Rowling says Harry and Hermione should have gotten married.

[The Romulan Republic]

http://newsfeed.time.com/2014/02/02/j-k ... r-not-ron/

Well, everything you thought you knew about love is a lie. Turns out J.K. Rowling thinks she made a huge mistake by pairing Hermione Granger and Ron Weasley in the Harry Potter novels. Hermione really should have married Harry, the author said in a recent interview for the upcoming issue of Wonderland magazine, guest-edited by Emma Watson.

Here’s what Rowling said, in excerpts printed by British newspaper The Sunday Times:

“I wrote the Hermione/Ron relationship as a form of wish fulfillment,” she says. “That’s how it was conceived, really. 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.”
Rowling said she knew this admission would upset many Harry Potter diehards, and offered the following apology:

“I know, I’m sorry,” she continued, “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.”
The author also said Hermione and Ron totally would have needed relationship counseling. She didn’t, however, seem to acknowledge the possibility that Hermione didn’t need to marry Ron OR Harry, but alas.

I wish she'd written the books differently rather than saying that a story millions of people love is wrong. But I guess its good that she admits that she thinks she made a mistake. And fortunately I don't care about the romances. The shippers, on the other hand, are going to be fucking obnoxious about this. But they are always obnoxious.

[Havok]

Or it could be a setup for a follow up story where Harry steals Hermione from Ron and he becomes the next Voldemort.

[Gaidin]

Why set up the next Voldemort? The thing that would actually get me to read that series is if she just didn't bother with things like this and went ahead to their 'normal life', whatever 'normal' may come to mean, and they had a career doing whatever using the magic they've learned. They've had their own grand epic problem. Let them work with other people. Explore the world instead of just the school.

[Eternal_Freedom]

Why set up the next Voldemort? The thing that would actually get me to read that series is if she just didn't bother with things like this and went ahead to their 'normal life', whatever 'normal' may come to mean, and they had a career doing whatever using the magic they've learned. They've had their own grand epic problem. Let them work with other people. Explore the world instead of just the school.

Now that I would read. Have the great villain of the book bing some other guy in the office stealing all the memos or something like that.

[The Romulan Republic]

What about crime novels about Harry working as an Auror? No dark Lord. Just wizard criminals.

Although I'm sure someone would try to steal the Elder Wand from Harry since he was stupid enough to announce he had it in public during his final duel with Voldemort.

[Gaidin]

Now that I would read. Have the great villain of the book bing some other guy in the office stealing all the memos or something like that.

Hell, not even that lame. Just, let them make their choices. You don't even have to have all three characters in the series anymore. The series can still be appropriately epic, but the difference here, is that what happens to them is based on their choices, not because some evil guy targeted them while they were in school. It makes it more interesting from a character standpoint.

[Eternal_Freedom]

What about crime novels about Harry working as an Auror? No dark Lord. Just wizard criminals.

Although I'm sure someone would try to steal the Elder Wand from Harry since he was stupid enough to announce he had it in public during his final duel with Voldemort.

I have to wonder how many people would actually remember that, since they had the whole "Voldemort just got beaten, we totally won" bit shortly thereafter. Plus, apparently the vast majority of wizards believe the deathly hallows to just be fairy tales.

And Harry said he was putting the wand back in Dumbledore's tomb, I suspect he and others would add some pretty strong wards to the place, just in case.

[Tribble]

Although I'm sure someone would try to steal the Elder Wand from Harry since he was stupid enough to announce he had it in public during his final duel with Voldemort.

At least in the movie version he did the obvious and broke it in half.

Hell, not even that lame. Just, let them make their choices. You don't even have to have all three characters in the series anymore. The series can still be appropriately epic, but the difference here, is that what happens to them is based on their choices, not because some evil guy targeted them while they were in school. It makes it more interesting from a character standpoint.

IMO the entire point of the series was about characters choosing whether to do what was right or what was easy. The contrast between Harry's and Voldemort's choices is the most obvious, though there were plenty of others. Pretty much every character's choices ended up being shown at some point, as well as the consequences.

[Broomstick]

Personally, I was happy she hadn't gone for the obvious and Harry winding up with Hermione

[Tribble]

I actually thought that the obvious pairing was Hermione and Ron, seeing as the two are so different lol

[Gaidin]

IMO the entire point of the series was about characters choosing whether to do what was right or what was easy. The contrast between Harry's and Voldemort's choices is the most obvious, though there were plenty of others. Pretty much every character's choices ended up being shown at some point, as well as the consequences.

Sorry, I speak in broader strokes than specific events of the series. Events of the series follow from him literally being a target. Where events following the series would come from decisions he makes. He'd get involved because he wants to, not because someone else forces him to.

[Havok]

Love is unpredictable. I've only seen the the movies, but I like Hermoine and Ron getting together, what I didn't like was Harry and Ron's sister getting together.

[RogueIce]

Love is unpredictable. I've only seen the the movies, but I like Hermoine and Ron getting together, what I didn't like was Harry and Ron's sister getting together.

I felt so bad for Cho.

At least in the movie version he did the obvious and broke it in half.

Confirmed: the movies were superior to the books.

I actually agree with Hav about Ron and Hermoine. I wonder if it's because I only saw the movies as well, and probably they knew ahead of time and thus set it up better? Or it just came across more natural in the visual medium than it did with text.

