Both Cho and Lavender were villainized in favour of Hermione and Ginny. They both faught in the battle of Hogwarts and were a part of DA. They are brave and courageous.
totally agree, I always hate how Cho was written to be “too emotional” to be right for Harry to contrast how much less emotional Ginny is, because it’s like (besides the fact that there’s nothing wrong with being emotional ofc) Cho wasn’t emotional in personality, she was crying and sad because he boyfriend died, like if Harry died Ginny would be crying too 😭😭
@@magicbymikaila I think Harry's trauma with the Dursley's probs played a big role in him not handling crying well, it's not just with cho, even with Hermione, like thinking of the times Ron and Hermione fought and Harry was just so uncomfortable whenever he was left with just Hermione..one example I can think of maybe is the last book when ron left for a while in between but I dunno my memory doesn't serve me very well coz I read hp years ago, only remember the feelings i had not the scenes which served as reason for them. 😢 Anyway, it def though feels like there is a problem with girly girls still coz cho, lavender, Parvati? And literally the worst character in the hp books UMBRIDGE? I mean I def hate her character and do find her severely annoying but sometimes I do wonder whether it's coz of prejudice that her character is written hyperfeminine. But then there's fleur and she's cool so maybe not?😅 Like I do wanna give her the benefit of doubt. Harry is technically supposed to be a character written in a very relatable way, almost to the point that people can self insert themselves into the fantasy through his eyes. And honestly, I mean looking at the audience she could have just purposefully written the povs that way coz she thought the average little boy reading the books might not be a fan of too many girly things.
@@magicbymikailayeah I have a feeling Rowling struggles with deep internal mysogyny because of how she writes women. Like Molly and Ginny hating on Fleur for being a girlie girl, like wtf.
I think Harry and Cho's whole deal was, both were traumatized by Cedric's death, but had different needs and ways of going about it that obviously conflicted with the other. Cho needed to talk about it, but Harry pulls a "avoiding talking about your trauma" PTSD symptom moment. Every time Cho brings up Cedric, it's sending Harry into flight or fight. But she needs to talk about it and get it all out. It really was just the wrong time for them, honestly.
Also worth noting that Marietta seems to be the only friend that stuck with Cho throughout the fifth book. Where previously Harry had always seen her with a big group of girls, all through the fifth book she is either alone or with Marietta (as you say in the video her other friends seem to have fallen out with her). So of course Cho would want to defend her.
Cho was literally a girl who went through something so traumatic at such a young age. Like sure she maybe could have handled it better but she was also young and alone. Justice for Cho
I remember re-reading that scene and feeling the irony that Harry was so annoyed with Cho crying all the time, yet he got to be Capslock Harry to all his friends and loved ones throughout the book and was treated with patience and compassion. I'm not villainizing Harry. Both characters were deeply traumatized and dealing with it differently, but Cho deserved better. Some empathy would have been nice, at least. They both absolutely deserved therapy.
I don’t think it’s really fair to blame Harry OR Cho for their relationship falling apart. They were two teenagers who had both been through traumatic experiences and had no business even entering into a relationship but tried to find some normalcy in one another anyway. They simply weren’t what the other person wanted or needed from a romantic partner, and it lead to disastrous consequences.
@drm726:that’s because they would have been better off being friends since all of Cho’s other friends except for Marietta the other friends of Cho’s all had some sort falling out with Cho and Cho and Harry didn’t really even enter the friend stage even though Iam sure they could be friends
I always felt a bit sorry for Cho. I read it as: they're both teenagers; they're both very human (with human flaws); both have been traumatized and don't have the emotional intelligence to gauge how to talk to each other about it
Honestly Cho and Harry could have been a decent couple if they weren't grieving over Cedric. Cho wanted to talk about it with Harry since he would have understood but Harry didn't want to talk about it since it was so traumatising for him. Messy all around
You didn't change my mind about Cho, but then I never hated her in the first place. I mostly watched the movies. In the movie version, I thought Harry owed Cho an apology. He also owed his date to the Yule ball an apology. It is starting a negative pattern for bad dates with Harry. No, I don't hate Harry either, but I don't love him so much that I am completely blind to his faults.
That dialogue also serves to educate the READER about the fact that while Harry’s thoughts about it are common among teenage boys, that doesn’t mean he was RIGHT.
It's funny because when I first read Order of the Phoenix and got to the part where Harry told Cho he wants to meet with Hermione after on Valentines Day I was so shocked at how dumb Harry was for saying that I glossed over the part where she asked about Cedric. So I never got the Cho Chang hate because I never fully paid attention to that part. I think my brain turned back on the part where Harry says Women...
I never hated Cho. I always wished the two had talked in a later book, and had an understanding of some sort. She threw a lot at Harry, and he panicked. He was young and tactless, and wildy unprepared for the hurricane of emotions she had going on. Nobody ever told him to just hug her and let her cry for a while, which is step 1.
Yeah, I was neutral about Cho and Harry was a terrible boyfriend. I was horrified at the way Harry acted during the whole date. I mean, a cutesy teashop is an appropriate place for a date and even if that's not your thing, you could at least humor the girl for a bit. And then, the way he reacted to Cho crying was just bad. I mean, can you blame her? Of course, she wasn't perfect, but Harry was definitely a horrible boyfriend.
Harry’s thoughts about that represent what boys and men thought of femininity in that era, and it’s why when men today complain about being pressured to be masculine, I view it as something that men can only dismantle by calling out other men’s attitudes. Hell, even today they mock women endlessly for stuff like pumpkin spice lattes and then want to cry on our shoulders when their friends treat them the same way.
I never hated Cho, no idea why I would. Only because she and Harry didn't fit together? They were teens, most teen relationships are not compatible. It's a learning curve. I am though not the biggest fan of Harry and definitely not a fan of Dumbledore.
yeah, I like her because she was like my east asain (specifically chinese) representation in the books. I just wish she got more screen time (or ig book time) to actually develop a personality and character for herself
The way I see it: Harry: Wanting an escape out of all of his trauma & things to deal with. Cho: Wants to have closure & be open about her life & feelings. Conclusion: They were just 2 stupid teenagers who had too much trauma & feelings unexpressed & shouldn’t even date in the first place lol.
All of this is spot on. I always liked Cho. I just saw both her and Harry as traumatized kids who were hurting and didn't know how to act. But then, I first read the books as an adult (and still haven't seen all of the movies). The only thing that made me cringe was her name. Really, Rawling?
I think it comes down to them both grieving and being horrifically traumatized and being together for all the wrong reasons. They didn't actually like each other. They had nothing in common. They didn't really spend time together. Cho had attachment issues because of the sudden loss of Cedric and Harry couldn't trust anyone, thus he couldn't actually talk to her. So all they did was argue and take their grief and frustration out on each other. Toxic relationship. Thats it.
I was never of the mind that Cho was a bad person. She clearly wasn't. I just couldn't understand what was going wrong with the relationship, but the thing I was feeling was that Cho clearly had not yet moved past Cedric's death. And you kind of make it very clear exactly why this is the case.
The book was always written in a way that showed both Harry & Cho, but ESPECIALLY Harry had a lot to learn in communication and relationships, so fully agree!
Ngl I've always been an, "In defense of Cho" person. I think that's partly because I was 20 when I actually read the books and at 18 a boy I'd been friends with since age 4 died... And I went to the morgue with his family and his gf was there completely devestated and isolated from the group ...so I spent a few hours holding her and letting her cry on me because it was devestating that no one in his family seemed to care that they'd been together for quite awhileand had clearly loved each other. So, when I got to Cedric's death and Cho's responses I'd already seen something similar irl and you have to be pretty cold to irl not see how devestating that is to be in Cho's position. Plus, Cho really wasn't bad. Imperfect, sure but a great person.
I never hated Cho. Cho didn’t deserve hate. Also, I’ll defend the kid who snitch by saying it must be scary as hell to be face interrogation by someone as genuinely evil as Umbridge. These are just kids and most people irl wouldn’t stand up to someone so threatening.
I love your analyses. You lay them out so well and your taking points are so well-structured. Tbh, I never really have Cho much thought. I loved your perspective and I'm now eager to restart my annual HP read through.
Wow I never ever thought Cho fucked up or was annoying. I always thought Harry fucked up, because he was too caught up in his own problems to be able to be empathetic with her. And she was just done with him, and then Ginny showed up and Harry was like, yeah okay good enough, and the reader was like, yeah okay good enough too - because Cho just had bad timing. I read the books jillion times ago tho, so maybe that’s not how others would have interpret it.
I actually like Cho, when people say that she's whiny and jealous and always crying, I feel like they forget that she's also just a teenager who's boyfriend was murdered. Shes allowed to be sad, and I don't think it's wierd that she wants to talk about him with Harry either, because she feels like Harry can understand her. Also, what teenage girl wouldn't feel offended if her date keeps bringing up another girl (that the literal newspaper called his girlfriend before, remember that?), on their first real date?? She's also allowed to defend her friend after Hermione literally cursed her face so bad she'll be scarred for life. I think she and Harry just were two young people in a bad situation who wasn't right for each other, at least not there and then, but that doesn't make either of them a bad person.
Do you know, you didn’t change my mind because I always thought this. Cho was traumatized, Harry was traumatized, Cedric was dead, they all had their problems and a little bit of talking would’ve solved like half of them.
A little bit of anything to help them get over Cedrics Death would be helpful I mean we all know how wizards are with therapy or similar, but probably just waiting some time would be so much better. She was a bad girlfriend at the time as he was a bad boyfriend and they were both absolutely occupied with Cedric and all the other drama. Honestly it was trauma-bonding more than a relationship
@@Scarlett.Granger Exactly. She was a bad girlfriend because she was a young teenager with no real relationship experience whose first boyfriend was murdered. He was a bad boyfriend because he was a clueless, emotionally stunted abuse victim who spent most of his early childhood living under the stairs and watched her ex die. They never stood a chance and the fact that they didn’t make it was the most realistic part of any of the books and movies. Also, can they really be called boyfriends/girlfriend? They literally kissed once and went out to a tea shop and he skipped out on her. I wouldn’t exactly call that a relationship.
