My SHIP is sinking...

[serenadust]

--- In HPFGU-OTChatter at y..., Katze <jdumas at k...> wrote:
> First...I'm sending this to the OT list because I'm more talking 
about
> fanfics than I am canon. 
> 
> Up front, I'll tell you that I used to be a R/Hr shipper, and a
> Harry/?-not-Ginny shipper.
> 
> I dare say that my original idea of an Hr/R pairing is beginning to
> wane, and it's all due to the fanfics I've started to read. I'm now
> finding that I'm ever so slowly becoming a R/death-or-? shipper 
(which
> doesn't bode well for Ron's fate), Hr/H shipper, and even a D/G 
shipper
> (Draco will have to clean up his act first though). 
> 
> After reading various fanfics, I've found a very strange pattern 
occur
> is fics that end up H/Hr.  It seems that the impulse reaction is 
to pair
> Ron and Hermione, and Harry with either Ginny or x (I won't read 
fics
> where he's dead). What disturbs me is that Ron is either made to 
be the
> bad guy/bad husband, or he is killed off in order to make the
> Harry/Hermione happen. Why is this?
> 
 
I need to start by saying that I am mostly a non-shipper and try to 
stay out of the shipping wars, although I am not always sucessful <g>
I am, however, quite anti-H/Hr, which is not a very popular postion 
on this group, and I am a really huge Ron fan (also not popular).
My short foray into fanfiction last year was prompted by the long 
wait for book 5, and I thought it would be a fun way to kill time 
while waiting.  However, after reading many, many fics, I found that 
the most competent authors seemed to be actively attempting to 
undermine canon characterizations in order to promote a 
Harry/Hermione romantic relationship.  The only way they ever seem 
to be able to accomplish this is to either make Ron evil (absurd 
IMO), or to kill him off.  His existence seems to be a huge threat 
to the H/Hr fantasy, and this, I think, is the real reason that 
there are so many Ron haters here.  Personally, I don't read the 
stuff anymore since it was all so depressing, angsty, and not at all 
in the spirit of JKR.  I was probably naive to think that the 
authors were trying to preserve her vision, rather than impose their 
own. I've seen many, many posts where people have said that the 
characters presented in fanfics have changed the way they view the 
JKR characters, and I just find that sad. I'd rather have my visions 
and impressions of the characters (right or wrong) develop from 
careful reading of canon and discussion of same, than have 
it "tainted" by fanfic.  I'm afraid that people who are greatly 
invested in fanfics will be disappointed when the canon diverges 
from their chosen version of the Potterverse, and I just don't want 
to go there.

Jo Serenadust, expecting to be flamed big-time for heresy