hillnerd:

headcanonsandmore:

That’s a very good
question! Yes, there are a few things that I don’t like about Ron. Obviously,
the character isn’t perfect, and I wouldn’t want him to be.

1-   
Ron’s lack of
self-belief

This is one of
the things that maddens me everytime I read the HP series. From the very first
time we meet him, Ron’s inability to believe in his own abilities stands out
like a sore thumb. In his very first meeting with Harry, Ron says that he’s
“got a lot to live up”. All of his older brothers have some distinguishing
characteristic that makes them stand out from the crowd. Bill was head-boy and
went on to be a curse-breaker, Charlie was brilliant at Quidditch and works
with dragons, Percy was very intelligent and a prefect, whilst Fred and George
were really funny and still got high marks.

By contrast, Ron
doesn’t have a lot of room to make his own name. He even points out that ‘Everyone expects me to do as well as the
others, but if I do, it’s no big deal, because they did it first’. And
thus, Ron’s lack of confidence in his own abilities is laid out; what’s the
point in trying if you’ll never stand out even when you do succeed?  

Throughout the
series, Ron never performs especially well academic-wise. Of course, this could
be simply down to the fact that he was the only one of his siblings who had to
start Hogwarts with a second-hand wand (even Ginny got her own, whilst Ron had
to use his now-broken hand-me-down for the whole of his second year), but I
think it has something to do with his own lack of self-belief.

Out of the trio,
he gets the lowest marks of his OWLs (although still getting better marks than
Fred and George, I might add), and has a habit of being largely ignored by
teachers unless he’s doing something wrong (heck, Slughorn ignores Ron
throughout most of sixth year because he doesn’t seem him as ‘special’ like
Harry and Hermione).

Ron’s
insecurities are the main driving force behind his character arc, but it still
pains me to see Ron never believing in himself or his own abilities.

 And the worse
thing is- Ron is actually RIDICULOUSLY good at magic.

He is somehow
able to cast non-verbal spells (something
sixth-year students struggle with) at the age of twelve, through a broken
second-hand wand that didn’t even choose him as its owner.

He also breaks
Gamp’s Law of Elemental Transfiguration while he does it (creating slugs-
technically a form of food- out of nothing).

Not only that,
but he also has a bizarre talent for predicting future events;

• He correctly predicted
  that Tom Riddle had murdered Myrtle
• That Harry would
  be happy about feeling sad in third year
• That Harry would
  be stabbed in the back by someone he thought a friend (the fake Moody)

And
he’s really good at emotional magic;

• Was the first of
  the trio to realise that the Horcrux locket was sort-of alive
• Correctly guessed
  that Voldemort’s name had the taboo on it
• Was able to work
  out how the Deluminator worked, and used it to get back to Harry and Hermione

Ron
was brilliant as a wizard, but, thanks to his own lack of self-belief and
constantly getting ignored in favour of those around him, his talents were
never really recognised.

2-   
Ron’s apparent immaturity

Up until GOF,
Ron was the most emotionally-mature member of the golden trio. He was able to
keep a cool head in tense situations, and was able to read his friends’
emotions far better than anyone ever gave him credit for.

However, in GOF,
Ron’s emotional maturity (as well as his intelligence) takes a sudden
nose-dive. Now, I’m not saying that this was caused by JK Rowling’s meetings
with Steve Kloves when developing the film series in between POA and GOF, but it’s
a possibility that Kloves’ love (read ‘idealisation’) of Hermione rubbed off on
Rowling, and she decided to write Ron as emotionally-insensitive (especially
when it came to girls) and more immature than his two friends.

The difference
between the Ron of the first three books, and the Ron of the later four books
is quite a large one. Pre-GOF Ron was occasionally insensitive but pretty
bang-on when it came to people’s emotions. Post-GOF Ron had a dramatic cut to
his maturity and overall intelligence. It’s as if JK Rowling assumed that boys
undergoing puberty must have their emotional maturity and intelligence
drastically reduced just because of their hormones.

And, while that
may be true to a certain extent, it’s the fact that even Ron’s mature moments
in the later books is still framed as
‘immature’ that annoys me. Even when Ron is actually acting maturely for his
age (like not talking to Hermione after she attacks him with a flock of
ravenous birds- a pretty sensible response to it, I would say), Rowling frames
it as immature so as to make Hermione seem more sympathetic. It drives me up
the wall.

3-   
What happened
with Lavender.

Nothing really
to say here. I think he should have dated Luna for a bit instead. Lavender’s
personality in HBP seems really off compared to how she was written before. Luna
would have been a better fit for Ron, in my opinion. They would have made a
cute couple, and it would have showed Hermione that she had to show Ron affection
if she wanted him romantically. With Lavender, it was framed as ‘why is Ron dating such an irritating girl?
He should be dating Hermione instead’. What would have been better for
character-growth (especially for Hermione) would be framing Ron dating someone
as ‘Ron responds positively when girls
show obvious affection for him. Maybe Hermione should take this on-board’.  

Ron isn’t perfect, but that’s why I like him. He’s
imperfectly perfect, and I wouldn’t have him any other way. The flaws are what
make him three-dimensional.

(Thanks for the ask, anon!)

Love you, but I feel you overstated Ron’s marks as not being good.

Keep reading

@hillnerd Thanks for the receipts for that. What I meant was that he didn’t shine academically, I meant that he tended to not enjoy studying, and…. well, all the things you pointed out. 

And when I said that ‘he got the lowest marks of the trio’ I meant that he got the same marks as Harry without the ‘O’ in DATDA. 

Thanks for calling me out on that, though. I should have made myself clearer. Maybe it’s the heatwave getting to me (it’s so bl**dy warm in the UK at the minute). 

You’re awesome, Hillnerd- don’t stop being you. 🙂