Man, I don't know what to tell you. It seems you get personally offended by the choice he made under influence of a crazy strong dark object. Cool, I guess, and nobody is saying that Ron's perfect. But he also saved everyone's ass at the end of the day. Should we just ignore that?

 

There you have it, the most important fact of this drama.

 

I don't disagree that Ron matured as a consequence of his choice, finally being able to defeat some of his personal demons and destroy the locket upon his return. Afterwards he's back to being a good character and yeah, saves everyone.

It's probably true that I get offended. Certain seems that way when you think that if I take out that choice he's a decent character. Fact is I hate Ron's choice and I doubt anyone can change that view. But because it is there, I can't like him.

 

Wait, who ever matures out of their own choice?

Childhood and teenagerhood end only when the world reminds you of your place.
That 'choice' you had/will have to become mature is just a kid trying to fit in the cruel world.


Ron's no different, but he did mature at the end.


In any case you are starting to go in circles - 'yes, he did that, but there is also this, and I think that part is more important.'


Ron is a sum of all parts and that's it.
An onion, which is half rotten and the other half good, is just a rotten onion. Whereas a person who is both is only as good as his presentation is and how the parts fit together.


Simply put, Ron has more than one side to him, and calling him hero and tactical genius does him the same disservice as calling him stupid and unreliable. He's simply Ron.

 

I worded that poorly. The experiences Ron had a consequence of his decision enabled him to return more mature that he left. He abandoned his friends, realised what an utterly stupid decision that was, and returned with more value for what he had and more resolve to do what he should have done before. I consider that maturing a bit.

 

He was wanting to save his sister, worried about all of his family, annoyed by all of their lack of progress, and, also, don't forget that Harry practically brushed Ginny's punishment in the forbidden forest off, and he had just heard that something else may have happened to one of the other Weasleys. And it wasn't as if he just stood up and yelled 'I'M LEAVING SO FUCK YOU.', Harry yelled at him to leave and he did, but wanted to come back as soon as he did.

Looking at it this way, his choice is simple and the one I am sure that I and many others would have chosen.

 

Ron's always been one of my favourite characters and one of the most relatable characters in the series. He's no Neville but the growth is good and I always feel like he achieves more against his flaws as a character than Harry by the end, overcoming his demons but not becoming boring or lesser because of it.

I understand what people mean with not being able to forgive Ron though for the two times he really did fuck up.

The GoF incident was bad, but I always felt that the month, particularly toward the end (with Ron laughing at jokes and empathising with Harry before remembering that they're fighting), was more because Ron was stuck in his choice and didn't know how to approach Harry. Something that's very believable and forgiveable in a 14 year old boy. The second is the locket and I feel I can forgive Ron because it was really his character's climax. He was the most susceptible and after he over comes it he goes on to get the girl, and help defeat Voldemort, with confidence in himself.

But, I do see why people sometimes can't like him after that. The characters of Harry Potter are what make it, and with the trio it can be like they're real people that you know and that are whole and complete. It's no good for someone that involved to think well lets weigh up the good and the bad and I'll reach a logical conclusion on the merit of character so-and-so.

It's more like having a close friend who fucks up in a big way, twice. The first you can forgive, but not forget. The second, you can't do either and it just sours your feelings towards him and you're not willing to see him the say way again. I get that.

Myself, I had a similar moment with Hermione. I always liked her and felt she really quickly grew from the obnoxious know-it-all to the girl who ultimately loved her friends more than rules and herself. So I felt really livid in HBP when she says something really callous about Harry attending Aragog's funeral. I don't have the book to hand, but it amounts to 'Hagrid's being stupid for mourning, don't go and comfort him, he'll get over it'. I get that she was thinking about the danger, but I really hated her for being so dismissive and unsympathetic to Hagrid.

 

Quite frankly, I don't blame Ron at all for leaving and neither should any of you. I mean fuck, put yourself in his shoes.

1) From his perspective, it seemed like Harry had no idea what he was doing while they were out camping. And really, he was right. Harry was fucking clueless.
2) His family is in immediate danger and he is gallivanting through the countryside, fruitlessly searching for horcruxes.
3) Harry is almost always being a dick.
4) He secretly fears that the girl he's in love with loves his best friend.
5) There is a war raging, and he's hiding in a tent like a bitch. Weasleys don't sit around hiding in tents when there's a fight to be had.

Now add on the lump of evil soul hanging around his neck, manipulating his thoughts and fears, and it's not at all surprising that he walked out. I would've done the same, especially if my little sister was in trouble.

You can certainly make the argument that Harry and Hermione are better people because they didn't break under the pressure of the locket, but you'd be forgetting one simple thing. With six siblings and two high-profile Dumbledore-supporters for parents, Ron has the most to lose. Harry doesn't have a family to worry about and Hermione's is safely mind-wiped in Australia.

tl;dr

Stop bashing Ron, you pompous cockmongers. You wouldn't have done it differently.

 

So, I herd u liek Hall of Shame.

Oh, we're not quite there yet? That's something, I guess.

"Meh." pretty much describes how I feel about Ron. I don't like him, but I only expend energy hating on him if the result is going to be funny. Otherwise, I don't waste much time thinking about him.

Writing for him can be a bit of a bitch, because I can rarely find anything useful for him to do.
Well, anything useful that I wouldn't rather have Harry or Hermione/insert-romantic-interest-here do, instead.

I guess what you're left with, after that, is the realization that, if they weren't in the middle of a life or death situation, Ron didn't do much except do his "everyman" stuff, like talking about quidditch, bitching about the teachers, classes, and work, and doing all of the above with his mouth full.

