#ron meta

[pangaeaseas]

was rereading the Tottenham court road scene from DH and a couple things stuck out to me: the Death Eaters being able to blend into Muggle society ok (which makes me think there was probably some kind of task force where death eaters who could blend were assigned to missions where they'd have to. and that there were probably more muggle-passing death eaters than we might assume--more Snapes than Luciuses potentially. at least dolohov and thorfinn Rowle are at least able to briefly pretend to be muggles.)

and also the trio dynamics.

Hermione was the one who initially took control by packing and planning and disapparating them. Ron is the one who immediately wants to connect with his family and the broader WW (foreshadowing obvs but also he's the one with the most ties to society and the one who has yet to let go of his family while Harry never had a family and Hermione has ruthlessly cut hers off). But when the Death Eaters attack Harry is the one who takes the lead, not Hermione. She and Ron are unprepared whereas Harry immediately realizes something is off because he has good instincts, and he's the only one who's really useful in the fight--Hermione lands a spell but it's in the throes of panic. Ron gets immediately incapacitated and Hermione panics and ends up hurting Ron by accident. And then in the aftermath Hermione's still panicking and dismisses ron's actually useful point about identifying the death eaters. while Harry pretty calmly takes control and comes up with a human solution to what to do with them (obliviating them). Ron suggests killing them, but is clearly relieved when Harry comes up with the idea of obliviating them instead (which makes me think that a lot of the Ruthless!Ron portrayals are missing the mark! he doesn't WANT to kill and is happy to do something else if he can avoid it!). and Hermione shudders at the thought of killing them but handles obliviating them just fine--it actually calms her down when she'd been freaking out. And then Harry is the one who continues to lead the group by deciding to go to Grimmauld in the face of the others' objections, even though they suspect there may be a Trace on Harry which caused the death eaters to summon them. just interesting to think about in terms of trio characterization and dynamics!

[ginnyw-potter]

Do you have any thoughts on Ron’s low self confidence?

Oh yeah it's simultaneously so obvious as to why and simultaneously completely unwarranted and I really love that.

Ron sets himself up for prolonged low self-esteem accidentally and it makes his own abilities a real blind spot. When you have five older brothers who are decently smart and accomplished, there is always someone ahead of you or at the very least someone who has done it first and Ron's position is a bit cursed in that sense. The final blow that Ginny ended up being a girl so he doesn't get to be the youngest who is different, he's more of the same but younger, lagging behind etc etc

Now obviously that's only his own view on himself, I think a ton of people see his value. He's always comparing himself to his brothers and because they're all so different to each other they're all excelling at diferent things. Bill and Charlie are always the cool siblings with their jobs. Percy is academically smart in a way Ron wouldn't dare to hope to be. Fred and George are funny and all of them are quite smart.

So going off to Hogwarts, it's going to be the first time he gets any real opportunity to set himself apart and gain confidence in himself and he befriends the only child celebrity (exageration, but you get my point) in the magical world. Ron does impressive things all the time, that are insanely brave and smart but Harry is always that one step ahead. Not because Harry is more skilled at that point, or smarter, but simply because he's marked to be Voldemort's opponent. Ron is very capable but he feels overshadowed understandably but there is no real cause for it. Harry sees Ron's skills and abilities too, but it's difficult to make Ron see.

Harry does help Ron out in subtle ways because he's not going to have deep conversations with his bro but like pretending adding the liquid luck to Ron's cup proves this perfecty. Harry is perfectly confident in Ron's abilities but he also knows he gets into his head so he gives Ron an opportunity to prove himself that eliminates the voice in his Ron's head.

The Weasleys are also socially looked down upon by a lot of the purebloods both for being bloodtraitors and for being poor. Ron may be proud of being a blood traitor, but being poor is absolutely a massive insecurity.

I think as soon as soon as Ron starts at Hogwarts, his family sees how he sets himself apart from his brothers and how capable he is but I don't think he sees it himself. I'm not even sure if he even completely outgrows it. He's always someone's second. He follows Harry to the Auror department and when the dust settles, he goes to work at the WWW. He can never replace Fred, he's never going to step into that role, and I think he ends up being more comfortable not being at the forefront but he's a hard worker in anything and he becomes more confident about his abilities over time

[bluethepineapple]

Ron and the Horcrux: An Alternate Reading

I've read a whole bunch of theories and discussions about why Ron was the most affected by the Horcrux, and I just want to throw my two cents in.

One of the more popular theories seem to be that either the Horcrux was purposely singling him out because it sensed that Ron would destroy it, and another seemed to be that he was carrying much heavier insecurities and burdens than both Harry and Hermione. (This is as I have seen only though.)

I disagree with both.

