The Funny/Stupid Pics Thread

[Svata]

Oh, and you have to turn out to be competent in a pinch.

[RavynousHunter]

Oh, and you have to turn out to be competent in a pinch.

But, you only need to display competence twice.  The rest of the time, you can be a complete, feckless, moronic leech.

[Art Vandelay]

Oh, and you have to turn out to be competent in a pinch.

But, you only need to display competence twice.  The rest of the time, you can be a complete, feckless, moronic leech.

Anymore than twice and he'd end up outshining the hero. Only the girl gets to do that and still be the sidekick.

[RavynousHunter]

Oh, and you have to turn out to be competent in a pinch.

But, you only need to display competence twice.  The rest of the time, you can be a complete, feckless, moronic leech.

Anymore than twice and he'd end up outshining the hero. Only the girl gets to do that and still be the sidekick.

Still could've made him less of a load.  Seriously, other than the chess set in first year and that whole asspull in book 7, what did Ron do other than fuck around and copy Hermione's homework?

[ironbite]

Provide Harry with a stable family life that is a refuge after his summer with the Dursley's.

[RavynousHunter]

Provide Harry with a stable family life that is a refuge after his summer with the Dursley's.

I'll give ya that, but that's something Hermione could've done, as well.  Hell, any one of his friends could've done that.  Ron's family was alright...dunno about his parents, since they seem a little, well, stupid having more children than they can really afford, but magic makes up for that, to a degree.  Fred and George were fairly cool and proved that they could actually do something worthwhile (run a business), Percy, prick though he was, at least had ambition, and Bill and Charlie were rather successful in their own rights.  Ginny was largely ignored, as far as I can recall, between books 2 and 6.  Ron was the odd man out.  He had no marketable skills, no ambition, and no real magical talent to speak of.  After the end, ignoring that god awful epilogue, Ron likely would've been a 35 year-old, basement dwelling manchild.  Or a drug dealer.

[dpareja]

Provide Harry with a stable family life that is a refuge after his summer with the Dursley's.

Cracked noted that the Dursleys are actually saints--how else do you explain their treatment of Harry given that they were exposed to a Horcrux for years and years?

[RavynousHunter]

Provide Harry with a stable family life that is a refuge after his summer with the Dursley's.

Cracked noted that the Dursleys are actually saints--how else do you explain their treatment of Harry given that they were exposed to a Horcrux for years and years?

Both McGonagall and Hagrid told Dumbles that the Dursleys were deplorable excuses for human beings before Harry had even been left at their doorstep.  When someone as kind and oblivious as Hagrid thinks you're an asshole...you might just be an asshole.  That, and McGonagall's a good judge of character.

[Sigmaleph]

Provide Harry with a stable family life that is a refuge after his summer with the Dursley's.

I'll give ya that, but that's something Hermione could've done, as well.  Hell, any one of his friends could've done that.  Ron's family was alright...dunno about his parents, since they seem a little, well, stupid having more children than they can really afford, but magic makes up for that, to a degree.  Fred and George were fairly cool and proved that they could actually do something worthwhile (run a business), Percy, prick though he was, at least had ambition, and Bill and Charlie were rather successful in their own rights.  Ginny was largely ignored, as far as I can recall, between books 2 and 6.  Ron was the odd man out.  He had no marketable skills, no ambition, and no real magical talent to speak of.  After the end, ignoring that god awful epilogue, Ron likely would've been a 35 year-old, basement dwelling manchild.  Or a drug dealer.

Bill and Charlie were successful in their own right... after leaving school. During their time at Hogwarts, all we know is that Charlie was a decent Quidditch player (like most of his family including Ron) and that Bill was a prefect (like Ron!) and Head Boy. (which Ron never got a chance to be since he wasn't at Hogwarts for his seventh year, although I don't think he would've been anyway)

Judging Ron based on not having a successful career when we've only seem him as a schoolboy seems kind of unfair. He was a normal human being who had a variety of skills, was trusted with a minor position of authority, got OK grades (IIRC he got the same OWLs as Harry minus the O in DADA) and just happened to be overshadowed because his two best friends were an academic genius and a literal Chosen Hero of Prophecy. He was never incompetent, and could usually at least hold his own when fighting against older and more experienced wizards.

Extrapolating from that to him being a "basement dwelling manchild" seems unwarranted.

