Draco Malfoy
Title: Defining Draco Malfoy
Fandom: Harry Potter
Spoilers: minor spoilers for all books but nothing plotty
Author:
bookshop
Email: wayfairer@livejournal.com
Personal website: notquiteroyal.net
Notes:
Wow. I think this may have been the hardest thing I've ever done in the fandom just in terms of the sheer scope of it all. Thanks so much tocirce_tigana and Spren for giving me the opportunity to tackle this huge huge topic. I had a great time.
In writing this piece for
idol_reflection—an apt name, that, for no character has ever more fully evolved into the definition of fandom idol than Draco Malfoy—I am going to focus on Draco Malfoy as he is presented in canon, and how this translates into fanon interpretation. I am indebted to marysiak’s Definitive HP Canon Characterisation Guide, which offered me quick and easy access to the direct quotes I needed. Thanks also to skelkins, patchfire, 
lunacy, orphne, notapipe, and nothingbutfic for very helpful feedback in the awful icky draft stage of this essay.
I would also like to echo whatno_remorse said in her essay on Hermione: Draco’s story is still very much unfinished. Elkins wrote two full years ago that in four books Malfoy’s character had received no significant substantive character development, and as this statement is still true two years and two books later, it is tempting to start drawing final judgments about his character and his role in the books. I submit to you that doing so at this point in canon would be a drastic mistake, and that, despite appearances, Draco’s future and consequently all of our initial judgments about him remain up in the air.
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Fandom: Harry Potter
Spoilers: minor spoilers for all books but nothing plotty
Author:
bookshopEmail: wayfairer@livejournal.com
Personal website: notquiteroyal.net
Notes:
Wow. I think this may have been the hardest thing I've ever done in the fandom just in terms of the sheer scope of it all. Thanks so much to
circe_tigana and Spren for giving me the opportunity to tackle this huge huge topic. I had a great time. In writing this piece for
idol_reflection—an apt name, that, for no character has ever more fully evolved into the definition of fandom idol than Draco Malfoy—I am going to focus on Draco Malfoy as he is presented in canon, and how this translates into fanon interpretation. I am indebted to marysiak’s Definitive HP Canon Characterisation Guide, which offered me quick and easy access to the direct quotes I needed. Thanks also to skelkins, patchfire, lunacy, orphne, notapipe, and nothingbutfic for very helpful feedback in the awful icky draft stage of this essay.I would also like to echo what
no_remorse said in her essay on Hermione: Draco’s story is still very much unfinished. Elkins wrote two full years ago that in four books Malfoy’s character had received no significant substantive character development, and as this statement is still true two years and two books later, it is tempting to start drawing final judgments about his character and his role in the books. I submit to you that doing so at this point in canon would be a drastic mistake, and that, despite appearances, Draco’s future and consequently all of our initial judgments about him remain up in the air.