Hey brother!
J, I recently took to Twitter to get the answer to the question
we have all been wondering since we first heard of the boy who lived,
and that is: is Ron Weasley
completely and utterly
pointless?
Holy cow, was this fascinating!
I think 73% of people were like, DOWNRIGHT FURIOUS with me,
25% of people were like: right?!
And 2% of people thought I said Don Weasley, who apparently is an insurance adjuster in small town, Iowa, so...
But let's talk about Ron Weasley for a second, because
if you're in Camp "Ron had nothing at all and still offered Harry half of his terrible sandwiches,"
Then I counter with Harry's other potential best friend had things maybe gone just a little bit differently:
Draco Malfoy.
Who maybe didn't have any spare sandwiches to hand out
But does offer Harry a hand in friendship.
Now before everybody goes and loses their heads
Let me just say that absolutely not, Harry was just never going to be friends with Draco; they're basically polar opposites
But do you wanna who Draco is not the opposite of? Ron Weasley.
I mean seriously Harry has no family; and Ron and Malfoy are basically defined by theirs.
"And I'm Malfoy, Draco Malfoy."
"You must be a Weasley."
And everyone loves to point out how much Ron helps us the readers understand the Wizarding World thanks to all of his exposition.
"That's wizards' chess."
"That's an invisibility cloak!"
"Mum used to read me those: "Babbity Rabbity and the Cackling Stump."
Thank you, Ron I-know-exactly-what-that-is Weasley.
And the big one everyone was deeply upset was left out of the movies:
Ron explaining,
"You filthy little mudblood."
Now, I will admit that this is one of the moments where the movies do delete a helpful Ron moment.
Where in the movie all they show is Ron trying and failing to defend Hermione's honor and then puking slugs.
But in the books he tries and fails to defend Hermione's honor, pukes slugs, and then kind of eloquently explains
how bad it is to refer to someone as a mudblood.
But either way, Draco clearly could have explained the meaning to Harry himself and probably with fewer slugs.
And significantly less tact...
But moving on to probably the most significant similarity between the two,
in that they are both very insecure
and both very insecure, kind of, at the hands of Harry!
We know from Pottermore and basic common sense that Draco
specifically resents Harry because he is the most talked about and admired person at school.
And of course, Ron already feels overshadowed by the fact that he is the youngest son in a huge family
and that all of his family members are successful, so even if he is successful, it won't matter because, they'll have already done it.
And then he comes to school and his best friend is the most talked about and admired person at school.
All this in TOTAL contrast with Harry's level of humility,
which is kin to an actual yearning desire to be a shadow.
Draco and Ron both go on to be Prefects, somewhat to a Harry's surprise and probably most importantly of all,
Harry totally doesn't mind spiders.
And Ron and Malfoy both HATE spiders!
In fairness that last one isn't book canon.
Draco isn't even in the same class as Harry when Moody's demonstrating the unforgivable curses.
And if you want to get technical (and you know that I do) in the movie, it's not even a spider.
It's a tailless whip scorpion.
Honestly, I'm just kind of upset that this thing even exists.
I can't be for sure, but I'm pretty sure one lives under my bed.
Anyway, the point is Draco and Ron are not only incredibly similar to each other, but incredibly opposite of Harry.
If anything, Malfoy almost even has the edge in that they're both kind of rich.
But even that points basically moot when you consider Harry grew up like in a cupboard under the stairs with a bunch of spiders he didn't mind at all.
The point is while Ron does offer some contrast to Harry in order to further develop the story,
he's not the only person who fits this criteria, in fact without Ron's warning,
"There wasn't a witch or wizard who went bad who wasn't in Slytherin."
Harry would have walked right into the sorting ceremony with no idea that Slytherin wasn't exactly where he was supposed to be.
"Well if you're sure... GRYFFINDOR!!"
The point is Ron's specific characteristics - just aren't that unique,
but I suppose you could say that those sandwiches came just at exactly at the right time.
Moving past his personal characteristics though, let's just go down his highlight reel!
He does save Hermione from the troll, but is also the reason why he needed to save Hermione from the troll...
"No wonder she hasn't got any friends!"
And she does kind of instruct him on how to do it...
He stops talking to Hermione for half a year because her cat--not Hermione--
But her cat wants to kill his rat that he doesn't even like anyway!
And is secretly a Dark Wizard.
He wins a chess match.
