He abandons Harry in his 4th year when his best friend has been entered in a dangerous tournament. He abandons Harry again in DH when he is best friend is trying to save the world. He suspects Harry of having an affair with Hermione even though Harry has been his best friend for years. He hurts Hermione when he knows she loves him by snogging groping Lavender in front of her at every opportunity. Even though he has done this he has the gall to tell Harry who is a perfect gentleman to not mess with Ginny. He is an asshole for me.

 

Oh look, it's this thread again...

 

Ron is a well-formed character with some flaws, and many virtues. He is not an asshole. But everyone is entitled to their opinion.

Also, we've had similar threads like this before. You could take a look at those if you are interested in other viewpoints on the matter.

 

Based on the re-read, he can be, but no more so than Harry himself.

 

For me, a better question is "Is Ron a pretty normal teenager surrounded by pretty abnormal teenagers?" Because if so, then definitely yes.

1.He isn't super-rich. He isn't a star athlete. He isn't the best student. And he isn't the best fighter. On those fronts, Harry, Hermione, and Draco are all ahead of him.

2. Despite said deficiencies, he isn't all that bad on the various subjects. He is a decent quidditch player, he's not a terrible student (how else would he get an EE in Potions of all things?), and when push comes to shove he's not a bad fighter.

3. He's arguably suffering from Middle Child Syndrome: his older brothers are all really awesome and badass, and his younger sister is literally the first girl Weasley in generations. Where does someone like that expect room to grow?

4. Literally every time he does something even remotely "bad", it's actually pretty understandable or the result of Ron being, you know, a teenager. You know, a young person filled with raging hormones and still-developing brain that's always expected to do pretty stupid things?

a. With the Scabbers/Crookshanks stuff from POA, I am very much on Ron's side. Yes, Scabbers turned out to be Pettigrew, but before that all we knew was that Hermione's cat was trying to eat Ron's rat, and Hermione didn't even care. That's actually pretty terrible on Hermione's part. And at the end of the day, he was the one that apologized, even though all the evidence pointed to Crookshanks actually eating Scabbers.

b. With the Tournament, practically everyone thought of it as nothing more than a chance for money and glory. Most of the people didn't really notice or care about all the warnings to the contrary. Ron actually asked Harry, alone and quite politely, if he entered his name. Harry was the one that yelled at Ron and escalated things. And what did Ron do the moment he realized that it was very dangerous? He apologized to Harry in a very public setting.

c. With the Lavender business in HBP, that is literally the kind of stuff you expect a teenager to do. Not fully understanding his friend who is a girl likes him, and enjoys having a girlfriend for once by making out publically. If anything, it's unusual he's the one who wants to end things because she's a bit too clingy and aggressive. Also, I think Hermione's even on that front after going out with that one guy at Slughorn's party.

d. With Harry/Ginny, gee, why would an older brother be so protective of someone, even (or especially) his best friend dating his baby sister? I've never seen that before.

e. With DH, they've been wandering in exile with no plan whatsoever, he (unlike Harry and Hermione) has to deal with constant stress over what could happen to his family, he has Teenage Hormones making him jealous of a best friend being with his crush (again, something that so clearly never happens in real life), and has the One Ring, er, Locket, whispering poison in his ear that makes it worse. But despite all that, he regretted leaving almost immediately, and when he got a chance to be with them again he took it.

5. Did Ron do some dickish things to/with his friends? Absolutely. But compared to seven years of Books and friendship, I'd say he's actually a perfectly good friend for the vast majority of the time. Literally every friendship that ever existed had its moments where one or both people says/does something stupid to the other, temporarily end their friendship, and only eventually reunite. What Ron did was absolutely normal and understandable, especially for a teenager.

6. If you still think Ron was a shitty friend, don't forget COS and the spiders. The entire book was establishing Ron had a massive phobia of spiders that stem from a genuinely traumatic moment in his life. And he was asked to "follow the spiders", without any idea why other than the fact it had something to do with Hagrid and the Chamber, which had already petrified Hermione. The movie captured the fear perfectly with Ron's voice crack when he said spiders. But Ron still followed the spiders to massive spiders. And why? Because his school and his friend were in trouble, and he had to save them.

For comparison, Hermione couldn't even face her boggart despite being older at the time, knowing what a boggart is, knowing she was in a test, and her fear being nowhere near as traumatic as a little boy's teddy bear turning into a freaking spider!

As I've gotten older, I've grown to consider Ron one of my favorite characters in the Books. Not because he was the best person ever, but because he was written as an actual teenager I can personally relate to on a lot of levels.

 

The claim of Ron being an asshole comes up pretty often, for reasons that escape me. He has insecurities, because that's part of the human condition, but I think that the fact he is an essentially good person is impossible to argue against.