JK Rowling wrote Harry as a teen boy who has ZERO understanding of girls. Like none. Just like about 90% of teen boys. Except he's ALSO suffering massive PTSD from the fact that his parents have been murdered, he spent the first 11 years of his life living under the stairs in a case of criminal child abuse, and the most dangerous dark wizard in history is trying to kill him. 4 separate times actually by the duel in the graveyard. And he realizes that the only wizard who actually knows what's going on, Dumbledore refuses to tell him WHY this dark wizard everybody is terrified of keeps trying to kill him, because presumably the secret is too horrible for Harry to deal with! "You're a Horcrux Harry and you're destined to die so my brilliant plan to destroy Voldemort can succeed!"
Ive always thought the real reason for the collapse of Harry and Cho’s relationship was the fact that it started after the death of Cho’s boyfriend under shady circumstances where Harry was the only witness. Neither had time to properly recover from the events of the year before, so they were both an emotional wreck. On top of that, Harry spent half the year fighting off the urge to explode on everyone around him with an anger that wasn’t even his own, while Cho spent that same time crying, with no support after traumatically losing what was probably her first and only love interest. The relationship was doomed to fail before it even began.
It was clear in the books that Cho was in a fairly serious relationship with Cedric. She kind of liked Harry afterward, but he had more of a crush on her. She was totally justified in not giving him a second date.
Both Harry and Cho weren't in a place to begin a relationship. Harry was traumatized (PTSD), going through teen angst, tortured by Umbridge, his connection to Voldemort was stronger than ever. Not to mention the Dursley's abuse made Harry hide his feelings since Childhood. He wasn't able to be emotionally open. Cho was grieving and isolated. She needed someone to talk to that was emotionally available and Harry couldn't provide that. They both needed professional help. As for Hermione's curse there were better ways to ensure silence, like a hex that prevents talking when they try to speak.
What a great video! I always liked Cho, even as a teenager i thought she was cool. I think I saw her and Harry's romance cute at first and then just as a bit unfortunate as it ended. I'm so glad you're making Cho's perspective so clear in this video and pointing out even more valid things about her. Also.... my god, people, she was a heavily traumatized teenager (I mean, just like Harry and btw Ginny too, remember Chamber of Secrets??), cut her some slack for crying! Speaking of traumatizing teenagers, I'm LIVING for the always-deserved Dumbledore hate at the end.
I don’t know… It’s been a long time since I first read the books but I don’t remember hating Cho… I reread them recently and I don’t remember hating her then either… I agree with your assessment that it’s neither Harry nor Cho who is at fault here, but Dumbledore’s failure to provide mental health services for his students. Or any of the adults ,for not realizing that Harry and Cho in particular need extra support from a safe adult to appropriately process and move forward in the face of tragedy. But instead they get all kinds of unsafe adults, isolation, and more tragedy. No wonder everyone is very much unwell.
I never hated Cho. Honestly, she always a great character in her own right. Also, yes, Harry definitely wasn't the best boyfriend, but I can't blame him either. First relationship, plus everything else he had to go though. It was never going to end well. Harry wasn't mature enough and they just both had to much for it to ever work. Curious how things would have gone if Harry had dated Cho when she wasn't dealing with Cedric's death and all. Would their relationship been better. Ehh, I don't know.
I''ve never hated Cho, but never thought about that POV either, and you're completely right! Loved this video! Pleas do some more of this! About Lavender perhaps!
I don’t hate Cho, at all. She got traumatized by Cedric’s death. She just had bad timing. Harry doesn’t really know what to do with his feelings about watching Cedric die in front of him, and then seeing Voldemort return to his body, and then being tortured. Harry can’t process his own grief and trauma so he can’t really help her with her own grief. Harry wasn’t great to her but I think he deserves a pass here.
The biggest thing was that it was Harry’s point of view so everyone outside of his circle was kinda ignored. Cho, Lavender, Cedric, and so forth. It was Harry’s point of view so everything was skewed by what he believed.
i think people tend to forget that they are still young and ngl i really really like cho and she didnt really deserve all the hate. Sure she is not perfect but there are more characters who are a bit problematic and they just really focus on villainizing cho; same with lavender brown. edit: i forgot to add this last night but the caption in 1:39 is such a mood HAHAHHA
I've always liked Cho and related to her. If someone I loved was murdered, I would absolutely need to talk about it, and I would absolutely be grilling the person who witnessed the murder asking them what happened. That made perfect sense to me. Cho is going through trauma just like Harry, and while I understand Harry doesn't want to talk about it, it should be treated as more of an equal clash of needs (Cho needs to talk about Cedric and Harry needs to not talk about it), rather than being treated like Cho is wrong for having needs. I love Harry but he was definitely mean to Cho and she deserves a better boyfriend.
Thing is Harry has always been isolated and alone in his grief. His parents die - he's stuck being raised by his cruel aunt and uncle, and if he's feeling unwell or sad - they don't care, so he stunted his emotions and never bothered to share them. Cedric dies, or Sirius dies, or Dumbledore dies - but he has to go on to his summer break, back to the same house he's essentially isolated and alone in because... well, the Dursleys don't provide any emotional support whatsoever and won't give a rats ass about his issues. In the Fifth books he spent his summer break having nightmares after Cedric's death. In the sixth book it's stated Harry spent quite some time being locked in his room depressed and refusing to eat after Sirius died... So when he does end up expressing his feelings, it comes out either stunted like "I don't wanna talk about it" or in the explosive way. Because so far he only learned to close himself off and cope with his issues alone, because the times he REALLY need to talk to someone and sort his crap out the healthy way - always happened to be during summer breaks when he was at his lowest after some tragedy, away from everyone who actually cares about him, and stuck with the Dursleys instead, which is the equivalent of being alone. Edit: If anything the Dursleys made fun of Harry's suffering. There's no point going crying to them. So Harry literally didn't have the emotional tools to deal with Cho crying.
Cho and Harry weren't right for each other. They both wanted comfort and because they both shared a traumatic event (Cho dated Ced, Harry saw Cedric die), they were attracted to each other. What they had wasn't love, it was infatuation.
Ok im really glad to see this from you. I've watched a few of your shorts and figured you were pretty married to the canon and shitting on Cho, but im glad you can see some good qualities in her too. One further point in her defense of Marrietta: Cho isnt just defending a friend who did a bad thing - she's defending the ONLY friend she has left. Cho's grief seems to have alienated all the friends she previously had, and Marrietta seems to have been her rock when she most needed support. Harry sure as shit doesn't stand by Cho, so if she turns her back on Marrietta, she has no one. Not to mention that thanks to Shacklebolt's memory charm, Marietta no longer knows what she did wrong to earn her scarred face.
I loved the Harry Potter books, but the plot was SO cruel to Chow. I never disliked her, I always felt icky about how mean-spirited the story was to this poor girl! Some of these characters turn evil because of MUCH smaller traumas, and the plot was more sympathetic to them. All she did was cry. She literally did nothing wrong. It was the best thing she could have done, and it’s not her fault Harry expects everyone to deal with emotions exactly like he does.
You reaffirmed my opinion, but it's the same one as yours. I don't think the books villainize Cho, only some readers. They're just too immature & too traumatized to make it work for more than very short bursts, & not many of those. And that seems realistic. It's not all Cho, it's not all Harry, it is just messy.
I never hated Cho but I never thought Harry was a bad bf either. People really villainize Cho for stupid reasons. Cho was a teen, who was beautiful, sweet, famous, athletic, intelligent, and had an amazing bf. Then her bf died and she saw his body with her own eyes. She was traumatized but no one wanted to talk about it. On top of all that the media & Dumbledore were giving various accounts of his death, she was broken and depressed and almost all her friends left her cuz of it. Unlike Harry, who had so many people with whom he was able to talk, she had none. That's why she was always crying and that's why she tried talking to Harry about Cedric coz she thought Harry was in the same position, and they could share their sorrow. Instead, Harry was too traumatized to speak about it and found Cho's insistence annoying. Both were unable to see each other's perspective. Their timing was just too wrong.
I think Harry's valid for thinking he shouldn't date Cho if she's depressed. Like you said, red flag. She's latching on, trying to find an escape. It's unhealthy for her and for Harry. Conversely, Harry himself shouldn't be dated since he's a total mess at this point. Both of them needed something healthier to get their lives in order before they considered dating.
I think both Harry and Cho were traumatised and not in a way that allowed them to open up to one another. For Harry, the events were even more personal: the fact that Cedric just 'died' according to the public opinion meant he was crazy. So where Cho wanted to talk about it, Harry did not want to, or not in that way. So I think Harry was quite simply UNABLE to be a good boyfriend and Cho had too much on her plate to be dating. If only Hogwarts therapists were a thing, haha.
I remember having a discussion with a friend when the Order of the Phoenix book came out. We concluded that Harry and Cho were both wrong and just were not ment to be. Cho was still mourning Cedric and Harry was dealing with a lot of stress and trauma. Not the best point to start a relationship.
Harry was an angry lil (insert pg insult here) in book 5. He spent half the time taking his anger out on the wrong people. Always been pro-Cho. Teenagers having problems because of poor communication? That would never happen! 😂 Still find it hilarious in Hallows when Cho offers to take Harry to see the statue of Ravenclaw and Ginny jumps in and tells Luna to do it. I kinda wish Cho had taken him and they could’ve talked with more experience and insight and less charged emotions.
As someone who was an angry lil bitch myself, Harry is the angry traumatised teenager we need to see. Readers are too spoiled by heroes who go through hell yet never display emotions that might inconvenience others.
