Harry Potter TV Series

livefromDC said
Yep, Harry Potter was captain of the Gryffindor Quidditch team at Hogwarts in his sixth year. But that's kind of my point. Harry IS the football star on campus but HP isn't Americanized. I think on a subconscious level though that's where some of the Harry/Hermione stuff comes from. Our desire to put together the seemingly perfect choices for Prom Queen and King.

In the books, the dynamics between all three are move obvious. Especially in the way the friends would argue. When Harry and Hermione argue (or Harry and Ron for that matter), they have it out and sometimes it got ugly. Then they would resolve it, and hug it out. When Ron and Hermione argue it’s a knock-down, drag-out fight that ends with Hermione stomping away in frustration and tears and Ron turning into a moody mess. There was always underlying tension to their fights. Of course Hermione figured out long before either of the boys did why that was. And then I think Harry figured it out and wisely said, "yeah, I ain't getting in it, either they figure it out or not, I ain't touching it." Eventually though, Ron catches up too. And once they finally figured it out, it's like a cloud is lifted and they live happily ever after.

I love that Harry and Hermione can have this beautiful friendship and it's just that. Boys and girls, men and women CAN have incredible platonic relationships. It's one of the things I really like about the series. A young adult series that didn't devolve into a love triangle is absolutely refreshing. And again on the American sensibility side, we know the movie formula. Star of the movie Guy and leading girl go through life or death situation, when they come out excited that they're alive, "oh wait, were we kissing? I just realized I love you. Let's have sex cause we've bonded through this trauma!"

We are going to have to agree to disagree on this one. I'll defer to you on whether the Ron/Hermoine and Harry/Ginny relationships make sense in the books. But they didn't make sense to me in the movies. All the "fights" they had seemed very forced and just another version of the trope that when girls and boys like each other the boys are mean to the girls an they both secretly like each other. There just wasn't any real chemistry between Ron and Hermoine in the movies, or between Harry and Ginny for that matter.

As far as it being an "Americanized" view, I think it's the opposite. I think the Americanized view of these things is that the nerdy guy ends up with the hot girl who realizes that he treats her better than the captain of the football team who is as arse. Harry is not American and despite being captain of the Quiditch team, is not an arse. So it's not at all an American point of view. In fact, it's the opposite of what Americans expect for the nerdy girl to end up with the captain of the football team. Captains of football teams end up with the popular girls, the cheerleaders and Ginny arguably fits that role more than Hermoine.

Anyway, to me the movies very much so made it feel like Harry ended up with Ginny as a second choice and the fact that Harry and Hermoine wanted to be more than friends seemed very clear to me in the scene where they danced to the Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds song in the tent.

Maybe it's just bad film making that does not reflect the books, but I don't see those relationships as working in the movies. Doesn't ruin the movies but I did find the ending very odd and sad in that regard.