So, my wife decided we needed to watch all the movies again. We're on the last one tonight. Through them, I noted how often Hermione acts in ways that really are quite horrid.

• Book 1: she's an arrogant little ass. "Oh, are you doing magic? Let's see it, then." and a second later after Ron's supposed spell, "Well, it's not very good, is it? I've tried a few... and it's all worked for me." She even accuses people of acting "childishly," and this was all on the train to Hogwarts so far. Of course, there's several cases of this during the school year like her constant nagging, which is referenced a couple of tiems, but let's get to the uglier parts. She comes across judgmental and perhaps, even jealous when Harry gets his broom in the mail "So I supposed you think that's a reward for breaking rule?" She sets Snape's robe on fire rather than bumping him or doing anything else that will break eye contact. Uses flattery to trick Hagrid into telling her what she wants. And, she attacks Neville with a spell without a second thought in the text. Sure, she felt sorry after, but it didn't affect her decision at all. This carries through in further books.
• Book 2. Her arrogance is tempered a bit, but it's still there as noted in her reaction to the flying car (she's compared favorably with Percy) and her attitude continued the next day until after Ron was bawled out by a Howler. Once she "seemed to think they had now been punished enough [she] was being perfectly friendly again." Of course, she's completely two-faced with Moaning Myrtle at the Death-day celebration and giggles out of the blue at Ron's phobia about spiders, then almost laughs at him after he explains that it occurred when he was three and one of the twins changed his teddy bear into a spider. In context of the story, it shows a cruel side of Hermione—someone with little empathy. Then, once again, there's her flattery, this time with Lockhart concerning a note for the restricted section. Of course, she had absolutely no qualms about stealing, either. In fact, she goaded Ron and Harry into it "Well, if you two are going to chicken out, fine."
• Book 3. Her first entrance is now chastising Harry for breaking a rule and blowing up his aunt, although it was accidental magic. This, of course, after she broke all sorts of rules the year before, including stealing which is much more than a "school rule." On a side note, it's pretty amazing how rudely she treats Ron, snapping at him or ignoring. I'd say perhaps almost half of the speech tags for Hermione towards Ron are negative. Then, of course, there's her attitude in Divination, beginning with her flippant remark, "Everyone knows that!" to Trelawney's reading of the cup, and then outright contradicted her, "I don't think it looks like a grim." Of course, she then summarily dismissed everything Harry and Ron told her when they were talking about Harry seeing a Grim. Of course, at the end of that discussion was her temper tantrum when Ron hit a nerve, "You just don't like being bad at something for a change." Not to draw this out, but there's also her slapping and then pulling her wand to curse Malfoy when he insulted Hagrid. While we cheer it, in truth, it shows once again her disdain for others and how she easily resorts to violence or illegal acts as seen in later books. Of course, then there's her arrogance again interfering with Harry and the broom he received from Sirius.

Those are just the first three years. All-in-all, she really is an arrogant, condescending, know-it-all with little empathy and even less patience for anyone who might disagree with her. On the other hand, she's also very loyal and loves both Harry and Ron.

EDIT: Of course I wonder now how many times I can use "of course" in the course of writing a few paragraphs.

 

Don't forget Scabbers and Crookshanks. By the end of the POA, we know Scabbers was Pettigrew the whole time and Crookshanks was working with Sirius to catch him. Before then, all we know is Hermione's cat is trying to eat Ron's rat, and Hermione doesn't seem to care. And at one point, Crookshanks seemingly did eat Scabbers, and Hermione doesn't treat it like a big deal. And in the end, Ron "Emotional Range of a Teaspoon" Weasley was the one who apologized to her about it.

Can someone remind me why people love Hermione so much again?

 

@Rhaegar I because of Emma Watson

 

Nonsense. Harry clearly should be with Daphne Greengrass the Ice Queen!

 

Dare I call her an ideologue? (this label fits surprisingly well- eg.her SJW attitude towards house elves)

 

Beauty covers a multitude of sins.

Actions which might be considered creepy by someone you dislike can be considered highly romantic by someone you're attracted to.

 

A hypocritical ideologue, perhaps. I'm not sure it fits because, in my opinion, an ideologue would stay the course more as they're a little more dedicated to their ideals. I just think she's supremely arrogant and thinks she is smarter than pretty much everyone around her except for her professors (excluding Trelawney). So, whenever she does something that is against the rules or her ideals, it's okay because she's the one doing it and there's always an exception for her. However, it doesn't apply to others.

 

Are there any others?

 

Very much so, but this isn't the thread for that discussion.

 

I think Harry/Hermione is so popular because everyone pictures Hermione as Emma Watson who is really beautiful and forget the canon character.

If you really look at the canon Hermione, she's a pretty great friend to have, but poor girlfriend material.

 

I could have sworn I read something similar about the live action Beauty and the Beast movie.

 

Surprisingly, I really liked Beauty and the Beast. It was very well done

 

Out of curiosity, would you read a well-written fic if it was revealed to be Harry/Hermione, and became a major focus of the story?

 

Absolutely. The problem with Harry/Hermione is not that it's a bad pairing, it's that the vast majority of Harry/Hermione fics have other very unattractive features, most notably Weasley bashing.

 

This.

My personal favourite use for early books Hermione is as a contrast. By the later books, she has quite thoroughly integrated into wizarding culture (by GoF she considers technology a "replacement for magic", for example), but at a younger age she can be used to demonstrate the difference between Muggleish ways of thinking and properly wizarding ones. When it comes to magic, this takes the form of her trying to make sense of magic in terms of scientific, mechanistic ideas. When it comes to society, this takes the form of her drawing false analogies between Muggle and wizarding worlds - considering wizarding-goblin relations an analogy of racial problems in the Muggle world, for example, when in fact there is no Muggle analogy for interactions with a different species.

The shallow way to do this is to bash: to have Hermione be completely wrong but set in her ways, and just have other characters continually show her up. The more sophisticated use is to have Hermione grow as a character past these naive views, but to retain some essence of them.

I also use her as a contrast between competent but normal wizards and those with true talent, showing how high intelligence, rote memorisation, and reading ahead are insufficient to reach the top level of power, as she lacks that truly magical mindset which carries with it the spark of magical genius, a form of intuition which cannot be taught.

 

Sigh.
You know I actually really like Hermione as a character, but thanks to people like this I have come to actively avoid fics with her name in the tag. Which is rather sad because she can be really interesting in stories that do her character right (coughForgingtheSwordcough).

 

The idea of Hermione being killed by the Troll sounds pretty good, to be honest.

I'd be curious to see how later events play out.

 

What’s the origin story for that trope has anyone found it?