#which would be fine but well. jkr Didn't Have To Do That To Ron

[wisteria-lodge]

do you think lucius only realize he don't want to be a death eater after voldemort was defeated in the 1st war or even during it?

speaking of what are your thoughts/hc on why narcissa didn't take the dark mark despite her sister and her husband doing it? tbh i always wondered how she could've avoided it? i mean she was part of it right, she was in the meetings too

I always thought it made sense that Draco was a difficult pregnancy.

I say that because Lucius and Narcissa seem like the sort of couple who would have loved more children. Narcissa was close with her sisters before things fell apart, and Lucius was an only child... but he's so social I think that must have been lonely for him. I think he would have loved it if Draco had a younger brother or sister. And the only barrier they'd be dealing with there would be a medical one, so.

(also, I love whenever the the Malfoys and the Weasleys are foils, and the idea of Draco and Ron being born at pretty much the same time - but Ron is one of many, a little neglected, mom is a little disappointed he's not a girl etc. while DRACO is so wanted and so special. That's good stuff.)

I also think that if the Malfoys were dealing with fertility issues, Narcissa suffering, maybe even having a miscarriage - that would have made early-twenties Lucius grow up REAL fast. Because yeah, I do think that when Draco was born - about a year before Voldemort's downfall - Lucius' priorities shifted completely, and he started looking for a way out.

And I say that because Lucius rode the wave of the first war really well, coming out with his money and prestige so intact, which would have taken some planning. Lucius is also one of very few Death Eaters who actually got off using the 'imperius curse' defense. (I think the only other one is Avery.) I like the idea that he did actually plan that. Like - okay. You could have someone you trust (Narcissa, maybe Severus) put the imperius curse on you for a couple months, and that way when you're asked "Were you directed to follow Voldemort's orders under the imperius curse," you can say yes, even if you're under Veritaserum.

(Nott senior also seems to have also come out of the first war basically unscathed, but he also seems much more cautious than Lucius. I'll bet he was very good at making sure that there was never much actual evidence against him. Crabbe and Goyle senior also seem to be doing fine, and I tend to think it's because Lucius got them out (possibly because their wives were close with Narcissa? All three women would have been pregnant at the same time.) Vincent Crabbe and Gregory Goyle are *quite* committed to keeping Draco Malfoy in one piece. I love Draco, but he does spend several books being a little shit with no ability to defend himself, so they do have their work cut out for them.)

I also think a Narcissa who spent the first Voldemort war dealing with pregnancy-related health issues could explain why she doesn't have a Dark Mark, when honestly she really should. Her husband, sister, brother-in-law, underage cousin... they're all getting them. So why was Narcissa skipped (but still allowed to remain in good standing?) I think she she stayed out of the spotlight, using her delicate health as an excuse. And then the second war comes around and she... fades to the background again, makes herself useful, and hopes that the issue never comes up. I don't think she'd say no to a confundus, or even a memory charm if she were really put on the spot.

(but the real, Doylist reason Narcissa doesn't have a Dark Mark is because JKR has a very strong aversion to writing villainous mothers. See: the very odd framing of Merope Gaunt.)

[hollowed-theory-hall]

I’ve heard what jobs you think that Hermione and Harry would be good at. I was wondering what job you think would be a good fit for Ron.

Anonymous asked:

I saw you just did Hermoine’s career and I really love the idea of her being a journalist! I was wondering what you think would be a well, better, career for the rest of the Golden Trio? We know JKR made Harry Head Auror, a choice that I very much disagree with. I personally like the idea of him being a professional quidditch player or the DADA professor a lot more. And for Ron, I believe he also became a high ranking Auror…? Correct me if I’m wrong. I was just wondering what you’d think their better career choices would be!

Talked about Harry here & here.

Talked about Hermione here & here.

