I really can't stand talking to Marauders fans. They act like painting Snape as some kind of evil guy makes it okay for their 'hero' to be a bully. But guess what? Just because the victim messed up doesn't make the bully a good guy.

Oh, and their claims about Snape? Total nonsense—they're just making stuff up that isn't even in the books. They're trying to push this idea that the Marauders hated Snape because they were mad at Death Eaters. But that's a lie. Snape wasn't one of Voldemort's followers when he was in school.

And honestly? These fans don't even hate Death Eaters. They love Regulus, after all!

Painting the victim as “bad” does nothing to magically turn the bully into a good person. That logic is completely broken, but Marauders fans rely on it constantly. As if bullying becomes retroactively justified if the target later turns out to be unpleasant, radicalized, or morally compromised. That’s not how ethics work, that’s just wanting your fave to stay untouchable.

And the thing about them “hating Snape because he was a Death Eater” is, like you said, straight-up fanon. It is not in the books. Snape was not a Death Eater at school. At most, he was a poor, socially isolated kid with bad vibes, a nasty mouth, and an interest in Dark Magic which, in Hogwarts, describes about half the Slytherins. The Marauders didn’t bully him out of moral righteousness or anti–Death Eater conviction; they bullied him because he was there, because he was different, because he was easy, and because they could.

And this is where pretty privilege and classism do a huge amount of the heavy lifting.

James and Sirius are rich, handsome, popular, athletic, socially powerful. The narrative likes them. Other characters like them. Teachers protect them. They move through the world cushioned by money, charm, and social capital. Snape is poor, badly dressed, greasy, awkward, abused at home, and visibly marked as lower-class. The text codes him as unpleasant on every sensory level, which makes it much easier for readers to emotionally distance themselves from his pain.

Pretty privilege means that when James humiliates someone, it’s framed as “arrogance” or “showing off.” When Snape lashes out, it’s framed as “malice.” Classism means that when a rich boy is cruel, it’s a lapse; when a poor boy is angry, it’s his nature.

And fandom reproduces this uncritically.

They don’t actually hate Death Eaters as a concept, like you said, they adore Regulus or Barty or Evan and whitewash them every fucking day. What they hate is Snape specifically, because he doesn’t fit the palatable version of redemption. He’s not pretty, not charming, not tragic in a way that feels romantic. His trauma is messy, his responses are ugly, and he never performs goodness in a way that makes others comfortable.

So they invent justifications. They retcon motives. They claim moral high ground that simply isn’t there in the text. Because admitting that the Marauders were just bullies — privileged, protected bullies — would mean admitting that being handsome, rich, and on “the right side” doesn’t actually make you good.

And that’s the thing they really can’t stand, because deep down they're shallow and classist as fuck.