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The Secret Lives of Snape Wives · Operation Midnight Climax

• 0:12
  Speaker 1: If you were around in the early 2000s, you were
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: likely spellbound by a wizard. Not just any wizard, we
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: are talking the boy who lived. The kid with a
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: lightning-shaped scar. The youngest seeker to play for the Gryffindor
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: Quidditch team in over a century. You're familiar with him?
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: Seven Harry Potter books launched a massive fandom that brought
• 0:37
  Speaker 1: the wizarding world into the homes of millions of people.
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: Fans bought wands and robes. They waited in line for
• 0:46
  Speaker 1: hours at midnight release parties for each book and cosplayed
• 0:51
  Speaker 1: as their favorite characters at movie premieres. The whole world
• 0:56
  Speaker 1: was struck with Potter mania. But for a small group
• 1:03
  Speaker 1: of fans, the Harry Potter series was more than make-believe magic.
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: It was real. An alternate universe that bled into our own.
• 1:16
  Speaker 1: Controlled by Harry's least favorite professor, Severus Snape. To these fans,
• 1:24
  Speaker 1: Snape was more than a character. He was a god.
• 1:29
  Speaker 1: He was their religion. Severus Snape was their reason to live.
• 1:36
  Speaker 1: These fans found each other online, built a spiritual community,
• 1:42
  Speaker 1: and wrote wedding vows to marry Snape. According to their posts,
• 1:49
  Speaker 1: he possessed their husbands' bodies for sex. Nothing in the
• 1:54
  Speaker 1: world could stop them from worshiping Snape. Until their sisterhood imploded.
• 2:06
  Speaker 1: Welcome to Very Special Episodes, an iHeart Original Podcast. I'm
• 2:11
  Speaker 1: your host, Dana Schwartz, and this is The Secret Lives
• 2:15
  Speaker 1: of Snape Wives.
• 2:21
  Speaker 2: Welcome back to Very Special Episodes. I'm Jason English. With me,
• 2:26
  Speaker 2: as always, Dana Schwartz.
• 2:28
  Speaker 3: Hi, hi.
• 2:29
  Speaker 2: Zarin Burnett.
• 2:29
  Speaker 4: Yo.
• 2:30
  Speaker 2: Took a little break, but we're back. And a lot
• 2:32
  Speaker 2: has happened. Zarin, you're a pilot now. Is that right?
• 2:36
  Speaker 5: Correct.
• 2:37
  Speaker 4: Yes.
• 2:37
  Speaker 3: What?
• 2:38
  Speaker 6: During my summer break, I did all these cool little trips.
• 2:40
  Speaker 6: I went to Carmel. I went to the Marin. I
• 2:42
  Speaker 6: went to Jackson, which is up in Gold Country. But
• 2:44
  Speaker 6: my favorite thing is I started taking flying lessons. And
• 2:47
  Speaker 6: you guys, in my first flying lesson, my instructor, who
• 2:50
  Speaker 6: was an Aussie, which kind of matters in this story,
• 2:52
  Speaker 6: he had me taxi the plane out onto the runway.
• 2:54
  Speaker 6: which was cool, right? And then that's how I could
• 2:56
  Speaker 6: get the handle of controls. He does the takeoff. And
• 2:58
  Speaker 6: remember like 600, maybe 800 feet up. He just gives
• 3:01
  Speaker 6: me the controls. I have no idea what I'm doing.
• 3:04
  Speaker 6: And from that point on, he just starts telling me like, yeah,
• 3:06
  Speaker 6: let's do a corkscrew. And I do a corkscrew down
• 3:09
  Speaker 6: to the ground. And then he's like, you have to
• 3:10
  Speaker 6: pick something else to turn around. And then I'm doing dives.
• 3:13
  Speaker 6: And then at one point he shuts off the engine
• 3:15
  Speaker 6: so we can stall the plane. He's like, you need
• 3:17
  Speaker 6: to know what happens when the plane stalls. And then
• 3:19
  Speaker 6: he's like, oh, by the way, the warning is going
• 3:20
  Speaker 6: to go on. And it does. It's like, and I
• 3:23
  Speaker 6: was like, dude, bro, are you kidding me? Then I
• 3:26
  Speaker 6: kept going the whole hour. I got to fly with
• 3:28
  Speaker 6: absolutely no experience, didn't crash the plane. But now I
• 3:32
  Speaker 6: am absolutely loving flying and I'm going to keep doing
• 3:35
  Speaker 6: it because it was incredible to see the world from
• 3:37
  Speaker 6: up there.
• 3:38
  Speaker 1: Terrifying, terrifying, and I hate it.
• 3:41
  Speaker 6: At one point, Dana, I turned the plane on its side,
• 3:45
  Speaker 6: and I looked down, and the ground was straight out
• 3:47
  Speaker 6: the window, my side window. I'm looking down at the ground,
• 3:50
  Speaker 6: and I asked the guy, I'm like, have you ever
• 3:52
  Speaker 6: had to take the controls from somebody because they were
• 3:54
  Speaker 6: about to crash the plane? He's like, only once.
• 3:56
  Speaker 2: I was like, okay. We'll have to record one of
• 4:00
  Speaker 2: these where you're up in the air.
• 4:02
  Speaker 1: Yeah, we have to throw back to the Amelia Earhart
• 4:04
  Speaker 1: episode if we're ever at a boring dinner party.
• 4:08
  Speaker 2: And Dana, I see you've written Netflix shows. You've got
• 4:11
  Speaker 2: books coming out. What's the latest there?
• 4:13
  Speaker 1: Oh, I'm very busy is how it goes, but in
• 4:16
  Speaker 1: a good way. Yeah, there's a new animated Netflix movie
• 4:19
  Speaker 1: coming out November 20th. It's called Steps. It's like a
• 4:23
  Speaker 1: family movie about Cinderella's stepsisters. I was part of a
• 4:26
  Speaker 1: great team that wrote it. And then now I'm writing
• 4:29
  Speaker 1: on Matlock on CBS with Kathy Bates. So tune in
• 4:33
  Speaker 1: to wherever you get your CBS.
• 4:35
  Speaker 4: Incredible.
• 4:36
  Speaker 6: I love that.
• 4:38
  Speaker 2: We got some news about the show this morning, which
• 4:40
  Speaker 2: is that we were nominated for two Signal Awards, which is,
• 4:44
  Speaker 2: I call it the Grammys for podcasting. Now, this show
• 4:47
  Speaker 2: has won Signal Awards in the past, so it would
• 4:49
  Speaker 2: have been a disappointment to not be nominated this time.
• 4:53
  Speaker 2: But we are in the Best Commute Podcast category and
• 4:58
  Speaker 2: the Best Road Trip Podcast category. So if you're in
• 5:01
  Speaker 2: a car. Yeah. Not a plane, but maybe next year.
• 5:06
  Speaker 6: That is so cool.
• 5:08
  Speaker 2: Turning back to today's episode, I love stories about extreme fandom.
• 5:14
  Speaker 2: I love stories about the early internet. So this is
• 5:17
  Speaker 2: right up my alley.
• 5:18
  Speaker 1: I love it. I mean, I was on some Harry
• 5:20
  Speaker 1: Potter message boards back in the day.
• 5:22
  Speaker 6: Were you?
• 5:23
  Speaker 1: Not quite in this realm. I was about 12, but
• 5:26
  Speaker 1: this is fascinating.
• 5:28
  Speaker 6: This story is exactly what it says on the tin,
• 5:30
  Speaker 6: but then you open it up and it goes in
• 5:32
  Speaker 6: so many places you absolutely never expect.
