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Underused and underdeveloped characters


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One of the things that always annoyed me about the HP series - books and films - is that they have a plethora of underused and/or underdeveloped characters. This is, of course, because they're not "epic" in the proper sense of the word: they're "what Harry did today". (That's not a criticism, it's a statement of focus.)

 

Films: For me, Mr. Weasley is terribly, terribly ignored. They made an absolutely perfect choice of actor but really didn't give him a chance to do more than a bit of humour and background work. There's so much more to him and he could have shone. In a way, that's probably why he's so "backgroundy" - he'd have stolen the limelight.

 

Books: For me, it's Remus. There's obviously an enormous amount of depth to his character - his trust of Dumbledore, his monthly problem (!), his strict (almost obsessive) adherence to justice and truth and, of course, the whole Tonks thing. I the films, he gets a decent role as DDA professor but everything else is pushed aside (and even in the books - JKR is not one to dwell on secondary characters, IMHO).

 

So, of all the secondary (or tertiary) characters, who do you think are the most underused?

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Di not think of it that way like you, I was perfectly fine with all the content as far as chars are concerned.

The books would of ended up 1000 pages if she'd give space to more chars so...I think she chose the chars that do get

space well.

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  • 1 month later...

Bill Weasley! I wish there was more about him in the books, but more than that I wish they hadn't cut Bill out of the first six movies. He's my favourite character, and the whole relationship with Fleur, and his getting mauled by Greyback is so emotional. At the end of Halfblood Prince, I was sobbing harder even than I did at Mockingjay, and it wasn't because of Dumbledore; it was because of Bill. But they almost cut him entirely out of the movies! He's only in the last two briefly. I want more Bill!

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  • 3 months later...

i would have loved to see more of Arthur Weasley, Bill Weasley, and more of Ginny. also, i was rather disappointed that Hermoine's S.P.E.W storyline didn't get a mention or any time in the films.

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In The books: Ginny Weasley. She was the character that I felt I never really "knew". I also wished I got to know more about the bad guys.Honestly.

 

In the movies: Ron Weasley is the most underused and underdeveloped and he is one of the trio. But overall, most charachers in the movie are either rused or underused / underdeveloped.

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  • 4 months later...

Books: For me, it's Remus. There's obviously an enormous amount of depth to his character - his trust of Dumbledore, his monthly problem (!), his strict (almost obsessive) adherence to justice and truth and, of course, the whole Tonks thing. I the films, he gets a decent role as DDA professor but everything else is pushed aside (and even in the books - JKR is not one to dwell on secondary characters, IMHO).

 

 

 

 

I agree with you for Lupin in the books, as I was reading again HP 4-5-6, I thought that for all that he lived, we actually don't here him a lot. But I also believe that's part of his character, for example in the pensieve of Severus, when James attack severus, Remus doesn't do anything. It made me think his a passive person. 

 

In the books, I wish I could learn a bit more about the students. For example, Dean and Seamus, we read the jokes and the fights, and we know they are good friends with Harry and Ron. But we don't know mush about their personalities. Same for Bill and Charlie. 

I wish we could have a lot more about Ginny, but as she's not able to talk when Harry's present for almost 4 books, I guess we couldn't ask for more. 

 

In the movies, though I loved a lot of them, I thought that all the characters are underdevelopped XD 

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  • 5 months later...

 I think by virtue of the scope of JKR's books that it would be impossible to avoid the underdevelopement of certain characters.

 

The editors may well be as responsible for our opinions regarding underdevelopment as JKR is though.  She has touched upon the fact that the HP books were merely a glimpse into the world that she has created in her mind's eye.

 

With that said, there's no harm in discussing it and I think this a great thread topic. 

 

In the movies I would say that Peeves was underdeveloped.  Was he even in ANY of the movies?  Perhaps the first one? 

 

Book wise, I think that Remus and Mr. Weasley are excellent choices, but the character who always could of been more developed who stood out to me was Regulus Black.  Stan Shunpike was also a bit underdeveloped as we never really got any idea for his motivation or inclinations to support the Dark Lord.

 

Awesome topic though as I said, and I love reading everyone's answers.

Edited by Mr. Pumpkinhead
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