So, let's talk about Ron:

I actually like Ron in a ministry position more than either Harry or Hermione. Ron is the member of the trio best suited to work within the system. He is good with people, familiar with how the world works, fine with bending the rules and the corruption here and there, and has the mindset to be able to work within it and make the best of it. He is also the most balanced member of the trio and the one I'd trust the most as minister (kinda discussed here), especially if we give him a few more years to grow into his own.

In semi-canon (because nothing outside of the books is fully canon to me, and the epilogue does not mention their professions), Ron became an Auror with Harry, then, 2 years later, stepped down to join George in Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes. Now, I don't think this is as antithetical to Ron's character as Harry and Hermione's future jobs are.

(For context, Hermione is not Minister material, she is best suited to work in a position that allows her more leeway to bring the change she wants + she isn't a diplomat, she's a "my way or the highway" type of person. Harry, while charismatic, isn't much for working as part of a team. Even within the Golden Trio, he does a lot on his own as he hates asking for help and risking others. This would be even worse if he needs to work with authority and bureaucracy — specifically authority and bureaucracy of a corrupt system he dislikes and disrespects)

I can't say I'm a huge fan of Auror!Ron, since this isn't something he was ever passionate about or interested in. Harry wanted to be an Auror because it's the only thing an adult he respected (at the time at least. He didn't know it was Barty) told him he'd be good at, which is so rare for Harry (in my headcanon, Harry is an Auror program dropout, because it makes sense he'd start as an Auror). Ron doesn't have the same connection to DADA nor the same sense of responsibility Harry does, so it makes even less sense for him. I can see him decide to go to Auror training with Harry, as it's something none of his brothers did, but I do like that he doesn't stay there. I mean, if he does, he'd still keep getting compared to Harry, which I am trying to avoid.

My ideal job for Ron would position him somewhere he won't be compared to Harry or any of his brothers, because that's what he really wants. And if he goes to work in Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes, Ron is literally stepping into Fred's shoes. So, I don't like that, thematically for Ron, even though, character-wise, as a character who cares about his family a lot, it makes sense.

So, in my personal headcanon, Harry would quit being an Auror to become a professor, and Hermione would honestly be a brilliant journalist (a headcanon I adopted from a different anon, but it fits her so well and would be a fun parallel with Rita). But Ron is someone I'm a bit more vague on since I can see him in multiple careers.

Currently, the top career on my mind for Ron is a Healer, maybe — it'll set him apart from his other siblings and Harry, he has the grades for it, he can keep his cool under pressure, he likes helping people, and he's good at cheering people up when things are bleak with humor. I think Ron could be a good Healer if he chooses to pursue it. The only big downside for me is that it doesn't lean into Ron's strategic nature (which becoming head-Auror or another ministry position could). And I can't see him inventing new cures or potions, that's not Ron — but he'd be good at actually caring for people and using the healing spells/potions at his disposal creatively when needed.

Plus, Ron's wand (his own, baught post-CoS) is willow and unicorn hair, and according to Pottermore, willow wands are particularly suited for healing magic:

Willow is an uncommon wand wood with healing power, and I have noted that the ideal owner for a willow wand often has some (usually unwarranted) insecurity, however well they may try and hide it. While many confident customers insist on trying a willow wand (attracted by their handsome appearance and well-founded reputation for enabling advanced, non-verbal magic) my willow wands have consistently selected those of greatest potential, rather than those who feel they have little to learn. It has always been a proverb in my family that he who has furthest to travel will go fastest with willow.

(Source)

So, yeah, Healer Ron is my favorite idea at the moment. If anyone has other ideas for Ron, I'd love to hear them because I really do struggle with him more, since he doesn't have a specific field he is good at/passionate about like Harry or Neville, nor does he have Hermione's spesific convictions.

[seriousbrat]

quidditch and class

Okay originally this was a tangent in the tags of my last post but I started thinking about it more and it got too complex haha.

