Discussion: Aging in the Wizarding World
Aug. 22nd, 2014 08:31 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
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hp_goldenageTime for our first discussion post. :)
What does canon tell us about aging in the wizarding world and what is your own head canon on the topic? Feel free to cite canon examples as well as reference fanworks, perhaps a favorite fic that matches your head canon or made you see aging in a whole new way.
What does canon tell us about aging in the wizarding world and what is your own head canon on the topic? Feel free to cite canon examples as well as reference fanworks, perhaps a favorite fic that matches your head canon or made you see aging in a whole new way.
*resists* Oh Sod it, wank incoming.
Date: 2014-08-22 07:50 pm (UTC)Not that I mind people liking Draco but at the end of the series he's still an unrepentant, unredeemed bad guy to me.
Re: *resists* Oh Sod it, wank incoming.
Date: 2014-08-22 08:04 pm (UTC)OK this is what I see in the epilogue: Ron still acting like he's 17, worrying about Houses and making fun of Scorpius's name while Draco acknowledges Harry, respectfully and from a distance, but that single thing makes him appear more mature than Ron by about ten.
In the last book, Draco is in WAY over his head--this isn't 13 year old Draco generally being a shit--and yes, he does bad things but he also chooses not to do bad things like turn over Harry when he must know it's him.
For me, I see Draco as someone who learned something from all that, who is not unrepentant. He is not mini-Lucius. He may not be a Muggle-lover like the Weasleys, but he doesn't go around calling people Mudblood anymore.
Draco is not yet 18 at the end of DH proper and I absolutely do not believe people can't change. If people can't learn and grow, what hope is there?
Re: *resists* Oh Sod it, wank incoming.
Date: 2014-08-22 08:37 pm (UTC)I agree that Draco was in over his head in the last two books. I always forget that he doesn't turn Harry in at the manor. (and being less charitable towards him, I tend to think it more to him being petrified of drawing Voldemort's attention to him that wanting to save Harry) But in the end result though he does decide of his own free will to side with Voldemort and try to capture Harry and get the horcrux in the Battle Of Hogwarts.
The best thing that can be said about Draco is that he was not a murderer and not okay with personally torturing people. That's good. It's not the same thing as him rejecting the pureblood supremacyand realising it was wrong.
I agree with you that people can change and Draco may have been better later in life, but all the epilogue says to me is that he and Harry can stand on the same platform without any drama.
I'd applaud fanfic exploring this changing him and giving him more dimensions but its not something i saw actually happen in the canon. More we saw the very start of something that could have been change but then again... maybe not.
In any case, Draco was very popular before any of that did start to happen.
Re: *resists* Oh Sod it, wank incoming.
Date: 2014-08-23 01:50 pm (UTC)I know you write her, I know you write her with Harry, I don't think it's all hate!sex but I haven't read much so I could be wrong. I presume you see more to her character than that single act of betrayal (or her clinging to Draco in HBP) and enjoy exploring her potential.
Is she popular like Draco? No, but that's not really relevant. Any fandom, any story, movie or TV show likes two characters going head to head. Draco is Harry's foil, much like Snape is in his way. Tom Felton or not, Draco was always going to be intriguing to people because of his relationship with Harry.
Re: *resists* Oh Sod it, wank incoming.
Date: 2014-08-23 03:49 pm (UTC)But: I'd never claim there was any basis for redeeming Pansy in canon. it's just something I like to write because Pansy is more or less a blank slate and you can have some fun dynamics there.
And of course you're quite right that there's almost as much room to explore Draco in the same way. (though he's a more major character and therefore has less wriggle room for me in that regard)
Like I said in another comment, there's a difference in liking Draco for being a good foil or villian or thinking that he;s an intresting character to explore in fanfic and thinking he's not as bad in canon as he's painted. To me at least. And to loop round back the original point to think its therefore somehow spiteful or unjust for JKR to alter his appearence in the epilogue.
Re: *resists* Oh Sod it, wank incoming.
Date: 2014-08-23 04:29 pm (UTC)I adore Draco because he can be anyone I want him to be--he can be Lucius Jr or he can be like the children of Westboro Baptist Church who have left that cult and now promote everything their own family hates. I think there is room in canon for either one.
As for JKR, I honestly think it's a shame that now creators and fans *do* have interaction because I think, try as they might to ignore the buzz, it's there, even subconsciously. Even we as fanfic authors steal from each other accidentally (not taking into account borrowing on purpose).
There are certainly things she's said in interviews and on Pottermore that seem colored by her wanting to be sure fans are understanding what she intended, things fans have run with. And tbh, after the whole "Harry/Hermione fans are delusional" thing, we do know she has strong feeling about this stuff. Remus who's suddenly MADLY in love with Tonks. Holy shit, that was not in the books I read. She wanted him, they got pregnant/married (after his best friend died), and he was fucking MISERABLE the whole damn time. That relationship is so dysfunctional as to be laughable. If they'd lived, they'd have been divorced by the time Teddy was three. But you see, R/S shippers see more in canon to support *that* relationship than Remus/Tonks so it needed to be addressed. Clarified. And I am not even an R/S shipper! So yeah, I have absolutely no trouble believing there was a little bit of a dig in that toward the Draco lovers on the outside, not just Harry and friends there in the book.
OK ETA: Obviously we've gotten way off-topic here so I would be happy to continue debating but let's take this off the comm. Shoot me a PM if you like or find some post of mine that seems appropriate.
Re: *resists* Oh Sod it, wank incoming.
Date: 2014-08-23 04:37 pm (UTC)Re: *resists* Oh Sod it, wank incoming.
Date: 2014-08-22 08:26 pm (UTC)I have to say, I actually thought that comment might invite wank about JKR, not Draco, lol.
Re: *resists* Oh Sod it, wank incoming.
Date: 2014-08-22 08:41 pm (UTC)It shouldn't and in no way was I trying to imply it should. I was expressing my own opinion and not trying to cast implications about people who didn't share it. Apologies if that didn't come through.
Though to my thinking, there's a difference between liking a bad guy because he's a cool bad guy and thinking 'this guy's not as bad as he's painted'. But in any case, people are free to think or write whatever they like.
Re: *resists* Oh Sod it, wank incoming.
Date: 2014-08-22 08:53 pm (UTC)