In defense of Cho Chang 

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.

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???

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 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.

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, stop defending yourself

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.

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

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 😅

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

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...

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.

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.

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

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

i think cho and harry (more or less) acted how weird, inexperienced, insecure fifteen-year-olds often do around the person they like.

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.

It's just two authentically written teenagers not mature enough for a relationship.

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 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)

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? 😭

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.

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 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.

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?

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.

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!"

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.

“Was cho allergic to reading the room, ABSOLUTELY” 😂😂😂

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.

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.

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.

Cho is a nice girl, Harry likes her. Neither a good at feelings, they hurt each other as a result. Teenage romance everyone, neither are bad guys

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.

Ultimately it boils down to Cho being traumatized by being unprepared for seeing the dead body of her boyfriend, vested love interest, finding out that plenty of people were fairweather friends and then atop of all of that being present in her life being expected to while likely having been given zero help by any adults, to identify that the guy she was interested in had it so so so much worse off. It wasn't her fault. It really wasn't. You can't expect a traumatized like 16 year old whose very clearly had no help in being capable of recognizing the mistakes being made. Now Potter. Oh boy. He was a terrible Boyfriend. Parvati and Padma in the Goblet of Fire showed that. But I think the issue here is that Harry had no male figures in his life capable of really providing him solid help here at all. No adults were present that were worth a damn and no offense to Sirius, he was a bit busy recovering from you know 13 years of Azkaban, two years on the run... Mate wasn't there at all. The only two male figures even remotely capable of potentially helping were Arthur and Remus. The Weasley Dad and the Werewolf. The latter couldn't. Harry had nothing there that spoke to him believing Remus capable of help. Meanwhile Arthur... well I dunno why Harry didn't write to him. Could be he was busy suffering through a lot as I describe below, but at some point Arthur does get taken down hard by Nagini and spends a chunk of time recovering. What's the kid expected to teach all these people including those older then him about Magical Defense, aware the national public is hating him, the government is hating him, dealing with a teacher who actively loathes him, aware Voldemort is out there, people are being hurt and the Dark Lord wants him dead, and you know plenty of his peers believe him to be bad to do? Ron and Hermione could only do so much, Sirius too. This also discounts the fact that leading up to this was four years of epic craziness that really serves to help screw one over and then the entire ten years of the Dursley's basically being at some level abusive and not at all capable of being role models here. This is a case of Cho being not so great, Harry being not so great, Hogwarts entirely failing them, and of course Rowling showing that she can rival Martin in being mean to her characters.

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.

I didn't realize how accurate of a teenage relationship Harry and Cho had. Communication issues galore.

She didn't change my mind. I agreed with literally everything she said.

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!

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 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.

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 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 always liked Cho! I feel like she was treated really badly when in reality what happened wasn’t her fault!

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.

Idk about Cho but Mikaila is my favorite Harry Potter character.

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).

As a fellow Asian, I'm happy that you defend Cho.

Cho was done dirty... she obviously was being a bit annoyed bc there was no rice

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.

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

Harry also has bad PTSD and his upbringing leaves a lot to be desired for social skills.

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'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.

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.

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.

Harry and cho had great chemistry, but they had the worst timing, and Harry was dumb as hell.

The fact that the house elf’s can’t make boba is a tragedy

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.

This is a fair defense for Cho. I never thought she was a bad character. Just flawed, like a good story should be.

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.

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?

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

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'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.

Oh yeah he was a terrible boyfriend! I always thought so. Harry was trying his best though, he just wasn’t mature enough yet.

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.

You presented the other side of the story really well, I actually feel more sorry for her now

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.

"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

Okay is this foreshadowing for Mikayla as the Cho Chang in the reboot 👀👀

Honestly, i always sorta found marietta interesting mostly coz her situation sorta seemed desperate so i felt weird that she got punished so harshly. I mean she deserved to be punished but not with like.. permanent disfiguration like man that was sooo not right of hermione to set that punishment because circumstances can vary.. Like it was clear in the booka that marietta's mother was def in danger of losing her job if it got out that she was associated with harry's club. Of course, she shouldn't have joined the club in the first place but in the books it was implied that she did it coz of cho and that sorta makes sense coz in her pov there's her best friend extremely hurt from her ex boyfriend's death and now this boy comes in to take advantage of her vulnerability and have her join some illegal club (read cult coz at that point voldemort coming back was supposed to be impossible and literally everyone was calling harry a liar)..seeing your best friend follow that self destructive pathway, you join with her in order to keep her and the cul-cough cough- club leader separate and not do something to dangerous. But there is too much pressure coz your mom's job is on the line and you can't betray your family and according to you there really are no real world consequences coz it's a school not prison yknow (not sure she actually knows about the blood quills) and harry is a liar who's taking advantage of people and misleading them. Plus, if she had any sense (which she probs did, coz she was a ravenclaw afterall) she would still just go tell umbridge only the half truth and then warn everyone that the info has been leaked through anonymous note or something and that they should not hold these meetings anymore so she's bereft of consequences on both sides and also saves her best friend which is probs what she was gonna do but umbridge is smart and probs weedled the entire truth out of her.

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 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.

I agree Harry was VERY confused in that book😂

One word can sum them up: teenagers. When reading Cho and Harry’s date, it’s so clear what is going on where Harry messes up and is confused but my teenage brain probably would have been exactly like Harry’s. I’ll admit though, I didn’t consider that Cho was projecting her lack of a support system onto Harry and just thought she completely lacked the understanding that a date is not the time or place to bring up her deceased boyfriend

The Marietta thing is probably one of the worst parts of the series for me. A girl is put into a tough decision between protecting her family or some random classmates, chooses her family, gets permanently disfigured by a curse so powerful no one can remove it, which is cast by someone who should be less experienced and powerful than many high-level magic-users, and the curse-caster faces no repercussions.

