blue winter roses

I think that's fine and all until a new interview comes along and I feel more and more restricted in imagining what happened. It's nice JKR took the time to answer questions but I just feel like if all that stuff was so important, some of it IMO more important than what was actually in the epilogue (I don't care about Draco's receding hairline), she actually should've written it. The length didn't concern me, it wasn't even the time jump either, it was the content. IA it's important to hear about the trio's families but, this is JMO, I think themes running throughout the series, like the status quo of the wizarding world, mattered more than characters I never even met before. And not everyone's going to go looking for her interviews either, even I only just vaguely remember what she said.

But if I was going to have to fill in the blanks anyway, then I really don't need an epilogue, let alone interviews. Sans that, I'm good with how things played out. I'm certainly glad RHr got their big moment and things ended up in a good place for them, as characters and relationship-wise. There's just no way they couldn't have gotten something, they were being built up for the entire series.

mary ksand

I think for me it was both time jump and the content of the Epiloge. On one hand it was hard to switch between the battle where so many important characters sacrificed their lives for the sake of fighting for what they believed in and protecting Hogwarts and the Epiloge where the main characters were in their late 30th guiding their kids to Kings Cross. I felt like the previous chapter and the aftermath of the battle were cut off too suddenly. And on the other hand there were so many things to tell that the Epiloge didn't give away and some of those things were more important than the main characters' marriages. The series were also about characters' aspirations, dreams and wishes and those dreams and wishes were not only limited to family and kids. I wanted to know what Hermione decided to do with her life, taking that I've been following her progression and evolation as a character for 10 years, I wanted to know what happened to Luna because she is my favourite character and it wasn't the most comfortable thing to search through JKR interviews where she finally gave away the name of the guy Luna married and that they searched for Snorkacks together. I wanted to know what Ron decided to do with his future (it interested me a lot taking that Ron got the best development out of all the characters imo), how he and his family coped with Fred's death. How Harry managed to move on and get his life back on track once he didn't have to balance between life and death all the time or carrie the world on his shoulders. Those were things I read the series for, mostly. Not for knowing who married whom. RHr and HG were already endgames by the end and I didn't need a confirmation that RHr made it through 20 years, I had enough of faith in them.





Yeah, that's the thing: of course it was important to tell about main characters' future but there were so many important things about that future that the Epiloge didn't give away. And having to browse through interviews to find those things out didn't seem like the most comfortable option especially taking that lterature itself should exist on it's own, author's interviews is not exactly a contribution to the story.

geoizz545

They got married and made a happy family. What's more important?

I know I am a minority in this, but personally I believe that Hermione/Ron having a happy family after 20 years is a bigger achievement than any job they could possibly have. I don't care if Hermione became Minister of Magic or an unemployed lawyer and if Ron became a successful Auror or a failure businessman. Jobs always comes second.
Would I prefer knowing what jobs they do instead of knowing that they got married with two kids and are happy? Hell NO!
Would I want to know what they did in the future besides knowing that they got married and had two kids? Sure I would! I would love it! I would love to know what Hermione did with SPEW and if Ron finally saw the Cannons winning the Cup. That would be great! Having all the answers is always great, but stories don't work like this. People who love reading books knows what I'm talking about.

But really only JKR knows what's best for her story and she wanted the Epilogue to be about family and love and not about jobs. So, I'm with her.

L i N d $ @ y

Oh dear, Draco's receding hairline. I remember all the talk about that. But he was too old and Harry/Ron/Hermione/Ginny looked younger than him. And I know what you mean about the content of it. I do agree that given that scene where they send their kids off to Hogwarts, that was it. We know they're all happy, hopeful, etc. but it could have been more. Personally, I've grown to love the other characters as well. I was curious what happened to Neville & Luna in those 19 years that passed.

I do remember getting excited reading the Epilogue and my initial reaction was I loved it. But after reading it I wanted to find out more. That's why I'm in the other half of those who found the Epilogue generally likeable despite my other wishes that it should have been this way or that way. Unlike you, I need a confirmation that R/Hr and H/G are married - that they have a family with kids. I was wishing that and I'm sure JKR was thinking of names for their kids. I kind of love that Draco named his kid Scorpius - it's so Malfoy. I mean these things are what I hoped to imagine by the end of the series and it may not be what I imagined or hoped for but it will do for me.

