~~ ye olde HBP Draco rant
Jul. 28th, 2005 07:05 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
reenkaIt's barely been 2 weeks and I'm already getting scared of fandom's new and disturbing twists on canon!Draco (soon to be new-and-not-so-improved fanon!Draco, I'm sure).
Mostly, I'm kind of twitchy at most icons and references to him I see being entirely about crying, and the label emo!Draco and the suchlike... as if sensitive!Draco was basically the only relevant 'message' of the characterization of him this book. This... disturbs me.
Not that his vulnerability isn't important, because obviously that's what makes him sympathetic as a character in the first place. It's just that... I feel like seeing him as some fanon-type stereotypical 'sensitive boy' is missing the point entirely, which upsets me. Because it's not like he wasted away from his Angest And Pane like some overreactive consumptive 'angel'-- he really was under tons of stress. And he dealt well enough to follow through with his plan. And he stood up to Dumbledore-- as well as Snape-- as well as Harry. Rebellious!Draco is so much more interesting than defeated-and-weepy!Draco, but having both at once is just such beautiful ambiguity that I shouldn't be surprised fandom immediately jumped to one or the other conclusion. (He's Black! He's White! No, he's still pink!!)
I haven't been writing anything about him because while I was happy (and really friggin' smug) about his characterization and overall role in HBP, I don't know what there was to -say-; the book just... seemed to say it. It was right there, on the page. I didn't think there was any way to confuse this new deluge of information! Oh, I'm so naive.
Naturally, what I took away wasn't H/D was more obvious than ever on the surface level (not quite that delusional, kthnxbi... though it was more possible in that still-pretty-impossible sort of way), it's that we saw post-OoTP!Draco still mattered, at least to Harry. It's that Draco could get something done right under Harry's nose and Harry wasn't even surprised. It's that Draco may have been a pathetic emo loser just like always(!), but I could sense the rage and determination and that stubborn bravado (like around Dumbledore) that passes for self-confidence with him. Why aren't people remembering that?
Why aren't they remembering how he kept insisting he would do it (kill Dumbledore), not as a sign that he's an evil little cockroach but as a sign that he hadn't crumpled at that point, that he isn't actually just a weepy little wimp? At least he still talks big, even at the end. He never stops hoping. When Harry finds him crying, Draco doesn't crumple further-- he tries to Crucio him; Draco doesn't want your pity, reader, and he doesn't want Harry's. Draco wants you to believe he could fucking own your ass even if he couldn't. Draco wants respect, not pity. So it kind of upsets me that I see this focus on his weakness this book. Finally, I think, this book proved Draco's own sort of strength.
It's not a strength that depends on imperturbability or brute power-- obviously, Draco suffers and fails and flails and has plenty of insecurities about fulfilling a daunting, scary responsibility. He really wants to play with the big boys, but he still just wants to be good enough; he wants to have Snape and Dumbledore and his father (doubt about the Dark Lord, but sure why not) acknowledge his skillz, I think. He was excited about this, according to Narcissa. Draco wanted his chance, his day to shine, and of course he has performance anxiety. Of course. He's never really won before. Some part of him probably thinks he -can't-, but he won't stop trying. He's a resilient little fucker; he has all the strength of his (Slytherin!) ambition to prove himself. He has all the power of his need to be Somebody. Somebody who matters, who chose to follow of his own free will. And of course, unlike Harry, the necessity to grow up and face the music he faced in this book hit him much, much harder than it did Harry. Harry was a -lot- more ready for it. Draco likely could barely keep his neurosis in check long enough to get to the privacy of the bathroom, but his intense desire not to be seen, especially not by Potter, speaks volumes about him not wanting Potter's pity, thank god. That's what I really wanted for Draco post-OoTP, and I got it-- oh, I got it.