While thinking about quidditch as a sport, we see many very prominent, very talented female players like Ginny, the other Gryffindor Chasers, Gwenog Jones/the Holyhead Harpies, Mullet, Moran. (Notably, Katie, Ginny, and Demelza are all explicitly better than Seamus and Dean. And Ron haha.) As as a sport it's seemingly equal between genders and therefore played in mixed-gender teams, and this is likely explained by the fact that speed is controlled by an external object, the broom. So while what we value in sport and athleticism in the real world has been heavily predicated on what we consider the biological 'advantages' of (cis) men, in Quidditch this is not so much the case.

It may be that certain positions (Beater) are generally more suited to cis men, but it may also be that women excel specifically as Chasers and Seekers, which are after all the key positions on a Quidditch team. If everyone is capable of achieving the same speed (and therefore force) on a broomstick, other factors might come into play, such as flexibility, dexterity, endurance, strategy.

However, the importance of the humble broomstick also means that the sport would be strongly influenced by class. Who can afford the best broom, basically.

It's wild that broom choice in pro quidditch isn't (as far as we know) standardised, but essentially a wealthy team/nation like I guess Ireland lol would have an advantage against a less wealthy team or nation, who couldn't supply Firebolts to all its players. In the case of Ireland I suppose the British Ministry of Magic also possibly governs them (I think? rip? ?) so Ireland would have funding from Britain, presumably.

And to be clear this happens irl too, less obviously perhaps, but wealthier nations will be able to dedicate more resources, better equipment, and better training to their athletes. This is why the US wins so many Olympic medals, not because its people are inherently better or more athletic than other countries with comparable populations, whatever American Exceptionalism would have you believe.

Harry's good without his Firebolt but also it's a little unfair haha. To be fair Ginny's just as good, maybe better than him, with whatever the Weasleys can afford for her. And it's also true that in CoS Malfoy/the Slytherins are still worse than Harry and the Gryffindors, even with better brooms, as I think Wood points out. So it could be that broom choice doesn't matter quite as much as it seems, in the sense that at least the talent of the athlete is the predominant factor in how well any given broom functions. In the flying lesson in PS we see that brooms do respond to some sort of innate talent in the user, so this would make some sense.

Still, in a situation with two equally matched players in terms of talent, the determining factor would likely be broom quality. So it is still important. I assume that JKR just didn't think about this lmao. Which whatever, maybe if HP was a series about sport, not delving into this question would matter more (and by her own admission she designed Quidditch to not make sense.) I'd have to reread Quidditch Through the Ages but it really should have been mentioned there lol. Oh well, not sure how realistic it is for 'Kennilworthy Whisp' to have a class-based analysis of his favourite sport anyway lmao.

For the purposes of worldbuilding I think it's fine for this to be the case, since the WW is not supposed to be a fair, perfect utopia, and like I said this very much happens in real life too. It's interesting to think about though.

[thegirlwhowrites642]

Can you please tell the moment when you realized that hinny is endgame? AND when did you fall in love with them individually and as couple?

I wish so much I could tell you! Unfortunately, I saw the movies before reading the books but I'll tell you my history with these two characters and this ship.

I'm part of the old side of GenZ so during my years of elementary school the movies were still coming out, a lot of my friends watched them but for various reasons I never did. When I was fourteen I decided to remedy to that, mainly because it felt like I was missing out on a too fundamental piece of pop culture. I think this is relevant because I was older than a lot of people were when first introduced to HP so I had a better understanding of story structures and characters. Also by that age, I had already published a couple of short stories and I was writing a book, so you know, I knew my way around creative writing (I'd like to specify that English is not my first language so do not judge my writing on what I post here XD).

When I first saw the movies, the couple I got into was Ron and Hermione, they were pretty obvious from the very first movie, and their dynamic was fun.

For Harry and Ginny, I had an inkling with CoS because otherwise there wouldn't have been any reason structurally-wise for Ginny to have a crush on Harry, though the movie is way less obvious about it. In the books, only an idiot after reading CoS wouldn't have at least a strong suspicion that they eventually get together.

