Dude, as the guy who Vash once called the "Beast of Eternal Fail," let me give you some advice: dial it the fuck down. DLP isn't serious business, and your macho talk doesn't come off as tough guy, it comes off as faux tough guy. Take a chill pill, seriously.

OT: Bill Door said it better than I ever could. Ron is probably my second favorite character in the franchise, behind only Hermione, and I think the Ron-hate is way overdone by the fandom in general. Like Seratin said, it's so five years ago.

 

God damn. The amount of rampant stupidity and FF.net level drivel being bandied about in this thread is unbelievable.

Take your baseless hate and go back to FFN. The circle-jerking masses there will welcome your opinions with open arms and we won't have to listen to you. It's a win-win situation.

DLP has its share of dislike for various characters, be it Ron or Hermione or canon Harry or Snape, but the level of mindless bullshit about Ron you are spouting and trying to convince us of is far beyond reasonable. So cite specific sources in the books for your arguments or shut the hell up, because no one here cares about the fanon that you feel the need to adhere to.

 

Cenares, I'm sure you mean well, but your resistance to other people's logical reasoning is painting you in a bad light. Whether or not Ron is the best or worst of teenagers, the fact remains that he was young and foolish, and made many mistakes as did Harry and even Hermione in the series.

How many times did Harry do the wrong thing when speaking to girls? Ginny and Cho aside, how awfully did he handle the Yule Ball date with Parvati? Granted, Ron screwed it up as well, but Harry is not infallible, and while he is perhaps graded higher on a moral scale, he's really not that much different than his best friend. Ron does not try his hardest in school, but neither does Harry. Harry could have easily done more to better himself, and yet you find no fault with him for meandering in and out of good and bad luck throughout the series?

Ron had no chance with Fleur, and most likely knew that, but he was susceptible to her charm just like any of the other boys in the school, with the noticeable exception of Harry. His embarrassment afterwards only goes to show that he regrets his decision. He's a schoolboy, and he is written as such to show (and this just my opinion here) the differences between Harry and Ron, where Ron plays the Robin to his Batman. Mediocrity is okay for the back up, especially when it has comical results, but I'm sure Rowling didn't want people to read Harry in that same light.

Of course, you're entitled to your opinion as everyone else is, however, I want to draw attention to one portion of your comments in particular:

Defending your best friend and your sister against a more powerful, extremely intimidating Dark Lord is the very definition of bravery. Would you be able to stand up to someone making an attempt to kill your family? Perhaps you would. Then again, the majority of people in a hostage situation would simply seek to survive at all costs. The fact that he is willing to put himself on the line for another person, no matter how important, is what makes Ron a brave and courageous character. Harry is his friend not because of the mediocre parts of Ron's character, but the good ones, like standing up to his parents and he, Fred and George flying to the Dursley's to steal Harry away, or just standing beside Harry and Hermione in any of their more dangerous exploits despite the fact that, for all intents and purposes, he should be pissing his pants in fear.

It seems you're basing a lot of your dislike for Ron on the simple fact that he was jealous of Harry during the Triwizard Tournament and he skipped out on Hermione and Harry during Deathly Hallows. However, he also apologized to Harry for his behavior in the first situation and came back just in time to save Harry's life during the last book, so I would imagine that Harry is thankful he's still around.

In my personal opinion, Rowling did a great job showing the growth in Ron's character over the series. From annoyed at Hermione's correction of him to saving her from a troll, from scared of spiders to staring down an Acromantula, he grows into a good man, and someone that is actually worthy of Hermione's love and consideration. Oh, and since you said he wouldn't be your friend...

Me and Ron would get fucked up at a Quidditch match, Apparate home, eat some brats that Hermione just cooked in her pussy juices, and I'd still get home in time to fuck Angelina Johnson.

So yeah.

 

You don't want to live on this planet anymore?

Well, that's convenient, because I want to murder you. :awesome

Let's meet up.

 

Out of this thread and the fail it exudes, this stood out to me.

Lol, why? What makes you think Harry thinks in a way even remotely similar to this? I assume it's the hundreds of horrible indy fics you've torn through.

When was the last time you read the books? Or did you read them at all? Maybe you became familiar with Harry Potter through fanfiction, I don't know. But the way you view Ron -and Harry- has little to do with the books, or is stretching their meaning quite a bit.

I always get annoyed when people pick out single or a couple of events throughout the books in order to categorise a character. People don't work like that, and since we're trying to characterise Ron as an actual person, it won't work on him either.

I personally like Ron, because he is the closest to an actual person from the main characters. I can understand what he does and why he does it, and he doesn't make me think "What? No way a kid that age would do that".

My advice: Go without fanfiction for three months, then re-read the books.


Edit: About all that talk about whether Ron is worthy of Hermione- fuck that noise. What is it that entitles Hermione to only the best of the best? Why is it that it is only Ron who must prove himself? Is Hermione some grand prize or whatever? She is not perfect herself, and is in fact the one I like least of the trio.
Damn right Ron is worthy of Hermione, I didn't know that was even an issue until I heard Weasly bashing ramblings for the first time, and it's been annoying me ever since.

 

Fixed that for you, because whether or not I have outgrown my Ron hatred, Ron/Hermione is bullshit.

Personal asshattery done.

That said, Averis is absolutely right in my opinion and said everything I didn't care enough to say.

 

I honestly used to hate Ron and think he was a fairly useless character. Then I realized not everyone can be amazing, even in fiction. While I still wish JFK gave Ron something more than beng good at chess, he still works as the shadow of Harry and to a lesser extent Hermione. So he's in the middle of likability for me.

