Because he's a cunt.

 

Give The Sum of Their Parts a try, it's pretty good.

 

The more I look back, I can't fault Harry and Ron much for their attitude.
Hermione has her good qualities, but sometime she act like Fun Dementor sucking it from the nearby environment and projecting boredom.
Or Hermione is more of the scholar abstract type while Harry and Ron lean toward the practical aspects, they prefer to learn and experience magic through doing (and maybe some reading) rather than just reading.

Add, Hermione is probably has some form eidetic memory, and her studying method is ill suit for people like Harry and Ron.
Without even touching Harry and Ron growing up issues and how it effects their pre-teen and teen school life.

Further at some point quite early the awe, shock and mystery in Hogwarts vanish, they are replace with monotones work to memorize spells, which are probably an atrocious way to introduce you to certain aspects of magic.

It reminds me Mathematics classes in school, especially high school.
They take all the mystery, fun and intrigue in the art known as Math and replace it, with the most boring as possible atrocious result that send people running to the hills, while firmly believe a. they sucks at math, b. Math is their personal boggart.

Chilord had a secret project where Ron and Harry start to explore the world of magic, in more intuitive and creative way, it has much potential.
However it will be never finished, since the Author moved to the next great adventure.

My personal headcanon is that James and Sirius were like this, take the most simple spell like Lumos and play with it, while also mastering it.
Trying to figure to what ways you can stretch it, mutate it and influence it.

Research is involved off course, but there is more practical work.

Another recommendation for Ron and Harry is:
Vash the inhaler, and if I find more i will let people know here.

 

I don't like Ron. That said, the level some people go to to bash him is stupid. If you don't like him, all you need to do is make him and Harry not friends. Ta-da! You've excluded him from the story without looking like a mentally deficient five year old.

 

This is a really good point that almost always gets overlooked: different people learn in different ways. And as we saw in canon, Hermoine's book-smarts don't always translate well into the real world.

Considering how Harry's first meeting/early friendship with Ron all derived from the simple coincidence of running into Ron and his family at the train station while trying to reach Platform 9 3/4, it would be incredibly easy to justify a change in his friends. I imagine Harry at that stage would've made friends with just about anyone who wasn't acting like a poncy twit (so not Draco, obviously).

 

Second thought.
JKR portrayed Ron as Draco Malfoy "light" Equivalent, they forgive Hagrid with his clear open bias, for he is a simple man following Dumbledore.
His hot head attitude, volunteering Harry to the duel in the first year without asking him first.

Lazy attitude, we as readers have issues to reconcile between the idea, Dude you learn magic, why aren't you interested in it, you have the power of creation in the palm of your hand (or tip of your wand).
Yet he doesn't bother much.


There was also the "emotional abuse" he threw at Hermione 3rd year, and the 4th year crap from the night Harry names came up to the Yule Ball.
Note:
In the Movies they portrayed Ron in better light than the books, in the movie he tried to pass the information about dragons through Hermione, in the books it was Hagrid who clued Harry in.

Which has disturbing element into it, Did any of the Weasley bothered to clue Harry that Charley is visiting Hogwarts without violating oaths ?
Unless I remember my canon wrong.

Those are all parts of Ron, but it doesn't touch all his other positives qualities, among them remarking Hermione about her table manners in one of the books.
JKR had something against Ron, and the fandom follows it.

Edit:
One shot of awesome Ron and Trio in general.
https://www.fanfiction.net/s/2565609/174/Odd-Ideas

 

There's a dark!Ron in Lesser Evils, but it doesn't last very long. Shame, because I very much enjoyed the Ron-Harry dynamic there, but (I suppose) space had to be made for the dark triad that is Mulciber, Podmore and Sirius.

 

It's a never-ending loop. When people first use ffn.net and sort by the most favorites/reviews, nearly half the stories that actually include Ron bash him. As a result, people assume that Ron bashing is a popular trope and write it in their own fics, and slowly slipping away from the canon version of Ron, who for all his faults was a great friend.