But then Ginny kind of disappeared and I confess I forgot about her. By the time I watched HBP (I watched all the movies in like two weeks), I just assumed Harry wouldn't get with anyone which honestly was fine. That Cho wasn't going to be an endgame love interest was quite obvious. Imagine my surprise when hinny came out. I think I said something along the lines of "why is this happening?". In the movies, it really came out of nowhere. It's not like I hated it, or I wanted to create a hate blog for the ship, it just didn't make sense. I would have been perfectly fine with Harry being alone. Obviously, Harry not ending the story by finding the love of his life, married with children, in the books would make no sense and completely go against both the structure and the themes of the story, but movie!Harry is a different character. Also, I didn't like Ginny at all, which is quite ironic now obviously.

So, I had watched the movies. I liked the story and it was an interesting world, but there were a lot of things that didn't make sense even plot-wise. This brought me to start watching a series of videos by an Italian YouTuber who explained pretty well the differences between the movies and the books. The funny part is that I considered him like an HP genius for a couple of years but now I know a lot more than him, anyway... That was when I discovered how much cooler the books were and especially the HarryxGinny pairing, I was completely fascinated, they were one of the main reasons why I dived into the books.

Reading the books was not only what sealed for me the ship HarryxGinny but also their individual characters. A lot of people who have only watched the movies love Harry but I don't understand why. He was reduced to an average main character without an actual personality, basically a shell for self-inserts. If he were a girl I can assure you he would be a lot less popular.

Maybe because I'm a writer myself, but one of the reasons why I always loved this pairing, besides the fact that they are perfect for each other and I love their individual personalities, is the writing technique used to write them into the story. JKR true passion is not fantasy literature, it's crime literature. And she wrote Harry and Ginny like a crime story. The clues are everywhere in the books and yet so easy to overlook for the average reader, you think you got it but then there's the whole Cho thing that diverts your attention, and then boom! The masterpiece, the criminal is captured, Harry realises, it was Ginny all along.

Again, if you are someone familiar with story structures or simply an attentive reader it was obvious from the start, the simple fact that the main family of the story has seven children, and only one is a girl and she's just a year younger than Harry should tip you off. But still, a very interesting technique for a love story.

In terms of fanfictions, I always loved the Potters. Let them be Harry and Ginny or James and Lily. The AUs where there are all four of them are my happy place on earth. For a lot of years, I read more jily simply because it was an interesting intellectual exercise trying to imagine their story from the details left in the books, I already knew Harry and Ginny's one. But the marauders' fandom really disappointed me in the last few years so I shifted full hinny which has the very relevant advantage of making me analyze the actual books and not work on mainly just speculation.

[mariekavanagh]

What do you think of “The Golden Trio” (Harry, Ron, and Hermione lol)? I personally like all of them XD(although Ron’s probably my favorite 😂)

I like them :) They're not the characters I enjoy spending the most time looking into, as seen in my entire blog, lol, but they're definitely cool characters.

Honestly my favourite thing about them, especially Harry, is that they're all just so normal. They're the heroes of the story and they have their positives, but they all also have very realistic negatives.

Hermione may be extremely book-smart, but she lacks real-life skills, as seen when Ron had to remind her that she's a witch and can cast a spell to fix the problem in Philosopher's Stone. She can be very narrow-minded as well, unwilling to believe something that isn't backed up by published literature. And lets not forget the fact that she thought it was fine to keep a woman in a jar for a year and permanently scar someone for snitching, lol.

Ron definitely has the Gryffindor bravery and chivalry in him, but he also is prone to jealousy, whether justified or not. His feelings of inadequacy and insecurity as the youngest son of a family low-key desperate for a daughter and as the best friend of The Boy Who Lived are very real feelings which many of us would feel, and I appreciate the fact that he's not this 2D ultra-supportive side-kick to the hero of the story.

