Wish Fulfilment

Mrs. Rowling has stated that the Ron and Hermione relationship was a form of self-insert wish fulfilment.¹ This is a remarkably honest admission from an author about a central pairing, and it has implications beyond just that one relationship.

If the author herself was writing wish fulfilment into the canon, it becomes harder to criticise fan fiction authors for doing the same. The Harry/Hermione shippers who identify with Hermione and want her to end up with the hero are doing exactly what Mrs. Rowling did — just with a different target. The harem writers, the slash writers, the “Super Harry” writers — all of them are, to varying degrees, projecting their own desires onto the characters.

The difference is one of degree and self-awareness. Mrs. Rowling at least recognised what she had done after the fact. Many fan fiction authors never reach that level of reflection. The best fan fiction acknowledges the wish fulfilment impulse and either subverts it or uses it deliberately. The worst simply indulges it without awareness.

This is not to say wish fulfilment is inherently bad. Fiction has always served this purpose. But when it distorts characters beyond recognition — when Ron becomes either a perfect partner or an irredeemable villain depending on which ship the author prefers — then the wish fulfilment has overtaken the story.