fanart (don't worry, no sex, just violence :P)

[static_pixie]

Anyway, there's this amazing G/PG drawing of Victoir and Teddy all grown up by someone, I forget who. Not a huge fan of the pairing since Victoir is basiclaly given to Teddy for the same reason Ginny's given to Harry, but the art's beautiful, and Teddy looks so much like his dad *sigh*.

And (a rarity!) there's a really nice PG drawing of the so-

Comments

[ellecain]

Yep, I think a lot of the disappointment over Draco came because JKR took him from the insecure impotent peer rival he had been for 5 books and then pushed up to this cliff where he was balancing on the edge of competency. And since HBP ends on what seems like a cliffhanger (Stay Tuned for the Horcrux Hunt! Same Bat-time, same Bat channel) - the fans just expected her to push him over the edge, make him more hardcore so to speak. Either make him a bad guy or a good one

[static_pixie]

Yep, I think a lot of the disappointment over Draco came because JKR took him from the insecure impotent peer rival he had been for 5 books and then pushed up to this cliff where he was balancing on the edge of competency. And since HBP ends on what seems like a cliffhanger (Stay Tuned for the Horcrux Hunt! Same Bat-time, same Bat channel) - the fans just expected her to push him over the edge, make him more hardcore so to speak. Either make him a bad guy or a good one.

Exactly. I think fans had a right to expect some action out of him because that's what made the most sense. I think gobackcheif has a good point about Draco's passive development, but the whole point of book 6 is that he finally went from this passive outsider in the whole Big Fight and became an active participant. On level with Harry in a lot of ways since he was deliberately targeted by Voldemort, had to plot his way out of it, and actually saw Voldemort. She has set Draco up as the shadow, only for some reason, she felt as though Harry had to conquer the shadow

[papier]

Rowling seemed to be setting Draco up for something big in HBP and then just kind of went 'meh' in TDH, which I consider another of her glaring continuity errors when it comes to characterisation. I mean, how many people were expecting Ginny to be kidnapped or at least targetted in the seventh book? *raises hand* Turns out that whole break-up thing was just for show.

Draco had the elder wand that Harry aquired, but that too was something passive, something he had no idea about and no control over.
It never fails to amuse me when Rowling gives interviews and someone asks 'what happened to so-and-so?'. She answered a question about whether Harry and Draco could ever really be friends recently and I thought, 'seriously, you shouldn't have to give these interviews about what the characters are doing now and how they turned out. All of that should be apparent from within the text.' But I guess not.

Gorgeous art, btw.

[static_pixie]

Rowling seemed to be setting Draco up for something big in HBP and then just kind of went 'meh' in TDH, which I consider another of her glaring continuity errors when it comes to characterisation. I mean, how many people were expecting Ginny to be kidnapped or at least targetted in the seventh book? *raises hand* Turns out that whole break-up thing was just for show.

Yeah, and the thing about it is, Ginny wasn't even around as long as Draco was and none of her plotlines have been deliberately connected to the major plotline, so if either of them were to have an active hand in things, Draco would be the obvious choice. She pushes him to adulthood and then pulls him right back. And that's supposed to...make him a better person? His not growing up? What?

[go_back_chief]

Meaning that what Draco did need to do and what he had every right to do but didn't, was grow up,

I couldn't disagree more, I think he grew up just as much as Neville or Ron. Neville had to learn bravery -he did, Ron had to learn confidence -he did, Draco had to learn empathy -he most certainly did! In all the books prior to HBP Draco was just a nasty, spoiled, arrogant little brat who sprouted his prejudice against muggle-borns already the first time Harry saw him, long before the first "Mudblood" slur. In DH, he doesn't voice that prejudice once, Wizarding sciety at large uses the "Mudblood" slur left and right, Draco is one of the few that doesn't, and he doesn't express that Muggles/Muggle-borns are inferior in any other way either. It seems Dumbledore's last lesson to him hasn't gone amiss. What's more is that he very definitely doesn't want to hurt anyone, and he's acting accordingly throughout the entire book. He's forced to do a crucio once, and he clearly feels horrible about it, and in all other scenes he's in he does

