Raise your hand if you're familiar with the Harry Potter books. Not just the movies. I'm talking about the actual physical original books. (I hope there are a lot of people raising their hands out there.)
Now think about Ron Weasley. He's pretty okay, right? Ginger, funny, Harry's best friend and Hermione's love interest. Wait, are we still talking about the books? Because there's a lot more to recommend Mr Weasley if you take a look at the books instead of the movies.
[Spoilers!]
In the films, Ron is always Harry's goofy sidekick. He tags along on all the shenanigans, makes fun of Hermione, eats too much at every chance. His moments of heroism are relatively small and somewhat understated - like in Deathly Hallows when he returns to Harry and Hermione's campsite and promptly destroys a Horcrux to little acclaim.
But when you consider Movie Ron, what's the impression you get? He's just a jokester, not particularly brainy, always the comic relief to Hermione's solemnity. Now, it's been a while since I read the books, but even in my removal I can tell that this portrayal is more than a little unfair to JK Rowling's original Ronald Weasley.
There are a few scenes in the films where Book Ron shines through, but for the most part we're robbed of his incredible character. Yes, Ron is Harry's best friend, but why? Remember Christmas in Sorcerer's Stone? Why didn't Ron go home with the rest of his family? He stayed at Hogwarts with Harry because Harry had no other choice. Remember finding Aragog in Chamber of Secrets? Ron was deathly afraid of spiders, but he went into that forest with Harry anyway. And these are just examples from the movies. Take this little gem of comparison:
Professor Snape [to Hermione]: You insufferable know-it-all.
Book Ron: You asked us a question and she knows the answer! Why ask if you don't want to be told?!
Movie Ron: He has a point, you know.Ron isn't just comic relief with the occasional heroic moment. Original Ron was chivalrous and caring and stood up for his friends, even if he barely knew them or found them a little irritating (don't forget that despite the aforementioned outburst, he does comment on how Hermione's lack of friends is probably due to her showy intelligence - not everyone is perfect, even Ron). He stood by them through anything - there's a reason that Harry was able to do all that he did, and he owes a lot to the friends that supported him through those years.
But I'm not trying to convince you that Ron is the real hero or anything like that. I'm just trying to show that there was always a lot more to Ronald Weasley than the films admitted. He was perpetually teased as the youngest Weasley boy, he's terrified of spiders, he's always marginalized both as the least talented Weasley and as Harry's goofy sidekick, he stands by his support of non-purebloods despite actual threats made by people such as Draco Malfoy, he feels fear and anger and jealousy and glee and confusion and love and everything else (despite Hermione's assertion that he has "the emotional range of a teaspoon"). Ron is just as real as anyone else in the books, and I think it's sad that he became more of a caricature than a human through film adaptation.
One last thing. I know the scene in Deathly Hallows where Hermione describes erasing her parents' memories and leaving home so they wouldn't be hurt is heartbreaking, but remember that Ron left his entire family even though they were all in terrible danger, knowing he couldn't go home for fear of drawing Voldemort to them, and spent months listening to the radio with a racing heart, just praying not to hear their names listed among the dead or imprisoned.
Weasley is our King.
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