Explaining what went weird with Ron Weasley

[Applause] [Music] [Applause] whatever just have a quiet cause did you know that in chapter 16 in the first book both of Harry's friends get a final time to show their unique skills however Hermione's final time to shine the potion riddle was cut from the movie adaptation originally Harry and Hermione leaved the wizard chess match after Ron's sacrifice and come across seven potions on a table three of the potions are poisoned two or wine one will allow Hermione to go back to Ron and the other will allow Harry to go forward when this was cut they changed her special moment to be the devil's snare trap where she can identify this strange plant strangling them and know what to do about it in the book the devil snare trap is a group effort where the disposition of each friend gets them closer to the solution Devil's snare Devils snare what did the professor say it likes the dark in the damp so light a fire Harry choked yes of course but there's no wood Hermione cried wringing her hands have you gone mad Ron bellowed are you a witch or not it's in character for Hermione to forget to use magic to solve this problem when she's panicked but it's better for the structure of the movies story if she gets to have her moment Ron will get his moment later when he beats the magical wizard chessboard despite the fact that he not only had to protect his king but his friends as well so maybe Ron didn't need to remind Hermione that she was a witch in that scene but you know what he really didn't need to do he really didn't need to do this there are a lot of people out there on the wild internets who believe that the movies made Ron a lame comic relief character or they made him too mean so they stopped liking him some go as far as to say that the movies ruined Ron Weasley and they dislike or hate one of the most important characters in a series they otherwise loved my thesis statement for this video is this in my opinion what's mangling Ron in the devil snare scene and most of the time throughout the series is the impulse to make Ron look oh fish silly or mean for a joke when it really wasn't necessary somewhere along the line Harry went from having two friends who were smart in different ways to having a smart and a lesser sidekick who is having his skills observations and lines absorbed by his best friends the main consensus of people I've talked to about this summarize the problem as they made Ron a goof to make Hermione a cool proactive role model for little girls to look up to that explains scenes like this where her mind he's taking a line from Ron he wants to kill Harry you'll have to kill us too but how do you explain stuff like this and dialogue changes as infamous as this your parents are dead you have no family I think it flies under the radar how often Ron's characterization has to bend to give Harry cool moments impactful moments or just softening up the text a little bit to make our protagonists less flawed so now begins our exploration of the two Ron's the Ron Weasley from the Harry Potter movie series and the Ron Weasley of the book series written by JK Rowling in book 2 chapter 7 Draco calls Hermione a mudblood it's a word both she and Harry have never heard before but they know it's nasty because immediately chaos erupts around them Ron tries to attack Draco but his spell backfires because his wand was broken in Chapter five later while vomiting up slugs Ron explains the general concept of pure blood supremacy and why he thinks it's wrong he concludes by pointing out that Neville Longbottom is a pureblood wizard and he's kind of garbage at magic currently in the movie Ron spends the scene vomiting slugs Steve clubs gets a lot of criticism for bias I do think some people go too far when they start psychoanalyzing him and concocting weird conspiracy theories but what is clear to me is that seven of the Harry Potter movies were written by a dude whose favorite character is Hermione and Hermione because she's so well-read is also his favorite vessel for giving exposition should Ron get this moment using his unique background to serve as a cultural ambassador hmm I don't know this seems kind of about Hermione right isn't it more sad if she explains it Ron's busy with his slug vomiting let's just use him as comic relief it's not a big deal Hermione probably read about it in a book here's a DVD extra from Chamber of Secrets steve hermione is a character who've said in the past is one of your favorites does that make her easier to write yeah I mean I like writing all three but I've always loved writing remaining because I just one she's she's she's a tremendous character for a lot of reasons for a writer which also she can carry exposition and in a wonderful way because you just assume she read it in a book my research tells me that long ago in the time between the first books release in the year of 1997 and the first movies release in the year of 2001 Ron was actually a more popular character than Hermione in fact when Rowling met cloves for the first time she was really nervous about what this American was going to do to her baby but she felt more at ease when he told her that his favorite character was Hermione which was something Rowling very rarely heard from anyone cloves love for this little strong-willed bookworm got entwined with Emma Watson's growing passion for her role in the internal life of the character she was playing now I understand that Alfonso had they've changed and now into the third yeah I felt really so pleased with myself why am I in the next Lana comes in with all sixteen pages and clothes never stop loving Hermione she's still his favorite what I'm trying to say here is that there doesn't have to be a grand conspiracy for this to happen people working on the movie don't have to hate Ron to lose the threat of who he is they only have to consistently enough value other things over his characterization and development and well someone