Sorting Hat - Grey's Anatomy Pt. 1

Sorting Hat time!  Everybody's favorite!  My favorite!

(Check out other installments here.)  

Grey's Anatomy returned yesterday and the only way to celebrate is to sort the characters into Hogwarts Houses.  

Gryffindor: bravery, nerve, daring, and chivalry

Slytherin: ambition, cunning, and resourcefulness (evil optional) 

Ravenclaw: intelligence, knowledge, and wit 

Hufflepuff: hard work, dedication, patience, and loyalty

Here we go.  (First, put on How to Save a Life.)

(Also: spoilers)

1. Meredith Grey

Me too, Mer, me too. 

Meredith is kind of hard to sort!  Over the years she's displayed traits of all of the houses.  She's definitely been cunning and manipulative (usually to advance at work and sneakily get good cases - something most of them did as interns and residents).  She shows hard work and loyalty more than many of her colleagues.  She's very smart, and she's obviously very brave.  

I think I'll narrow it down to Gryffindor or Hufflepuff.  It's got to be one of those. 

Since Meredith grew up with abandonment issues, she's very loyal.  (I think that usually happens in real life with people who grew up in a negative situation - they continue it or they become a 180 of it.  Meredith develops into the latter.)  She and Cristina are inseparable.  She is always there for everyone, even if it means breaking rules (like, um, giving Adele meds instead of the placebo).  She gave part of her liver to her father, mostly out of love for her sister.  She's fiercely loyal.  

But she's also brave.  "Nerve" is something Meredith Grey does not lack.  I mean, she grabs a bomb while it's in someone's body cavity ffs.

She definitely displays traits of Hufflepuff, but I think her fondness for breaking the rules and her sometimes reckless bravery put Meredith in Gryffindor.

2. Cristina Yang

Slytherin.

I love Cristina, but there is no denying that she's a bit manipulative when it comes to her career.  And she's hella ambitious.  She definitely goes to Slytherin.  It's okay!  There are good people in Slytherin.  She can be Professor Slughorn's pal.

Ah, I wish she'd come back to the show.

3. Dr. Bailey

         

Dr. Bailey is my favorite, pretty sure.  I <3 her.

Of course, that makes me want to put her in Gryffindor.

BUT.  We've got to be fairrr.  She's brave, sure, and ambitious, and smart.  But more than anything she is loyal and hardworking.  She rivals Richard as the backbone of the whole hospital.  No one doubts her reliability.  Sometimes she's scary (she was nicknamed "The Nazi"), but even when she's goin' a little crazy, it's out of a desire to help her residents and colleagues do better.  Or to keep her patients alive (and she's cried with/over patients many times, a nod to her devotion).

From all that, I think it's clear that Bailey goes to Hufflepuff.

4. Derek 

You won't.

Sore spot, I know.  I know!  But it feels wrong not to include him here.

I don't really know where to put him.  He's brave (I mean, he disregarded his own safety to save people from that accident.), he's smart.  He'd do fine in Gryffindor or Ravenclaw....

but I think he goes to Hufflepuff.

Dude is the definition of loyalty.  You know, after he cheats on his wife.  No, but really, while that wasn't justified, it had a complicated backstory.  But yeah.  He doles out hugs and advice to people who need it, he's incredibly friendly and charming, and he really just wanted to build a good life with good people.  In the last episode of the latest season, Meredith says Derek wanted his home filled with people and memories more than anything else.  That seems Hufflepuff-like to me.  He was a hard worker, he was devoted, and he loved fairness (remember how pissed he was when Meredith messed around with the trial to benefit Adele?).  I think he'd place people above everything - daring acts, smarts, and his career.  Def Hufflepuff.

5. Richard Webber

    

Ah, Webber.  Everybody's dad.

This is another tough one.  Of the three houses that aren't Slytherin, I guess I'd eliminate Gryffindor first?  Yeah, let's go with that.

So it's down to Hufflepuff or Ravenclaw.

Richard is devoted to the hospital and to everyone who works in it.  He's the guy everyone else goes to, and he's always working hard to help everyone else and get his own work done.  That makes me lean toward Hufflepuff but...

Maybe those are traits that have come with age and wisdom, which is great, but does that mean he should go straight into Hufflepuff?  I don't know.  It's hard!  (And while he repented, he did cheat on his wife - not very fair or loyal at all.)

