On the topic of heroes

[alisanne]

For a long time I've wondered what it is about Snape that has us so fascinated. There are times I feel as though we (fandom) are somehow on the outskirts of the general public for seriously loving this character. Casual readers of the HP books buy JK's vision of things, "Harry is the boy hero, Snape is an evil bastard, etc.", but the rest of us simply don't believe her, and why is that?

Well, this post by lysa1 clarified it quite well. And as Lysa indicates in her summary, I wonder if JK has really thought about the message she's passing on?