~~ mind you, I hate Lucius, so.
May. 6th, 2004 05:25 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
reenkaFor the record (if there is such a thing), I suppose I should finalize my opinion on whether Lucius loves Draco. I've never really thought about it, but I found I rather respect Jane St Clair (she of the likable Star Trek fic and the fondness for nasty!Draco), and she says Lucius "adores" him, and....
Well, it's like this. As the facts seem to stand, Lucius seems to indulge and coddle Draco in some ways, it is true-- but not others. Not when Draco's an embarrassment to him. He goes all out financially when he seems to think it's useful and witholds when he finds it frivolous (well, mostly I'm basing this on the Dark Arts shop). Lucius has no problem scolding Draco, so he's not some super-indulgent super-adoring parent, anyway, although Draco feels comfortable enough to whine on and on, so there mustn't be any serious repercussions. Narcissa gives every indication of being superficial-- again, this focus on gifts and money as signs of love (candy owl posts). Lucius seems to have some sort of agenda, though.
But. I think there is a huge difference between throwing money at things and making sure certain life-lessons are instilled and actually being a doting, devoted parent who spends "quality time" with their child. Who -bonds- with their child and does what's really in their best interest regardless of "the plan".
Lucius Malfoy is a single-minded power-hungry politician who has his fingers in a number of pies, it seems. I get the impression that he's a busy man. More importantly, I don't get the impression that he's an emotionally open, caring man. Now, it may seem that being caring and empathic in general doesn't have a bearing on how loving and good of a parent you are, but I think it does. Maybe you can -not show- that side of you to most people, but it has to be there. And, indeed, if it is there, your child tends not to grow up to be an insufferable prick (yeah, that'd be Draco, much as I love him).
What I'm saying is, Draco's horrible behavior at school is proof enough that his parents aren't giving him some sort of ideal caring environment. Though it's not saying they -beat- him or make his life miserable. It's not one or the other. It could just be the usual-- that people don't know how to love whether they feel it or not. They don't know how to be decent human beings so they don't know how to teach their child to be one.
I think it's the Dursley phenomenon, actually. The parents are awful, and so is the child. It seems, indeed, like they dote on Dudley, but to me, that sort of love is fake and disgusting. It's some sort of parody fascimile of love, because these people wouldn't know real love if it hit them on the hiney and bit down. It's empty, is what I'm saying. There's no real... human bonding going on. It's all about wanting the child to be an exact duplicate of you, wanting them to -become- you.
The Dursleys willfully -ignore- Dudley's real problems until he deals with them in his own way (weight, bullying), just as the Malfoys ignore Draco's (possibly alienation, bullying, anger issues, whatever). That's not love, that's narcissism. So even if such a person -thinks- they love their child, the only thing they love is themselves. It doesn't even matter to me how Lucius actually acts toward Draco, because I can only believe that he doesn't love anything but himself, whatever he thinks.
Overall, I think I'm angry with him. Lucius, I mean. To me, it's not a question of whether he loves Draco or not-- he still hasn't done right by Draco as far as I'm concerned. Love isn't enough, really. Love isn't so much the most important aspect of parenting as the basis from which everything spreads, generally. Thing is-- everyone loves their children. Everyone. Sure, Lucius does and so would Tom Riddle, if he had any. Big whoop, eh? Doesn't mean they won't make their child's life a mockery or a living hell, but I don't think one could say they don't "love" them.
I don't see where this fascination with -whether- Lucius loves Draco comes from. Perhaps it's right there in the text, actually, since it's so vital that Harry's mother really -really- loved him, enough to protect him with her life. But that was a selfless love, wasn't it. It was a love that acquired its goodness from the goodness of her heart. Lily was a loving person, so her love redeemed. Lucius is... not, so his love can only condemn. Love itself can be a prison, can't it. It's the best prison, really. There's nothing special about the -emotion-, only about the heart it inhabits, I think.
But like I said, I'm rather angry with Lucius.