I was overall very neutral about Cho and now I just feel bad, like all of this problems happened because two teenagers failed to communicate, something that teenagers are famous for being bad at, and so yes Harry is harsh as well. They definitely feel like a couple that could have worked at a different time
Cho always felt like a character who had an interesting arc that we never actually saw. She was the popular girl with a very active social life and a great boyfriend. Then one day he turns up dead, and all her so called "friends" abandoned her when she needed them the most (at least Harry during this time still had Ron and Hermione, Cho was always described as being alone in book 5). The only one who befriended her during this time was Marietta, who then betrayed everyone, forcing Cho to choose between sticking by her or with the DA. Being the only friend she had, Cho chose the former and was chewed out by Harry for doing so. Cho must have eventually realized that Marietta was a bad friend, as she eventually rejoins the DA in book 7 without Marietta. That's a pretty solid character arc. As for the whole first date fiasco I don't know it always felt a little forced to me. Like I get that Rowling wanted Harry to end up with Ginny and there were plenty of reasons to break him up with Cho but the whole "Cho thinks Harry is cheating on her with Hermione" just felt really lazy.
Your channel has now got me going down multiple harry potter rabbit holes, 2 weeks ago I hadn't thought about harry potter in like 5 years and now I'm defending Cho Chang to the grave
Both Harry and Cho were struggling to face their grief and in very different ways. Cho wears her heart on her sleeve and feels comfort in being able to talk about what's bothering her. Harry absolutely does not. He doesn't want to face what happened head on and would rather move away from it so he can carry on, so it only stresses him out when Cho wants to discuss it further. But both are valid coping mechanisms, and neither teen is "wrong" for how they feel. Granted Harry was not a good boyfriend, and I think him being with Cho shows it was much more of a crush than deeper feelings- but! Not only was this his first girlfriend so he was already pretty clueless, I think its very important to remember (especially for adults reading this!!) they're also teenagers. One who has been through an entire lifetime of trauma, and another who has just experienced a fresh trauma that she's never experienced before. Couple that with all the stress going on in their lives and you've got some high tension emotions, and when you're 15/16 you're not always going to think things through or make the right decisions. The relationship was doomed to fail, but it's understandable why.
Also, Harry is famous because of his trauma and people have always wanted to talk to him about it but often not to help him but because he is famous so that is a legit reason to not want to talk about trauma.
I've never really hated Cho but was more slightly annoyed that it was so obvious that she wasn't the one for Harry but then again, she was probably Harry's first girlfriend and very rarely is a person's first relationship also their last. But in defense of Harry being a bad boyfriend: first look at who his relationship role models growing up were. Second, we don't know much about his elementary school days Ron and Hermoine could and seem like they were his first friends so their importance to him is amplified so his extraordinary attachment to them is more than understandable. Third his isolation growing up meant he had to learn to cope with emotions alone and the negative events in his life outnumber the positive so he's more used to dealing with them than most people.
Harry shared his personal secrets (about Volde and stuff related to that) with Ron and Hermione alone... he couldn't really retell his entire life to someone like Cho who hadnt been through any of this with him... So naturally he had to stay away from that, to avoid the trouble of explaining his whole life (pretty sure that would involve a lot of Ron and Hermione that would further upset Cho). He was kinda helpless, already in a tumultuous state of mind, he was just trying to be a regular boyfriend (who couldn't and didn't want bring up his entire life story to a completely new girl) And it turned out to be pretty bad experience... dating and all that...since neither understood each other's situations, it wasn't meant to work out either. And about the betrayal: The DA meant everything to Harry, remember it was his only way to escape from the torture of umbridge around the school (for most students actually)... So when Mariette gave them away, it was enraging for Harry. And when Cho tries to defend that, Harry as you said, already feeling responsible for Dumbledore leaving, had to lash out back... Cho chose her friend over Harry, over umbridge's wrath and the DA... Just from Harry's POV, although i completely agree Harry was in no sane mental condition to go out with Cho in the fifth book 😂
Maybe You could interpret Chos defense of Marietta as not as choosing her side, but as understanding that a teen girl having her face be permanently scarred with boils is a bit cruel. Marietta was worried her parents jobs. Not every student understood the full risk of an impending war. If Cho could trust Harry that Voldemort killed her bf, of course she’s going to give the benefit of the doubt to her own friend. Cho was a teen whose bf died, of course she’s going to have some anxiety about Harry (being with him/losing him). Yeah Harry has a lot on his plate with being the main character and all, but hes not exempt from doing emotional labor when he chose to date Cho after she experienced a major loss. She seemed willing to offer him comfort and desperate for him to meet her half way. Harry doesn’t console her grief, doesn’t offer closure, doesnt reassure her that their relationship isn’t threatened by other girls. Even if her relationship with Harry was new, Cho goes against her parents wishes and faces judgement from the rest her peers for supporting Harry. of course she’s going to be frustrated about still being left in the dark.
@@dotcom3015 according to your first line, I'd say that, first, before even talking about the boils, Cho started to tell Harry how nice of a girl Mariette was otherwise.... That itself had harry fuming... And Harry gives the example of Ron clearly in the book to counter Mariette's parents... both aren't worth comparison given the mindsets, but even then the sentence is valid... Already Cho had dragged her into the DA, she didn't want it, and Cho ended up choosing her over Harry in the end, when she had to make her choice. She might be making up for dragging her into this, by siding with her, but to Harry that's not a matter of any concern... he is least connected with Mariette in any way. And as I wrote previously, Harry couldn't really explain his whole life to a girl he just met a year ago, and barely talked to... You can't expect him to cut-off Hermione for the discussion (him being a boy-tactless, and all that) as she was a huge part of his life, and though I agree it was silly on his part, Cho wouldn't be able to make out the value and strength of the friendship of the golden trio, that lead to Harry behaving like this. Harry did console her, but she kept referring to Cedric, and snogging (lol), which Harry clearly wasn't in the mood to do... His fault maybe, but Harry never tried to explain Cedric's death to anyone after that as reliving it was extremely hard for him... I wouldn't expect him to like being on a date just to explain how Cedric died, and that too to a girl who never was close friends with him
@@cziffrathegreat666 yeh I don’t get what you mean about Cho calling Marietta nice. Cho calling her a nice girl is not the same thing as picking Marietta’s side over Harry’s. It was trying to humanize her friend. You would offer empathy to hermione for being scarred by bellatrix, why is it acceptable for hermione to mutilate another teen? Ron is loyal to Harry, Marietta wasn’t. She was reluctantly there to be a friend to Cho, I doubt she knew how serious the consequences would be. How are yall resenting these girls more than Draco? Cho even continued to be on Harry’s side after their break up.
@@dotcom3015 where have i referred to malfoy here lol? Cho called Mariette a lovely person who made a mistake.... and even defended it by saying that they all got away in the end, without any concern to how Harry felt that the DA that meant so much to him was now disbanded... Harry and the trio are literally risking their necks under Umbridge's nose, and Mariette's not the only one having parents at the ministry... yet she chose to be the sneak... Cho's friendship towards Mariette overrode her love towards Harry... even when she did a really horrible thing, well the worst that could have happened to the group. You can't bring bellatrix here, because they were clearly doing the Wrong thing, whereas Harry and the group were on the right path... you can't justify right using wrong... Cho indeed supported harry, in the end, because she knew they were on the right path... but it was certainly justified of Harry to leave her because she supported betrayal rather than loyalty... and such a relationship was never meant to last Dont take me as being offensive here, i really dont mean to :)
@@cziffrathegreat666 yall refers to the hp fandom. Sorry if you don’t like being grouped in, but it’s just strange how Draco and snape can be so loved but cho and Marietta are unforgivable. And Marietta truly could have very well been a lovely person that made a mistake. Cho knew her better than Harry did. mikaila already addressed that Cho didn’t know how much the da meant to Harry because he didn’t talk to her. How is she supposed to understand when he never talks to her about his feelings at all? I don’t think you understand that Marietta’s actions can be wrong, but also it can still be a mistake. It’s unreasonable to think Cho would turn against her friend, especially since you’re claiming that their relationship wasn’t deep enough for him to tell her about his trauma. Harry had his own struggles but he wasn’t risking anything by dating Cho. Cho at least liked Harry enough to risk getting in trouble with her parents and face the school judging her. Yet she’s still supposed to drop her friend for not being loyal to Harry’s club? And Cho still fought in the battle at hogwarts. She seemed pretty consistent on being on Harry’s side in the grand scheme of things. And what has Harry done for Cho as a boyfriend? Go to a date location she chose? Yes I can use bellatrix as a comparison. Hermione is not in the right for mutilating a teen just because she’s on the hero’s team. Hermione is pretty aware that war is very plausible while helping harry, that doesn’t mean every student feels the same way. Hermione also kidnapped Rita because she was slandering them in articles. Heroes don’t get a pass for doing villainous things just because you like their reasoning. You can at least acknowledge that hermiones punishments are disproportionate to the ‘crimes’. Just because they’re protagonists, doesn’t mean they can’t do wrong things. It doesn’t mean you have to stop liking them.
A few other things to note: - Most outsiders to Harry, Ron, and Hermione’s relationship act really surprised when they find out Harry and Hermione aren’t dating, and Hermione literally dated Viktor Krum in the previous book (and had a gossip rag article written about her accusing her of making love potions). Krum himself was a bit worried that Harry was competition because of how often Hermione talked about him. - Additionally, Harry and Ron are really dumb about dating (not too unusual for a teen tho) and Hermione points out how they’re both shallow and terrible at empathy. She even chastises Harry after his and Cho’s date, telling him he should have played up how much he wanted to be with Cho and put Hermione down to reassure her. - Harry has always been more logically intelligent than emotionally intelligent. He bottles up his problems until he explodes and has been doing so since book one where he accidentally released a snake and trapped Dudley in a zoo exhibit. Cho approaches Harry from an emotional perspective and Hermione approaches Harry from a logical perspective. Ginny, meanwhile, doesn’t allow Harry to bottle his emotions and just goes into the matter frankly, which is why Ginny and Harry work so well (and why Harry and Cho likely never would have worked out with or without the trauma)
@araeast6923:because there’s hints and clues that hermione would have dated Harry instead of ron Jk Rowling just somehow randomly paired hermione up with Ron instead
@araest6923:but Jk Rowling did reveal that Harry and Hermione were suppose to date since book 1 she just didn’t end up putting Harry and Hermione together in the books which she ends up regretting not putting Hermione and Harry together in the books
@@Megz1794This is unfounded at all. Rowling liked Ron’s character very much I would say. He’s inspired by her childhood best friend Sean Harris, while Hermione is largely based on herself. She actually dedicated the 2nd book to this great friend. On first page of chamber of secrets she wrote: For Sean P.F. Harris, getaway driver and foul-weather friend. She said: “He was the first of my friends to learn to drive and that turquoise and white car meant freedom……Some of the happiest memories of my teenage years involve zooming off into the darkness in Sean's car.” Which is sooooo Ron. She also said that “He was the first person with whom I really discussed my serious ambition to be a writer and he was also the only person who thought I was bound to be a success at it, which meant much more to me than I ever told him at the time." This is really touching, and reminds me of how great a friend Ron is. And she also confessed “I wrote the Hermione/Ron relationship as a form of wish fulfillment……It was a choice I made for very personal reasons, not for reasons of credibility.” You would clearly see that she loved Ron’s character so much, and the person he’s inspired by, that she’d set him with the character resembling herself. Despite all the calls for Harry/Hermione relationship from fans. Those children’s reactions she mentioned are just facts that happened. One should read more before jumping into conclusions.
