Things We Saw Today: Have an Out of this World Night’s Sleep Under this Astronaut Duvet Cover

In defense of Hermione, there was no real love triangle in the Harry Potter series except in the mind of the readers.

Isn’t the question of whether or not Katniss’ parents are married impossible to answer? I mean, yes, the dad is dead, but that doesn’t mean they weren’t married to begin with.

I’m also not sure how I feel about them checking her for “poor self-esteem,” because I remember her being fairly happy with herself aside from the occasional adolescent angst (which, YA novels…). But it’s been a while since I’ve read ‘em. Would never take anything away from Hermione!

Yeah, the phrasing is awkward there. A less weirdly worded version of “intact family unit” would have been better.

It’s been a while since I’ve read them, but I wouldn’t put Katniss in the “poor self-esteem” category either. I seem to remember Katniss having an “I’ve got shit to do” sort of mindset. It’s kind of sad that is seen as “poor self-esteem.”

She definitely isn’t “Shy and Quiet.”

My memory of the books is quite similar to yours. Of all three heroes, she was the most proud, the most confident in her abilities. That’s what made Ron & her such a good couple, IMO – the usual roles were reversed.

Add this to the “shy and quiet” argument that MX pointed out and I believe we have good reasons to wonder if whoever made the list actually read those books…

The Chart is wrong, Clary does have a sibling, it’s kind of a huge plot point.

Have to chime in and agree with everyone else on here. The chart is silly.

I saw Warm Bodies last night and strongly disagree with Julie being shy/quiet. Sure she’s quiet in a lot of the beginning of it, but it’s because she’s rightfully scared as she’s been kidnapped by a frickin zombie. (not a spoiler, happens in the first 10 mins of the movie) Any other interactions we she her in actually show her as being the opposite of shy/quiet.

I also disagree with having Haymitch as the protector in Hunger Games. If they insisted on listing a protector to prove their point, I would have chosen Peeta over Haymitch.

Also, I don’t like the feeling that they’re trying to make me upset with the whole ‘virgin’ thing. For 16 and 17 year olds, it doesn’t seem that odd to me that they’d be virgins. And the 19 and 20 year old are question marks. I mean, overall I agree that Hollywood movies push the virgin ideal, but here (minus Twilight) it just seems like whether or not they were virgins really doesn’t matter.

I wonder how much they stretched the truth on the other 4 I know nothing about?

On a side note, I saw the new extended trailer for Beautiful Creatures and was really out off by the 20 seconds of the boyfriend yelling (literally screaming) at Lena about how she’s not going to “go dark” because he won’t let her because he’s here and he’s not leaving. Everything in that trailer seemed to indicate that this girl is screwed were it not for this “dangerous” mortal boy no one wants her to love and who tells her things about herself she doesn’t know. Major controlling factor.

Despite how cheesy the movie sounded, I was a bit intrigued, but now I’m kind of icked out by the whole thing.

Is the book that way? Is she basically another Bella?

thank you! I was thinking the same thing.

More evidence that whoever made the chart hasn’t read the books?

Lena is definitely not another Bella, and while I can see how you got that interpretation from the preview, that’s not actually how things are, unless they decided to Twilightify the movie.

Like everyone else I’m finding the char very problematic. Hermione actually does have a supernatural boyfriend, Katniss and Julie’s parents aren’t married because one of them is dead, Hermione and Clary don’t have love triangles, in fact Alec is gay anyway, and boiling the Host down to a love triangle is a gross oversimplification since there are technically four people involved, the entire poor self esteem row is questionable, Clary does have a sibling, which as stated is a HUGE plot point so I don’t know how they missed that, I don’t understand the inclusion of the classroom or age rows, since these are YA adult heroines, although is Julie 19? I haven’t read the book, only seen the movie, but she was already a teenager when the zombie apocalypse began and the movie takes place 8 years on, Bella doesn’t remain a virgin, which is the whole point of Breaking Dawn. Most of the shy/quiet row is wrong simply for equating shy and quiet, and I wouldn’t say Haymitch protected Katniss, at least not in the way that the graph implies. And those are just the problems that I found.

I suppose technically Ron counts as a supernatural boyfriend, what with being a wizard and all, but it doesn’t really fit the spirit of the thing since Hermione is too. In fact, going off pure ability, she’s more supernatural than he is.

The only real love triangle involving Hermione is between Hermione, Ron and Viktor Krum, and even that is a bit of a stretch since Ron takes FOREVER to try to woo Hermione. The only love triangle that has anything to do with Harry and Hermione is when Rita Skeeter makes up a story that Hermione is going out with both Harry and Viktor. Ron and Harry never fight over a girl.