I agree. Although I also prefer to know important stuff in their life like when Ron proposed, when they got married and how they found out Hermione's pregnant. Those are all that I hoped we could have had before the time jump. Having a family and happily married is definitely the BEST THING to happen to R/Hr and I'm so glad we got that. Generally I think JKR wanted that too as she has been writing about the development of these two since Book 1 and she has her mind set about how she will end it. For one thing, she obviously wanted R/Hr married with kids and that is the best ending we can definitely hope for.

mary ksand

I get where you guys are coming from with saying that family and kids are more important than careers and jobs and I actually share that point as well, I think family and love IS more inportant than professional goals but my personal problem with the Epiloge is that I don't think family and kids is what was important in terms of that particular story. I don't think HP was about it, it was a story about teenagers having to deal with so much adult stuff and having to take part in war in order to fight for what they believed in. And when they won, while I don't think that jobs or careers were the most important thing, I do think that goals and aspirations very much matter. I followed Hermione's story not to know how many kids she had but about what kind of future she chooses for herself, other than being married to Ron which I thought was a long time coming and never doubted for a second. I read the series in order to see how Ron manages to build his life and while for me too it doesn't matter whether he became an auror or a failure businessman I WANTED to see what he did with his life and what decisions he took regarding it. I read the series about kids becoming young adults, I didn't need to know how many kids they will have in their future. Having kids is great, getting married is great, no doubts about it. But it is now what the series were about IMO.

With that being said, of course I'm glad RHr got their well deserved happy ending.

blue winter roses

^IA. From a shipper's standpoint it was important to me to know if RHr ended up together. However, the HP story in itself wasn't a romance. That's not to say who ended up with who or what they're families were like didn't matter. I'm just saying it didn't matter as much as what changed, and how things got better (for the characters, the wizarding world, etc.), as a result of this 7 year long struggle to save the world from the most dangerous wizard of all time. Just saying Harry's scar didn't hurt and all was well wasn't enough. How was it well is what I wanted to know. It was an adventure series and I did read 7 books, so I think I at least deserved an answer to that... and one where I shouldn't have to track down all the post-series interviews to get it. If the epilogue wasn't going to fulfill the need I felt it should've fulfilled then I have no use for it.

I mean it's certainly nice to know RHr had two kids and RHr are one of my favorite things about the series. And it is important to know they had a happy ending but if their kids' names had been something I was supposed to imagine for myself, that would've been fine with me because that wasn't what I ultimately read the HP books for. Whether it's Rose and Hugo or Jen and Tim really doesn't enhance or detract from the story in the grand scheme of things, though I do love the names Rose and Hugo.

L i N d $ @ y

I hope you're not referring to the entire HP series which is definitely NOT a love story. If you're referring to the Epilogue being about this, I will still stand by what I said that family and love was what JKR was trying to show by having us see R/Hr and H/G married with kids. As she has always been stressing since book 1 and what we constantly hear Dumbledore say to Harry: LOVE. Maybe for you it doesn't matter to find out who ends up with whom and see them with their family but again like I said, it matters to me and I think a number of fans would love to see it too.

Like I've said to Mary, generally speaking, fans should see that R/Hr and H/G got married and had kids. Certainly, I think at some point, JKR would write a proper ending for that, be it a wedding or yes that train scene. I think it mattered that things got better because we ended after the war - for me, I wanted to know how things are with our beloved characters. My only rant with the Epilogue is I had more questions than I had answers or maybe my longing for more because I felt the time jump was a lot. That ending would do for me if JKR wrote something in-between I think. It varies for all of us on the level of how and what we all need to know.