• 5:34
  Speaker 1: I mean, I really do think at the end of it,
• 5:36
  Speaker 1: this is just a story about how the Internet has
• 5:39
  Speaker 1: allowed specific people to find each other and how everyone
• 5:43
  Speaker 1: wants belonging. You know, everyone wants to feel a part
• 5:47
  Speaker 1: of something.
• 5:48
  Speaker 6: Yes, that's well said. And I'm so glad that they
• 5:50
  Speaker 6: did find each other, both because we get this story,
• 5:52
  Speaker 6: but also just for them.
• 5:53
  Speaker 2: Now, I just have to point out there are some
• 5:55
  Speaker 2: Harry Potter spoilers. So if you have not read all
• 5:59
  Speaker 2: seven books and you want to go read 4000 pages,
• 6:01
  Speaker 2: then come back. you know, unpause it and listen to
• 6:06
  Speaker 2: the rest.
• 6:07
  Speaker 1: And I also just want to be on the record
• 6:09
  Speaker 1: to say that just because we do an episode about
• 6:12
  Speaker 1: a fascinating Harry Potter subculture does not, I will say
• 6:15
  Speaker 1: explicitly mean that we condone the opinions of the.
• 6:18
  Speaker 2: Author of Harry Potter.
• 6:19
  Speaker 3: Yes.
• 6:20
  Speaker 6: A hundred percent.
• 6:21
  Speaker 2: Well said.
• 6:27
  Speaker 1: Let's turn back time to the Harry Potter era. Back
• 6:32
  Speaker 1: when everyone was struggling with T9 texting, before there was Reddit, Facebook,
• 6:38
  Speaker 1: or even millennials ranking their friends on MySpace, people created
• 6:43
  Speaker 1: usernames to post on LiveJournal. LiveJournal wasn't just a blogging platform.
• 6:51
  Speaker 1: It was a confessional booth for millions of people.
• 6:55
  Speaker 4: In the days of LiveJournal, a lot of people came
• 6:58
  Speaker 4: together and became friends because they shared.
• 7:03
  Speaker 3: A love of Harry Potter, but also a real.
• 7:06
  Speaker 4: Need to discuss it and to guess what's happening in
• 7:10
  Speaker 4: the next book.
• 7:12
  Speaker 1: That's Dr. Zoe Alderton. She researches religions at the University
• 7:18
  Speaker 1: of Sydney. In the early 2000s, she noticed a strange
• 7:23
  Speaker 1: one forming on LiveJournal.
• 7:26
  Speaker 4: So there was a whole lot of people very invested
• 7:31
  Speaker 4: in some of the characters who were a little bit
• 7:34
  Speaker 4: more ambiguous and who have a bit more of a
• 7:36
  Speaker 4: twisting plot narrative, like Snape himself.
• 7:41
  Speaker 1: Severus Snape was the brutal, dungeon-dwelling potions master at Hogwarts.
• 7:47
  Speaker 1: His hobbies included calling Harry lazy and arrogant like his
• 7:52
  Speaker 1: no-good father, taking points away from Gryffindor when he wanted
• 7:55
  Speaker 1: to punish Harry, and threatening to have Harry expelled. You know,
• 8:00
  Speaker 1: things that any protective teacher would do. And Snape developed,
• 8:05
  Speaker 1: shall we say, a cult following.
• 8:09
  Speaker 4: And a few members of the Snape fandom started to
• 8:14
  Speaker 4: have romantic feelings for Snape. For some people, it was
• 8:18
  Speaker 4: just sort of like a fictional crush, not much of
• 8:22
  Speaker 4: a big deal.
• 8:23
  Speaker 3: But for other people.
• 8:25
  Speaker 4: It became something that was so serious that it ended
• 8:29
  Speaker 4: up being what I would deem religious.
• 8:36
  Speaker 1: Enter three women named Tanya, Rose, and Conchita. At least
• 8:41
  Speaker 1: that's what they said their names were online. They used
• 8:45
  Speaker 1: various usernames on different websites.
• 8:48
  Speaker 4: Rose, Tanya, and Conchita came up with this idea of
• 8:53
  Speaker 4: Snapism and the Snapists, which is what they called themselves.
• 8:59
  Speaker 4: And they outright said, this is a religion to us.
• 9:04
  Speaker 4: They came up with different creeds, different prayers to Snape.
• 9:08
  Speaker 4: And they really felt as though Snape was there in
• 9:11
  Speaker 4: their life, doing things.
• 9:14
  Speaker 3: Like guiding them, changing the world around them.
• 9:18
  Speaker 1: As a teen, Dr. Alderton bore witness to all of
• 9:22
  Speaker 1: the Snapist's confessions on LiveJournal. She learned Conchita was from
• 9:28
  Speaker 1: the Netherlands and Rose and Tanya were American.
• 9:34
  Speaker 3: Single for the entire duration of this.
• 9:37
  Speaker 4: But Rose and Tonya were both married to men, and
• 9:41
  Speaker 4: they both had children, and they both had what seemed
• 9:45
  Speaker 4: to be pretty standard domestic lives. And you get the
• 9:48
  Speaker 4: impression that their children were teenagers, their marriages were longstanding.
• 9:55
  Speaker 1: To them, Snape wasn't confined to a fantasy series. He
• 10:00
  Speaker 1: was a supernatural figure who existed on another plane. And
• 10:06
  Speaker 1: sometimes he crossed over.
• 10:11
  Speaker 4: To give you a sort of general idea, they believed
• 10:15
  Speaker 4: that we all live in our reality and that Harry
• 10:20
  Speaker 4: Potter is a separate but equally real reality and that
• 10:27
  Speaker 4: because Snape is a magician, he should actually kind of
• 10:32
  Speaker 4: have the powers to be able to transcend into our
• 10:36
  Speaker 4: world and bring some of his magic with him. He
• 10:40
  Speaker 4: could kind of touch and feel things in our world.
• 10:45
  Speaker 4: He could do things like push over a laundry basket
• 10:49
  Speaker 4: or give people ideas and feelings and sensations, but never
• 10:57
  Speaker 4: really be physically present.
• 11:02
  Speaker 1: To Snape's most intense fans, the Harry Potter series was
• 11:07
  Speaker 1: written by a scribe who could channel the entire Harry
• 11:11
  Speaker 1: Potter universe.
• 11:13
  Speaker 7: J.K.
• 11:13
  Speaker 1: Rowling was documenting everything she was interpreting from Snape, Harry,
• 11:19
  Speaker 1: and the other characters. But if you think the Snapists
• 11:24
  Speaker 1: were enamored with Rowling's interpretation, think again.
• 11:29
  Speaker 4: There's the Snape in the books who's described as extremely
• 11:35
  Speaker 4: physically unattractive, like he's just physically unwashed, and he's a
• 11:40
  Speaker 4: very kind of mean-spirited person who's quite hostile to others.
• 11:46
  Speaker 4: Throughout the entire book series, there's clearly no intent for
• 11:51
  Speaker 4: Rowling to make anyone have a crush on Snape as
• 11:55
  Speaker 4: a character.
• 11:58
  Speaker 1: There was a very specific person who made Rose, Tanya,
• 12:03
  Speaker 1: and Conchita's love for Snape intoxicating. Someone who could tap
• 12:09
  Speaker 1: into his own source of magic. Hollywood magic, that is.
• 12:14
  Speaker 1: When the first Harry Potter film was released in 2001,
• 12:17
  Speaker 1: the universe was forever altered.
• 12:22
  Speaker 3: Snape was cast as Alan Rickman.
• 12:26
  Speaker 4: So the character of Snape went from someone who was, like,
• 12:30
  Speaker 4: greasy and unpleasant to someone who could be imagined as
• 12:36
  Speaker 4: sort of dark, handsome, brooding figure. Having Alan Rickman in
• 12:41
  Speaker 4: the mix did an awful lot for people kind of
• 12:44
  Speaker 4: realising that perhaps Snape was an attractive character after all.