While Ron did have quite a lot of worries and insecurities, they weren't significantly more than Harry's or Hermione's. Harry had the weight of leadership and the prophecy on his shoulders. Hermione has been entrusted with not only researching the Horcruxes, she was also practically carrying the logistics of their operations at that point. Any failure or mistake on her part could hold dire consequences for the Wizarding World. Ron's fear for his family and his insecurities regarding his relationships with the people he loves isn't more or less of material for the Horcrux, it's simply a different flavor of the same suffering.

No, I think that Ron was simply more VISIBLE in the way he reacted to the pain. And this happened or two reasons. First, Ron is the member of the trio who is most comfortable expressing his emotions. Second, (and more importantly), he was also the only person in the Hunt for whom leaving was actually a legitimate option.

First: Expressing Emotions.

Harry is the type to endure pain in silence. He is used to hurting, and even more used to no one being there when he needed them the most. He learned to not bother asking for help long before Hogwarts, and his time in school did not make that mentally better. He was constantly disbelieved, and he had to finish adventures alone more often than not. Harry is used to just riding out the pain, and that makes emotional outbursts rare for him. This indicates a tendency towards internalization and self-isolation.

In the Hunt, this translates to getting buried under the weight of leadership. It means feeling as if he has to take everything on his own. Even more importantly, it means sitting in that cesspool of toxic emotion until he suffocated. Worst comes to worst, Harry blows up, but until then, it looks like Harry brooding in silence.

Hermione, on the other hand, functions by compartmentalization. She is highly logical, and part of that means that she works best when there is structure. Sometimes that structure is external. Most times though she builds it herself (as we see through her rigid study schedules), and this holds true for her emotions.

She is a highly emotional person, but she also very rarely acts on them. Her slapping Malfoy, setting the canaries on Ron, and attacking him after his return are so shocking both to the readers and her own friends because her emotions are often quite contained. Instead of acting on them in the moment, she channels her feelings through working and solving the problems that elicited the emotions in the first place. And this is only if she decides not to take the high road.

In the Horcrux Hunt, this looks like her constant movement. She keeps planning, brainstorming, managing the food, and ordering both Harry and Ron around. She had a to-do list, and it is through this constant movement and work that she alleviates the possible negative emotions that the Horcrux may have stirred up within her. Aside from the occassional snappishness, the negative effects on her did not result in visible outbursts.

Now to Ron. Ron is a very emotionally expressive guy. Furthermore, he's a loud guy. Coming from a huge family with a lot of competition, being loud is the only way he gets heard. And we see this all throughout the books. He is outspoken with his opinions. If he finds something stupid, he says so. If he is happy, he shows it. If he is nervous, it affects EVERYTHING he does (see: being the Quidditch keeper). Relative to Harry and Hermione, Ron is very much in touch with his emotions, and that makes him very reactive.

And this means, that coupled with the fact that his sore points all have to do with his place in the team, the effect of the Horcrux means loud blow-ups at the people he perceives have slighted him. The targets for his insecurities are RIGHT THERE, and his already short fuse has been made shorter by not only the Horcrux but also the terrible conditions of the Hunt. Ron loses all control of his emotions, and it manifests as anger against the people he strongly feels have not valued him.

Second: The Option of Home

By the time the Horcrux Hunt started, Harry and Hermione don't actually have homes to come back to. Even worse, there is no chance of asylum for either of them. Harry Potter was condemned by a prophecy and is Undesirable#1. The closest he has to a family is the Weasleys, and his presence will place them all in unnecessary danger.

Then not only is Hermione a muggle-born, but she had voluntary removed herself from her parents lives, and she did it in a way that is pretty difficult to return from. Unlike Ron who is believed to still be with his parents, Hermione is very clearly with Harry. Even if she wasn't an Undesirable, she would still have been hunted by virtue of being muggle-born. There really is no place where she could go back to and expect to remain safe.

Ron, on the other hand, while considered a blood-traitor, is STILL pure-blood. In fact, him going home is probably what is safest for his family. It is an option that he and only he ALONE has. Him storming out of the Hunt isn't a sign that he was more affected than most - that happened because HE COULD. He has a family to come back home to, and one with resources to not only support him, but actually keep him safe. Yes, they'd be mad at him, but they also wouldn't turn him away.

Of the three of them, Ron was the only for whom leaving actually made sense.

Conclusion:

While Ron wasn't disproportionately affected by the Horcrux, he did react in the most VISIBLE manner. This led his suffering to be the most visible among the Trio's, but this does not mean that his suffering was necessarily "worse" by any significant degree. Nor does it mean that he was specifically targeted by the Horcrux. Ron blew up because he could. He left because he could. He was angry and he felt that it was the right thing to do.

His arc is about overcoming his insecurities and learning to stay. To attribute his leaving as anything other than his own personal decision is to do a disservice to his character and development.