And I love that Harry is just so mediocre in most things. For the main protagonist of a children's book series, and as someone who is practically revered for bringing about the downfall of Voldemort, it would have been tempting to write him as someone naturally good at so many things, but he isn't. He gets very average marks in school, he takes a while to think logically and he has his talents, of course, but I just love how very real and really rather mediocre he is as a person. That's probably a strange thing to like so much but I just really appreciate the fact that JKR didn't feel the need to write him as this extraordinary person who would be a natural hero.

[vivithefolle]

I was always confused by Hermiones behavior towards Ron in OOTP. Was she trying to hide her feelings? because she didn't really gave him any signs. Why she was so nasty at him with the teaspoon thing. Was she trying to make him jealous with the letters? What did or didn't she understand from Ron giving her the perfume. Is all this just JKR being stupid because she don't want them together before the very end. Sry for all these questions but I am rly confused can you plz help Vivi?

Once again, I’ll copy one of my Quora essays!

it’s a stereotype to say that girls resort to underhanded tactics when it comes to dating, or like to “test” their partner’s love… but it’s a stereotype for a reason: there are teenage girls who resort to those tactics.

The archetype of the Tsundere exists as an exaggeration of the traits some teenage girls demonstrate when they find themselves in a position of vulnerability such as “having a crush on someone”.

For someone as prideful as Hermione is, having a crush on someone is extremely threatening.

Hermione prides herself in her logic and intelligence. The validation she receives from getting good grades is something she needs, because she’s very insecure deep down. She thinks all she has to offer is her intelligence, and as she goes from a little girl to a young woman, this causes her grief because she doesn’t want to be just “intelligent”. As her body develops and changes, she finds that being the smartest one in the room isn’t enough anymore - she still loves being the smartest in the room, but she wants more than just that, she wants validation for other things. That’s why she was extremely hurt when Ron tactlessly (and Rowling-ly) remarks “you’re a girl” - she wants to be seen as a girl, as a woman, as more than a walking brain. She wants validation that she is a girl, and beautiful, and sexy, and capable of making heads spin. She needs “sexual” validation, for lack of a better term.

Of course she doesn’t really realize those feelings. All she knows is that it hurts when Ron seems to consider her “one of the guys”, or looks at girls that aren’t her. She likes it when he compliments her, but she’s also angry at him because he only ever seems to compliment her intelligence and damn it, she wants him to compliment something else! She wants him to look at her, REALLY look at her! Look at her like he looks at the pretty girls!

Little does she know that Ron does look at her, but he probably thinks he’s a pervert for doing so. Because - because she’s Hermione! She’s not like other girls, she’s not - she’s not the kind of girl you ogle! She’s the kind of girl you gift flowers to - roses, they’re her favourite - the kind of girl you have long, meaningful talks with - not sure if they’re always meaningful, but they sure talk a lot together! - she’s the kind of girl you… the kind of girl you love, not the kind of girl you just look at…

*wistful sigh* Mutual pining, mutual admiration, slow burn, +100k words…

But truth is, many people go around saying that Hermione treating Ron harshly and treating pretty much every boy (with exceptions like Draco Malfoy) more gently is because she actually doesn’t like Ron, and likes anyone but Ron.

When the truth actually is that… Hermione is awful. No, no, seriously, when Hermione is in love, she’s terrible. She can be a nice friend but when she’s in love with you she’s horrible. Especially since she’s a teenager.

Hermione is a prime example of a Tsundere.

The cute, blushy, giggling Hermione who flirts with [insert character here] and cries delicately when she’s rejected? Pure fanfiction. Canon Hermione keeps her love aggressively hidden behind countless iron walls, only letting it peek through when she’s absolutely sure the person she likes isn’t looking.