• 12:50
  Speaker 3: That had a huge amount of changes afterwards.
• 12:52
  Speaker 4: To the way that he was received within the Harry
• 12:55
  Speaker 4: Potter fandom.
• 12:57
  Speaker 1: To be clear, the Snapists knew that Alan Rickman was
• 13:01
  Speaker 1: an actor portraying Snape. But Rickman was the most realistic
• 13:07
  Speaker 1: depiction of what the astral plane Snape looked like. His
• 13:12
  Speaker 1: followers had a face to worship. Their god was hot,
• 13:17
  Speaker 1: and they wanted people to know it. Rose made photo
• 13:21
  Speaker 1: collages of Alan Rickman dressed as Snape, often with photos
• 13:26
  Speaker 1: of herself beside him. In October of 2009, she posted
• 13:31
  Speaker 1: the first picture released of Rickman playing Snape and wrote
• 13:36
  Speaker 1: on her LiveJournal account, I.
• 13:38
  Speaker 8: Had fallen in love with Severus, first through the books
• 13:41
  Speaker 8: in 2000. Then in 2001, when I saw this pic,
• 13:45
  Speaker 8: I refused to give in. Until two days later. And
• 13:48
  Speaker 8: the rest is history. His hair and his face drove
• 13:51
  Speaker 8: me absolutely wild.
• 13:53
  Speaker 3: Still does.
• 13:55
  Speaker 1: Conchita's mission was to spread the gospel of Snape and
• 13:59
  Speaker 1: grow his fan base. She ran a forum worshiping Snape
• 14:04
  Speaker 1: under a pseudonym. She asked her followers to burn candles
• 14:08
  Speaker 1: for Snape's birthday on January 9th, followed by a happy
• 14:12
  Speaker 1: birthday post to Alan Rickman. And Snape's congregation grew. Tanya, Rose,
• 14:20
  Speaker 1: and Conchita found people who believed in what they did,
• 14:25
  Speaker 1: no matter how absurd it may seem. All because they
• 14:29
  Speaker 1: could confess their deepest, darkest secrets in their live journal diaries.
• 14:35
  Speaker 4: I think a lot of what they were looking for
• 14:38
  Speaker 4: was a sense of emotional fulfillment. So they seem to
• 14:42
  Speaker 4: be people who struggled with feelings of intimacy and connection
• 14:48
  Speaker 4: in their everyday lives. It seemed to be something that
• 14:52
  Speaker 4: was lacking with their husbands, something that was lacking in
• 14:58
  Speaker 4: their workplace, their friendship circles. And so by connecting to
• 15:03
  Speaker 4: Snape on such a deep level, they were able to
• 15:07
  Speaker 4: get this really like intense, transcendent, emotional fulfillment from him.
• 15:15
  Speaker 1: For the first time, the Snapists felt understood. Their newfound
• 15:20
  Speaker 1: sisterhood made Snape even more real. Rose shared her love
• 15:25
  Speaker 1: poems to Snape with her followers.
• 15:29
  Speaker 8: Roses are red. Black ones are too. Love and obsession,
• 15:33
  Speaker 8: that's what we do. Love and trust, unity and support
• 15:37
  Speaker 8: with family and friends is a must. Guiding and loving
• 15:40
  Speaker 8: each other on this way. Listen to what all have
• 15:43
  Speaker 8: to say. Master's hand is strong and solid. Abide, obey,
• 15:48
  Speaker 8: do as he says. Life and eternity will be a success.
• 15:54
  Speaker 3: J.K.
• 15:55
  Speaker 1: Rowling wasn't the only person Snape could talk to. Rose
• 16:00
  Speaker 1: said she could summon Snape's touch by touching the tattoo
• 16:05
  Speaker 1: of a rose on her arm. But Rose could do
• 16:08
  Speaker 1: more than feel Snape. She and Tanya, they tried to
• 16:13
  Speaker 1: channel Snape. When they called, he answered.
• 16:18
  Speaker 4: So a lot of the channeling was something that was
• 16:22
  Speaker 4: quite imaginative. And so someone like Tonya would kind of
• 16:27
  Speaker 4: feel that she was in a trance state where she
• 16:30
  Speaker 4: would receive messages from Snape or that he would use
• 16:35
  Speaker 4: her body to communicate.
• 16:38
  Speaker 3: With other people. But it would sort of be a
• 16:41
  Speaker 3: feeling that.
• 16:42
  Speaker 4: Her body was being taken over by these external messages.
• 16:47
  Speaker 4: So Snape was either completely physically using her or he
• 16:53
  Speaker 4: would give her really, really strong instructions about what to
• 16:57
  Speaker 4: say or do.
• 17:00
  Speaker 1: According to Tanya, Snape told her, I.
• 17:04
  Speaker 5: Am unlike anything you have ever known previously or will know.
• 17:10
  Speaker 5: I will not be just another passing fancy that you
• 17:13
  Speaker 5: put aside when you see something new. Do not make
• 17:17
  Speaker 5: me jealous. You will regret it. Try my patience. Go ahead.
• 17:23
  Speaker 5: I am waiting for your next mistake.
• 17:28
  Speaker 1: If you're getting the hint, Snape wasn't an all-loving, benevolent god.
• 17:35
  Speaker 4: Snape's personality to the Snapewives was a.
• 17:39
  Speaker 3: Very harsh one. He's a very domineering master.
• 17:45
  Speaker 4: He doesn't cooperate.
• 17:48
  Speaker 3: He doesn't compromise. He just presents the world as he
• 17:52
  Speaker 3: sees it.
• 17:53
  Speaker 4: He can be quite abrasive. And you've really got to
• 17:58
  Speaker 4: accept that about him.
• 18:00
  Speaker 3: So a lot of the discourse that the.
• 18:02
  Speaker 4: Snape wives had was how much they found his domineering
• 18:06
  Speaker 4: personality really attractive and exciting, how they would do anything
• 18:13
  Speaker 4: for him. He was right to be so arrogant because
• 18:18
  Speaker 4: he was so intelligent and powerful.
• 18:21
  Speaker 1: Severus Snape was cruel. He was demanding. and his followers
• 18:27
  Speaker 1: wanted to make their love for him eternal.
• 18:33
  Speaker 4: So they created marriage vows where they devoted themselves to
• 18:37
  Speaker 4: Snape with this understanding that they weren't just marrying a
• 18:42
  Speaker 4: fictional character.
• 18:44
  Speaker 3: They were actually marrying.
• 18:46
  Speaker 4: This spirit who could come through from the Harry Potter
• 18:51
  Speaker 4: universe and and in some sort of disembodied, transcendent way,
• 18:58
  Speaker 4: could come and influence our universe.
• 19:02
  Speaker 1: With their vows, Tanya, Rose, and Conchita would forever be
• 19:07
  Speaker 1: remembered as the Snape Wives, although they hated being called
• 19:12
  Speaker 1: Snape Wives. It felt derogatory coming from people who mocked
• 19:17
  Speaker 1: their beliefs.
• 19:18
  Speaker 4: Dr.
• 19:19
  Speaker 1: Alderton documented all of their religious beliefs in her publication,
• 19:24
  Speaker 1: Snape Wives and Snapeism, a fiction-based religion within the Harry
• 19:29
  Speaker 1: Potter fandom. The Snape Wives posted their vows on LiveJournal.
• 19:35
  Speaker 9: Conchita vowed, I promise to be always faithful in body
• 19:40
  Speaker 9: and mind and never love another man. I promise to
• 19:44
  Speaker 9: protect and guard you and to prevent you from any harm.
