Ron and Hermione

[hawkedup]

I'm sure you have all heard the news that J.K. Rowling came out and said that, if she could go back and do it all over again, she wouldn't pair Ron and Hermione. I'm posting this here because I'm wondering if anyone else here feels as unsettled by this as I do? There are a few things about the books that I have always felt put the Harry Potter books above other fantasy series, and one of those things was Ron and Hermione, specifically the fact that both of Harry's best friends helped him *only because they were his friend* and no other reason. To hear Rowling imply that she would have paired Harry and Hermione makes me think a- suddenly the books aren't cannon anymore and b- that they aren't the same books. Hermione is a different character entirely if she loves Harry. The books are completely different. Anyway, how do you feel about authors retrofitting their novels later like this?

[PorridgeBrick he/him]

Just because she didn't want Ron with Hermione doesn't mean she suddenly wants Harry with her. And I also agree with her that the two don't fit well as a couple, but neither do Harry and Hermione. Really, while the books are quite good, the romance aspect isn't done nearly as well.

[Darkarma he/him]

I've always been a fan of both cannon pairings between HarryGinny RonHermione but the romance feels like it was railroaded. I've read many fanfiction that handled it better while still progressing their own plots.

[Moogle]

Personally, I felt Ron added nothing to the story. If it was just Harry and Hermione solving things together it would be wonderful. I may be biased from reading the Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality fanfic.

 

Pairing Ron off with Hermione was just a bit... weird. Maybe I just don't see the need for every character to end up hooked up with another character by the end of every fantasy series?

[PorridgeBrick he/him]

Personally, I felt Ron added nothing to the story. If it was just Harry and Hermione solving things together it would be wonderful. I may be biased from reading the Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality fanfic.

 

Pairing Ron off with Hermione was just a bit... weird. Maybe I just don't see the need for every character to end up hooked up with another character by the end of every fantasy series?

I can't agree more with this last bit. The couples here all seem like JKR just thought "How can I get everyone married off to someone without conflict?" rather than "What characters have personalities that fit well together and can make any romance between them seem realistic while still fitting cohesively into the plot?" The idea that everyone has to be paired off is really toxic in pretty much all fiction, and especially in movies.

[Eri she/her]

Yes, Ron/Hermione feels natural only because it's a trope (I think). But Harry/Hermione would be much worse. Ron could fit pretty well with Luna, I think. And Hermione with some Muggle scientist, geeks pair well with each other. Or she may and up single. (I have a hard time imagining Ron happy with being single, not with his family background.

[Quiver he/him]

Just because she didn't want Ron with Hermione doesn't mean she suddenly wants Harry with her. And I also agree with her that the two don't fit well as a couple, but neither do Harry and Hermione. Really, while the books are quite good, the romance aspect isn't done nearly as well.

 

Oh my god, this, this, so much this.

 

Seriously. The Half-Blood Prince is my favourite of the books because I love seeing Voldemorts backstory and how it dovetails into what we already knew, the parrallels with Harry's etcetera.

 

But SWEET HARMONY was the romance in that book bad.

I genuinely found Harry's feelings of repressed anger towards Dean Thomas hilarious. For something that is supposed to be tearing Harry apart, I just found myself laughing at it.

 

The movie wasn't much better, and I think it's the movie that a lot of this Harry/Hermione stuff comes from. Rupert Grint ended up just being comedy, and he didn't have nearly the same chemistry with Emma Watson that Radcliffe did. Quite honestly, I don't hate book Ron getting with Hermione; it's a trope. But I wouldn't have hated movie Harry and Hermione getting together either.

[hawkedup]

Weird! I guess I really liked that Ron and Hermione had ZERO chemistry. In some weird way that is what made me root for them so much. It was so very different and yet endearing. I always assumed the romance was bad on purpose, though.

I'm also wondering if she just meant in "7 Years Later" she shouldn't have shown them together? Personally, the 7 Years Later thing was the only part of the series I didn't love.

[Two McMillion he/him]

I dislike authors attempting to edit their books after publication in this way. Then again, Tolkien did it, and I forgive him for it, so maybe I'm just biased?

 

It's interesting to me, because I dislike what Rowling has done with the revelations after HP's ending, but think it's cool when Sanderson does something similar. I don't really know why- maybe because Sanderson's comments aren't as blatantly intrusive on the text as Rowling's?

[EHyde she/her]

I dislike authors attempting to edit their books after publication in this way. Then again, Tolkien did it, and I forgive him for it, so maybe I'm just biased?

 

It's interesting to me, because I dislike what Rowling has done with the revelations after HP's ending, but think it's cool when Sanderson does something similar. I don't really know why- maybe because Sanderson's comments aren't as blatantly intrusive on the text as Rowling's?

 

I think the difference is that Sanderson's comments are generally about adding something to the world of the story, not taking back something that was established in canon.

 

As far as Hermione goes ... I guess I don't have a problem with Rowling saying what she said, I just wish that various media outlets wouldn't change it to "she should have ended up with Harry" because as far as I can tell, Rowling never said that. I wish people would stop trying to turn things that aren't love triangles into love triangles!

[hawkedup]

I think that that's just our default now when we think of YA. Love triangle. But you're right. The article I read implied heavily that Rowling wanted to pair Hermione but no actual quote. It's a bit of a relief, but I'm with McMillion. I don't like it when authors go back and put their own doubts about their work into the minds of the readers. On the same token, I didn't like when she said Dumbledore was gay or that she would have killed Mr. Weasly but chickened out and the only reason is because she said so after the books were finished and read. Shrug.