“How was practice?” asked Hermione rather coolly half an hour later, as Harry and Ron climbed through the portrait hole into the Gryffindor common room. “It was -” Harry began. “Completely lousy,” said Ron in a hollow voice, sinking into a chair beside Hermione. She looked up at Ron and her frostiness seemed to melt. - Order of the Phoenix

Rare footage of the Hermione Granger, scientific name Selfinsertus Overratedus, displaying interest in specimen of mighty fine hunk

Hermione isn��t sweet and tender and kind with the one she loves. At least, the teenage Hermione isn’t. She’s harsh, she’s disdainful and only gives out breadcrumbs of affection once in a while as part of the complicated mind game she’s playing.

You see, Hermione is never going to make the first move. You must be the one to ask her out, because she sure as hell ain’t going to do it for you.

This is due, I think, to the events of Goblet of Fire. Viktor Krum asks her out because Rowling absolutely wants Hermione to be the ugly duckling who transforms into the beautiful swan, so she brings in Cardboard Cutout With No Personality Aside From Being Famous to woo her self-insert.

Now Hermione has gotten the experience of being asked out, and being a rather socially awkward person who also hates being vulnerable - more on that later - well, now she just assumes that if someone asked her out once, then anyone who does like her can do the same.

Which is why she doesn’t realize that Ron is actually aware he loves her. There’s a big comedy of assumptions going on in Romione’s love story.

Hermione believes that Ron either 1) likes her but is oblivious to his own feelings and so she thinks she has to “give him hints” to make him realize it. Emphasized best by this exchange:

Hermione laughed. “Harry you’re worse than Ron [at understanding girls]… well, no, you’re not, “ she sighed, as Ron himself came stumping into the Hall splattered with mud and looking grumpy.

“I’ve sent him so many signals and yet he doesn’t notice. Woe is me!”

2) doesn’t actually likes her, but sees her just as a good mate or worse, as another sister.

Hermione keeps flip-flopping between her two assumptions throughout the series, all because of her biggest assumption: she thinks that if Ron was interested in her, he would ask her out. Because Viktor Krum was interested in her, and he asked her out, so why wouldn’t Ron do the same? They’re both boys and she’s a girl, after all. Isn’t that how it works?

This is also why Hermione’s “““invitation”““ to the Slug Club isn’t even an invitation - really, it’s worse than Ron’s invite to the Yule Ball, at least he was actually offering her to come:

“We’re allowed to bring guests,” said Hermione, […], “and I was going to ask you to come, but […] I won’t bother.”

“I was going to ask you to come but I won’t bother.”

This is literally what she says. It’s more of a “look Ron! An invite! If you’re good maybe I’ll think about letting you have it!” than anything else.

It’s because this is Hermione’s last resort. The ultimate humiliation. She has to resort to inviting Ron when in her mind, he’s supposed to be the one asking her out. He’s the boy! He’s supposed to do it! (And this is why I laugh at all the fools who claim that Hermione is the pinnacle of feminism. Seriously, the girl is more of a misogynist than any other character in the series.)

Hermione failed to take into account that Ron’s insecurity cripples him worse than she imagines, and that he copes with it differently than she copes with her own insecurities.

And this is the part where I explain about Hermione’s hatred of being vulnerable.

You see, I can relate quite a lot to Hermione - I see a lot of me in her, and a lot of people who hurt me in the past as well.

Bullied because she was an easy target, being the know-it-all and local teacher’s pet? Yep. Bullied for her appearance (I got braces when I was 8 and have been wearing glasses since I was a toddler, she had her bushy hair and buck teeth)? Can relate. Cried easily? Super check. Rule enforcer when the teachers weren’t around? Mega check.

And naturally, when you’re such a water fountain as I was, there’s nothing more humiliating than ending up crying in front of your bullies. You quickly learn that it will bring you nothing but more bullying. More humiliation. More vulnerability.

Hence why you start despising any form of vulnerability you find in yourself.

