Inherent conflict in R/H - H/H (SHIP)

[Penny & Bryce]

No: HPFGUIDX 33014

Good morning --

First off, welcome aboard the Good Ship H/H, Karl from Boston!  <g> 
Excellent post -- I especially liked your observation that Hermione 
always gets what she wants in the end.  That could make an interesting 
discussion in & of itself (and not confined to shipping of course). 
But, I definitely agree: it's clear to me too that she has her cap set 
on Harry, not Ron.  We are a minority, Karl, but not completely alone.  <g>

> I wrote:
> >> If the romance angle is going to at all affect the bigger events, then 
>> there must be conflict.
>
Amy responded:

> 
> I don't follow this.  Romance can affect other events in lots of ways 
> besides being conflicted in and of itself:  e.g., the classic (I would say 
> cliched) dilemma of the hero being diverted from his heroic task by concern 
> for his True Love (do I save the world or save Hermione?).

As you & Luke point out, inherent was poor word choice.  What I meant 
here is: if romance is going to be a small subplot, intended to lighten 
the mood of the books by providing humorous interludes & mishaps, then 
R/H (and even H/G to some extent) works just fine.  Ron likes Hermione, 
and *IF* Hermione returns his interest as all the R/H theorists assure 
us, then there's not much in the way of conflict there.  They will 
humorously manage to get hooked up as a couple after some typical 
adolescent miscommunications, etc.  This subplot could span several 
books in fact ... but never really provide us with anything more than a 
good laugh; a distraction from the main events...warm fuzzies as Ebony 
has said before.

R/H is not conflict-free so "no inherent conflict" wasn't a true 
statement.  Definitely not.  They could, as one example, break up (I 
know: gasps of shock from the R/H'ers).  This would throw a monkey 
wrench into the Trio, even if she didn't have romantic interest in Harry.

But, I do think that FITD (Ron likes Hermione who likes Harry who likes 
noone or someone outside the Trio) presents better dramatic 
possibilities & by far more conflict than R/H.  As I said, Hermione 
liking Harry causes potential conflict all the way around & back again.

Penny