Draco...Interesting?

[pippin_999]

No: HPFGUIDX 176989


> Katie:
He swallows all the crap that his parents have 
> > taught him hook, line, and sinker, and like all bullies - he's a 
> > wimp, deep down. 

Pippin:
There are a lot of bullies in canon who aren't wimps. Snape.
Scrimgeour. Sirius and James.

 Magpie:

> Dudley's a far better bully and far more run of the mill because 
> he's not highly strung and on the verge of a breakdown most of the 
> time) . 

Pippin:
Nobody tried to force Dudley to kill people. But he was certainly
high strung and on the verge of a breakdown after his encounter
with the dementors. It's clear that something had a life-changing
effect on him.  I didn't really get that it was the dementors, 
but for the sake of the narrative all Harry needs to know is that
people *can* change. Putting in how it happened would shift
the emphasis from judging people by their choices to judging
them by what's happened to them, which is not what JKR wants,
IMO. It's Harry who's the essentiallist, not her, IMO.

Magpie:
> I had always hoped for the kind of story we got in HBP so I was 
> pleased with that--I was totally disappointed when I realized that 
> JKR is rather essentialist in the way she writes characters, so that 
> putting a character like Draco through the wringer doesn't result in 
> the character really growing or getting stronger. 

Pippin:
Huh?
That he chose not to let go of Goyle was tremendous growth
and strengthening, IMO. Again we don't know how it happened.
We have no choice but to judge Draco by his choices, not his 
experiences. It's certainly not what I would have expected from 
the boy who panicked when he saw what turned out to be Quirrell 
in PS/SS. 

A lot of people who liked Draco as a character liked him better
than Ron and frankly hoped that Draco would replace him, either
as Harry's friend or Hermione's love interest. For most of canon
Draco was way ahead of Ron in the wish-fulfillment department:
he looked  to be more intelligent, more witty and more exotic and
of course having the best of everything doesn't hurt.

Pippin