Reflection and Analysis

Harry Potter - Ron Weasley - Polarizing Character (12/8/2021)

Is Ron held to a higher standard than Harry and Hermione by fandom?

That's an argument I saw a fan of Ron's character put forth on the Good Reads question of "Does anyone else not like Ron Weasley?", yet I find it an interesting question because what they mean when they say this is that fans favor Harry and Hermione by ignoring their character flaws because—as one fan put it so bluntly—it's apparently unfair to bash Ron and not the other two. Yet, in the same regard, I see them holding Ron to a higher standard in that the things he does wrong are brushed off in ways they shouldn't be.

In fact, I think in discussing Ron's character it should be emphasized that in saying Ron is a highly flawed character that the person isn't saying Harry and Hermione don't have their flaws.

The other issue is, is bringing up the flaws of other characters a justifiable counterargument? Not if the argument runs along the lines of not letting others point out a character's flaws and treating anybody who does as if they are a hater. There is, I admit, some merit to trying to argue that Harry and Hermione were just as crappy friends with Ron as Ron was to them, yet in order to do that you've got to do more than point out times, Harry and Hermione were crappy to Ron and compare and contrast them without taking the incident out of context.

For example, fans of Ron love pointing out when Hermione sicked a flock of conjured birds on him, only to conveniently leave out the fact she'd conjured the birds before Ron showed up, but this is done because the former presents Hermione as intentionally summoning the birds to attack Ron when in reality they were already there. The argument also ignores the fact Hermione was retaliating against something crappy Ron did—ignoring both her and his girlfriend just to spite Hermione. Yet, Ron supporters frame it as her doing it out of jealousy rather than a result of Ron's actual crappy behavior.

One of the other things left out is the fact—well, there is a difference between the crappy things Ron does and the things Harry and Hermione do, in that Ron does things that would actually result in people in real life walking out on a friendship, yet the same can't be said about Harry and Hermione, If there was an incident that I can't think of, it's also important to note that their behavior changed, whereas Ron's behavior never changes.

And then there are the ones claiming he had it as bad as Harry, who was an orphan who grew up in an emotionally abusive household, that him being overshadowed by everyone was—

Like, no.

As someone else said in that particular thread, Ron blamed everyone but himself for his lot in life. He actively choose to do nothing about it and he actively choose to hold other people's success against them simply because he wanted their success so that he could get what comes with that—the attention and other perks. Only when he realizes some of the negatives—you could be killed—did he come back to Harry.

Oh, and people like to blame the movies for why Ron looks bad, yet as someone who actually prefers Ron in the movies compared to the books, I don't think this is the case. I think the movies actually soften a lot of his behavior in the books. There are points in the books which are also missing from the movies.

I'm also floored with people pointing out Ron's age as an excuse for his behavior as if he's not at all responsible for his actions. It's like, "so what if Ron is constantly being ungrateful to his mother for everything she does simply because she forgets he doesn't like the color red or that he hates corned beef and doesn't make him a different colored sweater or make him bacon sandwiches and everyone else the cheaper corned beef ones.

Mind you.

There are children who honestly don't realize how lucky they are and covet what others have. They're not in the majority. Actually, this is considered developmentally normal behavior for toddlers, with most having their ah-hah moment regarding this matter by the time they hit their preteens. For those who don't, they usually have an ah-hah moment in their preteens or early teens, yet Ron never has an ah-hah moment.

And—another thing which comes up an argument in other places is that he's not a spoiled brat, not a coward and not ungrateful simply because he was dealing with his insecurities and I'm like—nope.

For starters, being jealous does not equate to having insecurities, and I'm tired—I think I may have already said this, of people claiming that being jealous of others is a form of insecurity. According to Difference Between, "Jealousy is mainly due to external factors whereas Insecurity is often triggered due to internal factors." Every single thing the locket brought up was an external factor, not an internal factor.

It's not ever about not being good enough (that's Neville Longbottom's issue), but always being second best. No, seriously—people are trying to argue that Ron Weasley has the exact same insecurity that Neville has when in reality he's just jealous, yet even if this were the case—if Ron really did have insecurities—that doesn't change the fact jealousy/insecurities made him act like a spoiled brat, a coward and an ungrateful child.

Yet, because he's insecure (jealous actually), we're told he's not any of these things. Like, no. Ron is definitely ungrateful for what he has. He is definitely a spoiled brat who expects his mother to make an exception for him with the sweaters and sandwiches despite not doing this for any of the other children. He definitely did some very cowardly things that we wouldn't have seen from Harry, Hermione, let alone Luna, Neville or Ginny do.

We're supposed to, though, treat Ron who is an exception to the rule when it comes to behavior as an exception to the rule when it comes to judging his behavior.

Truth be told, my issue with Ron lies more with his fanbase than Ron as a character, because he's a great character to work with in regards to potential character growth. However, because he's is what he is, there is the potential to be falsely accused of character bashing simply because we're writing Ron as he is in canon.