has to be your least favorite right it's natural that that which interests you the most draws your attention unless you're being very careful in any one scene changed there is almost always a logical explanation for why they changed it it's just one of those things where you don't know how far you've drifted until you take a step back so what you said you know who my favorite character isn't I thought it was gonna say mom yeah and I love wrong everyone loves who couldn't love wrong and I thought okay you love wrong okay and then you said Oh Hermione come up with another clever idea to get us killed or worse expelled she when I examine how Ron and Hermione changed through the adaptation I think about their friendship and eventual romance and marriage honestly I think Harry Potter doesn't have super strong writing behind it's romantic subplots but the movies could see ahead of time how people were reacting to the books so they had a chance to steer into the skid and try to make it better let's see how they did has one gone to bed oh yeah shoelace Merry Christmas re oops it's worse the only way to really explain it is that the movies have this strong aversion to Ron and Hermoine as a couple as well as Harry and Ginny especially Harry and Jenny the situation with Ginny and the beige dishrag off' occasion of her character is so bad it deserves its own video but trying to stay on topic it tells me something that Ron and Hermione moments that would take no extra time are still downplayed and underutilized when Ron hears the screams of Hermione being tortured he should be yelling like he did in the book repressed reactions can be cool you know shaking sweating but this ain't it chief this is way too repressed maybe he doesn't even care cuz it sounds like they only got a few seconds of Emma screaming and just played it on a loop [Music] oh you can't fool me that's a bloody tape recorder throughout the series run and Hermoine bicker a lot but when I reread the books and remember all the random little things they started bickering about these exchanges don't come off to me as a failure in them being able to get along it comes off more like they're bored and that this is fun to them Hermione can be intolerant of certain personality types she also loves to debate she's argumentative Ron is one of the few people that Hermione can go fold the Bay Club on that will argue back and not get upset or take it personally Harry thinks they argue too much but considering that they can become offended by Harry interrupting them or telling them to stop hints that Harry is not experiencing their bickering the way they are what I liked about this dynamic was I never really had to question if Ron respected Hermione he is consistently on her side he knows she's a know-it-all he's aware of her flaws but he still likes her and he sees the strengths those flaws bring Ron will defend Hermione when people go too far five points from Gryffindor for being an insufferable know-it-all Hermione went very red put her hand down and stared at the floor with her eyes full of tears it was a mark of how much the class loathed Snape that they were all glaring at him because every one of them had called Hermione and know-it-all at least once and Ron who told Hermione she was a know-it-all at least twice a week said loudly you asked us a question and she knows the answer why ask if you don't want to be told movie ron has fewer opportunities to engage in this behavior as is the nature of an adaptation of a book but Ron does not always use his time well like what is this that is the second time you've spoken out of turn Miss Granger are you incapable of restraining yourself or do you take pride in being an insufferable know-it-all he's called point [Music] I hate it I don't like it I'm not a fan of it but cron is aware past book one that Hermione is hyper competent in magic I've been emasculated by losing to a girl at something being a dude gave me no advantage in did you see me disarmed Hermione Harry only once said Hermione stung I got you loads more than you got me I did not only get you once I got you at least three times well if you're counting the one where you tripped over your own feet and knocked the wand out of my hand this is actually the movie Steve cloves didn't work on although I guess you could argue his characterization was already set in stone at this point book Hermione is pretty canonically the one who is the most skilled with magic on a technical sense she has by the book perfect form and she's the best at Wanless magic she's not really the best at fighting because she has a hard time functioning under the pressure of real danger but yeah anyway book ron is not threatened by her in this chapter ron is happy about being able to win a few rounds against Hermione because he knows she's talented and Hermione is being a sore loser about the few times she lost Ron Hermione get into a couple of notable fights throughout the series like their fight and Prisoner of Azkaban the Scabbers Crookshanks fight is a pretty solid example of Hermione not being able to people real well Hermione is in denial that Crookshanks probably ate Scabbers Ron is actually wrong because Scabbers is Peter Pettigrew but all he wanted was for her to take seriously that Crookshanks wanted to eat Scabbers and keep Crookshanks under control and after his rat disappears he just wants an apology he wants Hermione to admit that she was wrong they argued Hermione stormed off in tears to the girls dorm Harry thinks it's gonna be the end of their friendship Hermione went to Hagrid's hut to cry this was a big deal in the movie Hermione's a little indignant and Ron whines at her a few times about it maybe you should take better care of your pets your cat killed him so the conflict doesn't feel important it's kind of like a background argument you're seeing less of Hermione's flaws she's looking a little smooth she's an airbrushed Hermione the Yule Ball boy on the other