I think I’d like Jily if it was written like Dramione. Because let’s face it, James is basically a Gryffindor Draco, a handsome and rich pureblood who is definitely a bully, the type of person who thinks “I will if you go out with me” is the right response to his crush asking him to stop hurting her friend. They have problems, but those problems are what make it interesting, and a lot of people ignore that to make it super fluffy and cute.
If it was written like Dramione??? Do you mean the part where Draco says she hopes Hermione is the one who’s gonna get killed by the basilisk, or the one where he makes jokes about Hermione’s best friend’s dead parents, or maybe the one where he continually belittles and mocks her for being a muggleborn?
James may have been a bully when he was 15 (although people like to forget that it was literally ONE SCENE where we saw him being a dick), but he was nowhere near Draco’s level. Actually, he bullied people who were.
I just… nothing about this confession makes any sense to me.
Also like, for all that James was a bully as a teenager, he was never a racist piece of shit, and he grew up into a man that Lily could (and did) fall in love with and marry so like. Trying to argue that James is ‘a Gryffindor Draco’? That’s a fucking reach, are you sure your arms are still attached?
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again and as many times as I need to - James Potter was canonically what many fans would have loved Draco Malfoy to have been revealed as - a rich jerk who was nonetheless brave, loyal and actively anti-bigotry, a man who while capable of immaturity and cruelty was also capable of deep commitment and would do anything for his loved ones. Meanwhile Draco Malfoy was canonically the rich bigoted spoiled bully with little else to recommend him that some fans would love for James Potter to have been nothing more than. His literal best acts are basically being unable to bring himself to actively kill a living legend, and being unwilling to actively identify Harry when Harry is disfigured and a false positive could easily get him punished.
It is entirely true that both were the spoiled only sons of rich pureblood families - that’s about the only comparison that could be legitimately made. Calling James a Gryffindor Draco is literally a compliment Draco does not deserve and an insult to James.
