Severus Manson
Jul. 9th, 2006 03:05 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
stuttermoanManson of the Marilyn stripe.
My original concept of Snape's appearance was somewhat tainted by the movies before I read any of the books. Since then, I've carved out my own idea about the character's appearance. Rickman, bless him, makes a fine Snape, but he is not the Snape in my brain.
My Snape bears a striking resemblance to Marilyn Manson.
...
Quit looking at me like that. I mean sans makeup and costuming. And somewhat sharper-featured. And of course appropriately older. Comparing with canon!Snape, both are dark-haired, pale, and hook-nosed. My vision of Snape is tall, thin, prominently-cheekboned, strangely-angled-but-graceful - ugly as sin, by conventional standards, but interesting to look at. So there you go. Manson isn't an exact match to my idea, but he comes pretty darn close.
There are personality parallels as well. Both have their own bizarre-seeming way of dealing with the world. Both are generally angry, snarky, and misperceived. Both are skilled at garnering reactions.
The ex was obsessed with MM for a while, and so I got to see lots and lots of images of him (her walls were covered in magazine cut-outs at one point). I find his random lack of eyebrows disturbing, but only a little. I think he looks kickass with all his razzle-dazzle, but his Snapishness only shines through clearly when unpainted.
This site I'm linking a lot is awesome. Think I'll go by eras, like how the photos are arranged. And now to wade through eyeliner...
Spooky Kids - Portrait (1989 - 1995)
Example 1 - Okay, ignore the fact that his irises are cock-eyed. Those are contacts, and from what I recall, his eyes are actually dark hazelish. His mouth is lovely.
Example 2 - Clutching the mic and having an emo moment.
Example 3 - Bit of a rockstar sneer.
Example 4 - His jaw's at an odd angle, but you get the idea. Hello there, pale, freckled chest.
Example 5 - Looking down. Suspenders. Eyebrows have vanished. More pale Mansonflesh. *cringes at own pun*
Example 6 - Lord help us, he's smilin'.
Example 7 - And finally, a shot of him in shiny green pants, petting a chicken. This has nothing to do with the Snape thing. But, just...PETTING A CHICKEN. Awesome.
Antichrist Superstar ('Shock' era: 1996 - 1997)
Example 8 - Okay, this one freaks me out a bit because from this angle he also looks a bit like me. Something about the cheekbones and eyes.
Example 9 - Subtract the makeup and eye stripe and add some brows and you have a sneer, my friends.
Example 10 - Something about the long-limbed awkwardness/grace thing is Snapelike to me. I'm pretty sure this was from an issue of Rolling Stone. I think it's strangely cute.
Example 11 - This is quite a plain shot, but I think it's one of the clearest examples I've found of what I consider the resemblance.
Example 12 - Fear the cheekbones. All he needs is a snake coming out of that skull, and he's got one huge-ass Mark.
Mechanical Animals ('Omega' era: 1998 - 1999)
Example 13 - Blonde wig and blue stripe = distracting. Snarl and chest scars = cool.
There's too much damned makeup in the Omega era. Onward!
Holy Wood ('Mercury' era: 2000 - 2002)
Example 14 - Distrustful sideward glance.
Example 15 - A high-collared jacket, bit of stringy hair. Wish I knew what the hell that text said.
Example 16 - Meow. Here's more support for 'strangely-angled.' Beware shiny metal thing on face.
Example 17 - Nice profile shot. Hello, Snapelike nose.
Example 18 - Some sort of awkward, careful posture, like he doesn't inhabit his body in the normal way. And hey, something that looks like one wing.
Example 19 - MONKEY. And furrowed brow.
Example 20 - Legs, LEGS, all over the place. And hey, tarot cards!
Example 21 - Even sans eyebrow, he is still giving The Eyebrow™. And brandishing absinthe.
Example 22 - Sultry glower, and hair.
Golden Age of Grotesque ('Arch Dandy' era: 2003 - 2004)
Example 23 - Yarr matey, an eyepatch! His expression cracks me up. He's like, "Guys, take the picture already, gosh." And he's got his hands behind his back, which somehow strikes me as a gesture of shyness.
