30 Days of HP: Day 24
Day 24: Rant about Steve Kloves something
Trust me, you don’t want me to. Where do I even begin with this man?
Okay, to start: He has a massive crush on Hermione, and it really shows. The bias is just … it’s insane. I mean, giving her Ron’s “If you want to kill Harry you’ll have to kill us too” line in PoA? Crossing the line. Majorly crossing the line.
It’s just like … I think it’s pretty obvious he ships Harmony, and frankly, I don’t care about that for the sake of Ron/Hermione, because as much as I love and ship Ron/Hermione, if Kloves doesn’t, whatever. Like I said before, romance has never been a particularly important component of the HP series for me.
But he killed Harry/Ron. He killed my favorite bromance, and I’m not okay with that. It was my favorite bromance before bromance was even a word and became the “in” thing, and Steve Kloves killed it because he’s in love with Hermione and wanted her to end up with Harry. He turned Ron into this horrible 2D “ahaha-I’m-only-here-for-comic-relief” moronic coward, and I really, really hate him for that.
If the books are about the epicness of any friendship … well, the books are about the power of the bond between all three of them, actually, and how they are strongest and function best when it’s the three of them working together. But if you compare Harry’s falling out with Hermione in PoA with his falling out with Ron in GoF, there’s no question: emotionally, Harry needs Ron far more than he needs Hermione. There are just so many little interactions and unspoken things between them… I know it’s sounding like I’m a Harry/Ron shipper, and that isn’t it. It’s just that their friendship is so epic and beautiful, and it frustrates me that that wasn’t translated onscreen because it wasn’t even translated into the script.
One of my professors pointed out that if Harry Potter had been written by a man, Ron’s character would be a girl and Hermione’s character would be a boy, because Ron is emotional and Hermione is intelligent, and I think that’s true, and interesting both psychologically and culturally, but that’s not why I’m bringing it up. Kloves writes all these scenes about how Harry and Hermione are totally BFFs OMG, but I would argue that in the earlier books especially, Harry and Ron actually have a much stronger and deeper emotional connection than Harry and Hermione. Hermione might be more aware of what’s going on when it comes to romance, but in general - and maybe without even being fully aware of it - Ron has a much better grasp of what Harry’s feeling and what to do about it. There’s this great moment in GoF when they get back from the World Cup, and Harry’s telling them about his scar hurting and stuff, and Ron asks Harry if he wants to play Quidditch, and Hermione starts to tell him off for not being sensitive to Harry’s emotional needs, basically, and then it turns out Harry really wants to play Quidditch because he figures it’ll make him feel better. Ron just gets Harry in a way Hermione simply can’t, and that’s what’s so great about his and Harry’s friendship. And Kloves took that and gave it to Hermione, and that really bothers me.
The thing is, I don’t feel like a lot of people appreciate just how complex Ron really is, and the movies don’t help with that at all because in the movies he’s just so 2D. Worse than that, from the very beginning they took away some of his best qualities. In PS/SS, Hermione is the one who panics when Harry and Ron get trapped in the Devil’s Snare, not Ron, which is what happened in the film. Ron is so incredibly brave throughout the entire series. Yeah, he may not be as awesome at magic as Harry and Hermione, but he’s not a total buffoon, either, and it never stops him from throwing himself head on into a fight if he thinks his friends are in danger. Ron is in Gryffindor for a reason, you know? And by taking all Ron’s awesome qualities and giving them to Hermione, film!Hermione ends up being something distressingly close to a Mary Sue, while Ron ends up being a 2D imbecile.
Anyway, I guess this has been long and ranty enough. Basically, I’ve learned to live with what got cut and what got altered and what got written in. But destroying Ron’s character will never be okay with me.
Trust me, you don’t want me to. Where do I even begin with this man?
Okay, to start: He has a massive crush on Hermione, and it really shows. The bias is just … it’s insane. I mean, giving her Ron’s “If you want to kill Harry you’ll have to kill us too” line in PoA? Crossing the line. Majorly crossing the line.
It’s just like … I think it’s pretty obvious he ships Harmony, and frankly, I don’t care about that for the sake of Ron/Hermione, because as much as I love and ship Ron/Hermione, if Kloves doesn’t, whatever. Like I said before, romance has never been a particularly important component of the HP series for me.
But he killed Harry/Ron. He killed my favorite bromance, and I’m not okay with that. It was my favorite bromance before bromance was even a word and became the “in” thing, and Steve Kloves killed it because he’s in love with Hermione and wanted her to end up with Harry. He turned Ron into this horrible 2D “ahaha-I’m-only-here-for-comic-relief” moronic coward, and I really, really hate him for that.
If the books are about the epicness of any friendship … well, the books are about the power of the bond between all three of them, actually, and how they are strongest and function best when it’s the three of them working together. But if you compare Harry’s falling out with Hermione in PoA with his falling out with Ron in GoF, there’s no question: emotionally, Harry needs Ron far more than he needs Hermione. There are just so many little interactions and unspoken things between them… I know it’s sounding like I’m a Harry/Ron shipper, and that isn’t it. It’s just that their friendship is so epic and beautiful, and it frustrates me that that wasn’t translated onscreen because it wasn’t even translated into the script.
One of my professors pointed out that if Harry Potter had been written by a man, Ron’s character would be a girl and Hermione’s character would be a boy, because Ron is emotional and Hermione is intelligent, and I think that’s true, and interesting both psychologically and culturally, but that’s not why I’m bringing it up. Kloves writes all these scenes about how Harry and Hermione are totally BFFs OMG, but I would argue that in the earlier books especially, Harry and Ron actually have a much stronger and deeper emotional connection than Harry and Hermione. Hermione might be more aware of what’s going on when it comes to romance, but in general - and maybe without even being fully aware of it - Ron has a much better grasp of what Harry’s feeling and what to do about it. There’s this great moment in GoF when they get back from the World Cup, and Harry’s telling them about his scar hurting and stuff, and Ron asks Harry if he wants to play Quidditch, and Hermione starts to tell him off for not being sensitive to Harry’s emotional needs, basically, and then it turns out Harry really wants to play Quidditch because he figures it’ll make him feel better. Ron just gets Harry in a way Hermione simply can’t, and that’s what’s so great about his and Harry’s friendship. And Kloves took that and gave it to Hermione, and that really bothers me.
The thing is, I don’t feel like a lot of people appreciate just how complex Ron really is, and the movies don’t help with that at all because in the movies he’s just so 2D. Worse than that, from the very beginning they took away some of his best qualities. In PS/SS, Hermione is the one who panics when Harry and Ron get trapped in the Devil’s Snare, not Ron, which is what happened in the film. Ron is so incredibly brave throughout the entire series. Yeah, he may not be as awesome at magic as Harry and Hermione, but he’s not a total buffoon, either, and it never stops him from throwing himself head on into a fight if he thinks his friends are in danger. Ron is in Gryffindor for a reason, you know? And by taking all Ron’s awesome qualities and giving them to Hermione, film!Hermione ends up being something distressingly close to a Mary Sue, while Ron ends up being a 2D imbecile.
Anyway, I guess this has been long and ranty enough. Basically, I’ve learned to live with what got cut and what got altered and what got written in. But destroying Ron’s character will never be okay with me.