[ SECRET POST #4320 ]

[case]

⌈ Secret Post #4320 ⌋

Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.

01.
[Gerard Way (formerly of My Chemical Romance) - "Baby You're a Haunted House"]



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07.
[The Good Place]


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08.
[The Haunting of Hill House]






Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 01 pages, 09 secrets from Secret Submission Post #618.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 0 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.

Comments

[(Anonymous)]

There are two comments on the HP Wiki from Rowling that concern me as a writer where she paints him as irredeemable and "not a nice guy."

"He's shut down compassion — how else would you become a Death Eater? So he suppresses virtually all of the good side of himself. But then he's playing with the big boys, as the phrase has it, and suddenly, having talked the talk he's asked to walk it for the first time and it is absolutely terrifying. And I think that that is an accurate depiction of how some people fall into that kind of way of life and they realise what they're in for. I felt sorry for Draco. Well, I've always known this was coming for Draco, obviously, however nasty he was." —J. K. Rowling regarding Draco's character

And: Rowling has expressed some worry over fans of Draco: "People have been waxing lyrical [in letters] about Draco Malfoy, and I think that's the only time when it stopped amusing me and started almost worrying me. I'm trying to clearly distinguish between Tom Felton, who is a good-looking young boy, and Draco, who, whatever he looks like, is not a nice man. It's a romantic, but unhealthy..."

As an author, I find Draco a big enough character in the series that he COULD have had a redemption arc, his fears addressed and turned against Voldemort more explicitly. Basically, given a bigger role in the books as the early books seemed to imply he would have. Instead, especially as the books progressed, he became more and more of a plot device and Harry became less and less of a sympathetic character w/o empathy.

We see Harry's ordeal. We don't see Draco's who was left to twist in the wind. Draco went through his ordeal and then the series ended. Everything else (Cursed Child, what is that again?) is word of God and not in the books. In Narnia, the bullying Edmund went through an ordeal and then redeemed himself. In Harry Potter, the bullying Draco is.. apparently still a bad man?

It feels to me that she's saying that no matter what storyline she wrote with those four characters, that Draco would always be evil and there was no chance to ever change him. And that's not realistic. And that's why there is plenty of fanfic, good and bad, that's been written otherwise.

[(Anonymous)]

Well ok, but those quotes sound more like she's just describing Draco the way he is in the books and how he got to be that way. She's not saying anything about future redemption one way or the other. She says Draco isn't nice or good, which is true in the books' present timeline. It seems you're the one adding in the assumption that by saying that, she means he's always going to be that way.

[(Anonymous)]

TBH, you're probably a better writer than Rowling, since this comment makes sense and takes into account the missed opportunities for decent arcs in HP (just one of many...); whereas her interviews just serve to irritate. (I like the 'well, look aren't important, it's character!' bit particularly, considering the lengths she goes to in-text to mention how almost all the Slytherins are these repulsive - *gasp* sometimes even fat! - beasts and how, coincidentally, 3/4 of OBHWF are totes bangable.)