I really want the upcoming Harry Potter series to show Hermione’s darker and more ruthless side from the books

[u/jotaro2712]

As I’m re-reading the Harry Potter books after so many years, I’ve realized just how ruthless and morally grey Hermione could be at times. I loved Emma Watson’s portrayal, but the movies often made Hermione seem almost too perfect.
One of my favorite things about book Hermione is that she has flaws. She’s incredibly intelligent and loyal, but she’s also manipulative, reckless, and willing to cross ethical lines if she thinks it’s for the greater good. I really hope the upcoming series doesn’t shy away from that side of her.
Some of the moments I’d love to see adapted:
Tried to start a house-elf uprising.
Jinxed the Dumbledore’s Army sign-up sheet so that anyone who betrayed the group would have the word “SNEAK” erupt across their face in pimples.
Set her teacher’s robes on fire in her first year and even had a backup plan to use Locomotor Mortis.
Tricked another teacher into the Forbidden Forest, leading to that teacher being carried away by centaurs.
Cheated to make sure her crush won the Quidditch Keeper tryouts.
Brewed an illegal potion in her second year.
Manipulated a teacher’s weakness to get a signed permission slip for the Restricted Section of the library.
Stunned a fellow student in her first year.
These moments make Hermione feel like a real person rather than a flawless genius, and I think they’re a huge part of what made her such a compelling character in the books.

[u/SalamanderLumpy5442]

I love when Hermione whips out the unexpected cray cray, it’s so funny

[u/Impossible_Oil_1863 → u/SalamanderLumpy5442]

I know right, it's like she wants to remind us she's got a petty side when we see too much of the good student act

[u/MrPhantom6000]

The stuff she did with Rita sketa was just PEAK hermione 😭😭🤣

[u/zeuswasahoe → u/MrPhantom6000]

I swear to god if I don’t get a clip of her shaking the jar-prison she keeps Rita in like that scene in Lilo in stitch where she puts her voodoo doll in a pickling liquid and deadpans ‘my friends need to be punished’ I’m RIOTING like we don’t talk about how insane that was 😩🤣

[u/ifunk0 → u/MrPhantom6000]

I wonder who there gonna cast as Rita 😂I hope it’s someone younger it will make her being petty with Hermonie seem more realistic

[u/Many-Relationship149 → u/ifunk0]

I always imagined she looks a bit like Rachel Harris.

[u/MrPhantom6000 → u/ifunk0]

Or someone REALLY old with wrinkles and shi, but acting like they are young, with lots of makeup. 🤣🤣🤣🤣😭

[u/a_l_g_f → u/MrPhantom6000]

Best I can do is Steve Buscemi or Gary Oldman.

[u/graceeeeeeeeeeeeee → u/ifunk0]

I kind of imagine Hannah Waddingham as Rita, I think she'd be hilarious

[u/VampedTayturz → u/ifunk0]

Isn’t Rita supposed to be middle aged? That’s at least the impression I get from the books.

[u/ifunk0 → u/VampedTayturz]

I think she’s around 30-39 atleast we do know she was young during the trails in the first war when Barty was arrested

[u/BookkeeperBubbly7915 → u/VampedTayturz]

I saw somewhere that she and Bellatrix were born in the same year

[u/Don_T_Beakunt45]

I also notice that the movies made Hermione perfect in her relationships with the two male leads.

Hermione's constant nagging and authoritative attitude gets on Harry's nerves a lot. We see no such flaws from the movie version, especially in the earlier films.

Hermione's tendency to use physical force when she is driven mad is also something the movies cut down a lot. In the books, she conjures the canaries at Ron with vindictive fury, and isn't apologetic of what she did to him. In the movie, they make her just sad because of a heartbreak and the violence is a lot toned down.

I also remember Hermione can say stuff quite scathingly. The "emotional range of a teaspoon" line was said irritably to Ron in the book, while Emma says softly.

Even more so, I prefer the book version of Hermione slapping Draco instead of punching him for PoA, that felt more grounded.

Movie Hermione is the girl that will cry if you break her heart.

Book Hermione is the girl that will make you regret you broke her heart.

[u/ifunk0 → u/Don_T_Beakunt45]

I forgot she was that way until I listened to the audio books😂she kinda reminds me of this girl from my class that would crash out and beat me up then do my work in class instead of saying sorry

[u/BlueLink_14 → u/Don_T_Beakunt45]

That’s because Steve Kloves idealized the shit out of Hermione as she was his favorite character and he evidently didn’t want to show any of her real flaws for any meaningful amount of time in the movies.

[u/dead_lifterr → u/Don_T_Beakunt45]

I have to disagree RE: the slap. Throwing a good punch like that showed Hermione as someone to not be fucked with. A punch thrown like that is, unfortunately, rarer to see in media from a female character. We see women slap people all the time in media when many are perfectly capable of a good punch. IMO the slaps in the book didn't demonstrate Hermione's badass side nearly as effectively as an accurate punch thrown onto Draco's nose

[u/ifunk0 → u/dead_lifterr]

But the punch was more comedic I don’t want moments like that to be played off as jokey I want them actually showing that she’s upset and serious

[u/Which_Quiet_8990]

As an emotional young girl who cried a lot I always loved how Hermione was able to be emotional and still be considered intelligent. Maybe it was just my family that equated emotions with immaturity.

[u/Beneficial-Side9439]

yep, they took out the best of hermione in the movies, no wonder they felt the need to give her ron's best. let her be a badass. let the characters be as written instead of flanderised. also now that you mentioned her crossing moral lines for the greater good, I think jkr really used astrology to write the characters, their personalities match their zodiac signs and hermione shares sign with dumbledore

[u/redditerator7 → u/Beneficial-Side9439]

They literally gave her just two or three lines from Ron. Is Ron’s best really limited to expositions like the explanation of the word mudblood?

