Bad Slytherins/ Good Slytherins (was Does JKR want us to hate Draco? )

[potioncat]

No: HPFGUIDX 129663

 
> SSSusan:
> She does for me.  Buckbeak, his taunting of H/R/H, his constant put-
> downs and threats about Mudbloods and Lupin and Hagrid, his attacks 
> on Harry, his insults of the Weasleys, ....  I don't see how this 
> ISN'T succeeding at showing us that he is, if not evil, damn near 
> close, and certainly not likeable.


Potioncat:
I'm not sure if for the purpose of this, we're talking about how 
Draco is viewed at discussion sites or also fan-fiction. Because what 
a fan-fic writer does with a character may have very little to do 
with what that writer thinks JKR is doing with the character. A fan-
fic writer can ask,"can I take this toad of a person and make him 
seem like a prince?"

I think JKR has shown that Draco is a horrible person. I've never 
seen anything in canon that would even hint at any goodness in him. 
The only reason she talks about it in interviews is because there are 
fans who want to see him differently. I also think that she isn't 
bothered at all by any bad thing that happens to him. And while many 
readers are upset that Crouch!Moddy bounced him around, I think JKR 
considers Draco had it coming. Whether it was a fair and appropriate 
punishment at that given moment has been the source of other threads.

Some readers are upset that 11-year-old students are comdemned to a 
life of evil by the Sorting Hat. Keep in mind, no real child is 
harmed by the sorting process. It's a work of fiction. And as to 
that, I've known snotty little kids who continue to be jerks as they 
grow up. Whether they were born that way or made that way, I cannot 
say.

There are those who like Draco and other Slytherins because they are 
bad. The badder, the better. I stumbled onto a few of those sites 
before I found HPfGU. Not pleasant places, I can tell you.

And maybe there's a chance that some readers think Draco's going to 
be "converted" because Snape seems to favor him. Snape, of course, is 
JKR's other bad boy, and it really isn't certain how he will turn out.

One of the other posts in this thread suggested that the Good 
Slytherin (if there is one) will be someone who has been a minor 
character, and who hasn't joined in with Draco. I think it's 
important that T. Nott wasn't part of the hexing party on the train. 
His father was also captured, but he doesn't seem to be involved in 
revenge.
Potioncat