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Original poster

Hermione - Harry Potter - How annoying!

227 replies

Tahani · 17/10/2018 12:25

She is just annoying, much more so in the film than the books.

Just watching the Goblet of Fire, and she's 'ooo Victor is so physical... well he isn't loquacious, he likes to watch me study'

she just really grates on me...

OP posts:
mumofmunchkin · 17/10/2018 13:57

Harry as a
character can be annoying/obsessive, but he’s also a teenager with a traumatic past, a traumatic present, and basically no parental guidance, who at points is let down by just about every adult in his life. So I give him some slack.

ThumbWitchesAbroad · 17/10/2018 14:05

oh I can't be doing with the "these are for children, why would any adult watch them" - perhaps because some adults haven't entirely lost any appreciation of magic and wonder and so on?
Ugh.

MadeleineMaxwell · 17/10/2018 14:07

I hate the films. Love the books.

They were all very, very young when they did the films, but ouch! Couldn't they have found better child actors? They're all spectacularly bad! Barely made watchable by some much better, older actors.

Ginny! In the books - force of nature, whip-smart, utterly self-possessed (aha, seewhatIdidthere), brilliant character. FilmGinny - wet paper bag.

Hermione is a goody-goody, she's a total swot and she uses it to save the boys' arses a zillion times. The Draco-punching scene is brilliant, but I can't say I rate (or remember) much else of EW's performance.

MirriVan · 17/10/2018 14:08

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

Original poster
Tahani · 17/10/2018 14:13

thanks MirriVan

the films did get much better from the start, bendy child being waved by a troll anyone?

OP posts:
ToastyFingers · 17/10/2018 14:14

@SilentIsla I was 7 when the first book came out and 11 upon the release of the first film.

The series was aimed at people my age, in fact, anyone who is now 25-35 was the target audience for the Harry Potter series. I'm almost 30 now (so definitely an adult Hmm ) and still love them.

GrandTheftWalrus · 17/10/2018 14:19

You always get one on these threads that trot out the "for children" line.

I'm nearly 34 and sitting in my Harry potter jammies!

MsOliphant · 17/10/2018 14:19

Ginny is the WORST. In the films it’s impossible to see why Harry fell for her. He’d get more personality out of a pat of butter.

She’s alright in the books, and Harry doesn’t exactly need to be with the brightest spark in the box anyway.

In one of the later films the terrible actress that plays Ginny offers Harry a mince pie and says ‘open up you!’ In a monotone. It is the most cringeworthy moment in the entire catalogue of films.

GraceMarks · 17/10/2018 14:22

I love book Hermione. I like how she wasn't softened up to make her more outwardly likeable - she could be markedly irritating with the way she would constantly harp on at Harry about doing the right thing (i.e. not using the marginalia to cheat in his potions lessons) but she would usually turn out to be correct. I saw it as an important lesson that being a "good" person wouldn't always lead to popularity but that it is still worth trying to have integrity.

I was only disappointed that she ended up with Ron. I thought that, since every other character seemed to get married at 19 and have loads of kids, she would have been an ideal candidate to show that you could still stay single and have a worthwhile life.

Film Hermione had none of those complexities or nuances and EW's performance was very stagy and irritating. It's such a shame, as the visuals were perfect a lot of the time, but most of the child actors completely sucked in that series.

MsOliphant · 17/10/2018 14:23

Hermione would leave Ron, she’d meet someone who challenged her intellectually at the MOM. Ron would get custody and take the kids to live with Molly.

ToastyFingers · 17/10/2018 14:24

Grandtheftwalrus I've got mine ready for after the school run tips hat

Morgan12 · 17/10/2018 14:25

I think the films are awful. I love the books though and have been reading them over and over for about 10 years.

Film Hermione is very annoying. I can't see past the constant eyebrow movements. Love book Hermione though. And book Ginny is awesome.

