PoA Thought

[lightofdaye]

So I've been listening to audio book of Prisoner of Azkaban fo the upteemth time and this quote leapt out at me: "you're the cleverest witch of your age I've ever met." - Remus Lupin

It seems to me that that quote gets shrunk down to 'the cleverest witch of the age' a lot. Or at least it seems like a lot in fanfic and I can't remember if gets referred to very often again in canon.

But... that ommission completely changes the meaning to me. With it it means something like 'wow, you're really smart for 14.' without I always read it as 'you're literally the cleverest witch of your generation'

And its not just Hermione, lots of fanfics will refer to Harry by some variant of boy-who-lived, modified to account for his later victories, far more than canon does, or at least so it seems to me.

Not sure what i'm concluding here beyond 'fandom loves nicknames' and 'poor ron: why doesn't he get a moniker?' but I thought you might appreciate my ramblings nevertheless.

Comments

[tamlane.livejournal.com]

I got the notification for this post in my email, and when I saw the title, I somehow knew it was going to be something about Hermione being ~perfect. :P

But how could you forget Ron's moniker? Weasley is OUR KING.

[torino10154]

I do think it's a good point. I am not sure that suggesting she really is the cleverest witch of her age full stop really is that far out there but that's not what he's saying there, no.

As for fandom, well, yeah, we love tropes and cliches... except when we hate them. LOL

If you really think about it, there have been far more words written in fanfic than in canon. So it's sort of natural that you'll see something repeat (endlessly) if you're reading, say, a lot of Harry fic.

[nutmeg-44.livejournal.com]

I agree with your assessment. The quote says she's the brightest 14-yr old but not that she's the brightest ever! I've never been a big fan of fandom's love of nicknames especially "'Moine". Ugh! I hate that one. I hate 'Weaslette' to a lesser extent.

[lightofdaye]

*snort* oh dear, do i have a thing about that?

Ha! True, but it doesn't get brought up by fanfic nearly as often. You should change that!

[lightofdaye]

That's true enough. And I'm sure there are lots other statements about Hermione's intelligence out there but they all tend to be more like 'cleverest in the year' rather than 'cleverest evah.'

True! And sometimes its just that we like it when we're the ones using it lol. Or don't realise how often it has been used in fandom at large.

i do tend to read more harry fic than anything else. Tends to skew my view.

[lightofdaye]

oh gosh yes! I might use Mione occasionally though. But not every other sentence.

Slytherins using Weaslette for Ginny usually sounds very forced to me.

[nutmeg-44.livejournal.com]

I try not to use them in my writing just because I can't recall seeing them written in canon. Granted, my OTP is decidedly not canon by any means, but I try to stay within the realm of believability and I just can't see the characters saying 'Mione'. Perhaps 'Weaslette' if they were being incredibly patronizing but beyond that...No. Ugh!

[torino10154]

Butting in but if Draco says "Weasel", Lavender calls Ron "Won-Won", Lily says "Sev", and Lily even calls Wormtail (which is already Peter's nickname) "Wormy", sadly I think really bad nicknames are canon-ish. Which isn't to say I like them. ROFL Just I think people do have them. Does that make sense?

Oh, also, people have Hermione say "Ronald" far too much. But I do hate Mione unless it's used like ONCE when IDK Ron's in the hospital doped up. LOL

[tamlane.livejournal.com]

Butting in (sorry!)... I thought Ron used 'Mione several times in the books?

This is why I write next gen girls. LOL.

[lightofdaye]

Oddly, semi-conscious Ron was exactly where i think I would use it.

The other PoA thought I had was that 'wormtail' should have been a huge tip off in universe. Exactly like Lupin being a werewolf should not have been a surprise. lol.

[lightofdaye]

yes nikki and tori and people. :P

[tamlane.livejournal.com]

I'm innocent, your honor!

[torino10154]

I looked online (not in the books LOL) and there's nothing on the nickname page at HP_Lexicon and there's also nothing on her Wiki page under "also known as" which has stuff like "Hermy" from Grawp and "Herm-own-ninny" by Viktor.

LMAO I also found this forum discussion from 2005!

The nickname 'Mione for Hermione. It's incredibly widespread, yet no one's ever called her that in canon.

That's even before HBP I think so it would have to be in the last two books if it does exist.

[lightofdaye]

you looked things up? That's cheating! :P

[tamlane.livejournal.com]

Shiny! I was too lazy to look it up. ;D

You mentioned Ron being doped up, and maybe that's what I was thinking? When he gets hit by the love potion/poison and calls out for her in the hospital?

'Mione doesn't seem like an unusual shortening of Hermione to me, and Ron's quite lazy that way, but all things in moderation, no?

[nutmeg-44.livejournal.com]

I know nicknames are never graceful or dignified and there are some really terrible ones in canon but 'Mione just grates on every single nerve in my body for some reason.

Re: Hermione's use of 'Ronald', I only see it as applicable if she's mad at him for some reason, not as everyday speech. It just sounds far too formal for best friends. When I read her using it, it always plays in my head in the tone of that moment in PoA when she says, 'Ronald has lost his rat'. Can't unhear the tone.

[nutmeg-44.livejournal.com]

I love reading Lily Luna with Scorpius or the older male Slytherins. I'm a perv... >.>

[tamlane.livejournal.com]

Oh lord, if that makes you pervy, there's no hope for me. LMAO!!!

[nutmeg-44.livejournal.com]

Haha, Vindication!

I like when the teenage girls seduce older men. It feels skeevy when it's the other way round.

[nearlyconscious.livejournal.com]

I always saw it shrunk to "cleverest witch of your age", which is different still but not as brutally different as "the age". Still implies that Hermione is cleverer than anyone in her generation.

[mayorhaggar.livejournal.com]

It's funny that you bring this up, because it's something that has always bothered me in fanfic. I especially dislike it when I see it all capitalized like it's an actual title (The Brightest Witch of The Age.) For me it's right up there with the twins constantly finishing each other's sentences, or the ultra cliche in multichapter stories where Harry goes on a shopping trip, buys some superconvenient trunk with a billion features that he never uses, finds out he is the heir of Merlin, Gryffindor, Slytherin, etc., is the richest man in the world, owns Hogwarts and basically every wizarding business of note...I could keep going, but I've probably ranted long enough!

As for Ron, I've always liked to think of his moniker as 'Roonil Wazlib.' I chuckle every time I think about that name.

[lightofdaye]

You're probably write that that's how it's usually done. :)

And its not that its not true she's smarter than almost everyone, I just thing its harped on about a bit more in fandom than canon.

[lightofdaye]

There are no end of fandom cliché! Though at some point they must have been original...

ha! That's Harry's nickname though :P