Harry Potter (Spoilers)

I still think either we're taking this out of context or we're getting this out of context, especially as I've read a few variations - not huge ones, but variations nonetheless. I think what she's really saying is that the pairing wrote itself, and/or that she wishes she'd done things differently now. But it's still... weird.

JK Rowling gets bored and decides to stir the shit and make fandom weep

Okay, she's not doing any of that but it seems she gave an interview to Emma Watson for Wonderland and the Sunday Times is reporting that she spoke about regretting her decision to put Ron and Hermione together.

The Harmonians are probably creating banners about how they were right, as we speak.

Eh, and if she wrote Harry/Hermione she probably would be doing interviews right now about how she regretted it. whatevs yo.

I love her.  She just says what she wants, pissing off people constantly, and basically not caring abou it.  She can't win either way so she might as well have great fun with what is ultimately her legacy.  And her story.  And her characters.

mialoubug wrote:I love her.  She just says what she wants, pissing off people constantly, and basically not caring abou it.  She can't win either way so she might as well have great fun with what is ultimately her legacy.  And her story.  And her characters.

Except she's kind of ruining her story for me. I was really fine with her keeping her mouth shut. I didn't need JK Rowling to end up as another Ron-basher.

I seriously think she's just fucking with everyone at this point. Watch, in the full interview she'll say she realized that by having Ron and Hermione get together, she couldn't reveal that Ron was actually a time-traveling Dumbledore without it getting too weird.

(What? If the Harmonians can get the author to endorse their pet craziness, I don't know why us DumbleRon acolytes can't have the same.)

I don't really care because she can't go back and rewrite the story and shes wrong. So...love ya, Jo, but backtrack on why you had Harry calling Snape the greatest man he ever knew when he had poor Arthur Weasley supporting his ass while also taking care of his own kids.

I can't remember the details now, but I remember reading something else Rowling said in the last couple of years that both startled and upset me with regards to Ron. Anyone know what I'm talking about?

Aw, this makes me sad. Ron was my favourite character, and I loved him and Hermione as a couple.

Ron is my favorite, so it makes me sad when people seem to think he wasn't good enough for Hermione or even as a friend for Harry. He was brave, loyal, funny and kind -- what more do people want?

Ah, Jo's great. And honestly the ending with Harry/Ginny and Ron/Hermione all cozily paired up and life's so perfect was the single most juvenile feeling thing about that whole "juvenile" series. It was incongruously cutesy and unnecessary. (FWIW, Harry called Snape the bravest man he ever knew, not the best.)

SNeaker wrote:I can't remember the details now, but I remember reading something else Rowling said in the last couple of years that both startled and upset me with regards to Ron. Anyone know what I'm talking about?

Didn't she say a part of her wishes she'd killed Ron?

Yeah, she mentioned that she considered killing Ron off, but that's not what I'm thinking of. It may have had to do with the movies and Kloves adding in all the Harry/Hermione stuff, but I feel like I remember her saying something very insulting and dismissive of Ron, and I have no idea where I heard it.

Every writer is compelled to edit. You mull and think about what you could have done differently. Maybe she thought of a different and possibly better story arch for her fictional character. Maybe she always secretly loved him more than Harry. Maybe she hated him. Who knows? The books are what they are and they end with Ron and hermione together. That's not going to change. Personally, I would rather have seen none of them paired together in the end, but that's my own heavy cross to bear.

I don't look at JKR saying that Ron wouldn't have made Hermione happy necessarily as the same thing as saying Ron isn't good enough for her. I just thought they were very different in a way that could've caused a lot of friction and at times seemed disrespectful of each other's interests and personalities, Hermione in particular. Maybe that was all part of the famous bickering tension and it was something they would've grown out of, but as a couple, I wasn't feeling it. The locket vision in DH was kind of a needless poke in the eye to the Harry/Hermione fans, so it's surprising to see her saying it should have gone that way now. What's next, admitting Lupin and Sirius made total sense?

Ron/Hermione always seems logical to me and something she'd been setting up more "under the surface". I always had more of an issue with Harry/Ginny because even in the books, it felt like a tell rather than a show.

Yeah, I haven't read her actual comments (are they out there yet?), but if she really does regret pairing Ron and Hermione (especially in favor of H/H), then I both disagree with her and definitely wish she hadn't said that at this point. (Well, part of me is sort of hoping for some crazy fanwank, but...)

I'm a diehard Ron/Hermione shipper, but I can still understand why some would doubt their long-term compatibility. What I can't understand is why people would think Harry would be BETTER for her. The loudest objection I see to Ron/Hermione is that he's not the intellectual she is, but it's not as if Harry is some intellectual giant himself, and he was always content with goofing off with Ron in the back of class.