Well, it's like this. As the facts seem to stand, Lucius seems to indulge and coddle Draco in some ways, it is true-- but not others. Not when Draco's an embarrassment to him. He goes all out financially when he seems to think it's useful and witholds when he finds it frivolous (well, mostly I'm basing this on the Dark Arts shop). Lucius has no problem scolding Draco, so he's not some super-indulgent super-adoring parent, anyway, although Draco feels comfortable enough to whine on and on, so there mustn't be any serious repercussions. Narcissa gives every indication of being superficial-- again, this focus on gifts and money as signs of love (candy owl posts). Lucius seems to have some sort of agenda, though.
But. I think there is a huge difference between throwing money at things and making sure certain life-lessons are instilled and actually being a doting, devoted parent who spends "quality time" with their child. Who -bonds- with their child and does what's really in their best interest regardless of "the plan".
Lucius Malfoy is a single-minded power-hungry politician who has his fingers in a number of pies, it seems. I get the impression that he's a busy man. More importantly, I don't get the impression that he's an emotionally open, caring man. Now, it may seem that being caring and empathic in general doesn't have a bearing on how loving and good of a parent you are, but I think it does. Maybe you can -not show- that side of you to most people, but it has to be there. And, indeed, if it is there, your child tends not to grow up to be an insufferable prick (yeah, that'd be Draco, much as I love him).
What I'm saying is, Draco's horrible behavior at school is proof enough that his parents aren't giving him some sort of ideal caring environment. Though it's not saying they -beat- him or make his life miserable. It's not one or the other. It could just be the usual-- that people don't know how to love whether they feel it or not. They don't know how to be decent human beings so they don't know how to teach their child to be one.
I think it's the Dursley phenomenon, actually. The parents are awful, and so is the child. It seems, indeed, like they dote on Dudley, but to me, that sort of love is fake and disgusting. It's some sort of parody fascimile of love, because these people wouldn't know real love if it hit them on the hiney and bit down. It's empty, is what I'm saying. There's no real... human bonding going on. It's all about wanting the child to be an exact duplicate of you, wanting them to -become- you.
The Dursleys willfully -ignore- Dudley's real problems until he deals with them in his own way (weight, bullying), just as the Malfoys ignore Draco's (possibly alienation, bullying, anger issues, whatever). That's not love, that's narcissism. So even if such a person -thinks- they love their child, the only thing they love is themselves. It doesn't even matter to me how Lucius actually acts toward Draco, because I can only believe that he doesn't love anything but himself, whatever he thinks.
Overall, I think I'm angry with him. Lucius, I mean. To me, it's not a question of whether he loves Draco or not-- he still hasn't done right by Draco as far as I'm concerned. Love isn't enough, really. Love isn't so much the most important aspect of parenting as the basis from which everything spreads, generally. Thing is-- everyone loves their children. Everyone. Sure, Lucius does and so would Tom Riddle, if he had any. Big whoop, eh? Doesn't mean they won't make their child's life a mockery or a living hell, but I don't think one could say they don't "love" them.
I don't see where this fascination with -whether- Lucius loves Draco comes from. Perhaps it's right there in the text, actually, since it's so vital that Harry's mother really -really- loved him, enough to protect him with her life. But that was a selfless love, wasn't it. It was a love that acquired its goodness from the goodness of her heart. Lily was a loving person, so her love redeemed. Lucius is... not, so his love can only condemn. Love itself can be a prison, can't it. It's the best prison, really. There's nothing special about the -emotion-, only about the heart it inhabits, I think.
But like I said, I'm rather angry with Lucius.
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no subject
Date: 2004-05-06 04:59 pm (UTC)my disturbed and psychotic opinion is thus: Lucius doesn't love him, and he would never admit that he loved him but he probably thinks that he loves him, even though he doesn't.
