TiP and Camelot (was: The PBS HP show)

[Ebony]

*laughs*  Here we go again...

--- In HPFGU-OTChatter at y..., UcfRentLuvr at c... wrote:
> > They also made a few comparisions between HP and King Arthur. For 
> > shippers, there was a teaser about Harry, Ron and Hermione 
> > mirroring Arthur, Lancelot and Guinivere.>>
> > 
> > Someone else mentioned this as well and it just made me giggle 
> > when they compared Harry to Arthur and Ron to Lancelot instead of 
> > the other way around as we TiP fans have come to know it. I 
wonder how many R/Hers rejoiced at that. ;)


--- In HPFGU-OTChatter at y..., "Laurin" <lyorkus at y...> wrote:
> > 
> But this is the comparison that makes *sense*!  (I never read TiP; 
> since I feel this way, I get the impression that I shouldn't even 
> try.)  <snip!>  Ron's not a bit like Arthur. I'm 
> not convinced he makes a very good Lancelot either, but he's a damn 
> sight closer to him than to King Arthur.
> 
> I can think of myths or folktales that work with HP a lot better 
> than the Arthurian legends, but I don't see why this one can't make 
> both H/H shippers and H/R shippers happy.  At one point she's with 
> each of them, and at the end Harry would be pining after her, 
> wouldn't he?  (And maybe she's pining after him too, and regretful 
> that her indiscretion has disgraced her and made it impossible for 
> her to stay with him.)  More of a tragic ending than I think JKR is 
> going for, but it works a lot better than the TiP scenario, IMNSHO.


Author of TiP here... *yawns*... when you look at canon, I quite 
agree with the Harry=Arthur parallel.  But then, Harry and 
Arthur are archetypal brethren, you know.  They certainly aren't 
alone in their situational dynamic.  I can name about a dozen other 
characters who are protagonists in Hero's Quest tales.

However, I don't think R/H shippers can rejoice just yet.  *snerk*  
At this point, Ron=Lancelot or Hermione=Guinevere does not work by 
any stretch of the imagination... as a lover of Arthurian legend (and 
one who's studied it on the graduate school level!), unless something 
is changed drastically in canon I don't think that you can 
extrapolate a direct H/R/H parallel to Camelot at all with the canon 
that we have.  

In the post-Hogwarts *Trouble in Paradise* (TiP) milieu, there is a 
purposeful skewing of character and switching of positions so that 
Camelot *can* be alluded to.  The key term is "allusion"--no direct 
parallels were intended.  

You see, after Voldemort's defeat in my fanfiction, Harry leaves the 
wizarding world altogether, a bit like Frodo leaves the Shire and 
Middle-Earth post-LOTR.  The difference is that Harry eventually 
returns to the wizarding world and avoids the public eye, making a 
life in a land that straddles the fence between the wizarding world 
and somewhere else altogether.  Harry is offered the "crown" in my 
backstory, but utterly refuses it, preferring to continue his quest 
behind the scenes and out of the spotlight.

Harry's leavetaking pre-TiP leaves a heroic void of sorts in a 
grateful magical world who wants to laud *someone* for bringing them 
out of the darkness.  Ron survives Voldemort's defeat to become a 
Quidditch player who is finally getting the recognition he feels he 
deserves.  In this sense, he becomes not an actual king who is 
ruling, but is a mega-celebrity icon who is both admired and lusted 
after.  <g>

And Hermione... well, never mind about her.  It's a loooooong 
story.  ;-)  Still in progress, too.

This shift of perspective has been discussed at length on the 
Paradise e-group... we had some great discussions about the various 
Arthurian cycles from the earliest bard-spun versions to the recent 
feminist MZB tomes.  But if you've never read TiP or any of the 
related stories, you wouldn't get it anyway.

This is why I usually refrain from having a not-so-humble opinion 
regarding fanfiction that I haven't read.  *shrugs*  I don't know, 
maybe that's just me...

--Ebony AKA AngieJ


<>< <>< <>< <>< <>< <>< <>< <>< <>< <>< <>< <>< <>< <>< <>< 
Ebony AKA AngieJ
ebonyink at hotmail.com
Come join us in Paradise!  
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********************************** 

"You do not have to be good.
You do not have to walk on your knees for a hundred miles through the 
desert, repenting.
You only have to let the soft animal of your body love what it loves."

--from Mary Oliver's *Wild Geese*