Malfoy family (Pottermore)

[oryx_leucoryx]

I looked up the spoilers site and found there is more detailed information about The Malfoys. Enjoy!

Comments

[sweettalkeress.livejournal.com]

It really is starting to sound like a broken record at this point, isn't it? "This character is good in the main Harry Potter storyline; therefore his family has always been good. This character is evil (or at least mean to Harry) in the main Harry Potter storyline; therefore his family has always been evil."

I feel like that thing about all traits going through the father is a tired cliche in its own right. "Only men carry power, prestige, or talent in their bloodlines; women are just insignificant vessels for the next generation." I wonder, then, if there's a deeper philosophical meaning behind the notion that Harry looks almost exactly like his father, except that he's got eyes the same color as his mother's.

So yeah, it's just more tired cliches which have been discredited in multiple works and which Rowling should feel bad for so blithely adhering to.

[aikaterini.livejournal.com]

/I feel like that thing about all traits going through the father is a tired cliche in its own right. "Only men carry power, prestige, or talent in their bloodlines; women are just insignificant vessels for the next generation."/

That’s a very interesting point. It kind of goes along with a trend that I’ve noticed in fiction, which is that female characters are rarely mentors and role models, especially not for male protagonists. If a boy is trying to emulate someone, it’s usually his father or a father figure. Harry has James and Dumbledore, Draco has Lucius, etc. And even with female protagonists, it’s often the father who’s taught the heroine her skills, whose death changes her for life, and so on.

[sweettalkeress.livejournal.com]

That's true and I feel like it's been noted by several different bloggers and amateur critics over several different situations. The relative invisibility of mothers and other female family members of the protagonist in most media is one reason why I love the "Code Geass" subplots involving Lelouch's mother and sister. In the case of male protagonists I feel as though it could go along with the notion that people find it "emasculating" for men to emulate women in any way shape or form--which in and of itself has sexist connotations (though it'd be completely in character for Harry Potter, since all the most powerful women are evil or in the background).

So, where exactly does Lily, Harry's mother, fall into all this? Because she's consistently held up as more virtuous than James, and I think Dumbledore at one point mentions that Harry is more like his mother, and less like his father, than Snape may realize. And it's her death, not James's, that makes Harry protected against Voldemort (allegedly, anyway).

[hwyla.livejournal.com]

So, the entire series seems to be based upon children inheriting their father's characteristics and morals and yet it is supposedly wrong for Snape to think Harry is a mini-James?

Not that I am saying Snape would be right for thinking that - but if JKR is going to have generations of families exactly the same as the previous generations, then why should Snape not think so?

[oryx_leucoryx]

In the Potterverse we have the following (that I can remember off-hand):

Tom Riddle - looks like his father. As arrogant as his father and maternal grandfather put together, with many extra bits.

Severus Snape - has his father's nose and his mother's skin and facial expression, probably her schoolbooks as well. Starts out with his mother's views.

Barty Crouch - I'm not sure which parent he resembled physically, but he loved his mother and hated his father.

Harry Potter - looks like his father, has his mother's eyes and his father's talent for Quidditch. Protected by his mother's magic.

Draco Malfoy - can't say which of his parents he resembles more (they are a matched pair). Cares about his father's opinion. Has mother's wand (twice!)

Neville Longbottom: His paternal grandmother wants him to be a recapitulation of his father (she even gives Neville his father's wand). He looks like his mother. If his father was a 'popular Auror' for being tough on suspects, maybe Neville has his mother's character.

Weasley kids: Their parents are physically a matching pair. Which of the 6 boys resembles Arthur the most?