Hermeione's Abilities

[darrin_burnett]

No: HPFGUIDX 68516


> Does anyone else find Hermeione slightly unbelievable as a character. 

Nope. Hermione reminds me perfectly of a girl I went to junior high school 
with, right down to the hand always being in the air and the bushy brown hair.  

Liza Ashley, if you're out there, I thought you were gorgeous back then!

> I mean, we have all known know-it-alls, but now that she is 
> displaying a little more emotional maturity, it seems that Hermeione is just 
too perfect. She learns all the spells, potions, and history 
> way faster and way better than anyone else, explains the complex 
> psychology of those around her perfectly, and demonstrates her 
> independence and tenacity to boot. 

Hermione does well in subjects where you read, memorize and recite. And if 
you get down to it, that's what a lot of magic is. Read, memorize and recite. 
Learning the correct way to say the magic words is key.

She does get deductive reasoning, figuring out the Chamber and Rita's secret 
and Lupin's secret. 

But, take a soft art like Divination and she's no good.  She can't conjure a 
Patronus under pressure, because that involves emotional investment., i.e. 
"Happy thoughts." And she falls in the big OoP fight pretty quickly.

All in all, I'd say book learning and limited practical application? Excellent. 
Real-world experience? Average.

And I don't for a second buy her knowledge of OTHER people's relationships 
as an indicator she won't make a mess of her own.

>Can anyone show me her faults, because if JKR 
> doesn't start writing her with some, I may lose interest.

Thankfully, I do work well under pressure.

Hermione is actually nearly as arrogant as Snape wants to say she is. She 
hardly ever is convinced she's wrong and has a real "detached scientist' 
approach to other people's problems. Witness her insensitivity to Lavender 
over the dead rabbit.

She was willing to risk her friendship with Ron and Harry over the Firebolt and 
Scabbers, because she couldn't admit she might be wrong.

While she has a great deal of successes relying on her brilliance -- the most 
telling one being figuring out the Potions puzzle so quickly -- she also had to 
spend weeks in the hospital because she turned herself into a cat and nearly 
drove herself mad with the Time Turner.

And she is a bit blinded by her own earnestness. The whole Elf thing kept her 
from realizing how dangerous Kreacher was.

I will agree on this point, and it involves a touch of meta. It will be hard for JKR 
to create real harsh flaws in Hermione, the same way she does Snape or 
Sirius or James or even Harry and Ron. 

Why? Hermione, like Lily, is a Muggle-Born. And it will be hard to endow the 
put-upon minority characters with really blatant, unlikeable flaws.

And make no mistake, for all the griping about the poor, put-upon Slytherins, 
it's the Muggle-borns who are still the oppressed minority in this saga. 

Call it the Saintly Black syndrome. Cuba Gooding Jr. in What Dreams May 
Come, Will Smith in Bagger Vance, Don Cheadle in the Family Man, etc... the 
black characters for a time there were literally, Heaven-sent.

Not sure the Muggle-borns aren't ultimately getting the same treatment.

Darrin
I Love the 80s moment: "I did Wrestlemania in Detroit and it was 90,000 
people, 60,000 of which were blue-haired old ladies, screaming, "KILL HIM!" -
- Alice Cooper