Let me disagree about Peter, in one aspect; I think Draco is a far more transparent character than Peter. We've seen Draco for five years, albeit through a lens, but we've still seen him, and he's evinced a certain consistency of behavior.
Presumably so had Peter--and James would have seen more of him being his friend. But still I do agree that we've seen nothing in Draco to lead us to believe he has any greater power to reveal, like Peter being able to kill 12 Muggles. I don't want to say that Draco=Peter, exactly, though I am willing to take the Pensieve scene as being fairly standard in terms of their dynamic even if this incident wasn't normal.
He's also got something of a sadistic streak building, given his eagerness to see Umbridge use the nasty curses.
Actually-ever since I noticed this I can't help but flag it every time it comes up, we don't actually see Draco's reaction to Umbridge using a nasty curse. He just looks hungry at the idea of Harry being punished. Which isn't to say he doesn't have a sadistic streak building or already there. Personally, I find most characters in this series to have a sadistic streak including Malfoy, it just shows up in different people in different ways.
I wonder with Lucius it may be a case of what I think an ideologue should be like is just different from what the author thinks he's like. Events in GoF do, imo, suggest that Lucius would be ready to abandon Voldemort for his own well-being, and perhaps Phineas' line about Slytherins always choosing to save their own skin goes along with that too. Though I think he can feel that way and also truly believe in Pureblood superiority and wanting to get rid of Muggleborns, and I assume his son believes that too. That kind of thinking also seems very well-represented in different forms throughout the series--not anti-Muggleborn prejudice but confident ideas about different groups etc. So I think I agree that suggestions that Lucius doesn't really believe this Pureblood superiority idea are unfounded.
Now, Draco could be on the ideological path to DE-dom and get a nasty little shock and go 'eh, not for me', and there are tons of possible scenarios--and it's certainly a possibility. But I'll go 70/30 on DE-in-Training!Draco.
But "in training" covers just about anything, is just how I see it. This should actually probably be another post maybe I'll write now, but to me it's not so much "Wethink Draco's just nasty but he's not" or "We think Draco supports his father's thinking and he doesn't" but that the role we slot open for Draco while believing his father's thinking or being nasty may not be what we expect it to be.
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Re: "HP Structure Demands More Draco"
Date: 2004-12-04 12:38 pm (UTC)Presumably so had Peter--and James would have seen more of him being his friend. But still I do agree that we've seen nothing in Draco to lead us to believe he has any greater power to reveal, like Peter being able to kill 12 Muggles. I don't want to say that Draco=Peter, exactly, though I am willing to take the Pensieve scene as being fairly standard in terms of their dynamic even if this incident wasn't normal.
He's also got something of a sadistic streak building, given his eagerness to see Umbridge use the nasty curses.
Actually-ever since I noticed this I can't help but flag it every time it comes up, we don't actually see Draco's reaction to Umbridge using a nasty curse. He just looks hungry at the idea of Harry being punished. Which isn't to say he doesn't have a sadistic streak building or already there. Personally, I find most characters in this series to have a sadistic streak including Malfoy, it just shows up in different people in different ways.
I wonder with Lucius it may be a case of what I think an ideologue should be like is just different from what the author thinks he's like. Events in GoF do, imo, suggest that Lucius would be ready to abandon Voldemort for his own well-being, and perhaps Phineas' line about Slytherins always choosing to save their own skin goes along with that too. Though I think he can feel that way and also truly believe in Pureblood superiority and wanting to get rid of Muggleborns, and I assume his son believes that too. That kind of thinking also seems very well-represented in different forms throughout the series--not anti-Muggleborn prejudice but confident ideas about different groups etc. So I think I agree that suggestions that Lucius doesn't really believe this Pureblood superiority idea are unfounded.
Now, Draco could be on the ideological path to DE-dom and get a nasty little shock and go 'eh, not for me', and there are tons of possible scenarios--and it's certainly a possibility. But I'll go 70/30 on DE-in-Training!Draco.
But "in training" covers just about anything, is just how I see it. This should actually probably be another post maybe I'll write now, but to me it's not so much "Wethink Draco's just nasty but he's not" or "We think Draco supports his father's thinking and he doesn't" but that the role we slot open for Draco while believing his father's thinking or being nasty may not be what we expect it to be.