See, here is where I think the writing is brilliant. Harry sounds like a fairly normal adolescent dealing with death. He's very much in his own perspective. Cho sounds like a fairly normal adolescent dealing with death, too. You get older, and you can laugh at how inept both of these people are in their relationship scenes. Even with therapy, most adolescents who are going through big, terrible things do not find themselves behaving well in romantic relationships, especially if it is their first one (Harry).
I’ve never hated Cho both Harry and Cho were fifteen year olds bad at reading the room and lack of therapy lol. Harry messed up in bringing up Hermaine which as Lorelai says you don’t talk about other girls on a first date. Which caused Cho to retaliate and of course Cho was going to defend her friend. I wish they had both gotten closure later on
I never hated Cho. I always felt kind of bad for her. Harry did not have the grace and empathy required to deal with her trauma because he was busy dealing with his own. Like you said, that's neither of their faults. Sooo many of the HP characters badly needed therapy. Can we have a fanfic where everybody gets the mental health assistance they need? 😭
*madam puddifoot banging on the door of Dumbledore’s office*: hey have you considered hiring grief counselors for your traumatized students so they’re not forced to have anxiety attacks in the middle of my restaurant on valentine’s day?? 😭
@@magicbymikaila Dumbledore (refusing to take any responsibility): Have you considered that the anxiety attacks might be happening because your restaurant is far too pink? 😆
As someone who was a traumatised teen in the 90s, that would be like me writing a Memoirs of a Geisha fanfic where their society isn’t sexist. It’s a part of their environment that the story can’t and shouldn’t be divorced from.
I always thought it's a representation of how teenagers deal with their trauma, the feelings and hurt are real but they haven't yet learnt how to handle them
I didn't like Cho as much reading the books as a kid but rereading them as an adult I liked her so much more. She's basically book Elena from Vampire Diaries at the start and then this horrible thing happens and suddenly her happy life is completely upside down and she has no one to talk about it with. Hermione flat out tells Harry that she's having a rough time AND why and he's still like....wow that seems complicated. Noted, and disregarded. After being so jealous of Cedric for asking her out before she even knew he liked her he is somehow still completely oblivious as to why she might not be pleased that after their date he's meeting up with the girl he's always walking down the halls with laughing who by the way was hot enough to bag an internationally famous Quidditch player. After having some bad or oblivious boyfriends myself in my younger years adult me feels a lot more sympathy for what poor Cho has to go through in these books.
I never hated Cho Chang, I always felt bad when Harry was rude to her, I mean, "she is a girl, Harry, be a gentleman and do the right thing, comfort her", I hated that part in the book, the date, the aftermath of their fight club disbanding, basically every interaction with Cho Chang, I was like "c'mon give her a break". Also, felt really bad for Marietta, and sad that her curse was permanent, and they can't do anything about that, which is infuriating by itself, what kind of dark magic Hermione used to permanently disfigure her face? I mean, that's evil. Sure, Marietta deserves to be punished, but like "50 points from Ravenclaw" kind of punishment, she is a kid. She didn't kill anyone, she didn't hurt anyone, she just snitched out of fear than malice.
I have always assumed it was not permanent because I would never think that a magic student has the power to permanently disfigure someones face like that,with all the healers in St Mungo etc.
I didn't need my mind changed (they're both kids dealing in two very different ways with two different kinds of trauma, and Dumbledore is absolutely at fault), but I love the way you break the events down.
If Dumbledore hadn’t done what he did, JKR would have found some other way to move the plot in that direction. She wanted to write about a death like Cedric’s and the fallout of that death, and that’s reasonable because deaths like that exist in the world and we need stories about it.
I'd completely forgotten how rude Harry was in some of the books. Like when he's rude to Snape it makes sense and is deserved, but his sass balances on a thin line between well sass and just being mean quite a lot in the later books. As a side note I kinda liked Cho, but it's a bit sad how she just disappears after no longer being Harry's gf, I mean sure she wouldn't have been as close to the trio as Luna, but seeing her appear and interact with people more would have been nice. Perhaps some background talk about her becoming closer with Luna after realizing that she's actually very sweet or something like that. In my opinion her biggest issue is that she uses an emotionally unstable Harry as her rebound, and while she does reach out to him, she never really understands him. Not that he makes it easy for him, but I feel like she doesn't necessarily try either, she just views him as she would any other person without trying to understand him as an individual. Then again Harry isn't much better, seemingly thinking that a cute girl is a cute girl, and completely ignores any feelings she may have about anything.
They had a crush on each other but neither of them was what the other needed at that time. Cho needed someone who understood, who she could talk to, and Harry was not capable of that nor of understanding why she would need to considering he spent most of that book as a ball of repressed trauma lashing out every few minutes and thought that was normal, plus he had bigger things to worry about. Harry probably saw this romance as an escape from all that stress and trauma, so Cho bringing up Cedric was the last thing he needed. The smaller things like Cho's jealousy or Harry's anger that she wasn't happy about her friend being permanently disfigured were down to a lack of communication and neither of them being capable of putting themselves in the other's shoes. So yes it is Dumbledore's fault coz they needed a fcking therapist
You did not change my mind about Cho because I already felt the same way about her. It was still interesting to hear a video about her because I didn't think she was a character anyone really ever talks about except to bash her for betraying DA as if she wasn't forced to because of Veritiserum. I always felt bad that after Cho lost Cedric she was just so victimized by everyone. It would have been great character development if we got to see Cho bullied but then become resolved and independent and stronger for everything she went through. You know, kind of like Neville, who went from awkward clutz to brave hottie who cuts off the head of the snake.
Oh mannnn. I was allergic to being a good boyfriend in high school too. It’s funny how Harry is Mr. Selfless when he’s all chosen oney and kind of a self centred prat under regular normal circumstances.
I remember reading OOTP when it came out and during the infamous Valentine's day date I remember reading it thinking Cho was being a bit hysterical but also Harry kind of a jerk but you illustrate how they both acted logically from their point of views if a little tone deaf lol
It is good to see things in the Cho's point of view. Harry and Cho seems typically traumatized and immature teenagers in a bit different way each other.
I always thought Cho is pretty sympathetic to be honest. I mean even in the movie where it was with the serum... I mean that is lowkey torturing and abusing someone to make them tell you what you want to know. AND SHE IS A CHILD. Like, cut her some slack, y'know?
"A girl he's spending 99% of his tim with" And was described in the newspaper last year as his girlfriend. Sure, WE know that Rita Skeeer is full of crap, bu like Molly Weasley fell for it. Even though she knows Hermione and Harry personally. Do you seriously think Cho would not think there's something behind it? ˆˆ' And it's the 90s, in the sorcery world so like 1890s, a girl who's always with a guy, of course everyone think they're together XD
"Harry Potter was a bad boyfriend!" One date does not a boyfriend make. I should know. I am still surprised how little Harry and Cho do together in the actual books. I remembered it as being much more in the foreground than what it actually is.
Both Cho and Lavender were villainized in favour of Hermione and Ginny. They both faught in the battle of Hogwarts and were a part of DA. They are brave and courageous.
totally agree, I always hate how Cho was written to be “too emotional” to be right for Harry to contrast how much less emotional Ginny is, because it’s like (besides the fact that there’s nothing wrong with being emotional ofc) Cho wasn’t emotional in personality, she was crying and sad because he boyfriend died, like if Harry died Ginny would be crying too 😭😭
Not to mention, Lavender freaking *dies* in the attempt
@@magicbymikaila I think Harry's trauma with the Dursley's probs played a big role in him not handling crying well, it's not just with cho, even with Hermione, like thinking of the times Ron and Hermione fought and Harry was just so uncomfortable whenever he was left with just Hermione..one example I can think of maybe is the last book when ron left for a while in between but I dunno my memory doesn't serve me very well coz I read hp years ago, only remember the feelings i had not the scenes which served as reason for them. 😢
Anyway, it def though feels like there is a problem with girly girls still coz cho, lavender, Parvati? And literally the worst character in the hp books UMBRIDGE? I mean I def hate her character and do find her severely annoying but sometimes I do wonder whether it's coz of prejudice that her character is written hyperfeminine. But then there's fleur and she's cool so maybe not?😅 Like I do wanna give her the benefit of doubt. Harry is technically supposed to be a character written in a very relatable way, almost to the point that people can self insert themselves into the fantasy through his eyes. And honestly, I mean looking at the audience she could have just purposefully written the povs that way coz she thought the average little boy reading the books might not be a fan of too many girly things.
@@alexanderc.4654I thought she made it after Trelawny brained Greyback with her crystal ball.
@@magicbymikailayeah I have a feeling Rowling struggles with deep internal mysogyny because of how she writes women. Like Molly and Ginny hating on Fleur for being a girlie girl, like wtf.
I like when Hermione tries to explain to Harry what Cho must feel and Harry is like Uh can you feel all that at once???
