Ron's "special power"/Voldemort's "goodness"/Harry&Veela/Ginny-NAGINI'S BANE

[columbiatexan]

No: HPFGUIDX 38292

Hey, and y'all thought I had abandoned you, maybe? Naahhh, 
just busy with some... err... studying.  Seriously, it's finals period 
at Columbia... 

I was going to write up a big defense of Ron, but y'all beat me to 
the punch.  So I just wanted to start, I guess, with a continuation 
fo this discussion of Voldemort's possible goodness.

Quoting Theresa Ryan:

"Ergo, Voldemort should have some good side in 
him.  This provides scope for an unconventional twist in the 
story--"

I'm actually gonna argue not so unconventional--though I'm 
arguing for an entirely different twist from the one you were 
arguing for.  Now this is all my own opinion and conjecture, so 
feel free to disagree, but I think the  pivotal moment in 
Voldemort's fall to evil was the death of his mom and his 
abandonment by his father, and his subsequent placement in a 
Muggle orphanage.  It bred in him a hatred for the Muggle and 
wizarding communities alike; he was abandoned by his Muggle 
dad and raised in what one imagines was a not very pleasant 
Muggle environment.  And he must have felt the wizarding 
community abandoned him to his fate in the orphanage without 
caring at all for him (one wonders who his family will be revealed 
to be... who is Marvolo after all?).  It's interesting that in the 
Chamber of Secrets, he has a long discussion with Harry about 
the similarities between the two of them because it highlights 
what Dumbledore points out only a few pages later--that it's our 
choices, far more than our abilities, that determine who we 
become (something I'm going to return to in the subsequent 
discussion of Ron).

I guess I'm one of the few people who thinks his mom wasn't so 
bad.  After all, just because she was the heir of Slytherin doesn't 
mean that she agreed with her ancestor's views.  She obviously 
didn't hate Muggles or Muggle-borns enough, considering she 
was willing to bear a half-Muggle-born.  Was she married to 
Tom Riddle?  I got the feeling she was, in any case, we get the 
impression that she was devastated when he left her.  Or maybe 
that was just Tom's playing up the pity card.  But *if* she is a 
sympathetic, kind-hearted person, a "good Slytherin" if you will, I 
think she may point the road to Voldemort's eventual 
redemption.  Of course, he has to die.  He has to die for the 
increidible and brutal devastation and carnage he has wracked 
on the wizarding community for, what, 20 years.  In the literary 
sense, he's going to have to pay for those crimes, and no, a life 
sentence in Azkaban isn't going to cut it.  But, if Rowling is able 
to come up with a way for Voldemort to come into contact with 
his mother, perhaps through a diary or a shadow of herself (or 
perhaps... say... a ghost?), and find out that she is extremely 
disappointed in what he has become, it could set the stage for 
his atoning for his crimes.  It could be satisfying for him to see 
the error of his ways before he is brought to pay for his actions.  
But Voldemort will die, he's depicted as the "ultimate evil" in 
these books.  Fudge isn't evil, just a simpleton.  he's kind of like 
one of those ostriches that stick their head in the sand, and 
that's pretty much what he's doing at the moment... IMHO, he'll 
either wise up or be killed off, I don't think he's going to actively 
and/or knowingly aid the Dark Side.

Now on to Ron.  It's interesting to me how many people keep 
bringing up the potentiality that Ron might be a Seer.  It's a pretty 
neat idea, and the whole "Seventh Son" thing is something I 
hadn't considered at all before, and is now something I'm 
wondering about avidly.  (And off topic, but good job to those of 
you who suggested Karkaroff may have attended Hogwarts!! I 
never noticed his perfect English before!  And considering the 
whole Death Eater phenomenon seems to have been primarily 
an English one, he most likely was in England!)

OK, well this isn't the quote I intended to use, but it'll do, this is 
from Tabouli:

Athena:
> This is a call to Tabouli and/or Grey Wolf for an acronym to one 
of my pet
theories. The one with the slightly obscured alphabetic naming 
scheme to
hide a missing Weasley son which would make Ron a seventh 
son and have
latent psychic powers which would allow him to flourish outside 
the shadows
of his brothers and Harry.<

Poor old Ron, eh? It's just not fair. Overshadowed by his brother,
overshadowed by his best friends...

Am I the only one who DOESN'T feel sorry for Ron or that he 
doesn't need a talent to make him "special"?   First of all, Harry 
seems to think he's plenty special... special enough to feel 
jealous of anyway.  Luck is completely in the eye of the beholder.  
Harry, who's never known his family or had people to truly love 
him for who he is, is truly envious of Ron for having the family 
that he does.  Yeah, the Weasley's get on each other's nerves 
every now and then, but what family doesn't?  The truth of the 
matter is, each and every one of them loves each other--as 
evidenced by the fact that Fred and George WANTED Percy to eat 
with them on Christmas Day in book 1, Percy's wading out into 
the pond after ron in Book 4, Ron falling to the floor when he 
found out Ginny had been kidnapped in Book2, etc etc.  And 
more importantly, Ron is appreciate for who he is, while Harry is 
constantly fawned over for being "famous Harry Potter," ironically 
enough the thing that Ron is envious of him for.  Just goes to 
show you to be careful of what you wish for, at least in Ron's 
case... it's not all it's cracked up to be, and I think that just might 
be the lesson Rowling is trying to paint with this particular thing.

