[HPforGrownups] Re: Can Character Change: A Separate Post

[Hana]

No: HPFGUIDX 38842

Heidi asked:
 Can character change?

Cindy said:

So let's change Ambitious!Ron to Ambitious!Percy or Ambitious!
Hermione.  Both of these characters have shown us plenty of ambition 
(although nowhere near the type of ambition I used in Ambitious!
Ron), so I'd bet more people would buy those character changes.  And 
in fact, some people have advocated them on the list, IIRC.

I completely agree with this, and the other things Cindy has said about drastic character change.  Ambitious!Ron ~could~ happen but there are few ways that would make it happen in a believable way that would keep with the integrity of the story.  It's too far outside his character so far to make it a ~plausible~ change without a lot of new character information to lead up to it.  I think if Ron became Ambitious!Ron the start of book 5 readers would be seriously put off by the inexplicable, or lame (magic-spell-made-me-do-it) reason.

Ambitious!Hermione or Ambitious!Percy fit what we know about their characters so they ~could~ logically end up this way.  For Ron, something like Unshadowed!Ron could happen if he gets noticed outside of Harry, or Mature!Ron for that matter.  Studious!Ron is more likely than Ambitious!Ron simply because he seems more likely to study somewhat than make it all consuming.

Cindy:

>Is there sufficient ambiguity about something like Redeemable!
>Draco?  Well, to me, that's the key question.  If there is some 
>ambiguity -- some clear reason to think he is good deep down or that 
>he likes Hermione deep down -- well, that would help a great deal.  
>Speaking for myself, I haven't seen it yet.  Or, at least, enough of 
>it.  

I personally think that the only way Draco will be redeemed is if something happens to ~make~ him see how evil Voldemort's side is. One way would be if someone close to him was tortured and killed for instance.  I personally haven't seen much in the way of courage from him, so simply the act of trying to make him a DE or hurting him could make him turn away from the dark side, or perversely, make him join out of fear.

Unfortunately our views of Draco, like Snape, are limited due to the relative immaturity of Harry.  A shifting POV might tell us something different, but that is unlikely to happen IMO unless it's the POV of a disposable character near Voldemort as with Ch 1 of GOF.  

With Draco, the likelihood of him being redeemed is directly linked, IMO, to what JKR has decided to put in his past.  If he's a bully because he's really insecure and just needs a friend, maybe something can happen to make him friends with the trio.  If, on the other hand, he's a spoiled brat who ~likes~ to hurt people and is truly power hungry then it's probably a hopeless cause.  We simply don't have enough information to accurately judge right now.

The other thing to consider when talking about character change will be the final outcome of the book.  Would Ambitious!Ron or Ambitious!Hermione suit the storyline?  IMO probably not.  Harry needs loyal supporters, not people out for themselves so ultimately I think that they would not change this way.  Could Redeemable!Draco help further the plot?  Possibly, though not likely until near the end of the last book.  I think Draco serves well as RivalPeer!Draco and it seems to be a likely place to keep him for quite some time regardless of what people would personally like to see.

In the end, I think that if people want to see their preferred character changes happen, they're going to have to stick to reading and/or writing fanfiction where events of the past and present can be manipulated to suit the individual character changes.  

--Hana



________________________________________________________
Outgrown your current e-mail service?
Get a 25MB Inbox, POP3 Access, No Ads and No Taglines with LYCOS MAIL PLUS.
http://login.mail.lycos.com/brandPage.shtml?pageId=plus