"he refuses to believe that Snape could ever fall in love. Now, is something like that really canon at all? We know nothing at all about Snape in that capacity. All information we have about him is filtered through Harry, and through the channels of student/teacher relationships. We know NOTHING about Snape's desires for romance/relationships or lacktherof. Yes, this is going somewhere."
You have a point there - assuming an incapacity into a character without canon evidence is as silly as making them do something that canon evidence (vice versa) says they cant; i.e it's technically against canon to make Voldemort fall in love - unless the writer *really* knew what he/she was doing & explained the shift very well - but not for Snape. JKR has said that the idea of someone falling in love with him is pretty awful, but she may simply be commenting on the fact that he is a generally unpleasant person & that he may have done something pretty awful in the past. She has never actually said (or wrote)that it was impossible & with the next book just about to come out there may be more hints that way about him. (good places further reading on Snape Snape in love, an editorial (http://www.mugglenet.com/editorials/madampuddifoot/edit-rlabozetta01.shtml), & Motivation matters (http://www.mugglenet.com/editorials/editorials/edit-subtlescience01.shtml) (about his committment to the side of light) & a good discussion on the development his character (http://www.cosforums.com/showthread.php?t=58536)).
"Obviously, I don't extend this to include those characters who have ten animagi forms, are part fairy and part Tolkien elf, are Snape's daughter and Dumbledore's granddaughter and both Harry and Draco's sister and going out with Ron"
They are probably the bad apples that are spoiling it for the rest - I've read some downright irritating SS/OFC fics where the OC was just too impossible/took over too much/warped the canon folk unrecognisably OOC, but I've also read some really greatfics with that pairing. For example, there is this (http://fanfiction.mugglenet.com/viewstory.php?sid=25663) (on muggle.net). Believable, gracefully written, nice balance between the canon character & the OC.
no subject
You have a point there - assuming an incapacity into a character without canon evidence is as silly as making them do something that canon evidence (vice versa) says they cant; i.e it's technically against canon to make Voldemort fall in love - unless the writer *really* knew what he/she was doing & explained the shift very well - but not for Snape. JKR has said that the idea of someone falling in love with him is pretty awful, but she may simply be commenting on the fact that he is a generally unpleasant person & that he may have done something pretty awful in the past. She has never actually said (or wrote)that it was impossible & with the next book just about to come out there may be more hints that way about him.
(good places further reading on Snape Snape in love, an editorial (http://www.mugglenet.com/editorials/madampuddifoot/edit-rlabozetta01.shtml), & Motivation matters (http://www.mugglenet.com/editorials/editorials/edit-subtlescience01.shtml) (about his committment to the side of light) & a good discussion on the development his character (http://www.cosforums.com/showthread.php?t=58536)).
"Obviously, I don't extend this to include those characters who have ten animagi forms, are part fairy and part Tolkien elf, are Snape's daughter and Dumbledore's granddaughter and both Harry and Draco's sister and going out with Ron"
They are probably the bad apples that are spoiling it for the rest - I've read some downright irritating SS/OFC fics where the OC was just too impossible/took over too much/warped the canon folk unrecognisably OOC, but I've also read some really greatfics with that pairing. For example, there is this (http://fanfiction.mugglenet.com/viewstory.php?sid=25663) (on muggle.net). Believable, gracefully written, nice balance between the canon character & the OC.