SHIP: Questions for R/Hers...

[naama_gat at hotmail.com]

No: HPFGUIDX 12165

--- In HPforGrownups at y..., "Ebony Elizabeth Thomas" <ebonyink at h...> 
wrote:
> This post is dedicated to the entire Mod Squad, who thought the 
Great 
> Shipping Debate was Resting In Peace.  Cheers!
> 
> First question--
> 
> One of the top arguments that R/Hers have used in the past to 
debunk HGTG is 
> that "Harry has everything else, so Ron deserves something that he 
doesn't 
> have... the girl."
> 
> Validity of the above position aside... doesn't this reasoning work 
most 
> satisfactorily if the hero actually wants the girl, and the girl 
(you have 
> to admit the terminology involved in this position is troublesome) 
chooses 
> the alternate hero/sidekick over him?
> 
> After all...
> 
> Ron has a lot that Harry doesn't have... red hair, height, 20/20 
vision, 
> formerly a rat... this list goes on a bit further, but you catch my 
drift.  
> There is no indication thus far that Harry wants any of these 
things.
> 
> If Hermione also falls under this Unwanted category, I'm not sure 
how canon 
> R/H would give Ron the satisfaction that he has something that 
Harry 
> doesn't.  I'm not sure that even getting the girl at this point 
would 
> completely alleviate his growing disquietude.
> 
> However...
> 
> If the H/Hers' FITD theory is *reversed* all of a sudden from
> 
> R----->He---(?)--->Ha----->C/R/no one
> 
> to a chain that is highly implausible at this point in canon--
> 
> Ha----->He----->R
> 
> ...it seems as if this would satisfy the R/H argument that "Ron 
needs 
> something that Harry doesn't have" to "Ron deserves something that 
Harry 
> doesn't have *and wants*."
> 
> Since there is no canonical evidence whatsoever of Reversed FITD, 
how does 
> Ron Getting Hermione (winces again at the terminology) fulfill the 
criteria 
> set forth by R/Hers in the first place?
> 
<snip>

I don't think that Ron wants things that Harry has. I 
mean, I don't think he wants things *because* Harry has them. 
Ron's problem, IMO, is that there are things that he feels he lacks 
and his jealousy of Harry is the *outcome* of this sense of lack - it 
is *because* he feels unimportant or unspecial within his own family 
that Harry's fame arouses his envy; *because* his family is 
relatively poor, Harry's affluence bugs him. 
I don't see his jealousy of Harry as being personal, that is, 
arising from the relationship. It just so happens, that Harry is his 
best friend and he also has a lot of things that Ron, quite apart 
from his relationship with Harry, feels the lack of. 
The kind of jealousy you're portraying is the kind prevalent among 
siblings. You can see it a lot with young children: one sister starts 
playing with a toy and immediately the other tries to grab it, 
screaming that *she* wants it. If that were true of Ron's 
relationship with Harry, he would have been tremendously jealous of 
Harry's phenomenal success at Quidditch, and he's obviously not. 

The Ron-deserves-something argument doesn't make any sense to me 
unless viewed as external to the story. That is, its not about Ron 
needing something that Harry doesn't have, but rather a literary 
argument, at the level of the story's structure. I agree that if we 
accept that Ron feels that way ("Harry has everything, I want 
something that he doesn't have") then it would be much more 
satisfying for him to have something that Harry wants. 

Naama

 

Naama