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What is your favorite pairing?

Discussion in 'General Discussion' started by Jenko, Feb 10, 2017.

  1. The Pro

    The Pro Seventh Year

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    Then what is the rationalization for it? I've read the books, and it's exactly as everyone else says. Harry and Hermione share nothing but a platonic relationship. What'd make people write Harry/Hermione? Not that I have a problem with it, but it's usually done at the expense of other characters or some ridiculous happenstance and is almost never done well.

    Well, I suppose I could just chalk it up to people having too much of a vested interest in the romance aspect and leave it at that. Much less headaches that way.
     
  2. KHAAAAAAAN!!

    KHAAAAAAAN!! Troll in the Dungeon –§ Prestigious §– DLP Supporter

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    It's as others have said. She was the the central female character at the start of the series, and remained so until the end.

    Every YA trope since the dawn of the written word dictates that the central female protagonist - assuming she doesn't die or turn evil and continues to be important to the story - will ultimately "end up" with the central male protagonist. Double the trope strength if she's described as attractive; triple it if she's attractive AND smart. GoF actually fueled the Harmony fanaticism when lo and behold it turns out that Hermione is an uberhottie when she actually gives a fuck about her appearence.

    A particularly nutty argument that really took root over at Gryffindor Tower (RIP you beautiful shitstain of a website) was that Hermione's ability to continuously save the day, as well as her unflinching loyalty to Harry and Ron despite their many occasions of rampant douchebaggery, warranted a grandiose happily-ever-after love story with the hero, and anything less (such as a normal and caring relationship with normal bro like Ron) was somehow anti-feminist. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
     
  3. The Pro

    The Pro Seventh Year

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    That... makes a disturbing amount of sense. Come to think of it, I don't actually know any reasonable example wherein the male protagonist doesn't hook up with the main female character (sans her death, mutilation, prevailing circumstances, etc). Huh.

    This is complete bullshit. How does Hermione marrying Ron equate anti-feminism? People's rampant stupidity will never cease to amaze me.
     
  4. KHAAAAAAAN!!

    KHAAAAAAAN!! Troll in the Dungeon –§ Prestigious §– DLP Supporter

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    There are very few. I think it can mostly be attributed to the fact that most experienced writers of non-romance novels know they need to establish their love interests early, so it doesn't feel unnatural or rushed when they only devote a few pages or chapters to the details of a budding relationahip. JKR was not an experienced writer when she started out on the first few novels.

    If Ginny had played a significant role in the first four books, and had actually had a few lengthy conversations with Harry (comparable to say... Harry's interactions with Luna in 5 to 7) you can bet your bippy that Harmony wouldn't be anywhere near as popular as it is.

    Edit: I maintain that the best thing JKR could ever have done to solidify the validity of H/G would have been to have Mrs. Weasley tell a shy Ginny to accompany Harry through the barrier at Platform 9 and 3/4s in the first book. Boom go the ship cannons.
     
    Last edited: Jul 15, 2017
  5. Joe's Nemesis

    Joe's Nemesis High Score: 2,058 ~ Prestige ~

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    I disagree, there's nothing wrong with the pairing defining the plot if the story you want to tell is how a relationship develops between two people. The problem, IMO, is the immaturity in the writing of those types of stories on FFN.
     
  6. ginevrabamf

    ginevrabamf First Year

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    Was it though? My impression was that until HBP, the fandom was relatively equally divided between H/Hr and R/Hr, with H/G shooting up after OotP. Until OotP, it may have been the most popular Harry-pairing, but I don't think there's evidence to suggest that it was "the" ship overall (even though comparing to now it was definitely much more popular).

    It comes down to this fundamental view: that Harry treats Hermione as an equal, while Ron is an evil abuser, a trope rehashed over and over again in anti-Weasley fanfiction. If anything, one can even say that Hermione is more abusive than Ron (birds in HBP, punching in DH).

