Ron may be a little shit, but having him die trying to help/save Harry, like when he tries to free/rescue him in-vain from from Barty Crouch in GoF, or him sacrificing himself by taking a curse meant for Harry in the DoM, would of been a good plot-device for Harry to actually grow a pair.

That, and it may either push Ginny away from him, or actually show some good character development, or make him go with Hermione and vice versa out of grief, as someone else previously posted.

 

I don't see Ron taking a curse for Harry at 13-15. I definitely see him being killed as the spare like Cedric was though.

 

He stood up in front of Harry to protect him from Sirius at 14, even though he had a broken leg and thought Sirius was Voldemort's biggest supporter, and told him he had to kill him first if he wanted to have a go at Harry. Hell, he willingly and knowingly put himself in danger of some serious damage, just so Harry and Hermione could go on to protect the Philosopher's Stone, when he was only 12 years old.

 

This.

Shame on you, Churchey. Fanon has poisoned your mind.

 

Which is why a lot of us thought he was going to die sometime in the series. If there was foreshadowing in book two with the Horcruxes surely Ron's sacrifice in book 1 was going to come around again. And then you have Rowling teasing us before the release saying someone big is going to die. And then the utter disappointment when we found out it was Snape. Someone who not only wasn't a big of a death as Dumbledore, but whose death was just as predictable as Ron's should have been.

 

Ron is the 99%.

I look at it as the wizarding world isn't narnia, the wizarding world is the world the books are set in and muggledom is their narnia.

Hermione comes from freaky muggle land and is a brilliant mind applying all that freaky muggle logic and reason to magic.
Harry is a wayward son who has been in exile in freaky muggle land returning to meet his destiny.

Ron? Ron is the everyman, his loves in life are food, quidditch(football) and wizarding chess(vidya games).
He doesn't really read much but he does read comics, The Adventures of Martin Miggs, the Mad Muggle. More reinforcement about how from the perspective of the books, wizarding world is the regular world and muggle land is the freaky place.

Harry has Voldemort hanging over his head ensuring he'll never fit into the crowd, Hermione has her brains and heritage.
Ron, all Ron has stopping him from stepping back into the faceless masses is whether or not he'll step back from his friends.

Ron is the real hero and ya'll just haters.

 

That may be true, but I always saw Ron in a poor light past the 3rd book. He was the useless sidekick and past PS he never did anything important. In PoA, didn't Hermione step up first? I didn't start reading fanfiction till after the 4th book, but it was the whole jealousy issue in GoF that turned me off to Ron's character.

I always viewed his actions in the 1st/3rd books as his hero-complex. He desperately wants to be a hero like Harry but falls short. I think jbern summed it up for me in TLIL when he called Ron a poor man's Sirius Black.

 

Hermione makes me want to kill puppies through all the books.

 

Ron is a ginger and therefore has no soul. Your argument is invalid.

 

Is this where we move on to discussing our mutual hatred of the whore?

 

Which one?

 

No, this is where you all shut your whore mouths, and be quick about it.

And this is where I agree with this sentiment.

 

So Cedric didn't get to grab the cup with Harry, right?

 

Nope. His only purpose in coming along with Harry was to die. If you're planning to kill off a higher profile character, his death's meaningless.

I suppose you could have him laid out near the finish line, knocked unconscious beyond Harry's ability to revive him (by Crouch, as it turns out).

Like others have mentioned, it wouldn't be easy to write the series from this point forward. By killing his closest friend so soon, instead of the mentor/father figures, you unbalance the story. You've strayed off of the standard young adult hero trope path. There is a standard, cliche hero's path for a reason - it's damn effective storytelling, and we humans seem to be wired (or culturally conditioned) to respond positively to it.

Ultimately, I suppose the post-death Harry would be rather paranoid as well as angry - his best friend killed by someone he trusted, in what he probably considered the safest place on earth. Yeesh, it really does sound like Renegade Cause that way.

 

I honestly think that, while it'd be straying from the established Hero's Path, killing off Ron instead of the father figures would have been better. Sure, it would have been harder to write, but since when is becoming less cliche and predictable a bad tradeoff for a little additional challenge?

 

Unless GoF was changed completely, I cannot see Ron dying in that book. I also think it is too early to kill off a best friend at that point in time. Cedric was just a random bystander; a good first kill.

OOTP, if you still had Sirius die, would be a very bad spot to kill Ron as well. Harry would just lose it.

I think the best place is the beginning of Half Blood Prince. We wouldn't have to deal with dick!Ron and all that emo romance that did not fit. HBP was supposed to be the true start of the war, so why don't you begin it like one. Harry, Ron and Hermione shopping and it is attacked by Death Eaters. Ron jumps in front of a curse to save Harry/Hermione and promptly dies.

How would you feel if you were reading HBP and one of the Trio was killed off within the first five chapters? I would be devastated and completely engrossed with the book.