Rowling Almost Killed Ron Weasley

[Chaza]

As much as I love the main characters in Harry Potter, if any one of them was going to die in the last book, it would have been Ron (that stupid Prat). It would have been much more believable than one of the twins letting the other die under ANY circumstance.

But if you're gunna kill off Ron, do it for the right reason and not just to spite the audience. Hmmm now that I've wrote, it that does seem like a good reason. Okay, don't kill him off just because you're in a bad mood.

Is it because he's ginger? You gingerist you

 

[brinvixen]

I was disappointed she didn't kill one of the big three off. About halfway through the series I would have put money down that one of them was going to die. I didn't get the 'everything is going to end in sunshine and rainbows' vibe from her until that fucking epilogue.

Took the words right out of my mouth. More specifically, I wanted Harry to die. Not that "dead-afterlife-back to life" shit that happened, but truly die. The series had been getting progressively darker, with important characters being knocked off left and right. Specifically (spoiler) Snape's death was particularly moving. How noble an ending it would have been, for Harry to perish to save the lives of others, and everyone would mourn him with gratitude for his heroic spirit.

Instead, we got that maudlin epilogue with everyone just short of jumping in the air and giving one another high fives. It was a terrible ending to a decent book series. It still leaves a foul taste in my mouth that something so good ended up so ... cheesy.

 

[brinvixen]

I would've killed Harry. He had it coming.

So true. Miss Rowling really missed the mark on that.

 

[RA92]

It's common knowledge that the real hero is Neville Longbottom.

 

[The Diabolical Biz]

Well Han Solo was supposed to die too, like Ron he obviously got to stick around for the children but it certainly would have been more interesting.

Also:

Spoiler

Damn you! I only came on this thread to post that picture!

Also I personally think it would have been better had one of the 'Big 3' been killed off. It would have made the ending a lot more poignant, and bittersweet - a pyrrhic victory.

 

[D Moness]

I was disappointed she didn't kill one of the big three off. About halfway through the series I would have put money down that one of them was going to die. I didn't get the 'everything is going to end in sunshine and rainbows' vibe from her until that fucking epilogue.

Epilogue .. What epilogue. Oh you mean that terrible fanfiction add-on. In my opinion the deadly hallows is the worst book of the series. Up to halfway i really got bored reading it.

Also in my opinion i think the books would have had a better impact if she indeed killed of the "big three" (i was thinking of Hermione getting killed)

 

[KingofallCosmos]

Reminds me a bit of the end of Mostly Harmless. Thank god that ending was fixed even if it wasn't written by Douglas Adams it's still canon (as far as canon goes in the Hitchhiker's Guide universe(s)).

I personally wasn't that put off by the ending;

Spoiler: what do you mean you haven't read it?

everybody as good as dead

seems a good way to set up the next novel. I mean, the earth is destroyed on page 14 (?) of the first novel.

OT: She should've. I guess the series grew pretty dark already and it's still supposed to be aimed at kids and adults. Maybe I would've read the last two novels then.

 

[DSK-]

Thanks for the spoilers. Nothing else to say really.

 

[michiehoward]

If you all haven't figures it out, she almost killed off wrong because almost everyone is a giant asshole about him. While in fact he is a great character.

Ron was the soul of the Trio, Hermonie the heart. And Harry was the mix of two because he was the leader.

 

[XaVierDK]

Guys.... The last book has been out for more than 4 years... Seriously... Spoilers?

It's like complaining if I told you that Anakin Skywalker turns into Darth Vader at the end of Star Wars Episode III... We can't keep everything secret forever...

Best Regards

 

[Gizmo1990]

I hate a great many things about Harry Potter but if JK had gone through with this I would have a lot less hate. Ron is by far the single most inoying character in the history of fiction (and I have played Final Fantasy 13). I hate him with a passion that has the power of a thousand suns. In a series that had a bad plot, bad writing and bad characters he was the worst.

 

[idarkphoenixi]

Well...someone important had to die. Killing Sirius and Dumbledore made a massive impact because people actually liked them. Killing Fred....ehhhhhh, I really didn't care. I felt a little sorry for the family but it didn't leave a massive impact because I didn't feel any attatchment to Fred.

Rons' death would have been much more interesting.

 

[idarkphoenixi]

I would've killed Harry. He had it coming.

He already had a death if you remember. It just didnt last

 

[dickywebster]

I knew it! Random death was going on in that last book! :O
Along with random plot and all =P

I dont care how popular the series was, it was ok in my eyes and then the last book just kinda made the first 6 redundent.

 

[Palindromemordnilap_v1legacy]

Mr. Hermione Granger

"What? No, no, that's not how it works!"
"Yeah it is."
...yeah it is."

 

[Gir1yG4m3r]

I would've killed Harry. He had it coming.

First off, I enjoyed the series. It had some fun ideas and characters in it. It wasn't perfect by any means to me, but it sure beats Twilight in terms of better characters and role models for kids.

I have the same opinion about Harry dying. I think the story as a whole might have been more meaningful with "no this isn't just random" death. There are so many things my bf and I have discussed about Harry Potter, including who could write it better. We think it would have been cool to be written from different perspectives of the main group.
Also, Harry was NEVER the most likable character for us! It was always whoever was around him. The side characters like Luna and Neville, are our all time favorites that everyone knew were bad ass, but didn't really do enough. What I wouldn't give to hear Harry Potter from Neville, Luna, or Draco's perspective.

I might anger someone with this comment, but I think that Harry was only a placeholder for the sake of Ron and Hermoine's relationship.(or Snape and Lily's) Rowling has said that Hermoine was her insert character and Ron reminded her of her childhood sweetheart before her ex husband. She's a divorced mother...think about it. I think she was always technically "Lily" in the stories as well. Snape died knowing that she was married off to the wrong man. Snape was a much more interesting character before he was invested in Lily. I loved him in the early books.

ALSO EVERY SINGLE GOOD MALE ROLE MODEL FOR HARRY? DEAD! GONE! (Mr. Weasly doesn't count, because he doesn't quite have enough backbone)

Back to Harry. EVERYONE BUT HIM grew as a character! He felt so static! His only moods were mopey,angry, and bored. It made me want to rip my hair out!

Plus the thing about all "ambitious" people being evil? Yeah... I understand villains. I LOVE villains! But all Slytherin being "evil" made me angry. I would have stood for a "chaotic neutral" Slytherin that was a little double agent between the houses. Draco could have done so much more! I wanted so bad for Harry to pal around with 3 other kids from the other houses.(Hermoine kinda belongs in Ravenclaw, anyway, I think) Also, the book needed more interesting Hufflepuff characters. A character being a rival to Harry then immediately dying so that he gets the ex girlfriend does not count as good story!

Oh, well. That's what fan fiction is for, I guess.

Don't mind me, just ranting horribly.

All of this is my own personal opinion, YOU DO NOT HAVE TO AGREE OR DISAGREE WITH ANYTHING YOU DON"T WANT TO!

 

[Xman490]

Speaking of non-titular characters in the stories, I read an article on Cracked listing strangely logical fan theories. One of them was that Neville Longbottom being the hero at the end. In the end, it works out because he ended up with the best girlfriend/wife, Luna Lovegood (Hermione is obviously annoying at times, and Ginny is just ... a Mary Sue, I guess.)

Sorry if this tangent was too off-topic.

 

[game-lover]

What was the spite aspect exactly? Was she mad at anything in particular? Like crazy fans? What?

 

[Enkidu88]

I too would have liked her to elaborate on who she was trying to spite, would have made this article all the more entertaining.

Snip

I think the reason Harry wasn't as deep or interesting as the other characters was because Rowling was using him as a blank slate that the audience could project themselves onto, we were introduced to the world through his eyes. Unfortunately I think that got way too redundant after the first couple of books, maybe its because I matured as a reader (having started reading Harry potter when I was like, 12 or something). It was rather annoying to have him remain relatively static while everyone else was growing as a character, I mean he doesn't really reconcile with his horrible step family till something like the 5th or 6th book. Definitely agree with you there.

I disagree that Slytherin was portrayed as evil all the time though, if anything they were a more chaotic neutral and went with whoever would give them the greatest advantage. After all:

Spoiler

Snape, leader of Slytherin, ended up being the mother of all double agents. Plus, many of Slytherin didn't openly support Voldemort until he started his whole take over the world thing and quickly abandoned his cause when he died. If they were truly evil they should have just gone down fighting like his more staunch followers.

 

[Charli]

Just to use later against Twigletters.

Okay okay okay...Hold your horses there. I know not everyone likes Twiglets but to put them as a derivative to that... Abomination. Apologize to twiglets right now.

It's not their fault the first 5 letters in their name are similar to, that.

And they are crunchy and delishus.