hand highlights all aspects of Ron's awkward social and maturity as it should the night begins with Hermione having her Cinderella moment and ends in a fight with Ron it's not an exact recreation it doesn't happen in the Gryffindor common room but it's basically the same fight given the same way exposing the same flaws actually if anything I'd argue it's harsher and that feels out of place to me now because this was supposed to be a back and forth exchange last movie was Hermione's turned to be wrong and this is Ron's turn this is how they grow but I can't help but recognize the external factors to why this happened walking into the set of the Yule Ball was absolutely amazing everyone had to pretend they were in awe when they came in I think is really genuine actually it's the best that I've seen so far I think the description in the novel is that it's a kind of ice palace really there are icicles hanging from the magic ceiling so we've taken that maybe a step further when I went in I was absolutely gobsmacked I cannot tell you how beautiful everything looks you recognize it as exactly the same space but the transformation is nonetheless pretty complete the whole thing of course looked like Swarovski crystal and was stunning two people fighting about a rat and a cat is a very simple personality driven conflict it's not really as exciting as a winter ball at Hogwarts where everyone has to find a date Oh romance Oh coming-of-age stuff turning the Great Hall into a frozen Wonderland was a massive undertaking look at this set look at all this stuff look at all these costumes and all these people who have to learn to dance they wrote this scene to have some weight they were really proud of this they put a lot of work into this scene that is barely 10 minutes of the movie but then you have to take a step back this more perfect version of Hermione is not helping this dynamic it starts looking less and less like they're growing up and trying to become their best selves together and more and more like this smooth Hermione is either trying to fix Ron or is waiting for him to become a smooth Ron and that's kind of sad right vote for the characters and the fans but also for cloves he said one of the reasons that he was so drawn to Hermione was because he saw her as the outcast of the outcasts he thought she was complicated and hard to love and that makes it seem like he couldn't capture what he liked about her Hermione is not an effortless genius she's a genius through effort she studies hard no matter how boring the professor is the amount of time she sinks into this comes at the cost of other things movie Hermione has not completely lost her flaws I think that's an exaggeration but she's not nearly as flawed as she was in the books I can confidently say that book Hermione needs her friends just as much as they need her Harry headed straight back to Gryffindor common room where he found Ron and Hermione playing chess chess was the only thing Hermione ever lost at something Harry and Ron thought was very good for and it was true because Hermione was no character though and it stayed throughout because I think she'd such this huge intelligence but it was really a kind of exasperating frustrating character in a way though it was like the girl that bothers you in school thinking about her so not always the easiest to like I like that about that's what I liked about her I'm one by the way from Weasley I'm Harry Harry Potter as I said before it's not surprising to me that when discussing what happened to Ron everyone focuses on Hermione and Harry gets to fly under the radar if you go okay Hermione stolen Ron's lying here that's kind of easy to understand right how Harry warps Ron is more structural in fiction people often think it's a good idea to give your audience a blank slate character to attach themselves to so that they can learn about the world this character inhabits this character can ask questions that we would want to ask we're like alien parasites doing recon through an empty false vessel book Harry does contain details that make him not a total blank slate to me despite stereotypes about people with glasses on the nerd to jock false dichotomy Harry is more of a jock interested in sports sport teams and physical activities his grades are fine but he's not a very intellectually curious person he tends to only go out of his way to learn new spells if he needs it for class or just survive some trial like when he learned Akio for the first task in book 4 although he tries to be outwardly polite he can be judgmental and it takes a lot for him to change his mind about someone Harry struggles for a long time to see the adults in his life as complicated flawed people until their three-dimensional nasai min the face like a sweaty soggy slab a salami in fact his stubbornness is one of the main reasons many of the plot twists work Harry's personality is not as quirky as other characters who inhabit his world but you know it's hard to look unique when you have dragon loving half giant sand sock loving house elves running around you may have noticed a lot of this stuff I just listed has more to do with Harry's thoughts and opinions a thing the movie does not narrate to us these two characters make all the same decisions and yet they come off as really different it's kind of cool how important that internal narration is to the story's protagonist the way I would summarize the change between book Harry and movie Harry is the temperature has been lowered this isn't spicy Harry he's at most a little zesty he is overall a smooth Harry the removal of Harry's internal dialogue makes him seem less judgemental and angry when how much he resents or is disgusted by other people is left to your imagination his temptation to do bad things becomes a little more surprising as a result is a character whose kamar Meeker and has more of a sweetness about him here's a rude fact in the book very often Hermione was kind of the unfavorite