• 19:48
  Speaker 9: I promise to obey you no matter what. I solemnly
• 19:52
  Speaker 9: promise all of this to you, Severus Snape, my only love.
• 19:56
  Speaker 9: May these words create a strong, loving bond, which can
• 19:59
  Speaker 9: only be broken by death. If I break the promises made,
• 20:03
  Speaker 9: or treat you not in the manner I should be,
• 20:06
  Speaker 9: I'll make sure I'll die. May all the good forces
• 20:10
  Speaker 9: and spirits bless our love eternally.
• 20:16
  Speaker 1: Beyond the alluring mysteriousness of Snape, there's a glaring red
• 20:22
  Speaker 1: flag to reconcile with. Until the series finale, no one
• 20:26
  Speaker 1: knew if Snape was good or evil, including the Snapewives.
• 20:31
  Speaker 1: Fans on LiveJournal were debating.
• 20:35
  Speaker 4: Is Snape a good guy or a bad guy, which
• 20:39
  Speaker 4: is a real cliffhanger that we were left with with
• 20:42
  Speaker 4: the penultimate book, where it looked as though he was
• 20:47
  Speaker 4: quite an evil character who caused some pretty horrible things
• 20:52
  Speaker 4: to happen.
• 20:53
  Speaker 3: We were left with him having killed Dumbledore.
• 20:56
  Speaker 4: And so there was a whole lot of people who
• 20:58
  Speaker 4: were saying, no, it's got to be more complicated than that.
• 21:03
  Speaker 1: Snape claimed to be a reformed Death Eater, one of
• 21:07
  Speaker 1: the followers of the evil Lord Voldemort, which meant he
• 21:11
  Speaker 1: had done deeply cruel things in his past. He was
• 21:16
  Speaker 1: a bigot who had been part of a group that
• 21:19
  Speaker 1: hunted and murdered muggles. Why were these fans drawn to
• 21:25
  Speaker 1: a man who had gone to the dark side in
• 21:27
  Speaker 1: his youth?
• 21:29
  Speaker 4: The more we find out about Snape, the more we
• 21:31
  Speaker 4: found out in the books about Snape's childhood, about his
• 21:36
  Speaker 4: father being abusive, about him really struggling to make friends,
• 21:41
  Speaker 4: and about this quite tortured relationship that.
• 21:44
  Speaker 3: He has with Harry's mother, Lily, as they grow up together.
• 21:49
  Speaker 3: And the fact that he is in love.
• 21:52
  Speaker 4: With her for the rest of his life and his
• 21:55
  Speaker 4: final thoughts are about Lily. For a lot of people,
• 21:59
  Speaker 4: that really did lead to an examination of Snape as
• 22:05
  Speaker 4: someone who was perhaps a bit more complex and a
• 22:08
  Speaker 4: bit misjudged.
• 22:12
  Speaker 1: Snape's one and only love was Lily. But Lily only
• 22:16
  Speaker 1: ever saw him as a friend.
• 22:19
  Speaker 4: I think a lot of people, beyond just the Snape wives,
• 22:24
  Speaker 4: their hearts went out to him, particularly seeing him as
• 22:27
  Speaker 4: a younger boy who was so alone, who was very
• 22:32
  Speaker 4: intelligent but very.
• 22:34
  Speaker 3: Misunderstood and didn't.
• 22:36
  Speaker 4: Have anywhere safe or special in his life other than
• 22:40
  Speaker 4: this sort of string of a relationship with Lily. And
• 22:45
  Speaker 4: then comparing that to the fact that Lily was quite
• 22:49
  Speaker 4: a popular, well-adjusted young woman who made lots of different
• 22:55
  Speaker 4: friends and who started to become connected to people like
• 23:00
  Speaker 4: James Potter, who had been horrible to Snape. A lot
• 23:04
  Speaker 4: of people spent a great deal of time reflecting on
• 23:08
  Speaker 4: those dynamics and really thinking about what it meant to
• 23:13
  Speaker 4: be someone who was on the outer, someone who was
• 23:16
  Speaker 4: a victim of bullying, someone who was a victim of
• 23:19
  Speaker 4: domestic abuse.
• 23:21
  Speaker 1: Rose, Tanya and Conchita saw Snape as someone who had
• 23:26
  Speaker 1: gained strength and power when the world cast him aside.
• 23:31
  Speaker 1: It was something they identified with.
• 23:34
  Speaker 4: I'm fairly sure that a lot of the Snape wives
• 23:36
  Speaker 4: had felt in their own lives rejected or felt like
• 23:41
  Speaker 4: outsiders or felt misunderstood. If you have any of those experiences,
• 23:46
  Speaker 4: Snape can really function as quite a sympathetic character. And
• 23:50
  Speaker 4: when we look at the way that the Snape wives
• 23:52
  Speaker 4: interpret him, it's very much like in that sense of
• 23:57
  Speaker 4: he was wronged and they're trying to correct that. They're
• 24:00
  Speaker 4: trying to save him, to rehabilitate him. And they understand
• 24:04
  Speaker 4: him because he's very dark.
• 24:09
  Speaker 1: The Snape wives loved his tortured soul. In return, Snape
• 24:15
  Speaker 1: yearned for his wives, yearned for them beyond their unyielding devotions.
• 24:21
  Speaker 1: Snape sent them a message from the astral plane. His
• 24:25
  Speaker 1: wives had to experience everything in the universe with him
• 24:29
  Speaker 1: in mind, including sex. And so began their erotic channeling
• 24:36
  Speaker 1: sessions with Professor Severus Snape. Infatuation turned to love. Love
• 24:56
  Speaker 1: turned into desire. Desire turned into sex with a god.
• 25:02
  Speaker 1: This wasn't erotic fanfiction for Tanya, Rose, and Conchita. Their
• 25:08
  Speaker 1: wildest dreams about Severus Snape became the focus of their lives.
• 25:14
  Speaker 4: I think some of the biggest impact that Snape had
• 25:18
  Speaker 4: on the actual lives of the Snape wives is that
• 25:23
  Speaker 4: Rose and Tonya were both American and they both must
• 25:29
  Speaker 4: have lived in a fairly similar region because they ended
• 25:33
  Speaker 4: up moving together into the same trailer.
• 25:37
  Speaker 3: Park and living as immediate neighbors. So they had such
• 25:45
  Speaker 3: a strong connection that when it.
• 25:46
  Speaker 4: Came time for one of them to have to move,
• 25:49
  Speaker 4: they decided to move in together.
• 25:54
  Speaker 1: Rose and Tanya weren't just growing closer to Snape. Their
• 25:58
  Speaker 1: sisterhood became their spiritual fortress. No one else understood them
• 26:04
  Speaker 1: on such an intimate level.
• 26:06
  Speaker 4: There's a huge amount of evidence that they were really
• 26:11
  Speaker 4: bringing up Snape a lot, decorating their house with Snape.
• 26:16
  Speaker 4: And they make quite a few references to the fact
• 26:19
  Speaker 4: that their husbands and children are sick to death of
• 26:22
  Speaker 4: Snape and they're waiting for them to get over the
• 26:25
  Speaker 4: phase and move on to something else.
• 26:28
  Speaker 1: And Snape had room in his heart for all of
• 26:31
  Speaker 1: his wives, so long as they abided by his rules.
• 26:38
  Speaker 4: So he wanted them to dress a particular way, act
• 26:41
  Speaker 4: a particular way, present themselves to him whenever he wanted them.
