--- In snorkack@..., "bobmi357" <submitaccount@y...>
wrote:
Half Blood Prince does not spell the death of Harry Potter
fanfiction. Just because I can't see myself getting involved in post
HBP fics doesn't mean others won't make the attempt. <
If canon spelled the death of fanfic, we wouldn't still have all that
Ferret-loving ship stuff after JKR specifically stated that the Blond
Smirker would not be getting together with Hermione (or, hopefully,
anyone -- with the possible exception of Moaning Myrtle <eg>). Heck,
if fic writers insisted on following the books, we wouldn't have over
half the insane ships out there!
[Snip description of Bob & Alyx's fics]
Both sets of these books start after OOTP. Which is wonderfully
open-ended with such a marvelous starting point. Unfortunately HBP
has narrowed the options tremendously. Horcruxes, it's all about
finding, destroying, eating and otherwise killing Horcruxes. <
True, HBP has rather narrowed the ways in which a story could go for
those who canon-thump, but there's still a lot of potential in the
idea of a Horcrux-hunt -- what are they, where are they, what happens
when they are destroyed -- and, of course, there's always the final
face-off between Ol' Moldieshorts and Harry.
In canon R/Hr is pretty much a given. <
Is it? Well, maybe, but I could see Jo either not having it happen
until the final chapter (you know, the one that says what happens to
everybody thereafter) or even not at all. Sure, they like each other,
but JKR is not one who goes in for happiness much.
Harry kicked Ginny to the curb and will probably end up with no-
one. So much for love being the power he knows not. <
I think you're being a little harsh there. No doubt Ginny is very
unhappy at the "end" of their relationship, but she was more than
half-expecting it, and she knows why he did it -- which, knowing
Harry as she does, she can see comes from an important part of why
she loves him, even if it does make her want to Bat-Bogey him at the
same time. I think she'd take him back.
Having said that, I can also see Jo doing just what you say -- having
Harry end up alone. If she does, then I'm going to burn all my copies
of her books and stick with a limited range of fanfic. I do _not_
need to read a 7-volume epic that follows the classic Hero's Journey
with all its now-cliched events but then leaves out the eucatastrophe
at the end. If I want depressing fiction, I can read litter-a-ture.
Besides, there are certain, potentially important things that point
the other way. Even if you disregard Trelawney's impromptu prediction
of Harry's future in OotP, there's still the matter of the life debt
Ginny owes Harry -- as do Snivellus and Wormtail; I can see those
debts becoming important in book 7; Jo has spent too much time
building the concept up just to ignore it. She might play down its
importance the way she effectively gutted all the significance that
people saw in the Prophecy, but it's still there and I can't see her
not exploiting it -- which means that Ginny will be involved, and
that _ought_ to mean that she will work on Harry. We'll see.
Phil