mary ksand

What I was trying to say that romance was not what the series were about. LOVE, yes. But I think it was addressed pretty well in HP that love not only happens between people when they fall in love romantically, it can also be love you have to your friends or family or children and I think JKR managed to successfully fulfill the plan to address this idea and the Epiloge was simply not needed for that. If the story needed the Epiloge, then this epiloge should have been about something more than who married whom. Because as much as nice it was to know that RHr had kids and got married, I don't think marriage and babies are the ONLY things that define happiness. And yes, I think the aspirations and the realization of your dreams and ideas IS equally important and it's something what happiness also consists of. Reading about Hermione and her goals and struggles for 7 books for 10 years, I at least expected to get some answers to what kind of future she chose for herself, what she achived. Not because her being wife and mother is not good enough, but because this particular heroine had a lot of goals regarding different aspects of her life and I wanted to see her fulfilling all that without having to track down post series interviews, like Jo mentioned. I wanted to see HOW, not WHAT happened. HOW Harry managed to go through all the loss and pain after so many of his friends died and after he finally didn't have to carry the weight of the world on his shoulders. Those are things I actually read the series for, I didn't read them in order to find out how many kids those characters will have in the future. Again, I'm not saying that having kids is not amazing, but it is not the only thing that should have been told about those characters in the Epiloge imo.

L i N d $ @ y

I guess what it all boils down to is really the transition from the war to 19 years later - when all of them are happily married with children. Because most of us are curious what happened in-between and how it happened prior to the Epilogue. I get that you feel 'empty' about it. I felt all okay with it and that's because I have no clear ending for HP. My mind draws a blank for how to end HP if I were JKR but I'm not so I'm glad. Like I said, I could have preferred a different one but I'll take it. It's a full circle of how Harry finally has a family, he's alive & well for his kids, and he can grow old and see them all get married. That's what matters.

blue winter roses

I have no clear ending for HP either, but that's actually what makes me so frustrated with the epilogue. Just based on shipping preferences, I think it would be easy for people to play matchmaker in their heads and then pick out names for kids. It's good JKR gave a confirmation all the same but I also don't think that's digging very deep since the HP books weren't romance novels. I feel like the epilogue ignored the more complex themes the series presented. What's next for the wizarding world now that Voldemort's gone? How were people feeling once it all sunk in? Idk, that's why I wanted some kind of hint, just something to go on so I could picture it myself.

The only part of the epilogue I actually liked was hearing RHr were married and had two kids. But I didn't actually need it to tell me they ended up together, DH leading up to it already answered that. The only new thing was telling me they had not one, not three, but two kids and their names were Rose and Hugo.

L i N d $ @ y

I want to learn what happened to Neville, Luna, and the other teachers too. And Hagrid. I would love to find out that they all see their friends from Hogwarts when they can and keep in touch with their Hogwarts professors.

mary ksand

Yeah, I don't really know how I would have ended the series either if I was JKR And I think my problem with the epiloge really is how it ignored a lot of important (imo, more important than romance) themes and aspects of the series such as what happened to the Ministry, how was Wizarding world restored after the war, how did things get better for everyone, how everyone who lost friends and family memebers (and there were a lot) coped with it, etc. And I think what happened to George after Fred's death and how he coped with it is just as important as Harry's or Ron's future in my opinion. And we never got to know anything about it, only in one of the interviews JKR mentioned that George married Angelina and they had a son and named him Fred. That just wasn't enough and it didn't give any outlook on how his life went right after his brother's death and how did he cope with it. How the whole family did. And I wanted to know those things. How Teddy Lupin felt when he realized that his parents died heroic deaths and did he feel as lonely as Harry did? That is what I wanted to know, not that he had a crush on Bill/Flear daughter. So I agree with you both, it was the transition from the post-war time and the Epiloge and the content of the Epiloge that could have been better done.

Still of course I love and accept that RHr got their happily ever after that they fully deserved which for me was the only part of the Epiloge that I loved

L i N d $ @ y

I do give credit to JKR for knowing what to expect. After DH, she's so sure that people will have questions about what happened to the other characters, etc that she has an answer for everything. So I really do hope that encyclopedia that was mentioned before will come to fruition and will help answer at least most of our questions.

For starters, when did Ron propose and how? Also how they found out Hermione's pregnant? How was the wedding? Was Hermione able to bring back her parents from Australia (I'm sure she did but how)? What was life like being parents now? I'm sure I'm forgetting even more questions but those are all at the top of my head for now.

Full Hearts

Those are definitely all questions I've always wondered about and would to know the answers to!

I loved the epilogue in the sense that we got to see R/Hr with their family, but I didn't think it was neccessary to have it included.

Sternbetrachter

Wow, great posts here