Severus Snape, perhaps the most divisive character in the Harry Potter fandom. Was he a true hero? A villain? Did he redeem himself? Did he do enough? Not enough? Perhaps what makes Snape such an intriguing character is that there is no way to know for certain.
He was complex, evil and heroic all at once. While it's hard to put Snape completely on one team or the other, many of his actions, the very acts that make him look like a hero or a villain, are themselves misunderstood. Many of Snape's actions are still misunderstood today.
Underrated - Bullying Students
For Snape fans who see him as a hero and, "the bravest man I ever knew," Snape's history as a bully to students, little children, often goes overlooked. He helped to save Harry's life, but that does not make up for tormenting eleven year olds, and getting away with it. Snape's day to day actions as a teacher should get a lot more attention than they do.
Forget his rivalry with Harry or even his weird focus on Neville, he also generally showed ufair favoritism to Slytherins and was cruel to Ravenclaws, Hufflepuffs, and Gryffindors alike.
Overrated - Protecting Harry
Yes, Snape assisting Dumbledore in keeping an eye on Harry and bringing back intel as an undercover Death Eater were very important in the Second Wizarding War, however, Snape did not protect Harry for Harry's sake. Snape's work to help both Harry and Dumbledore was done for purely selfish reasons, and that has to be acknowledged.
Protecting Harry was important, but because of the reasons Snape had for participating, his contribution gets a lot more credit than it deserves.
Underrated - Making the Wolfsbane Potion
Snape should never ever be forgiven for outing Lupin as a werewolf to the students and staff at Hogwarts. But, before he did that, he was making the wolfsbane potion for Lupin, even with their complicated history.
Despite the deep-seated hate that Snape harbored for all of the Marauders, he never poisoned Lupin (as Harry worries he might) or makes a mistake while brewing the potion, causing Lupin to transform into a full werewolf very unexpectedly. When that happens the fault, unfortunately, is Lupin's.
Overrated - Protecting the Sorcerer's Stone
Snape is a member of the Hogwarts staff and, like everyone else on staff, he contributes a chamber to protecting the Sorcerer's Stone (at least in the books he does).
This contribution would have helped him maintain his appearance as a reformed Death Eater just as much as Quirrel's contribution of a troll to the project kept others from considering the Defense Against the Dark Arts Professor had Voldemort on the back of his skull. It's hard to give Snape extra credit, even if his potions room was particularly creative.
Underrated - Creating Sectumsempra
If readers and viewers really want to see what type of person Snape was, his creation of the Sectumsempra spell, as a student no less, should highlight exactly what he was. There's nothing wrong with experimenting with magic, just look at all Fred and George created for their joke shop, but the fact that Snape's experiment is a spell of particular violence should be addressed more.
As a person, Snape always was dark and violent and, not even his friendship with Lily seemed to have curbed his tendencies.
Overrated - Teaching Occlumency
Of course, Snape agrees to Dumbledore's request and begins attempting to teach Harry occlumency to keep Voldemort out of the boy's head. But, like any other lesson Snape ever taught, he is cruel as a teacher.
He doesn't encourage or even really help Harry gain any occlumency skills. He does it merely because Dumbledore makes the request. It's almost as if he is trying to make Harry fail on purpose. Snape should in no way get extra points for trying to teach occlumency.
Underrated - Becoming a Death Eater
Like his creation of sectumsempra, Snape's decision to officially the Death Eaters after he left school often goes a little bit overlooked. This was a decision Snape made all on his own, when he didn't think anyone, Lily or Dumbledore, was looking.
That certainly highlights the person he really was and should be acknowledged far more by the Harry Potter fandom overall. He was not under the imperius curse or trying to protect anyone with his decision to with Voldemort.
Overrated - ing the Order of the Phoenix
Unlike his decision to the Death Eaters, ing the Order of the Phoenix was something Snape did under the watchful eyes of others, Dumbledore specifically.
He didn't choose to up for the greater good, as Dumbledore always claims he is fighting for, but only out of revenge, due to Voldemort killing the woman he loved. Snape's hip in this particular club is overrated when it comes to arguments about whether or not he was a good person.
Underrated - Killing Dumbledore
Killing Dumbledore is perhaps the one good thing that Snape did for someone other than Lily. Dumbeldore had set up Snape to kill him because it would keep Draco Malfoy from having to do so. Despite arguing against it, Snape does as Dumbledore requested, and saves Malfoy from scarring his own sixteen-year-old soul.
It may be the most heroic thing that Snape ever actually does.
Overrated - Loving Lily
Protecting Harry, serving Dumbledore, spying on Voldemort, all these actions took place because Snape loved Lily and was angry Voldemort had murdered her. Yet, Snape's love of Lily was more on an unhealthy obsession. The fact that he couldn't change for her, listen to her wishes, when they were friends or after, is incredibly creepy and problematic.
Much of Snape's heroism comes from his supposed love of Lily Evans Potter, but that type of love is incredibly overrated.