Because I've always seen Lucius as the Politician Figure, able to weasel his way out and in of Voldemort's gang and Fudge's as the fancy takes him and willing to do so with whatever tools are necessary, but also working this from an aristocratic the-world-owes-me standpoint. So Draco is The Tool and The Heir so much that it probably doesn't occur to Lucius that this is, in the personal sense, his son. and he'd think this was over-sentimental if anyone pointed it out, because, well, Lucius is horrible.
And however much the Durslyes don't love Dudley right, at least there is warmth there of a kind. It's like they have a big puppy, and they feed him too much and he's lazy so they don't walk him and their behaviour is totally bad for the dog and not true love, but hey, the dog's pretty happy, except it's kinda snappy what with being so overfed. Plus the dog owners think it's cute when he savages other dogs.
Whereas Lucius, in keeping with this insane metaphor of Dogs As Children, has got this pedigree puppy. and sure, it's got a marble kennel and a gold bowl and what have you, but why is it so scrawny and disobedient when it has such a great pedigree and what it needs is a Firm Hand.
Which is where the metaphor falls down, because Lucius would actually make a better dog owner than the Dursleys, because of this cool logic, but since Draco is fairly obviously more complex than a dog he turned into a great big annoying and emotionally messed around spaz. Whereas the Dursleys, with the lack of logic that is close to affection, did a better job with a son than they would've with a dog.
Which is not to say that Dudley and Draco should not have been given to the Weasleys or something at birth, because, yes.
(actually the Weasleys are a whole other issue. no, don't give them my baby.)
Evil Lucius? I agree with you!
no subject
Date: 2004-05-07 07:21 am (UTC)Wow. I can't believe I finally found someone who believes that too! I mean, clearly they're loving parents, or at least Molly is a loving mother, but they're not necessarily very *good* parents... Besides the fact that no one notices Ginny was possessed by VOLDEMORT (and hello? they find out and the first thing that happens is that Arthur YELLS at her?), I am constantly shocked by the treatment Percy endures. I'd probably become a total prat and ignore my family too... On top of which, Molly is awfully hard on the twins, and while you always want your kids to do well, there's a difference between praising them for good grades and constantly yelling at them and punishing them for exploring the things that actually do interest them...
I always kind of had the feeling that after Bill and Charlie they just wanted a girl. Except, of course, that they don't seem to take much better care of Ginny than they do of Ron, Percy, Fred and George...
anyway. I should stop before I go into my fullblown rant in someone else's LJ. But I just wanted to say that I totally agree! The Dursleys and Malfoys = bad parents, but the Weasleys, while better, don't necessarily = good parents.
no subject
Date: 2004-05-13 08:05 pm (UTC)Hehehe there's something about you saying "disturbed and psychotic" that reminds me of some cross between the Brain (from Pinky & the Brain) & Dennis Miller. Go figure -.- *giggles* <3
Yeah... I guess aristocrat/politician type people generally always see their firstborn male sons as tools, and why should Lucius buck the trend. Draco prolly wouldn't be -that- obsessed with pleasing his father if his father wasn't -requiring- things of him as The Son who had functions to fulfill. Though to be contrary, Lucius doesn't seem to try -too- hard, since Draco does get away with a lot and he basically seems to do what he wants anyway, so hmm.
Ahahahah!! *chokes* that bit about Dudley being the overfed dog. *DEAD*
Cute... when he... savages... other... dogs..... *twitch* :D :D!!
The pedigree poodle view of Draco!!! THIS NEEDS A FIC!!! :D :D!! Er. But I definitely am with you so far >:D
*is slightly confused, but muchly amused*
You're right, though. Imagine Lucius with a well-bred racing dog. He'd do GREAT. DUUUUUUUDE!!1
I bet if he got one, Draco would be really jealous, 'cause y'know, soon Lucius would realize how trainable dogs are :> :>
Maybe that'd be a good stimulus to get him to let go of his obsession with pleasing his father. On the other hand, maybe that'll just mess him up more and he might kill the dog.
*coughs*