RoboticMary · 17/10/2018 14:25

I’m looking forward to the remakes already Grin

ButDoYouAvocado · 17/10/2018 14:29

The books are for all. When they were first printed they did 2 covers, one for children, one for adults.

Anyway. Emma Watson is vastly overrated in my opinion. Spoils the films a bit. I like the 'book' Hermione though.

MorrisZapp · 17/10/2018 14:29

Is book Ginny interesting in the later books? She does feck all in the ones I've read.

MsOliphant · 17/10/2018 14:30

She’s not interesting but she’s not a total plank of wood.

Bloobs · 17/10/2018 14:39

But MirriVan Hermione is meant to be an annoying know-it-all - it's how her character is introduced - and then of course it saves the day in various ways...

It's still one of the sexist cliches of the book though that the know-it-all has to be a swotty girl. I also hate how Harry is essentially nothing more than a massive teacher's pet, and I don't like how he also has to be a quidditch star, because heroes of books are always good at sport. It's so cliched!

Ali1cedowntherabbithole · 17/10/2018 14:52

Think I saw an interview with jK Rowling in which she said she hadn’t wanted a pretty Hermione in the films as that wasn’t her Hermione.

MadeleineMaxwell · 17/10/2018 14:53

I don't like how he also has to be a quidditch star, because heroes of books are always good at sport. It's so cliched!

Ok, getting my nerd on here, but this is what JK recently said about quidditch:

There's glamour in chasing an elusive lucky break, but teamwork and persistence can still win the day. Everyone's vulnerable to blows of fate and obstructive people, and success means rising above them. Quidditch is the human condition.

Harry is a seeker because he chases the lucky breaks instead of knuckling down and doing the more boring stuff. It's how he beats Voldy, after all.

'Hey, I'm being hunted for death by the Big Bad, I better learn some really mind-blowingly awesome spells,' said Harry never. Instead, he trots off, Christ-like, to be splatted by Voldy, is reborn and relies on a, at this point still theoretical, piece of obscure wand lore to save him. And he wins. That's why he's a seeker.

BookMeOnTheSudExpress · 17/10/2018 14:55

"he’s also a teenager with a traumatic past, a traumatic present, and basically no parental guidance, who at points is let down by just about every adult in his life."

Exactly! And then DR does the woodentop thing. He is sooooo baaaad.

I've never seen him in anything else (and the thought of seeing his willy in Equus is just WRONG!) is he any good now?

The best actors IMO were actually Ron- it's very hard to be funny just by gurning, and of course Neville.

Of the adults, Tonks does my nut in. As do Harry's parents. Love Bellatrix. HBC's interpretation is like the book made living flesh. Perfect. (and I can't stand HBC usually)

Original poster
Tahani · 17/10/2018 14:59

oh one question, off topic - Dolores Umbridge, i know shes a 'baddie' but shes not an on-the-side of Voldemort? is she?

OP posts:
Original poster
Tahani · 17/10/2018 15:00

Bellatrix - totally awesome
I liked Lucius and his wife as well

OP posts:
MadeleineMaxwell · 17/10/2018 15:01

Umbridge wasn't a Death Eater, no, but she was very open to being seduced by the dark side!

Bloobs · 17/10/2018 15:01

Oh, OK Hmm :o

That explanation SORT OF makes some sense, although it also sort of removes any agency from Harry. But / and another thing... it's a weird feature of the whole HP phenomenon that JK is always popping up to explain everything and what her intention was, and how she would have changed this or that bit, etc. As a writer you're supposed to make your book stand by itself.

However I am being picky, I don't hate HP, and I appreciate what it did for children's reading and publishing. I just get irritated by all the cliched and sexist aspects.

GraceMarks · 17/10/2018 15:04

Tahani not explicitly, I mean she's not a Death Eater or owt, you just get the idea she would be totally on Voldy's side if he ever got back in. In the Cursed Child, there's a scenario where it's spelt out a lot more!