It makes me wonder though, she said she gave one of her characters a reprive and changed her mind about killing them off - I wonder who?
From Dateline: "JK: I made a decision as I went into writing Phoenix that I was going to reprieve Mr. Weasley and I was going to kill someone else. And if you finish the book, I-- I expect you probably know and someone else who is a father.
And I wanted there to be an echo of Harry's loss of parents. And you probably know who I'm talking about if you've finished the book. But-- so there are two characters who are killed in (book) Seven. So Mr. Weasley did get attacked, as you know, in Five. But he would have died if I'd have stuck to the original plan. But he survived. I had to keep him alive partly-- partly because I couldn't bear to kill him.
Meredith Vieira: But there were two that weren't supposed to die that did end up dying.
J.K. Rowling: Yeah, yeah. I swapped them for Mr. Weasley. But they didn't then die until Seven.
Meredith Vieira: So as an author, then, there were certain characters you couldn't bear to part with?
J.K. Rowling: Well, yeah. If there's one character I couldn't bear to part with, it's Arthur Weasley. And I think part of the reason for that is there were very few good fathers in the book. In fact, you could make a very good case for Arthur Weasley being the only good father in the whole series.
Jo was especially reluctant to lose Mr. Weasley because Harry had already lost so many father figures, including his godfather Sirius Black and Hogwarts school headmaster Dumbledore."
So...we didn't lose Mr. Weasley, but we lost Remus and Tonks instead. Either way would have been sad.
From Dateline: "JK: I made a decision as I went into writing Phoenix that I was going to reprieve Mr. Weasley and I was going to kill someone else. And if you finish the book, I-- I
expect you probably know and someone else who is a father.
And I wanted there to be an echo of Harry's loss of parents. And you probably know who I'm talking about if you've finished the book. But-- so there are two characters who are killed in (book) Seven. So Mr. Weasley did get attacked, as you know, in Five. But he would have died if I'd have stuck to the original plan. But he survived. I had to keep him alive partly-- partly because I couldn't bear to kill him.
Meredith Vieira: But there were two that weren't supposed to die that did end up dying.
J.K. Rowling: Yeah, yeah. I swapped them for Mr. Weasley. But they didn't then die until Seven.
Meredith Vieira: So as an author, then, there were certain characters you couldn't bear to part with?
J.K. Rowling: Well, yeah. If there's one character I couldn't bear to part with, it's Arthur Weasley. And I think part of the reason for that is there were very few good fathers in the book. In fact, you could make a very good case for Arthur Weasley being the only good father in the whole series.
Jo was especially reluctant to lose Mr. Weasley because Harry had already lost so many father figures, including his godfather Sirius Black and Hogwarts school headmaster Dumbledore."
So...we didn't lose Mr. Weasley, but we lost Remus and Tonks instead. Either way would have been sad.
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