A comment on SHIPs

[Richard]

No: HPFGUIDX 119897


<snippet-snip>
Hickengruendler wrote:
> In fact, the only interpretation I haven't read is that Luna is 
> clearly a Lesbian who will end up with Hermione, of course. But I'm 
> sure it's only a matter of time. ;-)
<snip>

OK, so I'll say it, just so we get it out of the way.  Luna is clearly
a lesbian (or at least bi-) who will end up with Hermione, or perhaps
in a three-way relationship with Hermione and Ginny, particularly if
Harry, Ron and Neville all die in the War.

Well, personally, I don't believe it, but hey authors have done
stranger things ... I just don't see all the gay and lesbian themes
some of expounded upon.  The girls in the main and secondary trios
have all clearly shown interest in the other gender, as have all the
boys in girls.

My personal opinion is that Ron and Luna are "marked for death." 
There is canon support for both, but then we have canon support for
the death of just about every last person of real interest thus far. 
but, if we do look at the math of it all, elimination of one pairing
does tend to signficantly reduce the number of other pairings that are
possible ... Not as much as a canon pairing would, mind you, but still
significantly ...

Consider n boys and n girls, with all the pairings possible.  Well,
there are n! (n factorial), if you completely ignore personalities,
etc.  Let's say we have 10 boys and 10 girls to pair off.  You have a
total of something like 3,628,800 possible pairings.  If just one pair
is impossible, lose 362,880 of those.  Make just one canonical, and
you take the number of possible pairing to 362,880.  So, we've
eliminated two SHIPs (Hr/D and L/N), and that really DOES reduce the
options, ESPECIALLY when you start considering personality
incompatibilities and likely deaths.

In the end, though, JKR will tell HER tale, and we don't have a say. 
She knows what the pairings will be, and who will die and remain
hermits.  I simply hope that, as she has a clear pattern of trying to
make important features realistic, she doesn't stick us with any SHIPs
that don't make sense in Real-World psychological terms.

darkmatter, who worries that those little girls really do think the
cads they pine for have hidden hearts of gold.