I get the feeling that he actually belongs in Ravenclaw.  It's not like dedication and loyalty are found only in Hufflepuff.  Webber loves spending time on research, he helped Ellis look for treatments for HIV/AIDS, he's always doling out wisdom to everyone, and he seems to be incredibly open-minded.  He's got a worldly, intelligent thing about him.

Yep, Ravenclaw.

Next time... Karev, George, Izzie, Callie, and Mark.
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Charlotte   

Thoughts on Grey's Anatomy.

There might be some spoilers in this. 

I wasn't even going to write this post, because I doubt anyone will care.  But then I remembered Stephanie reads this blog and watches Grey's Anatomy.  So it shall be written.

I didn't jump on the Grey's bandwagon until most people jumped off.  This is kind of a theme in my life.  Oh well.  That said, I've been a weekly watcher for the last three years, mostly thanks to aforementioned roommate.  I've watched all the past seasons twice now, so I'm basically  an expert.  Right, that's how it works?

Well, I just finished watching the most recent episode (I Feel the Earth Move) and was like, "I have opinions about this."  So here we are.  A few ridiculous, short, not at all important things I think about Grey's Anatomy. 

1. It is so dark.  Not metaphorically.  Just in general, the last few seasons forgot what light is while filming.  I'm assuming they keep the lights so low because they want to keep it dramatic, but there were plenty of dramatic scenes in the earlier seasons and there was better lighting.  I HATE the darkness.  Aside from the fact that it's just not my thing, let's be real, hospitals aren't that dark.  I don't care that it's a fictional TV show.  Turn on some lights.  

2. Callie is by far my favorite character.  I didn't like her very much when she first joins the show, but I think that's because I hated her hair so much.  Wow, am I horrible.  But really, her hair is so nice now.  Her character is awesome.  I think she comes off as the most sincere and probably the most realistic.  

3.  I don't think I like where the show is going as a whole.  There are good parts (Amelia and Owen, Maggie, Alex), but as a whole it's just... eh.  First of all, I hope they don't end Meredith and Derek's marriage.  I know divorce is a real thing in the real world, but it won't kill the show to have some lasting marriages.  I'm down with a little marital strife, but I think it would negate basically the last 10 seasons to end their marriage.  And I'm not loving the Callie-Arizona story line for similar reasons.  That's also just confusing, and I kind of wish the writers would just pick a story for them.  I don't like that Derek is not in any of the episodes, and I miss his hair.  Hopefully he'll be back soon.  The show is not the same without Cristina, either, though I suppose they're doing as best they can without her. 

4. I see a lot of Amelia-hate on the internet, but screw that.  I like her.  She's kind of very annoying sometimes, but so is every other person in both the fictional and real worlds, so... she's fine.  I like her back story and I like her dynamic with Owen.  

5.  I used to despise Kepner.  I don't adore her now, but I dislike her less, and the recent story line she and Jackson shared was touching, though I still find their relationship weird.  In general, Grey's does a pretty bad job of developing relationships.  I think they're often good at individual character development, but they often do a shit job of showing why people become couples.  Four out of five times they rely on nothing attraction at first sight, if anything.  

6.  I love Maggie and I think she was a necessary addition to the show.  It desperately needed a fresh new face. 

7. Meredith is not the sun.  In Cristina's final episode, she told Meredith that she was the sun, not Derek.  But... no.  No person is the center of the effing universe, and until this most recent episode, Meredith was annoying me so much.  I love that Meredith is a kickass surgeon, a devoted mom, and a wife.  And she is exceptional (89 surgeries without losing one patient?? Amazing.), but being exceptional is not a pass to worry about no one but yourself.  I understood when she told Derek she wasn't going to DC.  Any kind of relationship is about compromise, especially marriage, and she had already done so frequently for him.  But then she started acting hella immature when he decide to turn down the job offer.  She sort of reverted back to her old self. I'm not going to list all of the crap she did to annoy me, because if you watch the show you probably know what I'm talking about.  That said, in yesterday's episode she had a sort of epiphany.  She realized she didn't need Derek in order to be successful, but she wanted him and wanted to share her life with him.  That was cool, and it felt like she finally was back to, you know, maturity.  (Though I don't think there's anything wrong with needing people.  Everybody needs people.  But the point was that she is skilled and happy, and sharing that with him just makes it better.  Most excellent.) 

8.  The writers were able to continue the show without Izzy and George.  And without Sloan and Lexi.  And it looks like they might even be able to get by without Cristina (though it's not the same). But they would never be able to keep the show going without Bailey and/or Webber.  I love both of them.  

That's it.  God bless Grey's. 

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Charlotte