[RavynousHunter]

Its possible that Ron, as a character, has always sort of rubbed me the wrong way.  He literally abandoned his best friend and the girl he fancied in the middle of a war.  Granted, part of that was due to the influence of the Horcrux, but I believe Harry himself pointed out that it was more bringing Ron's frustrations to the fore and amplifying them.  That, and I wonder how much of his achievement and competency is due to the influence of his friends.  If the war hadn't been on, if Voldemort really would have died and Harry was just another kid, how good would he really be?  From what I recall reading, Ron's always been a singularly lazy underachiever who'd rather spend his days playing exploding snap instead of doing his homework.

Just...I've dealt with people like that.  In real life, they never amount to much once they and their friends go their separate ways, which is inevitable once you leave high school.  The best they can hope for is some kind of low-paying desk job.  If it weren't for Voldemort and the war, Harry, Ron, and Hermione would've ended up going their own ways.  Harry probably would've ended up playing Quidditch or something, Hermione would be a teacher at Hogwarts, and Ron...honestly, I'd see him getting into the Misuse of Muggle Artefacts division, at best.  Even then, relationships that work in war don't always work so well in peace.  Especially since, by all rights, Harry should've ended up a shell-shocked veteran since the magical world doesn't understand the concept of psychotherapy.

[Sigmaleph]

I think that's just the contrast with Hermione though. Ron complains about homework and prefers to play games, yes, but who doesn't? I certainly did when I was his age, so did all my friends. Some of them still have low-level desk jobs (because they are in their twenties and high-paying jobs aren't easy to come by), others have better-paying jobs as skilled professionals, others are finishing university and becoming lawyers and physicists.

Did Ron do dumb things? Sure. Human and all, he has personal issues to deal with. Would he have accomplished much without the war? Not by age 18, but most people haven't done anything of note by that age either.

But compare Harry. Harry is never depicted as a more dedicated student than Ron, both of them often getting a lot of help from Hermione, yet his grades are apparently good enough that an Auror career is within his possibilities. Literally the only thing we know Harry to be better than Ron at is casting a Patronus, and only because he got dedicated training. And why did he get dedicated training? Because of his Tragic Backstory that makes him more sensitive to Dementors, and probably because he reminded Lupin of his father.

Harry is only a hero because of a random prophecy (and because it just so happened that Snape was in love with his mother and asked Voldemort to spare her and triggered the magical protection of sacrifice). If instead Ron had been marked as a hero, if everyone looked at him like he was a Big Deal instead of just another Weasley and the best friend of Harry Potter, could he have been the hero? I think he could have. He would have at least been a different character, not haunted by his inferiority complex about his friends and being unable to stand out among his siblings.

[dpareja]

Provide Harry with a stable family life that is a refuge after his summer with the Dursley's.

Cracked noted that the Dursleys are actually saints--how else do you explain their treatment of Harry given that they were exposed to a Horcrux for years and years?

Both McGonagall and Hagrid told Dumbles that the Dursleys were deplorable excuses for human beings before Harry had even been left at their doorstep.  When someone as kind and oblivious as Hagrid thinks you're an asshole...you might just be an asshole.  That, and McGonagall's a good judge of character.

Point, but still--given what proximity to a Horcrux did to other characters, it's pretty amazing that the Dursleys didn't mistreat Harry any more than they did.

Also, just going to repost this link:

http://www.buzzfeed.com/danieldalton/boss-witch#.ha5GBrB6b

[Art Vandelay]

Point, but still--given what proximity to a Horcrux did to other characters, it's pretty amazing that the Dursleys didn't mistreat Harry any more than they did.

Eh, I can't really get behind that theory, seeing as no other character reacts to Harry like they do other horcruxes. More likely, the Dursleys are just supposed to be your standard variety fuckheads, and JK likely forgot about the arseholification effect that horcruxes are supposed to have when she decided to make Harry one.

Now that I think about it, it would make for a very interesting alternate series if Harry were in fact having that influence on people around him from day one. If nothing else, it'd make Order of the Phoenix into an even bigger angst-fest than it already is.

[niam2023]

In other words, it'd turn Order of the Phoenix into Thanfiction's Dumbledore's Army.

[Art Vandelay]

I was thinking more along the lines of everyone Harry ever comes into contact with eventually ends up treating him like the Dursleys did.