Ron/ Definition of "Shipper" & "Mary Sue"

[Rita Winston]

No: HPFGUIDX 7362

--- In HPforGrownups at egroups.com, marty at m... wrote:

> About feeling sympathy for [Ron's] his angst: really, what does
> Hermione have to deal with, either?  Her muggle background and her
> teeth?  I'm more sympathetic to Ron's feeling of overwhelmedness
> and frustration/shame about his family's lack of means than that. 

Hear, hear!

> (While I'm talking about this, I want to know why the benevolent
> folks at Hogwarts keep sending Harry back to his abusive home?

There is some 'old magic' that keeps Harry safe only when in the 
'care' of his relatives. It has been hinted at but not explained in 
the text so far. And HP has to go to the Dursley at the beginning of 
vacation, but then can go on to the Weasleys: is there something in 
the 'old magic' that continues to keep him safe for some time after 
he leaves the Dursleys, but he has to go back to them periodically 
to refresh it?

> What do you call someone who would be interested in seeing an 
> adolescent fling between Harry and Ron?  

Ha/R. It gets complicated when characters have the same initials 
and you have to distinguish Ha/R from He/R (which in turn is a 
little ironic: He is the girl), and specify Sn or Si for Snape or 
Sirius, Du or Dr Dumbledore or Draco.

As Carole and Penny and Ebony have already said, when it is a same 
sex pair it is called slash rather than shipping.

> I think it would be a rather sweet added dimension to their 
> friendship (future or past).  Given the strong feelings that were
> flying around GoF between them, the jealousy, the frustration when
> they were fighting, the fact that Ron was Harry's "thing he'd miss
>  most," I don't think it's even too far-fetched.

Before GoF came out, I would read the Ha/He shippers and the R/He 
shippers and the Ha/G[inny] shippers and the Ha/Cho shippers, and 
then reply that I thought Harry and Ron would suit each other best, 
with their shared interests and Harry being able to keep his mouth 
shut at times when anything anyone says sets Ron off (and sometimes 
I would add that if only Ginny transferred her hero worship from 
Harry The Boy Who Lived to Hermione The Genius Scholar, they could 
suit each other's personalities quite well).

But I have to admit that GoF kind of knocked a hole in that for me. 
First, while Harry could still grow up to be gay or bi, as he still 
seems to be trying not to have a sexual orientation at all (as part 
of a desire to avoid intimacy -- and it should be easy to figure out 
where he learned to distruct intimacy!), but Ron has been acting 
quite thoroughly heterosexual lately, leering down girls' necklines 
and stuff. Also, Harry hasn't been doing such a good job of coddling 
Ron's temper lately.

I regularly use the "thing he'd miss most" to argue that Viktor's 
feelings for Hermione are at least sincere. He may be an 18 year old 
trying to date a 14 or 15 year old, but she wouldn't have been his 
hostage if he were just a 'playa' (as someone said back in Yahoo! 
days). He either is real messed up, or he was able to appreciate 
Hermione's excellences despite youth, big teeth (not shrunk yet when 
he began chasing her), and a bossy sort of voice. I prefer to 
believe the latter, which speaks exceptionally well of him, and at 
this time, I would like to match Hermione with Viktor. I suppose 
he'll either die or be revealed as a Darksider in the next volume, 
sigh.