This annoys me on a couple of different levels. Ron is my favorite so I feel protective of him. But I'm actually more annoyed on Hermione's behalf. One thing I liked about the trio was that there was never some bullshit love triangle in the story. No matter how much fringe shippers might have WANTED a love triangle, and no matter how much Steve Kloves inserted stuff in the movies that was never in the books, Harry was never interested in Hermione in that way, and her sexual tension with Ron was never the most important thing about her character. I feel like bringing this up takes a character who's a brave, resourceful, intelligent woman and reduces her to yet another prize to be fought over, and it pisses me off.

Completely agree, queenofdenile. It'd be one thing for her to say that she regrets having any focus on romance or pairing anyone in the trio, or even simply contemplating whether Ron/Hermione could make it in the long run (and could make each other happy), but the comments about who could make Hermione happier and the suggestion that somehow Harry is a better match for her (as though it was ever a competition in actual canon) demeans both Ron and Hermione to me. It's dismissive of Ron and all of his good qualities despite not being The Hero, and it makes Hermione into the prize center of a love triangle instead of simply an awesome, brilliant woman and amazing friend who happened to fall in love with Ron Weasley. Just no.

If she wants to regret Harry/Ginny and especially how she wrote it, she can have at it. In fact, the comments about "wish fulfillment" and powering along with what she had planned from the start regardless of what was credible applies far more to Harry/Ginny than to Ron/Hermione.

None of her quotes that I've read say anything about Harry/Hermione, but the articles go ahead and say she wishes she'd done Harry/Hermione. I really want to see the full interview, just to have everything in context.

I did not care about the romantic relationships in Harry Potter. I was totally fine with Hermione and Ron ending up together since it was basically telegraphed from the first book, and I love both Ron and Hermione. But I'm with queenofdenile on this one, there was absolutely no attraction between Harry/Hermione at all. It wasn't there. I don't blame people for wanting it to happen anyway, because we like what we like and ship what we ship, but it's not canon at all, and dammit, I LIKE platonic male/female friendships in fiction. Like, I'm the only Sleepy Hollow fan in the world who loves Ichabod and Abbie but is not shipping it in any way. So basically what I'm saying is, if Rowling decided that she should have let Hermione grow up, find herself as an adult outside of Hogwarts and life-or-death situations, and meet and marry somebody totally new once she was a proper grown-up, I'd be totally down with that. It doesn't really matter, because it's not what happened, and I'm totally good with what did happen, but it's an alternate reality I can get behind. So if that's what she's saying, fine. But if she's really like, "I should have done Harry/Hermione even though I was always the boss of this world and never touched on it once in seven books," then I'm going to have to join the people who wish she had just never said anything at all.

Ignoring you, JK because HERMIONE AND RON 5EVER and also, I wish she'd paired Harry and Luna!

gannetguts wrote:Ignoring you, JK because HERMIONE AND RON 5EVER and also, I wish she'd paired Harry and Luna!

You speak what my heart feels.

I can't even with this latest quote.

Gillian wrote:But if she's really like, "I should have done Harry/Hermione even though I was always the boss of this world and never touched on it once in seven books," then I'm going to have to join the people who wish she had just never said anything at all.

That's not entirely true - there was that one time in Order of the Phoenix where Harry said to Hermione, "I don't think you're ugly," so CLEARLY the truth about Harry's feelings regarding the greatest love story never told were right there the whole time, and JKR had to finally clue us dum dums in because we just weren't putting it together.

Not to completely beat a dead horse but joking aside, I'm less irritated with the implication that Ron wasn't good enough for Hermione and more that it dilutes one of the strengths of the series: showing the different ways people could love each other. The male/female relationships in fiction aimed at younger readers are almost exclusively put through a romantic meat grinder, so Harry and Hermione being as close as they were with absolutely no sexual chemistry whatsoever was both important for younger readers and, I thought, one of the better written relationships in the series.

Jo, if you are so anxious to get back into the universe, quit picking at what you already wrote and just write some new stories already.

I'm with you Evil Lincoln. I'd kill for some Harry Potter: The College Years (or Auror Years, or whatever) tales.

That's not entirely true - there was that one time in Order of the Phoenix where Harry said to Hermione, "I don't think you're ugly," so CLEARLY the truth about Harry's feelings regarding the greatest love story never told were right there the whole time

This made me chortle. For me, the most telling thing about the Harry/ Hermoine ship thing was in the 7th book when he says to Ron "She's my sister...."[paraphrased? I can't remember the exact quote, it was after Ron rejoined them, I think. Now I'm wondering if I imagined it.]

Personally I was always a fan of Ginny/ Draco, but that's because of fanfic, I recognise that there is absolutely ZERO evidence of it in the books.

You did not imagine it!

"After you left," he said in a low voice, grateful for the fact that Ron's face was hidden, "she cried for a week. Probably longer, only she didn't want me to see. There were loads of nights when we never even spoke to each other. With you gone…"

He could not finish; it was only now that Ron was here again that Harry fully realized how much his absence had cost them.

"She's like my sister," he went on. "I love her like a sister and I reckon she feels the same way about me. It's always been like that. I thought you knew." (19.90-92)