I absolutely agree with you. (And am pleased that, aside from in my dazed brain, New York has not been plunged into a lightless void.)
I recall with a shudder those stories in which Draco is just pretending to be friends with Crabbe and Goyle, or was forced by his father into all his behaviour. Removing vital details about a character from the equation... I've never understood why the authors don't write about someone else, since they wish to create a different character from the ground up.
I mean, I for one would not like Harry as much without his rampant self-centredness, or Hermione without her priggishness, and in just the same way I want the Draco who honestly thought he wanted Hermione dead when he was twelve years old, the same Draco who couldn't face killing someone in reality when he was sixteen.
Err...in other words he was just signing up for the genocide and in no way condoned actual killing.
Hee! And of course Regulus, whose older brother had just rejected them all and broken his mother's heart, he had no personal issues to deal with in the slightest. Not one! Why would you ask?
I love the way all the DEs who ended up saying 'oh shit!' are, in the details given to us, very different: the 'half-blood prince' with his dreams of grandeur, the younger less-favoured brother of the ancient and most noble house of Black (one of whose cousins at least was already signed up, and to Regulus his family at that time were clearly forming different sides - it was Bellatrix's way or Sirius and Andromeda's way, and their way was unthinkable), and Draco, the spoiled yet emotionally neglected and thus inadequate Malfoy heir. Their contrasts are as compelling as their similarities - and one of their similarities rests in their common guilt.
The one to whom the most grave guilt is allotted isn't clear yet, of course. My vote would go with Snape, since unlike Draco and Regulus it wouldn't have been possible for him to believe that diluted blood meant diluted power, or any of the other beliefs purebloods can hold from their insulated distance. Also, Snape is ruthless - the kid who made up the Sectumsempra already had some bad shit on his mind, and probably didn't falter at personal murder the way Draco did and it's indicated Regulus may have. Snape's redemption (barring Lily love) is more likely to have been intellectual rejection than emotional recoil, and JKR seems to prefer herself that emotional response.
On the other hand, Snape's atonement has clearly been stretched out over a period of years and needed a more cold-blooded man than Draco is, or than Regulus goin' out in a blaze of glory Black seems to have been. So perhaps the punishment fits the crime, and they're all equally guilty. To argue that they're not guilty is just incorrect, and of course it's less interesting. I want to see Draco atone like Snape is and like Regulus did. I want the pattern to be complete for all of them.
It is of course, brilliant people like you who have something to say for these characters just the way they are that should clue in others on the fact that not all 'apologists' are tarred with the same brush.
no subject
I recall with a shudder those stories in which Draco is just pretending to be friends with Crabbe and Goyle, or was forced by his father into all his behaviour. Removing vital details about a character from the equation... I've never understood why the authors don't write about someone else, since they wish to create a different character from the ground up.
I mean, I for one would not like Harry as much without his rampant self-centredness, or Hermione without her priggishness, and in just the same way I want the Draco who honestly thought he wanted Hermione dead when he was twelve years old, the same Draco who couldn't face killing someone in reality when he was sixteen.
Err...in other words he was just signing up for the genocide and in no way condoned actual killing.
Hee! And of course Regulus, whose older brother had just rejected them all and broken his mother's heart, he had no personal issues to deal with in the slightest. Not one! Why would you ask?
I love the way all the DEs who ended up saying 'oh shit!' are, in the details given to us, very different: the 'half-blood prince' with his dreams of grandeur, the younger less-favoured brother of the ancient and most noble house of Black (one of whose cousins at least was already signed up, and to Regulus his family at that time were clearly forming different sides - it was Bellatrix's way or Sirius and Andromeda's way, and their way was unthinkable), and Draco, the spoiled yet emotionally neglected and thus inadequate Malfoy heir. Their contrasts are as compelling as their similarities - and one of their similarities rests in their common guilt.
The one to whom the most grave guilt is allotted isn't clear yet, of course. My vote would go with Snape, since unlike Draco and Regulus it wouldn't have been possible for him to believe that diluted blood meant diluted power, or any of the other beliefs purebloods can hold from their insulated distance. Also, Snape is ruthless - the kid who made up the Sectumsempra already had some bad shit on his mind, and probably didn't falter at personal murder the way Draco did and it's indicated Regulus may have. Snape's redemption (barring Lily love) is more likely to have been intellectual rejection than emotional recoil, and JKR seems to prefer herself that emotional response.
On the other hand, Snape's atonement has clearly been stretched out over a period of years and needed a more cold-blooded man than Draco is, or than Regulus goin' out in a blaze of glory Black seems to have been. So perhaps the punishment fits the crime, and they're all equally guilty. To argue that they're not guilty is just incorrect, and of course it's less interesting. I want to see Draco atone like Snape is and like Regulus did. I want the pattern to be complete for all of them.
It is of course, brilliant people like you who have something to say for these characters just the way they are that should clue in others on the fact that not all 'apologists' are tarred with the same brush.