#(the fact that the protagonist's being bullied influences his choice to improve himself does not mean that it was a positive thing)

[isfjmel-phleg]

but is it even possible to write a review of an early PGW book without comparing it (unfavorably, of course) to Jeeves and/or Blandings (the only books this man wrote!) and affectedly mimicking Woosteresque slang?

[hillnerd]

Hi, I was reading an ask you answered on shipping and you mentioned that people don’t like the weasleys due to classism, which I’ve never thought of but definitely makes sense. Have you made any posts that expand on this? I’d be interested to read more

You know, I believe I haven’t made any long posts regarding this issue. Time to remedy that, eh?

I suppose it’s important to define what classism is and how it instructs our views on things in the first place.

It’s defined as: “prejudice against or in favor of people belonging to a particular social class.”

Classism is very much built into our social fabric, and almost always has. The social classes of Western society (which are the ones I’m dealing with as this is an HP post) have been highly structured for thousands of years. The names and qualifications may have altered over time, but in general there are always about 4-5 social classes.  Elite, Middle, Working, Poor being the general layout, with overlaps and extra subsets within each class.

On some level we are taught that ‘money doesn’t mean everything’- but that is constantly undermined by the continuance of the classist messages put forth in media and advertisements. We are bombarded by images of success meaning accumulated wealth. Every time there’s another holiday businesses can exploit for profit, they will trot out advertisements for cars, jewelry, toys, homes etc. And we’re supposed to buy into that mindset- to find objects to display our very worth, and convey worth to others. It’s ‘sexy’ to be ‘successful’ in these ways.

In fandoms there are certain tropes people gravitate to- and the rich man with nothing but time on his hands to shower his lover in riches? That is a highly beloved trope. Mournful giant mansions are ever so much more ‘interesting’ than a working class farmhouse.

Which brings us round to the Weasleys. They are very coded as working class/lower middle class, as well as ‘normal’ when it comes to looks, and red haired (which between their great numbers and red hair read as Irish Catholic to many audiences.) The father is tall, skinny and balding, the bother is short overweight and overworked. This is not the vision of ‘sexy and succesful’ we are told are the height of accomplishment. They aren’t glamourous, wealthy, or traditionally good looking. We know the Weasley kids all must deal with the reality of coming from a poor family. The twins bemoan the price of books in CoS, and we see Percy angry about his father’s lack of reputation- but the only child we see consistently dealing with the consequences of this poverty is Ron.

The consequences of being poor, and from a large family, are evident in many ways- and from the get go Ron is the only one we get to see them with.

The ‘look’ of wealth:

He’s in scruffy hand me downs, doesn’t have extra money to spend on things like sweets, has a fat old rat as a pet, and a wand that’s not even his own. This is all well and good when you’re eleven- but as he grows up, in some ways he’s expected to ‘be cooler’ ‘be sexier’ ‘be more together’- so when he’s still gangly, freckled, in crap clothes with a silly owl- well it’s not the sexy picture of wealth and success.

The confidence of wealth that comes with curating your life:

The confidence of wealth is something people expect others to exude as well. If you can’t be wealthy, then you’re supposed to at least be incredibly confident and self assured. The luxury of choice is denied Ron. He’s unable to have choices about anything, because it’s either except what you’re given, or go without (jumpers, sandwiches, pets, broken wands, dress robes, brooms etc). Ron is unable to curate his life at all. He can’t pick and choose much- and this comes across as ‘childish’ or ‘lazy’ to some. He is unable to be self actualized due to his wealth status (And the fact that he’s a teenage boy), and this is further compounded by the fact that he’s from a large family where all paths of selfactualization he could take, have already been taken- thus undermining anything he hopes to accomplish for himself until he’s out of school, minimum.

Classism as a means of bullying:

Ron is the only Weasley to be consistently mocked and belittled for his wealth status throughout the series. When we first meet Ron, Immediately his class is thrown in his face by Malfoy- and this is continued- coming to a head with the ‘Weasley is our King’ song, where he is sung at about how poor he is.

The emotional consequences of poverty are written off:

The poor are allowed to be poor as long as they never complain. But the moment they do, there tends to be a view of this as not only weak, but ‘ungrateful.’ How dare they not be happy to have what they have? How dare they not dociley and silently improve their status so we don’t have to hear them complain anymore?

Workingclass stereotypes at play:

Working class stereotypes are very much at play, especially when it comes to how people perceive Ron. Uncultured, stupid, lazy, violent, wife beaters etc. You see fandom littered with this view of him. And then it also likes to paint the Weasley women as the shrewish, provoking nag.

