Harry Potter relationships

[Peach Wookiee]

Harry/Luna seemed more likely in the books as time went on, moreso in the films. Ginny's silly crush always seemed to be something that would fade with time, and she did start dating others, then suddenly they're together? never made sense to me.

But Ron/Hermione was painfully obvious from the start, becoming more of a "get on with it already" stunted plot point until the final two books.

That's what I thought. And honestly, I also thought we just didn't see quieter moments with Ron and Hermione because we were focused on Harry. I mean, Ron and Hermione weren't with Harry 24/7.

 

[Hound of UIster]

The minds of shippers are truly amazing. The end be all for these characters apparently isn't character development or growth or advancement of the plot, but who to marry them off too in the end.

 

[Gaith]

The minds of shippers are truly amazing. The end be all for these characters apparently isn't character development or growth or advancement of the plot, but who to marry them off too in the end.

You're right - after all, long-term relationships have absolutely nothing to do with character development or growth, and have no bearing on the plot.

Wait, what?


Dude, this is entertainment, just a few people having fun. If you want to discuss instances of non-relationship character growth, or talk about your favorite spells or whatever, feel free to start a thread of your own. But to click on a "Harry Potter relationships" thread and then complain that people are talking about relationships in Harry Potter is most definitely not amazing.

 

[Captain Kathryn]

I was always a Harry/Hermione shipper, but Ron/Hermione is excellent too IMO.

I think Harry/Ginny is okay, but I was never really into Ginny.

 

[DWF]

I've only seen the movies but to me Ron and Hermione didn't act like much of a couple, but Harry and Nermione seemed to have a perfect chemistry. They looked like a couple especially during the dance scene in Deathly Hallows part I.

 

[Captain Kathryn]

I've only seen the movies but to me Ron and Hermione didn't act like much of a couple, but Harry and Nermione seemed to have a perfect chemistry. They looked like a couple especially during the dance scene in Deathly Hallows part I.

That scene though was designed to make you think that, but then (if you're going by the movies only) look at their faces at the end of that dance...Hermione just looks so depressed and is basically saying "BUT YOU'RE NOT RON!" through her facial expression.

I've read the books too and have all the movies and I rooted for Harry and Hermione. But Deathly Hallows finalized that for me...that it was just never gonna happen.

But I do agree, in the movies especially, Harry and Hermione had awesome chemistry.

 

[Captain Kathryn]

While it was true in the early books that Ginny was star-struck with him, in Book 5 she moved on and was dating other people and was very self-confident.

Yeah, she was heartbroken over that dude Dean Thomas in Half-Blood Prince if I recall correctly. She got over him super fast though and jumped into Harry's arms fairly easily.

Dang...I need to have a marathon of books and/or movies soon. I'm usually a walking Harry Potter dictionary, but I am actually second guessing myself on that name right now.

 

[Peach Wookiee]

It was Dean Thomas. But apparently before the Felix potion, they'd been rocky.

 

[Anwar]

Hermione was worse to Ron than Ron was to her, it's just that Hermione was more of a crybaby than Ron (he gets insulted worse, he never cries) and Hermione was Rowling's self-insert character so Rowling took it more personally.

This whole ship war was the direct result of Rowling's laziness anyways, it's always a terrible idea to write only ONE major female character in a mostly male cast. Pairing her up with someone she'd been writing as the sidekick would naturally upset many readers.

If Rowling hadn't written only ONE major female, introduced Luna sooner, reduced Hermione's importance and maintained Ginny as a major character after the second book, the ship wars never would've gotten so bad.

Also, if she'd written from more than just Harry's POV it would've made it clear that Harry really wasn't all that great a lead character. But she probably realized this, which is why she never did it.

 

[RoJoHen]

I only have the movies to go on, but Hermoine and Ron seemed like such an obvious choice. From "The Goblet of Fire" onward they clearly had a relationship brewing. By the sixth movie, even Ginny agrees, "It's about time."

 

[Gaith]

If Rowling hadn't written only ONE major female, introduced Luna sooner, reduced Hermione's importance and maintained Ginny as a major character after the second book, the ship wars never would've gotten so bad.

We lost so many fans in the wars... so many good young men and women! And for WHAT?! So Grint and Watson could publicly josh about how awkward it was to snog on camera? Was it worth it? WAS ANY OF IT WORTH IT AT ALL?!?!

 

[Rowan Sjet]

Not really, but then again this is pretty much my reaction at this point:

 

[Greylock Crescent]

I have to say, Rowling's continued need to "rewrite" the Potter series to the point where she continually alters the perceptions of the characters annoys me to no end.

Though, admittedly, that's a purely emotional response, and it's been strong enough that I've not really considered the matter from a rational or artistic perspective.

 

[Argus Skyhawk]

Vindication!! Haha! She called us 'delusional' back and in the day and now she turns that around.

Nope. Emerson Spartz used the word "delusional." Rowling went out of her way to NOT call the shippers that.

http://www.mugglenet.com/jkrinterview2.shtml

Anyway, I always loved Ginny's adorable crush on Harry so I'm glad the books took the direction they did.

 

[Gaith]

Though, admittedly, that's a purely emotional response, and it's been strong enough that I've not really considered the matter from a rational or artistic perspective.

"Search your feelings..."
​

IGN Movies points out that, at least in the quotes leaked so far, Rowling doesn't actually endorse H/H...

 

[Greylock Crescent]

Searching...

Found it!

Yippee!

 

[Alidar Jarok]

IGN Movies points out that, at least in the quotes leaked so far, Rowling doesn't actually endorse H/H...

Heh, I think that's a good point. I think there is literary merit to Harry ending up with Ginny beyond "shipper" fantasies, for what it's worth.

