Would anyone like to talk about Draco Malfoy?

:) I think that you're absolutely right on the spot with the 'the more the family is threatened, the less loyalty they feel for Voldemort' thing. You see that that sort of ethic is used by Lucius Malfoy himself after the first war. To not lose face in public and in the ministry, he pretends that he was imperio'd, and that he had no loyalties towards Voldie. Which are, *cough cough* lies ^^.

And Draco: Personally, here's what I think of him. I think that he's a bully, he's stuck up, and he's cowardly. But then again, he is very much influenced by what his parents taught him. Which is, that he's better than everyone else because he's from a respected pureblood house. Once he gets to Hogwarts, Draco is overly proud of his pureblood heritage and relations to dark magic; still, he talks the talk but doesn't walk the walk. His parents care for him to an extent, so he's never really seen the horrors of the dark side. When his father was imprisoned, Draco was forced to become a death eater at sixteen years old. He ends up realizing that being a death eater isn't all as cool and awesome as it had seemed to be, and he's much too innocent to torture or kill others like the more experienced death eaters. Basically, in book 6 Draco was sent on a suicide mission to make up for his father's mistake. And here is where *cues* depressed, slightly-crazed Draco appears! Remember that scene in the bathroom with moaning myrtle comforting him, and then Harry walking in and starting a duel? I'm sure you do ^^.

I think that overall, Draco isn't a bad person. His personality is just slightly weak and easily influenced. Obviously, he's intellegent and he's quite witty, but I think he lacks in the perception of reality/common sense department. Thanks to the lavishing of his parents, he ends up thinking that he can own the world. After book 6, he's brought down from his imaginary might when he realizes how truly horrible the world is ^^.

Phew *sweatdrops*. That was long!

Well, I personally think Draco is a very well thought character. In the beginning he portrays the perfect spoiled bully: spoiled because he's the Malfoy's only son who ate, drank and breathed that he's better than anyone out there, bully because he was insecure and he rather felt terrible that Harry was getting all the attention. I suppose the only excuses I can find for him are insecurity and seeking attention.

He wasn't really 'bad' I think Draco was in a ooh-I-am-bad 'phase', if you know what I mean by a that, he probably was trying to prove that he's 'tough' and 'brave' by having the 'oh-yes-I-rule-the-world-get-out-of-my-way' attitude, which is what spoiled brats do in real life. However, when he begins to mature you start noticing changes, in the later books he's less of a bully, he doesn't 'sneer' so much and he's much more decent towards Crabbe and Goyle. So basically Draco wasn't rotten to the core, he was just passing through a normal phase that a lot of people pass through in life, don't forget that the series took place at a time where the characters were in a critical age, puberty and such issues weren't mentioned but they sure did affect the characters!

And what you said is quite true, the fact that the more they're being threatened the more they become prone to do the Dark Lord's will, is instinctive I suppose; but doing something that you don't want to do will result in you hating whatever it was, and that's what happened to the Malfoys, the more Voldemort humiliates them and forces them to do things the less loyalty they feel towards him.

Since the release of the new Half-Blood Prince trailer, I've been pondering the Malfoys a lot recently.

Right now all I have is an interesting tidbit that I have been really thinking about. While watching the boggart scene (in the DADA class) in the Prisoner of Azkaban movie the other day, I was wondering what Draco's boggart would be. "His father" was the first thing that jumped into my head. I was wondering if he was actually afraid of his father or not? In the end, he definitely cared about his family more than anything else, but I think that he may have been afraid of his father - or maybe everything his father carried with him. His father's apparent loyalty to Voldemort would have been a heavy burden on Draco I would think - as well a frightening one. If he did *anything* other than what was expected of him..well..it wouldn't be pretty.

I think that when he didn't identify Harry, Ron and Hermione in the Manor showed that he didn't want any part of his father's world, and maybe that he never really did.

I hope that makes some sense! >.< I can't talk (or type) very coherently today. :(

Draco Malfoy is the character you love to hate. From the beginning he is such a bully, a wise guy even. His father is so pretentious and that carries down to his son. I guess I've always felt that Draco was intimidated by Harry and, even, afraid of Harry. Draco knows Harry is the better of the two but Malfoy has to stand tall in his father's boots.

I would have to agree with what you have said. In book 6, he really came across as being afraid.

My final thought is that the only redeeming quality that the Malfoys' have is loyalty to their own family.

I think he's a really interesting character who wasn't explored nearly enough for my liking.

And even though he's not really talked about, he's a character who I feel most for. And I think I get where he's coming from.

For the first 15 years of his life, he's been told that he's better than everyone else and gets given free reign to do whatever he likes, as long as he shows that he's better than everyone else, like in school and messing with mudbloods.