Example 24 - Sort of withdrawn, and disdainful, and sad, in one expression. Nice hat, and shadow outline of his face. Bit of an Alicia Keys moment.
Example 25 - Interesting jawline and face lines here. Looking younger here somehow, to me.
My original concept of Snape's appearance was somewhat tainted by the movies before I read any of the books. Since then, I've carved out my own idea about the character's appearance. Rickman, bless him, makes a fine Snape, but he is not the Snape in my brain.
My Snape bears a striking resemblance to Marilyn Manson.
...
Quit looking at me like that. I mean sans makeup and costuming. And somewhat sharper-featured. And of course appropriately older. Comparing with canon!Snape, both are dark-haired, pale, and hook-nosed. My vision of Snape is tall, thin, prominently-cheekboned, strangely-angled-but-graceful - ugly as sin, by conventional standards, but interesting to look at. So there you go. Manson isn't an exact match to my idea, but he comes pretty darn close.
There are personality parallels as well. Both have their own bizarre-seeming way of dealing with the world. Both are generally angry, snarky, and misperceived. Both are skilled at garnering reactions.
The ex was obsessed with MM for a while, and so I got to see lots and lots of images of him (her walls were covered in magazine cut-outs at one point). I find his random lack of eyebrows disturbing, but only a little. I think he looks kickass with all his razzle-dazzle, but his Snapishness only shines through clearly when unpainted.
This site I'm linking a lot is awesome. Think I'll go by eras, like how the photos are arranged. And now to wade through eyeliner...
Spooky Kids - Portrait (1989 - 1995)
Example 1 - Okay, ignore the fact that his irises are cock-eyed. Those are contacts, and from what I recall, his eyes are actually dark hazelish. His mouth is lovely.
Example 2 - Clutching the mic and having an emo moment.
Example 3 - Bit of a rockstar sneer.
Example 4 - His jaw's at an odd angle, but you get the idea. Hello there, pale, freckled chest.
Example 5 - Looking down. Suspenders. Eyebrows have vanished. More pale Mansonflesh. *cringes at own pun*
Example 6 - Lord help us, he's smilin'.
Example 7 - And finally, a shot of him in shiny green pants, petting a chicken. This has nothing to do with the Snape thing. But, just...PETTING A CHICKEN. Awesome.
Antichrist Superstar ('Shock' era: 1996 - 1997)
Example 8 - Okay, this one freaks me out a bit because from this angle he also looks a bit like me. Something about the cheekbones and eyes.
Example 9 - Subtract the makeup and eye stripe and add some brows and you have a sneer, my friends.
Example 10 - Something about the long-limbed awkwardness/grace thing is Snapelike to me. I'm pretty sure this was from an issue of Rolling Stone. I think it's strangely cute.
Example 11 - This is quite a plain shot, but I think it's one of the clearest examples I've found of what I consider the resemblance.
Example 12 - Fear the cheekbones. All he needs is a snake coming out of that skull, and he's got one huge-ass Mark.
Mechanical Animals ('Omega' era: 1998 - 1999)
Example 13 - Blonde wig and blue stripe = distracting. Snarl and chest scars = cool.
There's too much damned makeup in the Omega era. Onward!
Holy Wood ('Mercury' era: 2000 - 2002)
Example 14 - Distrustful sideward glance.
Example 15 - A high-collared jacket, bit of stringy hair. Wish I knew what the hell that text said.
Example 16 - Meow. Here's more support for 'strangely-angled.' Beware shiny metal thing on face.
Example 17 - Nice profile shot. Hello, Snapelike nose.
Example 18 - Some sort of awkward, careful posture, like he doesn't inhabit his body in the normal way. And hey, something that looks like one wing.
Example 19 - MONKEY. And furrowed brow.
Example 20 - Legs, LEGS, all over the place. And hey, tarot cards!
Example 21 - Even sans eyebrow, he is still giving The Eyebrow™. And brandishing absinthe.
