Elkins' Draco Malfoy Is Ever So Lame. Yet Sympathetic. And Dead, Too.

[horridporrid03]

No: HPFGUIDX 124476


>>Renee:
>It seems to me that you're taking your personal reading for a 
quality of the narrative here. I, for one, don't see JKR writing 
Draco "awfully sympathetically" at all; to me he comes across as 
somewhat pitiable at best.<

Betsy:
I would worry that I had some personal kink for whiny blonds if there 
weren't so many others in the fandom who read the same things I do in 
Draco's scenes. (Plus, there's the fact that I don't really have a 
personal kink for whiny blonds <g>.)  And I've read essays that deal 
specifically with the language JKR uses to either set someone up as a 
hero, set someone up as disgusting, or set someone up sympathetically.

JKR can write someone suffering pain and make it repulsive.  When 
Wormtail cuts off his hand in GoF, he sobs and cries and pants and 
shivers.  When Draco get slashed by the Hippogriff he lets out a 
shriek but then reverts to yelling.  No tears, no sobbing.  And in 
the ferret scene, Draco ends with his eyes "watering in pain" but 
again, no sobbing.  In fact he's muttering and angry, almost Harry-
like in his reactions.  Then there's the fight scene in OotP.  This 
would be a perfect time to show Draco in a repulsive light.  Harry 
punches him in the stomach.  A little retching, a little gagging, 
would have gone a long way to negate the hurt/comfort in this scene.  
But no, Draco is curled up and bloody, whimpering but not crying.

Draco is not set up as a hero.  He's a bit too feminine for that.  
His dress robes make him look like a Vicar.  He attacks verbally 
rather than physically.  There's the whole, "Ron is mutilating my 
roots," line in PoA.  Even his role as Seeker is a more nimble and 
graceful athletic role.  Harry is in no danger of being out-heroed by 
Draco.  But JKR doesn't go so far that Draco is entirely 
unattractive.  And she's consistent enough in this that I don't think 
she's writing him this way unconsciously.

>>Renee:
>The main reason for this is that Draco (unlike young Snape in the 
Pensieve Scene) never gets hurt without provocation.<

Betsy:
But he gets so *badly* hurt for so little provocation.  He's jumped 
by George and Harry because he insults their mothers.  Rude yes, 
deserving of an almight smack down?  Not really.  And see, that's 
another thing.  Draco *never* gets a lick in.  Never.  There is not 
one time when he *really* puts the hurt on Harry.  He tries, but he 
*always* fails.  Always.  

>>Renee:
>He's not treated shabbily by fate and he doesn't suffer because of 
one crucial character flaw or bad error of judgement - in fact, he's 
got everything going for him, being the only, spoiled child of a rich 
and influential pureblood wizard.<

Betsy:
Really? Couldn't you say that his fate has been predetermined by his 
parents?  The hat barely touches Draco's head before he's whisked 
away to Slytherin.  And I would say that there was a chance in the 
very beginning for him to gain Harry's friendship, but he blew it 
with his social awkwardness.

And I would argue that Draco is not spoiled.  He *says* he's 
spoiled.  Harry assumes he is.  But the times that we see him with 
his parents his wishes are second to theirs. (And isn't it strange 
that he's left alone in the dress shop?  The Dursleys would have 
*never* left their ickle Dudley-kins on his own for his school 
shopping)  He doesn't get the broom he was hoping for in PS/SS.  He's 
beaten by a Firebolt in PoA, and I think by OotP, he's still flying 
the broom his dad bought him back in CoS.  He does get sweets from 
home.  That doesn't translate to spoiled though.  Not when his family 
is (or claim to be) filthy rich. 

>>Renee:
>It's his own bullying and his filthy mouth that do him in. Also, JKR 
depicts him as a a coward - and courage is the quality she values 
most in people.<

Betsy:
Draco doesn't give up, even when the odds are against him.  That does 
do him in.  Time and time again.  But has he ever succeeded in 
harming Harry?  I don't think JKR is setting him up to be the hero.  
But she's doing a really bad job of setting him up as a villian.  
Which is why I don't think we've seen the last of him, and why I hope 
his ultimate role has yet to be revealed.
 
>>Renee: 
>As far as I'm concerned, Draco doesn't qualify for Elkins's hurt-
comfort scenario because of his utter lack of dignity...<
<snip>

Betsy:
And yet, Draco does handle his losses with dignity.  He's dignified 
at the end of the ferret incident.  He's dignified when he looses the 
big Quidditch final in PoA.  He's dignified after being beaten by 
Harry and George in OotP.  That's why I think Elkins is on to 
something here.  Those were some prime opportunities for JKR to 
sabotage any hurt/comfort attractiveness.  She could have had Draco 
whine, cry, froth at the mouth, swear mad-crazy revenge, but she 
doesn't.  Instead he silently endures in way completely at odds with 
the way the Trio define Draco.  Which leads me to belive there's a 
little bit more to Draco then first meets the eye.

Betsy