go ahead. push. my. buttons.

[seldear]

Gakked from havocthecat, to whom I still owe a rant about Harry Potter.

1. Comment with any 'ship from a fandom that you know I like, or at least have some knowledge about.

2. I will ramble for 100 words about aforementioned 'ship. This may be incoherent gushing or exclamations of disgust, depending on what it is.

3. Put this on your LJ, if you are so inclined.

Comments

[coltsbane.livejournal.com]

Harry/Hermione

[seldearslj.livejournal.com]

I don't get it. I mean, yes, Hermione is one of Harry's loyal friends, and she's in the position as the 'supportive girl who ends up with the hero' as far as trinities go, and she has a very serious role as the knowitall and ennabler of many of Harry's actions through the series...

But I just don't see any interest between them.

And the weirdest explanation I've ever received about the whole of Book 5 when Hermione is giving Harry advice on how to deal with Cho is that she wants Harry to date Cho so he gets over her and see that Hermione's been patiently waiting for him to notice her all these years.

...
...
...

WTF?

Mostly, I think that Hermione can't actually give Harry what he needs. Let's face it: Hermione has two settings - knowitall and bossy knowitall. Harry lived the first half of his life with people who 'knew everything' and refused to see anything beyond what they 'knew'. I somehow doubt that he'd want to spend the rest of his life listening to his wife tell him what to do.

Hermione is a friend to Harry, but as far as his 'mission' is concerned, she's situationally functonal, not emotionally ennabling. ANd I suspect that Harry will need someone who can either kick him out of his self-despair, or jolt him out of it.

[alliesings.livejournal.com]

Okay, I wasn't going to do this at all, but after reading that, I want to know. Harry/Ginny?

[seldearslj.livejournal.com]

Harry/Ginny is one of those pairings with which I have quite a bit of trouble imagining in a practical way, mostly because Ginny is so underdescribed up until Order of the Phoenix.

Fanonically, Ginny is Harry's One True Love, according to quite a number of people, largely because Hermione is already taken (by Ron, natch) and there aren't any other girls described in suitably positive terms (although technically, Ginny isn't really described in positive terms until OotP either).

To begin with, Harry is quite oblivious to Ginny as anything except the person who needs saving in Chamber of Secrets. She gains a mention in the subsequent books, more as part of Ron's family than as a character in her own right. It's not until Order of the Phoenix, when she kicks him out of his anger-depression cycle following Mr. Weasley's hospitalisation that she really steps out of the shadow of "the girl who has a crush on Harry" or "Ron's little sister" for Harry - and, since the books are developed from Harry's POV, the audience as well. At that point, she becomes a person to Harry. It is at that point that I can believe that, when appropriately developed, it is possible for her to become a romantic interest to Harry given what we've seen in the books. Not before.

I'm not a huge fan of Harry/Ginny at this point in time. The imbalance of affection is simply too marked for me. This isn't a case of different personality types and modes of affection (which I can see in other pairings where one partner is more affectionate or more forthcoming than the other), this is a case of Harry not seeing Ginny as a girl or a romantic interest any more than he does Hermione. At which point any Harry/Hermione shippers' reading this should find their heads exploding.

I've heard an argument that goes that Harry would go well with Ginny because Harry looks like his father James and Ginny looks like his mother Lily. I'm not quite sure about the logic of that thought, nor am I a fan of the idea. Poor old Ginny, stuck with Harry for the unfortunate genetic trait of having red hair, pale skin, and allegedly green eyes (although apparently Chamber of Secrets describes her eyes as brown).

So, Harry/Ginny in fandom, but I can't see it too well in canon right now.

[alliesings.livejournal.com]

Thanks :) That makes a lot of sense. After reading the first 4 books, I was wondering where the Harry/Ginny stuff came from, but then I kind of fell hard after Order of the Phoenix. I did like your blurb about Harry/Luna. That was the first time I've seen anyone attempt an explanation that made any sense at all.

