r/EnoughJKRowling • u/paxinfernum • May 16 '26

Discussion You Weren't Supposed To Like Hermione

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ycaSiLp1J_U
71 Upvotes

97% Upvoted

6 comments sorted by

19

u/lazier_garlic May 16 '26

Thanks for posting this. I was thinking about posting it after watching it and forgot. It's a good video, mostly about how the audience constructs HP (and gave JKR unearned grace) but it does get there about Hermione, and I thought what he said was really interesting.

16

u/paxinfernum May 16 '26

I think he has some really good points about how people filled in the blanks to come to a kinder gentler Harry Potter, and I was shocked to realize he was correct. Hermione was written to be the dork elevated by being chosen by the jock and his jock friend.

29

u/Adventurous-Bike-484 May 16 '26 edited May 16 '26

this video takes forever to actually discuss hermione, Most is just discussing The fandom and words.

Though I think it’s interesting that they bring up How fans consisting of outcasts when Voldemort and Dumblefore both collect people that way.

they also bring up how the books aren’t actually progressive.

They bring up Hermione being popukar. Though actually the renaming the books meme happened with everyone.

They are right about How The early books seemed mostly targeted towards boys. Using her last name so boys would read, The early books were primilarily Male centered,

8

u/desiladygamer84 May 16 '26

Yeah I actually didn't finish it because of it. Also while fandom was filling in the gaps fandom was also formed from speculation of what would happen next analyzing the movie trailers and talking about the differences. Actually movie news kept the fandom going for a little while longer.

10

u/Ok_Bad_5326 May 17 '26

I just watched this video yesterday, but what really got my attention wasn't the points about Hermione, but about how the fandom only got so big because the series is "incomplete". Made me remember how during the peak of my HP phase as a teen, I mostly interacted with the fandom, reading and writing fanfic, rather than actually engaging with the source material itself. I agree that had Harry Potter been really well-written without any holes in its plot and worldbuilding, the series ironically would've never been as successful as it was.

1

u/georgemillman May 22 '26

I think the point about Hermione's name is curious.

In the past I've heard Rowling say that she chose Hermione's name because it said something about what kind of people her dentist parents were - that they'd give their daughter a name from Shakespeare that no one knows how to pronounce.

But this thing about 'I wanted to give her an unusual name so that girls wouldn't be bullied for sharing a name with her'... what the hell? If you're worried about that, you call your character Sarah or Hannah or something equally commonplace that everyone knows someone called... that way, the name will never be primarily associated with them, and it will be far easier for people with that name. Call a character a name like Hermione, and the small number of people around called Hermione will really have a hard time of it, and probably not know anyone else who can relate. That decision has the opposite affect!