Fans Still Bitter Over Harry Potter Movies' Biggest Missed Opportunity
The magical stories of witchcraft and wizardry captivated the entire world with the release of the first Harry Potter movie in 2001.
Seven more enchanting films adapted from J.K Rowling's novels followed and Harry Potter became one of the biggest and most popular movie franchises ever, and arguably still is today.
Audiences followed the adventures of Harry Potter and his friends Ron and Hermione as they navigated life at Hogwarts School, learnt magic and came face to face with dark forces. All three main characters were unique in their strengths and every fan had a favourite character out of the three. Harry was brave and determined, Hermione was compassionate and intelligent, and Ron was loyal and funny.
Although Ron Weasley had many good traits and made audiences laugh, fans that had read the books were unhappy. Pieces were missing, important parts of Ron's personality that existed in the books, but not the movies.
For those who had read the original novels and eagerly anticipated their screen adaptations, this was more than just his character being lost in translation. His character was robbed.
In the books Ron had a vast knowledge of the wizarding world, having grown up in a wizard family. He was always ready to step up and protect his friends, even standing up on a broken leg to do so, but this doesn't happen in the movie. There are also instances where Ron's lines were given to Hermione, further portraying her as intelligent and the problem solver of the group.
There are many moments where book Ron's moments of heroism are given to Hermione in the films and replaced by instances where Ron expresses jealousy and acts like a spoiled brat and even a coward. Throughout the movies, he seems to become less of an important part of the trio, and more of a side-kick to Harry and Hermione. He also antagonizes and teases Hermione, making him look like a jerk.
In the books, Ron does serve occasionally as comic relief, he was the one in the group with the best sense of humor, but in the movies, instead of laughing with him, audiences were laughing at him. His character was never truly taken seriously and always came out as the underdog of the group.
As much as the other two are great characters, and deserve to be loved and praised by fans, Ron deserved the same. Harry and Hermione being put on a pedestal by film producers came at the ultimate cost for Ron Weasley, and all that his character could have, and should have been, and fans will never forgive them for that.