Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (novel)/YMMV

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


  • Abandon Shipping: Cedric and Cho. Despite this book launching their ship, it's torpedoed at the end when Cedric is killed.
  • Accidental Aesop: The Yule Ball subplot seems to have the additional Aesop of "don't be afraid to settle and seize the day before you lose your opportunity". Part of the reason that Harry and Ron don't have dates for the dance until the last minute is because Harry wants to wait to ask Cho, the crowds of girls coming to ask him for a date scare him, and he's doing it under protest as the other Hogwarts champion, not because he wants to dance. Ron says he wants a pretty girl, which insults Hermione, and she gets further insulted when Ron sees her as a last resort rather than seeing her as the first. Harry also missed out with Cho because Cedric asked her first, and he thinks in hindsight that procrastinating is no good.
  • Alternate Character Interpretation:
    • Barty Crouch Jr. in and out of universe. When the kids hear his story, and Harry witnesses the trial in the Pensieve, they are horrified that Crouch. Sr was so callous towards his own son, and they are at least willing to believe that Crouch Jr. could have been innocent since Crouch. Sr sent Sirius, who was innocent, to prison without a trial and was willing to condemn Bagman on flimsy evidence. Sirius posits, since he isn't sure that the kid was a Death Eater, that he might have been caught at the wrong place at the wrong time the way that Winky was at the World Cup with Harry's wand. While we learn that Crouch Jr. was a Death Eater and loyal to Voldemort, it's unclear if being under the Imperius Curse for ten years may have messed with his mind given a few months of being under the curse turned his father into a raving wreck.
    • There is also Barty Crouch Sr. He's a workaholic who takes his duties and the rules seriously no matter what department he's in, as well as a Well-Intentioned Extremist that was willing to allow Aurors to use Unforgivable Curses and toss people into Azkaban without a trial. As a result, people think he was a terrible father who neglected his child. Sirius doesn't like Crouch Sr., for obvious reasons, but points out that a force like him was inevitable with Voldemort leading a campaign of terror. It's highly possible that Crouch Sr. didn't have a choice but to work that hard and after he lost his family, didn't lose the habits that came with the First Wizarding War.
  • Artistic License: Biology: In-universe example. In order to make Hagrid look bad to Rita Skeeter, Malfoy claims that in addition to being attacked by Buckbeak, Crabbe also got a bad bite off of a flobberworm. Which mainly eat lettuce, don't have any teeth, and have a X (boring) classification from the Ministry of Magic.
  • Complete Monster: Voldemort of course, along with Barty Crouch Jr. a.k.a. fake Moody (although the latter was only portrayed as such in the film, as the book has him being more closer to a Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds). They also set the stage for other Complete Monsters to be introduced later on, namely Umbridge, Bellatrix, and Greyback.
    • We find out that Voldemort callously killed his father and father's parents as a teen, leaving the groundskeeper to take the fall. He then kills said groundskeeper decades later but doesn't bother remembering him, calling him "Muggle" condescendingly. Voldemort tortured and killed Bertha Jorkins, "disposing of her" because she was no longer useful and promising that "Wormtail" will be as useful. Not to mention that he orders Wormtail to kill Cedric just because he's a spare, not because Cedric is a threat.
  • Crowning Moment of Awesome: Several, though one of the many mentions goes to the ending, where Fred, George, Harry, Ron, and Hermione all jinx Malfoy, Crabbe, and Goyle with every spell they know.
  • Crowning Moment of Heartwarming: Hermione kissing Harry and Ron on the forehead after they came back from underwater in one piece.
  • Draco in Leather Pants: Barty Crouch, Jr. has his share of fangirls, as can probably be expected whenever one casts David Tennant as anything.
  • Hero Antagonist: Cedric is a mild example, as he was Harry's rival both in the tournament and in winning Cho's affections.
  • High Octane Nightmare Fuel: Rowling was apparently surprised that the editors didn't object to Voldemort's resurrection scene, specifically Voldemort's fetus-like rudimentary body.
    • Wormtail cutting off his own hand.
    • The trial of Barty Crouch Jr, with Junior begging and crying for mercy and Senior showing no emotion or connection towards his son until he finally loses it and screams at him that he has no son. YMMV, since at the end it's revealed that Crouch Jr. actually was evil and guilty, though his story still is tragic. On a related note, the torture of Frank and Alice Longbottom.
    • For those with a fear of deep, dark water, the Second Task as a whole.
  • Hilarious in Hindsight: After the First Task, when Madam Pomfrey, the school nurse, is attending to the Champions' wounds, she exclaims, "Dragons! ...Last year dementors, this year dragons, what are they going to bring into this school next?" Of course, fans all know by now that the next year would see something far worse enter the grounds of Hogwarts School: Professor Umbridge as The Tyrant Taking The Helm.
    • The whole fact that Harry's incredibly handsome rival Hogwarts champion is played in the movie by future Edward Cullen. And really, the rivalry between Harry's supporters and Cedric's supporters could easily be compared to the Fandom Rivalry between Harry Potter and Twilight -- particularly the way in which Harry and Cedric (a.k.a. Daniel Radcliffe and Robert Pattinson) are nothing but civil to each other while each has fans who volatilely bash their hero's rival.
      • It doesn't help that Cedric first makes an appearance by jumping out of a tree. Maybe, he was bothered?
    • Also, David Tennant said in an interview at the movie premiere that he'd probably never be part of such a large fandom again. One year later...
  • Launcher of a Thousand Ships: Continuing the series tradition, the introduction of new characters as well as already existing ones being made prominent created some new ships, including Harry/Cho, Cedric/Cho, Harry/Fleur, Ron/Fleur, Hermione/Krum, Hermione/Cedric, Krum/Fleur, Cedric/Fleur.
  • Magnificent Bastard: Barty Crouch Jr.
  • Moral Event Horizon
    • Crouch Jr.'s actions, at least the ones confirmed in the book, are reprehensible. The one that shows that he crossed it are when he murders his father in the Forbidden Forest, transfigures the body into a bone, and buries it near Hagrid's Hut. And he does not regret this at all, gleefully telling Harry that he and Voldemort both had the pleasure of killing their fathers.
    • Meanwhile, Crouch Sr. crossed it by using the Imperius Curse on his own son after smuggling him out of Azkaban as a Last Request granted for his wife. Then to seal the deal, he put a damaging Memory Charm on Bertha Jorkins when he found out, to protect his reputation.
  • Narm: In-universe, Harry thinks that Professor Moody must find the whole scenario where Harry is caught out of bed trying to figure out the second clue (an otherwise dramatic and intense moment) to be quite silly, since his eye is able to see Harry's awkwardly-positioned body through the Cloak.
  • No Such Thing as Bad Publicity: This entry brought the Moral Guardians out in full force against the series, ensuring this trope occured. While still a good book in its own right, it wouldn't have been nearly as successful without all the parents, politicians, and preachers decrying it for converting children to witchraft and Satanism. Some held burnings of it. Of course, this required them to buy copies to burn them.
  • Ship-to-Ship Combat: Also, continuing the series tradition, the supporters of the new and already established ships took all new offensives for their pairings.