Damn😂
Because he has the emotional range of a teaspoon
@@ashhabimran239 Oop
Harry you know as much as Jon Snow!
I think Harry and Cho's whole deal was, both were traumatized by Cedric's death, but had different needs and ways of going about it that obviously conflicted with the other. Cho needed to talk about it, but Harry pulls a "avoiding talking about your trauma" PTSD symptom moment. Every time Cho brings up Cedric, it's sending Harry into flight or fight. But she needs to talk about it and get it all out. It really was just the wrong time for them, honestly.
I agree, the 2 people were not the the problem it was that they’re not in the right condition to date each other
Yessss. It was masterfully written.
Also worth noting that Marietta seems to be the only friend that stuck with Cho throughout the fifth book. Where previously Harry had always seen her with a big group of girls, all through the fifth book she is either alone or with Marietta (as you say in the video her other friends seem to have fallen out with her). So of course Cho would want to defend her.
Cho was literally a girl who went through something so traumatic at such a young age. Like sure she maybe could have handled it better but she was also young and alone. Justice for Cho
Harry was also literally the one who SAW him die. Cut him some slack.
I remember re-reading that scene and feeling the irony that Harry was so annoyed with Cho crying all the time, yet he got to be Capslock Harry to all his friends and loved ones throughout the book and was treated with patience and compassion. I'm not villainizing Harry. Both characters were deeply traumatized and dealing with it differently, but Cho deserved better. Some empathy would have been nice, at least. They both absolutely deserved therapy.
I don’t think it’s really fair to blame Harry OR Cho for their relationship falling apart. They were two teenagers who had both been through traumatic experiences and had no business even entering into a relationship but tried to find some normalcy in one another anyway. They simply weren’t what the other person wanted or needed from a romantic partner, and it lead to disastrous consequences.
@drm726:that’s because they would have been better off being friends since all of Cho’s other friends except for Marietta the other friends of Cho’s all had some sort falling out with Cho and Cho and Harry didn’t really even enter the friend stage even though Iam sure they could be friends
I always felt a bit sorry for Cho. I read it as: they're both teenagers; they're both very human (with human flaws); both have been traumatized and don't have the emotional intelligence to gauge how to talk to each other about it
Cho was really done dirty. I agree she wasn't quite right for Harry but that doesn't make her a bad person or a bad character.
If I’m not wrong also in the books Hermione tells Harry that he’s being insensitive, and explains him a bit abt Cho’s pov
Yup. It’s probably meant to be an explanation to the reader, too.
Honestly Cho and Harry could have been a decent couple if they weren't grieving over Cedric. Cho wanted to talk about it with Harry since he would have understood but Harry didn't want to talk about it since it was so traumatising for him. Messy all around
You didn't change my mind about Cho, but then I never hated her in the first place. I mostly watched the movies. In the movie version, I thought Harry owed Cho an apology. He also owed his date to the Yule ball an apology. It is starting a negative pattern for bad dates with Harry. No, I don't hate Harry either, but I don't love him so much that I am completely blind to his faults.
Also, remember that Harry messes up that date so badly that Hermione feels the need to explain to him what he should have done differently 😅
That dialogue also serves to educate the READER about the fact that while Harry’s thoughts about it are common among teenage boys, that doesn’t mean he was RIGHT.
It's funny because when I first read Order of the Phoenix and got to the part where Harry told Cho he wants to meet with Hermione after on Valentines Day I was so shocked at how dumb Harry was for saying that I glossed over the part where she asked about Cedric. So I never got the Cho Chang hate because I never fully paid attention to that part. I think my brain turned back on the part where Harry says Women...
I never hated Cho. I always wished the two had talked in a later book, and had an understanding of some sort. She threw a lot at Harry, and he panicked. He was young and tactless, and wildy unprepared for the hurricane of emotions she had going on. Nobody ever told him to just hug her and let her cry for a while, which is step 1.
Yeah, I was neutral about Cho and Harry was a terrible boyfriend. I was horrified at the way Harry acted during the whole date. I mean, a cutesy teashop is an appropriate place for a date and even if that's not your thing, you could at least humor the girl for a bit. And then, the way he reacted to Cho crying was just bad. I mean, can you blame her? Of course, she wasn't perfect, but Harry was definitely a horrible boyfriend.
Harry’s thoughts about that represent what boys and men thought of femininity in that era, and it’s why when men today complain about being pressured to be masculine, I view it as something that men can only dismantle by calling out other men’s attitudes. Hell, even today they mock women endlessly for stuff like pumpkin spice lattes and then want to cry on our shoulders when their friends treat them the same way.
I never hated Cho, no idea why I would. Only because she and Harry didn't fit together? They were teens, most teen relationships are not compatible. It's a learning curve. I am though not the biggest fan of Harry and definitely not a fan of Dumbledore.
yeah, I like her because she was like my east asain (specifically chinese) representation in the books. I just wish she got more screen time (or ig book time) to actually develop a personality and character for herself
I will not start a Dumbledore fight.
I will not start a Dumbledore fight.
I will not start a Dumbledore fight.
The way I see it:
Harry: Wanting an escape out of all of his trauma & things to deal with.
Cho: Wants to have closure & be open about her life & feelings.
Conclusion: They were just 2 stupid teenagers who had too much trauma & feelings unexpressed & shouldn’t even date in the first place lol.
“Was cho allergic to reading the room, ABSOLUTELY” 😂😂😂
You really changed my perspective for cho and now actually i realised it was never cho's fault 😢she is being hated for almost no reason
All of this is spot on. I always liked Cho. I just saw both her and Harry as traumatized kids who were hurting and didn't know how to act. But then, I first read the books as an adult (and still haven't seen all of the movies). The only thing that made me cringe was her name. Really, Rawling?
She didn't change my mind. I agreed with literally everything she said.
I think it comes down to them both grieving and being horrifically traumatized and being together for all the wrong reasons. They didn't actually like each other. They had nothing in common. They didn't really spend time together. Cho had attachment issues because of the sudden loss of Cedric and Harry couldn't trust anyone, thus he couldn't actually talk to her. So all they did was argue and take their grief and frustration out on each other.
Toxic relationship. Thats it.
I was never of the mind that Cho was a bad person. She clearly wasn't. I just couldn't understand what was going wrong with the relationship, but the thing I was feeling was that Cho clearly had not yet moved past Cedric's death. And you kind of make it very clear exactly why this is the case.
The book was always written in a way that showed both Harry & Cho, but ESPECIALLY Harry had a lot to learn in communication and relationships, so fully agree!
i think cho and harry (more or less) acted how weird, inexperienced, insecure fifteen-year-olds often do around the person they like.
Ngl I've always been an, "In defense of Cho" person. I think that's partly because I was 20 when I actually read the books and at 18 a boy I'd been friends with since age 4 died... And I went to the morgue with his family and his gf was there completely devestated and isolated from the group ...so I spent a few hours holding her and letting her cry on me because it was devestating that no one in his family seemed to care that they'd been together for quite awhileand had clearly loved each other.
So, when I got to Cedric's death and Cho's responses I'd already seen something similar irl and you have to be pretty cold to irl not see how devestating that is to be in Cho's position. Plus, Cho really wasn't bad. Imperfect, sure but a great person.
I never hated Cho. Cho didn’t deserve hate. Also, I’ll defend the kid who snitch by saying it must be scary as hell to be face interrogation by someone as genuinely evil as Umbridge. These are just kids and most people irl wouldn’t stand up to someone so threatening.
Yeah, it’s always funny to watch people condemning Marietta from the safety of their couch.
Finally someone defends Cho ! I really like her she is underrated
Lupin was honestly the closest thing these kids ever had to a therapist
I love your analyses. You lay them out so well and your taking points are so well-structured. Tbh, I never really have Cho much thought. I loved your perspective and I'm now eager to restart my annual HP read through.
Wow I never ever thought Cho fucked up or was annoying. I always thought Harry fucked up, because he was too caught up in his own problems to be able to be empathetic with her. And she was just done with him, and then Ginny showed up and Harry was like, yeah okay good enough, and the reader was like, yeah okay good enough too - because Cho just had bad timing. I read the books jillion times ago tho, so maybe that’s not how others would have interpret it.
It's just two authentically written teenagers not mature enough for a relationship.
I actually like Cho, when people say that she's whiny and jealous and always crying, I feel like they forget that she's also just a teenager who's boyfriend was murdered. Shes allowed to be sad, and I don't think it's wierd that she wants to talk about him with Harry either, because she feels like Harry can understand her.
Also, what teenage girl wouldn't feel offended if her date keeps bringing up another girl (that the literal newspaper called his girlfriend before, remember that?), on their first real date??
She's also allowed to defend her friend after Hermione literally cursed her face so bad she'll be scarred for life.
I think she and Harry just were two young people in a bad situation who wasn't right for each other, at least not there and then, but that doesn't make either of them a bad person.
Glad you made this. I always see Cho as someone who is often unfairly treated by the fans.
Do you know, you didn’t change my mind because I always thought this. Cho was traumatized, Harry was traumatized, Cedric was dead, they all had their problems and a little bit of talking would’ve solved like half of them.
A little bit of anything to help them get over Cedrics Death would be helpful
I mean we all know how wizards are with therapy or similar, but probably just waiting some time would be so much better.
She was a bad girlfriend at the time as he was a bad boyfriend and they were both absolutely occupied with Cedric and all the other drama.
Honestly it was trauma-bonding more than a relationship
@@Scarlett.Granger Exactly.
She was a bad girlfriend because she was a young teenager with no real relationship experience whose first boyfriend was murdered. He was a bad boyfriend because he was a clueless, emotionally stunted abuse victim who spent most of his early childhood living under the stairs and watched her ex die. They never stood a chance and the fact that they didn’t make it was the most realistic part of any of the books and movies.
Also, can they really be called boyfriends/girlfriend? They literally kissed once and went out to a tea shop and he skipped out on her. I wouldn’t exactly call that a relationship.