[Ryan he/him]

Harry Potter is such a funny case. It's so successful and beloved that we often forget that it was Rowling's first published work. And because it is so successful and beloved, Rowling can't really have a career beyond it without endless scrutiny. So we don't get to see her grow into her chops, because she's fabulously wealthy and doesn't seem that motivated to put out new stuff.

 

All that's to say that lots of authors come, with time and distance, to regret some of the decisions they made in their first works. Most of those works didn't get read by very many people, so nobody cares too much when they express those regrets.

 

Rowling, though. She says something and everyone is up in arms. They can't look past their love of the series and recognize that she is actually right. Ron and Hermione where never good together, and spent a significant portion of the series so angry with each other that they refused to speak. If we extrapolate directly from the characters as portrayed, we can sense impending disaster for their marriage.

 

Of course, teenagers don't grow in a straight line. Ron and Hermione might certainly have matured into the sort of people who could build a happy marriage together. I would read that series. If she'd written it, she could have sold that marriage to us. The existing series doesn't do that, though. All we get is a horrible epilogue that locks the kids' futures in place and ensures that there will never, ever be more books in the Potterverse.

[harry31j97 he/him]

Very much agree with Ryan here. Rowling didn't write the romance part well at all, especially when considering that it's a young adult novel. I mean seriously are teenagers supposed to base their fantasies on how two major canon couples ended up together- one fought through out the series (even in the epilogue where Hermione is berating Ron again!), the other got together in post-break up happy event, Harry and Ginny aren't given much time together at all. Many of the fanfictions have much better character and pairing build up.

That said it WAS her debut series, I liked Cuckoo's calling much more, she's more mature as an author.

[Gamma Fiend he/him]

See, when I was reading the books growing up, I totally started calling the pairings as of the second book. There was definitely Ron/Hermione dynamic going on, and after book 4 I was all but certain who was ending up with who (at least of Harry/Ginny, Ron/Hermione).

But yeah, when I finished up Deathly Hollows, I was all but disappointed in the series ending, overall. And realized how much of a cop-out it was to just pair them together like that.

I actually recently read an article talking about Ron and Hermione's relationships in the books as opposed to the movies, and this was a few weeks before Rowling made her decision. The article went to talk about how much anti-Ron bias there is out there, mostly as of the influence from the movies. It points out how many crucial Ron scenes get changed from in the books to be filled usually by Hermione, and just make him the goofy sidekick role.
(One of their examples is in the First book/movie, when they're doing the tests to get to the Philosopher's Sorcerer's Stone, Hermione is the one who freaks out in the Devil's Snare and flails about, until Ron reminds her they can use magic.) and just a bunch of scenes like that, where in the books, we see more of Ron's role as Harry's best friend. The person who treats him like a normal person, and not the 'Chosen One' (save for more than a few bouts of angsty teenage jealousy)

With all of that said. I really dislike what Rowling has been saying about the series after the fact. Just ret-conning her decisions like this (I'm sorry, you can't just ignore 6+ books of build-up and change your mind just because a lot of your fans hate your shitty ending).
As the books were written, Ron and Hermione were obviously meant to get together somehow in the end, it's not our fault Rowling just cemented their lame, boring future with her horrible epilogue.

Another thing that irked me was almost a year after the books were all out, when she all of a sudden announced Dumbledore being gay.
Now, I'm not a homophobe, I don't care about characters being gay or bisexual or whatever, that's not the point. There was just really, in my opinion, any evidence or foreshadowing or context within the books even leading to this type of conclusion. I wholeheartedly believe that she just said this, after the fact, to show how 'progressive and free-minded' she is.
I mean, Dumbledore was gay all along! How brave of J.K. Rowling! And so clever, hiding that from us all along, making us secretly fall in love with a gay guy. Oh, you! /sarcasm

And yeah. Basically end rant. Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed the hell out of the Harry Potter books growing up. But that's what I'll always remember them as, books from when I was growing up. I know it probably has to suck for J.K. Rowling now that she probably (hopefully) wants to try and do something else as an author. We've seen her make some attempts at it (The one book that tried being the exact opposite of Harry Potter, and from the reviews I read just failed and was a classic case of 'trying-too-hard', or when she wrote under a pseudonym, and was "upset" when it was discovered*)

*Side-rant about her whole "pseudonym" business. I'm sorry. There was no way she didn't want to be discovered with that pseudonym. I'm pretty sure she used her same agent or editor, or something. I can't remember the details, but it was so poorly disguised it only took a few weeks. And her response was less than convincing, when exposed. If she really wanted to try writing under a new name, she would have done some Stephen King/Richard Bachman rust, and be selling books at gas-station book racks. I am convinced it was just another poor-attempt at a publicity stunt, trying to cause more hype around her and her works.

I'm going to stop typing now, I realize I may be coming across pretty harsh on Mrs. (Ms? Miss?) Rowling here, but I dunno. I just know way too many people who are way too obsessed with the Harry Potter books/movies. I mean, like I said, they're alright. For kids who are growing up. But when we're adults, we should move on to better, more mature things. I'll always acknowledge Harry Potter for what it is and the influence it had growing up, but I just hate how much hype and everything it gets, and J.K. Rowling just gets annoying after a while.

/EndRantForReal