The Harry Potter Series

[GoldenFleece]

Feb 2, 2014 17:30:38 GMT -4 chitowngirl said:

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.

Besides his parents, none were ever mentioned in the books.

[angelaudie]

I must say the snark JKR's comments have inspired have been AWESOME! My particular favorite (and I'm paraphrasing here) I've seen is, "Breaking! Lousia May Alcott announces she regrets putting Laurie/Amy together!" I laughed and then thought, "Well, that is a pairing to regret!"

[mmmkrimpets]

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.

Pretty much this. The movies did their own thing after book 3, changing and deleting storylines and whatnot, which is unusual at all for book to movie adaptations, but if you slogged through the books it was pretty obvious midway through the series that the two would end up together. Harry and Hermione were more like bro and sis. Hermione had a thing for Ron long before they got together. Harry knew it. Ron wasn't nearly as doofy in the books as he was portrayed in the movies and he became fairly successful financially so since JK decided to go with the teenage true love forever route with the characters, I could see them together happily.

[GinFizz]

Maybe I just haven't had enough morning caffeine yet, but I don't see how she's saying she should have put Hermione/Harry together? I guess it depends who you think she's addressing the "rage and fury/breaking hearts" comments to.

[thneed]

Oh God, never cater to an insane element of a fandom. What the hell is she thinking?

I always got the sense that the crazy people who wanted Hermione with Harry (especially the ones that called themselves Harmonians (ugh), and wrote 200-word livejournal entries about it), felt that way because they identified with Hermione, and had a total inability to see the world using any frame of reference besides American movies about high school cheerleaders.

They see themselves in bookish, intelligent, striver Hermione, and see pretty, athletic, boyfriend-having Ginny as the enemy. (Not to mention how gross and misogynist it is that they act like Ginny is "slutty" and "ruined herself" because she had boyfriends before Harry and didn't feel guilty about it). And that totally misunderstands both the books and the character of Harry. Not everything has to be about the nerdy best friend getting her hair straightened and wearing a dress so Harry can see how beautiful she really is and fall in love with her.

[mmmkrimpets]

What the hell is she thinking?

- Rowling is a bit nutty. Not nutty like that fantastic great aunt who took a bad hit of acid and as a result only wears love beads and a tie dyed dashiki and happily tells Almost Famouseque stories about the year she was a Jefferson Airplane groupie because she still thinks she's at Woodstock nutty. More like inside her own head and all that swirls around up there nutty. Alot of creative types are. Not knocking her. She has more money that God and changed literature forever. That kind of success would make anyone a bit nuts.

-She's coming out with more Potter books. It's been awhile. Young fans have grown up a bit so she stoking the embers

-Rowling is a bit nutty

[thneed]

Feb 2, 2014 14:04:48 GMT -4 lea1977 said:

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

I don't get that. While Ginny was far less developed than Hermione, she was still more developed than Luna. Or certainly not less. I like Luna fine as a character, but she seemed to me a part of JKR's decision to make the series nicer and more inclusive, rather than stemming from anything organic. It's something that happened at the start of the fifth book. JKR felt bad that she made a character (even a bully) one long, extended, "ha ha, look at the fatty," so she had Dudley lose weight. There was the idea that she was making it seem like the only House worth a damn was Gryffindor, so suddenly Dean and Seamus are unenthusiastic about Harry and don't stand up for him, and Lavender is a complete idiot. And the group gets a friend from a different House. Enter Luna.

Putting Luna with Harry always seemed to me to have the same dynamic as putting Hermione with him, only replace nerdy overachiever with socially-awkward loner. It's still a Hollywood movie ending.

Although honestly, I never thought the books were about shipping and who ends up with who. It's such a minor part of the novels (haven't seen the films) and yet it's the primary obsession with the fandom. It might be just me not getting shipping in general, but the books were about the adventure and the quest and imagining you get to live in a really cool magical world. The romances (such as they were) were a very tacked on way to get the "And the all lived happily ever after."

[NappingAthena]

I didn't want Ron/Hermione, Harry/Ginny, or Harry/Hermione. I wanted the characters to marry someone outside of their little group, and in my head Harry didn't get married until he was much older and had dealt with his mental health shit.

[GinFizz]

Maybe seeing the quote in context will change things, but it looks to me like JKR is saying she put Ron and Hermione together because she bloody well felt like it, and all those people who moan to her that it doesn't make sense or they prefer Harry or whatever (like Emma?) can just get bent.

But if it turns out that she actually does say Hermione should have ended up with Harry (because I don't see his name anywhere), I will be off in the corner eating my shoe.

And crying. A little.

[Babycakes]

Saw this quote on tumblr:

the main thing jkr should be regretting about harry potter is telling her audience that you should forgive six years of abuse if the abuser in question wanted to shag your mum.

I know it's not that cut and dry, but ha! and hmm....