This Draco Malfoy may be weak and ultimately ineffectual, but he's not going down easy. His desire to be taken seriously by Potter & Dumbledore & Snape-- by anyone he respects-- is ultimately stronger than his insecurity & fear, I feel, though not stronger than his actual humanity. That voice inside him that is bloody terrified of werewolves, yeah, but also doesn't want his friends-- or even stupid Gryffindors-- to get torn apart by one because of him.
So yeah... it really frikkin' bothers me thinking that fandom is about to concentrate most on Draco's little break-down without the caveat of his immediate flip-flop when Harry entered the scene. That cut-off Crucio wasn't an accident, I think. He didn't hate Potter enough to try torturing him after he Stupefied him, but he hated Potter seeing him like that-- thinking he was weak-- enough to attempt desperate measures of a whole 'nother sort. This... this really makes me happy. Because even if Draco -isn't- hardcore, obviously, and is ultimately a failed bully, the fact that he -tries- is just as important as the reason he fails.
The other thing that seems blatant to me is that the attempt at the Unforgivable isn't an instance of 'bullying' anyway, and it's also vastly different than his waffling around Dumbledore. Even though Harry's much more unstable & likely to hurt him than Dumbledore, Draco's not scared of him, is he. Even with the fight so deeply uneven, Draco still tries; I'm tempted to say that getting back at Potter for humiliating him is still much more of an emotional trigger than his promise about Dumbledore. Draco hates and is completely unreasonable about Harry, not Dumbledore, after all.
Draco wants you to acknowledge he's good enough, and that's so obviously why he stomped on Harry's face in the train and left it at that. Because it was so important to him that he & Potter both knew he could have done more, and didn't. It's that 'could' that made him happy, I think.
Draco could do a lot of things if he threw himself into it. He may drive himself into a nervous frenzy, but he wouldn't stop until the end. And at that point-- well, that was a choice, wasn't it. Small and ultimately of questionable relevance to the final outcome of things, but a choice all the same, and it's all Draco's.
~~
Disclaimer of sorts: I know I um, wrote this of my own free will, because I couldn't help it (and no, I haven't actually been reading Draco meta lately), but man. I'm scared this all sounded largely like rhetoric and projection, and I am really, really burnt out on this subject, and a huge part of me doesn't wanna talk about this at all. Mostly, it's only here as an attempt to organize my thoughts with the purposes of my own fic-writing, if anything. Just sayin'.
Mostly, I'm kind of twitchy at most icons and references to him I see being entirely about crying, and the label emo!Draco and the suchlike... as if sensitive!Draco was basically the only relevant 'message' of the characterization of him this book. This... disturbs me.
Not that his vulnerability isn't important, because obviously that's what makes him sympathetic as a character in the first place. It's just that... I feel like seeing him as some fanon-type stereotypical 'sensitive boy' is missing the point entirely, which upsets me. Because it's not like he wasted away from his Angest And Pane like some overreactive consumptive 'angel'-- he really was under tons of stress. And he dealt well enough to follow through with his plan. And he stood up to Dumbledore-- as well as Snape-- as well as Harry. Rebellious!Draco is so much more interesting than defeated-and-weepy!Draco, but having both at once is just such beautiful ambiguity that I shouldn't be surprised fandom immediately jumped to one or the other conclusion. (He's Black! He's White! No, he's still pink!!)
I haven't been writing anything about him because while I was happy (and really friggin' smug) about his characterization and overall role in HBP, I don't know what there was to -say-; the book just... seemed to say it. It was right there, on the page. I didn't think there was any way to confuse this new deluge of information! Oh, I'm so naive.
Naturally, what I took away wasn't H/D was more obvious than ever on the surface level (not quite that delusional, kthnxbi... though it was more possible in that still-pretty-impossible sort of way), it's that we saw post-OoTP!Draco still mattered, at least to Harry. It's that Draco could get something done right under Harry's nose and Harry wasn't even surprised. It's that Draco may have been a pathetic emo loser just like always(!), but I could sense the rage and determination and that stubborn bravado (like around Dumbledore) that passes for self-confidence with him. Why aren't people remembering that?
