SINKING Ships, characterizations

[bbennett320178]

> -Katze asked: 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 think Ron gets killed off or turns bad simply because many of
> the H/Hr writers don't know what to do with him once H/Hr become a 
> couple. 

This is probably sort of the the same reason R/Hrs pair Ginny with 
Harry -writers need to do something with the dangling part of the 
Trio. While there is evidence as to why Ginny and Harry get paired up 
in fanon (Ginny likes Harry in canon), Ron has really only shown 
evidence of truly liking Hermione (I'm discounting his veela-inspired 
attraction to Fleur). You've got to do something with him if you pair 
Hermione and Harry; killing him off seems reasonable. ;)

> Jo Serenadust mentioned the danger of being influenced by 
> fanfiction. As far as being "tainted" by fanfiction I just try to 
>be aware of the possibility and try to remind myself "constant 
>vigilance!" :)

I've only read one story that I sometimes 'confuse' with canon, and 
that's Arabella's Hermione Queen of Witches series. These stories are 
from Hermione's POV, as she tells the events of all four books to her 
diary (inhabited by a great original character named Gwen), and are 
just wonderful. Although I've read other very wonderful stories, I 
don't know that I can say they've influenced the way I interpret the 
books - although the many conversations here, at FA.org, and at Sugar 
Quill have definitely made me think - and to a certain extent, many 
stories are just canon discussions put forth in prose.

You know, in H/H stories, I generally think both Harry and Ron are 
characterized similiarly to how they are in R/H fiction (well, unless 
Ron has kicked the bucket :b), but I often find myself disagreeing 
with how Hermione is characterized - she rarely jibes with my canon 
interpretation of her. Are there certain characterizations that you 
generally find unbelieveable, be it R/H or H/H, that prevents you 
from 'buying' the story?
 
> I don't usually read fanfiction about the younger characters
> specifically except at Sugarquill-mostly because they have well
> written and beta'd work plus I know I"m not going to run into slash 
>or student/teacher pairings (which generally isn't my thing.)  

I'm a beta-reader/mod at SQ; I'm glad to hear you enjoy the site! 
There are stories with slash pairings archived at SQ, actually, but I 
believe they are primarily grown up pairings (Remus, Sirius, etc). 
The site is oriented toward R/H stories (with H/G on the side), and a 
slash pairing involving any of the Trio would counter that (as would 
H/H or Draco and Hermione).

B