[static_pixie]

The thing is, though, I don’t think Draco’s gaining that empathy really propelled him towards adulthood in any way. By the end of the book, he’s the same joke he’s always been (Ron’s punching him in the face is the last thing that really happens to him), and the only way he accidentally does manage to help is through his own incompetence, not through any choice he makes. He poses no threat to Harry, nor is he competent enough to actively help him out (which I think Narcissa did do; she may have done it for Draco, but the fact is, she took the opportunity the Dark Lord gave her and actively used it in the service of her own agenda). The fact that he’s still being protected by his mother and father while Harry’s lost all of his protectors basically does make him the child to Harry’s adult, and to the adult of nearly every other child in the book, because even though a lot of them do have parents, they’re never overshadowed by said parents

[go_back_chief]

He’s something Harry’s completely outgrown, which would be fine if JKR hadn’t allowed him to accomplish so much on his own in book 6 despite the fact that he was waffling in the same way he waffles in DH even then. Even Dumbledore gave him some praise for actually accomplishing something on his own before going into the fact that he knew Draco wouldn’t kill him because he wasn’t a killer. Draco’s understanding empathy there is important, but equally as important is the fact that Draco got as far as he did pretty much on his own, and that after Dumbledore made the offer, he was poised to make his own, independent decision. Meaning that while empathy was one thing Draco had to learn in order to mature, that empathy wouldn’t be enough if it wasn’t coupled with some independent action.The thing is, I think Draco got all the development his character needed in HBP, the climax of it all was when he chose not to kill Dumbledore, and all we see after that are the results and consequences of that decision. I still think DH adds dimensions and

[static_pixie]

It's less about Gryffindor values (which I hope I'm not coming across as pushing) than it is about just acting. You can tell that, no, he doesn't want anyone to get hurt, but he doesn't do anything much to further that goal, which I think is a problem. I think you're right, we do learn all about Draco as a person and his motives in HBP what with all that happens in those final moments, but to me the logical conclusion of this is to have it lead to some kind of actual action on his part, given the fact that the series is about choices and how empowering they are. And that technically, up on the tower, Draco had yet to make his choice. Empathetic or not, he never makes one concrete decision one way or another in any given situation (exept when he saves Goyle in the RoR), which is really what I would have expected. Like Slink, I don't like that his role was overshadowed by the Malfoy family as a whole and that Narcissa ended up being the one to take an actual direct stand against Voldemort for her family

[q_spade]

Will mull over the Draco bits of your post and hopefully respond later. :) I agree with you to an extent, but Chief makes some good points re: empathy.

That photo of Radcliffe is...;_; I honestly don't know what's worse - that he looks like a fifth-rate Hitler impersonator, or that he's actually under the impression that he can ACT and therefore deserves to take jobs from real actors who need the work & the money way more than he does.

[static_pixie]

Yeah, everyone's made some really good points. I'd never really thought about Draco's passive development (like gobackcheif said), probably because JKR almost always puts it in a negative light (like Slink said). And I also think Ellecain was right when she said that Draco regressed as a character in that he was treated like a child the whole way through. It's all very complicated and interesting.

I almost feel sorry for the guy. Almost. He may be completely concieted but there seem to be all these people around him pushing him like crazy. Wonder when the downward spiral will begin...

[spare_change]

I feel like AS/S is where a lot of disappointed H/D writers have gone

And that's why I hate it so much. Because THE ASS SHIP just lets them write Harry/Draco without any history.

GAH!

*rants, froths at mouth*

[static_pixie]

I've seen almost ZERO H/D come out since the release of book 7 and that's really depressing. Although some AS/S fics are fairly original. But yeah, it kind of means they can ignore the fact that in canon, JKR totally pushed Harry up another level from Draco and has made H/D a lot harder to right. Coping mechanism?