Harry Potter Unpopular Opinions

Hello there, I saw this article on everyone’s favourite website: Buzzfeed (please note the sarcasm) and I though it would be fun to basically go through them and throw in my 2 cents on some unpopular Harry Potter opinions, because this is what I do with my free time and I am loving it. So without further ado, lets get started ❤

Neville should have been the chosen one

Neville is better than Harry. Neville is more caring, courageous, and dependable. Harry did a lot of the leg work because he was labelled “the chosen one,” but Neville was the one who destroyed the final horcrux in the end, allowing Voldemort to be killed

Uhm who did a wee in this guys cereal? I so disagree with this, I love Neville, don’t get me wrong, but it is so unfair to completely dismiss everything that Harry did in his life, as Dumbledore said, Harry was doing all that he did willingly, not just because he was the ‘chosen one’. Yes, Neville helped and he is great for this, but Harry is also caring and courageous and dependable, and he is the chosen one.

Fred and George are overrated

I never cared for Fred and George. I know fans loved them for their jokes, tricks, and wittiness, and they were devastated when Fred died, but I just didn’t have any attachment to them.

Someone clearly hasn’t read the books and is an uneducated swine. I respect all opinions, but you’re wrong and I hate you if you think this is at all true.

Hermione should have ended up with Viktor Krum

Hermione should not have been with Ron or Harry. If she had to end up with anyone, I actually only ever liked her being with Viktor Krum, the hot and chivalrous foreign athlete who appreciated her right from the start.

Uhm…. no? Viktor only ever wanted to talk about himself and considering he literally went to the library and stalked Hermione without talking to her and asked her out, we can see there was literally no connection. We should also remember he was a bit of a creep, at 18 years old he was with a 14 year old girl and had a go at Harry (also 14) when he thought there was something going on between him and Hermione. And to wrap up my argument, literally from book one after the troll thing Ron always appreciated Hermione and her intelligence and I genuinely think they’re relationship, despite them being opposites, is the sweetest.

Hermione should’ve ended up with Malfoy

I think that Malfoy and Hermione fought so much because of all the sexual tension between them. Yes, Malfoy said some really mean things to her, but that’s because that’s what his parents told him. You believe what your parents say when you’re young and you don’t really form your own independent opinions until you’re older. Malfoy and Hermione are like-minded people who are intelligent and enjoy the same things. He would’ve appreciated a strong and ambitious woman like Hermione, unlike Ron. I really think that Malfoy and Hermione would’ve been a good fit together.

I don’t think Malfoy is a completely bad guy, I think he is the product of a cruel father and should’ve had a redemption arc (he kind of did in the Cursed Child, but not in the original series), however, I don’t think this person is very clever at all. How can 11 year olds have sexual tension? I understand that maybe Draco liked Hermione but in no way should they have ended up together, and the person that wrote this is clearly ignoring the fact that, acting as he did in the books, Draco was emotionally abusive to Hermione and in no way does this make for a relationship.

Harry and Ginny should’ve named their child something else

Using the names of Albus Dumbledore — the world’s most manipulative wizard —and Severus Snape — an abusive teacher who wanted to hook up with Harry’s mom — was a mistake, especially when there were better wizards who actually helped Harry to name them after, like Arthur Weasley, Remus Lupin, Alastor Moody, Neville Longbottom, Aberforth Dumbledore, etc. Honoring two men who weren’t all that great kinda disrespects the good men who actively tried to make Harry’s life better and easier.

I agree with Snape, but we have to remember that Harry would have chosen these names based on who he felt was important to him in his life, there were so many people that helped Harry and to get him to try and name a kid after everything was too much. Personally, I don’t get the suggestion of Arthur Weasley? Like Harry helped Arthur more than the other way round and it was Molly who acted as a parental figure. But anyway, i really like Albus-Severus and James-Sirius and Lily-Luna, I think they’re the perfect names, except maybe for Severus, as I doubt he would have cared at all if Harry’s son was named after him.