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.

Honestly? I never really judged either of them bc like yeah, it's a train wreck and a half, but they're also FIFTEEN. Have you EVER seen a functional relationship with FIFTEEN-YEAR-OLDS. Me neither!

I've long been upset by Cho having to take the fall for the DA reveal in the movies (though I do understand not wanting to have to put time into a character for just that when Cho was already there and important to the story). I've never really disliked Cho, either, I just thought the timing for Harry trying to date her (and since she was way less flirty in the book, it was mostly on Harry and his crush on her that they even went on a date instead of just becoming friends during grief) was spectacularly bad. Either way, though, they're teenagers and it all played out very realistically to me.

Honestly this might be a hot take but I never had a problem with how Cho or Harry handled things because from both of their perspectives the other is acting in a sub-optimal way. Cho has fallen for Harry immediately after her boyfriend dies, and not only that he happens to be the only person who was there to see him die, and not only THAT but Harry is also being ridiculed over his claims about HOW Cedric died. The whole thing is a highschooler's nightmare, and things from Harry's perspective are just as bad if not worse.

Heres the thing. I don't and never have, hated Cho. My biggest problem with her is that she chooses Madam Pudifoots. Like that is WAY couple stuff. People are literally making out and they are on their First Date.

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'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.

I would like to see something like this about Percy, he was biased and made a lot of mistakes, but I think they would be more understandable if we saw his perspective of the story, and he was very brave to recognize his errors at the end. He really wanted to do the right thing, he just was very stupid and arrogant to recognize it.

Also it’s not even just that Hermione is a girl that Harry spends 99% of his time with, Hermione is a girl who the tabloids paired him up with nonstop not even a year ago. Like we’re not JUST talking about a female friend. Cho also DID reach out when she realised that this at least had been a misunderstanding (it’s hard to keep the belief in your head that Harry was going on a date with Hermione when Rita Skeeter is also there lol). Also I agree with you how Cho feels that since SHE has a connection to Harry as being the only one she can talk to about Cedric’s death and how it really happened, that she then is the same for him.

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

yeah, both of them are traumatized teenagers with limited support and coping skills. cho was reaching out for support because she's been told not to talk about it. harry's closing in and lashing out because too many people want him to talk about it. bad all around because child murder (and murder in general... and also terrorism) is bad. also hogwarts should provide mental health services but hey! it's the '90s

Let’s be honest, the curse Hermione did to Cho’s friend’s face was insane. In fact, Hermione should go to prison for that, just like all the other crazy shit she did (kidnapping a reporter, using a time traveling device outside of the way she was allowed to use it when she got it, stealing ingredients and making illegal potions) the fact that Hermione is one of the good guys is insane. I mean, is she really better than most of the bad guys? They all stole, threatened, tortured and destroyed lives. As for killing? We can assume that she killed in the battle of Hogwarts at the very least.

I've always felt bad for Cho. We're also overlooking the fact that she is 16 and going through something that would be a lot for an adult, let alone a teenager.

She was trying to trauma bond and Harry was just offended that Cho is using him as a rebound. yay....

Personally, I don't blame Harry or Cho for what happened in book 5. Harry was obviously under a lot of stress, what with, Umbridge, Voldemort, the visions, everyone calling him a liar and hating on him, Snape (I think Harry's occulemency lessons started before he went out on a date with her, but im not sure), Dumbledore ignoring him, people keeping him in the dark about everything, and dealing with Cedric's death and nightmares. But as you mentioned in the video, Cho also lost everything after Cedric died and was in a really bad space mentally. Neither of them should have went on the date. Harry isn't good with emotions, especially dealing with other people's emotions, and Cho shouldn't have asked Harry about if Cedric said anything before Harry witnessed his murder. They were both in a bad place at the time and I don't blame Cho or Harry for what happened. Maybe they were trying to find comfort in each other, Cho in the fact that Harry had been the last person to see Cedric and witness his death, and Harry in the fact that he had a crush on Cho who was one of the few in Hogwarts that believed him. Unfortunately, or maybe fortunately depending on how you look at it, it didn't work out. Also Hogwarts totally should provide a therapy sponsoring system.

I think the fandom just likes to ignore trauma all around. Cho was 15 when her boyfriend got murdered. It's the same as people dumping on Harry for being "emo" in book 5, an orphan who gets bullied by one of his teachers and oh yeah, that same guy who got murdered had been becoming a friend by the evil wizard trying to murder him and the whole world is calling him a loser weirdo liar. The fact that so many students at Hogwarts aren't psychopaths is a miracle (more than the Slytherins, har har).

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.

If there’s a tv adaptation let’s hope that Cho is introduced earlier in the series ( she appeared in book 3?) so there’s enough set up . And give her a bit more screen time!!!!

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.

I loathed Cho when I read the books when I was the same age as the main characters. Then I re-read them a few years back, and realised that Harry, as written, is an a'hole. One whose a'holery makes sense given that he is a) a teenager and b) has been through... a lot, but suddenly Cho just seems like this absolutely unjustified target for all his impulses and, like a lot of characters outside the core group, is never really given a decent resolution.

Glad you made this. I always see Cho as someone who is often unfairly treated by the fans.

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 really wish Cho had more of her own story in the series.