8 Harry Potter Moments That Are So Much Better In The Book

5. The Consistent Characterization Of Harry And Ron

One of the joys of J.K. Rowling's writing is her mastery of gradual character development, gracefully guiding Harry, Ron and Hermione from wide-eyed children to hardened young adults. This is also skilfully mirrored on a narrative level, as the books grow from whimsical children's stories to more mature, sophisticated novels aimed at teenagers and young adults.

J.K. Rowling was quite private about the progress of her writing (though at times later reflected on the process) €“ she disappeared for years at a time, shutting herself away from the real world and focusing on the characters and story. This focus is one of the reason why the books are plotted so well and the characters grow so naturally.

Changing directors between films, however, can produce certain stylistic differences, even when following a set script. This can be seen most clearly in Harry Potter And The Goblet Of Fire,

Whether capitalizing on the height of the 'emo' resurgence (the mid-2000s saw a massive number of young celebrities and bands go through a 'long hair' phase) or merely attempting to force a moody aesthetic, Harry and Ron randomly grew their hair long (along with Fred and George Weasley, to name just a few others) and started wearing baggy jeans and hoodies. After Goblet, these features disappeared entirely, a clear indication that the style was very much of the moment.

It's the kind of anomaly that simply doesn't appear in the books, as they were written with a single, coherent vision. Any dramatic change in appearance or style would have been accompanied with some sort of revelatory description, internal monologue or...at the very least, Hermione would have made fun of them for it.