thinking about how, when disney was starting to do their live action remakes, they probably went "shit, we made most of our villains stereotypically gay. we can't do that now, that's Homophobic!" and then proceeded to butcher their old villains by taking away everything that made them interesting and beloved characters.

Okay, Harry Potter, Dumbledore, and the pairings of Harry/Ginny and Ron/Hermione (vs Harry/Hermione). Positive opinions, go.

-Rain

Harry Potter! Ma boi! What a solid Gryffindor, amirite? 8D This dude is like...quintessential hero, isn't he? I mean, how many seventeen-year-olds find out they've (from a certain point of view) been bred like a lamb for the slaughter, and then go, "Yes, actually, I am willing to sacrifice my life to weaken the most evil wizard who ever lived to the point that maybe someone who comes after me can finally defeat him." How many people who then, beyond anything they dared hope or expect, end up surviving this laying down of their own life, face off against their mortal enemy and pity him? And it's not just at the end of his journey that Harry is like this, either. Say what you will about him; he certainly has his flaws and his dumb moments, but if you think all the way back to when he was eleven and facing an evil wizard head-on for the first time...he didn't back down. He tells Hermione, "you better go get Dumbledore because I won't be able to hold him off forever," knowing there's a very strong chance he's about to die, and then just marches right in anyway. What a lad.

And then Dumbledore! Dumbledore is my favorite character - I'm not sure when I realized that, but it didn't change no matter what new things we discovered about him. He's such a complex and interesting character - very wise and strong, but also so incredibly flawed. He's the number one proponent of the power of love, and yet there are many things he's done that are not loving at all. In some ways, I think he actually looks up to Harry, because there's a certain selflessness to Harry that sometimes I think Dumbledore has lost along the way. Dumbledore has so many plans, so many layers, so much subterfuge and cleverness, so much looking at the big picture, like playing a chess game where you have to sacrifice certain pieces in order to win the game, that sometimes I think he loses sight of the little things that make the whole game worth it in the first place. And that is so fascinating. When you start the series, you just think of Dumbledore as that funny, quirky guy who is all-wise and makes everything turn out right in the end. But every book is like peeling back another layer of who this man is. I also love how strongly his presence is felt, even in books where Harry hardly comes face-to-face with him at all.

Harry/Ginny? The interesting thing about them is how Harry is an only child raised in an abusive home where everything had to be perfect (and he never was), while Ginny is the youngest of a huge family full of love where everything is messy and higgledy-piggledy. That's what draws Harry to the Weasleys in general, and it's a comforting thought to know that Harry has a permanent spot in a warm, welcoming family like hers.

One thing I love about the dynamic of the Golden Trio is that there's never any love triangle nonsense (except for a bit in DH, which is entirely the fault of Voldemort's lies and is quickly shown to be baseless). It becomes clear early on that Ron and Hermione have a thing for each other, and Harry and Hermione are friends. And you know what's kind of fun? When for various reasons throughout the series Ron is temporarily outside the circle of friendship (like when he and Harry aren't talking in GoF or when Ron leaves in DH), both Harry and Hermione are like, "You're a good friend, *sigh* but Ron, though...." I would argue that Ron is actually the glue that holds them together, not Harry, even though he's the main character.

Anyway, that being said, I love watching Ron and Hermione's relationship and way of relating to each other develop through the series. They go from bickering and refusing to speak to each other and being very stupid teenagers to learning how to communicate and support each other better. And while Harry's relationship with Hermione is never quite as antagonistic as Ron's...somehow, that doesn't seem right for either of them? Hermione seems to need someone to argue with, and Ron is better at doing that than Harry is ^^'