JK Rowling wrote Harry as a teen boy who has ZERO understanding of girls. Like none. Just like about 90% of teen boys. Except he's ALSO suffering massive PTSD from the fact that his parents have been murdered, he spent the first 11 years of his life living under the stairs in a case of criminal child abuse, and the most dangerous dark wizard in history is trying to kill him. 4 separate times actually by the duel in the graveyard. And he realizes that the only wizard who actually knows what's going on, Dumbledore refuses to tell him WHY this dark wizard everybody is terrified of keeps trying to kill him, because presumably the secret is too horrible for Harry to deal with! "You're a Horcrux Harry and you're destined to die so my brilliant plan to destroy Voldemort can succeed!"
Ive always thought the real reason for the collapse of Harry and Cho’s relationship was the fact that it started after the death of Cho’s boyfriend under shady circumstances where Harry was the only witness. Neither had time to properly recover from the events of the year before, so they were both an emotional wreck. On top of that, Harry spent half the year fighting off the urge to explode on everyone around him with an anger that wasn’t even his own, while Cho spent that same time crying, with no support after traumatically losing what was probably her first and only love interest. The relationship was doomed to fail before it even began.
It was clear in the books that Cho was in a fairly serious relationship with Cedric. She kind of liked Harry afterward, but he had more of a crush on her. She was totally justified in not giving him a second date.
Both Harry and Cho weren't in a place to begin a relationship. Harry was traumatized (PTSD), going through teen angst, tortured by Umbridge, his connection to Voldemort was stronger than ever. Not to mention the Dursley's abuse made Harry hide his feelings since Childhood. He wasn't able to be emotionally open. Cho was grieving and isolated. She needed someone to talk to that was emotionally available and Harry couldn't provide that. They both needed professional help.
As for Hermione's curse there were better ways to ensure silence, like a hex that prevents talking when they try to speak.
I didn't realize how accurate of a teenage relationship Harry and Cho had. Communication issues galore.
What a great video! I always liked Cho, even as a teenager i thought she was cool.
I think I saw her and Harry's romance cute at first and then just as a bit unfortunate as it ended. I'm so glad you're making Cho's perspective so clear in this video and pointing out even more valid things about her.
Also.... my god, people, she was a heavily traumatized teenager (I mean, just like Harry and btw Ginny too, remember Chamber of Secrets??), cut her some slack for crying!
Speaking of traumatizing teenagers, I'm LIVING for the always-deserved Dumbledore hate at the end.
You presented the other side of the story really well, I actually feel more sorry for her now
I don’t know… It’s been a long time since I first read the books but I don’t remember hating Cho… I reread them recently and I don’t remember hating her then either… I agree with your assessment that it’s neither Harry nor Cho who is at fault here, but Dumbledore’s failure to provide mental health services for his students. Or any of the adults ,for not realizing that Harry and Cho in particular need extra support from a safe adult to appropriately process and move forward in the face of tragedy. But instead they get all kinds of unsafe adults, isolation, and more tragedy. No wonder everyone is very much unwell.
I never hated Cho. Honestly, she always a great character in her own right. Also, yes, Harry definitely wasn't the best boyfriend, but I can't blame him either. First relationship, plus everything else he had to go though. It was never going to end well. Harry wasn't mature enough and they just both had to much for it to ever work. Curious how things would have gone if Harry had dated Cho when she wasn't dealing with Cedric's death and all. Would their relationship been better. Ehh, I don't know.
I always liked Cho! I feel like she was treated really badly when in reality what happened wasn’t her fault!
I''ve never hated Cho, but never thought about that POV either, and you're completely right! Loved this video! Pleas do some more of this! About Lavender perhaps!
I don’t hate Cho, at all. She got traumatized by Cedric’s death. She just had bad timing. Harry doesn’t really know what to do with his feelings about watching Cedric die in front of him, and then seeing Voldemort return to his body, and then being tortured. Harry can’t process his own grief and trauma so he can’t really help her with her own grief. Harry wasn’t great to her but I think he deserves a pass here.
The biggest thing was that it was Harry’s point of view so everyone outside of his circle was kinda ignored. Cho, Lavender, Cedric, and so forth. It was Harry’s point of view so everything was skewed by what he believed.
i think people tend to forget that they are still young and ngl i really really like cho and she didnt really deserve all the hate. Sure she is not perfect but there are more characters who are a bit problematic and they just really focus on villainizing cho; same with lavender brown.
edit:
i forgot to add this last night but the caption in 1:39 is such a mood HAHAHHA
I've always liked Cho and related to her. If someone I loved was murdered, I would absolutely need to talk about it, and I would absolutely be grilling the person who witnessed the murder asking them what happened. That made perfect sense to me. Cho is going through trauma just like Harry, and while I understand Harry doesn't want to talk about it, it should be treated as more of an equal clash of needs (Cho needs to talk about Cedric and Harry needs to not talk about it), rather than being treated like Cho is wrong for having needs. I love Harry but he was definitely mean to Cho and she deserves a better boyfriend.
Thing is Harry has always been isolated and alone in his grief. His parents die - he's stuck being raised by his cruel aunt and uncle, and if he's feeling unwell or sad - they don't care, so he stunted his emotions and never bothered to share them. Cedric dies, or Sirius dies, or Dumbledore dies - but he has to go on to his summer break, back to the same house he's essentially isolated and alone in because... well, the Dursleys don't provide any emotional support whatsoever and won't give a rats ass about his issues.
In the Fifth books he spent his summer break having nightmares after Cedric's death. In the sixth book it's stated Harry spent quite some time being locked in his room depressed and refusing to eat after Sirius died...
So when he does end up expressing his feelings, it comes out either stunted like "I don't wanna talk about it" or in the explosive way. Because so far he only learned to close himself off and cope with his issues alone, because the times he REALLY need to talk to someone and sort his crap out the healthy way - always happened to be during summer breaks when he was at his lowest after some tragedy, away from everyone who actually cares about him, and stuck with the Dursleys instead, which is the equivalent of being alone.
Edit: If anything the Dursleys made fun of Harry's suffering. There's no point going crying to them. So Harry literally didn't have the emotional tools to deal with Cho crying.
Yup. Two messy, traumatised teenagers. I adore how realistic it is.
Cho and Harry weren't right for each other. They both wanted comfort and because they both shared a traumatic event (Cho dated Ced, Harry saw Cedric die), they were attracted to each other. What they had wasn't love, it was infatuation.
Ok im really glad to see this from you. I've watched a few of your shorts and figured you were pretty married to the canon and shitting on Cho, but im glad you can see some good qualities in her too.
One further point in her defense of Marrietta: Cho isnt just defending a friend who did a bad thing - she's defending the ONLY friend she has left. Cho's grief seems to have alienated all the friends she previously had, and Marrietta seems to have been her rock when she most needed support. Harry sure as shit doesn't stand by Cho, so if she turns her back on Marrietta, she has no one.
Not to mention that thanks to Shacklebolt's memory charm, Marietta no longer knows what she did wrong to earn her scarred face.
I loved the Harry Potter books, but the plot was SO cruel to Chow.
I never disliked her, I always felt icky about how mean-spirited the story was to this poor girl!
Some of these characters turn evil because of MUCH smaller traumas, and the plot was more sympathetic to them.
All she did was cry.
She literally did nothing wrong.
It was the best thing she could have done, and it’s not her fault Harry expects everyone to deal with emotions exactly like he does.
Chow 🐶
You reaffirmed my opinion, but it's the same one as yours. I don't think the books villainize Cho, only some readers. They're just too immature & too traumatized to make it work for more than very short bursts, & not many of those. And that seems realistic. It's not all Cho, it's not all Harry, it is just messy.
It’s in fanfic and fandom discussions where Cho is treated like a villain. I think she’s referring to that
I never hated Cho but I never thought Harry was a bad bf either. People really villainize Cho for stupid reasons. Cho was a teen, who was beautiful, sweet, famous, athletic, intelligent, and had an amazing bf. Then her bf died and she saw his body with her own eyes. She was traumatized but no one wanted to talk about it. On top of all that the media & Dumbledore were giving various accounts of his death, she was broken and depressed and almost all her friends left her cuz of it. Unlike Harry, who had so many people with whom he was able to talk, she had none. That's why she was always crying and that's why she tried talking to Harry about Cedric coz she thought Harry was in the same position, and they could share their sorrow. Instead, Harry was too traumatized to speak about it and found Cho's insistence annoying. Both were unable to see each other's perspective. Their timing was just too wrong.
I think Harry's valid for thinking he shouldn't date Cho if she's depressed. Like you said, red flag. She's latching on, trying to find an escape. It's unhealthy for her and for Harry.
Conversely, Harry himself shouldn't be dated since he's a total mess at this point. Both of them needed something healthier to get their lives in order before they considered dating.
The fact that the house elf’s can’t make boba is a tragedy
I think both Harry and Cho were traumatised and not in a way that allowed them to open up to one another. For Harry, the events were even more personal: the fact that Cedric just 'died' according to the public opinion meant he was crazy. So where Cho wanted to talk about it, Harry did not want to, or not in that way. So I think Harry was quite simply UNABLE to be a good boyfriend and Cho had too much on her plate to be dating. If only Hogwarts therapists were a thing, haha.
I remember having a discussion with a friend when the Order of the Phoenix book came out. We concluded that Harry and Cho were both wrong and just were not ment to be. Cho was still mourning Cedric and Harry was dealing with a lot of stress and trauma. Not the best point to start a relationship.
As a fellow Asian, I'm happy that you defend Cho.
Harry was an angry lil (insert pg insult here) in book 5. He spent half the time taking his anger out on the wrong people.
Always been pro-Cho. Teenagers having problems because of poor communication? That would never happen! 😂
Still find it hilarious in Hallows when Cho offers to take Harry to see the statue of Ravenclaw and Ginny jumps in and tells Luna to do it. I kinda wish Cho had taken him and they could’ve talked with more experience and insight and less charged emotions.
As someone who was an angry lil bitch myself, Harry is the angry traumatised teenager we need to see. Readers are too spoiled by heroes who go through hell yet never display emotions that might inconvenience others.
Idk about Cho but Mikaila is my favorite Harry Potter character.
