working to get at.

Of course @Ent! I shall read your post more thoroughly and comment on it later today.

Ent said:

In the one case, (Maeglin), we have an entire lifespan presented us, with some - shall I say - more 'general' or high level presentation in view, bringing us mainly into the arena of deductive reasoning (though some inductive reasoning can be applied here and there as well.)

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I agree with you here, but I also kind of see Snape this way too? I have to confess, it's been some time since I last read the books so what I say is based of what I remember.
Snape was sorted into Slytherin, meaning, from the very start, we are dealing with a very ambitious young man.
Death eaters in general had their own reasons to join Voldemort's cause, with most of them being blood purists. As for Snape's case, I see his cause not so different from Maeglin's. He seeked power, wether because he wanted to protect himself after the trauma of getting bullied by the marauders, or because, as I said, he was an ambitious person and supported some of Voldemort's values. Or perhaps, he wanted to take revenge from those who had hurt him? Again, all speculations.(We have already seen how he and Sirius Black or Lupin didn't seem to get along well, so he might have still been salty about it. The feelings could have been stronger back when he was fresh out of Hogwarts.)

Ent said:

Anyway, if the thread is still open to further input, when I'm done with this I'd like to post some stuff for chewing on, more directly related to your original post, and to your later added 'intent' for what you were working to get at.

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I look forward to it.

Tyelkormo the Fair said:

Snape was sorted into Slytherin, meaning, from the very start, we are dealing with a very ambitious young man.

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I think my general reference was from my thinking about what we get to see of the two different individuals... Maeglin and Snape.
With Snape, we are, I think, able to get right down to his day to day doings, how he treats people, what he says to them, etc. to (I believe) a far greater extent than with Maeglin.

However, I'm going on very old memory at this point still... and with Maeglin I've got a long way to go as well. My knowedge is more than a bit limited..!

In your notes above, the only thing jumping out at me is the sentence copied above. It's a bit of a 'generalization' - that is, we remember Slytherin also contains some very unambitious clods whose only ambition seems to be to 'follow the leader' - not so unlike any other of the 'houses.'

I suspect each person carries their own 'ambition' along with them, regardless of which direction the Sorting Hat is sending them.

I don't have a very firm basis from which to make much of any other comments at this time. It will be awhile before I speak to anything very much further...it's all very vague to me at present.

I had literally not considered the Potter works worth further consideration since decades ago when first read, until this post of yours.

It was a refreshing post, because it's shown me in spite of the works' rather flat and linear presentation, there was indeed some pretty good character development within them... and the characters are worth probing, to see what Rawling was trying to tell us through them.

Glorfindel Goldtress said:

By the way, the fox became my third favorite animal for this very reason! 😂 (Horses and cats, if you're wondering.)

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In a Tolkien-linked sort of way, you might enjoy this Reddit sub:

I was going to write a letter to someone explaining I regret to decline attending the party located at the infamous rendezvous of Square One, but I see it will not be necessary.

Squint-eyed Southerner said:

In a Tolkien-linked sort of way, you might enjoy this Reddit sub:

https://www.reddit.com/r/TheThinkingFox/s/wd1KS7Tp0i

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Very cool, S-eS!
Just found this on there 😂 :
View attachment 1713199493014.webp

For those who don't want to download it:

Squint-eyed Southerner said:

For those who don't want to download it:
View attachment 31767

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Thank you, I couldn't figure out why it attached that way!

Sometimes Reddit pics won't transfer here, for some reason. I usually get around it by taking a screenshot -- though EA likely knows a better way. 😄

Squint-eyed Southerner said:

Sometimes Reddit pics won't transfer here, for some reason. I usually get around it by taking a screenshot -- though EA likely knows a better way. 😄

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Intriguing, I wonder if it's a software decision because on certain platforms, one can't take screenshots of those various websites on the phone.

Glorfindel Goldtress said:

I was going to write a letter to someone explaining I regret to decline attending the party located at the infamous rendezvous of Square One, but I see it will not be necessary.

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It doesn't make sense.
Anyway, I said I expected my point of view wouldn't be respected. I tried to explain it, but who would read it?
It happens to anyone who expresses unpopular opinion.
Next time someone of you can compare Snape to Wormtongue, for example, and get mad because some Snape fan would disagree with that nonsense.
This thread was provocative from the beginning, so what did you expect?

It's a reddit thing. Their images are uploaded as .webp for some reason. If you're using Firefox, there's an extension to save them as some other file type. If not, you can download the file, open it in something like Paint on a windows computer and re-save it as .jpg or .png.

Erestor Arcamen said:

It's a reddit thing. Their images are uploaded as .webp for some reason. If you're using Firefox, there's an extension to save them as some other file type. If not, you can download the file, open it in something like Paint on a windows computer and re-save it as .jpg or .png.

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I just added it; thank you for letting me know!

Sure!

signed,
your friendly TTF Mod and IT 🤓

Erestor Arcamen said:

It's a reddit thing. Their images are uploaded as .webp for some reason. If you're using Firefox, there's an extension to save them as some other file type. If not, you can download the file, open it in something like Paint on a windows computer and re-save it as .jpg or .png.

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Sounds exhausting! 😳

But then, I'm notoriously lazy.

Does the extension work automatically, or do you have to press a few extra buttons to convert the file? @Erestor Arcamen

OK can we just stop please? The first post was just an opinion being expressed, just like the rest.

The problem with opinion is when they differ, we all need to handle them with maturity.
Sadly, that doesn't always happen. (Like yesterday's example.)

Things got a bit out of hand. let's not go back there. it was yesterday. Today is a new day.

As for me, I think this thread has great potential for character analysis, and discussion.
Are we, for example, misinterpreting Snape because we're only looking at the surface?
Look how many of us mishandled the Boromir and Denethor issues, but some have changed their perspective.

I hope the thread can continue to be plumbed for the opportunities it provides.
But if it just keeps going back to argument, we won't have that advantage.

SO - I hope we can all just decide an oops occurred, and move along to more enjoyable and profitable experiences.

@Ent I know that's what I'm trying to do.

Hopefully we all can try and contribute to this discussion with something that's not been said already.☺️

Tyelkormo the Fair said:

with something that's not been said already.

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I think my effort will be to do a 'comparisons and contrasts' presentation.
But I fear it will be a little while, as a proper study of Maeglin, or Snape, is a rather lengthy thing to deal with. To combine them both is all the harder.

That, and chapter 2 of my book is pounding hard to get out of my head now, and I'll probably need to clear the underbrush out of the way there before I can plant any new stuff meaningfully.

The Entish capacity is not what it once was, it seems.