Half-Blood Prince is the worst in the series

Specifically, the main plot about Harry trying to procure Slughorn’s full memory about Tom Riddle’s horcrux questions. Dumbledore already knew all about horcruxes, so the only thing we gained was that Voldemort created seven of them.

The seven horcruxes… is like… the most important discovery???? How the fresh hell did you expect them to find the horcruxes if they had no clue how many they were looking for? Jesus Christ.

Hufflepuff is the best house

Gryffindors can have huge egos and be foolhardy, Ravenclaws can be know-it-all assholes, and Slytherins can be dishonest and conniving. But the vast majority of Hufflepuffs are kind, smart, and extremely capable — and don’t boast about it at all. They are just low-key great people who, mind you, never swayed to the dark arts. I never understood why everyone thinks so little of them.

Okay, I’m a Hufflepuff so I obviously love the house, and we are particularly good finders, BUT, I think all of the houses are equal and amazing and they all have brilliant qualities, but too much of these qualities can obviously turn into a bad thing, and so I don’t think it’s fair to argue that hufflepuff has no downsides to it and is superior to every other house. Also, Hufflepuffs can have a mean streak as they all turned on Harry in the Goblet of Fire, along with the rest of the school.

Gryffindor and Slytherin aren’t all that different

The Gryffindor and Slytherin houses are basically the same. They’re two sides of the same coin. People need to give Slytherins more credit. They’re not all brooding, psychopathic wizards.

If they were ‘basically the same’, they wouldn’t be two different houses you absolute numpty. All the houses have some similarities such as valuing hard work, but they have distinctive, overruling qualities that set them apart.

Luna Lovegood is the best character

She’s unique, understanding, selfless, fights for her friends, and is kind to everyone, no matter what, despite all she’s been through!

I love Luna, and the above quote thing is true, but so are many other characters *cough* Harry *cough* that have the same qualities, so though I love Luna, I don’t think she’s necessarily the best.

Draco Malfoy deserved better

 Malfoy deserved a redemption arc far more than Snape did. Yes, he was a bit of a douche, but that was because he was influenced by his parents, who were terrible. He was forced into joining Voldemort’s side and becoming a Death Eater, along with plenty of other Slytherins. You can see his true nature in the later films — he’s just a scared boy who doesn’t have much say in what he can and cannot do. The only reason Harry and Malfoy hated each other was because of their initial meeting in The Sorcerer’s Stone. Had that not occurred, I believe they could have been pretty good friends.

SAY IT LOUDER FOR THE PEOPLE IN THE BACK. Funnily enough, I actually have a laptop sticker with ‘Draco Malfoy deserved better’ on it and it’s great

YES, I agree wholeheartedly with this, Draco was a child who was emotionally damaged by his parents, particularly his father, who was forced to join the death eaters and was under the threat of being killed by Lord Voldemort at SIXTEEN YEARS OLD and despite this he was written off as a brat and it angers me so so so much. There’s actually a deleted scene from the Deathly Hallows Pt 2 in which Draco throws Harry a wand before the battle with Voldemort and saves his ass and I wish it was kept in the movie and one of the reasons I do like The Cursed Child is that he finally got shown in a positive light. But yeah, I agree.

Albus Dumbledore wasn’t all that great

Dumbledore was a manipulative asshole. He didn’t care about ANYONE but himself. He used Harry, and everyone else around him, and didn’t care how he accomplished his goals, because the ends always justified the means — like how he left Harry to suffer with the Dursleys rather than with anyone in the wizarding world, for “the greater good.” He kept very important information from Harry, which left Harry struggling to find out everything on his own after Dumbledore died. He was a jerk and I hate how people still idolize him.

Okay, I can kind of see where this is coming from, but I really think that Dumbledore had the best intentions, he had his reasons for all that he did but I think that he was blinded by his end goal and he didn’t see all the negative consequences his plans could come with. However, I think these flaws make Dumbledore a more realistic hero who makes mistakes but had everyone’s best intentions at heart, I believe that he genuinely loved Harry and all his students and that he would never have wanted anyone to come in harms way.