[seldearslj.livejournal.com]

Jack/Baseball cap: It's love. It's definitely love. Or at least, it is when they go out on sunny planets. Except that the cap tends to leave him at the most troubled times. Sometimes she sticks along for the ride, but it also has a tendency to fly off his head, or get left behind, and unfortunately Jack's motto only applies to people, not hats.

Jack/Yo-Yo: This relationship is extremely fickle on both sides! Jack will put the yo-yo away for days at a time, although, when they are together, he definitely gives it his undivided attention, and really, who (or what) could resist that? That's probably why it keeps coming back to him. Except when it doesn't. Then Jack has to wind it up, which, of course, gets the yo-yo annoyed and it decides not to come back again. A vicious cycle of relationships.

Jack/Sam:

Dear PTB,

After eight years of futzing around and refusing to ever get anything done for these two, I think you should just get them married. They vanish for a day, come back married, and get on with their work without anyone the wiser. Until Teal'c notices the wedding ring on Jack's hand and raises that eyebrow of his. He tells Daniel of it, who goes and corners Sam. Sam sticks her hands in her pockets and looks for an appropriate patch of concrete to scuff, while Jack simply raises his brows at Teal'c standing in the door of his office, spreads his hands wide, and says, "Uh. Yeah. Surprise!" And then they keep on saving the galaxy with no interruptions. Except that every now and then they turn up to the base at the same time (as they sometimes do) and exchange 'looks' (just like they always have), and he comes and listens to her technobabble at him (like he always has).

I mean, eight years. Come on, people! How would you feel if we gave you a hard-on for eight fucking years? Yeah, see? Let them screw like bunnies off-screen and just keep going the way they have. Sure, there'll be pissed-off fans, but every 'normal person' I've ever spoken to who's watched more than one episode of the show asks me, "So, did they ever get MacGyver and the blonde chick together in the end?"

S.

[amilyn.livejournal.com]

*grin* Re: "MacGyver and the blonde chick"

[havocthecat]

Ron/Hermione?

[seldearslj.livejournal.com]

If I were to have an OTP in Harry Potter, it would be Ron/Hermione.

What do you say about a couple about whom so much has already been said? I honestly didn't see this one until Goblet of Fire - up until that point, I was willing to write everyone off as mostly insensible to the opposite sex. Up until that point (and even beyond) Ron thinks of Hermione as a friend, not even a girl-friend, and certainly not a girlfriend. Boys are slower to gain emotional maturity than girls, and even now (at the start of their sixth year) I hardly think Ron really knows he likes Hermione. Or, at least, he's not willing to admit it.

One of the arguments against Ron/Hermione is the one that says that Ron likes Hermione, but Hermione doesn't really like Ron. I have to disagree with this estimation. Hermione does not act like a 'typical' teenaged girl in love - she is not Parvati or Lavender, to gush and giggle and whisper and bat the eyelashes. She's got her pride and she intends to keep it. She's not about to throw herself at a boy who isn't showing any interest in her at all, and she's not immune to the compliments of others: witness her reaction to Viktor Krum's interest. That doesn't mean she wouldn't like for Ron to take an interest, it just means she's not going to lay all her cards down on the table when the boy doesn't even know there's a game in progress - let alone the stakes.

Hermione's a control freak. Truly. She's not about to let herself stuff up at anything: even love. Especially love. And that's why she's not going to make any overt moves towards Ron. The most 'overt' she gets is kissing him on the cheek before the first Quidditch match in OotP - and the text can be interpreted to say that she doesn't only kiss his cheek but Harry's as well (although I never read that into it).

For the most part, Ron/Hermione is one of my favourite pairings, but it's hard to find done well, without soppiness, mushiness, fluff, or...oh hell, any of the usual 'flavourings' for romantic fic. Neither Ron nor Hermione are the 'fluffy' kind of lovers: he's a bit dense, she's a bit anxious, and they fight nearly as much as they agree. That doesn't mean it's not love, though.