I will never get over just how messed up the situation with
Ron’s dress robes was because there was literally so many solutions to the
problem.
First off, Molly is a witch, who studied transfiguration in
school for years. She’s also an established seamstress. So why
not use transfiguration to fix up his robes, why not use her sewing skills to
get rid off some of the lace and designs and extra stuff and make it something
a teenage boy would want to wear? Hell, She
even mentions that Arthur has dress robes, why not let Ron borrow those since Arthur
is described as tall and lanky like Ron and I’m sure he would fit them, and if
he couldn’t they could shrink them instead of going out and spending money on
terrible Robes that I know for a fact that Molly knew Ron wouldn’t like.
Why would she send her son out to a formal ball, where foreign
wizards and diplomats and important Ministry Officials would be attending,
looking like a hot mess. Why would she do that to him? That is the equivalent of
my mom sending me to prom in a sack. Which she didn’t. My mom worked around the
budget to get me a new dress and shoes, which is why I’m on Molly so hard for
this because there is no excuse. She has magic. You do not intentionally send
your child out to an important event like that looking like crap, especially if you have the means to fix it.
And what makes it even worse is that apparently none of the
other Weasley kids went to the ball looking like something straight out of the
1800’s because you best believe Ron would have complained about it. We even hear
about them from Harry during the ball and he doesn’t say anything about their
robes being as bad as Ron’s so we can assume they had perfectly acceptable robes. There are some very unfortunate implications behind that.
And that comment on him going to the ball naked, and how it
would be a good laugh was way beyond what is okay for a parent to say in that situation.
It completely devalues Ron’s legitimate feelings of looking like a joke and
feeds into his insecurities.
It makes no sense. I can’t think of any logical reason why Molly
would do something so wrong.
Because at the end of the day Molly made a conscious decision
to go out and buy those robes for Ron. At the same time, she buys Harry robes
that she knows he would like, and that she put a lot of thought into getting apparently
because she comments on how she got them, so they would match his eyes, while simultaneously
sending her son out with horrendously ugly robes with no thought put into the embarrassment
Ron would feel or about the environment
she was sending him out to because she knew exactly what he would be need those robes for
and yet she didn’t stop to think ‘ well maybe since this is such a big event I
could make them look presentable’. Molly didn’t even try for Ron.
I think a lot of
times Molly did the best she could in her financial situation and I know she loves her kids, but
the way she treats Ron sometimes makes me side-eye her pretty hard because it
brings up some very uncomfortable implications that I don’t like.
I completely agree. It was really messed up of her.
I agree that those solutions would work if Molly thought the robes were bad.
I think she honestly didn’t think they were that bad- and then ignored Ron’s complaints because she always does. She is always harried, and simply doesn’t listen when the kids complain about something as ‘silly’ as preferences of color of sweater, or food, or dress robes. I get it- they’re poor and have had to make do with whatever they have on hand- but she takes it a step further and truly ignores Ron the most of anyone.
I think she also doesn’t really realize- she’s not a stay at home mom with 7 kids at home anymore? Her life has changed significantly- she really did use to have 7 kids all at home at the same time- that’s a LOT of kids. At that point, she relly did not have time to deal with preferences on much of anything because at that point- be happy you’re fed, clean, well educated, clothed etc. She’s a great mom in so many ways, but sometimes she lets that harried attitude continue, even when she’s no longer the busy mother she used to be. Granted, she’s getting older, but….
That’s one thing that what makes me the most put out sometimes- she’s always ‘such a busy mom’- but… her kids have been out of the house for 9 months of the year for 2 years by the beginning of Goblet of Fire.
She’s legit busy in the summer- or on holidays when she’s feeding everyone- but Ron’s 4th year… What exactly did she have on her plate leading up to the Yule Ball after the kids are back in school? She wasn’t in the Order at that point.
So she’s dusting an empty house, looking after chickens, doing property maintenance, and knitting sweaters and fixing 1-2 meals a day for 2 people, and lunch for herself. I mean, it’s not nothin’ to maintain a large property- but She had MONTHS to consider what Ron thought- and try to fix the robes then send them to him. She didn’t even try to do that because she dismissed it in hand at the moment, and probably never thought of it again.
