For a while, Viktor love life wasn't as rocky as it eventually turned out to be
Viktor Krum is a quidditch legend, the idol many young aspiring seekers, and the heartthrob of young girls across wizarding London. Even though he gives off the appearance of surliness and reclusiveness, he’s a complete gentleman, making him a girl’s dream. Yet for a while, the poor guy could never catch a break in the relationship department. Why is it that it always seems like good guys finish last?
For Viktor, his problems arose from two things that are both his detriments and some of his greatest assets; he is famous and he falls in love hard.
Since he’s famous, he’s probably never sure if girls like him for who he is or if they just like him for his fame and money; this probably caused him to act reclusive and almost shy. When he finally met Hermione-someone who didn’t run after him because of his fame and fortune as well as someone who was very smart-he found it refreshing and therefore fell down the slippery slope of love.
Too bad for him. Even though she showed him affection, Hermione eventually dated and married Ron Weasley, and Ginny, whom Krum mentioned was cute in passing, found out to his chagrin that she was dating Harry. As Krum said, “Vot is the point of being an international Quidditch player if all the good-looking girls are taken?”
Krum's surly attitude is merely a front in order to protect him from golddigging girls, but stands slightly in the way of his chances at a relationship
This fact is one of the reasons why I love and identify with Viktor, and I think if more people remembered his existence, they would love him too. Everyone’s been in the situation where you can’t understand why someone doesn’t like you, or why everyone seems to be in a relationship instead of you. You feel cursed! And for Viktor, it’s even worse because no amount of fame or money will fix that problem. Even worse is that Viktor was going through this problem for the majority of the series.
Viktor does eventually find love in Bulgaria (I wish I knew the character’s name and background!), but his “everyman” problem of finding that special someone is one of the quirks about Viktor that makes him-or at least should make him-high on any self-respecting Harry Potter fan’s top ten favorite characters.
I disagree with your analysis. I do not believe that Viktor Krum was a “nice guy who finishes last”. Rather, he is an arrogant alpha male who is so accustomed to attention from the opposite sex that he has convinced himself that Hermione as well must automatically be in love with him, and has too much pride to consider anything else. However, Hermione is a smart cookie, a cut above the rest, and while she likely finds Krum to be physically handsome (as any woman should) due to his strength, stature, and confidence, she sees through his empty personality which carries a low chance for deep emotional connection. Krum’s style of romantic advances is only rudimentary at best, although it may be sufficient to woo most other girls dazzled by superficial beauty. Hermione, having spent considerable time around shy but compassionate nerds like Ron and Harry, understands and relates well with their characteristics. She even admits to Harry and Ron that she finds Krum to be repulsive. Even the professors at Hogwarts, concerned about Harry’s chances for survival in the Goblet of Fire championship, refer to the other contestants (which includes Krum) as “meat”.
In the end, Krum is just meat, and everyone but the naive schoolgirls knows it.