~~ why Harry and Draco suck, but not really.

I was in a movie theatre, right, and there was this group of boys... 17-19ish, so well-groomed, almost painfully thin & slight & dressed to kill in all black without being gothy so much as stylish, and.... I took one look at the boy closest to me, hanging out by the escalator looking bored and was hooked. He looked so distant and unapproachable and yet all cute and dark and lithe, kinda, and.... Man, then I snapped out of it. What a bunch of psychic poison. Dude.

And I thought, this is the appeal of fanon!Draco, right there.

( ...Creepy. )

~~

Ahh, I wish I didn't always feel that natural urge to rank things... it really annoys me in others. Like, when people like one character, but it's never just that-- it's usually in comparison to or in relationship to another, who sucks. And nothing turns me off a character I sort-of-like more than hearing people who luuuurve him but can only do it by slagging off whoever dislikes him or implies he has bad breath. Dude.

Yeah, so I feel paranoid about disliking anything about Draco since I do love Harry (more, I guess, okay fine), but it's not as if I love Harry to spite Draco or something, or dislike things about Draco to please my Harry. Isn't that just ridiculous? I hate taking sides, man.

So I was talking with S. and we were listing things that I thought were problems I wanted to work on with Draco-- as in, reasons I'm interested in seeing him change/grow/develop in fanfic. But it's not that I dislike him because he's not those things to start with. Eh. Like, I think that whenever someone's got flaws, they've got the implicit potential to overcome them, though of course most people don't. And I actually love flawed characters & people, it's just... I think it's the struggle to further oneself that's the point, rather than the actual attainment of enlightenment or whatever. One should never be satisfied with oneself, I feel, though one should accept oneself (and others) regardless.

Thusly, I accept Draco but I am not satisfied with him. In terms of Harry... I'd say likewise, except I don't feel he's mine to work with as much-- I feel like that's up to the existing canon arc to explore. I like the way canon!Harry's shaping up more than anyone's Harry I've ever read in fanfic, including my own, I guess, that's all-- whereas I've loved plenty of Dracos, and only incidentally JKR's. I'd even say I love the one that lives in my head the most, and perhaps I -only- love that one, I'm not sure. But now I'm ranking things again.

Anyway, this is sort of a collaboration between me & my friend S., who isn't in fandom & is pretty neutral. Ahaha I like to grill him on various topics and bounce ideas off and stuff. So I asked him what's wrong with canon Draco being-- or rather, staying-- "as is"... and then to be fair, what's wrong with Harry, too.

( So. Draco's Personality Issues, in nicely bulleted format. Hey, don't judge me 'cause I like to make lists. )

~~

( And then there's Harry. Oh yeah. )