Obviously, being in love? That’s one of the most terrible things you can find yourself in when you’re afraid of being vulnerable. Because, oh god, your feelings are completely insane around the person. They make or ruin your day. You keep wanting to show them how cool / great / impressive you are, and you try desperately to mask all your little faults so they will hopefully return your feelings.

Given that Hermione is already not the most socially-aware battering ram in the knife drawer, she acts especially nasty to Ron, because she’s overcompensating for the vulnerability he makes her feel. And she most likely isn’t even aware of it! Forget Fanfic Hermione cringing as she realizes how mean she sounds, welcome Canon Hermione who just doubles down on a pointless argument just to drive home how totally in control she is and how Ron has absolutely zero effect on her, no siree!

In short: Hermione overthinks. She overthinks everything. She’s overthinking every of Ron’s actions, she’s assuming he’s either out to get her because she assumes he’s perfectly aware of her crush on him and he’s just toying with her (this is the very insecure, pessimistic Hermione speaking), she’s assuming he’s completely oblivious to her feelings and so she uses the ages-old technique of the “subtle hints” to make her feelings known to him (and fails miserably because she doesn’t want to put herself out there too much in case he rejects her, which would be the ultimate humiliation and the worst possible thing to happen to her, in her teenage girl mind), and she’s assuming he’ll never like her the way she likes him, all the while being woefully oblivious to the fact that Ron does want to be with her but she keeps sending him signals that she sees him as a troublesome child rather than a potential partner.

All in all, a teenage Hermione in love is utter torture. She’s her own worst enemy, and it’s only when she decides to let go of it all - of the mind games, of the distancing, of the passive-aggressive; of the overthinking - and just takes a chance that her efforts bear fruit.

There was a clatter as the basilisk fangs cascaded out of Hermione’s arms. Running at Ron, she flung them around his neck and kissed him full on the mouth. Ron threw away the fangs and broomstick he was holding and responded with such enthusiasm that he lifted Hermione off her feet.

(As much as I’m disillusioned with Romione, this kiss is still one of my favourite parts of the series. They mutually sweep each other off their feet for god’s sake, you wish your ship would.)

[vivithefolle]

@ salty anon who doesn't want to face the facts:

No one actually says that JKR feels nothing but hatred for Ron because that's a statement which leaves no room for nuance. If you actually bothered reading the analyses/meta by Ron fans, you'd know that we have discussed this in depth, acknowledged JKR's contradictions, and mainly focused on the books which as you can see, did have a narrative that favoured other characters at Ron's expense. "Oh but why do you care what she says then?" you may ask. Well, I understand that for some people, they only care what's in the page and outside sources are nothing to them. But here's the thing: when you're as invested as we are, you have to rely on authorial intent to understand storylines where we weren't given the characters' motives in depth, or to get further info on why we got a particular storyline (the Lavender business for starters.) Ron's not a POV character obviously, so we have to use the author's quotes to try to understand what the heck was going on. And as you can see, sometimes authorial intent is stupid as fuck and shows what the author thinks of her characters which isn't always nice ("he had to make himself WORTHY of Hermione" no I will never let anyone forget that ok). Additionally, there are instances when the author uses other characters as mouthpieces to deliver truths, but sometimes, those truths may contradict what we've been shown (Ron and Harry's GOF fight.) So, in those cases, we are allowed to be like "YIKES can't believe she would think this about her own character and undermine her own work in the process, but thank god we have our analyses that give a more consistent explanation for Ron's behaviour."

Authors make decisions for reasons. They are human beings like us so they are bound to make mistakes and let their biases leak into their writing. So, if JKR did what she did because she had a vendetta against the Ron Weasleys she didn't have fun dating, then fine. It's her book. She can get all the revenge she wants at people who hurt her. Do I have to like it? No, lol. When you establish a character as a very good chess player, but abandon that to put him on a boring quest where he has to prove himself worthy of a girl you favoured at his expense, then I'm going to take issue with that.

*nods*