• 26:47
  Speaker 4: And also he made it very clear that he was
• 26:51
  Speaker 4: to be their only focus. You couldn't make demands of him,
• 26:57
  Speaker 4: even though he could make demands of you. And they
• 26:59
  Speaker 4: really celebrated that idea that he's not an easy master
• 27:04
  Speaker 4: and everything is on his terms. They could be absolutely
• 27:09
  Speaker 4: on their knees in worship of him and he would
• 27:11
  Speaker 4: pay them no attention. But sometimes he would decide to
• 27:16
  Speaker 4: do something like make a poster flicker to show that
• 27:20
  Speaker 4: he was present. Or perhaps he would give them some
• 27:26
  Speaker 4: useful advice, help them flesh out a shopping list or
• 27:29
  Speaker 4: something like that.
• 27:32
  Speaker 1: For Rose and Tanya, fantasizing about Snape could have filled
• 27:37
  Speaker 1: a void in their marriages.
• 27:39
  Speaker 4: They also make quite a few references to how much
• 27:43
  Speaker 4: their husbands aren't as interested in them as Snape is,
• 27:48
  Speaker 4: how boring their husbands are.
• 27:50
  Speaker 3: You know, comments about putting on.
• 27:52
  Speaker 4: Lingerie or posing up to them naked and the husbands
• 27:56
  Speaker 4: just being like, yeah, whatever. Whereas they go off and
• 28:00
  Speaker 4: have these vivid sexual fantasies with Snape, which are a
• 28:05
  Speaker 4: lot more fulfilling and exciting.
• 28:09
  Speaker 1: It was easy for Tanya to invite Snape in and
• 28:13
  Speaker 1: decode his messages. She offered to channel him in erotic
• 28:17
  Speaker 1: encounters for the other Snapists. She had taken on a
• 28:22
  Speaker 1: leadership role by running different pages, like her Yahoo group
• 28:26
  Speaker 1: Snape's Castle. But the closer Tanya and Rose grew to Snape,
• 28:31
  Speaker 1: the more distant another core member of Snapism felt.
• 28:35
  Speaker 4: Conchita always had a lot of trouble with that kind
• 28:39
  Speaker 4: of connection. She just doesn't seem to have been able
• 28:43
  Speaker 4: to tap into Snape's voice. And there's a point in
• 28:47
  Speaker 4: time where she becomes very distressed because she just can't
• 28:52
  Speaker 4: hear him or feel him at all.
• 28:56
  Speaker 1: At first, Conchita's inability to channel Snape brought the wives
• 29:01
  Speaker 1: closer together. Under her pseudonym, she would ask Tanya to
• 29:06
  Speaker 1: reach out to Snape for her. Tanya was happy to help.
• 29:12
  Speaker 1: Until worship turned to war. An alliance within the sisterhood
• 29:17
  Speaker 1: had formed. Tanya and Rose believed that if Snape wouldn't
• 29:23
  Speaker 1: talk to Conchita, then there was something deeply flawed with
• 29:27
  Speaker 1: her character. Conchita didn't have a connection to their master.
• 29:33
  Speaker 1: She felt close to a different spirit. Rose and Tanya
• 29:38
  Speaker 1: taunted Conchita that... even Lily Potter's spirit wouldn't speak to her,
• 29:43
  Speaker 1: whom they had retconned as one of Snape's wives. Conchita
• 29:48
  Speaker 1: fired back that Rose and Tanya were channeling the wrong Snape.
• 29:54
  Speaker 1: It left the congregation wondering... Will the real Severus Snape
• 29:59
  Speaker 1: please stand up? There was only one person who could
• 30:03
  Speaker 1: bring the core group of Snape wives back together. The
• 30:08
  Speaker 1: person whom they all worshipped. Rose swore that Snape spoke
• 30:13
  Speaker 1: to her while she was listening to a CD by
• 30:16
  Speaker 1: the band Kiss. She wrote on LiveJournal that Snape said, I.
• 30:21
  Speaker 5: Will deal with each of you all different according to
• 30:25
  Speaker 5: your needs.
• 30:27
  Speaker 1: Rose posted her apology to Conchita in November 2006. So
• 30:31
  Speaker 1: just because Tanya and I experience him the way we
• 30:35
  Speaker 1: do doesn't mean he isn't different with others.
• 30:38
  Speaker 8: So Conchita, there truly is hope. Hope that you can
• 30:42
  Speaker 8: look forward to. Believe me or not, that's your call.
• 30:45
  Speaker 8: But I do feel there is happiness in your life,
• 30:47
  Speaker 8: your future. And as you've already found out, he will
• 30:51
  Speaker 8: make himself known to you. Somehow. Somehow.
• 30:56
  Speaker 1: Conchita was welcomed back, but the first cracks in their
• 31:00
  Speaker 1: religion had formed. There would be several battles between the
• 31:05
  Speaker 1: main Snape wives. A lot of their fighting was done
• 31:08
  Speaker 1: over instant messenger and never posted publicly. Their live journal
• 31:14
  Speaker 1: accounts were mostly deleted, but some relics from their digital
• 31:18
  Speaker 1: lives remain. For people who were creative in how they worshipped,
• 31:23
  Speaker 1: they were creative in how they fought. On her forum,
• 31:27
  Speaker 1: Conchita created a wall of shame. She posted things that
• 31:32
  Speaker 1: Rose and Tanya had written using various Snape-related usernames. Conchita
• 31:39
  Speaker 1: professed to her followers.
• 31:41
  Speaker 9: Lately, I've discovered some people take the liberty of speaking
• 31:45
  Speaker 9: for Severus. As that is actually none of my business,
• 31:48
  Speaker 9: I should let them be and do their thing. But
• 31:51
  Speaker 9: sometimes the words that are put out there on the
• 31:53
  Speaker 9: free internet are so spiteful and unlikely, I have to
• 31:58
  Speaker 9: tell the world. This is not Severus Snape, nor will
• 32:02
  Speaker 9: he ever be. And the one who wrote this should
• 32:04
  Speaker 9: seek professional help immediately.
• 32:08
  Speaker 1: Conchita posted a Snape channeling session that Tanya and Rose
• 32:13
  Speaker 1: held on Instant Messenger. They claimed Snape warned.
• 32:18
  Speaker 5: I fully expect my ladies to stand with me with
• 32:21
  Speaker 5: their entire convictions agreeing with mine. In other words, my
• 32:26
  Speaker 5: enemies had best become your enemies.
• 32:29
  Speaker 1: Tanya described what Snape was showing her. Snape dressed in
• 32:34
  Speaker 1: a frock coat with a top hat and onyx cane,
• 32:38
  Speaker 1: going to confront Lucius Malfoy, the father of Harry's school nemesis, Draco.
• 32:45
  Speaker 1: Snape was at the Malfoy Manor. According to Tanya, Lucius
• 32:50
  Speaker 1: Malfoy was.
• 32:52
  Speaker 7: Speaking of a matter concerning the dark side, where spirits
• 32:55
  Speaker 7: are angry because they have been misplaced by Severus.
• 32:59
  Speaker 1: Lucius was warning Snape of an evil spirit.
• 33:03
  Speaker 7: This spirit wants revenge for a certain spell Snape performed
• 33:06
  Speaker 7: in Holland. And that spirit, whom was attached to a
• 33:10
  Speaker 7: certain person that we visited, wants to cause damage on
• 33:13
  Speaker 7: our group.
• 33:15
  Speaker 1: It was a veiled shot at Conchita, saying she wanted
• 33:19
  Speaker 1: to hurt the Snapeism community with an evil entity. Yet
• 33:23
  Speaker 1: another claim she was worshipping the wrong Snape. Conchita responded
• 33:29
  Speaker 1: on her wall of shame post to her followers.
• 33:33
  Speaker 9: For all clarity, the vindictive woman from Holland, that will
• 33:36
  Speaker 9: be the Netherlands. Holland is just a small part of it.
• 33:39
  Speaker 9: That is, of course, me. Read and giggle or burst
• 33:43
  Speaker 9: out laughing if you will.
