First--ugh on wisdom teeth. I still remember that unpleasant experience.

Definitely good call regarding you people liking the bad boy who needs saving. (One of the things that surprises me about liking Draco is that I usually don't like that character. I usually go for the haunted good guy.) It's odd how so many people--and this is probably something you do see in younger writers--like Draco for being bad, then characterize every bad thing he's ever done as being either beyond his control or in the service of some hidden good. I guess that way they get the bad boy image but don't have to deal with any of the issues he would really bring up. It keeps him in one box after all: he seemed bad but he's really good. This makes really no sense from a character standpoint. In reality, of course, no character does anything just because he is "bad" or "good" (this is something my friend said the Buffy writers did with Spike btw; to show he was "evil" he did a series of bad things with no real motivation).

I definitely think it's worth defending these kinds of characters, though. To me it's often where the most interesting things in a story come from. I'm so glad somebody agrees with me about Ron in GoF--he's great! He's a complex character that acts out of his own motivations--and those don't really include just being good or being a supportive sidekick. I guess that's why it surprises me when people are surprised by him in GoF. When you look at it from Ron's limited pov it's very logical for him to think what he does about Harry and for that to get on his last nerve.

Hmm...this is inspiring to write something that's been percolating in my head for a while now about the two different models of friendship demonstrated in the two Trios of friends (Gryffindor and Slytherin) work. Just because that led me to think about Ron's role and I could see even more why his position is sometimes difficult.

You're right about people being much more obsessed with Redeemed!Draco over EquallyComplexRon. Look at Peter Pettigrew. Here's the one character in canon that we're pretty much told was a good guy who went bad and most stories barely have him existing. Remus and Sirius never seem to tell stories that include him. I've heard more than one person claim Peter must have been in Slytherin--and although I guess we technically don't know his house I see no reason to imagine he wasn't a Gryffindor. He just seems to confuse people--surely he couldn't ever have been good if he turned out bad. To me, though, Peter seems an easily understandable character from the little we know. I don't know exactly what his motivations were for going bad, but there are plenty of possibilities.

I hope that made some sort of sense. It just sort of came out. Would you mind if I friended you?

It made a lot of sense, thanks! I would love to be friended by you!