Yes, he's at fault for leaving Harry in GoF, but when he sees Harry in danger in the first task he immediately snaps out of it. The second time he leaves Harry, the locket's influencing the decision and despite that he tries to return as soon as he's outside its influence, only to be unable to find them after numerous attempts. He didn't know Hermione loved him, I literally have no idea where you got that from. The worst you could accuse him of is that he's insensitive. Ginny is Ron's little sister, and his warning Harry is perfectly normal. Honestly, the only valid complaint is the incident in GoF but the fact that people keep referencing to a mistake he did as a teenager as a cornerstone in the argument that Ron is an asshole is baffling to me.

I'm not saying that Ron doesn't have faults, but what makes him great is that he overcomes those issues. He continuously puts himself in danger for Harry - first in getting the Philospher's stone, again in the DoM, and then again in the Horcrux hunt. Despite the fact that Ron worries his family prefers Harry to him, he invites him in again and again with open arms. Hell, it's Ron who remembers the house elves during the final battle when everyone else is preoccupied.

Ron has his flaws, but he's a fucking great friend and person.

 

Has Harry ever done such shitty things as Ron even though he had such a terrible childhood and had far more problems than Ron ever had. Sorry but the circumstances made him doesn't cut it when Harry could overcome it with far worse circumstances. Even Hermione never did things like Ron did. Honestly there isn't a lot of difference between Ron and Draco. Ron is just a poorer gryffindor version of him. You never see Harry complaining about not having parents and having to deal with Voldemort while Ron complains he is poor and doesn't have fame like Harry.

 

When you compare anyone to Jesus, they'll come up short, probably. That's kind of a high bar to clear.

 

Take a step back, your just looking at the bad not the good. You can do the same for Harry and Hermione as well, yet you choose not to.

Personally in terms of friends, I think Ron beats Hermione hands down.

 

I find it funny that time spent away from the books only serves to highlight Ron's asshole moments, while simultaneously erasing Harry's moments.

I suggest reading the books again, OP. Ron does not have the monopoly on asshole moments.


Moreover, I tend to find that people who point at things Ron has done and call him an asshole are the people less likely to understand the circumstances surrounding them and, probably, the ones most likely to have acted exactly like the character they're bashing, had they been in a similar situation. It's a matter of maturity, I think.

 

Ron's not an asshole. He's just acting his age ( talking about girls, sports, food, etc) which includes a teenagers insensitivity and immaturity. He may have his bad moments but it's more believable than a hyper mature and compentant Harry Potter in fandom.

 

I'm not so sure acting their age is a good excuse about someone not being an asshole. Plenty of kids are down right vicious little assholes.

 

I don't think anyone saying it excuses his behavior. The stuff he did was still wrong.

Rather, the point is that he's person screwing up at an age where people are expected to screw up a lot. A whole lot of the teenage experience is making mistakes and learning from them, and that's exactly what Ron was doing. If all it takes to make someone an asshole is doing a couple stupid, hurtful things as a teenager, then I'm pretty sure everyone's an asshole (at which point the term loses all meaning).

 

I was in no way saying Ron was an asshole, just that acting their age is a terrible defense about not being one.

 

Okay.
So you guys say that Harry has done worse to Ron than Ron to Harry. Please explain.

Also Harry was locked in a cupboard and deprived of love and nutrition and is still better.

A true friend does not through jealousy fits like Ron.

Well maybe they do once or twice but Ron never stops.

EXPLAIN.

 

I think it will become clearer once you have some experience with having actual friends.

 

Rep outta nowhere with that Greek fire.

Maybe you should consider reading the books more than once.

 

Times Ron is specifically jealous of Harry:

1. The Triwizard Tournament (at first, after Harry bit his head off about it, and only until he realised that Harry was in serious danger).
2. The Deathly Camping Hallows Trek (while under the influence of a fragment of Voldemort's soul, nursing a lingering wound, and worried about his family - the only one of the trio to have family around to be threatened).
3...Nope. Can't think of anything (arguably the Omniocular incident in GoF, I suppose, but that's more about his families lack of money than anything to do with Harry specifically).

Times Ron isn't jealous of Harry:

1. When Harry gets an international standard broom.
2. When Harry is put on the Quidditch team in defiance of school rules.
3. When Harry gets off with one of the most attractive girls in the school.
4. When Harry wins 1000 galleons on the Tournament (notably, when Hermione explains to Harry why Ron is so angry, the money isn't one of the reasons she gives, although admittedly Ron does briefly mention it in their initial fight. It's never mentioned again though).
5. When Harry gives those 1000 galleons away - not to Ron, but to his older brothers.
6. When Harry gets another international standard broom.
7. When Harry is made Quidditch captain.
8. When Harry gets positive attention from Fleur.

Etc etc.

 

In the books, I think he can be seen as one from time too time. That's why I had preferred a different partner for Hermione since she had so much ambition other than being a house wife that worshiped the ground Won-Won walked on. Cursed Child proves this by having him give the boys a date rape drug as a joke and having him resent Hermione sucess as the Minister of Magic..."

 

I hardly think someone who prefers Dramione (and Harry/Felur - who the fuck that is, no clue) is much of an authority on the canon likeliness of pairings, hmm?