I agree with pretty much everything you said, especially the part about how Draco lies somewhere between circumstances and choices which, I think, is exactly how I feel about the character, and what I mean when I say he hasn't had the time to think about his choices for himself.
And while I agree that JKR meant personality rather than age, I still find her words somewhat problematic, because she gave us an incomplete character - he has to be incomplete, because he's still just a child, still learning and growing. And while that's fine, good even - it's not like all characters need to be complete by the story's end; in fact, just the opposite - but when she includes him in an epilogue that is expressly about giving us the form in which our HEA takes place, it kind of highlights the fact that Draco is stuck somewhere still in that place as you so eloquently described. We know the kind of man Harry becomes, and that of his friends, but that question is left very much up for debate, leaving us with only snippets of what JKR thinks of him in interviews (which I don't pay attention to, because of the aforementioned Author is Dead principle) imo.
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I agree with pretty much everything you said, especially the part about how Draco lies somewhere between circumstances and choices which, I think, is exactly how I feel about the character, and what I mean when I say he hasn't had the time to think about his choices for himself.
And while I agree that JKR meant personality rather than age, I still find her words somewhat problematic, because she gave us an incomplete character - he has to be incomplete, because he's still just a child, still learning and growing. And while that's fine, good even - it's not like all characters need to be complete by the story's end; in fact, just the opposite - but when she includes him in an epilogue that is expressly about giving us the form in which our HEA takes place, it kind of highlights the fact that Draco is stuck somewhere still in that place as you so eloquently described. We know the kind of man Harry becomes, and that of his friends, but that question is left very much up for debate, leaving us with only snippets of what JKR thinks of him in interviews (which I don't pay attention to, because of the aforementioned Author is Dead principle) imo.
Your comment was really interesting, thank you!