Why aren't they remembering how he kept insisting he would do it (kill Dumbledore), not as a sign that he's an evil little cockroach but as a sign that he hadn't crumpled at that point, that he isn't actually just a weepy little wimp? At least he still talks big, even at the end. He never stops hoping. When Harry finds him crying, Draco doesn't crumple further-- he tries to Crucio him; Draco doesn't want your pity, reader, and he doesn't want Harry's. Draco wants you to believe he could fucking own your ass even if he couldn't. Draco wants respect, not pity. So it kind of upsets me that I see this focus on his weakness this book. Finally, I think, this book proved Draco's own sort of strength.
It's not a strength that depends on imperturbability or brute power-- obviously, Draco suffers and fails and flails and has plenty of insecurities about fulfilling a daunting, scary responsibility. He really wants to play with the big boys, but he still just wants to be good enough; he wants to have Snape and Dumbledore and his father (doubt about the Dark Lord, but sure why not) acknowledge his skillz, I think. He was excited about this, according to Narcissa. Draco wanted his chance, his day to shine, and of course he has performance anxiety. Of course. He's never really won before. Some part of him probably thinks he -can't-, but he won't stop trying. He's a resilient little fucker; he has all the strength of his (Slytherin!) ambition to prove himself. He has all the power of his need to be Somebody. Somebody who matters, who chose to follow of his own free will. And of course, unlike Harry, the necessity to grow up and face the music he faced in this book hit him much, much harder than it did Harry. Harry was a -lot- more ready for it. Draco likely could barely keep his neurosis in check long enough to get to the privacy of the bathroom, but his intense desire not to be seen, especially not by Potter, speaks volumes about him not wanting Potter's pity, thank god. That's what I really wanted for Draco post-OoTP, and I got it-- oh, I got it.
This Draco Malfoy may be weak and ultimately ineffectual, but he's not going down easy. His desire to be taken seriously by Potter & Dumbledore & Snape-- by anyone he respects-- is ultimately stronger than his insecurity & fear, I feel, though not stronger than his actual humanity. That voice inside him that is bloody terrified of werewolves, yeah, but also doesn't want his friends-- or even stupid Gryffindors-- to get torn apart by one because of him.
So yeah... it really frikkin' bothers me thinking that fandom is about to concentrate most on Draco's little break-down without the caveat of his immediate flip-flop when Harry entered the scene. That cut-off Crucio wasn't an accident, I think. He didn't hate Potter enough to try torturing him after he Stupefied him, but he hated Potter seeing him like that-- thinking he was weak-- enough to attempt desperate measures of a whole 'nother sort. This... this really makes me happy. Because even if Draco -isn't- hardcore, obviously, and is ultimately a failed bully, the fact that he -tries- is just as important as the reason he fails.
The other thing that seems blatant to me is that the attempt at the Unforgivable isn't an instance of 'bullying' anyway, and it's also vastly different than his waffling around Dumbledore. Even though Harry's much more unstable & likely to hurt him than Dumbledore, Draco's not scared of him, is he. Even with the fight so deeply uneven, Draco still tries; I'm tempted to say that getting back at Potter for humiliating him is still much more of an emotional trigger than his promise about Dumbledore. Draco hates and is completely unreasonable about Harry, not Dumbledore, after all.
Draco wants you to acknowledge he's good enough, and that's so obviously why he stomped on Harry's face in the train and left it at that. Because it was so important to him that he & Potter both knew he could have done more, and didn't. It's that 'could' that made him happy, I think.
Draco could do a lot of things if he threw himself into it. He may drive himself into a nervous frenzy, but he wouldn't stop until the end. And at that point-- well, that was a choice, wasn't it. Small and ultimately of questionable relevance to the final outcome of things, but a choice all the same, and it's all Draco's.
