I Knew I Was Going To Die When I Saw You For The First Time In Twenty-seven Years. 

After reading that Ron defense post and how much you love him, I'm really curious as to why you like him so much! Have a good day xxxx

Of course! Okay, this is a mess, but off the top of my head:

Ron’s character comprises a lot of classic tropes that I particularly like—the big, stifling family; the humble beginnings; deep love under cover of laughter; the knight of heart who overcomes his fears. From the beginning, he’s colourful: an optimistic, humorous, buoyant kid, all red and gold and blue, flaring up in anger, in laughter, diffusing tensions with wide-eyed simplicity. To me, there’s something so charming in this self-proclaimed underdog, second always to his friends, and yet never hateful; so humble that he is oblivious to the fact that he is a key cog in his world dynamics.

Ron is never put under an admiring light, because Harry tends to rely on him with the spontaneity of a brother, and Hermione doesn’t share her insights with Harry. Because of Harry’s tranquil trust and because of his depiction in the movies, Ron has slowly become, in popular opinion, a simplistic oaf, a prop for crude comedic devices. To me, however, he is the easiest to identify with now—born in the worlds he inhabits, and yet overlooked by those who, he believes, shine brighter—at the Burrow, his twin brothers and his sisters, who bulldoze their way through life when he tends to take his lazy-ass time—in the magic world, Hermione and Harry, both raised by muggles and yet welcomed with open arms by strangers because of their skills. Ron’s skills are rarely put in the spotlight, and you know why? Because despite his tendency to frustration and anger, which are usually targeted towards himself anyway, he is usually quite unassuming, so convinced is he of his lack of self-worth.

Harry is humble, yes, and selfless, but he has a strong sense of his abilities, of his talent, and the luck that life, despite the hardships, has bestowed upon him. Hermione, potentially because of her blood status and lack of beauty in the early years of school, stuffs her cleverness in everybody’s face and has made it her definite trait. They can take pride in something. Ron, from beginning to end, is completely blind to his own abilities, damaging his sense of self in the process. As the series progresses, Ron falls more and more in the shadow of his friends, trying through temporary jolts to rise to the light (his trying out for the Quidditch team, Lavender,…), and falling back when this fails (keeper is still lesser than captain, and the respect he was looking for was Hermione’s, not Lavender’s). The point is: he is still looking for himself, as we all do at 15. He is still looking for a purpose, for a silver lining, when his close friends seem to have already found their purpose in life.

I think we don’t give Ron enough credit, again because Harry’s narration is biased. It’s been said that Ron is jealous, and angry, and susceptible, but time and time again Ron diffuses the tension between buttheads Hermione and Harry, and when he leaves—escaping the shadows I mentioned earlier, deciding to live for himself for a while—, Harry and Hermione’s relationship falls into silence and disinterest, because the link of warmth between them is ultimately Ron. I think he is very socially clever, despite being oblivious at times—he compliments Hermione when she most needs it, mingles his anger with Harry to lighten the burden, and is shown to worry and discuss Harry’s problems with Hermione behind the scenes, although we don’t have access to what is actually shared. He is also attuned to the atmosphere enough to crack a joke at exactly the right moment, unassumingly. I think this feelings-focused approach is also his biggest weakness: impulsive, he usually falls into self-hate and anxiety after his outbursts; attuned to his surroundings in a global rather than detailed way, he feels that he is overlooked, knows that he is under-valued, but does not know how to prove or to address it. Jealous, no—but envious of a life where he would feel more loved, more comfortable with himself, where he would get more admiration, absolutely. The issue comes from there, of course: his being poor, his being clumsy, his being always considered the Potter sidekick, second place, last place, these all erode his sense of self throughout the books. There’s a lack of self-respect in Ron: he always makes himself the butt of the joke, he becomes upset when people point out the flaws he knows and hates. But his need to be validated through others is both deeply immature and deeply relatable: it is a forced step before reaching the understanding that only you can know and respect yourself entirely.

To me, Ron (along with Neville) is the bravest of them all, and really deserves his place in Gryffindor. Contrarily to Hermione (who buckles under pressure often, because she is ultimately in need of control) and Harry, who is defined by his selflessness and is ready for self-sacrifice, Ron is always scared as fuck and yet always fights. He has the most to lose, being from such a big family. Yet he faces his arachnophobia at 12 in order to explore his best friend’s hunch about the spiders. At 11, he had chosen to potentially die in order to allow Harry safe-passing to the Mirror cave. He was born in the magical world: giants, Voldemort, even Sirius Black are not rational enemies to him, but the stuff of nightmares, legends that tamed and terrified him when he was little. How could he approach them with a level-head when he has been raised to fear them? He cannot be as rational as those who discover the existence of human villains when they reach teenagehood. To him, these are monsters. Ron not only has to fight them, he has to unlearn what petrified a whole nation, to challenge his education, the deeply ingrained fears and lore that has been part of his personality-building.

I think that’s what I like best of all: because he is so flawed and realistic from the get-go, he is allowed to undergo the most amazing character development, and to grow up before our eyes. That kid who was dismissive of “know-it-alls” and “weirdos”, raised to be casually racist towards other magical races (goblins, elves and giants), deeply unsure of his own worth, tortured between envy and deep loyalty/love, hateful of his humble station, becomes by the end of book 7 a defender of the school underdogs—standing up for Luna, Hermione and Neville several times throughout the books—; actively attuned to social justice (admiring of Grawp’s efforts, striking friendships with elves and insisting to leave them a choice to fight or to flee); too impulsive and hurt and worried not to leave the hallows quest, but humble and brave enough to come back immediately; showing time and time again pride in his family, and finally finding pride in himself through the last of Harry’s missions. Harry gives him the sword so that he can destroy an Horcrux. By the end of the book, Ron is whole enough, stable enough that he can finally equate his friend and give Hermione the fang so that she can destroy the cup as well.

