The Harry Potter franchise will be popular no matter how much time passes, as it continues to taste success despite the core series having ended a decade prior. Much of the popularity comes from the trio of Harry, Hermione, and Ron, who are also known as the Golden Trio.
Since the years following Harry’s defeat of Lord Voldemort, the trio has been deeply analyzed by fans and contemporary critics, which has uncovered a number of things that now seem problematic even if they didn’t once. These are things related to their activities at Hogwarts, their time as Dumbledore’s Army founders, and the roles the trio took on when they were together.
Attacking Neville
In the climax of Sorcerer’s Stone, Neville attempted to stop the trio from leaving the dorm room so that Gryffindor wouldn’t lose points. However, he was petrified by Hermione, which was endorsed by Ron and Harry as well, with Ron claiming that it was “for Neville’s own good.”
Although Neville got 10 points for Gryffindor for his efforts, fans have since pointed out that Dumbledore essentially let the trio’s assault of another student slide. With many also considering Dumbledore’s last-minute points allocation as unfair, the trio attacking Neville isn’t as understandable as it once seemed.
Ron And Hermione's Treatment Of Each Other Over Crookshanks And Harry's Favoritism Toward Ron
A lot of the bad attitude from the trio was passed as teen immaturity back when the books were new, but the context of ill-treatment has since been rethought. This includes Ron and Hermione’s awful behavior during the Crookshanks-Scabbers fiasco.
Hermione refused to acknowledge that her cat was trying to eat Ron’s rat, while the latter openly vilified Hermione to embarrass her. Harry’s role has also since been criticized by fans as he cut off contact with Hermione despite her having done nothing wrong to him.
Their Constant Rulebreaking
There were more than a few times where Harry deserved to lose House points, and his friends were usually involved. All of these instances saw them break school rules to have their way, which they justified by claiming it was for the betterment of Hogwarts.
However, the consequences of rule-breaking in real life such as undermining teacher authority and property damage have since led to people considering the trio’s actions as selfish. After all, they were wrong about things like Snape being a villain, meaning their rule-breaking should have been punished but wasn’t.
Their Endorsement Of The Curse On Marietta Edgecombe
When the Order of the Phoenix book first arrived, fans were busy fuming over the injustice the Ministry was serving to Harry to fully consider other injustices. Marietta Edgecombe ratted out Dumbledore’s Army to the Ministry, following which Hermione’s jinx of “SNEAK” appeared permanently on her face.
While Marietta deserved comeuppance for being a traitor, the fact that Hermione never fixed her curse -- which Ron and Harry agreed with -- now seems mean-spirited. That’s because most have realized that Marietta was only trying to save her mother’s job at the Ministry and that she, too, had been swayed by the Ministry’s propaganda rather than having deliberately malicious intentions.
Their Tendency To Take Their Anger Out On Each Other
The trio had a habit of lashing out at one another whenever someone was in a bad mood, which the other two tended to take without argument. This has been reevaluated in the last few years, as it comes across as an unhealthy practice where verbal abuse is taken lightly.
After all, Harry was outright shown to be scared of Hermione whenever she yelled at him and Ron over things like exams and homework. Moreover, Hermione and Ron were downright terrified of Harry during the fifth year, where they would even stammer their words in fear when speaking to him.
Their Disregard For Collateral Damage
As Harry was the point of view character, audiences were encouraged to think as he did. However, looking from a third-person point of view over the years, it becomes clear that the trio had a disregard for collateral damage, leading to many getting hurt.
This was best seen in the Ministry battle between the Death Eaters and Order of the Phoenix, where Sirius lost his life and Harry’s friends were hospitalized, all because of a false vision Harry had. The trio’s creation of Dumbledore’s Army also nearly led to all the participants getting expelled.
Their Entitled Mentality Toward Problem Solving
Harry being the main character often made fans think that it was his right to be involved in all the conflicts. However, a deeper analysis into this since then has revealed that the trio actually liked to stick their noses in business that didn’t involve them.
They were never given the responsibility of protecting the Sorcerer’s Stone, finding the Chamber of Secrets, or investigating Snape’s past as a Death Eater. Instead, the three willingly pursued matters that didn’t relate to them due to their feeling that they were entitled to find out what was going on.
Pinning The Blame On Snape For Most Things
While the three friends were right about cowards like Malfoy to an extent, they had the habit of pinning most of the blame for everything that ever went wrong on Snape. Of course, this has aged very badly due to the reveal that Snape was always a protagonist, without whose protection the trio would have died.
To this end, their actions like Hermione causing Snape to catch fire, the three attacking him in the Shrieking Shack, and their accusation toward him being Voldemort’s servant have all taken on a negative context.
Their Disregard For Moaning Myrtle's Feelings
Moaning Myrtle is a character who was passed off as comic relief when the Harry Potter series was active, but has been seen as a tragic victim of bullying in recent times. The trio didn’t help matters for her, as Harry and Ron were known to find her antics to be funny.
Hermione didn’t outright antagonize Myrtle but her choice of using her bathroom to create the Polyjuice potion showed Hermione disregarding Myrtle's desire to be left alone. The trio’s actions are now generally considered to be unsympathetic toward Myrtle, who didn’t deserve to be treated this way.
Their Habit Of Falling Into Stereotypical Roles
When the Harry Potter series was active, there wasn’t as much awareness over stereotypes. In recent times, Ron and Harry’s reliance on Hermione to cook for them simply because she was a girl in Deathly Hallows is considered problematic, seeing as it wasn’t supposed to be her job and she was doing the brunt of the work in searching for Horcruxes anyway.
Similarly, Harry’s tendency to boss his friends around is also seen as a stereotypical leader move, as he had the habit of having the final word even if he was wrong. Finally, Ron and Hermione’s habit of bickering like a married couple doesn’t seem as charming as before due to the fact that they were teenagers.