*irritably* Two complaints about "independent!intelligent!"Harry cliches.

[guardians_song]

1) Why is it so hard for authors to write both Dumbledore AND Voldemort as Harry's enemies? And if Harry is so smart and paranoid, why does he trust Voldemort immediately? The friendly act obviously could be a performance to make Harry trust him until Voldemort takes a hacksaw to his neck. Let's see that rebound off of Teh Chohsin Wun.
- And, even if Harry trusts Voldemort for some inane reason, why does he immediately agree to serve him? 'I just broke free from years of manipulation by an amoral master Legilimens of immense power, and I'm looking out for Number One now - I'll never be enslaved again. So what should I do first? I know! I'll slave myself to an amoral master Legilimens of immense power!'

In all fairness, I do understand that having two Lords simultaneously working to screw over one schoolboy has a 8191/8192 chance of ending very, very badly indeed for that schoolboy. Meh, too bad. Shouldn't have your story tags writing a check your writing can't cash, authors.

2) Why in the WORLD does everyone think Ron has the personality most likely to make enemies in the pre-OOTP Trio? Sure, Harry wasn't that ill-mannered back then (though, at times, he was an antisocial, snarky bastard - very amusing for the readers, but not so good for making friends).

However, there was a certain socially-inept know-it-all who initially managed to tick even the other Trio members off, had a bad tendency to boss people around and burst into spontaneous lectures, and got quite sniffy when contradicted. And that was her behavior towards the people of whom she was truly fond. Wonder how she came off to people who didn't associate with her to often?

To be harsh about it, the authors who rag on Ron's personality but completely miss the issues with Hermione's all seem to be arrogant, scholarly, and stuffy - So of course they don't see the problems with Hermione's personality. What problems? Oh, surely the only flaw with young Hermione was that she placed a little too much trust in authority!

Yes, I admit to identifying with the pre-OOTP Hermione, but I not only have that personality type (*sigh*), I grew up around people with that personality type. And believe me. If they don't know when to not attempt to spread their great and wonderful knowledge to everyone around them, they elevate people's blood pressure very rapidly.

Ron and Harry might not be the sorts to make many friends, but Hermione is the sort to make mortal enemies.
---

...Why do I care, you ask? Because I'm sick to death of Ron-bashing over points that aren't even legitimate criticisms, but instead are made up out of whole cloth. I'm sick of authors acting as though acting holier-than-thou all the time will only leave the reprimanded peons cringing in fear, shame, and awe, rather than generating overwhelming fantasies to punch Saint [Character Of Author's Choice] in the teeth. I'm sick of arrogant, pompous, look-at-how-smart-I-am, hypocritical authors making out with their own reflections through the medium of fanfiction...


...And, sorry, I'm PMSy today. *shakes head* ...I don't ask much from - let's be frank - Gary-Stu!unrealistically-intelligent-and-cunning-to-the-max!Harry, manipulative!careless-enough-to-enable-a-child-to-cotton-on-to-his-schemes!Dumbledore fanfics. Just internal consistency, a complete absence of reams of bullshit made up from whole septic tanks, lack of overwhelming arrogance, and a Harry that doesn't trade one controlling megalomaniac of a Lord for another. That shouldn't be hard to fi-

Anyway, don't mind me, just ranting. :D;;

Comments

[hickumu]

No, you've definitely hit the nail on the head - there is a definite corrolation between people who "identify" with Hermione (correctly or not) and people who bash Ron as being stupid or antagonistic or what have you. I would even go so far as to say the vast majority of Harmonians fall into that camp. Because those people identify with Hermione as being bookish and smart and "one of the guys", they can't bear the idea that she has faults, because that means that by extension they have faults, and many fanfiction writers are too young to have reached that level of self reflection. Hence, Sue!Hermione.

*le sigh*

Wow, Potter fandom. Just keep on keepin' on and proving that no one will ever, ever match your insanity. This is part of why I don't involve myself in Harry Potter fandom, even though I still love the books.

[miss_morland]

Oh gosh, I hate Ron-bashing so much! It's even more aggravating when it's used to try to make Snape (!!!) look good. *sigh*

[redwoodalchan]

My guess about why people bash on Ron and not Hermione has to do with a couple of things, among them the fact that the later books bash on Ron a bit anyway, as well as a tendency to judge Hermione over-charitably since she's the only girl of the group. I know that in certain fandoms girls get hate but it tends to be girls who aren't expressly main characters, who act stereotypically "girly" (something Hermione conspicuously does not do), or who get in the way of popular yaoi ships. But, particularly in a series like Harry Potter, which after all is supposed to be about equality and feature Strong Women, people will assume Hermione is the ultimate example of such a "strong woman" because hey, she's a main character too! And she can do for herself and all that!

So, in a roundabout way, I guess what I'm trying to say is that girls who read the books will be strongly tempted to identify with Hermione because not only is she bookish like they are, but she's also the closest thing Harry Potter has to a female lead, and one of the only female characters who seems to count very much on her own (there is Luna, but she comes later; and most other female characters in Harry Potter are either supporting roles or evil). Ron isn't like that; he's just another guy, and they can't relate to a guy whom even his own author doesn't seem to like very much.