Why is it so despised? I'm just now getting into Harry Potter fanfic (Very late to the party) and I rarely see Hermione with anyone other than Harry.

 

It's not despised. The people who are against it or support Hermione with other people are just very, very vocal.

 

I understand even Rowling says she regrets pairing the two up, so that's one reason for it, but the other part of me wonders 'Do people not like Ron as a character'?

 

Ron has copped a lot of shit in fanfic, to the point that people can hardly see his canon self through the fanon shit smear across their glasses.

 

Yeah, there's a reason TvTropes has calls their entry for fandom making a character out to be far more evil than they are in canon "Ron the Death Eater."

 

I really dislike that particular interview. It set off the rabid fandom like nothing else, about how Hermione should have ended up with Harry instead, when in truth, Harry had little desire to ever be with her. In fact, if I'm not getting my memory of the books muddled with fanfiction stuff, Harry couldn't really be around Hermione for long on his own without Ron as a buffer. Sure, they were friends, but that's all they were. I never understood why anyone would want to pair him with her in the first place.

As for Ron and Hermione, personally, I'm indifferent.

 

I personally really dislike the pairing, mostly because they seem pretty unlikely to do well together. Ron puts Hermione down for reading or enjoying x or y, and then Hermione snaps at him. I feel like a lot of their arguments would involve Hermione being upset about something, expecting Ron to sympathize, and Ron effectively shrugging like what could I possibly be doing wrong?

I mean, the whole epilogue idea of everyone getting married and having 2.5 kids was a bit jarring for me, but I think a lot of the Ron and Hermione issues are just in the fact that they clash so much when in close quarters, just because Ron and Hermione have such different priorities.

I feel Ron/Hermione after school will always end up in a messy divorce down the line, not because one of them is "bad", just because they're people who can really rub each other the wrong way.

 

I think most authors can't write romance for shit and would prefer if they left most of it out. Olny write romance if you can do it right.

And no "tab A into slot B" sex either.

 

I have to ask, how much of the idea that Ron and Hermione do not fit together comes from the early stages, and how much from, say, OotP onwards? I mean, based on what we have seen, James and Lily fit together even worse than Ron and Hermione.

Yeah, fanon Ron is much different from canon Ron. Another factor I think is that R/Hr is simply the secondary couple in HP. Your main character is most probably going to be Harry, and if you don't pair him with Ginny (which results in them being the main couple and the rest of the trio playing second fiddle), you're going to pair him with whomever else you want as another main character. If that's Hermione, it's going to be H/Hr, if not, she's going to be a secondary character.

Basically, even if you have R/Hr, it's probably not going to be prominent.

 

Honestly, I don't think we know enough about JP/LE to say it's worse than RW/HG.

 

The snapshot we got through Snape's memories provided decent insight.

 

I think the comparison doesn't fit completely.

James had his own clique and later became infatuated with Lily enough to change his way to get a chance with her. James basically grew up and did his best to impress her.

I don't know if there was ever jealousy involved, which made him target Severus or if it was just plain dislike.

Ron and Hermione on the other hand were in the same clique almost from the start and best friends. The older Ron got and the more his jealousy regarding Hermione grew the more hurtful he treated her and only her.

 

Hermione got jealous too, remember, with Ron and Lavender - like I said, I think most of their trouble together isn't actually the jealousy, but the fact that they don't communicate very well. As much as Hermione snaps at Harry and Ron for not communicating in GOF, she doesn't seem to realize the extent to which Ron does have an emotional range of a teaspoon.

This is probably something I used to bash Ron over, whereas now I realize it's not actually Ron intentionally being entitled or whatever about Hermione - it's just that partly because they're best friends, they don't talk properly about how they're feeling to each other, and couple that with Ron and Hermione's tendencies to compete, be jealous and have completely conflicting interests, they just end up compatible.

Hermione and Ron would probably end up like one of those really dysfunctional sitcom couples, where the man is constantly implied to be incompetent by the woman, and the woman is "naggy".

 

True, as you say:

Ron and Hermione were friends and had a vastly better relationship than James and Lily.

Aye, smart wife, bumbling husband. The old staple. Still a loving couple though (depending on which sitcoms you choose).

 

I don't think they don't LOVE each other - I just feel like they'd probably end up clashing and becoming more resentful with the more time they spent together, that's all.

 

I don't dislike RonxHermione. I far prefer that to HarryxHermione. I've yet to actually read an above-average HHr story, so falling back onto canon is usually pretty safe.

 

I dislike Ron x Hermione because of Hermione.

 

I don't have a strong preference for Harry/Hermione, though I prefer it over Ginny, just because she's a more developed character, for better or worse.

Ginny fell in love with the Boy Who Lived, and we just don't see the natural progression of that in the books - we don't see their daily interactions, we don't see them getting to know each other as people the way they would have to in order for her to love Harry as a person rather than the knight in shining armor of her childhood stories.

I've always disliked the end of book 6, where she says he wouldn't be happy unless he's fighting. I'm not sure how much of it is canon vs. fanon, to be honest, but my view on Harry is he fights because he feels he has no other choice, not because it's something he wants to do. He'd much rather be normal, and it just doesn't feel healthy, the pedestal she puts him on.

I also don't like the Ron/Hermione relationship. It just doesn't seem grounded in the kind of reality that /works/ in a relationship. They don't respect each others passions or interests, they communicate poorly, and practically the only thing they have in common is well...Harry.

Stereotypical school-age relationship that ends when they realize how unsuited for each other they actually are. I just can't see how the characters we met in canon would work long term together.

So it's not necessarily a case where I dislike any of the four characters, I just don't...think they work together.

I like Ron. He's the casual every-man, and is arguably the most /real/ of the characters in the books. He gets a bad rap in fanon sometimes (there are flaws, but not to the degree some paint him as), and I think he could find someone that'd make him happy. Someone more willing to tolerate his love of quidditch and food, and be a bit of a housewife. Not someone extremely strong willed and career-minded.

TL;DR - I don't despise the relationship, just don't think it's a good, or healthy one.

 

Honestly both Harry x Hermione and Harry x Ginny seemed a bit forced in the books, in my opinion. His feelings for Ginny kinda appeared out of nowhere.