I get it. I was there for the premiere. I remember each scene in the movie that the audience cheered for, including Ron and Hermione’s kiss in the “Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets,” specifically.
For Potterheads, Ron and Hermione are a big deal. I still think it was innovative for the sidekick to end up with Hermione, especially since the hero is always supposed to “get the girl.”
But J.K. Rowling is right with her new announcement. The two getting together is a mistake. It’s not a mistake readers will regret, but after looking over the series, there are some things that just don’t add up.
The most basic reason why Ron and Hermione don’t work is because Harry Potter is the main character- the series is even titled in his honor. Ron is portrayed to feel like the sidekick because, well, he is the sidekick. Ron, compared to Harry, is like a red-headed, rampant lion.
But he’s the sidekick who gets the girl, which rarely happens in literature. In addition, he gets all the sports accolades when he joined Quidditch just to hang out with his friends. Oh, and thanks to his dad’s habbit of tinkering with Muggle objects, Ron is the Batman of the wizarding world.
Remember book two? The Weasely’s Ford Anglia was Ron’s “Batmobile.” One of the villains is defeated by taking Ron’s wand that backfires on its user. Even better, he figured out how to speak parseltongue without evil powers in book seven.
What is Harry’s gain from his titular adventure? A move up from his cupboard, a fight to the death with the biggest super-villain in magic history and a shoehorned love story featured in two novels. Yeah, I thought Harry and Ginny Weasley, while decent in the novels, was shoehorned. Just look at the rest of the female protagonists in the series. Since Hermione is taken, there is Luna Lovegood, Ginny and various Gryffindor Quidditch players. So then, Ginny is the best, right? Except everything that happens between them occurs in book six and book two.
I list the books in that order because it reads like a retcon, where later events change previous actions or their outcomes. It makes perfect sense that Ginny thinks Harry is cool since he killed the basilisk and saved her in book two, but nothing happens for years in the story. And when something does happen, it is highly suspect.
Let us compare how these two gentlemen win their respective girl. Ron suddenly perfected the spell “Wingardium Leviosa” to save Hermione from a mountain troll their first year, was willing to fight his childhood sports idol for her, and paid attention to her interests for years to win her over.
Harry won Ginny, supposedly, by saving her in the Chamber of Secrets and drinking a Power Star straight from the Mushroom Kingdom like Mario. This made Harry enter God mode, and suddenly made Ginny single and interested.
From this view, the Harry Potter series should be called “Ron’s Amazing Life and Harry’s Plot Advancement.”
There is another point to be made here, beyond Harry’s need to actually be the main character in his own story. Perhaps, the most important point of all: Ron ending up with Hermione means the jerk wins again.
Let us examine the very method I listed as Ron’s ironic route to Hermione’s heart. The troll fight. Why is Hermione in danger? Ron insulted her enough to make her cry. While Ron is the one who TKOs the beast, who remembers she’s gone? Oh, is that Harry? By Jove, it was Harry who remembered.
As for fighting his idol, Ron did do a lot of moping, destroying action figures and yelling at Hermione afterward.
When I said he pays attention to her interests, I mean that while Ron is pro-house elf, most of his attention is focused on making fun of the name Hermione comes up with for the group (S.P.E.W.) and saying the cause is pointless. Charming.
So, while Ron and Hermione are awesome, their story comes at the expense of the main character. Which, from the author’s point of view, shouldn’t happen.
Patrick White is a senior in mass communications. Please send all comments to opinion@kstatecollegian.com.
