Draco Malfoy as Stooge Heel

[Jeremy Billones]

No: HPFGUIDX 69148

OK, for my first post to HPfGU, I'm not going to talk about SHIPs...

(H/G,R/L,H/single)

... or about Sirius...

(No body, no death - remember PoA.  And the mirror was clumsy of JKR.)

... or even about Fred and George repaying Harry...

(Harry's relationship with *all* the Weasleys is not about money.  He'd
never expect the money back, they'd never think of trying to give it to
him, but what's theirs is his, and always has been, and vice versa.)

No, I'm going to compare Harry Potter to professional wrestling :)

In wrestling, when creating your good guys (faces) and bad guys (heels),
one has to decide just what type of character you're creating.

There tend to be two kinds of heels.  The "monster" heel is big, bad,
and nigh unstoppable, and he usually mows down opponent after opponent
with no difficulty.  Only after a tremendous amount of effort can the
face ultimately triumph over the monster heel.

The other kind of heel is the "stooge" heel.  He's not nearly as tough
as he claims to be, usually hides behind a "monster" associate, talks
a big game, but runs like a maniac whenever faced with a real challenge.
The face is thwarted, not by the heel's strength, but by his uncanny
ability to avoid getting his butt kicked by ducking the issue.

In short, it's the difference between Lucius Malfoy and Peter Pettigrew.

So, we come to Draco Malfoy.  There have been many posters who want to
see Draco grow up, gain stature, gain influence, and eventually become
a force (for good or ill).  But that misses the point of the character.
While creating Lord Voldemort has the monster heel of the Potter series,
JKR has clearly created Malfoy as the stooge heel.

He will remain a thorn in Harry's side through the end of the series,
but he is not a serious threat to him -- never has been -- and as the
ending of books 4 and 5 clearly demonstrated, he's simply not in the
league of HRH.  But as the stooge heel, he's only there to provide minor
complications and comic relief, not to upstage the monster heel.

(Of course, any wrestling fan will tell you that it's far harder to
create and portray a stooge heel well than to do a monster heel.  So
cheers to Malfoy and Felton :)

-- 
Jeremy Billones