(no subject)

[heidi]

Okay, how many of you feel that Dumbledore's characterization in PS/SS: The Movie would have been vastly improved if Steve Kloves or Chris Columbus had deigned to include four words from the book:

Nitwit. Blubber. Oddment. Tweak.

For me, those four words were among the elements in Book 1 that hooked me into reading the book way back in October of 1999, and they were part of Dumbledore for me. Well, that and his reaction to the twins' singing the school song, but for the sake of not adding minutes to the movie, let's just keep it to those four words.
Instead, they spent eighty seconds or so showing Hedwig flying through the snow. Wheee, lovely.

Stupid, stupid, stupid. And one of the reasons why, as alice_and_lain and cjestes can tell you, I stood up when the credits began and began stamping my feet on the floor in frustration and anger about the way the movie had been changed so much from the book* and the way the changes all felt stupid, or dangerous (Harry actively using his hands to injure/kill Quirrel, not just to protect himself and the stone).

We shouldn't have to use our imaginations to fill in the gaps about Dumbledore twinkling in the movie, and we shouldn't have to use our imaginations to fill the gaps in how Hermione finally decides she is either (a) finally actually interested in Ron as a boyfriend, or (b) finally actually willing to pursue Ron such as to have him become her boyfriend (and can we all FINALLY agree that before HBP, she was either not interested in him as a boyfriend, or had not undertaken to deem him her boyfriend? Good.).

The thing is, there are possible reasons for why she would do (a)-or-(b). The near-fatal injuries at the Ministry, or the risk of death in the woods with the centaurs would be enough to push anyone to change her perspectives on things, and I know from being-near-near-death-experiences. When I was 19, my then-best-friend and I were parking her car across the street from the townhouse just off campus where I lived, and these two guys in a van pulled up behind her, looked right at me, and grabbed her bookbag which was slung across her chest, dragging her 40 or so feet and running over her, possibly twice.

She was in and out of a coma for two days, ended up with pins in her hips and spent about two months in the hospital in traction; she's more or less fine now, fifteen years on, but watching her nearly die, and being five feet away from having been the victim myself, was enough to turn me, at 19 (ie about two years older than OotP/HBP Hermione) away from the career I'd planned to have (journalism) into law, in large part because I had been among the pack of people who'd descended like vultures after someone was seriously injured or killed in some horrific something, and I knew I couldn't do that anymore, not after having been The Witness and the only one the press could go to for said eyewitness account. And yes, that's a life-decision change. And it's entirely possible that what happened at the Ministry inspired Hermione to make a life-decision change. It seems to me to be the Moste Potente Reasone...

However, I am sure that some of you have other thoughts that explain why she did (a)-or-(b). And it's great to take your theory and fanficize it or fanart it or vid it.

But why couldn't JKR just write it? One line... just one line from Hermione when she's talking about Boys To Invite To Invite Jealousy would've done it, like one line from Dumbledore in Movie #1 would've changed his characterization to all those (and I know some of you are among them) who saw the film before reading the books (and along those lines, what did you think of Dumbledore when you saw the film versus read the books, if you did the movie first?).

I'm not a lazy reader - I can ponder a scene or a character for years, now, can't I? - but in this case, we shouldn't have to. If there was a reason, then that reason should've been in the book. If there was no reason, no inspirational moment of impact, no justification for Hermione to change her thoughts about Ron or at least her responses to him, then yes, that aspect of the book makes no sense. And what's frustrating me is that it would be *so* easy for it to make sense and be a natural progression of Hermione's character. Just. One. Line.

ETA: I wrote the above while about 24 hours behind in reading LJ, and on my first page spotted a link to this post by amanuensis1. Word, is all I can say. Incorporate all that into here; I wish I'd said it.


* Yes, I know that PoA was also changed from the book, but other than the neglect of the Department of Backstory and the stupid use of Sirius's "cleverest witch" line to Hermione, which makes no sense in the context of the film, it didn't bug me as much because the changes weren't of the degree of stupidity of the Flight of Hedwig, sigh, sigh, sigh.

Comments

[leiabelle.livejournal.com]

Definitely agree about Dumbledore's line. It adds a sense of "wacky-but-in-a-fun-way" to the characterisation of "powerful wizard/headmaster" that is so archetypal.

I'm not really committed to a particular ship in HP (especially when it involves believing that an author can be wrong about her own characters). I prefer H/Hr in fanfic, but it seems to me that JKR has shown R/Hr tension for some time now, definitely since GoF (and maybe in PoA? it's been a while since I've read it).

I would say that Ron doesn't "discover girls" (aside from veelas, of course!) until HBP. He doesn't much care who he goes to the Yule Ball with as long as he goes with someone. Hermione, on the other hand, seems quite aware of boys at 14, but only to the extent that she enjoys being pursued but doesn't feel the need to do any active pursuing herself. "You should've asked me first" is passive pursuit -- she can say this safely after the fact because then she's not ordering Ron to take her to the ball. Her relationship with Krum seems to be based mostly on her being flattered by his attention and her realisation that he's much smarter than she gave him credit for, (presumably) in addition to her hunch that Ron was not conciously aware of his own interest in her, so that waiting around for him to notice her would not be sensible.

In OotP, Ron still doesn't seem particularly aware of girls as such. He notices that Ginny is dating a lot and that worries him, but he still doesn't seem interested in pursuing anything himself. Hermione plays relationship counselor to Harry, so we know that she understands the subtleties of romance. (Though I admit that this particular scene suggests H/Hr tension, if only because I often found myself in situations like that with male friends on whom I had crushes!), but Ron's very admission that "no one can feel all that at once" show us (and Hermione) that he has no understanding of the complexities of romance.

I agree that we could've used a little more explicit development of or background for Hermione's decision to actively pursue Ron, but I think that decision comes about as a result of Ron's discovery of girls through Lavender. The point at which Ron realises that girls are something to be desired for themselves (and not just as accessories which one needs in order to not look like a loser at social events) is the point at which Hermione decides that a relationship is worth pursuing. I think, since we're only in Harry's head and since Hermione doesn't talk about her own romantic interests, that it has to be events that hint at the reasons behind her actions. Before Ron discovered girls, he wouldn't have understood Hermione's attempts to pursue him (had she made any); he would've just thought she was acting mental. In HBP he seems finally ready to recognize and react to pursuit (see Lav Lav), and that gives Hermione the green light to pursue him, knowing that he'll understand (or at least be much more likely to understand) that she is doing so.

(I really hope this makes sense. It's not 6am-packing-avoidance-posting, I swear... *whistles*)

adding to an already long comment...

[leiabelle.livejournal.com]

Also, I hope I didn't imply that Hermione went out with Krum to make Ron jealous; I think she was genuinely interested (otherwise why would she continue to write letters to him?). However, she certainly remembered Ron's jealousy and tried to use that reaction to her advantage in HBP by asking McClaggen (sp? I loaned my copy out :( ) to the Slug Club parties. I still haven't decided if I like this sort of behavior on Hermione's part (it seems petty in a way that surprised me), it's not like she feigned interest in McClaggen beyond asking him to the party -- she did the bare minimum required to induce jealousy in Ron: allowing him to see her with another guy. Again, this "typical petty teenage girl" behavior surprises me, since Hermione is anything but a typical teenage girl, but on the other hand, it may well be the sort of calculated action to be expected from a girl who, at the age of 12, volunteered to brew Polyjuice Potion and ordered her friends to knock two other students unconscious and hide their bodies in a closet in order to borrow their identities. ^_^

Re: adding to an already long comment...

[leiabelle.livejournal.com]

D'oh! The third sentence should start, "Although I still haven't..."