~~
Disclaimer of sorts: I know I um, wrote this of my own free will, because I couldn't help it (and no, I haven't actually been reading Draco meta lately), but man. I'm scared this all sounded largely like rhetoric and projection, and I am really, really burnt out on this subject, and a huge part of me doesn't wanna talk about this at all. Mostly, it's only here as an attempt to organize my thoughts with the purposes of my own fic-writing, if anything. Just sayin'.
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no subject
Date: 2005-07-29 02:07 am (UTC)I wouldn't go so far with Draco-he's a boy crying. But he's not just sobbing as a child because wah! this is hard! I think JKR is really putting him through the wringer and he's having to deal with actual STUFF, you know? That he'll be killed, that his family will be killed, that he's done these horrible things, that he can't do horrible things. He's focusing on the cabinet and maybe just channeling stuff into that, though underneath that's just putting things off anyway.
So the crying is funny, fandom-wise, because it's such the cliche and it's great having people who always thought the character was flat and lacking all feeling say, "Hey, I felt sorry for the guy!" But I think this storyline actually gives him more dignity than fanfic usually does. Harry doesn't comfort him in the bathroom--it's the first time Draco's able to fight him. That quick turn from despair (it's despair-yes, that makes it more than just pitiful emo!Draco, I think, crying over Daddy) to protecting himself and presumably thinking Harry's there to gloat, slices him open on purpose and then doesn't care.
For me, that's what leads up to the end when he makes his choice-and he does make it. He starts to lower his wand after verifying that he has kind of proved something to himself or others. He got farther than anyone thought he would, so he's not just an idiot kid. He breached Hogwarts defenses. Because he really does have Dumbledore at his mercy, he can decide to show mercy and accept DD's plan as his best course of action. He's interrupted, but he seems to have accepted that he's not a killer in a way he didn't before.
Yeah, I go on and on about this...:-)
no subject
Date: 2005-07-29 02:45 am (UTC)Yes, I really think that's the point of the scene -- that he can't accept to be someone who wouldn't kill Dumbledore, since say, his Dad would and his Dad is the coolest, but in the end he does and that's the emotional shock. It's kind of funny because the reminders of who holds power on him or can do something for him really don't enter in the equation, meaning they are external factors who should sway him but don't: what stays unchanged is his not casting the AK, even after the Death Eaters have come and are goading him and the only possible result of not casting it at that point would be death for him and his family.
Oh, I am kinda repeating myself here (yes, I could talk about this for hours too), but I wanted to clarify that I really don't disagree with any of this, obviously, I just don't think that it made Draco make such a jump up in the coolness scale that feeling sorry for him since he is, after all, a trapped teenager isn't such a weird, castrating feeling. I mean, I still think Draco needs all the compassion he can get. I was glad that Harry had some mixed with all his contempt by the end of the book. I don't think Harry thinks Draco's a wet-noodle, I think he's showing he can both see the damage Draco did and "his fascination with the Dark Arts" and have empathy for his situation.
no subject
Date: 2005-07-29 05:04 am (UTC)Of course any halfway decent person would want Harry to feel something other than contempt when he's seen Malfoy so messed up and messed Malfoy up himself so badly. It's like, well, Harry's not inhuman, this is a good thing. And by the end, Harry has to go even further and see some human, pitiable quality in Snape as well. But while Harry has power over Draco's life & has actually dehumanized him for years, the whole 'reader compassion' thing has a different meaning & a distinctly different effect on Draco himself (which is to say, none at all). This is why I tried to imply that reader response is basically irrelevant (unless you want to care about the emotional development and maturity of random fangirls and how they may choose to interact with a fictional character)-- I only cared about whether people were having skewed readings on the text, which is quite, quite different than either a call for compassion or a call for some sort of 'justice' for Draco, at the other end of the scale.
People can feel (or not feel) all the compassion they like, being readers-- who the hell cares, really? And obviously Harry should feel compassion for Draco, since their lives are all tangled together and Harry -has- to realize he's got some responsibility & Draco's something of an innocent, as well (while still remaining culpable). Harry's empathy or lack thereof really has little to nothing to do with a discussion about Draco's characterization-- it has to do with -Harry's- characterization & Draco's -future-.