Severus Snape wasn’t all that great

Snape was a horrible, horrible human being. Just plain awful. I understand that Snape went through a lot of pain when he lost Lily, the love of his life. But everyone goes through hardships — that’s life. Snape didn’t deal with his pain in a healthy way. He was verbally and physically abusive to his students — he was, simply put, a huge bully. There were a lot of people who suffered in this series who didn’t end up awful.

YUUUUP, I have a whole post on this where I discuss this whole opinion in full so you can check that out here if you wanna.

Harry wasn’t all that

As much as I love the series and everybody in it, Harry Potter kinda sucks as a character. He’s selfish, only complains about his own problems, and low-key enjoys feeling like the world is against him to justify being a douche to people who care about him — for example, the majority of the plot of Order of the Phoenix was Harry being awful to his friends when all they were trying to do was help. Yes, I love Harry anyway, but he’s quite annoying if you really think about it.

S H U T U P Y O U I D I O T

He was being like half possessed by Voldemort, he was right about so many things and everyone dismissed him, he was left in the dark by everyone and was expected to just sit and take it, he risked his life to save the entire wizarding world and he would’ve literally died to save anyone he loved.

The first four movies didn’t do the books justice

Especially Prisoner of Azkaban. They barely mentioned Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot, and Prongs, who were what made PoA one of the best books. Even though Goblet of Fire was a BIT better, they glossed over the whole Barty Crouch storyline, which was extremely important. If I hadn’t read the books, I wouldn’t have understood who he was at all.

I do sometimes wonder how anyone who hasn’t read the books would be able to understand anything. PoA and GoF are, in my opinions, amazing films but I think to leave out the Marauders and the full story of Barty Crouch Jr was a bit of a dumb decision. The first two films, however, I think were pretty perfect, nothing huge was missed out apart from The Deathday Party and the potions challenge to get to the philosopher’s stone. The movies, however, are never going to be able to get every little detail in that was in a book series so incredibly complex and no matter what I think so so much effort went into the movies and they are an incredible addition to the franchise and did a great deal of justice, whatever was missing.

Harry deserved his detentions in Order of the Phoenix (but not the punishment)

While Umbridge was a despicable human and her abuse of children was reprehensible, Harry deserved every detention he was given in Order of the Phoenix. He mouthed off in class, even after being warned time and time again by teachers and friends that he was only hurting his cause. Yes, her teaching was trash and she was a horrible person, but she was the teacher, and in her classroom, she was the boss.

Harry watched a fellow student die, he blamed himself for it and had been mocked and ridiculed and doubted throughout the entire year. He then had to watch as all of his classmates were being deprived of an education in Defence Against the Dark Arts which could potentially save their lives. Harry should not be expected to bite his tongue just because Umbridge was a teacher, she did not respect her students and so she earned no respect back as a result. Harry broke no rules but spoke his mind and told the truth, if you think he deserved punishment for this, you need to reevaluate your idea of respect and authority.

Harry and Ginny’s relationship wasn’t believable

We never got any romantic tension between Harry and Ginny. The movies seemed to rely on the hope that the people who were watching the movies had also read the books and would be able to fill in the gaps themselves.

Yeah this isn’t unpopular. Everyone knows that the movie relationship was atrocious, from hiding the book to zipping up the dress to tying the laces, I really don’t get why the relationship was done so badly in the films, especially considering how sweet Harry and Ginny are in the Half Blood Prince, but even then, I do feel that the relationship was kind of sudden as Harry had never been as into Ginny as he was into Cho until a few chapters before they got together. That being said, they make for a good couple and I like them, just not in the films.

Harry and Dumbledore’s bond wasn’t what people thought it was

The books and movies always tried to show this strong bond between Harry and Dumbledore, but I never felt that at all. It was like they were trying to create the bond that Frodo and Gandalf had, but didn’t quite succeed. The person Harry should have felt that bond with was Hagrid. Hagrid was always there for him, no matter what.

