"For reasons that have very little to do with literature and far more to do with me clinging to the plot as I first imagined it, Hermione ended up with Ron. I know, I'm sorry, I can hear the rage and fury it might cause some fans, but if I'm absolutely honest, distance has given me perspective on that. It was a choice I made for very personal reasons, not for reasons of credibility. Am I breaking people's hearts by saying this? I hope not."
She goes on to say that if she had to do it over again Harry would have ended up with Hermione and the way it stands now Hermione and Ron definitely would need marriage counseling and probably would get divorced. Do they have divorces in the wizarding world? Does anyone remember any other couple getting divorced? It was obvious that Harry and Hermione belonged together but I don't have a huge problem with it. I kind of imagined Ron ending up single and a lot like Lenny from That Thing You Do. You know, moves to Vegas or Reno and becomes a drunk who makes a couple of bucks using magic whenever he needs a boost. It's unreasonable to expect that everyone turned out perfectly when they grew up.
Only a casual fan but always seemed like that would have made for a better story.
ReplyDeleteAnything to keep her name in the press...
ReplyDeleteI always hoped for an Aquaman and Chewbacca pairing.
ReplyDeletebitch, now she ruins it
ReplyDeleteThey did belong together. The actors even had better chemistry. It didn't bother me the way it ended though.
ReplyDeleteCould anybody have chemistry with Rupert Grint, Reno? Is that even possible?
DeleteAnd is it normal that Enty posts this early on Sunday? I have no idea why I even checked.
ReplyDeleteI think it's fine the way it's written now. And I don't think Ron will end up by himself. Opposites attract. Ron and Hermione reminds me of Rons mother and father. He is a idoit when it comes to magic and Hermione is a wiz. So they balance each other out.
ReplyDeleteAgreed! Harry and Hermione were close, but she and Ron complemented each other perfectly.
DeleteEmma Watson
ReplyDelete(signal sent)
I want to fuck Rowling.
ReplyDeleteIt happens. Maybe they'll get together when they're a bit older.
ReplyDeleteI was OK with the way it ended, but I, too, thought Hermione and Harry were a better pairing.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Ray. The series is over but she is always commenting on it. Oh yeah, Dumbledore is gay, Harry should have married Hermione...Whatever. She created this entire world that many people got caught up in. She made the money and then craps on the fans.
ReplyDelete@Cheryl Craps on the fans? How so? I'm shocked and thrilled she became the first billionaire author.
DeleteHas anyone read her other books? I have yet to do so.
ReplyDeleteThat's funny queen Guido, I always thought there was some sparks between Chewie and the Princess...
ReplyDeleteAnd it makes sense to sleep with Chewbacca, the new bodyguard ( everyone knows sex makes the job more compelling :-D )
Mind you, Han would be the main man but he would understand...(I mean after all, you could at least fuck the guy whose gonna take your energy blast)
Rowling has to let this go. She hasn't made the big dent she thought she would in adult fiction, so she keeps talking about Harry. Geez, isn't she rich enough?
ReplyDeleteI understand being with someone who you don't belong with. It never works out in the end.
ReplyDeleteI think it's time you start removing her name tattoo, buddy.
DeleteGood luck with E-Harmony Robbie Boo!
DeleteIt could happen later! Who can say what the future holds? I need a veil, I should totally be drawing a veil across my face while typing that
ReplyDeleteIf one were to only know Deathly Hallows from the film and never having read the book, one would assume Harry and Hermione DID end up together.
ReplyDeleteThe director certainly felt that way because most shots of the three of them kept Harry and Hermione next to each other or in the foreground while Ron was always shunted to the back or off to the side.
Pay particular attention to the scenes near and at the end.
It's like the director was rebelling against the script that required Ron and Hermione to end up together. If this were any other story than the Harry Potter series, I would bet real money the director would have said "fuck the author" and changed the ending to Harry and Hermione.
Just another example of how gingers can't get the girl.
Actually J.K. Rowling's New books are supposed to be very well written. She has two on the NY Times best seller IIRC. I think authors, like actors, get very attached to their characters. Think about how my much you as a reader miss.them after just one book. I'd imagine a series would create more attachment. Never read any of her books but she seems very passionate about them. That has certainly translated to her fans.
ReplyDeleteNYT's best sellers list doesn't mean squat in terms of quality.
DeleteNo certainly not Wendy. The notation of the list was in response to Henriett's mention of adult fiction. Perhaps that appeared as a misplaced modifier. The list only represents sales numbers but then I presumed most people were aware of that. Like Billboard measures record sales.