• 33:45
  Speaker 1: I know I did. In another post, Conchita doubled down
• 33:50
  Speaker 1: that Tanya was channeling the wrong spirit. Fake Snape. She
• 33:55
  Speaker 1: said Tanya used fake Snape as a gimmick to get
• 33:59
  Speaker 1: attention in her Snape's Castle Yahoo group.
• 34:03
  Speaker 9: Conchita vowed, I will haunt her for that until the
• 34:07
  Speaker 9: end of days.
• 34:09
  Speaker 1: A stronger entity did, in fact, wage spiritual warfare on
• 34:15
  Speaker 1: the Snapewives. But it wasn't Conchita.
• 34:19
  Speaker 4: The Harry Potter fandom as a whole really did not
• 34:23
  Speaker 4: like the Snape wives. They didn't like people who were
• 34:28
  Speaker 4: too obsessed with Snape. And they obviously thought that the
• 34:32
  Speaker 4: idea of channeling Snape was just stupid at best or
• 34:37
  Speaker 4: something that needed prompt medical intervention at worst.
• 34:43
  Speaker 1: The Snape wives' critics united on fandom wink. an online
• 34:49
  Speaker 1: community where users trolled fans for what they deemed to
• 34:53
  Speaker 1: be overzealous and absurd beliefs. A person who went by
• 34:58
  Speaker 1: the username Narcissm shared Conchita's posts, exposing the drama within
• 35:05
  Speaker 1: the Snapism community to thousands of fandom-wank users. Harry Potter
• 35:11
  Speaker 1: fans piled on with their judgment in the comments. Hundreds
• 35:17
  Speaker 1: of comments. Many said the wives needed to get their
• 35:21
  Speaker 1: heads examined. Others wrote poems and wedding vows mocking the wives.
• 35:28
  Speaker 1: Some said child protective services should be called on them.
• 35:32
  Speaker 1: The Snape wives laid down their weapons against each other
• 35:36
  Speaker 1: to face their spiritual foes.
• 35:39
  Speaker 4: And they spent quite a lot of their time online
• 35:43
  Speaker 4: fighting with people who said that they were weird or
• 35:47
  Speaker 4: stupid or.
• 35:50
  Speaker 3: Deranged in some kind of way.
• 35:52
  Speaker 4: I actually think the kind of internal hatred in fandom
• 35:57
  Speaker 4: was probably pretty good at keeping the Snape wives together
• 36:02
  Speaker 4: because it gave them a common enemy and a common
• 36:06
  Speaker 4: focal point.
• 36:08
  Speaker 1: The camaraderie wouldn't last. The cracks in their sisterhood were deepening.
• 36:14
  Speaker 1: The Snapewives were turning on people they once embraced. An
• 36:19
  Speaker 1: excommunication was in order. The first Snapewife to fall from
• 36:25
  Speaker 1: grace was the person rooted in Snape's origin story. Harry
• 36:30
  Speaker 1: Potter's mom, Lily. If you're confused by the Snapewives' relationship
• 36:49
  Speaker 1: to Lily Potter, you're not alone. At first, to them,
• 36:54
  Speaker 1: astral plane Snape and Lily were in love.
• 36:59
  Speaker 4: As the Snapewives were working on their doctrine and sharing
• 37:04
  Speaker 4: it with the world, you can see them shifting and
• 37:08
  Speaker 4: deciding that Lily was actually someone who broke Snape's heart
• 37:13
  Speaker 4: and And that they needed to swoop in and love
• 37:18
  Speaker 4: him and protect him.
• 37:21
  Speaker 1: The Snape wives reinterpreted the fact that Lily and Snape's
• 37:25
  Speaker 1: relationship deteriorated as he became closer to future Death Eaters.
• 37:31
  Speaker 1: They minimized the fact that Snape called Lily a mudblood.
• 37:37
  Speaker 1: the Wizarding World's most infamous slur. They sidestepped the fact
• 37:41
  Speaker 1: that Voldemort killed Lily and James because he thought that
• 37:45
  Speaker 1: Harry was the infant boy prophesied to kill him someday,
• 37:49
  Speaker 1: a prophecy that Snape had warned Voldemort about. Blaming Lily
• 37:54
  Speaker 1: for the collapse of their friendship was sexist. With Lily out, Conchita, Rose,
• 38:02
  Speaker 1: and Tanya were focused on the bigger picture— like whether
• 38:06
  Speaker 1: their master was good or evil. Book six, Harry Potter
• 38:11
  Speaker 1: and the Half-Blood Prince, ended with Snape murdering Dumbledore. The
• 38:17
  Speaker 1: world would have to wait two long years to find
• 38:20
  Speaker 1: out if Snape was Voldemort's loyal servant or Harry's true ally.
• 38:26
  Speaker 1: The countdown for the Snape wives began. Conchita posted several times.
• 38:33
  Speaker 9: Our Christmas present from J.K.
• 38:35
  Speaker 3: Rowling!
• 38:36
  Speaker 1: Thank you, Joe!
• 38:37
  Speaker 9: As from today, her last great work will no longer
• 38:40
  Speaker 9: be just Book 7. It is called Harry Potter and
• 38:43
  Speaker 9: the Deathly Hallows. Bloomsbury confirmed it online, so we can
• 38:47
  Speaker 9: be sure it is indeed the right title.
• 38:49
  Speaker 4: Also.
• 38:50
  Speaker 9: now is the time the grand speculating probably begins I
• 38:54
  Speaker 9: don't really mind we all are entitled to our own
• 38:56
  Speaker 9: opinions only I still hope JKR will let Professor Severus
• 39:01
  Speaker 9: Snape live and improve the quality of his life.
• 39:06
  Speaker 1: At long last JK Rowling revealed the truth behind Severus
• 39:10
  Speaker 1: Snape he may have been cruel he may have made
• 39:14
  Speaker 1: Harry's life at Hogwarts miserable but he had been protecting
• 39:18
  Speaker 1: Harry all along Snape had killed Dumbledore at Dumbledore's request
• 39:25
  Speaker 1: in order to spare Draco Malfoy from having to carry
• 39:29
  Speaker 1: out Dumbledore. Voldemort's command to kill him. Snape had vowed
• 39:34
  Speaker 1: to always protect Harry, fueled by his love for Lily
• 39:38
  Speaker 1: and his lifelong regret for betraying her. It was all
• 39:42
  Speaker 1: revealed to Harry after he watched Voldemort kill Snape with
• 39:47
  Speaker 1: his snake Nagini. So Snape had died a hero. But
• 39:53
  Speaker 1: his death was odd. The head of the Slytherin house,
• 39:58
  Speaker 1: the Potions Master, was killed by a snake. Snape didn't
• 40:04
  Speaker 1: have an antidote for an attack by a snake he
• 40:07
  Speaker 1: knew Voldemort kept at his side. And Harry hadn't tried
• 40:12
  Speaker 1: to stop Voldemort from killing his professor. Snape's gruesome death
• 40:17
  Speaker 1: was a crisis of his wives' faith.
• 40:22
  Speaker 9: Why didn't anyone step in to help him? But he
• 40:25
  Speaker 9: was left alone to die? Did the fact that Severus
• 40:28
  Speaker 9: saved Harry numerous times not count this time? Without Severus,
• 40:32
  Speaker 9: Harry wouldn't even be alive, right?
• 40:35
  Speaker 1: Conchita rallied the Snapeism troops against their enemy, the woman
• 40:40
  Speaker 1: who had introduced them to their god. She called, rolling
• 40:45
  Speaker 1: out in a letter online.
• 40:47
  Speaker 9: Did you ever stop to think even an outcast has
• 40:50
  Speaker 9: feelings and so can be feeling actual hurt? Do you
• 40:53
  Speaker 9: know how many people see his pain and recognize it?
