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

[Renee]

No: HPFGUIDX 124528


--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "horridporrid03" 
<horridporrid03 at y...> wrote:
> 
>
> 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>.) 

Renee:
But how many of those others have a Tom Felton induced crush on 
Draco and are reading things into the text?      

Betsy:
> 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.

Renee:
Now this is interesting, regardless of the Draco question. Could you 
give me some links? 

Betsy:
> 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.

Renee:
That a character isn't set up as disgusting doesn't automatically 
mean (s)he's set up sympathetically. There's a wide range of 
possibilities in between. I don't think any of the kids in the HP 
series are described in ways that qualify as disgusting; that seems 
to be a prerogative of adults like Wormtail. And nothing about 
Draco's lack of repulsiveness takes away the fact that ultimately, 
he's the cause of his own distress. This fact effectively suppresses 
any tendencies I might have to comfort him. 
Also, if I were Draco, I wouldn't throw tantrums after just having 
been defeated by hippogriffs, fellow students or DADA-teachers. I'd 
try not to draw further attention and keep quiet for a while. That 
would be in my best interest, and a very Slytherin thing to do.
   
> >>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. 

Renee:
Well, I recall a scion from a family of Dark Wizards whose fate was 
not preterdetermined by his parents and who did not end up in 
Slytherin House. I don't think I need to mention his name. 

Betsy:
> 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.

Renee:
I'd say he blew it by behaving like Dudley Dursley and trying to put 
down a boy he considered inferior. That's not social awkwardness.   


> >>Renee, previously:
> >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, she hasn't done that bad a job setting him 
up as a (future) villain in OotP. By becoming a member of the 
Inquisitorial Squad Draco joins the one who is in power and loves to 
show it: Dolores Umbridge. Remember who said "There is no good and 
evil, only power and those to weak to wield it"? I'd say that in 
OotP Draco Malfoy makes a choice according to precisely this maxim. 
He seems well on his way towards villainy, and basing myself on this 
I don't even need JKR's interviews to believe a change of heart is 
very unlikely.  
      
> >>Renee, previously: 
> >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.

Renee, now:
Sorry, but I really don't see his reaction as dignified. It can't 
be, because he's already lost his dignity beforehand by starting the 
quarrel. I think the word that applies here would be subdued, not 
dignified. Again, it's a matter of interpretation, not something 
that immediately jumps out at everyone who reads the text.   

Renee