Of the Golden trio in the Harry Potter series, the least one to stand out is Ron Weasley. When asked which character is the favorite from fans, the answer is almost certainly Harry, followed closely by Hermione. Ron is almost always in third place – which is a pretty solid position considering there are dozens and dozens of characters in the series – mostly because of how the films portrayed him.

In the books, Ron had more to offer than in the films where he was usually the comic relief. A majority of his strong points were distributed to Hermione to make her look even more brilliant than she already was. Still, Ron has to be more relatable than Harry and Hermione because he doesn’t have anything extraordinary about him. If you think who you feel seems more like you, Ron will definitely seem like the best option, whether you want to admit to it or not.

Ron’s flaws were more evident than Hermione and Harry because he was the most outwardly emotional of the three, plus he could be a complete meanie at times. His immaturity is one of his defining qualities and there were a lot of moments in the Harry Potter series where this went too far. If you want a fresh reminder of all the things Ron had going for him which weren’t right, then take a look through the following points.

Here are 25 Things Wrong With Ron Weasley We All Choose To Ignore.

He's extremely jealous

Growing up, teenage boys aren’t sure how to grasp their emotions and just aren’t mature enough to understand how things work. In the same manner, Ron would become jealous about things he had no control over.

For one, he was jealous of Harry’s supposed glory in Goblet of Fire. In another instance, he became jealous of Victor Krum, despite having idolized Krum previously. His jealousy always manifested in the worst ways and ended with him distancing himself from others without reason.

He's insecure his mother doesn't love him

Before Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, we thought Ron’s jealousy toward Harry was purely because of the latter’s achievements. But the Horcrux showed us Ron’s worst fears and one of the main ones was where his own mother preferred Harry as a son over him.

At no point did Mrs. Weasley ever show she did do just that, but Ron’s insecurity over this was such that he pinned it on his mother’s original desire to have a daughter when Ron was born.

He's insecure about being poor

None of the Weasley’s – maybe the exception of Percy – ever showed any problem with being a poor family, other than Ron. He had always been given hand-me-downs and never had anything new for himself.

This made Ron hate the fact he couldn’t afford nice things for himself, and was compounded by Harry having more gold than he needed. In one of the novels, Ron outright stated he hated being poor when he saw how pathetic his pet owl looked.

He wanted Hermione to cook because she's female

This was rather childish of Ron in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows where he assumed Hermione was in charge of all food-related stuff just because she was female. Ron was used to his mother feeding him when he was home and simply connected that with Hermione being the female presence when the trio was on the run.

Hermione did the best she could do, but all Ron did was complain about how much he hated her cooking, although this was made worse due to the locket around his neck.

He forgot his own wedding

Although Harry Potter and the Cursed Child is a very poor piece of writing, it got a few personality elements of Ron right. One of these was when he apparently got so intoxicated at his own wedding that he ended up knocking himself out.

Not only did this ruin his wedding night, but it also had such lasting effects that Ron couldn’t even remember what happened that day over a decade later. This was pretty insensitive of Ron considering it was Hermione’s big day too.

How he got his driver's license

In a throwaway line at the end of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Ron revealed he had gotten his driver’s license when everyone met at King’s Cross Station to see their children away.

He also revealed he used the Confundus Charm to trick his driving instructor so that he did end up getting his license. Although this was supposed to be played for laughs, using magic on a Muggle is, in fact, an illegal act. Considering his wife is supposed to be a lawyer, this wasn’t such a cool thing to do.

He was supposed to be scared of saying Voldemort's name

Ron was the only one of his friends who didn’t utter Voldemort’s name right up till the end. He was always scared of doing so and made no excuses to make this known. However, in what is clearly a mistake by JK Rowling, Ron did use Voldemort’s name in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.

In that particular scene, Ron made a joke at Voldemort’s expense by saying “I forgot we'll be hunting down Voldemort in a mobile library”. Considering he was always terrified of Voldemort’s name, there’s no way he could mention it so casually.

He underestimates his own abilities

If we list down Ron’s achievements, you might think it’s someone who was the star pupil of Hogwarts. He got a prize for Special Services to the School, had his name on Chocolate Frog Cards, took down Voldemort, was Goalkeeper in the Quidditch team, successfully infiltrated the Ministry, successfully infiltrated Gringotts, and a whole lot more we’re sure we’ve missed.

And yet, Ron would always underestimate himself to the point he looked like a bit of a prat. His darkest fear was of everyone taking him as a joke.

Ditching Harry in Goblet of Fire

In Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, Harry counted on Ron to believe him when his name came up wrongly out of the Goblet. Unfortunately for poor Harry, his best friend was the first one to disbelieve him and thought Harry had fooled everyone by placing his name in.