I was overall very neutral about Cho and now I just feel bad, like all of this problems happened because two teenagers failed to communicate, something that teenagers are famous for being bad at, and so yes Harry is harsh as well. They definitely feel like a couple that could have worked at a different time
Cho always felt like a character who had an interesting arc that we never actually saw. She was the popular girl with a very active social life and a great boyfriend. Then one day he turns up dead, and all her so called "friends" abandoned her when she needed them the most (at least Harry during this time still had Ron and Hermione, Cho was always described as being alone in book 5). The only one who befriended her during this time was Marietta, who then betrayed everyone, forcing Cho to choose between sticking by her or with the DA. Being the only friend she had, Cho chose the former and was chewed out by Harry for doing so. Cho must have eventually realized that Marietta was a bad friend, as she eventually rejoins the DA in book 7 without Marietta. That's a pretty solid character arc.
As for the whole first date fiasco I don't know it always felt a little forced to me. Like I get that Rowling wanted Harry to end up with Ginny and there were plenty of reasons to break him up with Cho but the whole "Cho thinks Harry is cheating on her with Hermione" just felt really lazy.
Your channel has now got me going down multiple harry potter rabbit holes, 2 weeks ago I hadn't thought about harry potter in like 5 years and now I'm defending Cho Chang to the grave
Both Harry and Cho were struggling to face their grief and in very different ways. Cho wears her heart on her sleeve and feels comfort in being able to talk about what's bothering her. Harry absolutely does not. He doesn't want to face what happened head on and would rather move away from it so he can carry on, so it only stresses him out when Cho wants to discuss it further. But both are valid coping mechanisms, and neither teen is "wrong" for how they feel. Granted Harry was not a good boyfriend, and I think him being with Cho shows it was much more of a crush than deeper feelings- but! Not only was this his first girlfriend so he was already pretty clueless, I think its very important to remember (especially for adults reading this!!) they're also teenagers. One who has been through an entire lifetime of trauma, and another who has just experienced a fresh trauma that she's never experienced before. Couple that with all the stress going on in their lives and you've got some high tension emotions, and when you're 15/16 you're not always going to think things through or make the right decisions.
The relationship was doomed to fail, but it's understandable why.
Also, Harry is famous because of his trauma and people have always wanted to talk to him about it but often not to help him but because he is famous so that is a legit reason to not want to talk about trauma.
@@joeldurr2714exactly some people have the wrong intentions when trying to “help” someone
I've never really hated Cho but was more slightly annoyed that it was so obvious that she wasn't the one for Harry but then again, she was probably Harry's first girlfriend and very rarely is a person's first relationship also their last. But in defense of Harry being a bad boyfriend: first look at who his relationship role models growing up were. Second, we don't know much about his elementary school days Ron and Hermoine could and seem like they were his first friends so their importance to him is amplified so his extraordinary attachment to them is more than understandable. Third his isolation growing up meant he had to learn to cope with emotions alone and the negative events in his life outnumber the positive so he's more used to dealing with them than most people.
Harry shared his personal secrets (about Volde and stuff related to that) with Ron and Hermione alone... he couldn't really retell his entire life to someone like Cho who hadnt been through any of this with him...
So naturally he had to stay away from that, to avoid the trouble of explaining his whole life (pretty sure that would involve a lot of Ron and Hermione that would further upset Cho).
He was kinda helpless, already in a tumultuous state of mind, he was just trying to be a regular boyfriend (who couldn't and didn't want bring up his entire life story to a completely new girl)
And it turned out to be pretty bad experience... dating and all that...since neither understood each other's situations, it wasn't meant to work out either.
And about the betrayal: The DA meant everything to Harry, remember it was his only way to escape from the torture of umbridge around the school (for most students actually)...
So when Mariette gave them away, it was enraging for Harry. And when Cho tries to defend that, Harry as you said, already feeling responsible for Dumbledore leaving, had to lash out back...
Cho chose her friend over Harry, over umbridge's wrath and the DA...
Just from Harry's POV, although i completely agree Harry was in no sane mental condition to go out with Cho in the fifth book 😂
Maybe You could interpret Chos defense of Marietta as not as choosing her side, but as understanding that a teen girl having her face be permanently scarred with boils is a bit cruel. Marietta was worried her parents jobs. Not every student understood the full risk of an impending war. If Cho could trust Harry that Voldemort killed her bf, of course she’s going to give the benefit of the doubt to her own friend. Cho was a teen whose bf died, of course she’s going to have some anxiety about Harry (being with him/losing him). Yeah Harry has a lot on his plate with being the main character and all, but hes not exempt from doing emotional labor when he chose to date Cho after she experienced a major loss. She seemed willing to offer him comfort and desperate for him to meet her half way. Harry doesn’t console her grief, doesn’t offer closure, doesnt reassure her that their relationship isn’t threatened by other girls. Even if her relationship with Harry was new, Cho goes against her parents wishes and faces judgement from the rest her peers for supporting Harry. of course she’s going to be frustrated about still being left in the dark.
@@dotcom3015 according to your first line, I'd say that, first, before even talking about the boils, Cho started to tell Harry how nice of a girl Mariette was otherwise....
That itself had harry fuming...
And Harry gives the example of Ron clearly in the book to counter Mariette's parents... both aren't worth comparison given the mindsets, but even then the sentence is valid... Already Cho had dragged her into the DA, she didn't want it, and Cho ended up choosing her over Harry in the end, when she had to make her choice.
She might be making up for dragging her into this, by siding with her, but to Harry that's not a matter of any concern... he is least connected with Mariette in any way.
And as I wrote previously, Harry couldn't really explain his whole life to a girl he just met a year ago, and barely talked to...
You can't expect him to cut-off Hermione for the discussion (him being a boy-tactless, and all that) as she was a huge part of his life, and though I agree it was silly on his part, Cho wouldn't be able to make out the value and strength of the friendship of the golden trio, that lead to Harry behaving like this.
Harry did console her, but she kept referring to Cedric, and snogging (lol), which Harry clearly wasn't in the mood to do...
His fault maybe, but Harry never tried to explain Cedric's death to anyone after that as reliving it was extremely hard for him...
I wouldn't expect him to like being on a date just to explain how Cedric died, and that too to a girl who never was close friends with him
@@cziffrathegreat666 yeh I don’t get what you mean about Cho calling Marietta nice. Cho calling her a nice girl is not the same thing as picking Marietta’s side over Harry’s. It was trying to humanize her friend. You would offer empathy to hermione for being scarred by bellatrix, why is it acceptable for hermione to mutilate another teen? Ron is loyal to Harry, Marietta wasn’t. She was reluctantly there to be a friend to Cho, I doubt she knew how serious the consequences would be. How are yall resenting these girls more than Draco? Cho even continued to be on Harry’s side after their break up.
@@dotcom3015 where have i referred to malfoy here lol?
Cho called Mariette a lovely person who made a mistake.... and even defended it by saying that they all got away in the end, without any concern to how Harry felt that the DA that meant so much to him was now disbanded...
Harry and the trio are literally risking their necks under Umbridge's nose, and Mariette's not the only one having parents at the ministry... yet she chose to be the sneak... Cho's friendship towards Mariette overrode her love towards Harry... even when she did a really horrible thing, well the worst that could have happened to the group.
You can't bring bellatrix here, because they were clearly doing the Wrong thing, whereas Harry and the group were on the right path... you can't justify right using wrong...
Cho indeed supported harry, in the end, because she knew they were on the right path... but it was certainly justified of Harry to leave her because she supported betrayal rather than loyalty... and such a relationship was never meant to last
Dont take me as being offensive here, i really dont mean to :)
@@cziffrathegreat666 yall refers to the hp fandom. Sorry if you don’t like being grouped in, but it’s just strange how Draco and snape can be so loved but cho and Marietta are unforgivable. And Marietta truly could have very well been a lovely person that made a mistake. Cho knew her better than Harry did. mikaila already addressed that Cho didn’t know how much the da meant to Harry because he didn’t talk to her. How is she supposed to understand when he never talks to her about his feelings at all? I don’t think you understand that Marietta’s actions can be wrong, but also it can still be a mistake. It’s unreasonable to think Cho would turn against her friend, especially since you’re claiming that their relationship wasn’t deep enough for him to tell her about his trauma. Harry had his own struggles but he wasn’t risking anything by dating Cho. Cho at least liked Harry enough to risk getting in trouble with her parents and face the school judging her. Yet she’s still supposed to drop her friend for not being loyal to Harry’s club? And Cho still fought in the battle at hogwarts. She seemed pretty consistent on being on Harry’s side in the grand scheme of things. And what has Harry done for Cho as a boyfriend? Go to a date location she chose? Yes I can use bellatrix as a comparison. Hermione is not in the right for mutilating a teen just because she’s on the hero’s team. Hermione is pretty aware that war is very plausible while helping harry, that doesn’t mean every student feels the same way. Hermione also kidnapped Rita because she was slandering them in articles. Heroes don’t get a pass for doing villainous things just because you like their reasoning. You can at least acknowledge that hermiones punishments are disproportionate to the ‘crimes’. Just because they’re protagonists, doesn’t mean they can’t do wrong things. It doesn’t mean you have to stop liking them.
My jaw DROPPED! I haven't read HP books in at least 10 years, but damn Harry had no compassion at all
I really wish Cho had more of her own story in the series.
I always thought all of this about Cho. I always like her. I'm surprised anyone thinks different really. Girl went through a lot.
A few other things to note:
- Most outsiders to Harry, Ron, and Hermione’s relationship act really surprised when they find out Harry and Hermione aren’t dating, and Hermione literally dated Viktor Krum in the previous book (and had a gossip rag article written about her accusing her of making love potions). Krum himself was a bit worried that Harry was competition because of how often Hermione talked about him.
- Additionally, Harry and Ron are really dumb about dating (not too unusual for a teen tho) and Hermione points out how they’re both shallow and terrible at empathy. She even chastises Harry after his and Cho’s date, telling him he should have played up how much he wanted to be with Cho and put Hermione down to reassure her.