• 40:57
  Speaker 9: So many people have been through something similar and get
• 41:00
  Speaker 9: strength from Severus, seeing him deal with it. The way
• 41:03
  Speaker 9: you killed him killed their hope. Severus Snape deserved so
• 41:07
  Speaker 9: much better. What did he ever do to you that
• 41:10
  Speaker 9: you seem to hate him so much?
• 41:13
  Speaker 1: Desperate for answers, Tanya turned to the only person who
• 41:17
  Speaker 1: could overrule Rowling's ending for their master.
• 41:21
  Speaker 4: They actually stepped into the Harry Potter world where Snape
• 41:27
  Speaker 4: proved to them that he didn't actually die.
• 41:31
  Speaker 3: And it was J.K. Rowling who was wrong.
• 41:35
  Speaker 4: And that she'd sort of told the story wrong and
• 41:38
  Speaker 4: he was actually dead. completely okay and his body in
• 41:44
  Speaker 4: the coffin was somehow.
• 41:45
  Speaker 3: A decoy they were part of.
• 41:47
  Speaker 4: This sort of broader canon skepticism movement where a lot
• 41:52
  Speaker 4: of people who didn't like the direction the books had
• 41:55
  Speaker 4: gone in were thinking oh well maybe the books were
• 41:59
  Speaker 4: wrong maybe the author's wrong maybe the version.
• 42:02
  Speaker 3: Of the harry potter universe as i see it might
• 42:06
  Speaker 3: actually be more correct.
• 42:09
  Speaker 1: The Snape wives leaned on each other for support. Their
• 42:13
  Speaker 1: sisterhood and love for Snape were stronger than a scribe
• 42:17
  Speaker 1: who misinterpreted their master's fate. Or so they thought. Snape's
• 42:24
  Speaker 1: death cut Rose to her core, cut her so deep
• 42:29
  Speaker 1: she was lovesick. In 2010, she posted on LiveJournal. Rose
• 42:35
  Speaker 1: said that the Harry Potter fandom was dying due to J.K.
• 42:40
  Speaker 1: Rowling's lack of attention to the adult characters, and that
• 42:44
  Speaker 1: Rowling enjoyed making Snape's life pure misery. Rose asked Rowling, How.
• 42:51
  Speaker 8: Can you keep a flame burning when you starve it?
• 42:53
  Speaker 8: So fans will find other fandoms such as Twilight or
• 42:56
  Speaker 8: NCIS or any other stuff out there. Because they're the need,
• 42:59
  Speaker 8: the demand is being met thoroughly. I do love Severus Snape.
• 43:04
  Speaker 8: I love him with all my heart and I always will.
• 43:07
  Speaker 8: No one can take him away from me. But even
• 43:09
  Speaker 8: I have to say I found someone who is pretty
• 43:11
  Speaker 8: much just like him. And my passion, obsession, need is
• 43:14
  Speaker 8: being met there.
• 43:16
  Speaker 1: A bomb detonated in Tanya's life. How could Rose have
• 43:21
  Speaker 1: fallen in love with someone else? She was one of
• 43:24
  Speaker 1: the founders of Snapeism. The one rule above all else
• 43:29
  Speaker 1: was that Snape was to be their only focus, their
• 43:32
  Speaker 1: only god, their true love. After years of loyal devotion,
• 43:38
  Speaker 1: who could compete with Severus Snape?
• 43:42
  Speaker 4: For some reason, Agent Gibbs had an awful lot to
• 43:46
  Speaker 4: do with the breakdown of the Snape wives.
• 43:51
  Speaker 1: That's Agent Gibbs from the TV show NCIS, played by
• 43:57
  Speaker 1: silver-haired fox Mark Harmon. For Tanya, Rose didn't just have
• 44:03
  Speaker 1: a crush on another character. She was breaking a cosmic vow.
• 44:08
  Speaker 1: Not just to Snape, but to her favorite sister-wife. From
• 44:13
  Speaker 1: the doctrine Rose and Tanya created together on the internet,
• 44:18
  Speaker 1: to growing Snape's fanbase, the erotic channeling, targeting Conchita, moving
• 44:24
  Speaker 1: in together, growing closer to each other and to Snape
• 44:28
  Speaker 1: as they lost connection with their husbands, falling for Agent
• 44:33
  Speaker 1: Gibbs was a knife to Tanya's heart and all she
• 44:37
  Speaker 1: and Rose had built together.
• 44:40
  Speaker 3: Not only do they have a falling out between each other,
• 44:43
  Speaker 3: but it really.
• 44:44
  Speaker 4: Seems to be the end of the Snape Wives movement
• 44:48
  Speaker 4: as a whole because one of the core members who'd
• 44:52
  Speaker 4: been so instrumental in talking about how Snape needed to
• 44:56
  Speaker 4: be the centre of her world and the centre of
• 45:00
  Speaker 4: everyone's world, all of a sudden this person started having
• 45:04
  Speaker 4: connections with another fictional character and it really blew their
• 45:08
  Speaker 4: whole relationship apart in in a way that they never
• 45:12
  Speaker 4: really recovered from.
• 45:14
  Speaker 1: The Snapeism community collapsed. The wreckage from Rose's betrayal lay
• 45:20
  Speaker 1: scattered across hers and Tanya's live journal pages. Over time,
• 45:26
  Speaker 1: Tanya took down her posts, erasing proof of their connection
• 45:31
  Speaker 1: to each other and to Snape. In the end, it
• 45:35
  Speaker 1: wasn't Snape who abandoned his wives. His wives abandoned each other.
• 45:41
  Speaker 1: It left the internet wondering, was Snapeism defined by his wives'
• 45:46
  Speaker 1: connection to each other more than their worship of Snape?
• 45:50
  Speaker 1: If the congregation falls apart, does the religion matter? Is
• 45:55
  Speaker 1: Snape now alone on the astral plane without anyone to
• 45:59
  Speaker 1: talk to, trapped in an early 2000s void? As wild
• 46:04
  Speaker 1: and chaotic as the digital lives of the Snape wives were,
• 46:09
  Speaker 1: Rose made a good point in her post to J.K.
• 46:12
  Speaker 5: Rowling.
• 46:13
  Speaker 1: They're not the only people who have found faith in fandoms.
• 46:18
  Speaker 1: Jediism was born from the Star Wars series, where real
• 46:22
  Speaker 1: people swore oaths to become Jedi and live their lives
• 46:27
  Speaker 1: according to a set of principles based on the films.
• 46:32
  Speaker 1: The Twilight series inspired Cullen-ism, Cullinists believe that Edward Cullen's
• 46:39
  Speaker 1: vampire family is real. If a person is good in life,
• 46:44
  Speaker 1: they'll spend an eternity with the Cullens in the afterlife.
• 46:48
  Speaker 1: If a person is bad, they'll spend eternity in one
• 46:53
  Speaker 1: of the Twilight Villains' caves. It might seem far-fetched how
• 46:58
  Speaker 1: people find this level of meaning in novels, movies, and
• 47:02
  Speaker 1: TV shows. But finding faith in fandoms is a modern
• 47:07
  Speaker 1: way of seeking answers to life's age-old mysteries.
• 47:12
  Speaker 4: A lot of people throughout humanity's history had a dominant
• 47:16
  Speaker 4: culture placed upon them and they didn't have that idea
• 47:19
  Speaker 4: of strong individualism and individual choice like we do. So
• 47:24
  Speaker 4: when we look at how contemporary people construct their identity
• 47:29
  Speaker 4: and the way that they just sort of make meaning
• 47:32
  Speaker 4: out of a confusing world is they often do it
• 47:35
  Speaker 4: through processes of consumption.
• 47:38
  Speaker 9: Dr.
