Louder For The People In The Back Please!

Louder for the people in the back please!

I know this has been discussed to death but

The double standards anti-Snape people have regarding his behavior as a child/teenager are like... ridiculous.

When other characters display immature and bad behavior as children, it's attributed to them being just normal, ignorant, immature kids who can't be expected to know any better yet.

When Snape does it however... it's him being BAD and evil on purpose, because for some weird reason his haters just expect that he, a neglected and mistreated child, should know better? It's like he's not allowed to be an ignorant kid like the others, as if he should be expected to act like a mature, mentally sound adult (that he never was) all the way back when he is an actual child, and when he doesn't act that way, it's taken as proof that he's choosing to be human excrement and deserves everything bad that happens to him.

When James butts into his conversation with Lily on the train and insults the house he wants to go to? It's James just being an ignorant, stupid kid with no self control yet – it's no big deal. He's just being a kid.

When Snape hits back and insults James' favorite house (in a much milder manner even)? He's openly disrespecting James' opinion AND insulting James' family for being Gryffindor – what an intolerant douche! He should act more mature and know better than to take the bait!

When Petunia disrespects him on the playground? Well, she's an ordinary, middle-class child, how can we expect her NOT to judge that greasy weirdo from the bad neighborhood jumping out from the bush and claiming to be a wizard? That's just how children are – they judge other kids for being weird, because they don't know any better. It's no big deal. She's just being a kid.

When Snape retaliates and is more or less like 'Well I don't respect you either, you're a muggle and you don't matter to me'? He's an evil bigot, judging Petunia for something she can't help. How dare he not turn the other cheek and act kindly and respectfully towards her, even if she doesn't do the same for him? It would be the right and mature thing to do.

When the Marauders as teenagers create a magical map that they can use to invade others' privacy by practically stalking their location at Hogwarts at any time, it's just wholesome and endearing, a cool thing for a brilliant and mischievous group of friends. When 11-year-old Snape and Lily read Petunia's letter from Dumbledore (because he's curious about a muggle writing to Hogwarts), it's a borderline criminal breach of privacy, an awful act of disrespect and most importantly, all his fault.

The list of examples could go on and on.

People act like Snape owes respect to people who disrespected him first, but they don't hold other characters to the same standard. It's so ridiculous. You just know that if it was the other way around, if young Snape was the one going around disrespecting others first, everybody would be cheering the insulted characters on to hit back at Snape twice as hard. You just know. It's in the fics.

But Snape is different. He's ugly and weird and poor, so he should just accept some amount of disrespect and disdain from his betters other people. He is not allowed to hit back at all – he is expected to respect everyone around him regardless of whether they have earned it, yet nobody else is expected to give him that same basic respect. It just rubs me the wrong way.