girlyswot | Far from gruntled

Well. There's been some discussion going on in the Pet Peeves thread at the Sugar Quill about future fics in which every character ends up married to their school sweetheart. This is certainly a peeve of mine - it just seems so unlikely to happen to everyone we know from the books. One or two, perhaps, but not all of them. Anyway, in the course of the discussion, someone mentioned that JKR is planning to write an epilogue in which she is going to determine all the major characters future lives.

Now that seems to me a very odd thing to want to do at the end of a series of school stories. Presuming that Deathly Hallows follows the pattern of the other books (and I think JKR has indicated it will), her main characters will still be in their teens at that stage. And they'll have just come through a major life-changing trauma (no matter what happens, I think it'll fit this category) which will take quite a lot of adjusting to as they finish their growing up in more normal (I'm assuming Harry wins) circumstances. It seems to me that ten years after the end of DH, Harry and Ginny and Ron and Hermione will be quite different people, and I find it very depressing to think that they'll still be bound in the same relationships they have as teenagers. Because honestly, she's spent the whole series building up to these ships and I can't see that changing in the epilogue.

But also, it just seems to me a very mean thing to do. I'm sure that JKR has her own ideas about what these characters will be like as they grow up and marry and have families - or don't marry and don't have families. But that's not the story she's been telling. So why not let the readers enjoy their own futures for these characters? Whether they write them into fanfics or not doesn't seem to me to be the point. I love that point when I've just finished a book and I can let my imagination play with what happens next. I don't want the author to do that for me, I want them to trust me to do it myself.

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I read the thread and I was surprised that people seemed so clear that the epilogue was to be set ten years on and would say who everyone ended up with. I haven't seen such a definite statement about it. I'm holding out for her stopping at R/Hr and H/G and leaving Neville alone. Although I don't mind if she says he becomes Herbology teacher eventually, I REALLY hope she doesn't marry him off to Susan Bones or Parvati Patil! :D

I agree, it would be totally unnecessary to marry off all the Weasleys and Harry's classmates and say how many children they have.

Well, I should think you have a reasonable chance of Neville being let off the hook. I can't imagine how tedious it would be to read a list of every character's future lives with spouses and children. Like those awful Old Girls/Boys newsletters that people write as if you'd be interested. Maybe it'll just be a 'they all lived happily ever after' paragraph or two.

This is the final chapter of book seven. This is really where I wrap everything up, it's the epilogue. And I basically say what happens to everyone after they leave school - those who survive - because there are deaths - more deaths coming.

I found this cited from an interview, so I guess it's what they're referring to. 'After they leave school' is quite unspecific, and certainly doesn't indicate to me that everyone's whole lives are laid out.

Seems to me that we need to differentiate between relationships in RL and relationships in fiction. Relationships in fiction are part of a larger picture and make a point. H/G is as much about who Harry truly is as a character, and who he is becoming as he matures, as it is about the appropriateness of that relationship itself. Similarly, R/Hr is clearly (in my mind) about recognizing incompleteness in onesself and the attraction of the other -- Ron & Hermione each pull Harry in opposite directions, which allows us to see Harry's mind working in dialogue instead of internal monologue (a very old device). To have them end up with each other is to say that neither extreme can live without the other to nourish it.

In RL our relationships don't have to satisfy thematic or symbolic purposes, so no, we often don't end up with our High School sweethearts. We mature and we need other things. :)

Yes, I agree.

But it seems to me that once the relationships have done their thing in a completed work, there's no reason to suppose that those same characters, (whether in a sequel, fanfic, or just in my mind) can't grow up, face different circumstances, need different things and be used to represent new thematic or symbolic purposes.

I'm glad you found the original quotation because the comments on the Peeves thread did't seem to be how I remembered JKR's word. I think that the who-married-who-and-how-many-children-they-had interpretation is more a reflection of how interested in romantic relationships most of the fandom is rather than it necessarily being what JKR is intending to write. I'm with you: it would be a tedious ending to a fantastic story. I also find the almost 100% marrying of schoolyard sweethearts rather annoying. Out of my schoolyear only 4 did this (2 to each other, 1 to someone in another year and 1 to someone from a different school). I can't believe we were that unusual. Though, as someone said on the thread, it is a smaller world so there is less chance to meet totally new people - still they could fall in love with someone they were indifferent to at school. In the HP world, I can see Harry and Ginny marrying as I think Harry will want to get married as soon as possible. I don't think JKR will go back on her anvils, but Hermione is going to want to do something with her life, probably with further study delaying marriage. In real life, that is a relationship I could see them both moving on from but I think that, if there is such an epilogue, they will get married.

I really though the epilogue was going to be the tieing up of loose ends as far as the war went not a romantic summary of the next ten years.

JKR seems to be quite aware and even approving of the fanfiction. I don't think she'd be so cruel as to spoil everyone's fun!

I agree with you on H/G - it seems likely that they'll both want the certainty of marriage as soon as possible.

I hope you're right about the epilogue. It would seem strange for the focus of the series to suddenly shift so dramatically to romance/family life.

I hope I'm right too! It never occurred to me it was going to be that sort of epilogue until I read the Peeves thread and started worrying!

There you are - something else we have in common: what we want (or don't want) from the Epilogue! If you're ever in Sydney, you must call in for cuppa!

Well, you never know when I might take you up on that!

Far from gruntled

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