Not only did he disregard Harry’s reasoning, but he would also estrange himself from Harry for weeks and it would take the dangerous dragon fight to convince Harry never entered his name in.

The way he treated Hermione for kissing Krum

Ron was rather insufferable in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince due to the manner with which he treated Hermione. He blamed her for some reason for locking lips with Victor Krum – an event that had happened two years prior.

Continuing with that harsh treatment, he would cut off their friendship and behave as if he was better than her. Ron would also publicly make fun of her and blame her for not believing he could win a Quidditch match on his own.

Being a hypocrite

Both Weasley siblings were hard to stomach in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, especially when they engaged in a nonsensical fight about Ginny’s supposed promiscuity.

Ron would accuse her of being something of a “scarlet woman” and admonish her for snogging in public. What did he do then? He started making out with Lavender all around the school left and right. The only reason he had judged Ginny was because he had never had anyone be interested in him before.

Letting Malfoy's taunts get to him

Malfoy would taunt each of Harry, Ron and Hermione, and while Harry and Hermione would never be affected by his insults, Ron would always let them get to him. This would be obvious because of his ears reddening, and Malfoy would take particular delight in this.

Malfoy would always hit the right notes in Ron’s insecurity and at one point he and Ron engaged in a tussle because Ron had had enough of these taunts. Unfortunately, it only got Ron into trouble rather than Malfoy.

Encouraging Harry for the midnight duel

In Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, Harry wasn’t mature enough yet to let Malfoy’s taunting slide and agreed to fight him in a midnight duel. While Harry had no clue how duelling worked, Ron knew all about wizarding practices.

Instead of talking Harry out of sneaking out the dormitory, Ron encouraged fighting Malfoy and wanted to partake in the duel. The main characters almost got into huge trouble because of all this, and Ron should’ve at least tried to get Harry to back out.

He was supposed to be a tactician

Also in Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, Ron’s aptitude for chess was shown when he was so good that he defeated the giant chess set made by the smartest professor in school, McGonagall. He was not only good in chess, he had excellent tactical and strategic skill.

This was all thrown away starting from Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets as Ron never again displayed any sense of strategy. He had no tact even in talking to people let alone formulating plans.

The way he treated Hermione over Scabbers

Before he punished Hermione for being with Krum, he was awful to her in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. Ron believed his rat was eaten by Hermione’s cat and blamed her for it; this went so far that he convinced Harry to ditch Hermione as well.

Hermione spent the majority of the year on her own because her only two friends didn’t talk to her because of a rat. Ron remained unapologetic till the end and still didn’t apologize when it was found out that Scabbers was Peter Pettigrew.

Abandoning Harry and Hermione

The point of Ron’s abandoning his friends in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows was to highlight that while he had his doubts, he would always return to them. That was what ultimately happened but when you compare him to Hermione, who never left Harry at any point, then Ron doesn’t measure up so well.

It made it clear that Ron had only agreed to accompany Harry because he thought Harry had a plan rather than having blind loyalty.

Becoming excited when Hermione invited him to the Slug Club party

In Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, Ron was incensed when Slughorn ignored him in favour of Harry and Hermione because he lacked any specific skill to display. To this end, he made fun of the Slug Club and called it pathetic.

But when Hermione invited him along, Ron showed an immediate change of heart when he instantly agreed to go with her. Although he was happier that he could make a move on her, he also dropped any anger he held toward the club. It wasn’t so pathetic to him anymore.

Not asking Hermione to the Yule Ball

Ron never noticed Hermione other than as a friend in the slightest until Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire when he saw her show up with Victor Krum. The truth of the matter was that he never thought she was attractive enough.

His original intention had been to take Fleur Delacour to the Yule Ball, but that obviously was never going to happen. He then asked Hermione as a last resort and only when he saw her made up a bit better did he feel she was worthy of notice.

Ruining Hermione's Yule Ball

Sometimes Ron just acts so childishly that even Harry gets annoyed of him. After Hermione chose to go with Victor to the Ball, Ron was enraged for some reason (in reality he was insanely jealous) and accused Hermione of “fraternizing with the enemy”.

Not only did this not make sense, but it also ended up ruining Hermione’s night because Ron wouldn’t shut up about his snide remarks. To top it all off, Ron had originally idolized Krum, so everyone knew he was lying about the whole enemy thing.

Needing couples' counseling

Ron’s deep-seated insecurities were never just going to go away, with or without Voldemort in the world. Although he did get Hermione and the respect of the Wizarding World at large, he still had issues with self-esteem and these would present themselves during his marriage to Hermione.

According to Rowling, Ron and Hermione would need couples’ counseling because each of them needed to learn to compromise and Ron still needed to grow up. At least they didn’t get divorced, so that’s a plus point.