During this debate somewhere else, I stumbled upon this article: Erased by Time and Blockbusters: The Cautionary Tale of Ron Weasley

So a little while back I was going on about Neville Longbottom, expounding on his virtues and heroics. And something sort of sinister cropped up in the process—I learned that a healthy slice of fandom harbors disdain or outright vitriol toward Ronald Weasley.

And... I really don’t understand that. Not in the slightest. But I do have a theory about why the waters might be growing even more unfriendly toward the less flashy member of the Potter trinity.

...

But there’s perhaps something more subtle at work here as well. Where films are more recent in public memory, they can sometimes overwrite their fictional underpinnings. Is it possible that much of this Ron-hate is coming from people who are confusing canon-Ron with Ron-on-film?

Let’s start that examination with a little set-up. When Steve Kloves (who wrote the majority of the Potter screenplays) met J.K. Rowling for the first time, he told her straight up that Hermione was his favorite character. Rowling admitted to being relieved, and who could blame her? It was more likely for Hermione to end up disrespected on screen—she wouldn’t be the first female hero to get butchered in the reels.

But this resulted in an undercutting of Ron’s entire character from the first movie. Don’t believe it? When the trio go after the Philosopher’s Stone, they face a series of tests that demand each of their skills in turn. Time likely demanded that this sequence be cut down, and so Hermione’s test—solving Professor Snape’s potion riddle—was removed entirely. To make up for this, she gets them out of the Devil’s Snare, Professor Sprout’s deadly plant. Hermione shouts to Harry and Ron to relax so the foliage will release them—but Ron continues to panic and moan (in campiest fashion possible because he’s played by a child actor and these things are always requested of them), requiring Hermione to blast the thing with a sunlight spell.

In the book, Hermione is the one who panics. She remembers what her lessons taught her—that the Devil’s Snare will recoil at fire—but balks at their lack of matches while they are being strangled to death. Ron immediately shrieks to the rescue YOU ARE A WITCH YOU HAVE A WAND YOU KNOW SPELLS WHAT ARE MATCHES.

It’s a simple change, but it makes such a marked difference in how both characters come off to an audience. Rather than a near-infant, incapable of following the clearest directions, Ron is the even-keeled nitty-gritty one. He’s a tactician, the one who will find the simplest answer to a problem provided that the situation is dire enough to ensure his clear head. Ron is good under pressure and brave to boot. He’s also hilarious.

 

[Anwar]

There's the movies, there's also that Rowling more or less admitted that she ran out of ideas of what to do with Ron halfway through the series and found it easier to make him the Series' Punching Bag character who's always abused and belittled by everyone.

 

[Rowan Sjet]

That said... I was actually fine with Ginny once I got used to the idea. She was pretty much an empty shell of a character during the first books but later on I thought Rowling actually developed her quite well as an independent, strong, intelligent girl. She certainly wasn't the silly little girl admiring Harry anymore. She seemed strong enough (as a character) to be his equal which explains why I was sad that her role in the last book wasn't bigger. I understand that Rowling wanted to focus on the three friends but excluding Ginny at that point felt artificial to me.

See, (and I hate to harp on about this everytime one of these threads turns up, but oh well...) I didn't think Ginny was an empty shell of a character until she became an independant, strong, intelligent girl. Or at least, until she became just that, because she lost any of the vulnerability that made all the other main characters interesting. I mean, most if not all of us been nervous around a crush, all made mistakes with who we're friends with; she was very relatable. Then she grows up, defines herself apart from her crush, but we're reminded of her past traumas (in a great scene) and she gets taken out by Deatheaters because like everyone else at the ministry she's still a young teen in over her head. It wasn't until Half Blood Prince when she lost that relatability that she stopped appealing to me, especially coming as it did with Harry finally noticing her. It seemed like JKR was saying, the main male character's girlfriend must be perfect for him, she can't have any flaws so I'll not write her with any.

And that's why I can take or leave everything else but for me Ginny is the most disappointing aspect of the last two books.

 

[Thestral]

That said... I was actually fine with Ginny once I got used to the idea. She was pretty much an empty shell of a character during the first books but later on I thought Rowling actually developed her quite well as an independent, strong, intelligent girl. She certainly wasn't the silly little girl admiring Harry anymore. She seemed strong enough (as a character) to be his equal which explains why I was sad that her role in the last book wasn't bigger. I understand that Rowling wanted to focus on the three friends but excluding Ginny at that point felt artificial to me.

Yeah, those are pretty much my exact thoughts. My biggest disappointment is she got virtually no attention at all in the final book. I get that she isn't one of the three, but she was a close fourth.

Thirded. The films did an especial disservice to Ginny by gutting virtually all of her interesting material from Order of the Phoenix. I've seen Bonnie Wright criticized plenty and she's still not who I picture as Ginny - Castle's Molly Quinn with a British accent would be closer - but it's unfair because they gave her virtually nothing worthwhile to do (note: I haven't seen Half-Blood Prince, but the book was so mehhh anyway).

I'm still at heart somewhat more of a Harry/Hermione shipper than Hermione/Ron, but I'm okay with the latter and I like Harry/Ginny a lot. Luna and Neville are clearly destined to be together.

Somewhere there's an interesting novel that tells the events of Deathly Hallows focusing on the "Mirror Trinity" of Neville, Ginny, and Luna's resistance efforts at Hogwarts during that year.

During this debate somewhere else, I stumbled upon this article: Erased by Time and Blockbusters: The Cautionary Tale of Ron Weasley

Yeah, the "Ron the Death Eater" stuff was always ridiculous shipper nonsense, and its a shame that the movies sidelined him.