Finally got around to reading this. Sorry for the slowness. I read part of it, then later came back for the rest.
I much appreciate your defense of Cho. I tend to be very impatient with fans who like to diss or demonize the "sweet, popular girl" -- whether she's Jean or Cho or Lana Lang, or someone else. I don't think it says anything kind about ourselves as fan authors and women.
That said, I never saw Cedric and Cho as being deeply in love -- but nor do I think they needed to be. They're teenagers, for heaven's sake! Moreover, teens who shared a common interest in Quidditch, and occupied the same position on their teams. I've always suspected that Cho was a comfortable date for Cedric, while she was a bit starry-eyed about him. Nothing wrong with either of those things, at their age (and that's something I think important). Just as I don't feel any need to demonize either Rogue or Bobby Drake just because I don't think they're a very good long-term couple. Or, for that matter, Ron and Hermione. I think Ron and Hermione are pretty good for each other ... at the age they are in the books. By the same token, I tend to be skeptical that any of those pairs would last (or be healthy) as adults, whether Cho and Cedric, Bobby and Rogue, or Ron and Hermione. Doesn't mean they're not good as teens, or that any of them must be cast as bad people. They're all perfectly good people.
Nonetheless -- and the point it seems to me that a lot of fans (whether HP or X-Men) seem to forget ... something can be good, or at least not bad, at one point in one's life, but be entirely different 10 years later. (Pushing 42, I'm all too aware of how much one's life can change, between 20 and 40. (g))
Quite honestly, I like Cho. She's a sweet girl who doesn't want to hurt anyone, if she can avoid it, but who is nonetheless struggling to deal with the fact her boyfriend was murdered. As you say/imply, she doesn't have to be madly in love with him for that to be DISTURBING. I recall, when I was in high school (way back when) that a member of our bad died suddenly of mytocarditis. He was find, laughing and hanging out one day with his fellow drummers. The next he was dead. Overall good guy, well-liked. 600 people attended his funeral. And teens are an Emo bunch. (g) LOTS of people were more deeply disturbed by his death than their relationship to him really merited. Didn't matter. What they were really reacting to was what, for most of them, was their first real brush with human mortality. We die. Even young, handsome and with our whole lives before us -- we can die. That's a Big Deal for teens. And I think Cho's grief is as much for mortality, and interrupted possibility, as for Cedric. And that's normal at her age. There would be something very odd about her if she WASN'T reacting that way. It's kids who have a premature experience of death -- or who are very close to the deceased -- who are reacting as much to personal loss as to 'loss of innocence.' In Cho's case, whatever she really felt for Cedric, it's been rudely interrupted by her realizing that he can die. And so can she -- and this latter is as important as the former, I think. If she's selfish for that, well, again, it's normal at her age.
The one place where I may differ with you is in the movie portrayal of Cedric. OTOH, I do definitely agree that they left out things they should have added! But ironically, one of the scenes I rather LIKED was that scene in the courtyard when Harry comes to tell Cedric about the dragons -- the way the scene was laid out in the film, and the subtle (non-verbal) cues ... what it tells us about Cedric. I find that scene to be (for me) one of the more humanizing of Cedric, without making him (to my mind) a bad guy.
So here's a bit of my alternative reading of it -- and Cedric-- based on the book, film, and my experience with pretty people (and only children ... being one myself).
no subject
I much appreciate your defense of Cho. I tend to be very impatient with fans who like to diss or demonize the "sweet, popular girl" -- whether she's Jean or Cho or Lana Lang, or someone else. I don't think it says anything kind about ourselves as fan authors and women.
That said, I never saw Cedric and Cho as being deeply in love -- but nor do I think they needed to be. They're teenagers, for heaven's sake! Moreover, teens who shared a common interest in Quidditch, and occupied the same position on their teams. I've always suspected that Cho was a comfortable date for Cedric, while she was a bit starry-eyed about him. Nothing wrong with either of those things, at their age (and that's something I think important). Just as I don't feel any need to demonize either Rogue or Bobby Drake just because I don't think they're a very good long-term couple. Or, for that matter, Ron and Hermione. I think Ron and Hermione are pretty good for each other ... at the age they are in the books. By the same token, I tend to be skeptical that any of those pairs would last (or be healthy) as adults, whether Cho and Cedric, Bobby and Rogue, or Ron and Hermione. Doesn't mean they're not good as teens, or that any of them must be cast as bad people. They're all perfectly good people.
Nonetheless -- and the point it seems to me that a lot of fans (whether HP or X-Men) seem to forget ... something can be good, or at least not bad, at one point in one's life, but be entirely different 10 years later. (Pushing 42, I'm all too aware of how much one's life can change, between 20 and 40. (g))
Quite honestly, I like Cho. She's a sweet girl who doesn't want to hurt anyone, if she can avoid it, but who is nonetheless struggling to deal with the fact her boyfriend was murdered. As you say/imply, she doesn't have to be madly in love with him for that to be DISTURBING. I recall, when I was in high school (way back when) that a member of our bad died suddenly of mytocarditis. He was find, laughing and hanging out one day with his fellow drummers. The next he was dead. Overall good guy, well-liked. 600 people attended his funeral. And teens are an Emo bunch. (g) LOTS of people were more deeply disturbed by his death than their relationship to him really merited. Didn't matter. What they were really reacting to was what, for most of them, was their first real brush with human mortality. We die. Even young, handsome and with our whole lives before us -- we can die. That's a Big Deal for teens. And I think Cho's grief is as much for mortality, and interrupted possibility, as for Cedric. And that's normal at her age. There would be something very odd about her if she WASN'T reacting that way. It's kids who have a premature experience of death -- or who are very close to the deceased -- who are reacting as much to personal loss as to 'loss of innocence.' In Cho's case, whatever she really felt for Cedric, it's been rudely interrupted by her realizing that he can die. And so can she -- and this latter is as important as the former, I think. If she's selfish for that, well, again, it's normal at her age.
The one place where I may differ with you is in the movie portrayal of Cedric. OTOH, I do definitely agree that they left out things they should have added! But ironically, one of the scenes I rather LIKED was that scene in the courtyard when Harry comes to tell Cedric about the dragons -- the way the scene was laid out in the film, and the subtle (non-verbal) cues ... what it tells us about Cedric. I find that scene to be (for me) one of the more humanizing of Cedric, without making him (to my mind) a bad guy.
So here's a bit of my alternative reading of it -- and Cedric-- based on the book, film, and my experience with pretty people (and only children ... being one myself).