In some ways the Weasleys do fit into these stereotypes- the Weasleys are ready for a physical fight many times in the books, Mrs Weasley can be the nagging wife/mother stereotype, none of the youngest Weasleys are seen as erudite library lovers and instead are more sporty, and many of the Weasleys aren’t particularly motivated about school.

Rough and tumble is quickly painted as problematic and dangerous. Jovial and sporty is quickly painted as uncultured and lacking in intellectual pursuits. Lovingly protective is quickly painted as controlling and harmful. Being laid back about certain goals suddenly makes them lazy.

The thing is, when these same features come from other characters, they are not generally seen in that way.

Draco and his family are a prime example of that. The framing of these two families by fandom is tied to closely with class distinctions:

They are constantly threatening violence, both with fists (even if they are hired thugs) and wands- yet they aren’t painted as particularly prone towards violence.

Draco is never shown as particularly intelligent or learned- yet is portrayed that way by fandom despite his lack of accomplishments. His barbs aren’t even very intelligent- they’re just mean and sarcastic.

The Malfoys actually are controlling and harmful- they’ve abused house elves, threaten people left and right, and are highly influential- but that’s seemingly not as big a crime as Molly Weasley worrying over her children?

Draco is so supremely lazy he goes out of his way to have servants do things for him- including Ron in PoA- he does not earn his way onto te quidditch team- it’s given to him, along with new brooms for everyone. Yet Ron is seen as lazy because he’s not a school nerd, and Draco an erudite because he sarcastically comes up with barbs on the sidelines.

Meanwhile the Weasleys are fighting for justice, all of them are proving their intelligence and grit every book, the Weasleys are so loving and helpful that they take in other people (Harry and Hermione), are the ones making the parties at Gryffindor tower awesome, and are the main caretakers for the whole Order. They earn everything they ever have (with the exception being when Percy is handed a position in ootp  so they can manipulate him) and work hard to achieve everything they do. Ron puts in the time with his sweat and body- but it’s rarely recognized.

Classist tropes heavily enforced in the films

Steve Kloves heavily changed the Weasleys in the movies. He simplified them, made them pretty stupid, lazy, unloyal, and fearful. They are the bravest family in the books, but in the films it’s not really touched on. He loves making them look a joke, though. The films played heavily into classist tropes of dumb/funny poor people basically being kept around to amuse the middle and upper class.

It’s rare the actual merit of the Weasleys was shown, and so it re-enforced the stereoptypes people already had. Basically look up any ‘irish stereotype’ and it is heavily applied to the working class- and it seems this continues with the Weasleys.

Technically, with Arthur’s job, they are considered low middle class in many ways. He has a job that touches on the political, he knows people and has some modicum of influence. They own property. They are the ‘noble poor’ (which is very much set apart from the truly impoverished like Lupin,  problematic poor who are criminals and snatchers, or the slave-class poor of the elves.)

They struggle, though, to balance it all out- and in the films we see little of their merits. They are played for jokes throughout most of the series, and are rather cartoonish.

The actors are all very good- but they were given a script and followed it- and in the script it very much dictates buffoonery and silliness is the rule of the day for the Weasleys the majority of the time. When they are not cartoons, they are to stand idly and cry as they are victimized/put in danger (literally every single film with Ron) much of the fire is taken out of Mr Weasley in is Arthur v Lucius scenes, They just stand around as their home is burnt down. We don’t see any of them fight successfully except Molly Weasley, and few throwaway spells by Ginny and Ron towards the end of the series. Like… They are not shown as intelligent, fearsome, or important to the narrative/Harry much at all, despite their significance in the series. They’re window dressing, but not actual people.

The Malfoys are given more gravitas and reality, by contrast- and they added in moments of humanity and heroism even (such as the deleted scene of Draco tossing Harry his wand.)

Same for Curse Child. Draco’s journey as a father is important to the play- his son is one of the protagonists- meanwhile Ron is basically pure comedy, Ginny is quiet, and Rose is snotty and barely present.

CONCLUSION

Overall the treatment we’ve seen of the Weasleys both in the films, the play, and fandom shows a disdain/ambivalence towards them that seems steeped in the traditions of classism towards the working class. They’ve become a bunch of Punch and Judys, or bystanders, while the rest of the main cast is afforded a bit more dignity and gravitas. Their importance and power are minimized, and their internal struggles are minimized so that when they DO come up they are seen as out of nowhere (sometimes even mean), their cartoonishness is emphasized- and their overall character arcs/journeys are treated as jokes, because that is how the working class is treated in society.  I find it interesting that as JKR became more and more removed from the world of poverty she knew, the more cartoonish moments were added to the Weasleys. :P Just sayin’. She obviously still cares about them, but there is a difference in their treatment from the earlier books to the later in many ways- especially Ron- not even touching on how she let him be portrayed in the films and play.

