Harry Potter‘s chokehold over Generation z’s childhood was insane, and there is no questioning the fact that the obsession over the fantasy world persists. There are way too many adults completely absorbed in the world, still hoping to find their letters to Hogwarts soon.
Opposite to them, another group has grown in abundance, one that struggles to separate the art from its artist and continues to criticize and add fire to the controversy around the whole J.K. Rowling being a trans-hater fiesta.
That is a story for another day, for we are here to discuss an important detail related to the franchise’s possibly one of the most important characters, Severus Snape. Unless there is somebody who has been living under a rock, we know that Snape is a significant and widely hated character in the Harry Potter series, played by the most talented, Alan Rickman.
He has been present in the films from the start, mainly known for being the professor of Defense against the Dark Arts, and can be described as probably the worst bully of a teacher one could ask for. A victim of bullying during his childhood, the loss of the love of his life to another guy caused him to become so cold and hateful.
His character arc throughout the eight movies has been one of the most complex and mysterious. Alan Rickman has done a wonderful and impactful job of bringing Snape alive. Time and time again, the movies make us question and doubt his loyalties, his layered and intimidating character makes it difficult to read his mind or guess his next step.
Much of his past, his school days, his story with Lily, the mother of Harry Potter, and his history of being a death eater and being loyal to the series’ main antagonist, Voldemort, have all been addressed in the movies at different parts. One question that may confuse fans still could be the connection between Snape and the Half-Blood Prince.
Snape and His Half-Muggle Blood
When you watch the sixth installment of the series, Harry Potter and The Half-Blood Prince, there is a scene shot during the potion class where Ron gets his hands on the brand new potions book, whereas Harry gets the rugged used one.
Harry’s book is full of scribbles and notes regarding different potions and how to make them successfully. , The book belonged to someone good at the subject. Harry aces his potions class with the book in his hands when even Hermoine struggles to get her potions right.
We are shown that the book belonged to one Half-Blood Prince, as mentioned on the book’s first page. The mystery of who that could be is unknown to many fans. But if you look closely, you find that there was one guy who very long was the Potion’s master, and even before that, this same guy was a student who was a genius when it came to getting the potions right.
This mystery person is none other than Severus Snape. This part of his history has not been addressed by the movie, which is understandable, but the books surely, explore Snape’s past in great measure. During his teen years, when Snape was a student, he came up with this nickname for himself.
The movie only tells us the who but not the why. Snape called himself half-blood because that was the truth of his existence. His mother was a witch, but his father, Tobias Snape, was a muggle-born, thus making Severus half-muggle himself. This solves the ‘half-blood’ mystery.
The mystery behind the term ‘prince’ is also easy enough. Snape’s father had been abusive all along, making any impressionable child identify more with the non-abusive parent. For him, it was his mother, the witch Eileen Prince. His actual name has his father’s name attached, but the nickname could be his preference.
So, the Prince in Half-Blood Prince is taken from his mother’s last name, and the combination gave him the secret alias of Half-Blood Prince, also becoming the title of the sixth film. The name could be his rebellion against his actual name that had a part taken from his abusive father, or it could be just I’m expressing his true self in whatever way he could find.
This solves the mystery of the Half-Blood Prince and who he was, though fans should check the movies out to understand why it was important after all.
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