I'm not saying his entire character should change but, after Book 5, his pettiness should have been removed.

The entire experience in the Department of Mysteries was traumatic, and his friends were almost killed. I simply have a hard time buying his personality in Book 6.

 

Cause the book had to take a school year, I'm thinking.

 

Yeah, no. Harry said 'I didn't do it and I meant it, someone is out to get me'. And Ron didn't believe him because Ron wanted to be champion. That's pretty cut and dry to me. Harry has every right to be angry at the utter lack of faith and solidarity Ron shows when Harry's just been thrust into a life endangering situation. Yet. Again.

Nah. Someone I trust says something, I trust it until I have strong proof otherwise. A light hearted chat between two teen boys about how they'd theoretically break the rules is not strong proof. I CERTAINLY don't turn on them because the jealous, angry part of me has doubts.

Going to have to disagree, here. I'd have done exactly what she did, because when it comes to matters of life and death, safety is more important than offending someone's sensibilities. If you notice, Hermione cares deeply for others. Values life and freedom and happiness quite highly. This is shown even from a young age, despite her off-putting habits (which are really just how she hides her insecurity).

See my point above about life and death situations. Hermione was right to tell the staff, Harry/Ron were wrong. No matter that the broom came out clean, it could have just as easily not.

Vindictive and cruel? I think you're going a bit far. The DA is all about protecting the lives and safety of fellow students, betrayal of that is betraying the safety of others. Such actions come with consequences. Marietta got what she deserved.

As for the birds attacking Ron? Please, that was the Wizard equivalent of muggle women slapping insensitive/offensive men. It's not like she did any actual damage. At worst they harried him for awhile. Wizards are made of sturdy stuff. Was it the right action to take? No, but certainly nowhere within the bounds of Vindictive and Cruel.

 

Then what about Dobby?

And let's not forget that, according to Hermione, though food cannot be created, it can be duplicated. She explained to Ron that his mother simply duplicates the food to feed them all.

So why didn't they do that?

 

I neither like nor dislike Ron, personally - he's just not interesting. He doesn't have anything going for him, in my eyes. He's there to provide some level of support to Harry and really, that seems to be it generally. Perhaps if he did anything actually cool without Harry being involved I might've taken a closer look at him, but certainly nothing springs to mind.

Ron is like a chair - it's there, sometimes it's useful, sometimes it gets in the way. But you don't pay it any more heed than that.

 

That was bullshit and you know it.

 

I don't particularly like Ron, nor do I dislike him. To me he's just kinda ehh.

I think this mostly stems from how useless he is when it comes to advancing the plot in any meaningful way. Books 1-4 he's just kind of ...there.

Sure in book 1 he plays a killer game of chess but the sheer convenience that his relatively esoteric talent has in overcoming the obstacle to me, feels more like the author trying desperately to wrap everything up into a neat little child friendly package, rather than any meaningful, thoughtful plot development. Aaaaand that's about the extent of his importance apart from being a dick to hermione to get the troll scene started and being knocked out by a giant chess set.

Oh and there's that moment that Weasley haters love to go on about at platform 9 and 3/4 where Molly inexplicably asks about the name of the platform.

In book two it's his wand that is the deus ex machina that prevents Harry and him from being obliviated, and then again he's just sort of there as Harry goes and nonchalantly kills a massive basilisk.

In book 3 he's attacked by a large dog, hates on hermione and gets knocked out before the climactic time turning occurs.

And it goes on.

He's not a bad character per say, I think he'd have made an excellent supporting character, kinda like a fleshed out Dean. However, he doesn't do enough to be a main character to root for, especially since he seems to spend the first half of the series in indolence; both the self imposed kind and not.

And a quick note is that you can't really relate Ron's betrayal in book 4 with a teen fight, for the most part in the real world there isn't really the chance that one of the party would be devoured by dragons would there? And in the movies especially ( can't remember about the books) when Ron KNOWS about the dragons and then employs just the most round about way of telling Harry, in spite of you know potential death.

 

I could handle so many things; Hermione obliviating her parents; Voldemort not killing Ginny; The Trio not utilizing Dobby

But the moment that appeared, I could no longer take Book 7 seriously.

 

Everytime I remember this actually happened, I just get real sad.

On topic, Ron can be a funny guy and seems to be pretty average. He has his good and bad moments and hating him for having moments of weakness seems kinda pointless to me.

 

One scene stands out for me with respect to Ron:

Hermione: OMG, we can't get into the Chamber. How can we destroy the Horcrux?

Ron (coolly): Yo, I got this.

Guy becomes a Parselmouth on demand because if nobody else is going to step up, he will. Dude's cool in my book.

 

I thought asspulls were frowned upon.

 

Oh look... a 'Ron sucks / doesn't suck' thread... again. How many is that now?

 

It would have been really helpful if any of the Trio learned to Fiendfyre, rather than mucking about for the Sword or Ron spontaneously learning how to say 'Open' in Parseltongue to get a fang. If Crabbe can cast it, so can the Trio. And they'd probably be able to control it too.

 

What makes you think they'd be able to control it?

 

According to Tonks he kicked arse in the air battle of Surrey.

 

Late to the party, mate

That said, I am amazed this thread is still going. Maybe it should be Stickied for better visibility, so that all newcomers know that starting another one of those is a poor idea.

 

Seven Hells, even here there are people who don't particularly like Ron.

For starters, he is the only actual teenager. If we're being honest, neither Harry nor Hermione are exactly your average teenagers. Harry is rich, good at his classes, a talented athlete, and the freaking Boy-Who-Lived. Hermione is really smart, has a whole ugly-duckling thing, and despite her personality managed to befriend the freaking Boy-Who-Lived thanks to sheer dumb luck. Ron, on the other hand, is average in his classes, average in sports, average in looks, is nowhere near loaded, and is usually a good friend. In other words, he's closer to most teenagers than any other character.

Also, about those two times he isn't a perfect friend. If you read up on the Goblet of Fire fight, you'll notice that Ron calmly asked Harry if he put his name in, and Ron's the one who starts shouting. And more importantly, Ron apologizes to Harry in front of the entire Gryffindor House, because he knows he did a bad thing.

And as for the Deathly Hallows fight, consider this: they had absolutely no plan to speak of, they were spending weeks in one miserable forest after another with bad food, he actually had a family to worry about that could be arrested or worse any day now (unlike Harry and Hermione), and he had the Locket-Horcrux whispering God knows what in his ear. But almost immediately after he snaps and leaves, he regrets his decision and only fails to return the duo thanks to some Snatchers. And the moment the Lighter-Ex-Machina gives him a way to rejoin them, he takes it.

And, unlike his useless movie-counterpart, he has some impressive balls. When he was trapped in the Devil's Snare, he's the one who tells Hermione to use Magic, and Hermione who's panicking over not having wood for a fire. When Snape calls Hermione "an insufferable know-it-all", he outright defends Hermione instead of saying some lame comment about he had a point.

Lastly, I dare anyone who hates Ron to read this Fic.