(no subject)

[laleia]

How am I simultaneously annoyed that:

1. People in fandom completely excuse Draco's actions because "he's just a kid" and "he doesn't know any better" and "his family life sucks" and "he was brought up that way" disregarding the fact that, say, Harry is just a kid and his family life sucks and yet he does not going around spewing racist screed and doing some genuinely horrible things that have long-lasting consequences

AND

2. People in fandom completely disregard the fact that Draco's just a (scared, terrified) kid who doesn't know any better and hasn't had anybody teach him any better and is desperate to please the only (terrible) role models he knows.

I don't even understand my brain. It's like fandom can't win with me. One way or another, I am annoyed at how people portray Draco/all Slytherins in terms of their redemptiveness.

Comments

[gisho.livejournal.com]

Not much of a Harry Potter fan, but both those annoyances seem perfectly reasonable, because eitjer of those options, badly written, refuses to acknowledge a significant part of the circumstances surrounding what he did.

"Draco did terrible things, which he might not have if he weren't being raised by a bunch of nutcases, and will presumably make better choices when he has more autonomy and a better understanding of the consequences" might not be annoying to read, but it's subtle and would take careful writing to bring out. I think the issue of autonomy might make an interesting fic, in fact - Harry's family treated him badly, but they didn't try to use him; the one who tried to use him was Dumbledore. But.