What's with all the Draco love in fanon?

[John]

No: HPFGUIDX 153192

> Magpie:
> No, it's not the actor. It was around before the movies and even since 
> then I don't think the actor is so important in himself.  I'd say the 
> reasons for it are as numerous as the number of people who like the 
> character. There are probably some "I want to change him" people in 
> there, but there's no reason fans of one character should be reduced 
> to dismissive stereotypes more than any other.

It's not just dismissive stereotypes, it's the way he's acted through
six of the books.  I always imagined him as a wizarding version of
Dudley, somebody who picks on those who can't defend themselves simply
because they can.  Whether Draco is redeemed in book 7 or not could go
either way, but no matter the outcome I can't see a scenario where
Harry, Hermione, Ginny, etc would ever be in a relationship with him
considering the past years of torment.

> Draco's always been a character in an interesting situation.   Many 
> people argued long before HBP that his situation and set up meant he 
> had to play a part somewhere.  There aren't a lot of kids in canon 
> that have any characterization that are in his type of situation; he 
> offers a lot of things for a fanfic writer to explore.  Fanon can do 
> different things with a character so that people can keep things they 
> like, lose things they don't like, shade things one way or another.  I 
> mean, the funny thing about all the "why would people write about 
> him?" is that of course ultimately the author was one of them.  He's 
> not the hero of a fanfic story or anything like that, but her story 
> definitely echoed plenty of Draco fics (though given fanon's obsession 
> with romance, in fanfic it was more often played out via shipping).  
> Iow, many Draco fanfic authors were interested in the same things 
> about the character that seem to interest the author.  
> 

I don't have a problem with him being in fanon.  The problem I have
with him in fanon is what appears to be the prevailing opinion in
fanon (by most of the writers anyway, who seem to be generally
categorized as teenaged girls) that Draco is really a nice guy and
just misunderstood, and that somehow he and any of the "good"
characters we are familiar with will become friends or something more.
   This is the reason I compared the death eaters to the KKK and
Nazis.  If you were a black (muggleborn or halfblood) girl living in
Alabama and there was a white (pureblood) boy who's father was in the
KKK (Death Eaters) and he constantly talked about how all black people
should be wiped from the face of the earth and how much better white
people are than blacks from the moment they met, do you see any hope
of them being anything BUT enemies?

John