Ron never sheds his anxiety, his self-consciousness, never loses this impulse of hiding behind humour; his growth is, realistically, not an ideal one. Yet his development is so compelling, and so full of lessons in life and new-found self-awareness. So yeah. That’s why I like him very much!

This has probably been said before, but doing your best doesn’t always mean giving 100%. Sometimes you’re only able to give 50% and that’s okay because at the time that was the best you could do

Friendly reminder that Snape is NOT a good person as he did the following:

Immediately started to single out Harry on his first day of school. It’s unacceptable that he allowed his anger towards James determine the way he treated Harry.

When he had to teach the DADA class for Remus, instead of continuing where they had left off he jumped straight to learning about werewolves and set the class an essay on how to kill them.

Wanted to watch Sirius get the dementor’s kiss. That’s messed up.

He only came back onto the good side after Lily was murdered. If she had stayed alive he would’ve stayed on Voldemort’s side.

He, a man in his 30s, unnecessarily bullied students. He was Neville’s boggart and continued to make fun of Hermione’s appearance and intelligence throughout the series.

And yes, he was bullied by the marauders as a teen, but they grew out of it and he clearly didn’t.

He didn’t care if Harry and James died, as long as Lily lived.

Called Lily a mudblood, became upset when she refused to speak to him afterwards and tried to apologise and say her blood status didn’t matter despite the fact that the organisation he was a part of believed the opposite

Ignored James’ body and Harry crying so he could cling onto Lily’s corpse. Creepy? Very.

Showed favouritism towards Slytherins to a ridiculous level

Has no personal hygiene. Wash your greasy hair please.

Forced Neville to use his potion on his toad, assuming Neville has messed up the potion and it would poison his toad.

As a teenager he created a spell to slash up his enemies??

Didn’t respect Lily’s choice to be with James and not him and then became obsessive towards her.

Became a DEATH EATER

Yes he was bullied and didn’t have a great childhood, but do you know who else didn’t have a great childhood? Harry. And he turned out fine because he is a good person.

He never showed remorse or regret for anything mentioned above.

Now, I’m not saying he isn’t a good character, because he is certainly a very well written character. I’m also not saying that he never did anything good and was never a victim. However, the fact is that the bad easily outweighs the good.

Nobody understands the bond between a girl and the mediocre book she read when she was 13 years old.

The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (2002) dir. Peter Jackson

remember the brief trend earlier this year of celebrities posting their co-stars middle school pics and captioning them "it makes me so mad I can't hang out with this kid"??? Richie and Bill, within seconds of each other and without mentioning their plan to each other first, both post pics of them like hugging as kids captioned "it makes me so mad that I HAD to hang out with this kid" lmao

omg ok but this would be so hilarious if they roasted each other while no one knew that they were childhood friends. like obvs before derry they didnt even know each other so the fans would have no reason to associate them in any way but then after derry. richie and bill dont make a post like ‘hey we’ve actually known each other for a long time’ or anything like instead richie just tweets a pic of bill as a child one day with some caption like “anyone else think he looks how cold fries taste?” which just causes Mass confusion bc hUH??? like richie didnt tweet anything abt bills writing so it doesnt seem like he just read one of bills books and was upset by it. but ppl still dont have any reason to think richie and bill know each other. so in the end ppl just think that comedian richie tozier woke up one morning and was like. you know what? Fuck that horror novel guy

Nothing to see here just some tua pilot script highlights

The things the Hargreeves each say to Vanya in the brain eating scene match up perfectly with how they see themselves/who they are.

Klaus accuses her of faking it, when we see a performance from him for the entirety of the show. He fakes almost everything the family sees from him.

Luther accuses her of not trying hard enough, and we know that Luther thinks he wasn't a good enough Number One. He pins this on himself completely.

Allison accuses her of using her powers too much and not being able to handle the consequences. This TOTALLY follows with her s1 plotline and her decision to use and use of her powers in s2.

Ben says that she isn't ready and it isn't her fault. This is how Ben views his death, we know from s1.

Diego and Five don't say anything because they don't REALLY know themselves at all. These two have declined getting to know themselves in favor of dedicating themselves to saving others. Diego literally says he doesn't have daddy issues. Diego. And Five does not know who he is without an apocalypse, or what to do with himself when it's over.

I think this is interesting. I dunno. I don't think any of these people (except Ben) ACTUALLY feel this way about Vanya. It's an analysis on them, done by Vanya in Vanya's head, but because Vanya is the way she is, it gets directed at her.

you’d be surprised by the impact you truly make on this world. i know it feels like nothing and it feels like the days just go by with nothing significant happening. but believe me when i say that your presence, your undeniable presence, is enough to change the world for somebody. the fact that you were there. you change lives and you barely even know it. somebody out there would be a completely different person if you didn’t exist. 

“WRITE IT BADLY. Write it badly, write it badly, write it badly, write it badly. Stop what you’re doing, open a Word document, put a pencil on some paper, just get the idea out of your head. Let it be good later. Write it down now. Otherwise it will die in there.”

— Brandon Sanderson on overcoming writer’s block to create a first draft as a professional author