acciocuteboysplease:

crimsons-roses:

Since @vivithefolle asked me to translate something I just said to her on discord, here I am, actually posting for the Ron Weasley defense squad.

Alright then. Answering to one of the countless posts that said Ron “I bet McGonagall’s chessboard when I was in first year” Weasley was too dumb for Hermione Granger, I mentioned one important thing.

Empathy is a form of intelligence.

That sounds like Ron, doesn’t it?

I invite other Ron Weasley’s proud defenders to add examples for each points as I wouldn’t do him justice by doing it myself as I have not studied the subject as extensively as them.

But Ron isn’t scholarly dumb either. He’s above average; he got passing grades in all of the subjects but two, and even got SIX E. That boy isn’t dumb. And he doesn’t even work that much; of course, he does study, and he always does his homework, but he’s not like Hermione who seems to be considered the norm by fans.

Hermione isn’t the norm. Hermione spent hours studying and even used time travel to take extra class. That isn’t the norm.

Ron wasn’t any more dumb because he didn’t like school or studying as much as Hermione, and was actually closer to pretty much anyone who would gladly prefer to be on holidays to do fun stuff rather than go to school, but did anyway. Most of the Hermione-fans are people who deeply relate with Hermione’s love of scholar subject, making it sensitive to criticize Hermione: but if you look around you, you’ll easily notice that the norm isn’t, were it possible, time traveling to take extra classes.

Now that I think of it, Hermione’s way of working is very close to the Korean/Japanese school system… Where most students are so pressured to do well the suicide rate is incredibly high… Perhaps because literal children shouldn’t be forced to work 15 hours a day? But I digress, my subject wasn’t Hermione.

Ron doesn’t have O everywhere, unlike Hermione, but it doesn’t mean he’s dumb. People aren’t expected to have O everywhere. Otherwise what use would have all the others passing grades? It’s normal not to have O everywhere. Most of the people I know pass their exams with only a bit above the passing grade.

Despite having been considered intellectually gifted for most of my childhood, I passed mine without being far above the passing grade. Do you want to know why, someone who was considered so clever my teachers offered several time to my parents to make me skip TWO years, just got a bit above the passing grade?

Because I don’t give a single fuck about school.

That’s right folks.

Since I didn’t study at all (and I mean, really), I didn’t get that good grades. And I know a lot of people who are like this.

My point?

Grades don’t measure intelligence. At all.

Especially in a system of grades we know NOTHING about.

What is the equivalent of an O? I’ll use the french system, which is a scale of 0 to 20, 20 being nearly impossible to achieve, 10 being the passing grade. Is it a perfect grade, a 20? Is it a 18? Is it a 16, which for the final exam of HS is considered to be “very good”? What is an E? A would be a 10, but what would be an E?

Do you see the problem here? How do we evaluate what the grades mean?

Hermione is considered very clever because she has an outstanding memory which is like a sponge absorbing everything, she reads a lot, and she studies a lot. Perfect memory+interested by school in general+works a lot=good grades. But that’s not how you measure intelligence.

I’m not saying Hermione isn’t intelligent; she is, she is clever, she is bright. I’m not devalueing her. But what I meant is her grades isn’t what calculates her intelligence. Her intelligence isn’t the only form of intelligence that exists.

And Ron Weasley has a very solid form of intelligence: emotional intelligence. Empathy.

Ron is the heart of the trio. He’s the emotions. And just because emotional intelligence doesn’t matter that much at school, doesn’t mean he’s dumb.

And that skips entirely the fact that he is a chessmaster, but that is another subject.

this post invites Ron defenders to give examples and I consider myself a Passionate Ron defender so let’s have some fun

First of all , let us establish a ground rule that Ron was not even academically weak (as mentioned above ) but since that is apparently not enough for some people here’s a list that proves Ron is intelligent in so much more ways than academically

1. They are clear about their life purpose and values : that sentence does not only describe Ron but the entire Weasley family. Each and every weasley has a clear life goal and we see Ron’s in the first book when he looks in the mirror of erised , of course that goal changes after a while but he was an eleven year old who had a goal , that’s my point .
2. They cultivate self-awareness : this might be the least present in Ron’s personality but it happens very slowly . In my opinion, Ron’s self awareness reaches it’s peak when he realises how good he is at quidditch and starts admitting his feelings for Hermione . That’s when we see ron fully aware of his own emotions and capabilities
3. They show empathy : RONALD BILLIUIS WEASLEY = UNDERSTANDING OTHERS . We might see behavior like Harry’s self pitty bubbles or rage or Hermione getting so angry with others she’s actually physically violent but Ron is always there to understand( or try to) and absorb he even gets hit himself !!! Part of the reason Ron takes so long to reach full Self-awareness is because he’s so busy worrying about how everyone else feels !!!!
4. They focus on the positive: this sentence is only true if Ron is the only one at risk . I mean sure Ron can crack a joke while he’s injured but god forbid something might happen to anyone he loves then he turns into overthinking mom (which isn’t a bad thing) nevertheless Ron can stay focused during a crisis and think of a way out. E.g. : finding basilisk fangs in the chamber of secrets , thinking of house elves in the middle of the battle , getting them out of the devils snare, sensing magic like the tom riddle dairy or the voldemort taboo , figuring out how to use the delluminator to get back to Harry and Hermione
5. They are great listeners : as long as you’re not disrespecting somebody he loves , Ron will sit and listen to you rant all day . How do you think he loves Hermione? He’s the only person who is fascinated by her factual rants , he’s also very good friends with luna who is quite talkative #justsaying
6. They are stress resilient : AGAIN the devil’s snare , in the Shreiking shack he got over the stories he’s been hearing his entire life about werewolves in 10 seconds and focused of protecting harry , Got over his arachnophobia and followed the spiders for Hermione , worried about ginny while no one else noticed her weird behavior , beat a chess set designed by Mcgonogal in what I can only imagine was the most stressful 30 minutes or so of his life
7. They keep good company and encourage others : Ron does chose his friends very carefully for example he didn’t want to become friends with Hermione at first because she was very negative towards him , hell, he even tried to choose the best boyfriend for his sister !! Ron is definitely a source of encouragement for many characters ( and readers) I trust I don’t need to mention the countless times he helped Harry , Hermione or even sometimes Neville get their shit together and believe in themselves just by being himself . Also , i strongly believe Ron is Ginny’s inspiration till her third year at hogwarts not to mention he’s a good chunck of the reason she got over the whole possession thing

Anyways, point is : Ron is definitely academically intelligent, even if it’s not as much as Hermione and what he lacks in school (which is actually caring) he makes up for with his social and emotional intelligence which , if i may say, Hermione is totall shit at

Feel free to correct, contradict or add to any of my points