- Harry has always been more logically intelligent than emotionally intelligent. He bottles up his problems until he explodes and has been doing so since book one where he accidentally released a snake and trapped Dudley in a zoo exhibit. Cho approaches Harry from an emotional perspective and Hermione approaches Harry from a logical perspective. Ginny, meanwhile, doesn’t allow Harry to bottle his emotions and just goes into the matter frankly, which is why Ginny and Harry work so well (and why Harry and Cho likely never would have worked out with or without the trauma)
@araeast6923:because there’s hints and clues that hermione would have dated Harry instead of ron Jk Rowling just somehow randomly paired hermione up with Ron instead
@araest6923:but Jk Rowling did reveal that Harry and Hermione were suppose to date since book 1 she just didn’t end up putting Harry and Hermione together in the books which she ends up regretting not putting Hermione and Harry together in the books
@@Megz1794This is unfounded at all. Rowling liked Ron’s character very much I would say. He’s inspired by her childhood best friend Sean Harris, while Hermione is largely based on herself.
She actually dedicated the 2nd book to this great friend. On first page of chamber of secrets she wrote: For Sean P.F. Harris, getaway driver and foul-weather friend.
She said: “He was the first of my friends to learn to drive and that turquoise and white car meant freedom……Some of the happiest memories of my teenage years involve zooming off into the darkness in Sean's car.” Which is sooooo Ron.
She also said that “He was the first person with whom I really discussed my serious ambition to be a writer and he was also the only person who thought I was bound to be a success at it, which meant much more to me than I ever told him at the time." This is really touching, and reminds me of how great a friend Ron is.
And she also confessed “I wrote the Hermione/Ron relationship as a form of wish fulfillment……It was a choice I made for very personal reasons, not for reasons of credibility.” You would clearly see that she loved Ron’s character so much, and the person he’s inspired by, that she’d set him with the character resembling herself. Despite all the calls for Harry/Hermione relationship from fans.
Those children’s reactions she mentioned are just facts that happened. One should read more before jumping into conclusions.
Cho, stop defending yourself
LMAOOOO
I love my sis. No, don’t.
Thora racist nahi hai? :)
@@Bell_414 no, she herself makes jokes about it
See, here is where I think the writing is brilliant. Harry sounds like a fairly normal adolescent dealing with death. He's very much in his own perspective. Cho sounds like a fairly normal adolescent dealing with death, too. You get older, and you can laugh at how inept both of these people are in their relationship scenes. Even with therapy, most adolescents who are going through big, terrible things do not find themselves behaving well in romantic relationships, especially if it is their first one (Harry).
Yes! JKR is absolutely fantastic at writing flawed interactions between flawed people.
I’ve never hated Cho both Harry and Cho were fifteen year olds bad at reading the room and lack of therapy lol. Harry messed up in bringing up Hermaine which as Lorelai says you don’t talk about other girls on a first date. Which caused Cho to retaliate and of course Cho was going to defend her friend.
I wish they had both gotten closure later on
I never hated Cho. I always felt kind of bad for her. Harry did not have the grace and empathy required to deal with her trauma because he was busy dealing with his own. Like you said, that's neither of their faults. Sooo many of the HP characters badly needed therapy. Can we have a fanfic where everybody gets the mental health assistance they need? 😭
*madam puddifoot banging on the door of Dumbledore’s office*: hey have you considered hiring grief counselors for your traumatized students so they’re not forced to have anxiety attacks in the middle of my restaurant on valentine’s day?? 😭
@@magicbymikaila Dumbledore (refusing to take any responsibility): Have you considered that the anxiety attacks might be happening because your restaurant is far too pink? 😆
As someone who was a traumatised teen in the 90s, that would be like me writing a Memoirs of a Geisha fanfic where their society isn’t sexist. It’s a part of their environment that the story can’t and shouldn’t be divorced from.
I always thought it's a representation of how teenagers deal with their trauma, the feelings and hurt are real but they haven't yet learnt how to handle them
You are 100% right and I LOVE that JKR wrote that.
Harry and cho had great chemistry, but they had the worst timing, and Harry was dumb as hell.
I didn't like Cho as much reading the books as a kid but rereading them as an adult I liked her so much more. She's basically book Elena from Vampire Diaries at the start and then this horrible thing happens and suddenly her happy life is completely upside down and she has no one to talk about it with. Hermione flat out tells Harry that she's having a rough time AND why and he's still like....wow that seems complicated. Noted, and disregarded. After being so jealous of Cedric for asking her out before she even knew he liked her he is somehow still completely oblivious as to why she might not be pleased that after their date he's meeting up with the girl he's always walking down the halls with laughing who by the way was hot enough to bag an internationally famous Quidditch player. After having some bad or oblivious boyfriends myself in my younger years adult me feels a lot more sympathy for what poor Cho has to go through in these books.
I never hated Cho Chang, I always felt bad when Harry was rude to her, I mean, "she is a girl, Harry, be a gentleman and do the right thing, comfort her", I hated that part in the book, the date, the aftermath of their fight club disbanding, basically every interaction with Cho Chang, I was like "c'mon give her a break".
Also, felt really bad for Marietta, and sad that her curse was permanent, and they can't do anything about that, which is infuriating by itself, what kind of dark magic Hermione used to permanently disfigure her face? I mean, that's evil. Sure, Marietta deserves to be punished, but like "50 points from Ravenclaw" kind of punishment, she is a kid. She didn't kill anyone, she didn't hurt anyone, she just snitched out of fear than malice.
JK said she (Rowling herself) made it permanent cause she "hates traitors."
I have always assumed it was not permanent because I would never think that a magic student has the power to permanently disfigure someones face like that,with all the healers in St Mungo etc.
I didn't need my mind changed (they're both kids dealing in two very different ways with two different kinds of trauma, and Dumbledore is absolutely at fault), but I love the way you break the events down.
If Dumbledore hadn’t done what he did, JKR would have found some other way to move the plot in that direction. She wanted to write about a death like Cedric’s and the fallout of that death, and that’s reasonable because deaths like that exist in the world and we need stories about it.
biggest flex is that i’ve always loved cho
I'd completely forgotten how rude Harry was in some of the books. Like when he's rude to Snape it makes sense and is deserved, but his sass balances on a thin line between well sass and just being mean quite a lot in the later books.
As a side note I kinda liked Cho, but it's a bit sad how she just disappears after no longer being Harry's gf, I mean sure she wouldn't have been as close to the trio as Luna, but seeing her appear and interact with people more would have been nice. Perhaps some background talk about her becoming closer with Luna after realizing that she's actually very sweet or something like that.
In my opinion her biggest issue is that she uses an emotionally unstable Harry as her rebound, and while she does reach out to him, she never really understands him. Not that he makes it easy for him, but I feel like she doesn't necessarily try either, she just views him as she would any other person without trying to understand him as an individual. Then again Harry isn't much better, seemingly thinking that a cute girl is a cute girl, and completely ignores any feelings she may have about anything.
They had a crush on each other but neither of them was what the other needed at that time. Cho needed someone who understood, who she could talk to, and Harry was not capable of that nor of understanding why she would need to considering he spent most of that book as a ball of repressed trauma lashing out every few minutes and thought that was normal, plus he had bigger things to worry about. Harry probably saw this romance as an escape from all that stress and trauma, so Cho bringing up Cedric was the last thing he needed. The smaller things like Cho's jealousy or Harry's anger that she wasn't happy about her friend being permanently disfigured were down to a lack of communication and neither of them being capable of putting themselves in the other's shoes.
So yes it is Dumbledore's fault coz they needed a fcking therapist
This is a fair defense for Cho. I never thought she was a bad character. Just flawed, like a good story should be.
Yeah
JKR’s characters are provocatively flawed and I love it.
You did not change my mind about Cho because I already felt the same way about her. It was still interesting to hear a video about her because I didn't think she was a character anyone really ever talks about except to bash her for betraying DA as if she wasn't forced to because of Veritiserum. I always felt bad that after Cho lost Cedric she was just so victimized by everyone. It would have been great character development if we got to see Cho bullied but then become resolved and independent and stronger for everything she went through. You know, kind of like Neville, who went from awkward clutz to brave hottie who cuts off the head of the snake.
Didn’t hate Cho before but now I feel really bad for her
Cho was done dirty... she obviously was being a bit annoyed bc there was no rice
Oh mannnn. I was allergic to being a good boyfriend in high school too. It’s funny how Harry is Mr. Selfless when he’s all chosen oney and kind of a self centred prat under regular normal circumstances.
He’s good with a gun (so to speak) and bad with diplomacy.
Thank y!ou! You've validated so many of my feelings about her!
I hated the way the movie portrayed Cho in Order of the Phoenix.
It was Marietta who betrayed the DA...
Why the hell did they do Cho dirty like that?
I remember reading OOTP when it came out and during the infamous Valentine's day date I remember reading it thinking Cho was being a bit hysterical but also Harry kind of a jerk but you illustrate how they both acted logically from their point of views if a little tone deaf lol
It is good to see things in the Cho's point of view. Harry and Cho seems typically traumatized and immature teenagers in a bit different way each other.
I always thought Cho is pretty sympathetic to be honest. I mean even in the movie where it was with the serum... I mean that is lowkey torturing and abusing someone to make them tell you what you want to know. AND SHE IS A CHILD. Like, cut her some slack, y'know?
"A girl he's spending 99% of his tim with"
And was described in the newspaper last year as his girlfriend. Sure, WE know that Rita Skeeer is full of crap, bu like Molly Weasley fell for it. Even though she knows Hermione and Harry personally. Do you seriously think Cho would not think there's something behind it? ˆˆ'
And it's the 90s, in the sorcery world so like 1890s, a girl who's always with a guy, of course everyone think they're together XD
"Harry Potter was a bad boyfriend!" One date does not a boyfriend make. I should know. I am still surprised how little Harry and Cho do together in the actual books. I remembered it as being much more in the foreground than what it actually is.
Such a good breakdown of cho’s character
Harry Potter Movie Fans when the drink that makes you tell the truth snitch on people: