I personally agree with Emerson that the Harry/Hermione shippers were (and still are!) delusional to believe that their pair would end up together after all the "anvil-sized" hints that indicated otherwise. But I also believe that it’s perfectly normal and understandable that many young people would do so anyway.

To demonstrate my point, here's a mildly funny (but true) story resulting from the translation of the books into Thai language. While "Cho Chang" translates correctly, "Crookshanks" became "crook-chain" since Thai words almost never end with a hard consonant sound such as "k." While I spelled it out phonetically in English, the two names are so similar when written in the Thai alphabet that my wife was positive that this must be a super-secret clue that predicted things to come.

Well, you can imagine some of my wife’s theories. They all involved Cho as the "animagus Crookshanks." My favorite theory of hers was that Crookshanks kept sneaking into Ron’s dormitory in POA not to kill Scabbers, but to get closer to Harry!

She had many other theories, too. So many in fact, that she had mapped out in her mind exactly how and why Cho would end up with Harry in the end because of Harry's friendships with and preference for other animagi. It all made perfect sense to her. Even after I tried to prove her wrong with canon evidence from the books, she would never give up hope for her favorite pair.

I think she ships Harry/Cho so strongly because she sees a bit of herself in Cho, who is by far the most prominent Asian woman in Potterverse (with all due respect to the Patil twins). So in her mind, there could never be anyone for Harry except for someone just like her. Even though it’s obvious to everyone else that their relationship is over, she still wants to believe that they’ll wind up together anyway.

I think this also explains why some people ship Harry/Hermione so fanatically. Hermione is obviously a strong, smart woman; all of our sisters and daughters would do well to emulate her. And I think that many do just that. So it shouldn’t be surprising that many young ladies identify with Hermione so strongly that, in their minds, she just must end up with the best boyfriend possible. (It’s only an aside that in this series Harry is the strongest male character of an appropriate age for Hermione.)

So the H/Hr shippers, like my wife, have a difficult time believing that their choice of girlfriend for Harry wasn’t the one that Jo had chosen for him. It’s almost as if Jo is hurling terrible insults at them by having Harry end up with someone other than their favorite heroine.

But even though there are many out there who are devastated that they can't ship Harry/Hermione anymore, I think I know of a new Ship that we ALL can become delusional about!

We’ve all been reading the Scotland Reports. It seems Emerson and Melissa had a LOT of fun together visiting with Jo during the interview...too much in fact! Pinching each other, teasing, spending all that time together...late at night in the hotel room...“reading” (nudge nudge wink wink!!).

Anybody brave enough to start a Madam Puddifoot's section for all the new Emerson/Melissa shippers? Or will I be banned for life for even suggesting this?

8/2/05

Posted by: Sara