Example 22 - Sultry glower, and hair.
Golden Age of Grotesque ('Arch Dandy' era: 2003 - 2004)
Example 23 - Yarr matey, an eyepatch! His expression cracks me up. He's like, "Guys, take the picture already, gosh." And he's got his hands behind his back, which somehow strikes me as a gesture of shyness.
Example 24 - Sort of withdrawn, and disdainful, and sad, in one expression. Nice hat, and shadow outline of his face. Bit of an Alicia Keys moment.
Example 25 - Interesting jawline and face lines here. Looking younger here somehow, to me.
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no subject
Date: 2006-07-10 05:26 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-07-10 08:21 pm (UTC)Well... he *is* 60...
no subject
Date: 2006-07-11 03:20 am (UTC)Yeah, I agree. Like anon mentioned below, the age difference may have something to do with it. The man does have an excellent voice though, and he can sure project an attitude.
What The Hell That Text Said (Example 15)
Date: 2006-07-10 08:14 pm (UTC)I can see where you're coming from with your theory, but I still find Alan Rickman almost perfect for his role, except that he's kind of... short?
Manson does have the *perfect* legs for it. I think I drooled a bit on my keyboard. But his lips are definitely not Snape's. If I remember correctly (or maybe I read too much fanfiction), his should be thin and pale. His eyes narrow. Frankly, Manson's eyes freak me out. As do his eyebrows (or lack thereof).
Maybe it's just me, since I'm a really great Snapefan, thus creating a perfect image of him in my mind, and thus not accepting he really might be the greasy ugly git Rowling says he is :)
Re: What The Hell That Text Said (Example 15)
Date: 2006-07-11 03:27 am (UTC)Yeah, I don't deny, Rickman does a great job. That's the risk in playing a book character though...lots of people's vision of the character may not match up with the person playing the part.
And yeah, Manson's various features (lips, eyes, brows, etc) do take away from the similarity somewhat. As you can probably tell from my post, I think Manson looks pretty cool in his own right. Not necessarily easy to like, but there's no one else in the world he could be mistaken for.
I'm with you on thinking Snape might not be quite that ugly. The book, even though it's in third person, is somewhat slanted by Harry's point of view, and hating someone definitely makes them seem uglier.
Re: What The Hell That Text Said (Example 15)
Date: 2006-07-12 12:15 am (UTC)Manson and Snape really are alike, appearance, personality and both are hard to not notice. But Snape is dark in that quiet/silent spy-ish way, while Manson is... openly, show-off-ishly dark (don't know if that made sense, but it's 3.09 AM here). But if we're talking about Marilyn playing Snape's role as an actor, yeah, he'd fit.
BUT...
As many have pointed out, you can't ignore The Voice.
And as a Snarry shipper, I can't get over that scene in GOF where Alan pushes Harry's face into the desk with that superiorly exasperated sneer. 60 year old and 16 year old (and we don't have the old wizards-live-25-times-longer-than-muggles theory). No Marilyn Manson could replace me that.
Re: What The Hell That Text Said (Example 15)
Date: 2006-07-12 01:08 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-07-10 08:32 pm (UTC)I do agree with you for the most part, Marilyn Manson does look like Snape. To me though, the person who looks most like Snape is Davey Havok from one of my nieces favorite bands.
There aren't any really good pictures of him, but when he had long hair in one of their videos I always thought he looked just like him. Well... with greasier hair, of course. And lacking the lip ring.
That's the best picture I could find.
It's nice to know that I'm not the only person who thinks that Rickman is a bit off for the part. His voice is perfect though.
no subject
Date: 2006-07-11 03:38 am (UTC)And I agree, Rickman does his voice excellently.
no subject
Date: 2007-03-04 02:30 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-03-04 11:02 am (UTC)The anon comment at the top isn't me (just realized it looks like it, from what I said in the comment immediately following). Rickman ain't my Snape (for more reasons than his build, which doesn't bother me), but I still like his version of Snape quite a lot.