Prefects and points

[delwynmarch]

No: HPFGUIDX 106075



I, Del, wrote:
> Ron made *amazing* choices for someone normal. 

Arya answered :
> I'm not entirely convinced this all conscious to Ron.  I think Harry
> being his friend *is* Ron's interest and so, that's what prompts him
> to be there for Harry.

Del replies :
I'll be simple. If anyone, *anyone*, even my husband who is my very
best friend, asked me to go in a bad big forest to follow spiders, I
would tell them to get lost. Ron made a VERY CONSCIOUS choice that
day. And on many other days too.

Arya wrote :
> Ron's choice, I think, is yet to come in
> choosing to either stick it out even more so with Harry (the right
> choice) or to fall prey some inner jealousy or wish to do his own
> thing for himself (the easy one by comparison).  

Del replies :
Harry doesn't own Ron, Ron doesn't owe Harry anything, and I'm sure
Harry would *hate* to know that Ron is unhappy with him. He'd be the
first one to push Ron to pursue his dreams, no matter how selfish.

Arya wrote :
> Of all the things in Ron's life, if he survives the war as Harry's 
> best friend, he would be lucky to just alive.

Del replies :
So he shouldn't shoot for the stars or plan for his future ?

Arya wrote :
> He's the exxageration of "ordinary". 

Del replies :
Ordinary people are ordinary because they do ordinary things. They
don't fight monsters and psychopaths : they let the professionals do
that. Ordinary students turn to the teachers, they don't go breaking
the rules to face death yet once again. Those are no ordinary things,
hence Ron is not ordinary.

Arya wrote :
> I think Harry and Hermione would shine on their own. They may be 
> better with Ron but neither is dependent on him for being who they 
> are.  

Del replies :
Without Ron, Harry would never have made it past the giant chess set,
for example.

Arya wrote :
> Nope.  IMO, I do not think the Trio is equal.  Sorry.  I think it's
> Harry, then Hermione, and then Ron.  
> 
> but that doesn't mean one is better than the other as a person. 
> People are not judged comparitively in the end; it's more like Danish
> judging (from 4H), where each individual is judged on their own 
> unique circumstances and individual acheivements.  

Del replies :
And yet you keep belittling Ron's achievements simply because you
think they don't measure up to Harry's achievements. Contradiction.

Arya wrote :
> I think, sometimes people identify with someone other than Harry (a
> foreign concept to me until I came into fandom years ago) and then 
> try to be an advocate for that character in a bid for them to be 
> regarded as an unsung hero. 

Del replies :
I never found any great fun in championing the obvious hero. He
already has tons of fans, and he's the author's favourite anyway. So
ever since I was a very little girl, I found myself attracted to the
underdog, and quite often repelled by the
so-obvious-hero-who-has-all-the-qualities. The underdog is the one who
has the real choice : remain an underdog or reach for the glory. The
hero, as you said concerning Harry, often has little choice but to be
a hero. Booooring. Unless he starts as an underdog (a real one, not
like Harry, who was a Prophesied Hero in disguise).

Arya wrote :
> As it is, the only one you can hang your hopes on and the one you
> should be rooting for as he is the main dude of the books (Remember
> Harry?  The kid with the scar?) is Harry Potter. The rest of them are
> all supporting characters.  Harry is the champion of the books; the
> hero and the one for whom we are meant to feel empathy for and to 
> root for.

Del replies :
Twice in the same day ?! I'm cursed or what ??
I'll give you the same answer I gave Paul : you have no right to tell
me who I'm supposed to champion. Harry's the hero of the books, yes,
but that's all. There's no rule ever written saying that readers
should champion the hero and only the hero. It might be the writer's
intention, it might be the most logical and the easiest thing to do,
but it's not compulsory. If I want to champion Ron, Snape, Peter,
Lucius or LV, *nobody* has the right to tell me that I shouldn't. They
can tell me that I'm heading for a major disappointment, but no more
than that.

Telling me that I should invest my attention only in Harry is like
telling me that only the rich and the beautiful people count in real
life. I shouldn't bother caring about the ordinary people who don't
apparently have the power to change things ? Sorry, I will.

Arya wrote :
> Ron, in all his ordinaryness, may just be a plot to show how
> wonderful a friend *Harry* is by Harry's willingness to go into the
> bowels of the earth to slay a Basilisk for this ordinary's friend
> sister.  Sorry, the plot does not *need* to show the triumph of Ron 
> to be good fiction; it needs to show the trials (and fate) of Harry.

Del replies :
You really don't understand what I'm telling you. I'm telling you that
the story *already* shows how extraordinary Ron has become, it shows
that through his choices. 

And I am NOT asking for Ron to become the hero of Harry's story. I'm
hoping Ron will become the hero of his own life, that he will find his
very own, independent, way to glory, not a way that depends on Harry
being the hero first.

Arya wrote :
> But, um, he is.  Ron *is* less.  Otherwise the books would be about
> him.  Sure he's no less a person (fictional as he is) but he *IS* 
> less of a character.  Perspective, perspective, perspective!!

Del replies :
Of course he is less of a character, that was NEVER my problem !

Arya wrote :
> we readers need to regain some perspective.  

Del replies :
Perspective ? But *you* are the one who can't detach yourself from
Harry ! You are at least as prejudiced in favour of Harry than I am in
favour of Ron. All you can see is Harry, Harry, Harry. I can see many
other people : Ron, Hermione, Neville, Draco, Lupin, and others, and
find them just as fascinating, interesting and for some of them heroic
as Harry, if not more. Just because JKR put the light on Harry and
Harry happens to play a role nobody else could play in the war (and
the war isn't everything) doesn't mean Harry is the only interesting
or heroic character, far from it !

Del