The Dullest Redemption Subplot Ever (WAS: Evil Is...)

[ssk7882 <skelkins@attbi.com>]

No: HPFGUIDX 51621

You know, the thing that always amuses me about these conversations 
which focus so very strongly on the word "redeemable" when it comes 
to Draco Malfoy is that they almost invariably lead me to wonder 
precisely what a "redemption" subplot for Draco would have to look 
like, at this point in the story.

Draco Malfoy repents his wicked ways.  He sees the light and seeks to 
atone for his terrible, terrible sins.  And so...uh...

So he apologizes to Neville for cursing him in the corridors, and to 
Ron, Harry and Hermione for saying all those nasty things to them all 
the time, with a particularly grovelling apology to Hermione for the 
racist comments, and a particularly bashful one to Harry for the 
stupid "dressing up like Dementors" stunt, which could have caused 
serious damage.  He then apologizes to Hagrid for getting Buckbeak 
into all that trouble that one time and maybe tries to make amends by 
volunteering some help with the flobberworms or something.  And 
finally, he makes a public apology-cum-recantation to the entire 
school for having proclaimed wickedly racist sentiments back in his 
second year, when the Chamber of Secrets was opened and he was 
*twelve.*  

And then he goes his way and sins no more.

::stifles yawn::

Oh.  Oh, sorry.  Just came over all...sleepy there, for some reason.

You know, when it comes right down to it, Talk Is Cheap.  Redeeming 
oneself from having said rotten things therefore does not require all 
that much in the way of atonement.   

*Actions,* now.  Actions are a different matter.  Evil is as Evil 
does.

Sadly, when it comes right down to it, Draco Malfoy has not really 
*done* very much of anything.

I really like redemption subplots, but I think that in order for a 
reformed Draco Malfoy to qualify as one, he really needs to *do* 
something first -- and something a heckuva lot more dire than 
mouthing vile rhetoric, saying rotten things, and bullying weaker
students by hexing them in the corridors.  I mean, really.  He's not 
a nice kid, but his crimes to date are hardly in the same category as 
rape, torture or murder, are they?  He's not a Snape, or a Peter 
Pettigrew.  *Those* are guys who actually have things to *atone* 
for.  Serious things.  Things like murder.  Things like torture.  
Things like betrayal.  Draco, in comparison, just doesn't have all 
that much of a rap sheet.  His attitude is perfectly dreadful, yes, 
but mainly, he's all talk.  The things that he needs to "redeem 
himself for" are still quite easily affordable, and would require not 
even a long-term payment plan.  

I don't know if I'd even consider a plotline in which a teenager 
mends his wicked ways by distancing himself from his history of 
schoolyard bullying, racism, vile political rhetoric, and nasty 
verbal taunts a "redemption subplot" at all.  To my mind, that would 
be more a coming of age drama serving to parallel and to double 
Harry's own.  For it to be a *redemption plotline,* I'd expect to see 
the character first do something seriously dire.  Murder, torture, 
betrayal...even accepting the Dark Mark would suffice.  But nasty 
words, schoolyard bullying, and lip service to a vile political 
agenda?  

I dunno.  If *that's* what's being set forth as the basis of a 
redemption subplot for Draco Malfoy, then I have to say that I think 
it rather boring.  What little moral debt Draco has incurred over the 
course of the past four volumes really does strike me as far too 
easily paid for to carry all that much punch.


Elkins