The Harry and Ron Thread

[EmmaEmmaEmma]

[Mr. Pumpkinhead]

The dynamic of the friendship between Harry and Ron kind of gets lost in the rubble of comments on Hermione/Ron and any acknowledgment of a desired Harry/Hermione relationship.  In the books at least  Ron was Harry's best friend.  In the movies, Hermione was the glue for the three, it's the biggest misrepresentation and liberty taken by the writers/directors/producers of the WB series.  In the real story Ron was the glue.  Ron was the one who Harry wished was there when Hermione got on his nerves.  Oh, and could she ever get on his nerves.  Just like with Ron, Harry could be annoyed by Hermione's pestering him about what was right and what was wrong.  Harry also often found Hermione boring.  Ron was the one who would hang out and have a good time with him.  One of the largest differences between Harry and Ron was simply that Ron told Hermione when she annoyed him, while Harry suffered in silence.  So if Ron and Hermione would have needed counseling then so would have Harry and Hermione. 

 

Here's where another issue arises though.  If the books were written largely as they were but JKR had decided to kill Ron late in the series, then would JKR have put Hermione and Harry together?  She did that with the twins.  She killed Fred and got George together with Angelina Johnson.  That always bothered me a bit.  Angelina was Fred's gf in the books.  Twins are unique.  I can honestly say I don't think there was EVER a girl who my twin brother Clifford and I BOTH fell for.  One of my biggest pet-peeves growing up was being compared to/with my twin brother in everything.  We liked who we liked and valued different things and that didn't make us any less close as friends or as twin brothers.  We spent most of the first 20 some odd years of our lives nearly attached at the hip (not literally).  A Harry/Hermione relationship would almost seem like a "pity" relationship, with Hermione feeling bad for Harry having lost Ron and Harry feeling bad for Hermione having lost Ron.  RON WAS THE GLUE.... but the glue would be gone.  What happens when the glues gone?  You have two seperate entities with very little in common.  Thanks JKR... because that's the best material to build a relationship on.

[Luciana]

The dynamic of the friendship between Harry and Ron kind of gets lost in the rubble of comments on Hermione/Ron and any acknowledgment of a desired Harry/Hermione relationship.  In the books at least  Ron was Harry's best friend.  In the movies, Hermione was the glue for the three, it's the biggest misrepresentation and liberty taken by the writers/directors/producers of the WB series.  In the real story Ron was the glue.  Ron was the one who Harry wished was there when Hermione got on his nerves.  Oh, and could she ever get on his nerves.  Just like with Ron, Harry could be annoyed by Hermione's pestering him about what was right and what was wrong.  Harry also often found Hermione boring.  Ron was the one who would hang out and have a good time with him.  One of the largest differences between Harry and Ron was simply that Ron told Hermione when she annoyed him, while Harry suffered in silence.  So if Ron and Hermione would have needed counseling then so would have Harry and Hermione. 

 

Here's where another issue arises though.  If the books were written largely as they were but JKR had decided to kill Ron late in the series, then would JKR have put Hermione and Harry together?  She did that with the twins.  She killed Fred and got George together with Angelina Johnson.  That always bothered me a bit.  Angelina was Fred's gf in the books.  Twins are unique.  I can honestly say I don't think there was EVER a girl who my twin brother Clifford and I BOTH fell for.  One of my biggest pet-peeves growing up was being compared to/with my twin brother in everything.  We liked who we liked and valued different things and that didn't make us any less close as friends or as twin brothers.  We spent most of the first 20 some odd years of our lives nearly attached at the hip (not literally).  A Harry/Hermione relationship would almost seem like a "pity" relationship, with Hermione feeling bad for Harry having lost Ron and Harry feeling bad for Hermione having lost Ron.  RON WAS THE GLUE.... but the glue would be gone.  What happens when the glues gone?  You have two seperate entities with very little in common.  Thanks JKR... because that's the best material to build a relationship on.

This!!!!! Ron was always the connection between Harry and Hermione. That is what I hated about the films, it seemed like Harry and Hermione were closer, when  the closer ones were Ron and Harry. 

[rhrshipper]

This!!!!! Ron was always the connection between Harry and Hermione. That is what I hated about the films, it seemed like Harry and Hermione were closer, when  the closer ones were Ron and Harry. 

 

True.. I hated the movies for portraying Ron as a whimpering and cowardly sidekick. What enraged me the most was when in PoA. Ron's character defining confrontation with Sirius in the Shrieking Shack where he stands up on his broken leg and yells" If you want to kill Harry, you will have to kill us too", was stolen and given to Hermione. Ron was instead left to cower in a corner of the room, which is such an injustice to the character.

 

If JKR's comments are true, then it would be the very creator who would also be showing injustice to Ron.

[Mr. Pumpkinhead]

Harry is also portrayed poorly in all of this.  Now the "hero" rebuff's his best friend, rebuff's his best friend's sister and steal's his best friend's girl.  Maybe Harry should have been sorted into Slytherin House. 

 

That's not the Harry I thought I knew though.  I thought Harry was a loyal and honorable friend. 

 

The biggest stepping stone for me is that I take JKR's comments and apply them to the story I know.  I'm sure that if she had made a decision to put Harry and Hermione together, that it would have been so without stepping all over Ron and Ginny.  The problem in expressing the thought, is that the story is there and it's been read.  There isn't an alternate story to reflect on and make me say, "Oh, that would work well".  Therefore not stepping on Ron and Ginny and besmirching them becomes impossible. 

 

It's ironic perhaps that when it was discussed how Ron and Hermione were not "credible"... it wasn't Ron and Hermione who lost their credibility... it was Jo Rowling who lost hers.