J. K. Rowling Wanted to Kill Ron Weasley

[rattlesnakeroot]

This is eye-opening: J. K. Rowling considered killing off Ron Weasley in Deathly Hallows!

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*hears boom as collective heads of Ron Fandom literally asplode*

So much for the theory that Ron was essential to Harry's victory, LOL.

ETA: I've always said that Ron reminded me of James ~ holy snitch-nicker Batman!

Considering the

Comments

[rattlesnakeroot]

One time JKR said in an interview (I think in the A&E Harry and Me biography) that she had "dated a couple of Rons." Of course, her best friend from school was a tall red-haired boy - Sean Harris - and the one who had the Ford Anglia that could get her out of the house. So I think she was emotionally attached to someone like Ron, but not as husband material. ;)

Ron is funny, it's true, but I don't think his type of clueless humor would be enough for someone like Hermione over the years. He's unintentionally funny, and that's not the same as witty.

I always liked it when Hermione interacted with the Twins - maybe she should have married George? The loss of Fred might have given his personality enough seriousness so they would get along, and mentally they were more of a match because both Twins were much more clever (and witty) than Ron.

But it just goes to show that in spite of JKR saying the Epilogue was written in stone 15 years before, she might have changed things drastically by killing off Ron. Frankly, I feared that she would kill Hermione in OotP, and when she fell at the Ministry I was on the edge of my seat with worry. So when Sirius died, it was actually a relief, LOL.

[rattlesnakeroot]

Pearlette: I certainly don’t see him at all the same as James. James was a glamour boy and knew it and milked it (certainly when he was younger).

Yes, but . . . there are some parallels drawn in the text. There's a scene in which Ron is playing with the snitch to show off. Then there's the fact that Ron never really knows what is going on, which I think is similar to James being naive. He is attached to Scabbers and sees him as a victim, much as James viewed Peter as almost as a pet. And in the Epilogue, Ginny says her son James is very much like Uncle Ron.

Not to mention that James attacked Snape many times because of Lily, the same way Ron dislikes Krum in GoF because of Hermione. And Ron is a thoughtless bully boy too who says whatever mean thing comes into his head - we see that with Luna.

So I wasn't thinking of James the glamour-boy, but more James the Quidditch fanatic, the rat lover, the bully, and the somewhat clueless boyfriend/husband.

Ron's comparison to James Potter

[sethisuwan]

You know I've been reading your site for two days non-stop now, and totally respect 100% all your views regarding Snape. You're fair and spot-on.

You see you're right when you mention those points above, makes sense. But the thing is, we have the whole lot of 7 books filled with 75% of Ron in everyday mode, that it sort of dilutes his offensiveness and makes him acceptable. But with regards to James Potter, his overall content in the book is probably under 5%.

Moreover, what I think is the biggest point when it comes to for a reader to like/dislike a character is totally based upon its portrayal with regard to the material written about them. Its simply a balance between properly rated, underrated or overrated. Here's what I mean ..

James Potter is portrayed to us as a legendary, noble, brilliant, brave wizard from day ONE. But later we learn all contradicting stuff about him and this situation is never properly rectified. Nonetheless we are stilled continually forced to believe that he is still legendary. I mean, its like this, they showed us this t-shirt and tell us its pure white in colour. Some years later it gets dirty, and it gets smeared by ink too. In our eyes we can see now that the t-shirt is not white anymore. But they keep referring to it as white, white, white, and keep telling us its white and force us to believe it.

Ron Weasley on the other hand, is NEVER portrayed as a legendary wizard. So he doesn't feel fake. When he's a git, he's a git. He says so himself. When he sucks at quidditch, he admits it. When he doesn't have money, he admits he's poor. He doesn't pretend to be Brad Pitt. His only moment of ruffling his hair under the birch tree fair and justified btw, for the first time in his life he was allowed to be a hero, won a quidditch match through his own skill, and for a moment stepped out of Harry's shadow, he deserves credit.

A fair character portrayal I think, is when the author is honest with us. Okay, something is white in colour. Unfortunately it got ill, so its yellow now, ok? One day it got burnt, now its brown. We believe. But you can't make things happen to it and keep asking it to believe its still white.