DeleteThat's a really good picture of you Rob! Great smile :)
ReplyDeleteI don't know that Harry should have ended up with Hermione, but Rowling definitely should have given him a better love interest than Ginny.
ReplyDeleteI HATE Ginny. Harry should've ended up with Hermoine or that Asian girl. Or ALONE CAUSE HES HARRY POTTER AND NOBODYS GOOD ENOUGH.
Delete@Sherry
ReplyDeleteAre you kidding me? Rowling's book under her nom de plume, Robert Galbraith, was not selling, so her agent leaked out her identity. Then it flew off the shelves, probably brought out by Harry Potter fans. Her book, Casually Vacancy, got very mixed reviews, so she trotted out Harry again. She also is pushing a new film franchise. Rowling uses Harry as her bitch.
Oh Henriette I absolutely believe it was leaked to get sales. No argument there. Now, there are several friends who have read the book and found it very good. Me, I've never been inclined to read anything she's written.
DeleteRon and Hermione picked at and teased one another from the very first book. I won't say I assumed from book one that they would eventually be sweet on one another, but by book two or three I thought it was to be expected, and by the time the pairs sorted themselves out I was very happy with the way it all turned out and it made (to me) perfect sense. Although I seem to remember by book four or five it seemed that Harry might wind up with Cho, which seemed very out of place to me.
ReplyDeleteI'm glad Hermione didn't wind up with Harry: it would have been too pat.
I guess you've all seen "Harry Potter and the Ten Year Laters", right?
Harry Potter and the Ten Year Laters
What is her personal reason? That she was watching too much Star Wars while she wrote it? At least she didn't have a twist where Harry and Hermione found out they were brother and sister
ReplyDeleteThe least they could have done for Harry is hire a different actress for Ginny when they noticed the child actress wasn't getting better as she grew up. In every scene requiring some emotion on her face she had this blank expression. You just wanted to sneak up behind her & bang your hands together to startle her out of her deep reverie.
ReplyDeleteHarry and Hermione didn't end up together? I had no idea. I gave up after the first book and movie.
ReplyDelete@Mango, you're not alone. I just couldn't get into it.
DeleteAt least she finally admits it. After all those books (& pages!!) I was pissed to learn they ended up together. Harry should've been with Hermione and Ron should've been Luna. Even Harry and Luna would've made more sense than Harry and Ginny.
ReplyDeleteRon and Hermione forever. Screw her.
ReplyDeleteAs a writer myself (still unpublished) I now have no reason to read her books since she's given away at least part of the ending. What a dumb ash. What writer does that? You don't hear Stephen King whining about his mistakes in his novels. And by the way, this is why you don't stick like a maggot on a corpse to outlines--novels change and evolve and so do the characters, and you either go with their flow or you decide to be stubborn and f it up. When I get published you won't hear me pointing out the mistakes in my stories.
ReplyDelete@Cheryl--I am sure she stands on the street corners stopping strangers to talk about Harry Potter, hoping one of them will blab it to the papers. It is pretty much a given she will get asked about the Harry Potter books in every interview she does for the rest of her life. The fans are rabid and always want to know more, to hear more.
ReplyDeletethe relationship between harry and ginny was very contrived to me.
ReplyDeleteThat being said, i think putting harry with hermione would have completely changed the flavor of the story. Harry needed to be completely separated from anyone he could rely on... Harry was the best wizard, smartest, bravest... but Ron got the prettiest girl.
Anyway.
@The Real Dragon, I agree. I liked the fact that Ron and Hermione ended up together, I thought they balanced each other out. Harry and Ginny made no sense to me, it seemed to come out of nowhere in the books and really out of nowhere in the movies, since Ginny was really shunted aside in the movies.
ReplyDelete@nancy Harry should have ended with Luna
DeleteWhen Ron decided to bail on Harry and Hermione that was the final straw for me, I really, really liked Ron until that point, even though I never thought that he and Hermione were a good fit, like Harry's Cho fling. After that, I really had had it with the character. I also feel that the best fit would be between Hermione, Muggle born, and Harry Muggle raised (Lily was the only different one in her family) because a recurring theme for me in every book was the fact that the wizards had a tendency to use magic first, for anything, that ended up with them left astonished/affronted when that didn't work. I can actually talk about this series for hours, so I won't, but I have to admit everyone I know who LOVES this series has messaged/poked/twittered/emailed with this because not one of them was rooting for Ron & Hermione.
