Harry Potter Fans Have A Heartbreaking Theory About Krum's Connection With Hermione
Fan theorists, man. They'll sneak right up on you. One minute you're just living your life. The next? You're suddenly thinking about how "Aladdin" is a postapocalyptic odyssey or how "Finding Nemo" is the story of a fish driven mad by the loss of his entire family who Tyler Durdens an imaginary kid into being. People are bleak.
And they're never bleaker than they are on "Harry Potter" Reddit threads, where speculation runs wilder than a third-act centaur with an antagonist to get rid of. The ideas that have come out of online Wizarding World speculation will break your heart faster than "For Sale: Baby Shoes, Never Worn." Like, they're not as tragic as the "Fantastic Beasts" scripts, but they're still bad.
Take, for example, this doozy, coming to you straight from the already depressing pages of "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire." Longtime fans will remember this as the installment in the franchise where the kids learn about the destructive nature of extracurricular sports.
Consider Viktor Krum (Stanislav Yanevski), golden boy of Bulgaria's Durmstrang Institute. Consider the way that the borderline bloodsport of the Triwizard Tournament calls for him to rescue someone precious to him from mermaid-infested waters. Now consider that the deeply important person who's chosen for him to save is a girl whom he just met and danced with a little bit and how deeply depressing that might just be.
Harry Potter and the Difficulty of Making Friends
The thought process — brought to light on Reddit by u/TriggerXV – goes something like this: Imagine being so alone that, when one of your loved ones needs to be kidnapped for the purposes of what's essentially wizarding mathletes, the only person who fits the bill is a relatively new acquaintance. Surrounded by your friends and classmates, the closest thing you have to a real, personal connection is the totally not-made-up-sounding girl from a different school whom you took to the Yule Ball.
In contrast, the other three competitors have to rescue their girlfriend, BFF, and sister, respectively. Not Viktor. Viktor goes to one awkward high school dance and apparently, his entire concept of personal connections changes. If anyone was important to him before, they pale in comparison to the sophomore-age relative stranger for whom he rented a Mr. Tux to impress.
Devotees have been quick to putty in the narrative gaps with pasty headcanon. Over on Quora, "Harry Potter" fan Maria Claudia Crespo posited that Hermione (Emma Watson) is precious to Viktor "because Hermione cared for Viktor the person, not just Viktor Krum the Quidditch star." Maybe that's the ticket. For her part, author J.K. Rowling doesn't appear to have much to say on the matter, so our best guess comes to us by way of empathetic readers. Maybe, as seems to be the popular conclusion, Krum is adrift on a turbulent sea of celebrity, and Hermione is the emotional anchor that lets him pause for a moment and look to the stars.
Or maybe it's just hard to make friends when you're always turning into a gross shark-headed boy, walking around with breath that smells like Pike Place Market. Wizarding World Digital will get around to this one eventually.