 

If anyone wants to read a Ron that is actually supportive of Harry during the entire fourth year, go check out Euphoria. (shameless plug)

 

Can confirm. My old roommate didn't think much of Ron, and thus was a bit critical of how I had portrayed him in my fanfics. Then I read him the great quotes of Ron from the Hospital Wing scene at the end of PS, and he was like "Oh, I see. Ron's actually great." Eventually he realized it wasn't the books that made him hate Ron, but the fanfiction he had read online. These days if I see Ron "bashing", it better make goddamn sense and be a quality story otherwise, or that's the end of my reading it.

 

I do dislike Ron, because at times I think he can be sexist. The way he reacted after Hermione goes with Viktor to the Yule Ball and how he kept inserting himself into Ginny's lovelife was so hypocritical. Maybe I wouldn't mind if Harry or someone else ever called him out on it, but it's always on Hermione or Ginny. I can't recall him ever apologizing for any of these incidents either. I don't think I've ever seen anyone else make this comment about Ron though, so I think this might be a minority/only my opinion.

 

I agree jealousy plays a big part in both the incidents I mentioned, especially the Yule Ball (although I don't know if Ron had a crush on Hermione at that point considering he didn't even think she could go with someone to the dance until the last minute). But it was just so low of him to talk/yell at Hermione like he did. He tries so many different angles (Krum is only using her to get info on Harry, Krum's using her to get help on the tournament, another thing we don't hear because Harry walks in on their argument too late) it's obvious he's just trying to make her feel bad. Ron asks out the Beauxbatons champion, why is Hermione going out with the Durmstrang champion so terrible? He's got a different standard for Hermione, which I found very disappointing. Another of his characteristics is he looks down on creatures. He accepts the inferior position of house elves (they love serving guys!), when he finds out that Lupin’s werewolf his reaction is not only scared but also disgusted (Don’t touch me!) and he is clearly very uncomfortable finding out that Hagrid is half-giant (giants are wild and savage).

 

The thing is, house elves do love serving. It's enjoyable to them as maybe watching a movie is to us and they find purpose in it. Most Purebloods and Half-Bloods have already accepted that as a normal part of their world, so it's not just Ron. Regarding Lupin and Hagrid, I'd say that it's completely normal given that he'd been brought up in the wizarding world, which stigmatizes werewolves, giants, and a whole lot of other creatures. The fact that he's able to overcome these stigmas and become friends with them is what separates him from someone like Umbridge, who actively hate such creatures and goes out of her way to inconvenience them.

 

Did you just skim the books or something?

 

Thread is hilarious.

I’m starting to think that most people who either have a problem with canon-Ron or canon-Hermione simply don’t understand how friendships work.

Harry didn’t pivot off his path to magical mastery because he met Ron on the train and became lazy by osmosis, he was never headed there in the first place.

And that’s okay.

It’s funny to think that making Harry friends with studious/more intelligent people would influence him to be more dedicated to his learning when years with Hermione failed to do so.

 

Hermione does not have the personality to inspire peer pressure in anyone, let alone in Harry.

Ron does, though. Because he was normal and relaxed and fun. So, don't get rid of Ron. Get rid of Hagrid (who kinda discouraged him from reading advanced things) or Hermione and replace them with someone fun and relaxed who likes to learn.

Problem solved.

 

Ron loafs around and influences Harry to be a worse student — going from an enthusiastic learner to someone who just muddles through due solely to Ron’s active dislike of intelligence. Also people are saying he’s loyal, but he’s not. He betrays and leaves his friends whenever things don’t go his way — he comes back eventually, sure, but that’s not loyalty, that’s shame.

 

Harry never really had that enthusiasm in the first place, so don't know where you got that from. He didn't bother reading through the potions book at the start of first year, prior to meeting Ron, hence failing to answer any of Snape's questions.

His 'betrayal' during the Horcrux hunt - can you blame him? Being influenced by the Horcrux and being worried about his family does not constitute as betrayal. Sure, he was an arse, but he still came back once he realized his mistakes, making him a loyal arse. Shame isn't strong enough to make one leave the safe comforts of his house (with hot meals and everything) in order to join his friends on a miserable journey of hardships.