friend Harry can be really rude about her in his internal narration calling her shrill bossy or hysterical I'd argue Harry grew a deeper appreciation for Hermione the older he got he loves her to death they have their own unique bond but in terms of just hanging out she's not the funnest person to be around so he kind of favors Ron you miss him Hermione said impatiently and I know he misses you miss him said Harry I don't miss him but this was a downright lie Harry liked Hermione very much but she just wasn't the same as Ron there was much less laughter and a lot more hanging out in the library when Hermione was your best friend and it comes up when Hermione fights with Ron she feels strongly that Harry favors Ron in that she's the more expendable friend she's not unaware that people see her as a buzzkill okay side with Ron I knew you would she said shrilly first the fireball now Scabbers everything's my fault isn't it movie Harry feels more like Hermione his best friend and I think it's because he's quiet and we're not privy to all his negative thoughts about her because of this I think the bond between movie Harry and movie Hermione gains a lot more chemistry and is drained of some of its more awkward elements because you can just kind of pretend that Harry always gets her and is always sympathetic to her Harry can still be immature and Ron is his best friend who's more on his level mentally that friendship is really important to Harry it's not an accident that ron was put on the bottom of the lake during the second task harry was really actively sad when Ron stopped talking to him in that book [Music] here's another thing to chew on the movie has to invent what Ron is doing in scenes where Harry is not describing what he's doing the Aragog seen from Chamber of Secrets uses Ron as comic relief having him make funny faces and whine at the sight of all the spooky spiders movie Ron does a lot of whining but book Ron agreed to go in when Harry asked him follow the spiders the dark forest why spiders what can follow the butterflies I don't like this something wet touched Harry's hand and he jumped backward crushing Ron's foot but it was only fangs nose why'd you reckon Harry said to Ron whose eyes he could just make out reflecting the light from his wand we've come this far said Ron but we don't actually know what ron was doing the whole time because harry isn't keeping track of him and describing his reactions then they made the scene of the boys getting away from Aragog more complex get fang harry yelled diving into the front seat ron sees the bore hound around the middle and through him yelping into the back of the car the doors slammed shut Ron didn't touch the accelerator but the car didn't need him the engine roared and they were off hitting more spiders in the movie the scene is turned into a full car chase the car is not driving itself so Ron stops the car before they get out of the Forbidden Forest and says club traveler only to get chomped on by a chill practical effect that just wants a hug and then Harry has to save them then Ron keeps freezing and failing to drive the car the car fails him and Harry has to help and protagonist it up this version has more tension in his thrilling and spooky but it makes Ron look a little foolish and as a result of this Harry our main character looks braver and more heroic in comparison before getting into the biggest example of a Ron change that flares up anger in people please allow me to obsess over an obscure example that I've never seen anyone get mad about but it kind of bothered me and it's sort of funny in the third book there's this hilarious moment where Ron calls Harry Harry's Uncle Vernon picks up the phone and Ron is screaming at the top of his lungs into the phone asking to talk to Harry ron has never used a telephone before and he doesn't know how they work it's an endearing in character example of Ron's ignorance of the muggle world would you like to see a dumb version of that in the hopping pop babbity rabbity in the cackling stump i was here ever see what okay assuming runs family had a different copy of the book with no runes on the cover because if they did Wow Ron you study ancient runes at your school for wizard craft and witchery the book is called Tales of Beedle the bard Beedle the bard was a wizard author I have a copy of the tales of Beedle the bard this book and all five of the stories in it couldn't be sold to a muggle population in this universe because every story exposes the existence of the magical world the wizard in the hopping pot is a story about a cruel son compelled to help muggles by his late father's enchanted cooking pot in babbity rabbity in the cackling stump a clever witch tricks a king in his brigade of witch hunters to stop hunting witches when she fakes her death and makes them think that she has cursed them from beyond the grave rod knows his best friends were raised by muggles he knows Harry's aunt and uncle abused him and wouldn't be reading him bedtime stories anyway why does he think they would know this book why his his IQ hit the floor like a sack of bricks well it's because it's a funny joke and even if it's not a joke that would make sense for his character it might slip by most people and if they notice they can just write it off as a lapse in judgment because after all Ron's not the smartest guy is he let's move on to the scene [Music] we'll start with Ron getting squinched when they make their escape and end up in the wilderness I actually love this I think it's sad I feel the urgency it makes me uncomfortable I think all three of them did a great job but Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part one is a pg-13 movie so there isn't a lot of blood the injury isn't the nicest thing to look at but it's not the same thing as finding Ron unconscious soaked in his own blood the text describes that a chunk of his arm is just missing as if cut off by a knife harry has learned about