    And for the record, Gryffindor Tower was actually an H/G site, which crashed and burned due to MsScribe's scheming, trolling and fandom wank, as well as internal divisions among the mods. It has replaced by Sink Into Your Eyes, which is still going strong after almost fifteen years around. Aren't you rather talking about Portkey, HMS Harmony or something?

    You don't even have to change anything in the first four books. I think that two added scenes between Harry and Ginny in each of the books starting from OotP would have done heaps to help the pairing's popularity. Though I'd say that the level of interaction even in OotP now between H/G is at least equal if not greater than that between H/L. In OotP, in terms of major interactions, between H/L, I can only think of the Sirius scene, whereas with H/G, you've got the possession and Chocolate.

    And even now, H/Hr is not really that popular in the general fandom (it's another thing in fanfiction). I think that over the past few years H/L has overtook H/Hr, and H/G is enjoying a lot more support after Cursed Child (though H/G was still by far the most popular even before).

    Be still my shipper heart...
     
  7. KHAAAAAAAN!!

    KHAAAAAAAN!! Troll in the Dungeon –§ Prestigious §– DLP Supporter

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    It absolutely was. Sweet Christ... the number of 'Harry but not Ron visits Hermione over the summer and they have hawt pg13 relations' shitfics was absolutely staggering. There were nowehere near as many R/Hr livejournalers and or ff.net pages until their sexual tension really started to bubble post-Azkaban.


    There was a continuous stream of hardcore Harmonians entering and sowing destruction at GT well before the eventual MsScribe sockpuppeting disasters. The Queens usually banned them, but some passionate fucking arguments were had.[/QUOTE]
     
  8. Don

    Don Sent Back to India

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    Harry/Fleur because Fleur is intelligent, not a Mary-Sue, not mind-bogglingly annoying.
     
  9. Sauce Bauss

    Sauce Bauss Second Year ~ Prestige ~ DLP Supporter

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    Not a Mary Sue? Let's be honest here, she's an extremely talented, mature, morally exemplary example of physical perfection. I mean, I love Harry/Fleur too(or rather, the idea of Harry/Fleur that has yet to be realized), but come on.
     
  10. Suliac

    Suliac Squib

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    Harry/Daphne, no hesitation.
     
  11. TRH

    TRH Groundskeeper

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    As opposed to Hermione, who's all of those things (when she cleans up, anyways) and succeeds at nearly everything (whereas Fleur failed at most of the Triwizard tasks), and snags a world famous sports star without even trying. When that's the point of comparison, well...
     
  12. Blinker

    Blinker Seventh Year DLP Supporter

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    Except that we do see Hermione struggle at things throughout the books, it's just that they are in the realm of social interaction rather than magic. Fleur failed one task of a famously competitive tournament (I'm not counting the task where she was stunned by a Death Eater disguised as a marshal); otherwise we rarely see her anything less than imperiously competent in every situation.

    EDIT: If we're judging Fleur for the second task, Hermione's third year exam must be brought up.
     
    Last edited: Aug 5, 2017
  13. ginevrabamf

    ginevrabamf First Year

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    Fleur is very far from a Mary Sue. Especially from GoF to HBP, we frequently see her acting in a very condescending, vain and rude way. Ginny, Hermione, Molly and even Harry in GoF picks up on this.
     
  14. adamsmitgh

    adamsmitgh Squib

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    Harry deserves the best so Fleur or Daphne
     
  15. CaptainFlowers

    CaptainFlowers Fourth Year DLP Supporter

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    I just want more Busty!Susan Bones pls and ty.
     
  16. Warlocke

    Warlocke Fourth Champion

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    Sold!
    Finally, a pairing I can truly support.

    If you can kill two people with a single Killing Curse, then I think we've found our OT3.

    In other hot news: Humans need to breathe, blood works better when it's inside your body, and standing in a fire can lead to burns. [​IMG]

    Best sales pitch I've ever heard.

    EVER.

    Is- Is there a Kickstarter for this project?

