Oh, TV Tropes...!
Oct. 5th, 2011 10:42 pm![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
sweettalkeress.livejournal.com posting in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
deathtocapslockQuite honestly, the Harry Potter stuff on that site has gotten to the point where I can't read it because just about everything is fawning over how great and super-special-awesome the series is, oh, and how Snape is an evil douchebag who wanted to get Harry and James killed so he could keep Lily. But this... this makes me want to scream:
"Hermione... [is] one of the smartest and more pro-active females in the whole Harry Potter canon and English literature in general"
WHAT THE FUCK?!?!?!
How could they make such a claim?! Hermione is a better heroine than, say, Tiffany Aching?! How about Eliza Doolittle?! And I'm sure you could come up with other examples.
No, no, in Harry Potter it seems fairly obvious that the most powerful women in the series are antagonists. Sure, Hermione's perfectly independent and capable, but in the last several books it's like she becomes Harry's servant because he's too lazy to do anything himself!
God damn it, Harry Potter wouldn't bother me so much if everyone didn't insist it was the greatest thing since sliced bread!
"Hermione... [is] one of the smartest and more pro-active females in the whole Harry Potter canon and English literature in general"
WHAT THE FUCK?!?!?!
How could they make such a claim?! Hermione is a better heroine than, say, Tiffany Aching?! How about Eliza Doolittle?! And I'm sure you could come up with other examples.
No, no, in Harry Potter it seems fairly obvious that the most powerful women in the series are antagonists. Sure, Hermione's perfectly independent and capable, but in the last several books it's like she becomes Harry's servant because he's too lazy to do anything himself!
God damn it, Harry Potter wouldn't bother me so much if everyone didn't insist it was the greatest thing since sliced bread!
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Date: 2011-10-08 01:37 am (UTC):-)
A couple of people on that other thread started out saying "Hermione is a sociopath". By the end they were saying okay, she's not a full-on sociopath, she has merely displayed some traits - on occasion - that are consistent/shared with a sociopath.
I call that progress on the we-love-Hermione front. :-)
Please note that we all share traits with sociopaths. We all breathe oxygen, for example. No, seriously, some of the Hermione-is-a-sociopath evidence just shows that Hermione was willing to take a harsh action for a good cause/reason. But nothing saying that tomorrow she'd strike out as a full-blown sociopath and spread that action across all and sundry.
I honestly don't have a problem with Hermione's dumping Umbridge to the centaurs, for example. The woman was a sadist, tried to kill Harry with dementors, was about to torture him. If there'd been a lever handy in the castle wall with a sign saying "pull this to remove Umbridge" I'm sure Hermione would have taken that 'softer' option. As it was her author only gave her the choice of either (a) letting her best friend be tortured or (b) rescuing him. She took option (b). Good on her, I say. Umbridge deserved whatever she got. And please note - Hermione DID NOT take that action to wreck vengeance on Umbridge. She took action to save her best friend.
(Umbridge's punishment was collateral.)
I've seen enough evidence to think she has serious empathy issues.
Nah. You've seen Hermione under pressure trying to do the right thing. Sometimes we can see that she could have done better - but that's easy with hindsight. Also, sure, she's not perfect. But we can admit this without going all the way over to the extreme SHE'S A SOCIOPATH setting.
You're also ignoring all the cases where she HAS displayed empathy.