Whatever. Let the Ship Wars commence.

[JLTucker]

Harry and Luna made the most sense. There not a single other character in the series who knows what he goes through without having a parent around.

[Ford Prefect]

Ron and Hermoine makes more sense in the films because it started getting teased as early the third movie, while the books are pretty silent on the idea for ages. Harry and Ginny makes more sense in the films because, like, people grew up in the films, you know? You can actually see the physical changes that would change attraction.

[Crazedwraith]

It's ironic because at the time the books came out; she said some quite cutting things about Harry/Hermione shippers.

Personally I think she's still got it wrong. I don't care who Hermione ends up with but Harry and Luna should always have ended up together. I honestly thought their conversation at the end of OotP was foreshadowing that.

*sigh* doesn't change the canon one jot though.

[Raw Shark]

I have absolutely no emotional investment in this, but I've never gotten what some people find so implausible about Harry/Ginny. They're both, let's just say it, their culture's equivalent of talented alpha jocks, and they've both demonstrated a tendency to pair off within that (small) pool before.

@JK: You rolled a critical success. Learn when to walk away, count your money, and write other stuff.

[Hillary]

I wonder how much her opinion has been shaped by the obvious on-screen chemistry between Radcliffe and Watson in the films?

[Ahriman238]

Harry/Ginny bothers me a bit because it comes out of nowhere in the sixth book, with a bit character who got hardly any development (and all that she did get she got when eleven years old.) And yeah, in real life these things come out of nowhere.

Hermione/Ron was well set up, and the ship wars over which guy Hermione would land got really fucking silly. But they're done now. The part that strikes my curiosity, Rowling has repeatedly said that Hermione was based on herself when she was young; bookish, bossy, bit of a know-it-all but well-meaning, involved with social activism projects nobody else really cares about, etc. So how is it 'wish-fulfilment' for the author avatar to end up with Ron?

[Crazedwraith]

I have absolutely no emotional investment in this, but I've never gotten what some people find so implausible about Harry/Ginny. They're both, let's just say it, their culture's equivalent of talented alpha jocks, and they've both demonstrated a tendency to pair off within that (small) pool before.

For me at least. It's not that it couldn't work. It just wasn't good as written. It's rather out of nowhere and back peddles the bit in OotP where Ginny had gotten over him. (In HBP she 'never gave up on him' ugh) And yeah the sudden thing has been defended as 'realistic' (like epII romance) but that doesn't make entertaining or satisfying in my opinion.

@JK: You rolled a critical success. Learn when to walk away, count your money, and write other stuff.

Weird thing is She more or less had: with Casual Vacancy and that crime book being pretty sucessful. Then suddenly she's back in potterland with the new film and everything.

[Alkaloid]

I actually agree with Hav about Ron and Hermoine. I wonder if it's because I only saw the movies as well, and probably they knew ahead of time and thus set it up better? Or it just came across more natural in the visual medium than it did with text.

Seriously? I'd picked Ron and Hermione ending up together after the second book, and I was about twelve. It was the most obviously telegraphed thing thing the history of obviously telegraphing things.

I have absolutely no emotional investment in this, but I've never gotten what some people find so implausible about Harry/Ginny. They're both, let's just say it, their culture's equivalent of talented alpha jocks, and they've both demonstrated a tendency to pair off within that (small) pool before.

Honestly I normally don't give a shit which fictional characters are banging which other fictional characters, provided it doesn't end up in a scenario where characters are forced together or apart in a manner that makes no narrative sense. (moronic shippers declaring it impossible for any character in the books to end up with someone they didn't go to high school with, or Ron and Hermione not ending up together and wasting 7 books worth of indications that they would being perfect examples.) That said, I imagine two people having exactly the same support network makes them much more likely to stay together than most high school sweethearts would.

Weird thing is She more or less had: with Casual Vacancy and that crime book being pretty sucessful. Then suddenly she's back in potterland with the new film and everything.

It's not impossible she's just getting the shippers riled up to get some free marketing. Not like she's ever been bad at promoting her work.

[Thanas]

She says nothing that has not been said among book critics. Mainly because it always seemed as if the two have more in common together than Ron and Hermione did and got along much better.

However Rowling never was that great at writing romance anyway and for my part I would have preferred she left all "permanent" romances out of the whole series. Let them have the teenage flings and leave it at that. Less writing about how she imagines teenage love with roaring monsters in the chest and more show, don't tell.

Edit: just saw more info while browsing io9,
http://io9.com/j-k-rowling-says-hermion ... 1514204695

[Gaidin]

Either way, it wouldn't be the first divorce in fiction if she did continue the characters' story because she couldn't think of anything else to write. Congrats...you have normal people.

[Thanas]

Either way, it wouldn't be the first divorce in fiction if she did continue the characters' story because she couldn't think of anything else to write. Congrats...you have normal people.

Yeah, I don't think it is a big deal.

The teenage fangirls (former and current) in my circle of family and acquintances are comedy gold right now though.

[JLTucker]

While I like Ron, he is completely useless on his own. His triumphs only happened because he was around others. He did okay at school because he had Harry and Hermione. he did okay at dueling because he had them and others. If he was on his own? He'd be like Filch, but only sadder: he can actually use magic, but he just sucks at it.