Secondly, OK, even if Hermione and Harry are have more latent 
talent than Ron, it just makes Ron all the more brave.  Again, he 
highlights that great quote from Dumbledore, which is certainly 
among my favorites, that it is our choices, far more than our 
talents, which determine who we become.  I personally don't 
need Ron to equal Harry or Hermione in skill level or 
intelligence.  What I do need for him is to make the right choices, 
and so far, he has displayed an incredible ability far beyond his 
years to make the right choices, though they have most certainly 
not been the easy ones.  In fact, in Book I and Book III, he was 
the one who got bludgeoned, torn, broken and battered.  Yet in 
Book 3, we see probably his greatest display of courage to this 
point, when he stands on his broken leg and refuses to let Sirius 
kill Harry.  And in Book 4, which perhaps showcases some of 
the most painful to read behavior on their parts (well, it at least 
closely rivals when the two of them ganged up on Hermione), he 
is at least mature enough to admit he was wrong (and Harry is 
mature enough, admittedly, to not force him to do so when he 
realizes he's about to).  

It's Ron's utter normalcy that makes him so likable.  He's the 
normal kid who does great things.  And yes, while he does enjoy 
the attention when he gets it, what kid wouldn't?  Yes, Harry, but 
that's only because he's been surrounded by it all his love--what 
he craves is real love, not mass adoration.  

His prejudices, well, let's not be too hard on the kid, he has 
grown up in the wizarding world his entire life and has been 
surrounded by these views.  Hagrid seems extremely 
xenophobic, yet we're not all predicting bad things from him.  
Bad things happening TO him, suure, but not him doing bad 
things.  Remember, part of Harry and Hermione's lack of the 
prejudices Ron has is due to the fact that they are relatively new 
entrants to the wizarding world.  The only person they've known 
of any giant descent is Hagrid, so they don't have knowledge of 
bad giants.  They've only known a good (albeit a little nutso when 
it comes to "interestin' creatures") one.  Though, perhaps they 
too are on to something--since Dumbledore pushes Fudge to 
send envoys to the giants, so obviously HE thinks they can't be 
all bad.  But i don't think it's fair to expect the wisdom of a 150-
year-old (and it's Dumbledore for crying out loud, at that!) of a 14-
year old.  Ron's whole thing about pretty girls... well shucks... *
looks at floor* I'm 20 for crying out loud and I'm, well not AS bad, 
but still... I mean.   

Although the question begs to be asked, was he really 
interested in getting the prettiest girl in the school to go with him 
or was he just trying ot get a rise out of Hermione?  Take Fleur 
out, she's part veela... Dean and Seamus say Harry and Ron got 
the prettiest girls in the school (or at least in their year) to go with 
them... yet neither of them were at all interested.  So were Dean 
and Seamus just biased, and Padma and Parvati were not the 
prettiest girls in the school (which might make sense, since they 
were still available for the ball; or they were so breathtakingly 
beautiful every guy in the school was too intimidated to ask--but 
you're telling me not a single Beauxbatons, Durmstrang, or 
upperclassmen at Hogwarts had the chutzpah?  I don't think 
so...), or is Ron not as shallow as one might think?  And I'm not 
willing to cut Hermione off the hook--if we're going to try Ron by 
the shallowness fire, and include Harry in the trial b/c his interest 
in Cho seems to be solely focused on her good looks, well I 
mean, come on, I love Hermione and all, but she did shrink her 
teeth against the spoken request of her parents, she got all 
gussied up for the ball, and she did arrive on the arm of the most 
sought-after guy in the entire school.  OK, so she wasn't 
impressed by Viktor's fame and all... but still, some part of her 
must have felt good about it.  All people are shallow, especially 
at that age, especially boys... I'm not willing to throw Ron to the 
dogs because he notices some girls are prettier than others, 
and I'm willing to bet most of that conversation was to get a rise 
out of Hermione (in that position, I would have done the exact 
same thing).

The house elves thing, well, I'll save that whole discussion for 
later, but I think Hermione and Ron are both right.  They do enjoy 
where they are, but Hermione is right that they need to be 
educated.  Because I cannot believe that Rowling is just going to 
leave the situation as is... even Harry agrees with Hermione that 
they should get paid (though he gets annoyed with her after a 
while).  Perhaps Rowling is trying to show here that when you're 
an activist, sometimes you get as much resistance from the 
people you're trying to help as the people who benefit from their 
oppression...