I think there was a bond between the two, but it isn’t comparable to the bond with hagrid. Harry admired Dumbledore for who he was and by extension, Harry trusted him, Dumbledore also trusted Harry but his position as the chosen one influenced how Dumbledore cared. Dumbledore and Harry had a bond, but it was professional, they had a bond in the sense that they wanted Voldemort defeated. Hagrid and Harry had a much more emotional bond that was more centred around friendship and care for one another.

Hagrid did more for Harry than Sirius Black

Sirius got all of the credit for being Harry’s only parental figure, when really it was Hagrid who was the only consistent parental figure in his life. The difference was that Sirius acted similarly to how a “stereotypical father figure” would, which earned him all of the credit. Meanwhile, Hagrid took on a more “maternal role,” which got him less credit. Also, Sirius was always very selfishly motivated and very rarely had Harry’s best interests at heart.

I agree that Sirius was not the only parental figure in Harry’s life, but I do not think that Hagrid was at all responsible enough to be a father figure for Harry, I disagree that Sirius did not have Harry’s best interests at heart and I think, though I love Hagrid, that this could instead be said for him considering how he made Harry and Ron find Aragog and made the trio, during their exams, try and ‘check up’ on Grawp; activities that significantly endangered them. Sirius was closer to Harry in the sense that he had a relationship with James and he was legally a father figure that could offer Harry a home and a future.

Harry should not have lived past the final battle

Harry Potter should have died in the end as well as Voldemort. Put an end to an epic series.

I think it was important for Harry to live on, since he was born he was used to defeat Voldemort and in surviving he was allowed to have his own life and to live free of the burdens put on him as a child. I do see that this could have, if executed correctly, made a bloody brilliant end to the series, but I definitely don’t think that Harry should have died, I think that if he had died it could have also made a great ending.

Voldemort had the saddest backstory

The saddest character in the whole series was Voldemort. After reading The Half-Blood Prince, his backstory broke my heart and I understood his hatred. His actions were inexcusable and heinous, but I think they were rooted in hurt and tragedy more than pure evil.

No. Voldemort’s backstory is sad and tragic but he cannot love, this isn’t his fault, but he cannot be a good person and he cannot be sympathised with, his actions were nothing but evil and I really don’t think he had the ability to feel anything as human as betrayal and hurt etc. His opinions and ways were formed on his own and his actions were carried out freely and so I really don’t care if poor emo sad boi Tom Riddle had a bad time, doesn’t mean he’s not a douchebag.

The finale of the series was anticlimactic

The final face-off with Voldemort was both over the top with all the flying around as well as underwhelming with Voldie turning into grey cornflakes and blowing away. I expected the film’s ending to be exciting just like the last quarter of the book — it wasn’t. And breaking the last book into two films was nothing but a cash grab.

Yeah I didn’t like the cornflake thing, I think Voldemort should have died as he did in the books, like a man and not something less, that being said, I think the whole ‘running around the castle and playing hide and seek’ was really good cinema, it was thrilling to watch and so I wont completely discredit it, but the books did it better.

The movies were better than the books

I know they removed things that were in the books, changed some plots, blah blah blah. But when you take the books on their own and the movies on their own, the movies are just better.

THAT WAS SO LONG I’M SO SORRY THANK YOU SO MUCH IF YOU READ THIS WHOLE THING I PROMISE I WON’T KEEP YOU ANY LONGER THANK YOU FOR READING I APPRECIATE YOU OKAY THANKS LET ME KNOW IF YOU AGREE OR DISAGREE WITH ME IN THE COMMENTS AND IF YOU HAVE ANY OPINIONS THAT WEREN’T MENTIONED BECAUSE I’D LOVE TO HEAR THEM, THANK YOU FOR READING OKAY THANK YOU BYE ❤