[tumblunni]

Bwoop! Cathedral tower defense ideas! Havent really made much damn progress on this game since I havent got a design for the protagonist yet, but at least now I have designs for two of the party members. (Thanks @summon-daze!) So for now lets just have some rambling ideas for potential sidequests you could have with these two!

BRIEF SUMMARY TIME Amity: Protagonist. A gruff and badass wandering priestess whose homeland was destroyed in the war. Now she’s joined another church in a foreign land and is dertermined to defend it against the demons, and never let that tragedy happen again! But she has to win the trust of these strangers first, and teach them how to survive... Florin: First and only party member you begin with at the start, deuterogonist, cute sidekick of sass and pep. He’s a plant type demon who’s haunting Amity for reasons unknown, and refuses to leave! Now she’s stuck trying to get rid of him, while he insists on being annoyingly helpful yet comically lazy at the same time. Also, as an incidental fact, he suffers from narcolepsy. Malachi: Optional party member, and the only other demon in the cast. An adorable little choir boy who doesn’t seem entirely aware that he’s become a demon. It’d be cruel to judge him the same as the others, we need to keep him safe! He’s quiet and cuddly and comically oblivious. What do you mean humans don’t enjoy eating rocks??

THUS, SIDEQUEST IDEAS

* Multiple different attempts to get rid of Florin, which all inevitably fail and end up causing him and Amity to become closer buddies. TFW you try to exorcise a guy and end up frolicking through the fields of friendship~! * Similarly, it could be fun to have some silly plans to trick him into being less lazy. Predictably the answer is just gonna be ‘when you’re nicer to him, he actually wants to put in the effort’, but that doesnt mean we cant have some fun shenanigans in the process! * Amity sneaking around trying to spy on Florin and find him doing something evil. He’s GOT to be here to pull off some ultimate plot, right?? Lol, 90% of their friendship is just Amity being suspicious as heck and Florin rudely persisting in being harmless. * A plot where somehow they actually do get separated, and Amity begins to realise how helpful her lil demon sidekick has actually become, and how much she genuinely appreciates him as a friend. Could possibly be that instead of being gone, Florin is ill with some sort of demon sickness and you need to go on a grand quest to save him? or maybe he’s been kidnapped by a villain who wants to use his powers for nefarious purposes, and accuses you of doing the same thing because why on earth else would you pretend to care about this monster? (And then when you rescue him you can have the grumpy excuse that of course you only did it because he’d be dangerous as anyone else’s sidekick. No affection was involved at all!!) * Mysterious flowers are appearing around the cathedral, and Amity starts to suspect that Florin is setting up some sort of evil demon plan. But she actually discovers that this is a sign of how much he’s genuinely begun caring about the other npcs, he’s been paying attention to their troubles and secretly giving them the flowers he thinks they’d most like, without wanting to take any credit for it. So you get a sassy friendship scene of Amity blackmailing him by threatening to reveal he’s been being nice! Thus florin gains the bonus skill of opening a little flower store. (And blushing himself to death every time anyone says thank you) * A conflict between Amity and Florin, where she accuses him of just being lazy as always, but this time he really was trying! He started off not caring about anyone, and only working when it benefitted him, but now he’s working his butt off and has become really self-concious about the fact he’s not really able to keep up with the rest of the party. And so he ends up talking about his narcolepsy problem with her, and if they have enough friendship points she starts being more considerate and trying to help him out with it. And maybe unlocks a longer quest chain of improving the home base’s medical facilities? * Florin hibernates in winter, everyone has to cope without him and realises how much they miss him. Like a repeat of the earlier quest where he’s kidnapped, but this is a new perspective on how Amity feels about it now they’ve been close friends for a while. And also how everyone else around the church feels. Maybe a plot of them all deciding to write down letters for him to read when he wakes up? And maybe tensions getting high when some sort of disaster happens, and Amity is like ‘oh god i dont want to have to tell Florin that this place fell apart without him’. (With it being up to player choice whether you include the bad points in the letter, or try and hide it from him.) * A potential bad ending for Florin, and how things continue afterwards. I think he’d be one of the characters who (initially at least) doesnt die when defeated in battle. If he’s taken out, he’s just near-mortally wounded and recovers after a very tense period where he’s in a coma. And then the plot explores everyone’s feelings at almost losing him, and his own feelings of uselessness now he’s too injured to go back to the fight. And because malachi can become like an adoptive brother to florin, they can still have a happy ending together even if florin has been removed from the party like this. He retires to take care of his lil bro full time, and he doesnt worry about feeling useless when he knows he’s got someone who thinks the world of him. And Malachi can inherit some of his skills and equipment since now Florin can devote all his time to tutoring him into taking up his former place in the army. * Oh, and of course Malachi’s recruitment sidequest! You’d