• 47:39
  Speaker 1: Alderton, who is now a learning experience designer at the
• 47:43
  Speaker 1: College at Western Sydney University, encourages people to look inward
• 47:48
  Speaker 1: when it comes to defining their belief systems.
• 47:51
  Speaker 3: I would really like to challenge people who have that belief.
• 47:55
  Speaker 4: Feeling to really look at how they do actually define
• 47:59
  Speaker 4: religion and where they do draw those lines. So how
• 48:02
  Speaker 4: do you actually say how big something has to be,
• 48:05
  Speaker 4: how old something has to be? Are you actually going
• 48:08
  Speaker 4: through and rating the sincerity of every founder? Are you
• 48:13
  Speaker 4: making sure that nothing fictionalized has into any belief system.
• 48:18
  Speaker 4: So I think it's an interesting opportunity to kind of
• 48:21
  Speaker 4: reflect back on what you believe a religion to be
• 48:25
  Speaker 4: if something like Snapism feels like it's impossible or wrong.
• 48:30
  Speaker 1: Snapism may seem like a punchline, but it asked real
• 48:35
  Speaker 1: questions about faith, loneliness, imagination, and how far we'll go
• 48:41
  Speaker 1: to feel understood. With all of their flaws, the internet
• 48:46
  Speaker 1: gave these women a temple, a god, a sisterhood. And
• 48:51
  Speaker 1: then it left them where it found them.
• 48:55
  Speaker 5: Alone.
• 48:59
  Speaker 2: Okay, so you guys are younger than me, but can
• 49:01
  Speaker 2: you remember those insane Harry Potter book release parties from
• 49:04
  Speaker 2: the early 2000s?
• 49:06
  Speaker 1: Are you kidding me? Remember them? Jason, I was at them.
• 49:10
  Speaker 1: I have a photo of me. I swear to God,
• 49:13
  Speaker 1: when I was in third or fourth grade, I had
• 49:16
  Speaker 1: dragged my dad to the midnight release party of Harry
• 49:19
  Speaker 1: Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. And there's a
• 49:21
  Speaker 1: photo of the two of us wearing like fake Harry
• 49:23
  Speaker 1: Potter glasses.
• 49:24
  Speaker 6: That's awesome. I was in high school and working at
• 49:27
  Speaker 6: a bookstore. And I remember the book releases, the lines
• 49:30
  Speaker 6: outside of the bookstore at midnight with all these parents
• 49:32
  Speaker 6: and their kids so excited to get the book. We
• 49:34
  Speaker 6: had to stay open late. It was nuts.
• 49:37
  Speaker 2: But for anyone new here. What we do after each episode,
• 49:40
  Speaker 2: we turn to our resident casting director, Zarin, and ask
• 49:44
  Speaker 2: if you were going to cast the movie version of
• 49:46
  Speaker 2: the story we just told who would star. So, did you?
• 49:50
  Speaker 7: I did.
• 49:51
  Speaker 6: I managed to cast this one, and I had some
• 49:53
  Speaker 6: fun with it. Obviously, with Severus Snape, it's only Alan Rickman.
• 49:56
  Speaker 6: I mean, you can't do better than that. And as
• 49:58
  Speaker 6: this story proves, he is Snape, and casting him as
• 50:01
  Speaker 6: Snape changed who Snape was in the books. So, that
• 50:04
  Speaker 6: was it. It's Alan Rickman.
• 50:05
  Speaker 1: He is Snape. Yeah, right?
• 50:07
  Speaker 3: So.
• 50:07
  Speaker 6: Other than that, for Tanya, Rose, and Conchita, I had
• 50:10
  Speaker 6: some fun. I thought for Tanya, go with Haley Stanfield.
• 50:13
  Speaker 6: For Rose, go with Millie Bobby Brown. And for Conchita,
• 50:16
  Speaker 6: go with Jenna Ortega. And I thought that they could
• 50:18
  Speaker 6: have some cool witchy vibes, and I could see them
• 50:20
  Speaker 6: all eating those rolls.
• 50:23
  Speaker 1: That's great.
• 50:24
  Speaker 2: Sometimes we also award a very special character, and sometimes
• 50:29
  Speaker 2: it's obvious, and we kind of go off the rails
• 50:32
  Speaker 2: a little bit. I'll throw out as a nomination... Mark Harmon,
• 50:36
  Speaker 2: who if I was going to worship a TV character
• 50:40
  Speaker 2: the last 20 years, why not? He's played several.
• 50:44
  Speaker 1: That's great.
• 50:45
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 50:45
  Speaker 6: He was mine as well. I mean, like Agent Gibbs
• 50:48
  Speaker 6: from NCIS. When I saw that he had a major
• 50:51
  Speaker 6: part in the story, I literally spit my coffee. I
• 50:54
  Speaker 6: was like, you gotta be kidding me.
• 50:56
  Speaker 1: Handsome guy. Handsome guy.
• 50:59
  Speaker 6: Silver Fox. Did you guys, when you're reading this, could
• 51:02
  Speaker 6: you anticipate where it was going next? I could not.
• 51:05
  Speaker 1: No, absolutely not. I do think the internet subcultures are
• 51:10
  Speaker 1: some of my favorite rabbit holes to go down because
• 51:13
  Speaker 1: it always is wild and unexpected. So anytime anyone has
• 51:17
  Speaker 1: found like a niche community drama, please send it, email
• 51:22
  Speaker 1: it to me because I want to know.
• 51:23
  Speaker 2: Yeah, this should be one of our pillars.
• 51:25
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 51:26
  Speaker 2: Random Richard Nixon stories, internet subcultures. Yeah. extreme fandom and belonging.
• 51:32
  Speaker 2: I think earnestly, like that is what a lot of
• 51:34
  Speaker 2: these episodes are people looking for something to latch onto.
• 51:38
  Speaker 6: And also like when they made the point, maybe the
• 51:40
  Speaker 6: author is wrong about like why JK Rowling, I was like,
• 51:44
  Speaker 6: I think the culture would agree with you. And you know,
• 51:46
  Speaker 6: this also speaks to like our modern reading of culture
• 51:48
  Speaker 6: where people are like, no, I own this more than
• 51:50
  Speaker 6: the author. I'm sorry. They stopped when they stopped typing.
• 51:52
  Speaker 6: So now it's ours.
• 51:55
  Speaker 2: Very special episodes is made by some very special people.
• 51:59
  Speaker 2: This show is hosted by Dana Schwartz, Zarin Burnett, and
• 52:03
  Speaker 2: Jason English. Our senior producer is Josh Fisher. Today's episode
• 52:08
  Speaker 2: was written by Katie Maddy. Our story editor is Virginia Prescott.
• 52:14
  Speaker 2: Editing and sound design by Jonathan Washington. Additional editing by
• 52:19
  Speaker 2: Josh Fisher and the Mary Dew. Special thanks to our guest, Dr.
• 52:25
  Speaker 2: Zoe Alderton, author of Snapewives and Snapeism, a fiction-based religion
• 52:29
  Speaker 2: within the Harry Potter fandom. If you enjoyed today's episode,
• 52:32
  Speaker 2: you should go check that out. Gotta give some love
• 52:35
  Speaker 2: to our voice actors. Jonathan Washington as Snape, Josh Fisher
• 52:39
  Speaker 2: as Lucius Malfoy, Bea Haskins as Rose, and Katie Maddy
• 52:44
  Speaker 2: as Conchita. Mixing and mastering by Jonathan Washington. Original music
• 52:49
  Speaker 2: by Elise McCoy. Show logo by Lucy Quintanilla. Executive producer
• 52:54
  Speaker 2: is Jason English. Very Special Episodes is a production of
• 52:58
  Speaker 2: iHeart Podcasts.