Welcome back for the third day of The Harry Potter 30 Days Challenge. As you know by now (sort of), Leannaatc @Short Story Long has this idea of a month full of Harry Potter and you can find the prompt for each day here here.
– Day 3: Is there anything in the film adaptations that annoyed you? –
Oh, well, I’m so glad you’ve asked! When I first saw this question I thought I would have to think deep and hard about it, but no, there are several things that annoyed me in the adaptations, but most had to do with the constraints of time when adapting a 400 pages novel to screen.
There is one thing though, that had nothing to do with time, and that to this day annoys the hell out of me. Book-Ron Vs Movie-Ron!
I love both Ron’s, seriously, as I said in The Harry Potter Tag, Ron is one of my favorite characters and I have a slight (huge) crush on Rupert Grint (mainly because I think he does comedy so well), but that does not make me blind to what they took out of Ron when they transferred him onto the screen.
It started on the first movie, and then I guess it would be too much of a hassle to do him right, and also, Ron became sort of the comic relief for the movies (which again, is fine and all, but it’s not Ron – Book Ron is super funny as well). When the trio falls into the Devil’s Snare, Hermione is the one who panics in the book, while Ron always maintains a cool head. Actually, Book-Ron is ALWAYS cool-headed in stressful situations, and it is Hermione who panics. I honestly don’t know why they role-reversed it on the movies…
Ron defends Hermione when Snape calls her a “know-it-all”!
Also, it is Ron, with a broken leg, that stand in front of Harry, before Sirius (Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban) and tells him that if he wants to murder Harry, he has to go through him first. See? Book-Ron is funny, cool-headed, brave, super loyal, kind and kicks-ass!
“If you want to kill Harry, you’ll have to kill us too!” he said fiercely, though the effort of standing upright was draining him of still more color, and he swayed slightly as he spoke.
“Lie down,” [Sirius] said quietly to Ron. “You will damage that leg even more.”
“Did you hear me?” Ron said weakly, though he was clinging painfully to Harry to stay upright. “You’ll have to kill all three of us!”
He defends Hermione on more than one occasion, even when his own mother thinks the worst of her because of the tabloid news, it is Ron who sets it right! One important thing as well, is that within the main trio Ron is the only one with knowledge of the wizarding world. Everytime they need reference or explanations, or something like that, it is Ron to the rescue.
So yeah, this is probably the thing that most annoys me because it’s current throughout the 8 movies.
My Tiny Obsessions 
I have not read the books, but maybe they switched Ron and Hermione’s role because having the guy as the one who panics gives so much more humour and lightness to the story and maybe they wanted to make Hermione and her smart-ness more relevant if she was the one who could handle herself in sticky situations.
when you read them you’ll see… hermione CAN hold her own, even if she panics at times. And Ron has enough humour as it is, there was absolutely no need for this reversal. but I get what you’re saying… 😉
I love this! My post was also about Ron! And I agree, both movie and book Ron are good characters, but I prefer book Ron.
yes 😀
I agree completely. In the movies it seemed as if they had to degrade Ron’s character to elevate Hermione’s. Which is ridiculous. They both contributed differently and Ron’s presence grounded the Trio. Rupert Grint is amazing but book Ron was so much better.
true 🙂 it really bothers me because I love Ron’s character so much. He’s so loyal and street-smart and that never came across on screen. Also, it’s one of the reasons that he and Hermione complemented each other so well…
Exactly! Ron was not the smartest of the trio but I believe he was the bravest and his loyalty shined in all the confrontations. And he still managed to be the comic relief. In the books, Ron and Hermione compliment each other. In the movie it seems as if Hermione settled. And as is the case with most adaptations, the character gets mixed in the eyes of the readers. Many people forget that Ron is more than his silver adaptation.
yeah, and it’s such a shame 😦 I actually think that within the Weasleys kids, only the twins got the love they deserved 😦