The Harry Potter Series

[GoldenFleece]

The most popular shipping options in HP were all equally clichéd IMO. The hero getting the girl, the bickering guy and girl who really love each other, the hero conveniently marrying the best friend's little sister. I don't think stories should not do things just because they've been done before. Very little Rowling did in the series was reinventing the wheel, exactly...

[kostgard]

Feb 2, 2014 0:25:39 GMT -4 Mutagen said:

Hooboy...  I can see the mushroom cloud of wank rising over the fandom already. 

Mostly, I find it a little hilarious that out of all the couples she regrets, she picks Ron and Hermione. I mean... no regrets on the handling of Harry/Ginny?  Lupin/Tonks?  Really?? 

Seriously. The way those relationships were handled always bugged me.

I can see her point about Hermione and Ron - realistically, they wouldn't last. They were just on completely different levels intellectually, and without adventures bonding them together what in the world would they talk about? But they were fine for a work of kids' fiction.

However, I say "Boo!" to her wishing she had put Hermione with Harry. I was so glad she had avoided that trope. While I just did not like the way Ginny and the thing with Harry was written, it at least made sense to me that Harry would marry a Weasley (and hey, unless he was going to switch teams, options were limited). They were the family Harry always longed for, so it made sense that he'd eventually join them in an official way.

[angelaudie]

What she should regret is writing that terribe, horrible, no good, very bad epilogue. Ending the story with Harry destroying the Elder Wand, and perhaps waxing poetically about having lots of work to do but he won't be alone, would have allowed shippers to have their head canons. Plus, we would have been spared the name Albus Severus.

[Deleted]

I liked Ron and Hermione. I never once questioned the validity of their relationship. IMO, the difference in their intellect was not that vast - Hermione might have been more book smart, but they both were clever, quick-thinking and brave. I thought Harry and Ginny were a good match - they were both leaders and good at Quidditch. I think Ginny should have been fleshed out better, though.

[smitten]

I liked Ron and Hermione too. In the books, it made perfect sense for them to be together. Unfortunately, the movie versions seemed to throw together Harry and Hermione more and sideline Ron.

I felt a love triangle was played up way more in the movies than it ever was in the books, and Daniel Radcliffe and Emma Watson had great chemistry which confused the issue.

I think Rowling should have kept her mouth shut. The books are written, don't turn all George Lucas on us and start changing things in retrospect.

[darlingnikki]

Is Rowling entering George Lucas territory already?

ETA: Didn't read smitten's post before writing mine. But...yeah.

[Deleted]

To be honest, I never saw that magic chemistry between Watson and Radcliffe that I always read about...they were fine but as soon as the script allowed the Ron/Hermione romance to come through, I was sold because Rupert Grint was just so darned good in those scenes.
And JK should let it go - or write some new HP material instead of shitting on the old.

[pathtaken]

Feb 2, 2014 1:21:00 GMT -4 Mutagen said:

Well, I dunno.  At this point, I think passionately stupid arguments have been made about almost every possible ship in the series.  For every "Ron's feelings must be spared no matter what" argument, there's somebody out there making a "Ron the Death Eater" type of argument (which even spawned its own trope on TV Tropes). I always thought there was an element of self-insert fantasy happening with regards to Hermione, and that drove a lot of the "but she can't end up with HIM!!" backlash against whichever ship the person didn't like.

Personally, Harry always read more like a little brother to me than a significantly romantic character, so I could never get all that invested in who he ended up with.  I rag on the way the Harry/Ginny relationship was handled, but the relationship itself didn't really put me off.  I did think Harry/Luna was a huge missed opportunity though.

I agree with the Harry/Luna idea.

[lea1977]

Luna was my favorite, I found Ginny very one dimensional.

[chitowngirl]

It's been a while since I read the books, but did Harry's father have ANY family. I don't remember anything about the Potter side of the family.