A lot of people seem to think that being Harry's friend requires unconditionally believing everything he says, unfailingly supporting his every whim, and basically treating him like Jesus Christ reborn or something. A lot of Ron-bashing comes from that attitude mixed with a severe overreaction to a couple of canon events that don't even deserve the term 'betrayal.'

Jeconais is bad about the first; everyone who doesn't outright worship Harry and the Spoiled Rich Manipulative Love Interest Who Loves Wine is evil and ungrateful and unworthy of even existing.

 

I hate Ron bashing too, and there isn't any exception to his bashing. Damn, I saw some bashing of Dumbledore that raised decent points, weak when under stronger scrutiny, but they did make me stop and think. But not with Ron, except books 4 and 7, he was one my favorite characters.

He was by far the funniest, and many times he was the sane normal guy that the story needed. So when they are criticising him, they can't form anything coherent, so they bash a caricature of the character.

Well, there was one otherwise forgettable fic where he hitted his head and called himself Ron The Magnificient. I loved that shit.

 

Meh, I dislike Ron for the same reason I don't care for canon Harry - they are painfully average. Guess I just wanted the protagonist and his best friend to be a bit more talented. Bashing by completely changing a character is rather annoying though.


Pet peeve of my own:

When Harry goes and builds a literal occlumency shield. He goes into his 'mindscape' and then actually builds a wall, generally with multiple layers. I've (thankfully) only seen it a few times, but I really think that things involving the mind should be much more abstract.

 

Okay I'm going to call bullshit. Foruth year is understandable, but don't even try to play down Ron walking out on Harry during the Horcrux hunt. That was a betrayal, straight out. I'm not saying that Ron deserves all the crap he gets in fanfiction, but that was a low, low moment. I'm not saying he didn't have reasons either, and one could certainly argue how severe it was, but it was a betrayal.

I don't like Ron very much, but I'll agree with you so far as to say he gets a really really bad rap in fanfics.

 

He was wearing the Horcrux retard.

Extenuating circumstances. As soon as he took it off he was okay. When Ginny had a Horcux she let a 100 foot snake into the school.

 

That's like blaming rape on alcohol. Okay, there were factors affecting your judgement. It doesn't mean that you had a choice and that you made a retarded choice. Harry and Hermione were both affected, but they didn't do anything as stupid as Ron.

I don't care how angry you are at your friends, how bad shit gets, you do not leave them to fight alone. Not ever.

As has been said before, Ron does get an unfair amount of crap in fanfiction, often because the author lacks the talent to write a story where Harry and Hermione hook up and Ron is still around.

 

There's a difference between rape and returning to your family after finding out your sister was in trouble. Harry doesn't give a shit about the Dursleys and Hermione's parents were in Austrailia. Ron's family on the other hand were unprotected. His father worked at the ministry run by Voldemort and his sister was in a school run by death eaters so it is understandable that the horcrux was able to influence him into leaving. Abandoning your friend in such a situation was a shitty thing to do but lets face it, what would you have chosen between protecting your family and following your friend who has no idea what the fuck he's doing on an impssible quest?

 

A better example would be getting emotional and going out for a drive only to come back to your shared apartment later to find the building disappeared when you where gone. Then spending the next week or so driving all around to find out where your friends ran off to.

 

I like how people conveniently forget this little part of that scene:

Compare that to CoS

Notice the similarities: the heart, deep secrets, Riddle taking ownership through it, or trying to . . .

Like his sister, Ron was being possessed by the Horcrux. That was something that wasn't happening to Harry or Ron.

Beyond that

As soon as he got away from it's influence, the desire to flee left. It wasn't him wanting to leave, it was the Horcrux driving him away, trying to split the three of them apart.

What people are missing then, is that the Weasleys are the biggest example of "good" purebloods, and yet, as strong as they are for the good side, they are easily influenced and possessed by Riddle. It's a microcosm of the problems in the Wizarding world, a picture of how easily the Malfoys, Carrows, LeStranges, Blacks, and every other Pureblood can be possessed by dark magic. They're there to prove that it isn't the families that are bad, it's all Purebloods that are weak in that sense, and need Muggleborns and Halfbloods to keep them good, as much as the Muggleborns and Halfbloods need the Purebloods and their society to learn about magic.

 

Thats reading way to much into it.

You could say its being gingers that make Ron and Ginny weak, you have no cause to base it off blood, assuming your not into eugenics.

