Unpopular Opinion: Characters We Like
This thread is to appreciate the characters liked by us, especially those who are often mistreated or misunderstood in fandom. Excluding our beloved Professor Snape because we have this whole site dedicated to him.
There'll be no judgment or hating the member's choices. I expect everyone to behave and freely express themselves.
Without further ado, let's begin!
I begin with the character who is often underrated in the trio and whose importance is neglected in fanon, yes I'm talking about Ronald Weasley.
This guy was the first real friend of Harry, who stood with him and Hermione thick and thin, who was ready to sacrifice himself to get Harry through chess challenge, he who came through for Harry whenever Harry needed.
He is the guy Harry wants to spend most of his time with, he is the guy who supplied wizarding world information to trio, he is the guy Hermione spent her whole summers with not her parents.
He is the vital cog of the trio. Harry was miserable whenever Ron abandoned him, Hermione wasn't the same when Ron left the group and they faced failures but this guy appeared when Harry required him the most and destroyed a Horcrux overcoming his fears.
He is not perfect. He has a low self-esteem often due to living under the shadow of his brilliant brothers, he is jealous sometimes of Harry's fame and fortune, he is bullied by the twins, he is neglected by his mother and he feels an inferiority complex within his group of friends and has a lot of confidence issues.
But he is also loyal, brave, strategic, has a good sense of humour and reliable. He is no less talented than Harry and got similar grades to him. He perfected levitation charm and defeated the troll. He got through his second year despite his broken wand. He with enough confidence perfectly blocked all the shots to Gryffindor quidditch victory. He came with reliable Intel, outside news and spare wands, being useful after he left group which he left due to his issues plus influence of Horcrux.
The suggestion that he should not be in group is absurd because he is the one who keeps the group together. He is no less important in the trio. He is grossly underrated in the fanon. He is the most real and relatable member among the trio.
If Harry is supposed to be the Heart and Hermione is the Brain then, Ron is the Soul of the Trio.
If Harry is supposed to be the Heart and Hermione is the Brain then, Ron is the Soul of the Trio.
Aww, I love this @naaga - so true! Ron's always been a fave of mine. Makes me sad how much uncalled-for negativity in the fandom he receives, even if I do disagree with a lot of his actions. The hate he gets is far too much.
Quote from SanctuaryAngel on August 1, 2023, 1:23 pmIf Harry is supposed to be the Heart and Hermione is the Brain then, Ron is the Soul of the Trio.
Aww, I love this @naaga - so true! Ron's always been a fave of mine. Makes me sad how much uncalled-for negativity in the fandom he receives, even if I do disagree with a lot of his actions. The hate he gets is far too much.
Agreed @sanctuaryangel. Ron is my favourite among the trio and I hate the bashing he gets in fandom.
I do like Ron as well, he had a lot of potential in the first book but later turned into more of a comic relief, where the heck did his strategic thinking vanish to?
The other characters that I like are Hermione and Luna. I adored Hermione as a kid and was later quite disappointed that she's presented in a rather negative way. What I loved most about her was how she was always very strict in following rules and authority figures but also put her friends first and was ready to break rules for their sake. I regret that canon never showed us more of her and her parents, I wanted to know more about how two dentists were completely fine with their daughter leaving her education behind to practice waving a stick.
And Luna...she's so precious, how can you not love her? Despite being bullied, she is always kind and compassionate and I admire her for it. She is also brave enough to be herself no matter what others think of her
Unpopular opinion:
I actually like Albus Dumbledore as a character and all his flaws in the books. What I didn’t like was the new information that came from JK Rowling about Dumbledore’s life. Dumbledore to me was a cross between old Merlín and Abbé Farria from the Count of Monte Cristo. He had a boatload of knowledge and dabbled in nearly everything. He would have been an excellent mentor for anyone to learn from but that’s not the route JK Rowling went.
I would have preferred a super-powered Harry or even a Severus Snape who secretly trained him or was more obvious when he saved the day. But nearly every adult failed Harry. Maybe they all assumed that another adult would take the baton from the boy and guide him.