And it all comes down to the whole ‘I’m a busy mom stop complaining, at least you have robes’ thing- as well as a bit of JKR loving to make Ron the butt of jokes. I disagree that her joke about him going naked was out of line, though. Like, it’s funny.
In the end, Molly (and everyone in the series) continually don’t really consider Ron’s feelings on anything, never apologize, and continually devalue him. It’s a theme- and Molly, for all her wonderful traits, is established as a huge insecurity for him even from the first chapter we meet him.
He legit feels like his mum cares less for him than the rest of his family, including Harry- and she doesn’t do much to make him feel valued in the series, with the exception of when he got prefect. But frankly, when the only time you give much attention/affirmation to someone is if they do something amazing- then ignore them the rest of the time… it doesn’t help them feel like much. It makes them feel like their achievements are the only reason they have any value to anyone at all- which is demoralizing when you will never be able to achieve as much as everyone else int he family either. Add in the obvious preference of attention she gives Harry- and it’s no wonder the horcrux brought it up. 😦
I will never get over just how messed up the situation with
Ron’s dress robes was because there was literally so many solutions to the
problem.
First off, Molly is a witch, who studied transfiguration in
school for years. She’s also an established seamstress. So why
not use transfiguration to fix up his robes, why not use her sewing skills to
get rid off some of the lace and designs and extra stuff and make it something
a teenage boy would want to wear? Hell, She
even mentions that Arthur has dress robes, why not let Ron borrow those since Arthur
is described as tall and lanky like Ron and I’m sure he would fit them, and if
he couldn’t they could shrink them instead of going out and spending money on
terrible Robes that I know for a fact that Molly knew Ron wouldn’t like.
Why would she send her son out to a formal ball, where foreign
wizards and diplomats and important Ministry Officials would be attending,
looking like a hot mess. Why would she do that to him? That is the equivalent of
my mom sending me to prom in a sack. Which she didn’t. My mom worked around the
budget to get me a new dress and shoes, which is why I’m on Molly so hard for
this because there is no excuse. She has magic. You do not intentionally send
your child out to an important event like that looking like crap, especially if you have the means to fix it.
And what makes it even worse is that apparently none of the
other Weasley kids went to the ball looking like something straight out of the
1800’s because you best believe Ron would have complained about it. We even hear
about them from Harry during the ball and he doesn’t say anything about their
robes being as bad as Ron’s so we can assume they had perfectly acceptable robes. There are some very unfortunate implications behind that.
And that comment on him going to the ball naked, and how it
would be a good laugh was way beyond what is okay for a parent to say in that situation.
It completely devalues Ron’s legitimate feelings of looking like a joke and
feeds into his insecurities.
It makes no sense. I can’t think of any logical reason why Molly
would do something so wrong.
Because at the end of the day Molly made a conscious decision
to go out and buy those robes for Ron. At the same time, she buys Harry robes
that she knows he would like, and that she put a lot of thought into getting apparently
because she comments on how she got them, so they would match his eyes, while simultaneously
sending her son out with horrendously ugly robes with no thought put into the embarrassment
Ron would feel or about the environment
she was sending him out to because she knew exactly what he would be need those robes for
and yet she didn’t stop to think ‘ well maybe since this is such a big event I
could make them look presentable’. Molly didn’t even try for Ron.
I think a lot of
times Molly did the best she could in her financial situation and I know she loves her kids, but
the way she treats Ron sometimes makes me side-eye her pretty hard because it
brings up some very uncomfortable implications that I don’t like.
I completely agree. It was really messed up of her.
Know what is worse? Ginny had good dress robes.
Ginny, who was a third year. Ginny, who was thirteen. Ginny, who wasn’t even SUPPOSED to attend the Yule Ball unless someone invited her.
Ginny was dressed in good robes and she wasn’t even meant to go. Ron had horrible robes and he was supposed to attend the Ball even without a partner.
I love Molly, really, but can’t we understand and accept that Ron’s insecurities don’t come from nowhere? Worse, that they just might be JUSTIFIED?
It genuinely hurts me how much Molly unintentionally neglected Ron. I mean, Ginny got nice-looking dress robes even though she was a third-year and wasn’t even required to have them that year. And (if we go by muggle standards) women’s clothes are likely to be more expensive than men’s clothes.
