Ron/Hermione?
Feb. 6th, 2014 14:39![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
eldabeSo, JKR has said that she regrets the Ron/Hermione ship in the Harry Potter books.
My first and strongest response is still a desire for a .gif someone running through a field, arms outstretched, (think Maria in the opening of the Sound of Music) with the caption "THE AUTHOR IS DEEEEEAAAAAAAAD!"
JKR's time to comment on these things was, you know, within the pages of the book. And when all we had was the stuff she wrote, it never stopped fandom from doing what they wanted anyway. Which is great. What's already started to bother me is twofold:
First, we're going to have people use this as proof that their Hermione/not-Ron ship is more "true" or something. Listen, if you want to ship Hermione with the lake-squid, you are ALLOWED TO DO THAT. But I'm a total canon-ite at heart and when you argue with me about what the canon actually said, uh-uh. There's a large swath of acceptable interpretation within canon, but Ron/Hermione is pretty difficult to fight against. Within canon they had lots of UST, got together and had two kids. There's wiggle room around and after that, but JKR's most recent interview doesn't change the words in the dead tree collection on my bookshelf. You can't use her new interviews to change that. Fanfiction and fandom let you do whatever you want, but you have to acknowledge when that no longer fits within canon no matter how far you stretch it.
Second, I'm starting to see some people being all "OF COURSE Hermione and Ron wouldn't get together" with all sorts of arguments about that I absolutely can't wrap my mind around. I always found them to be a good balance, if probably full of negotiation and communication. Ron is the emotional one, Hermione is the logical one. It's an age-old paring trope. And all of the arguments that Hermione without Ron is more ~free~ or whatever is just horrifying to me. Women who choose to get married and have kids aren't suffering, gah that's not what feminism is about, WTF.
Fandom's gonna do whatever fandom wants. I was never really involved in the HP fandom all that much when it was big and crazy, I'm certainly not jumping in that pool now. But I do strongly place Word of God with other "optional canon" in my brain -- take it or leave it as you please. So…while it's going to drive me personally crazy, fans are free to read into this one however they like, although I'll certainly start being more choosey what I keep reading.
And I've always got, you know, canon. :D
ETA: Man, this thing is coming up everywhere. I'm wildly tempted to write a ship manifesto. Is that even done for canon couples?
My first and strongest response is still a desire for a .gif someone running through a field, arms outstretched, (think Maria in the opening of the Sound of Music) with the caption "THE AUTHOR IS DEEEEEAAAAAAAAD!"
JKR's time to comment on these things was, you know, within the pages of the book. And when all we had was the stuff she wrote, it never stopped fandom from doing what they wanted anyway. Which is great. What's already started to bother me is twofold:
First, we're going to have people use this as proof that their Hermione/not-Ron ship is more "true" or something. Listen, if you want to ship Hermione with the lake-squid, you are ALLOWED TO DO THAT. But I'm a total canon-ite at heart and when you argue with me about what the canon actually said, uh-uh. There's a large swath of acceptable interpretation within canon, but Ron/Hermione is pretty difficult to fight against. Within canon they had lots of UST, got together and had two kids. There's wiggle room around and after that, but JKR's most recent interview doesn't change the words in the dead tree collection on my bookshelf. You can't use her new interviews to change that. Fanfiction and fandom let you do whatever you want, but you have to acknowledge when that no longer fits within canon no matter how far you stretch it.
Second, I'm starting to see some people being all "OF COURSE Hermione and Ron wouldn't get together" with all sorts of arguments about that I absolutely can't wrap my mind around. I always found them to be a good balance, if probably full of negotiation and communication. Ron is the emotional one, Hermione is the logical one. It's an age-old paring trope. And all of the arguments that Hermione without Ron is more ~free~ or whatever is just horrifying to me. Women who choose to get married and have kids aren't suffering, gah that's not what feminism is about, WTF.
Fandom's gonna do whatever fandom wants. I was never really involved in the HP fandom all that much when it was big and crazy, I'm certainly not jumping in that pool now. But I do strongly place Word of God with other "optional canon" in my brain -- take it or leave it as you please. So…while it's going to drive me personally crazy, fans are free to read into this one however they like, although I'll certainly start being more choosey what I keep reading.
And I've always got, you know, canon. :D
ETA: Man, this thing is coming up everywhere. I'm wildly tempted to write a ship manifesto. Is that even done for canon couples?
no subject
Date: Feb. 6th, 2014 20:30 (UTC)no subject
Date: Feb. 6th, 2014 20:39 (UTC)This is why you don't draft your HTML after two in the morning. :)