Saturday, February 1, 2014

Intended


This is not the post I intended-- the ones I did intend will roll off the fingers/keyboard tomorrow, most likely, catching up on #screenshotaday, Year of the Horse, and others, but this caught my eye tonight: 'JK Rowling says Hermione should have married Harry, not Ron.' The article reminded me of a conversation I had with on my of player friends from the beginning, a very intelligent gentleman who loved books and understood the nuances of fan fiction and RP. Rowling's regret is founded, however, because the player felt so strongly about Harry and Hermione, it stuck in my mind. But as someone else brilliantly explained to me, Harry had to become a Weasley: since it couldn't be by blood it had to be by marriage (to Jenny Ginny), though his relationship and both on-screen and literary chemistry fizzled, too subtle to have us, the voyeuristic audience, truly believe in their relationship. Jenny Ginny existed on the peripheral, but then again, perhaps that is where the woman who will be/is the wife of the "one who lived" needed to remain: a domestic retreat of sorts. Well, what's done is done. Perhaps it's more intriguing to feel vindicated that our original instincts for these two fictional potential lovers were spot-on than if she had written the [obvious] relationship outcome.

So--what does this have to do with Azeroth? Two things, I suppose. There is the open adoration I would show you: I hold dear the player friends who have influenced me, made me think, helped me, and been my friends in a space where others don't exist. We have a shorthand communication that doesn't need explaining. If I could do a /slash hold hand, or pick up and hug tightly, and you all could feel it, I would. The limitations on expression obstruct my intentions. Also, unlike JK Rowling's limitations on only 'one' in the end, our characters have their own narratives and interactions. Perhaps this is why we keep coming back, even if we don't admit it. We get to rewrite the ending, erase, edit, start over.

Till tomorrow: sweet dreams

Azeroth is held safe and peaceful...

6 comments:

  1. Anonymous2.2.14

    I always though tit was odd how Harry ended up with Jinny. I would have loved to see him with Hermione as well but oh well. It's true though, we do have a pretty special way of communicating in-game or on the blog.

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    1. Rowling was definitely limited by the arc of the story, and being with Jenny did resolve his desire for belonging to a larger family. But yes --perhaps the question is not "why didn't he end up with Hermione," but "do we have varying paths of knowing multiple people in our lives?" - when asked this way, of course we do! Maybe I just overthink stuff. *eye roll!* lol

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  2. Ginny! GINNY! It's short for GINEVRA! Get her name right, please!

    Around the time Book 3 came out, I had the thought that perhaps Harry might end up getting together with Hermione. When I talked about this in the fan circles I frequented at the time, the stronger foreshadowings for Ron/Hermione and Harry/Ginny were pointed out to me, and I found that I preferred that option. I thought it was *wonderful* that Harry could have a best friend and trusted advisor who was a girl *without* her having to be his love interest. I also thought that the Ron/Hermione and Harry/Ginny romances were plenty well-developed in the text (the movies, I cared less about). I am rather saddened -- and even feel a little betrayed -- to read of this.

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    1. Oh my gosh, so sorry! I seem to have hit a Harry Potter nerve! My apologies. It's been quite a while since I read them to my cubs, and to myself. I agree that Harry has a friend who is not a love interest, too, and that was kind of my point, that GINNY (is it all caps? is that right? LOL) is his safe haven of sorts, too. We have all kinds of people in our lives, real and virtual, for whom we mean different things, and vice versa, and it's all valuable and essential. If you're upset, be upset with Rowling, not me. I just think it's interesting that writers second guess any of their choices, but not suprised. If Harry and Ginny were meant to be, I wish she would have developed the chemistry a bit further, and the on-screen chemistry wasn't there for me.

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    2. Sorry, that was something of a knee-jerk reaction. Indeed, it is JKR I feel a bit upset with, not you, really. I spent most of my HP fandom life in the One Big Happy Weasley Family community (with varying depth of involvement), and I imagine that the folks on my Facebook friendslist who came from those days are probably all exploding.

      Ginny being Harry's "safe haven" was an important point in the R/Hr versus H/Hr arguments, back in the day. :)

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    3. I think JKR's instincts to write it exactly as she did were great, for many reasons. And I thought I was being so original with my safe haven insight -- you mean others thought of this too? I guess the only people I ever analyzed HP with was a 9 year old and now you! I am such a dork.

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