Molly prioritised Ginny (someone who didn’t even require dress robes that year) over Ron (who specifically needed them that year). No wonder Ron suspected that he was being over-looked. His sibling got priority over him, despite his need being far greater than theirs’.
And, even if men’s dress robes do cost more than women’s in the magical world, it’s not as if Molly couldn’t have had Ron borrow some robes off one of his brothers. Bill was roughly the same build as Ron, and likely could’ve done without dress robes for a while, considering his job as a curse-breaker. Heck, Percy (again, with the same build as Ron) turns up the ball with brand-new dress robes, so he clearly wasn’t using the robes he got when he became prefect. Why couldn’t Molly have asked either Bill or Percy if Ron could wear their old dress robes. It wouldn’t have been difficult to arrange.
Ron didn’t want top-of-the-line robes, he just wanted something decent to wear. Fred and George both got decent robes to wear (either bought second-hand, or borrowed off Charlie), so why couldn’t Ron? Once again, Ron is the odd man out. Like @vivithefolle said, those insecurities about being ‘least loved’ didn’t just come out of nowhere.
Not to mention (like @ron-is-awesome-sauce pointed out) the fact that magic-users can transfigure clothing as they like. Molly Weasley was a talented witch who could have easily transfigured the robes. At the very least, the frills could have been dis-attached. Heck, Ron did that himself at the age of fourteen. Did Molly seriously not realise that most teenage boys don’t want dress robes that come with frills attached? It wouldn’t have taken her five minutes to get rid of them.
Maybe I’m naive, but to be fair, I think if Molly Weasley ever existed this would not have happened. I’m a firm believer that this was just a way for Rowling to try to establish Ron as the comedic side kick. Although she has been able to do this from year 1 with his snarky humour, she clearly tried to make Ron also be funny by being the butt of the joke. I don’t think she thought about how this would reflect on Molly.
Also Rowling had to establish Ron as the overlooked one, because it is essential to his character development. Again, I don’t think she thought about how this would reflect on Molly.
I will never get over just how messed up the situation with
Ron’s dress robes was because there was literally so many solutions to the
problem.
First off, Molly is a witch, who studied transfiguration in
school for years. She’s also an established seamstress. So why
not use transfiguration to fix up his robes, why not use her sewing skills to
get rid off some of the lace and designs and extra stuff and make it something
a teenage boy would want to wear? Hell, She
even mentions that Arthur has dress robes, why not let Ron borrow those since Arthur
is described as tall and lanky like Ron and I’m sure he would fit them, and if
he couldn’t they could shrink them instead of going out and spending money on
terrible Robes that I know for a fact that Molly knew Ron wouldn’t like.
Why would she send her son out to a formal ball, where foreign
wizards and diplomats and important Ministry Officials would be attending,
looking like a hot mess. Why would she do that to him? That is the equivalent of
my mom sending me to prom in a sack. Which she didn’t. My mom worked around the
budget to get me a new dress and shoes, which is why I’m on Molly so hard for
this because there is no excuse. She has magic. You do not intentionally send
your child out to an important event like that looking like crap, especially if you have the means to fix it.
And what makes it even worse is that apparently none of the
other Weasley kids went to the ball looking like something straight out of the
1800’s because you best believe Ron would have complained about it. We even hear
about them from Harry during the ball and he doesn’t say anything about their
robes being as bad as Ron’s so we can assume they had perfectly acceptable robes. There are some very unfortunate implications behind that.
And that comment on him going to the ball naked, and how it
would be a good laugh was way beyond what is okay for a parent to say in that situation.
It completely devalues Ron’s legitimate feelings of looking like a joke and
feeds into his insecurities.
It makes no sense. I can’t think of any logical reason why Molly
would do something so wrong.
Because at the end of the day Molly made a conscious decision
to go out and buy those robes for Ron. At the same time, she buys Harry robes
that she knows he would like, and that she put a lot of thought into getting apparently
because she comments on how she got them, so they would match his eyes, while simultaneously
sending her son out with horrendously ugly robes with no thought put into the embarrassment
Ron would feel or about the environment
she was sending him out to because she knew exactly what he would be need those robes for
and yet she didn’t stop to think ‘ well maybe since this is such a big event I
could make them look presentable’. Molly didn’t even try for Ron.