He wants to quit the Quidditch team because he's nervous about a game,
and then yes, does totally crush it.
because Harry manipulated him into crushing it...
He frequently seems to be wearing a chip on his shoulder about his family's financial situation,
which none of the other Weasley children ever seemed to have a problem with.
Although to be fair it does seem like he the only one who gets horrendous dress robes.
He stops talking to Harry for half of the school year because, through no fault of his own,
He had to fight a dragon and mermaids and... hedges...
In the Department of Mysteries, he does make that killer Uranus joke,
which I totally agree, the books would not be the same without.
And of course, he loses his mind Horcrux hunting, abandons his two best friends and just sort of lucks his way back into it.
And hey, who can forget his total contribution to when they infiltrate the Ministry of Magic.
Remember when he totally got separated from everyone right away and couldn't even clear up the atmospheric charm?
And it's somewhere in the Deathly Hallows when the story itself seemed to realize that Ron needed to actually do something...
When it has Ron fake Parseltongue his way into the Chamber of Secrets, where they get some basilisk fangs
and are able to destroy a Horcrux,
which to be fair is actually pretty cool...
even though Hermione technically destroys it.
But like even this moment itself seemed to be totally aware of, like, just how much Ron needed a thing.
"It was Ron's idea. It's completely brilliant."
And then she gave him a shiny gold star and put his homework on the fridge.
And if you're one of those people at home, that's thinking,
"Hey, that's just in the movies. That doesn't totally count."
Well, it might be even worse in the books...
They even put the word "amazing" in italics-- for EMPHASIS
But so we come back to our original question: Is Ron Weasley completely and utterly pointless?
and the answer is absolutely NOT.
Ron represents something oddly familiar that somehow seems out of place in a narrative. He's normal.
He's flawed. Yes, he's insecure but not to the direct detriment of the people around him.
He is all of our best friend, for better or for worse.
In fact, the character of Ron is directly based off of J.K. Rowling's best friend, Shawn Harris.
The same Shawn Harris that the Chamber of Secrets is dedicated to.
It actually gave me chills when I pieced it all together.
"Dedicated to Shawn Harris; getaway driver and foul-weather friend."
Which, one: totally makes me think that Ron's flying car rescue scene was somehow inspired by a true event.
And, two: "foul-weather friend" is kind of an interesting way to phrase it especially, within the context of a dedication.
Because, a foul-weather friend is a "friend that is always there for you in times of hardship.
They offer support, guidance, and a shoulder to cry on. They commiserate and validate your feelings;
yet, when your luck improves, they're nowhere to be seen."
This TOTALLY describes Ron.
Harry's life is hardly lacking in the hardship department.
He's tragically orphaned, raised by people who despised him, he's an outsider in a world he should belong in.
His every action always has a spotlight on it.
His life is constantly in danger, and his name gets put in the Goblet of Fire.
Hardship to the T!
But that last one comes with something to be envious of.
And we see for the first time that Ron is unable to empathize with his best friend's situation
and he turns into a giant basket of suck.
While I understand that I'm currently trying to make the point of Ron's usefulness,
and that doesn't totally seem like it,
This is the first time in the Wizarding world where Harry finds himself without his best friend.
Oh, do we immediately see the effects of Harry without Ron.
He immediately forms a mental block against summoning charms
Harry even describes his time without Ron and Hermione as his best friend as
"having a much less laughter in much more time spent in the library."
We see it again in Deathly Hallows when Ron leaves.
Harry and Hermione's progress screeched to a screaming halt.
They accomplished exactly nothing, are both horribly depressed,
and Harry's wand snaps in half, which maybe has nothing at all to do with Ron's specific absence
But Harry just simply can't express his, like, frustration and upset about this to Hermione
Ron is Harry's best friend.
He is the person he can speak freely and comfortably around.
He is the person who makes Harry better and stronger and happier.
He's the linchpin that holds the trio together and thus making them all better.
Is Ron the traditional hero?
Absolutely not; but Harry can't be either without him.
And so guys that brings me to my question of the day:
Who is your Ron?
Be sure to dedicate a comment to your best friend in the towel section down below.
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If you would like to vote for us as well
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But guys as always thanks so much for liking this video and subscribing to the channel if you haven't already.
If you'd like to see some more Harry Potter action from us
you can click right here to find out why Ron sucks so bad at magic
or right here to find out how Harry is the Philosopher's Stone.
But J. That's all I've got for you today, man. I will see you on Tuesday.