ReplyDeleteEnty, you say, She goes on to say that if she had to do it over again Harry would have ended up with Hermione, but he can't back that up. I've seen the quotes that are currently available, and that statement is nowhere in there.
ReplyDeleteRowling said nothing about who belonged with whom, and nothing about characters divorcing. Enty's making that up. (She did mention marriage counseling.)
What she did say was that her reasons for pairing off her characters the way she did were personal and neither literary nor aimed at credibility. We all know happy, successful, long-lasting couples with less in common than Ron and Hermione.
It's no skin off my nose. I'm convinced that, off the page, they all set up housekeeping in a ménage à trois, ignoring the outrage of the Wizarding World and raising babies that magically have two fathers.
I love the Harry Potter series and it was perfect the way Ron and Hermione ended up together, the characters were a good balance.
ReplyDeleteGinny was the only one who really understood Harry, in my opinion, Ron and Hermione were his best friends.
That said, I too could not find the quote this Enty wrote, geez....so it shouldn't be thought of as gospel. What I did find was that Rowling was commenting on how people wanted Harry and Hermione to be together and they expected it, she was sort of defending her pairing of Ron and Hermione.
This series, imo, was huge in getting young kids to really read, it was also instrumental in getting more of the series format books popular, now there are tons of series.
I love books, and in my "day" all I had was Nancy Drew and Agatha Christie books to read, so I love it! And yes, my kids read the Harry Potter series and when one would come out at midnight we were part of the shenanigans at the bookstore with readings etc. It was fun.
Oh please. Harry clearly belonged with Luna!
ReplyDeleteI was so devastated when I found out that Harry and Hermione weren't ending up together as I progressed through the series. In GOF I figured "eh, he'll get over this awful Cho bitch" and all signs in OOTP pointed to a Harry/Hermione love beginning to blossom. Nope. I just didn't feel it, I didn't connect with Ron/Hermione and I wasn't buying that they were actually in love. The (maybe) only thing I disagreed with in the series was the romantic pairings. It was like Harry/Ginny was too creepily trying to recreate the past of Lily and James and would their children now be stuck in a cycle of marrying partners that looked like their parents?
ReplyDeleteWhat the series really needed was a HP/HG GW/DM RW/LL and Seamus/Dean yummy!
I wish she had not said this. Harry and Hermione were friends. I never got that vibe from either character. She admired his magical skills, he admired her brain. As for Ron - he was steady. with the exception of the betrayal caused by the locket - he was always there. I can see where Hermione would be attracted to that steadiness/ family feel of the Weasleys. As my daughter stated, the characters belong to the readers. JKR should have let go years ago.
ReplyDeleteJKR needs to write the prequels if she is trying to mess with history. Some things cannot be undone.
@Sherry
ReplyDeleteI've never read Rowling, but as a writer and academic, I do keep track of the awards, reviews and publishing news. Rowling definitely has a habit of using the whole Harry Potter franchise to either sell something or promote something. It's no secret in publishing that she does this. That's her prerogative, but it gets really old.
Everyone I know who read Casual Vacancy said it was extremely cliched and agreed with New York Times review of it as being "banal and boring."
Harry and Luna 4-ever!
ReplyDeleteThere's a lot of opinions here from people who admittedly have never read any of her books. It's your loss. Harry Potter is an awful lot of fun--both the books and the movies.
ReplyDeleteAnd as far as I'm concerned, JK Rowling can keep traipsing out Harry Potter sequels, prequels, free-quels, or whatever she wants, for the rest of her life.
VOLDEMORT LIVES!
Topper I was reading the comments over at Buzzfeed and a majority of them were "waa waa the movies are over she can't change it now waa waa waa". Harry Potter is my heart and soul, I can't and don't want to imagine what my life would have been like if I hadn't cracked open that cover over a decade ago and it makes me sad that others will never know the same joy that this magical series can bring them. I hope JK never stops with these juicy tidbits!
Delete+ 1 @Topper!
ReplyDeleteHigh Five, @Topper - except that I could never like the movies. Books for me, thanks!
ReplyDelete@Humor Me, the betrayal over the locket at the end of Deathly Hallows is too significant, imo, for Hermione to 'get past.' It speaks so poorly for his character that it makes quite unbelievable to me that they later all returned to being such good friends and then marriage. That part totally didn't work for me.
And people care about that because.....?
ReplyDeleteI always said they should have been together in the end. The Harry and Ginny hookup just seemed so wrong on all levels.
ReplyDeleteThat Thing You Do!
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