How's that for a non-inflamatory headline?
You may have seen the piece in Hypable about today's Sunday Times headline that “JK admits Hermione should have wed Harry.” The article goes on to say: “I wrote the Hermione/Ron relationship as a form of wish fulfillment,” she says. “That’s how it was conceived, really. For reasons that have very little to do with literature and far more to do with me clinging to the plot as I first imagined it, Hermione ended up with Ron.”We hope not, too.
“I know, I’m sorry,” she continued, “I can hear the rage and fury it might cause some fans, but if I’m absolutely honest, distance has given me perspective on that. It was a choice I made for very personal reasons, not for reasons of credibility. Am I breaking people’s hearts by saying this? I hope not.”
FictionAlley has long been a site that hosts fics of all shapes, sizes and ships. It's what we were founded to do way back 2001, and we have never refused to post a fic because of the characters or ships included in the story.
We've also hosted ship squee threads and ship debate threads in FictionAlley Park's SCUSA and VENOM forums; if you're H/Hr and want to talk about the news, you can join the thread here, and if you prefer R/Hr, you can re-start that thread by posting here.
Innumerable other ships, from Ron/Harry, Harry/Ron/Hermione and so many more can be found in SCUSA. Ship debates don't go in those threads; visit V.E.N.O.M. for "Vehement, Exuberant & Neverending Opinions, Monographed".
There've been a lot of reactions from all corners of the fandom - and among people who are Harry Potter fans but didn't participate in the fandom in the past. Some of those reactions draw on hurt feelings and stigmas from seven, ten, thirteen years ago, and some of those hurt feelings were caused by posts made on this site. In retrospect, some of us may look back on things we said with regret, with vindication, with insight from what we've learned and experienced since.
Back in 2003, right before OotP came out, Heidi wrote this:
We're all about to jump into this brand new era, pretty much in tandem with each other. And no matter what our shipping preferences are, who our favorite - and least favorite - characters may be ...
It's going to be exciting, isn't it?
Fandom is forever; people who hadn't thought about Harry Potter specifics in years were on FB and tumblr and Twitter and FA and MN and TLC last night to talk about it, to revisit fics they loved, and some people are considering writing fics they didn't finish, or only thought about, after HBP or DH, but chose not to continue with because of shipping or character issues. If that's what comes out of these comments by JKR and Emma Watson - more stories, more art, more discussion, more fandom - then we will all be able to enjoy even more magic, for years to come.
FictionAlley will always be here, wherever the fandom is, to host your stories, discussions, thoughts, art, squee and flail. Share your thoughts, share your stories, and let's all enjoy how Creativity Is Magic!