As for whether canon -Harry- thinks Draco's a wet noodle-- what's that got to do with anything? Who suggested he did (I certainly was talking about -fandom-, not Harry). Harry's paranoid about Draco and suspects Draco's always up to something-- he overestimates and understimates Draco at the same time, he's annoyed by him & pissed off & in the end, kind of discomfited too, I think. He doesn't have the capacity to -stand back- enough to see him as 'just a wimp', 'cause he's too personally involved. He's too busy -reacting- to Draco with anger or disdain or some small pity to label him something consciously, so the whole idea of Harry analysing Draco's behavior in that way just makes no sense in context.
It was never about -Harry- thinking anything; the point was always about fandom, but really about me.
no subject
Date: 2005-07-29 01:20 pm (UTC)But... you were ranting about the reader response. :D Specifically how the reader response determines the characterisation they produce. All I was trying to point out is that appreciation of Draco's strenght and pride isn't mutually exclusive with pity (or sympathy which is really all this is about but would Harry think in those terms? Bad inner dialogue, and all that. The word pity just drives you mad, doesn't it. :)) He isn't a cardboard cut-out, right? So it goes by itself that the reader will have more than one response.
And, he was really kinda emo, even though it drives you mad because people take the connotations of the emo archetype (him going ill with angst and crying in the bathroom) and bring them to the extreme. But since he's not a stereotype there's no need why he should only have a facet to him, yes.
no subject
Date: 2005-07-29 05:24 am (UTC)At least, I spent less time this book being sorry for him than being glad for him; I feel like things are looking up for Draco, and I sort of feel a bit schizoid on this 'cause apparently no one agrees, but. All those things-- even the stress & crying-- were good things for him. Why -should- I feel sorry for him? In the end, this is what he needed. Not that I don't -get- why people would be like 'ohhh!! Draco has feelings! WOW!', it's just that I'm like... 'ummmmmm.... y'mean you thought he was a robot before??!' so I have little sympathy or rather, patience for those fandom people.
Like, yeah-- because I sort of intuitively -get- why Draco was crying, it sort of amused me to see it there (in an OHOHO, JKR! and 'Oh Draco... *shakes head*') sort of way. Because of course he's despairing & probably having anxiety attacks and basically freaking out-- who wouldn't? He's really -really- bitten off more than he can chew this time, and a part of him knows it. Busted! (So yeah, it's either cry or go half-mad with anxiety-- and crying is a better release.) Basically, yeah, I know exactly what you mean about him putting things off about the cabinet (in terms of thinking about it, probably) and yet the emotional whammy remains-- even though he's probably not consciously -dealing- and just trying to keep on moving with his plan, he's really falling apart 'cause the faith in himself isn't really there.
Hee :D You're like... ahhh, one of the only people I can bear to talk about Draco anymore <3<3<3<3 'Cause like, dude, you make sense, and also, I agree! :D So I could go on too :D
But yeah. I was trying to say just that in the post, about it being enough to prove himself-- about wanting to be Somebody, somebody who could rather than somebody who did (just like-- somebody who could Crucio Potter once he's down but didn't). It's a neat twist on 'all talk, no action', too, 'cause it implies that Draco's posturing is really asking for approval, and once he gets it he doesn't really need to follow through anyway. Why follow through when he'd already gotten the respect he wanted?
Hahah, in this scenario, I could see how Draco could be -driven- to murder, probably, if Dumbledore had taunted him instead and told him how much of a loser he was & how he couldn't do it if he tried & how Dumbledore could disarm him with a thought anyway (which-- Draco had to suspect he could). Not that any of this is remotely -plausible-, but I just think that Dumbledore's reasonableness & kindness & actually just the acknowledgment of Draco's skillz were really kind of scarily satisfying to him. It's like Draco's a semi-wild fuzzy animal who's all snarly and scratchy at first but who needs to be petted a bit before he curls up on your lap. *nodnod*