The wonderful wizarding franchise of Harry Potter has morphed into a phenomenon of which few are bigger or better in the pop culture sphere. Penned by J. K. Rowling before being brought to life on screen across a decade, there is an immense iconography birthed from the movie, from Harry himself to Voldemort to Dumbledore to Hogwarts.
One of the most well-known features of the franchise and Hogwarts are the houses; Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw, and Slytherin. Every Potter fan has their house and has likely done the official sorting quiz more than once. Each individual within the four houses is chock full of traits and qualities that have led to the Sorting Hat sorting them into that specific house, and these traits can be both good and bad. So, what are the best and worst traits of each of the Hogwarts houses?
BEST OF GRYFFINDOR
Gryffindor is the most famous house alongside Slytherin, which is understandable, considering it is the house of the franchise's titular character and his friends. It is a house that has a lot of positive qualities that make it a house perfect for the series' main protagonists.
Gryffindors, first and foremost, are brave and courageous. The house is built on their members being brave and standing up in the face of fear, danger, and pain, and rewards the courage of overcoming fear and undertaking strenuous tasks despite said fear. Alongside this, Gryffindors are daring, with a penchant for jumping into challenging situations and dealing with them. They are also adventurous and seeking out the thrill and fun, which is an inspiring trait. Other positive characteristics of a Gryffindor include loyalty, which is always admirable.
WORST OF GRYFFINDOR
A lot of what makes Gryffindor good, and some of their best traits, also lead to some of their worst qualities. Despite housing a lot of the franchise's main heroes, there are undoubtedly some negative traits possessed by those who don the red and gold.
Gryffindors are stubborn, and they can at times have narrow minds and think in black-and-white - focusing on one thing or one idea and not allowing themselves to be convinced otherwise. As well as that, Gryffindors are hotheaded. Harry is a prime example of this, controlled by emotions and short-tempered, which also ties into another of their worst traits, recklessness. By enemies of the house, Gryffindors get often criticized for taking part in egotistical, nonsensical heroics, for the sake of being a hero, which may have merit.
BEST OF HUFFLEPUFF
Hufflepuff is an often misunderstood house, seen as one that falls bottom of the pecking order, and is stereotyped as a house that does not produce great wizards. Those such as Newt Scamander, Nymphadora Tonks, and even Cedric Diggory prove this to be untrue.
Hufflepuffs have many a good trait, and the main ones are loyalty and hard work. They are a house that sticks by their friends and are unbelievably kind, another of their great traits. They work hard and have an ethic that differs from other houses but is just as good, if not better. Their humbleness is what affects their hard work as they do not boast; they simply accept any work challenge and do it to the best of their ability. Hufflepuffs are fair, just, modest, wise, and taking of any witch or wizard, which often gets the house a bad rap, but is an admirable trait.
WORST OF HUFFLEPUFF
Hufflepuff is a house with a lot to love, and a lot of positive traits, but that does not mean it is exempt from criticism. Hufflepuff is a widely criticized house, and some of that negativity is earned.
One of the worst traits of a Hufflepuff is the fact that they can be pushovers, far too reliant on others, with an inability to voice their own opinion or stand up for themselves because they do not want to offend others or create conflict. Ultimately, too nice is the way to describe a Hufflepuff, which may not seem like a bad thing, but has a lot of problems. On top of that, while Hufflepuff is a modest, fair, and accepting house, there is a severe lack of individual and collective pride that should exist.
BEST OF RAVENCLAW
Ravenclaw is another house that is often overshadowed by the shenanigans of Gryffindor and Slytherin. Ravenclaw does not get a massively lousy rep, however, and has a lot of qualities that should make Ravenclaws feel lucky to be a part of the house.
Above all else, Ravenclaws value, seek out, and love intelligence. Intelligence is, of course, a good thing and is the main trait of a Ravenclaw, which is why Hermione Granger very nearly got sorted into the house. They are smart, witty, and wise and on top of that are creative and original, with a lot of its members having an air of eccentricity, just look at Luna Lovegood who is a fantastic character. They are motivated intellectually, and original in their thoughts and rightfully proud about it.
WORST OF RAVENCLAW
As is the case with every house, though, Ravenclaw has its fair share of flaws and negative traits. Similar to Hufflepuff, they do not have much rivalry with other houses, but that does not change the fact Ravenclaw has problems.
For one, Ravenclaws tend to be extremely judgemental. They have a cold, more introverted nature, and are perfectionists, so judge other people, and other houses for not being as able as them, or as intellectually talented as them and can be stuck up in terms of intelligence. Ravenclaws trait of being a perfectionist is also detrimental as it leads them to be fussy and get worked up over the smallest and most meaningless of things.
BEST OF SLYTHERIN
Speaking of stereotypes, Slytherin is undoubtedly the house that gets the most negative rep and is often called an evil house, or at least a bad house that only produces dark wizards with little to none redeeming attributes. This is not true, however, as Slytherins have a lot of great traits.
Front and center of the Slytherin ideology is ambition, striving for greatness, for success, to set out goals and achieve them, then set out more goals and work for them too. On average, those in the Slytherin house are immensely intelligent, with a cunning way about them, and a brilliant sense of resourcefulness. Slytherins also tend to be natural leaders and possess the quality of being very loyal, similar to a Gryffindor or Hufflepuff.
WORST OF SLYTHERIN
Slytherin, though, is, of course, the house that produces the highest amount of dark wizards, and produced the worst of them all in Tom Riddle. Therefore it is clear that there are a lot of bad traits within them.
A trait that is within not all Slytherins, but is definitely common in this house, is cruelty, being nasty, and being uncaring. More general negative characteristics of the house are that they are selfish, only caring about themselves in the end, or at least themselves and those very close to them, and will do anything by any means to get ahead. They are also immensely arrogant, but not in the way of Gryffindor or Ravenclaw; instead, they are smug, with their nose turned up at those they deem unworthy of their presence, which happens to be a lot of people.