I think a lot of
times Molly did the best she could in her financial situation and I know she loves her kids, but
the way she treats Ron sometimes makes me side-eye her pretty hard because it
brings up some very uncomfortable implications that I don’t like.
I completely agree. It was really messed up of her.
Know what is worse? Ginny had good dress robes.
Ginny, who was a third year. Ginny, who was thirteen. Ginny, who wasn’t even SUPPOSED to attend the Yule Ball unless someone invited her.
Ginny was dressed in good robes and she wasn’t even meant to go. Ron had horrible robes and he was supposed to attend the Ball even without a partner.
I love Molly, really, but can’t we understand and accept that Ron’s insecurities don’t come from nowhere? Worse, that they just might be JUSTIFIED?
It genuinely hurts me how much Molly unintentionally neglected Ron. I mean, Ginny got nice-looking dress robes even though she was a third-year and wasn’t even required to have them that year. And (if we go by muggle standards) women’s clothes are likely to be more expensive than men’s clothes.
Molly prioritised Ginny (someone who didn’t even require dress robes that year) over Ron (who specifically needed them that year). No wonder Ron suspected that he was being over-looked. His sibling got priority over him, despite his need being far greater than theirs’.
And, even if men’s dress robes do cost more than women’s in the magical world, it’s not as if Molly couldn’t have had Ron borrow some robes off one of his brothers. Bill was roughly the same build as Ron, and likely could’ve done without dress robes for a while, considering his job as a curse-breaker. Heck, Percy (again, with the same build as Ron) turns up the ball with brand-new dress robes, so he clearly wasn’t using the robes he got when he became prefect. Why couldn’t Molly have asked either Bill or Percy if Ron could wear their old dress robes. It wouldn’t have been difficult to arrange.
Ron didn’t want top-of-the-line robes, he just wanted something decent to wear. Fred and George both got decent robes to wear (either bought second-hand, or borrowed off Charlie), so why couldn’t Ron? Once again, Ron is the odd man out. Like @vivithefolle said, those insecurities about being ‘least loved’ didn’t just come out of nowhere.
Not to mention (like @ron-is-awesome-sauce pointed out) the fact that magic-users can transfigure clothing as they like. Molly Weasley was a talented witch who could have easily transfigured the robes. At the very least, the frills could have been dis-attached. Heck, Ron did that himself at the age of fourteen. Did Molly seriously not realise that most teenage boys don’t want dress robes that come with frills attached? It wouldn’t have taken her five minutes to get rid of them.
And as he watched her step shyly down the stairs, looking more radiant than he ever thought was possible, he never felt more in love.
I really hope there is a fancy ball in the game! So to satisfy my need, I drew a cute little illustration of my MC and my dragon boy. My MC’s dress was inspired by the Spirit of Fashion event dress (with the colours, ruffles, and such) however, I was reluctant to actually draw her in the dress because I thought it’d look ridiculous…
I thought to romione at first hahahahah
I did too until I read lol.
So cute
Glad I’m not the only one who though this was Ron and Hermione at first.
All the discourse about the new dress event makes me laugh, cause this is probably how Ron felt when he had to wear the dress robes molly sent him for the yule ball
Well, that’s– l mean, that’s just completely off the point.
this scene in the movies was so over dramatized tbh, Hermione didn’t start crying and all in the books
Not to mention that if she really wanted to go to the ball with Ron, she could’ve asked him instead of waiting for him to ask her. By being mad at him, Hermione is being a hypocrite because it took Ron being obviously jealous of Krum for her to admit that she wanted to go with him.
I get so annoyed when people diss on Ron for not having the guts to ask Hermione out when Hermione was too scared to ask Ron too.
!!! Like they say in my country, OUI!!
Like, Hermione Granger wants to go to the Yule Ball with Ron?
Well why doesn’t Hermione Granger,
Feminist Icon™,
actually ask him out instead of waiting around like a damsel in distress waiting for the knight in shining armor?
Yeah insecurities and all that okay but damnit girl if you had expressed a desire to go with him (“Ron, if you don’t have anyone, we could go together?”, or even “I’d rather go with a friend, ugh” if you’re too scared), maybe he could have picked up on it? Guys have more than one functioning neuron, thank you
Headcanonsandmore 