    The fandom has the same confusion with Snape's character; Alan Rickman is not Snape.

    I'd venture that Rickman's current state of hygiene is closer to canon!Snape's than movie!Snape's is.

    As for Hermione: People either forget or didn't absorb in the first place just how utterly contemptible her behavior toward Harry and Ron (and even other people) was, from start to finish, in HBP. That book, more than anything, took the wind out of that ship's sails, for me. It's a far, far, cry from Harry's very occasional bouts of very understandable bitchiness.

    It doesn't surprise me that it was only after Rowling had irreparably damaged Hermione's character that she started saying maybe it should have been H/Hr, in the end. A: It puts the nail in the coffin of the debate about whether she knows her ass from a hole in the ground when it comes to romance, and B: Her Twitter account shows that the shit she says gets loonier every day, even when she isn't busy trying to pander to people for popularity brownie points.

    I must have missed the part where her parents were killed and she was raised ignorant of the Wizarding World in a cupboard by people who hate and belittle her, then escaped to a school where she had to deal with assassins and the double-edged nature of unwanted fame.

    She had some grandparents or aunts/uncles killed before she was born/old enough to know them, and her aunt Amelia was killed between OoTP and HBP. Unless Rowling has retconned this, too, her parents were very much alive (contrary to fanon).

    If you like the pairing, that's fine, but the similarities between Harry and Susan are scant in the extreme. They're both mammals, so... there's that.

    It's funny how certain versions of a character tend to stick, despite there being little to no precedent for it. I've always pictured her as bustier than average, with auburn hair, which seems to be a pretty common interpretation.

    She also bores me to tears, for no apparent reason. I tend to skip over stories with the Harry/Susan tag almost as diligently as Harry/Draco.
    --

    I have an enduring soft spot for Harry/Pansy. I won't bother justifying it any further than I have in previous posts.

    Harry/Ginny doesn't bother me nearly as much as it used to. If JKR had written even a few more scenes of them interacting in the books, it would have gone a long way toward 'fixing' what was wrong with that pairing: Mainly that it didn't exist.

    It has always struck me as decidedly distasteful, though, the way Ginny still very much intended to end up with Harry, but decided to go with Hermione's advice and essentially date "practice boyfriends" while she was biding her time.

    If she'd just flat out given up on Harry, dated a few other guys, then unexpectedly but happily hooked up with Harry in the end, it would have felt a bit less... skeazy and calculating.

    Given the superficiality of a lot of fan fic readers, you'd think more people would be on board with the H/G pairing. Lack of page time (and having Molly for a mother-in-law) is the most damning thing against Ginny. Otherwise, she's canonically a magically powerful witch who is clever, sarcastic, athletic, passionate and devoted (where Harry is concerned, especially), and one of the more attractive girls in the school, even according to the people who actively dislike her. This isn't surprising, of course, given that she and Hermione share the role of author-insert.
     
    Last edited: Dec 3, 2017
  17. LordPotter

    LordPotter Squib

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    I've always liked Harry/Daphne. I don't mind Harry/Hermione, but Harry/Ginny and Harry/Fleur has rubbed me wrong for some reason. Not a fan of Harry/Tonks at all. We don't really have that much characterization on Fleur, and even less on pretty much any of the other named students, with at best a one-dimensional characterization (Romilda = stalker is all we know about Romilda).
     
  18. Moukaboy

    Moukaboy Banned

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    Yet you like Daphne ? I mean we don't know anything about her.
     
  19. TRH

    TRH Groundskeeper

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    I'm not sure I really care about pairings anymore. One thing I will say about Harry/Ginny is that even once it started taking center stage in the last two books, there was still a strange lack of commitment to it on Rowling's part. Between Snape's string of detentions in HBP and her not going on the quest in DH, there was a very clear, very conscious decision to effectively make her the finish line, something Harry could only really have after Voldemort was dealt with.
     
  20. buzzer

    buzzer Slug Club Member DLP Supporter

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    Not Tonks?
     
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