Why Fleur Delacour In Goblet Of Fire Puzzles Harry Potter Book Fans
Fleur Delacour is an enchanting character introduced in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. At first, she's Harry's competitor in the Triwizard Tournament as the champion from the French witching school Beauxbatons, but she eventually marries Bill Weasley and becomes a close ally of the Order of the Phoenix. In the Goblet of Fire book, Fleur is described as a luminous blonde who possesses literally supernatural beauty. She has the ability to bewitch men not just because she's beautiful and talented, but because she is part Veela, a humanoid magical being with the siren-like ability to inflict overwhelming infatuation. Fleur's grandmother was a full Veela, and the magical core of Fleur's wand is a hair from her silvery head. That makes Fleur one-quarter Veela with a Veela wand — clearly plenty for a Great Hall full of adolescent schoolboys to be getting on with.
The film adaptation of Goblet of Fire, however, jettisons Fleur's Veela connection. Played by Clémence Poésy, the character is still portrayed as a great beauty, but a strictly human one. This change led to a confusing moment between Ron and Fleur when a line from the book was borrowed for the movie without its context, and therefore didn't make sense. This flaw was recently pointed out by Harry Potter fan PetevonPete on the Harry Potter subreddit. PetevonPete compiled a list of examples where this type of nonsensical borrowing happened — moments when something was directly lifted from the books that made no sense in the movies.
With all the necessary changes the movies made from the books, the head-scratching ones really stick out.
Veela who?
In 2005's Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, the fourth film in the series, there's a scene in which Ron is embarrassed after impulsively asking Fleur to the Yule Ball dance, an invitation that she would never accept, as she is a gorgeous French 17-year-old Triwizard champion and Ron is an awkward 14-year-old with no game to speak of. He saw her walking by and felt overcome by the urge to ask her out. Ron is publicly rejected, and has to cope with the shame. The scene plays out very similarly to how it does in the book, but with one crucial difference.
"They keep it almost word for word, describing how he was enchanted and in a trance," PetevonPete writes. "But they cut out the explanation that Fleur is part-Veela, in fact they cut out the existence of Veela entirely, so in the film it just looks like Ron is really stupid."
It's certainly in keeping with Ron Weasley's character to act without thinking — especially at this point in the series — but it's true that this moment makes him look ridiculous in a way that's basically inexplicable in the context of the movie. Director Mike Newell and screenwriter Steve Kloves have never really explained why they left Veela out of Goblet of Fire, but the choice to not include the magical beings changes the nature of Hogwarts boys' lascivious reactions to the Beauxbatons girls when they arrive at the school for the Triwizard Tournament. "The boys now look like hormone fueled heathens cheering at hot girls versus actually being powerless over the power of Veela," user Pisforplumbing wrote in another Reddit post about the absence of Veela in the movies.
Whatever the reason, Ron's Fleur mishap is another moment in which the movies make Ron look dumber than he does in the books, and a glaring example of the necessity of proper context.