squinching but he can only think of it as something comical the reality extremely grisly the Disney is all Hermione dares to do to heal Ron she's afraid that if she starts casting spells she might kill him The effect of dittany and what it does is not explained to the movies audience dittany accelerates the time on the wound it makes it several days older and that's all when I read Deathly Hallows I feel stressed about the fact that Ron never really recovered from his injuries here he seems sore and demoralized but I think that if you'd only seen the movies you wouldn't understand what if any limitations there were to how much Harry and Hermione could heal Ron the urgency of Ron's healing is heavily tied to the food issue Ron can't be healed by magic and he's not getting enough proper nutrition to heal naturally the trio is stealing eggs and bread from farmers they're foraging for mushrooms Harry caught the world's most pathetic fish apparently any food they get their hands on they have Hermione duplicate to make more but that lowers the quality of the food in terms of taste and nutrition for the sake of having more of it to fill their stomachs they live like this for a couple of months so Ron is festering right mentally and physically and maybe he could handle it until it's his turn to wear the Horcrux and that's when things get bad a detail left out of the movies argument is that they learn ginny neville and luna have been sent into the Forbidden Forest with Hagrid this is meant as a punishment but Harry is relieved he can't think of the Forbidden Forest as dangerous because he's locked out so many times this is some of the stuff that Harry is saying while ron is silently listening in and Snape must have thought that was a punishment said Harry but Ginny Neville and Luna probably had a good laugh with Hagrid the Forbidden Forest they faced plenty worse in the Forbidden Forest big deal so the original fight starts off almost word-for-word the same but then Harry has an I'm sorry thrown in I'm sorry then the word mummy is switched to mum dulling the humiliating sting of this comment so you'd be right with your mum by Christmas I just thought after all this time we would have actually achieved something Ron's line we thought you knew what you were doing as in he and Hermione turns into I thought you knew what you were doing I thought you knew what you were doing I thought Dumbledore would have told you something worthwhile after Ron's awful comment Harry tries to tackle him and then he tells him to leave which seems like a natural conclusion to this conversation because it's already escalated to violence book Harry tells Ron to go home three times during this argument and then there's the line that I keep mocking you think I don't know how this fail you don't know how it feels your parents are dead you have no family it's alright for you too isn't it with your parents safely out of the way my parents are dead Harry bellowed and mine could be going the same way yelled Ron insensitive but not mocking him for being an orphan also the line you have no family makes it seem like Ron doesn't think of Harry as his family and I honestly don't think that's true I think both Harry and Ron feel that Harry is an unofficial member of his family and that betrayal of his expectations for Harry is part of what's fueling his anger right now I think book Ron is offended because he's starting to feel alone in his paranoia and worried for the well-being of his family he thinks he's seeing a division in the priorities between himself and Harry it looks like movie ron has already come to the conclusion that harry is not his family without the whole element of him being insensitive to Ginny being in danger and that just kind of bums me out then there is the romantic jealousy I can understand reading this why Ron feels like Harry has without any plans brought Hermione who he loves into a very dangerous situation but because the movie has all of these scenes of Ron getting jealous of them being in proximity to each other or just getting along despite the high stress levels of the situation that makes me think that if Hermione was just giving this Ron kisses that would fix everything that's probably why years later people meme on this part of the movie they're watching this thinking that he looks like a guy who's having no fun on this camping trip there's something really ironic to me about Ron a character who's supposed to be overcoming these feelings of inadequacy because he's overshadowed in life by his exceptional brothers and by his exceptional friends being overshadowed by the movies writing anyway I'd like to announce my patreon which brings me to my second announcement a special thanks to Jake Colburn my first patron who found my patreon before I announced it I made my patreon when the website announced that if you wanted to get in on the whole founders fee rate you had to make an account that day so I was like oh I might need that someday I guess I should make one so then my first patron showed up and it was sort of like being attacked by a ninja but instead of hitting you the ninja wanted to be supportive have you guys ever gotten attacked by money ninjas if you joined my patreon as a reward you'll get behind-the-scenes stuff you'll find out what I'm working on before anyone else I upload videos of me playing video games unscripted just like you know chill bonus content basically I tried to think of the kind of stuff I would want from video si si like I have a Twitter Tumblr and Instagram linked below and that's it do you canoe

Channel: Quinn Curio

Views: 4,129,727

Keywords: Harry Potter, Ron Weasley

Id: lCzxwcBZFuI

Length: 30min 51sec (1851 seconds)

Published: Wed Aug 28 2019

Reddit Comments

[u/Space_Dwarf]

This is a really good one and has made me want to reread the books.

[u/Gaming_University]

I found this the other day. It was fantastic and classified the matter I couldn't find a way to verbalize.