 

This is important, and something I had been thinking about overnight when I couldn't get this thread's stupidity out of my head. If you are going to hate on Ron, for screwing up in DH, with the amount of pressures on him, how much more must you have to hate Hermione for all her bullshit in HBP?

Ignoring Harry and pestering him over a book with handwritten notes in it, her dismissive comments about Aragog's funeral as stated above, her "I told you so" attitude at the end, being willing to break her own code of morals over her "love".

Let's face it, in HBP Hermione was at least as much of a self-serving bitch as Ron ever was a jealous prat.

And I pretty much feel about Ron like Warlocke does. I am having a lot of trouble trying to write Ron into my story notes for Flux. He just doesn't do anything interesting most of the time.

 

To be honest I give more allowances for Harry. A combination of me imagining myself as him and making self righteous allowances, but more to do with the fact that he is an orphan who was raised by people who utterly despised what he was. A boy who never had a friend till Hagrid and never seemed to have received any love nor affection in any time he could remember in child hood. A boy denied even a bedroom until his family thought someone found out. A boy constantly harassed by his cousin and his cousins friends. I will make allowance for him not having any social graces or hell even if he did something mean, or hurtful, or thoughtless to a friend. Because he has never had friends and wouldn't know the proper way to act. The Dursely no doubt never encouraged his learning and most likely made it not matter. So I can forgive his lack of study habits especially when he is following his best friends lead. I honestly cannot make the same allowance for Ron who is from a good albeit poor family. Ron has had good roll models in his dad, Bill, Charlie Percy, and even to an extent the twins. A normal family who would encourage him and in fact should have taught him all the things he needed to learn in life. As several have stated he is the normal guy. Yet this kid doesn't even stack well against an unloved mistreated orphan. You add two major betrayals to that list and I really can't see anyone singing his praises. Worse yet, for all the talks of him maturing he apparently hasn't matured all that much if he confuded his driver instructor to get his license. He couldn't pass a test that most 16 year olds can and do. As a consequence there now is an untrained wizard driver cruising around in a 2 ton pieced of steel and fiberglass endangering all kinds of muggle lives. I honestly wonder if you have much respect for Hermione if you believe this guy is worthy of her love. To be honest if it wasn't for the epilogue I could see Ron being a drunken failure who's constant bickering with Hermione have led to physical or physiological abuse. That is honestly the kind of person I see him as.

Edit: I would also like to add about this whole Ron maturity thing and say that it was forced and artificial. How did Ron suddenly gain tact, the ability to talk to girls, suddenly being a good boyfriend, and more than the emotional range of a teespoon. He read a book, specifically "Twelve Fail-Safe Ways to Charm Witches". Honestly, if that wasn't a mad scramble to cover up plot holes than I don't know what is. Rowling fucked up and this was how she covered her ass. The sad part of course is that all you Ron fan boys know it to.


The eloquencey of your post has me determined to try to understand further the logical reasoning of some of the others no matter how...strange and seemingly unthought out they may be.

 

This thread is a guy with a trollface avatar blatantly trolling and we're falling for it hook, line and sinker.

Fuck off and throw yourself in a meat grinder, Cenares. You're not welcome here. Do I have the authority to say that on behalf of DLP? No.

Pretty sure I'm not gonna get any massive disagreement though.

 

Congratulations, sir. With this particular statement, you just lost the sole sliver of intellectual credibility you may or may not have garnered in your year-long membership at DLP. You are now cordially invited to get the fuck out of dodge. We do not thank you for your participation.

Have a nice day.

 

Wow... Harry had a shit childhood, so? It dosen't mean the world owes him because of that.

Since you're bringing this up... Ron was actually raised in a household with seven children- well five becuse Bill and Charlie were probably away from home when he was a kid, but still I know from experiance being raised in that kinda home takes away the attention your parents can spend on you, and it seemed that Ginny was slightly, very slightly favored, and that the twins picked on Ron while Percy was distant...

You dont learn this stuff as a child, most of it anyways, you learn about life through life experiances.

Cant be bothered to type anymore.

 

You honestly have no right to call the logical reasoning "strange and unthought out". Your arguments, if they can even be called that, have literally revolved on fanon, the HP wiki, and your own personal opinions. Nothing you have said has any canon basis other than the names of the characters. You can be ignorant and stupid all you want, but to straight up say that other people didn't think out their arguments, something you obviously have not done, is just disrespectful.

 

You're either banging your hands on the keyboard in the hopes that whatever appears on your computer screen is a fully-formed thought, or you're trolling because they blocked you from the BWL thread.

Either way, you need permanent banning.

 

You seem mad that the only way that J.K. thought she could make Ron acting mature and holding a girlfriend believable was to give him a guide book so that he could pretend to be all that he wasn't. Going back to this average man type of thing, do you think the only way for the average 17/18 year old to be mature and hold a girlfriend is to be given a guide book and follow it religiously. So much for the whole be yourself thing, huh?

 

... English much?

 

Impressive deductive reasoning there. That's clearly why I think you're a jackass. Nothing else it could be really.

 

“This isn't your average book, it's pure gold: Twelve Fail-Safe Ways to Charm Witches. Explains everything you need to know about girls. IF only I'd had this last year I'd have known exactly how to get rid of Lavender and I would've known how to get going with... Well Fred and George gave me a copy, and I've learned a lot. You'd be surprised, it's not all about wandwork, either.”
― J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

I'm actually kind of curious as to what wand work is actually in the book.