 

It would be pretty cool if it actually turned out JFK wrote Harry Potter.

 

This is an important realization as a reader and as a writer. If stories only have characters you love and that are good at everything, stories are going to be bad. You need flaws, you need imperfections, you need characters who could be actual motherfucking people. That's why in my mind Ron and Snape are possibly the two best actual characters from the HP books.


Also, Ron's just a fuckin baller man.

 

iPad auto correct man.

 

Ron's just a regular jack-off stealing screentime from the heroes and villains of the series. He's no Harry, he's no Hermione, he's not even a Neville. He's just some hormonal teenage doofus that got swept up in a world of shit, and to be fair he did better than a lot of people would've. If I was in his shoes I probably would've started shopping around for new friends somewhere around book two.

But most of us don't pick up books to read about average fuck-ups doing their mediocre best some of the time. We want heroes, and Ron really isn't one. So fuck him and the horse he rode in on.

 

In that case, you don't want to live on this planet anymore.

Take it from a teenager, it is all true, we get the smart ones to do our homework, we slack off, we all want to be in the sports team, we don't put much effort into things, and, basicly, we react to situations just like Ron would.

But, normally, we end up maturing. That's why teenagers become respectible people. And, by the end of DH, Ron has matured a lot more then most 17/18 year olds I know, with most of them still thinking it's funny to lick a sweet and then give it out.

Ron ends up a mature and yet average teenager.

 

Take the two events out that you mentioned in the second paragraph and yeah, Ron is a pretty good person overall. He's an idiot, but stands up for his friends and family when it counts.

But Ron knew Harry for three years before the tournament. For an entire month, Ron ignored Harry, completely, utterly believing that Harry entered his name for fame he'd professed on multiple occasions he'd trade for his parents in a heartbeat. Jealousy for a few days? A week? Okay, understandable. But a month? It took a dragon nearly killing Harry to change his mind. We have no reason to suspect that had the first task not been for two months, or even three, Ron would've come back and apologised for acting like a completely dickhead before the task.

Abandoning Harry and Hermione in DH when things were pretty much at their worst (no real direction, no progress for weeks)... It's easy to regret leaving, but it's harder to stay when things are tough. I've been abandoned by someone I considered a friend at my lowest moment. To me, when I spoke to them again months later it didn't matter that they apologised then. They left when I needed them the most.

So, take those two events away and I'd probably like Ron. But those two just are too much for me to think "if he were my friend and did that..." that I'd forgive him for. Those two big moments (and they are big, character defining moments) are why I can't bring myself to just like Ron unless fanfiction authors make him grow through the second half of GoF and beyond.

 

Are we forgetting that Ron also had been carrying the locket, thus making him much more vulnerable and weak - this clearly led to him leaving Ron and Hermione. I've always thought that was pretty obvious.

 

Yeah, this was always fairly clear to me -- in fact, Ron outright states in DH that as soon as he put the locket down, his head felt clearer, and that he wanted to apparate back as soon as he left (but of course he couldn't, due to the protections on their campsite).

 

I haven't read DH in at least two years so I freely admit I might be mixing canon with fanon, but I thought the locket amplified thoughts and fears that were already present. Ron was sick of living in a tent with crappy food and no progress being made. He wanted to go find out if Ginny and the rest of his family were okay after overhearing Ginny had been punished severely for attempting to steal Gryffindor's sword from Snape's office despite knowing they couldn't show their faces anywhere remotely public. The locket made him act on that and not leave it all festering inside. Then when he returned, the locket showed him his greatest fear, that Harry and Hermione were together.

The thoughts and fears were already there. He was already sick of living the way they were and had contemplated leaving, but the locket gave him that push to do it.

 

So... now we're crucifying someone for having thoughts and fears? Seems totally fair man.

 

I'm not liking Ron because he did leave. He could've just gone outside for a long walk to cool his head after the fight, but he chose to Apparate away with the knowledge that he wouldn't be able to find his way back. Having thoughts is fine, but he acted on them. He abandoned his friends pretty much at their lowest.

Hermione had the same fear that they weren't accomplishing anything, but she was able to fight the locket. She wasn't happy, but she stuck with Harry through everything, even when she was manically depressed after Ron abandoned them and after breaking Harry's wand. Ron didn't stay.

I'm not saying I have a perfectly sound logic for hating Ron. My perspective is somewhat coloured by my experiences. Again, take out that episode of his life (and to a lesser extent the nonsensical jealousy bit in GoF) and I'm cool with his character. But these two events just make me dislike him.

 

Didn't we just establish that canon itself suggests he did this because the locket had a strong effect? If Hermione had been wearing it, who is to say she wouldn't have left? After all, I'm pretty certain all of them had doubts and worries at that point.

 

Hermione was forced to wear the locket a lot more after Ron left to compensate for the loss of a person in the group and with all that extra time to be influenced she didn't leave, did she? Like I said, even when she extremely depressed Hermione didn't leave and follow Ron. She had to have had much stronger doubts after Ron left, but she still didn't abandon Harry.

Yeah, canon suggests the locket had a stronger effect on Ron. He was most susceptible for whatever reason you want to have: he was weaker-willed or he was the one with the strongest doubts or something else. The fact is he still chose to walk out.

Maybe I get stuck on that fact and don't give other factors enough credit. Whose to say I wouldn't do the same in that situation. But Harry and Hermione stayed through the bad, through the lockets influence. Ron didn't. That's just how I see it.