Can one actually be pretentious but not insecure...??
I think you just answered your own question XD.
he's not pretentious in the sense that he never pretends to be anything but himself.
I think he does. He pretends he matters to Harry in some conscious way (in Harry's head, I mean) for most of the books, when in fact that only occurs in the first one. He pretends his dad has more power than he does, probably because daddy does as well. He pretends to be knowing of the Dark side's activities definitely more than he does. And in HBP he pretends to be more in control of his DE problems than he obviously is. So yes, I do think he's pretentious. But I still love him.
I think I always like people who're honestly bitchy and needy and annoying, while disliking people who try to cover up these traits and 'act good' or 'bad' or 'cool' or whatever. Draco is simply too sucky at being cool to pull it off anyway.
That doesn't mean he doesn't try.
It becomes a less interesting character to me if she's going to do the Remus thing and need acceptance.
Really? Because it doesn't to me. I get just the opposite. Nobody's an island. Everybody wants acceptance. A character without this is pointless and badly written. Remus takes it to that extra level because of the combination of his natural personality and his little furry problem, but one could easily argue all the psycho-shit Luna makes up is compensation for her desire to be liked - an escape into a fantasy world where if she wants a non-existant entity to like her, it will. It doesn't lower her intelligence at all, just makes her human. Often those with higher intelligences want to be liked more to know they still have some sort of basic connection with the others around them that is more difficult to attain otherwise because of their different views on life (and potential family situations).
Only fake quacks travel in herds, y'know? (That doesn't make sense at first glance, I know, but. This is, after all, why I admire lots of goths & indie kids & hippies & ravers & skaters & nerds & gamers and so on and so forth, but never became one.)
Dude, you just made two completely contradictory statements at once. What the shit?
But you know, actually seriously needing attention creates a whole different type of personality altogether, it seems to me....
Not really. There's a difference between the basic need for acknowledgement and acceptance, and true attention whoring. James & Sirius were undoubtably the latter, and quite pretentious (and thus, probably insecure as well). Remus was the former, in many ways, because he, whilst still being insecure, had bigger hurdles to overcome in creating real intimate relationships with people. Which is why he didn't really try and stop their pranks when he was a Prefect, because the Marauders were too important to him, but Sirius was happy to jeapordise the group's, Remus's (and Snape's) happiness & potential life for the sake of a prank.
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timeasmymeasure
no subject
Date: 2005-11-27 10:41 am (UTC)I think you just answered your own question XD.
he's not pretentious in the sense that he never pretends to be anything but himself.
I think he does. He pretends he matters to Harry in some conscious way (in Harry's head, I mean) for most of the books, when in fact that only occurs in the first one. He pretends his dad has more power than he does, probably because daddy does as well. He pretends to be knowing of the Dark side's activities definitely more than he does. And in HBP he pretends to be more in control of his DE problems than he obviously is. So yes, I do think he's pretentious. But I still love him.
I think I always like people who're honestly bitchy and needy and annoying, while disliking people who try to cover up these traits and 'act good' or 'bad' or 'cool' or whatever. Draco is simply too sucky at being cool to pull it off anyway.
That doesn't mean he doesn't try.
It becomes a less interesting character to me if she's going to do the Remus thing and need acceptance.
Really? Because it doesn't to me. I get just the opposite. Nobody's an island. Everybody wants acceptance. A character without this is pointless and badly written. Remus takes it to that extra level because of the combination of his natural personality and his little furry problem, but one could easily argue all the psycho-shit Luna makes up is compensation for her desire to be liked - an escape into a fantasy world where if she wants a non-existant entity to like her, it will. It doesn't lower her intelligence at all, just makes her human. Often those with higher intelligences want to be liked more to know they still have some sort of basic connection with the others around them that is more difficult to attain otherwise because of their different views on life (and potential family situations).
Only fake quacks travel in herds, y'know? (That doesn't make sense at first glance, I know, but. This is, after all, why I admire lots of goths & indie kids & hippies & ravers & skaters & nerds & gamers and so on and so forth, but never became one.)
Dude, you just made two completely contradictory statements at once. What the shit?
But you know, actually seriously needing attention creates a whole different type of personality altogether, it seems to me....
Not really. There's a difference between the basic need for acknowledgement and acceptance, and true attention whoring. James & Sirius were undoubtably the latter, and quite pretentious (and thus, probably insecure as well). Remus was the former, in many ways, because he, whilst still being insecure, had bigger hurdles to overcome in creating real intimate relationships with people. Which is why he didn't really try and stop their pranks when he was a Prefect, because the Marauders were too important to him, but Sirius was happy to jeapordise the group's, Remus's (and Snape's) happiness & potential life for the sake of a prank.