This week's topic: The relationships in Harry Potter; which worked and which do I wish Rowling never even attempted?
When you get as involved in a book series as I did with Harry Potter, you tend to see the characters as friends (or enemies) and you feel the need to either give these characters encouragement or tell them when they're being stupid. Of course, as they are fictional characters living in a book, they obviously aren't going to hear you or take your angry shouting into consideration.
I like to call this the "Don't Go into the House Alone!" syndrome. We all do it. We do it when we're watching our favorite TV show and our favorite character has just started dating the slimeball that no one likes. Or we could be watching a horror film and the beauty queen is making a fatally stupid move by, as the title suggest, going into the house alone. We know the killer is there but she doesn't and, no matter how much we yell at our TV, the person on the screen continues on her merry way...until she gets stabbed with an ice pick.
When I read the Harry Potter books the first time around, I suffered from "Don't Go into the House Alone!" syndrome like nobody's business. I yelled at Harry not to go find Sirius at the Ministry. I told him not to go with Moody after the return of Voldemort during the Tri-Wizard Tournament. Harry is just not a good listener.
Anyway, some of my yelling had to do with relationships, which, after all, is what we're supposed to be talking about today. There were some couples that I was so glad got together in the end, there were some that I was disappointed never made it together, and there were others where I started to wonder if maybe J.K. Rowling had officially lost her ever-loving mind. We'll look at each of these in turn.
The Good:
First Place: Ron and Hermione:
Runner-Up: Molly and Arthur Weasley
Miss Congeniality: Hagrid and Madam Maxime
The Bad:
First Place: Lupin and Tonks:
Runner-Up: Harry and Ginny
Miss Congeniality: Bill and Fleur
The Imaginary:
I admit that I'm a shipper. Some of the couples that I wish would get together are conventional, others are not. Here is my list of ships, both het and slash.
First Place: Sirius and Snape
Judge me all you want, but for some reason I always wanted the two of these guys to get together. Even with the bad blood between them, I wished for even just a little sexual tension. I know Rowling would never have done that (although I give her mad props for saying that Dumbledore was gay) so this pairing only exists in (usually) poorly written fanfic.
Runner-Up: Neville and Luna
Miss Congeniality: Draco and Ginny
-Gabe
I honestly thought at one point that Neville would be paired with Ginny (book 4 i think?), but he could have worked with Luna as well. As for Draco and Ginny...can you imagine if Rowling actually matched them up, it would have been a madhouse!
ReplyDeleteOverall I was so disappointed with the relationships in HP, so many of them were weak and never seemed at all believable. There were very few I really loved, which I realised this week when I tried to write a longer list!
LOL! That's why I like the idea of Draco and Ginny. Even though it's completely unbelievable, it's still more believable than Harry and Ginny. Technically the Malfoys and the Weasleys are distant relatives, but I think they're far enough removed that the two of them snogging wouldn't have made me lose my lunch.
ReplyDeleteAgreed about the relationships. They were very flat and underdeveloped. She's great at world-building, but not so much at romance.
I always wondered if she was caving to pressure from editors or even fans who (as could be expected of teenage girls) wanted to see their fave characters paired up. The only thing I disliked more than the relationships was that terrible final chapter, horrible, horrible, horrible.
ReplyDeleteAh, you mean the one that went "And they all lived happily ever after with a bunch of kids and really corny dialogue. Oh, and they were all intermarried with the Weasleys. The end."? That one? :)
ReplyDeleteSnape probably rolled around in his grave knowing that Harry named a kid after him. I couldn't even find it sweet or touching, especially after Harry blabbed all of Snape's secrets to a huge crowd of people while battling Voldemort. Book Seven was not a good time to be a hardcore Snape fan. I was left feeling like I'd been betrayed and that I knew Snape's character better than she did. Funny enough, I've heard people who HATE Snape say the same thing.
Okay, ranting done.
I skip that chapter each time I reread Deathly Hollows, it makes my blood boil. The worst thing is that they've actually included it in the film! So unnecessary, I might have to walk out of the cinema to avoid it!
ReplyDeleteThe whole naming of the kids after all the dead characters was a horrible touch, especially since they all had two or three names which just seemed absurd. I must admit, when Harry tells his kid that Snape was the bravest man he knows I get a little choked up, but I completely agree with you about the rest of the Snape stuff in book 7.
Have you heard they're changing his death in the film? He's dying in a crystal house or something?!
Haha, Sirius and Snape would make a hi-larious couple. I absolutely love both of them (esp. Snape).
ReplyDeleteI really liked Ginny and Harry as a couple, before they actually became a couple. Then it was just boring.