And then all of a sudden he's sixteen and almost an adult. He has to start acting like one and it freaks him out. He's trapped. He either goes along with what Daddy and Voldy want, or he doesn't, and the only people who's approval really mattered to him are gunning for him. Tough choice. I think I'd off Dumbledore too if that was the choices given. But then there's Dumbledore who's all lovely and all-knowning and looks too much like Santa for it to be a coincidence... so what does he do? He can't kill the one wizard who has a chance of beating Voldemort and ending this drama. Poor Draco... And he has noone he can talk to. There's only Moaning Myrtle...

I don't think Draco is evil. I don't think he ever really was. I just think he was a spoilt kid who didn't know what to do. So he did what he could to survive.

I totally agree with you. I believe that there is much more to Draco Malfoy thatn the story conveys. In situations he acts threatening and even evil sometimes, where when scary things happen to him, like his family being threatened, you kind of get to see the scared person in him. Draco Malfoy, I believe, could be a better person then we may see in the story.

I don't know if you agree with me or not but I thought the Order of Phoenix movie was not good at all. I thought that it skipped ALOT of scenes in the book. I know the book is big and you can't put everyhing in the movie from the book, but I still didn't like it very much.

Well, in book 6, he's only a 16 year old kid. That's only one year older than I am, and I wouldn't even pretend that I would be able to kill someone. It's only natural: he was a spoiled, sheltered, only child. And suddenly when Voldemort rose he was thrust into this completely different existance. He was a child trying to be an adult, without ever taking the time to grow up. If that makes any sense.

When he says, "maybe" to his dad, he realizes that this is a matter of life and death, and it could mean the death of someone he spent the last 6 years rivaling in school. For all of they're going back and forth, Malfoy would have still felt guilty if he had caused their death. Again, before he was a sheltered, innocent kid pretending he really hated Harry and his friends.

He just isn't Death Eater material, but he keeps trying to hide that.

Yay!!! I love you! well, I love you for letting me rant about Harry Potter

So, Um today I was reading an interview with JKR, and from what I read, I learned the following.

Draco shuts off all the positive emotions he has, those being love, Compassion, acceptance, Kindness and Benevolence..

yes, he has these emotions but he locks them , deep deep within him, its almost impossible to find them (if it even is possible...)

and its easy for him to be a bully, be cruel and pick the wrong side because with all the goodness hes locked up, all the bad will just consume him so much harder, that's why he is a bully, that's why he thinks he is the best and so on

and the question now is, What on earth happened that caused him to lock up all the good. and I don't know the answer to this, Only Jo does, I think she won't tell us because she wants the readers to have their own theories..

And so I have a theory myself, and that theory is obviously...he was raised that way.... (this is a theory of many)

I mean do you really think someone can just be born a despicable person. He is troubled, and a very interesting character as well.

I myself would like to get to know him..

but as for the people who say Draco is a hotty, well, I Tom Felton is, hmmm Draco, horrible bullies really aren't to my taste I'm afraid ;)

Thanks for asking! and thanks for the information you said, I haven't though about it like that before! (look, I am learning!)

Hi,

Draco intrigued me also, at first he struck me as an unusally mean and harsh school boy, but as he aged there seemed to be more behind him than that. We saw in the Half Blood Prince, just how much he really had on his plate. We saw how he struggled to deal with the weighty task that he'd been given as revenge for his father's mistakes. Which is quite a large comitment for a sixteen year old. We also saw how much strain this put him under from the scene where Harry attacks him with The Half Blood Princes spell. We see that really he is a human being beneath his less-pleasant nature. For me that came as quite the shock because I don't think I ever saw him as more than a one-sided character. I saw him as an unpleasant child until The Half Blood Prince.

In a way I came to respect him more, you saw that he was only human and that he had problems like everyone else, when on the outside in all the other books he seemed above these problems. We saw him fall from his throne in a way. He was no longer King of the school.

From the Deathly Hallows, I saw that he had another dimension. He was actually capable of love and being loved. His family was closer than I ever realised, and his care for his friends was greater than it appeared on the surface, as it showed in the room of requirement.

As a character had many choices and paths to take, and not all his choices led him down the right paths yet, in a way it took a while for me to realise this.

Any more thoughts any one?

EDIT: Speakmymind: I thought they we're originally bully's as well but somehow I managed to look past their less plesant ways and see them as people who'd been scared into being that way. I think they were more loyal to Voldemort out of fear towards the end really, more than because they wanted to. I think the same goes for a lot of the Death Eaters, they seemed quite fearful of Voldemort at times, but then there were others like Bellatrix Lestrange who seemed to be undyingly loyal to him no matter what. And most certainly out of fear.

EDIT: Elaine of Astolat: I agree that I wouldn't be able to kill someone, even if I pretented or indeed hated them. But you make a good point that he would feel guilt if he caused Harry's death, it would seem that he felt guilt, and all other emotions despite his attempts to hide them. I think deep down maybe he actually respected Harry in a way. Harry was (this is my opinion) everything he really wasn't.

he is definately a complex character. in the beginning, he is a bully and constantly causes trouble. He gets worse over the years until book 6.book 7 seems to make him seem like an aquanitace of harry;s at the end