 

That is probably one of the best summaries of Jeconais' fics (or at least parts of them) I've ever seen.

 

I wouldn't say that Ron or Ginny are weak, just average, far too normal in all things without any sort of anything that sets them or their entire family above other wizards. It would take someone with exceptional strength and character to resist one of Voldemort's horcruxes and, as canon proves, the Weasleys are nothing exceptional.

 

No. It has nothign to do with literal blood, but the concept of the pureblood community. In other words, it was another way for JKR to explain that those who followed Voldemort weren't evil, wicked people by nature. They were seduced into following him, either by his message, his power, or his ability to possess them (figuratively, or literally as in Ginny and to a lesser extent, Ron).

Pretty much the same way the majority of Germans were seduced by Hitler in the early-mid 20th century.

Nor would I, but rather, that they are two people for whom Dark Magic should have the least draw (an innocent, young, "light" pureblood witch, and a "light" pureblood wizard that's considered Voldemort an enemy and Voldemort's enemy, his best friend). And yet, when in contact with Voldemort's soul, they are basically powerless against it.

 

Sorry, but I don't buy Ron being affected by the Horcrux beyond the obvious. And regardless of that influence it was ultimately his choice to leave. Hell, it's not like I'm saying Ron deserves the crap he gets because of this scene, I'm just saying that I really do think that it was a meaningful betrayal of Harry.

I suppose we'll just have to disagree about our interpretation of the events.

 

I see it as the equivalent of a guy going for a walk to calm down and then say "Well, fuck, I didn't think this through" as soon as he notices he can't go back. Sure, he did walk away but he was angry and irrational. The argument shouldn't be about wether he went away or not but if he had a reason to be angry in the first place. And well... shitty situation with no progress, family in danger, horcrux pulling them apart, insecurities about the girl you are trying to woo caring more about your best mate who sort of knows you care for the girl but you can't say anything because he is your mate even though he was dating your sister and he doesn't look as worried as you feel or you think he should feel and you are starting to feel like a coward because you are not doing anything and people are dying... I can see him being irrational to some degree. It doesn't excuse the behavior but it does explain it more than saying he is a bad friend.

 

I'm wondering if you give Harry a pass in that scene. Read back through it. Harry's pretty much a prick, and doesn't acknowledge Hermione's comments about the Horcrux affecting Ron's thinking.

It's something else I've found with Ron bashing—not that you were doing it—Harry gets a pass on pretty much everything. Both scenes were he and Ron go separate ways, Harry flies off the handle and amps up the drama, and it could be argued, drives Ron away.

From a writing perspective, I'm glad Harry's written that way, because it makes him human.

 

Other than Barb's trilogy, I have never seen "clans" used well (triggered by a post in QTDDTOT). It's usually a word that makes me just go 'wat' and there's never any real backstory or worldbuilding associated with it just another side of the Lordship obsession I suppose.

So yeah, that's my peeve for today.

 

It's been a very long time since I've read Barb's stories, but I've only really ever seen 'clan' used in two contexts that I can recall offhand and the one that doesn't involve vampires is just a synonym for a large extended family.

Usually when someone's trying to make a big deal of certain families, it's all about the House of X. Or, for those who don't realize that Sirius was adding those adjectives to mock his family's pompousness and they are not actually part of an official title, the Most Ancient and Noble House of X.

 

Well, Harry has pretty much the same argument anyone else does. He and Hermione remained relatively okay, while Ron . . . did not.

It's not so much that Harry gets a pass as that he gets more of a pass, since he and Hermione had pretty much just figured out how to . . . you know, destroy the soul and immortality of the greatest dark wizard of all time, and Ron decides that his response will be to complain about taking a few months to find things hidden by, you know, the greatest dark wizard of all time, which even Dumbledore wasn't totally sure how to find, and to moan about how bad Hermione's food was . . . while not making a single meal himself after growing up with fucking Molly Weasley, who could basically keep an army well-fed with her wand.

Harry doesn't get a pass, but pretending that he was as bad as Ron is just hilarious. Ron was both the most vocally difficult and the least productive of anyone in that group, and then he leaves them.

 

Death Eater attack on Diagon Alley or Hogsmeade. The author generally prefers it on Christmas break, Halloween and Harry's birthday.

It's always a massacre perpetuated by them. I'm constantly afraid they're going to erase the entire population.