first encounter him as a feral rock beast in a dungeon somewhere, and there’s a conflict between Amity and Florin because she believes this thing needs to be destroyed and he insists that they can redeem it. He can sense it’s a demon, and its got to be corrupted if it’s going wild like this! But Amity believes that demons are inherantly evil, so this one’s behaviour isnt unusual like florin thinks. She’s aknowledged that florin isn’t evil, but she still feels he’s an exception amoung demons! But eventually she’s convinced to take a chance on florin’s convictions, because its rare for him to be so un-lazy about something, and to defend something even at the risk of his own life. So they manage to find a way to purify the monster, and find out that it was a very young child, underneath all that scary rock armour. So if they’d slain it without a second thought, they would have committed an unforgiveable sin... * Malachi’s next sidequest would be convincing him to leave the ruins and come home with them, while exploring the dungeon to try and find out what exactly happened to turn such a sweet kid into a demon. (Not to mention the fact he was absolutely crazed with corruption!) I don’t wanna spoil the ending to this, but I have a lot of Sad Ideas for this charrie, hee hee~ * A potential plotline that once Malachi joins the church base, he could have trouble making friends with the normal human children. I Had an idea of a bully character who’d get redeemed and ultimately become accepted as his friend after a big ol sad apology scene, and then they become this misfit buddies duo. And the ostracization from the other kids doesnt hurt as much when he’s got this tough former-bully lady defending him against her former-comrades. * And he also grows closer to Florin as theyre the only two demons, and florin was the one who saved him. Plus they both enjoy sitting buried in the flowerbed and eating dirt! I think the relationship wouldnt start off this close though, Mal would initially be scared of Florin. Since he doesnt know that he himself is a demon, he just thinks florin is the only demon and he has much the same fears as Amity once had when the story began. But it could be more comical, because its inherantly silly when you have this kid with giant horns yelling ‘ITS A DEMON’ and hiding behind the couch XD And eventually he does grow to love florin like a parent, but he’s still comically oblivious. He just decides that florin ISNT a demon, of course! He’s just... a little more green than other people!! * Possibly a plot of everyone holding a funeral for malachi to cheer him up, since he never had one when he died as a human. But since malachi doesnt comprehend the whole concept, he’s just like ‘when normal people get put in the ground they sleep forever, why did i wake up? is it because i never got tucked in like they did?’ And then it could be funny like bender’s fake funeral in futurama, but also a bit bittersweet and sad and heartwarming. * Sudden panic! Malachi accidentally calls florin ‘dad’, and florin FREAKS THE FRICKLE FRACK OUT! ‘I’m not a good influence, amity! aaaaa!!!’ Worries too much about not being good enough, maybe comically tries to change his personality into a generic sitcom father and malachi is like ‘wtf’ * Possibly a plot about malachi and florin bonding as demons, and figuring out what being demons even necessarily means. I’m thinking florin might be a bit scared by seeing how malachi can sometimes hulk out and run on pure instinct. Its such a huge contrast that this sweet kind child can have such bloodthirstiness inside him, he doesnt understand how malachi seems to enjoy fighting. And he doesnt understand how malachi can think he can control it! He gets a bit scared that this means the fighting side of him is the real side, and the childlike side is just a front, just a lie like everyone says demons manipulate everyone. And does this mean that florin himself is the same? Is he just deluding himself that he can be good? So the resolution is florin being able to accept that both parts of malachi are still malachi, and its completely possible to have both sides without being evil. It is indeed in the nature of demons to fight, but they dont enjoy destruction or evil, its not like holding back some horrible monster who’ll murder everyone you love. And florin has always been holding back this side, he’s been afraid of using his powers too much, worrying he only exists to kill. Malachi helps him accept that his powers have equal potential to heal and to harm, and that it IS possible to control them, that the choice between good and evil is indeed his own choice. At the same time this helps malachi accept that he is indeed a demon, and cope with remembering his horrifying backstory. Knowing that he isnt alone, and that demons dont have to be evil, he’ll be able to be okay, and he has this other demon friend who can help him though it. And they’re able to work out the whole Fearsome Demonic Instincts by doing some playfight sparring together like total dorks XD If you’re worried about your sense of control, then never using your powers wont help! Gotta actually practise! * Possibly florin officially adopting malachi as his son, and its possible for the player to expand out and make more bases once you’ve fully upgraded the cathedral. And maybe florin could become the boss of this new place, and turn it into like an orphange for malachi and others? it could be a big sign of his character development that he’s come this far! Also it could just be hilarious to imagine how baffled travellers would be. “Aaaa there’s a demon and he’s... looking after small children??” “We must rescue the small children from that horrible demon and take them to the orphanage!” *knocks on the door and its florin again*