So much potential with Dumbledore. Lost.
Quote from JaySM on August 1, 2023, 5:15 pmUnpopular opinion:
I actually like Albus Dumbledore as a character and all his flaws in the books.
I'm so glad someone mentioned him. A bit surprised no-one's said anything about him in the Characters We Don't Like thread, considering all the hate and bashing he gets...
I actually think Dumbledore's life was just as tragic as many of the other characters'. Ariana is the obvious argument here, but even after that... For all his talking about love, I don't think he ever really got to experience it himself. Not after Grindelwald in any case, and even then he had to turn on him, which couldn't have been easy either.
Dumbledore is beyond powerful. He is at a level very few people reach, and so everyone around him looks at him as a mentor and a leader rather than an equal. He can create bonds with these people, but such relationships don't fill the loneliness.
Then he took it upon himself to save the world from Voldemort. Granted, I think it would've been much better if he'd consulted someone else and hadn't called all the shots all by himself, but I've got to respect him for being willing to make the tough decisions and take the blame. He had to sacrifice people he loved for the sake of everyone else. I feel like a task like this takes a lot of courage. Very Gryffindor of him lol.
Was very disappointed with the turn his character took in DH, but at least most of it was coming from Rita Skeeter, which is hardly a reliable source. I can't deny his very questionable choices throughout the books, but I sympathise with him.
That said, I do sometimes find myself enjoying Dumbledore bashing stories 😂
Quote from Dark Angel on August 1, 2023, 2:49 pmI do like Ron as well, he had a lot of potential in the first book but later turned into more of a comic relief, where the heck did his strategic thinking vanish to?
Ron wasn't meant to be the strategist in the trio. The contention that Ron should have been the strategist baffles me because that was not what he was for. Ron’s main contribution to the Trio was that he emotionally grounded them and cheered them up (especially Harry). He is the one who drags Harry out to Quidditch, breaks the tension with his jokes, and get him to slow down. Moreover, the point of the chess game was not to showcase his strategy skills - it was the set up for the sacrifice. It is notable that the moment given weight during the PS chess game was not that they won the game but that Ron fell in order to ensure that they did. Above all else, the game was a showcase of his heart.
Hermione created and implemented the Polyjuice Plan in CoS, set up the strategic parameters of Sirius’s Rescue in PoA, or spearheaded SPEW and developed Harry’s Third Task bootcamp in GoF. The set up for Hermione being the main planner and strategist of the group was consistently established and this had always been her major role in the series. Where Ron existed to make Harry laugh, Hermione was built to keep him alive - and a huge part of that was her skill for strategy.
I think it is quite an unfair assessment to say that Ron was a comic relief because he was not merely comic relief in the books, it was merely the effect of the films. Him being funny was always a deeply important part of how he was written. The bigger criticism is probably that the writing understated his mother-hen tendencies and turned his jokes meaner later on because that part actually hurt his role in the story.
That's why Harry is heart, he is the leader, his instincts were being followed, whole narrative revolves around him and his decisions decide the course of action for the trio.
Hermione is brain, she is the one with solutions, she is the strategist, she is one who suddenly pulls brilliant ideas that keep the trio alive and provides empathy and sympathetic views in the group.
Ron is the soul, he is the one that keeps trio together, he makes them laugh, he keeps them grounded, he takes away the tension, he is the reliable guy everyone can count on and he is the one who everyone seeks whenever they feel down.
Percy Weasley: For me, Percy gets the short stick in the fandom. He cares for Ron and shows concern for Ginny in COS, so he is shown caring for his younger siblings.
He is made fun of by twins; his father doesn't understand him; and he is treated worse for having some ambition. He was wrong for siding with the ministry even after knowing Voldemort's truth, but he was a young man, and there wasn't a single character who didn't make mistakes. Later, he comes around and apologizes for his mistakes. Later on, he named his daughter Molly.
He had far better redemption than the marauders who didn't have any.
