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Culture War Roundup for the week of August 10, 2026

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If the story was written from Hermione's perspective, it would be much more interesting.

I'm sorry to join the "reading QCs a month later" pile-on, but I have to ask: are you sure this is true?

I've always thought of it as a bit of genius for Rowling to make Hermione a side character. From a Watsonian perspective Hermione is halfway to being a Mary Sue, but that turns out to be fine, because she doesn't fit the most important part of the Doylist definition of a Mary Sue: she's not Our Main Character. We don't live in her head, we spend a bunch of time away from her, and we don't even meet her until several chapters into the first book, so we don't ever begin to relate to her as a Wish Fulfillment stand-in. She can face a threat capable of incapacitating her for half a book without readers missing the climax. She can be a Double Witch with extra-secret time-turner powers or be the focus of a love triangle with a celebrity athlete, without those things feeling like just a Twilight-style annoying paean to how great Our Protagonist is, because we see those things from the outside. She doesn't need to break characterization and seize the Idiot Ball to get into interesting conflicts, because we get emotionally invested enough into Harry that we don't get too annoyed when he's idiot enough for the both of them. (which he kind of has to be; since he fits a ton of other Mary Sue traits, he'd get pretty annoying too if he wasn't regularly failing and getting smacked around)

I agree that the structure of the book is Harry centered. We only have access to his internal monologue and his perspective and we do not have access to Hermione. But there is a long tradition of such a story, even in English literature: the Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson dynamics.

In fact it fits quite well. Potter similarly to Watson is the brave one, somebody who acts, who goes wand in hand to brave dangers and who is center of the perspective and action. Holmes similarly to Hermione is the hidden genius who comes and goes with solutions, he is the central figure who solves thing behind the scenes and which are to be often utilized by Watson. Crucially, not having access to Holmes internal monologue makes him more of a mysterious figure, which makes him less of a Mary Sue. And he is undisputed main character of the story.

In Harry Potter it is of course not as explicit as Watson's subservience and worship of Holmes. Plus Hermione is only one of many such characters, where Holmes is the ensemble of the system: Hermione, Dumbledore, McGonagall, Snape, Moody, Order of Phoenix etc. who do the heavy lifting behind the scenes: plotting, planning, protecting, building structures which Potter then visits as a curated explorer exactly how Watson has his own adventures that were sanitized by Holmes genius.

In the end I do not "identify" with Potter. He is not a leader, or a hero. He is brave and he possesses good qualities, but his victories are result of luck and/or insane work of much more important people behind the scenes. If anything, Hermione is the one who really is the hero as she shares enough of the "view time" from the story perspective with constant input into various plans. That would be my argument.