Discussion DesignatedHero / Literature

• Hermione Granger acts borderline sociopathic in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. She puts a jinx on the sign-up sheet for Dumbledore's Army where if anybody who signs rats them out, they get a permanent disfigurement of boils in the pattern of the word "Sneak" on their face, regardless of whether they were under a Veritaserum or had sympathetic reasons. When Marietta Edgecomb actually does rat out the DA, she did it out of fear that her mother would lose her job at the Ministry of Magic.

Ok, first of all, it was never mentioned that the curse would work if a person would testify under veritaserum. And secondly we're talking about betraying 28 people and getting them thrown out of school, basically ending their magical career. Marietta was afraid for her mother's job, but at no point she considers simply leaving DA, and at no point we're shown that her fears are legitimate. Indeed, Ron's dad is also at the Ministry, and at no point he's afraid that he might lose his job.

• However, she is still painted as a hero for doing it, to the point where Harry breaks up with Cho because she called Hermione out. The worse part is that Marietta gets her memories of the incident erased, so she is permanently disfigured and a pariah and she doesn't even know why.

Actually it was CHO who broke up with Harry because Harry was defending her. Most importantly it was Kingsley how messed up Marietta's memory, and Hermione had nothing to do with it. And if she DID get the pimples gone simply because she doesn't remember her betrayal, she'd be Karma Houdini.

• It wouldn't be so bad if in the very same book, Umbridge scarring students wasn't treated as a Moral Event Horizon, and yet Hermione was treated like a hero for doing basically the same thing.

Yeah, there is just one small difference. Umbridge did it pretty much For the Evulz, while Hermione did it as punishment for genuine betrayal. It's not like she cut Marietta's face for jaywalking.

• You honestly can't fault David Yates for removing the Jinx from the film adaptation.

This has nothing to do with the example so no comment

• Another strike against Hermione is how she defeats Umbridge, where she leads her to a group of Centaur knowing that her Fantastic Racism would get her in trouble. However, because Umbridge showed no signs of external injury, but was still traumatized by the sound of horse-clopping, and the fact that Centaurs are known rapists in Greek Mythology, many readers believed that Umbridge got gang-raped by them. Hermione's victorious smile as she and Harry left the Forbidden Forest, along with her vast knowledge, implies that she knew full well what was happening to her. Even if Umbridge wasn't raped, you can't deny that whatever happened to her was so traumatic, she blocked it from her memory, with the students making clopping sounds triggering a Post-Traumatic Stress induced panic.

I think author of the entry had forgottent the context of the scene. First of all Umbridge had just threatened to use Cruciatus curse on Harry, which is in-universe Moral Event Horizon(and rightfully so), secondly none of the team was armed at the time, and Hermione had to think on the spot. And finally for all they knew Sirius was being tortured at the time and they had to get to ministry ASAP, so they had to deal with the bitch quickly. Overall considering the circumstances it would come across as Designated Evil if Hermione was shown to be wrong for that.

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Designated hero, literature section (wouldn't add without discussion first) - Siegfried, opera of that name by Wagner. (May have been -meant- to be more likeable, mind...)

(Actually, who needs love when one has music?...)