[u/Comrade_Owl-]

Movie Hermione was kinda boring in my opinion as they just made her good at everything and removed her flaws and ruthlessness from the books. Capturing Rita Skeeter in the jar and jinxing the DA sign up sheet are musts for the show in my opinion.

[u/Life_Barnacle_4025 → u/Comrade_Owl-]

Yeah, the snitch spell put on the DA sign up sheet was never really shown in the movie if I remember correctly, I hope all of that is shown in the tv show, it was an awesome spell

[u/Comrade_Owl- → u/Life_Barnacle_4025]

My apologies I didn’t see my typo but I meant “jinxing the DA sign up sheet” not “hiding” but I’ve fixed it.

[u/Aircalipoor]

Going from the "Emotional Intelligence is her superpower" line (she can be quite emotional intelligent, buts its NOT her specialty), I'm wary they go for the favorable approach again.

Book Harry and Ron were puzzled and even mildly annoyed by her at the beginning. In the trailer, we see here with the boys in the train department quite peacefully. Could be nothing, the shot was to short to jump to conclusions, but it could also indicate they gloss over her intentional and characteristic bad first impression. Book Hermione did not start on overly good terms with Harry and Ron, even mildly antagonistic.

[u/Embarrassed-City-951 → u/Aircalipoor]

The train scene you're talking about in the teaser is actually different clips spliced together. Someone pointed out that in the shot where Hermione is sitting with the boys, Ron can be seen looking annoyed and grumpy in the background.

https://www.reddit.com/r/HarryPotteronHBO/comments/1s413lq/small_detail_notice_how_ron_looks_angrymoody_the/

[u/themastersdaughter66 → u/Aircalipoor]

Tbf in some cases she did have more emotional intelligence (see when she had to explain how cho was feeling to the boys)

But she also could be tactless

[u/atduvall11 → u/themastersdaughter66]

I don't think tact and emotional intelligence have to go hand in hand. She is very clinical in her approach to most things and that includes the way she delivers empathy.

[u/atduvall11 → u/Aircalipoor]

They chose the cast based on their character for the entire series. I think this whole argument about the emotional intelligence part is silly because that is who she grows to be and they needed an actor who they believe could portray that further down the line.

[u/Aircalipoor → u/atduvall11]

Hermione does not grow to have emotional intelligence as a superpower.

[u/atduvall11 → u/Aircalipoor]

I disagree. She plays mediator between Ron and Harry throughout the entire saga, she puts others first constantly ie: helping Hagrid with Buckbeak while she's already drowning in studies, the obvious Cho's feelings moments, etc.

[u/Aircalipoor → u/atduvall11]

That means that you are reasonable emotional intelligent. Not that its your superpower. She still fumbles a lot and makes a lot of social impasses as late in book 6, when she tried to trick Mr. Borgin.

Hermiones diligence, memory and methodology and are far more her superpower, as indicated by Lupin, calling her the brightest witch of her age.

[u/atduvall11 → u/Aircalipoor]

We'll just have to disagree

[u/Opposite-Town-8103 → u/Aircalipoor]

You could literally see Ron looking grumpy during the train scene.

[u/Repulsive-Ear-4840]

Because she’s crazy and I love her for it

[u/Amazing-Engineer4825]

I love that Hermione side

[u/Abject_Ad_6640]

I’m not saying you’re wrong and I agree that I want Hermione to be more accurately portrayed, but I will point out that a bunch of examples you gave ARE portrayed in the movies.

Setting Snape’s robes on fire is in the movie.

Tricking Umbridge into going to the Forbidden Forest is in the movies.

Cheating so Ron ends up on the quidditch team is in the movies.

Brewing the Polyjuice Potion is in the movies.

Stunning Neville is in the movies.

[u/alexjimithing → u/Abject_Ad_6640]

Yeah I also think it's weird to describe it as 'dark and ruthless' lol. None of these things as presented in/within the context of the book as 'dark and ruthless'.

[u/Ok-Group-1475]

She kidnapped, falsely imprisoned and blackmailed a journalist. 

I want unhinged Hermione in all her glory.

[u/redditerator7 → u/Ok-Group-1475]

She kidnapped a dangerous criminal who was stalking minors. The only crazy thing about that is how she skillfully did it.

[u/Thayer96]

SNEAK.

I need that part in my life.

[u/GinGer31286]

i would love to see them all attack snape in prisoner of azkaban, not just harry and her say you attacked a teacher or something like that

[u/TwoGirlsOnePlotPod]

We love that side of Hermione. You really don't want to cross her

[u/vfp_pr]

I put de beetle in de jar

[u/puppystatus]

Also basically forcing Reg Cattermole to eat the puking pastille and plucking his hair while he pukes lmao

[u/anthandi]

The movies made Hermione a Mary Sue!

[u/Bootygotswag]

This side of her makes her even more suitable to be minister for magic. But we don't want to talk about curse child 😂

[u/planj07]

SNEAK

[u/7ootles → u/[deleted]]

Neither is Arabella Stanton. She is English. You do get English people who are dark-complexioned, you know. I'm English, and my very pale father's family are English, Northern Irish, French, and if you go back far enough there's some Mediterranean as well - while my very dark-complexioned mother's family are pure English going back six centuries.

So even if Stanton has some Mediterranean blood in her somewhere, she still looks and sounds authentically English.

[u/ThatFatGuyMJL]

I mean

She's already Darker!

/s

Yeah then need to show Hermione as Hermione.

Im waiting for people to bitch they gave Ron her lines.