Ron's contribution (was SHIP: JKR & Ron/Hermione, H/H converging)

[itsbeenawhile7 <05ajf@williams.edu>]

No: HPFGUIDX 50205

David said:

> > In terms of companionship, emotional support, magical ability, 
> > commitment, faith in the others, loyalty, and all those other 
> things that go into friendship, do you think Ron is behind the 
> other two, particularly Hermione?


Well, here's the problem, as I see it, with Ron's role in the Trio 
and in the HP series as of late--of the three in the Trio, he has 
become frighteningly expendable.  In terms of the overall quest, he 
does not serve a truly integral purpose anymore.  In the beginning, 
Ron was absolutely necessary as a supplier of information about the 
workings of the wizarding world, as both Harry and Hermione grew up 
with Muggles.  Now, however, that's become less necessary, not only 
because Harry's been involved in the wizarding world for a few years 
now, but because there are several other sources for this information 
now--including the prolific reader, Hermione.  Ron doesn't have to do 
this for them anymore.

Pippin mentioned Ron's leadership skills as they related to playing 
wizard chess in SS.  Ron absolutely served an important function in 
the overall quest to Voldemort in SS--without him, they would not 
have passed the giant chess task.  The problem is, Ron has not been 
in such an integral and necessary position since, which is why I 
think the whole "Ron falling behind the other two" was brought up in 
the first place.

Now, to what you were saying, David, in terms of companionship, 
emotional support, and the like, I believe Ron is absolutely 
essential.  But that's the key--Ron's primary function IMHO, even as 
far back as SS, is to be Harry's friend and supporter.  But he is not 
needed as far as fighting the good fight goes--he only plays in as 
someone *Harry* needs.  Ron's secondary function is simply being a 
Weasley, and by being a Weasley, he provides Harry with a 
necessary "surrogate family."  This is, again, another important 
emotional fallback for Harry.

Hermione, on the other hand, of course exists as an emotional support 
for Harry, too.  Yet, she has a substantial and irreplaceable role in 
working on the overall quest against evil (and the individual 
problems in each book) in the HP world.  She's the brains and the 
logic in the equation--she supplies Harry with information he'd never 
otherwise have in order to figure things out, and she's also proven 
to be a valuable teacher to Harry (she successfully teaches Harry the 
Summoning Charm which is necessary to Harry surviving the First Task 
AND escaping Voldemort in GoF, Ch. 34, "Priori Incantatem").

What makes me worry about Ron being expendable is this distinction 
between the roles the two friends play.  Hermione is needed in the 
rest of the books.  Harry needs her to continue his fight--without 
her insights and skills, Harry won't be able to beat his enemies.  
Ron is an important emotional support for Harry, but I feel that the 
nature of the HP series is that this overarching quest is going to 
slowly strip Harry of his emotional supports and fallbacks.  I'm not 
necessarily insinuating that Ron will die; rather, I'm worried that 
Ron will be removed as a support system for Harry at some point.  
There are several other ways of removing Ron without killing him.  It 
would be another crushing blow to Harry emotionally, but not a 
crushing blow to the fight against Voldemort.  Losing Hermione, on 
the other hand, would be a crushing (and arguably, irrevocably 
crippling) blow to the quest.  And in the end, while Ron and Harry 
have a wonderful interaction with each other, Harry and Hermione get 
along AND work extraordinarily well together when fighting the good 
fight--I'm struck by this every time I read the end of PoA and the 
midsections of GoF, where Hermione is helping Harry with his tasks.

~Alyssa