Anyway, Ron's a good kid, and I think he's great just the way he 
is.  I admire him all the more because, while he hasn't been 
revealed to have any "special talents," he has displayed great 
courage and has made the right choices, rather than the easy 
choices, for the most part.  Ron adds balance to their little group. 
Also, it's nice to see that between the three of them, they 
encompass most of the possibilities... we have a pureblood, the 
child of a pureblood and a muggle-born (one of the reasons i'm 
hoping neither Lily's parents nor Hermione's parents turn out to 
be wizards or Squibs--it'd just ruin it for me if they weren't 
Muggles), and a muggle born.  If I had to choose, I'd vote for 
SACRIFICE rather than the whole Evil!Ron deal, b/c it will break 
my heart (and it will break the hearts of Harry, Hermione and all 
the Weasleys) to see an evil Ron... at least SACRIFICE lets him 
go out in a blaze of glory.  Part of me wonders if the whole book 
series is going to turn out to be a red herring, in a way, and Ron 
and not Harry will turn out to be the ultimate hero.  But more than 
any of that, I would like to see the three kids grow up and live 
happily ever after... I'll be happy if they all end up happy.  

Oh, and finally, I hate to do this, I really hate to throw in 
arguments against my own SHIP, but nevertheless, a selfless 
devotion to the pursuit of truth forces me to...

1)The whole debate about seating arragements at the Quidditch 
World Cup is moot.  Hermione only pulls Harry back into his seat 
because he was the only one standing up--we get not a single 
indication that Ron was standing up, and indeed, the fact that Mr. 
Weasley *leaned over* to stop Ron from tearing the shamrocks 
on his hat indicates that he was, in all likelihood, sitting down.  
Combined with the seating chart argument, though, this is 
almost incontrovertible proof that Hermione was not showing a 
preference for either of the two boys when she pulled Harry back 
into his seat.  Though, it's interesting that after Harry has the 
more blatant reaction to the veela here, he's completely 
unaffected by Fleur.  Is this related to his ability to resist Imperio 
perhaps?  Indeed, hermione in general seems to be annoyed 
with both boys when they show interest in girls solely based on 
attractiveness... though Ron gets the short end of the stick here 
as well, either because of Hermione's greater romantic interest 
in him or because he is more obvious about it.  Only once does 
Hermione notice Harry doing it, as far as I can tell, and she calls 
him (and Ron) down for it.

2)It is interesting to note in Chamber of Secrets that Tom notes 
that he poured some of himself into Ginny when she was writing 
in the diary, and just a few chapters later, dumbledore notes that 
Voldemort put some of himself (like his ability to speak 
Parseltongue) into Harry when the AK curse rebounded.  
Hmmm... you know, it's always seemed to me, and perhaps this 
is just me, but I've always felt that Chamber of Secrets is the one 
book among the 4 that doesn't really "fit."  I never understood it's 
point relative to the others in overall plot development.  It is 
without a doubt my least favorite of the 4 (though that's not 
saying much, since I'll reread it in an instant if given the chance... 
but Book 3 is undoubtedly my favorite--i feel it has the best plot 
twists and the tightest overall plot, though Book 4 is more 
emotional and touching) for that very reason.  But I'm seriously 
doubting that the whole point of Book 2 is to set up this similarity 
between Harry and Ginny, but perhaps Ginny in future books will 
be revealed to have "inherited" some talents from Voldemort... 
possibly contributing to NAGINI'S BANE!?!  (BTW, Tabouli, yet 
again let me bow down to your brilliance on that one!  You better 
be careful though, your lieutenant, Grey Wolf, is nipping at your 
heels... hmm, considering he's a wolf, that was perhaps an 
unfortunate choice of words)

The only other overall importance I can see to Book 2 is that it 
gives us some further insight to what went on behind the 
creation of Voldemort.  It is obvious that he has always been a 
bad apple, even since his days at Hogwarts.  He went bad from 
a very early age--and perhaps, well we're also introduced to the 
Riddle family, and we're introduced to his mom.  And I'm 
convinced that we've not seen the last of her, IF Rowling intends 
to have Voldemort atone for his bad actions at all.  I guess it 
depends... is Voldemort Darth Vader, or the Emperor?  And we 
also find out that Hagrid and Voldemort knew each other--will 
they face each other again?

OK, that's it, I"m going before I encourage anyone to make more 
Star Wars analogies... yes, I think Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings, 
and Star Wars are among the greatest epics of our century (the 
last one), but really.  No one make anything of the whole Luke-
Leia/Harry-Hermione same-letter deal... if she makes Harry and 
Hermione long lost twins, I will be so disappointed. It was cool 
in Star Wars because it was relatively original... it would be funny 
though.  I can just see Harry yelling at Dumbledore for sending 
him to live with the Dursleys while Hermione got to live with the 
nice Muggles... :P  But again, that would ruin the whole Muggle-
born thing we've got going on, and that to me is one of the most 
important themes Rowling's got going in the story.

OK, enough rambling.  Did I make up for my 2 week-long 
absence.  I promise I've been keeping up with your posts...

Rohit (columbiatexan)