Rules: There may be spoilers for all seven books and 8 movies Each match will last for exactly 24 hours. Any votes after that point will not count. Discussion is encouraged but not required. Make sure all of your votes are obvious. I should know who you are voting for, basically don't bury your vote in the middle of a paragraph. No alt-voting. Ties will be replayed the next day with the rest of the matches. No vote-saves or rallying for specific characters. Telling people to vote is encouraged but don't tell them how to vote! Don't complain about the seeds, they were the result of a save-my. Because matches can overlap, results will be in this topic. http://www.gamefaqs.com/boards/8-gamefaqs-contests/61327435
Today's Match: (1)Hermione Jean Granger (3)Neville Longbottom
-- Warning_Crazy Winner of Board 8 Big Brother! i may be running for senatorship (thanks nio) but i'm no SUPERNICEDOG
Screen time isn't close, of course. But they've both got enough screen time to have extensive character development, so a screen time gap at this level feels like less of an issue. "enough" vs "enough with some extra".
Hermione is funnier, as far as humor goes. Her boggart is Professor McGonnigal telling her she failed everything. She has hilarious lines like "Just because you've got the emotional range of a teaspoon", "And it's supposed to smell differently to each of us, according to what attracts us, and I can smell freshly mowed grass and new parchment and...", *punches Malfoy* "That felt good." "Stop, stop, stop, I know I've failed everything!"
But in all the serious categories like character development, Neville has this locked up, quite comfortably. Oh, don't get me wrong; Hermione has some character development. She goes from being anal about breaking rules to actually encouraging them to break rules at times. But she is a bit of a Mary Sue--Rowling has outright admitted that Hermione is a proxy character for herself. Not only that, but Hermione has the more problematic Mary Sue traits--she's overflowing in deus ex machina, and it often feels like there isn't anything she can't do. This bothers me quite a bit more than the more common Mary Sue trait of "character X has no flaws and is kind-of generic." In fact, the worst plot hole in the series can be traced back to Hermione (let's just put time travel into this universe--what could possibly go wrong???)
Neville, by contrast, is one of the better-developed characters. He has a clear arc from "practically a squib, and overweight, and unpopular" to "stone cold badass leader". Which...is a fairly generic arc, but still more than 95% of Harry Potter characters get. But there's texture to it too; the way he turns pale when he sees the Crucio spell performed. The way he hides his parents fate. The way he looks defiantly at his friends when they discover his parents fate. The way he works his ass off when Bellatrix gets out of jail. The way he learns to stand up to his grandmother, and that there are even classes he does better than her, even if he does some classes worse. The way we learn that he also could have fulfilled Trelawny's prophecy, which seems absurd when we first hear it, but quite plausible by the end of book 7.
My gut says Hermione, my brain says Neville.
And...I think I'm going to go with my gut. Hermione is totally someone I'd avatar on a forum, or dress up for for halloween, or identify with as I read the book. Neville isn't. Call me sexist if you like (I'll freely admit that I'm probably biased towards female characters)--but this is a close enough match that I'm not too bothered regardless of the winner.
(1)Hermione Jean Granger (3)Neville Longbottom
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Cats land on their feet. Toast lands peanut butter side down. A cat with toast strapped to its back will hover above the ground in a state of quantum indecision
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When you've got a pretty-boy monkey on your back constantly calling you a puppet, you hardly want to seem like you're happy to be used. - DSakaCharanJ
(1)Hermione Jean Granger Hermione is one of the best characters in the series, honestly. I like Neville -- but I don't think I'd call him Top 10 Material. Hermione just has a ton of great little moments that stand out to me. Her friendship with Harry may be the best relationship in the series.
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See You In Another Life, Brother. New York Giants - The Patriot Slayers