Also, Hermione has poor self-esteem? Not in any Harry Potter book I’ve read! She’s pretty happy and confident, sometimes too much so. I suppose people could say that she is answering questions in class to prove something, but I actually just think she’s kind of a nerd who likes answering questions. Which also means she’s not shy and quiet. She’s actually quite mouthy at times, especially when she’s doing things like trying to get people to join S.P.E.W.

And I wouldn’t say that Haymitch is Katniss’ protector, either. He tries, as do Peeta and Gale, but Katniss chafes against attempts at protections throughout the entire series.

Finally, what do they mean by “future?”

Okay, good. Does the guy have this prominent of a role in the book as he seems to have in the film?

And on that list of Heroines in YA… not a single woman of colour.

Kinda telling, isn’t it?

I think it means whether the story takes place in the future, but I’m not familiar enough with all of the stories to be sure.

Also a comment on the chart – going to the NextMovie site where it’s posted, they tout the chart simply as a guide for keeping track of all the different heroines. So, I guess they weren’t really trying to make any politico-socio-cultural point at all. Or if they were they aren’t saying it out loud.

The only thing I see as really being “sad” is the white washing….but isn’t that always the problem with Hollywood and mass media, regardless of the genre? Like others have said, these are young girls….what’s weird/wrong about being a virgin or having an adult around who’s generally looking out for you or being in a classroom or being shy/having low self esteem cuz for pete’s sake you’re a teenager? Well, I can see the benefits of showing girls it’s ok to be confident in yourself, but as many have said quite a few of these girls are actually pretty confident.

Not in the first two books, no. But by Mockingjay, Katniss struck me as fairly broken and if not drowning in self-doubt/low self-esteem, at least a bit dampened by it.

Clary is in a love triangle with Jace and Simon, it’s just kind of one sided on Simon’s part.

Yeah, how is Hermione shy or quiet, again? It seems they really wanted to fill those quotas.

Not a single woman of color, lesbian, disability, body type OTHER than skinny, etc.

They went the ‘diversity is hair colors’ route, again. Bravo!

Yeah, I can see your point on that.

True. So that deserved to be in the love triangle section, not Clary Jace and Alec. Unless they were meaning Jace as the center person, although i can’t remember if Alec was in love with Jace at first or if Clary just thought he was…

Yeah, Ethan is the love interest, but the previews portrays him unfairly, he isn’t controlling in the book or the movie, he actually believes in Lena’s ability to choose her own path more than most of the other characters. The scene where he is yelling out her telling her he won’t let her go dark and such, taken out of context, seems bad, but I promise he’s not controlling.

Thanks for the info!

Mockingjay Katniss struck me more as “suffering from PTSD” than “low self-esteem.” Though, I guess those aren’t too far off?

If anything, I think Hermione is kinda smug, but in a very charming way. I think the BAMF parody nailed this part of her.

well, there was Victor Krum, which didn’t stand a chance when Ron got serious. J.K. apparently is the date-exotically-when-you’re-young,-then-fall-in-love-with-your-childhood-chum-(or-their-younger-sister) type.

If I remember correctly, I think Katniss was supposed to be a lot more brown in the book. I think though that maybe this is only supposed to reflect the movies..?

I think this kind of scorecard could be really valuable, but apparently the scorer and I have a different mindset. Instead of single parent, perhaps “intact family?” Shy & quiet are not the same.

Bella is “popular girl” insecure–She doesn’t think she’s pretty (while everyone reacts like she clearly is beautiful), can’t live without her boyfriend, but she also thinks she’s too hot for this small town. She’s the type of girl who would say, “i’m fat,” and her friends would be expected to say, “No, you’re not,” instead of having them offer diet tips or have an uncomfortable silence that means “You’re right, but it would be rude to say it.”

I think PTSD was definitely the root cause, but the trauma manifested as “why are they relying on me… I’m broken, I can’t do this, I couldn’t save people who cared about me, I’m just a sham, I don’t deserve to be here…”

I mean, it was a *realistic* reaction to what she’d been through and lost. But she did spend about half of the book being shell-shocked and plagued with self-doubt.

I totally forgot about Krum. Of course, they put a picture of Harry on their chart so they missed the exit you provided and ran right into the wall…

If I remember correctly, Alec is kinda in love with Jace, but he acknowledges that it will go nowhere. It all ends when he and *SPOILER (maybe)* Magnus get together.