I've ranted before about disliking Molly Weasley...

[conuly]

Here's another thing: What is her obsession with Ron and maroon? Ron's sweater is always maroon. Ron's pyjamas (britspelling!) are maroon. When she buys dress robes for him, they're maroon (with lace, no less!) I find it hard to believe that she honestly couldn't've found another color for his robes.

Ron hates maroon. I mean, he'd probably complain no matter what, but when he consistently tells everyone that he hates maroon, why does his mother go out of her way to keep getting and making him stuff in that color? At the very least, it's thoughtless, or hopelessly stubborn - she's decided that Ron = maroon, and he can just sit there and fume. At the worst, it's deliberately cruel, emphasising that his feelings on his own damn clothes don't matter.

And those dress robes. Honestly, lace? The woman is a homemaker in the most complimentary sense of the word. She knits several sweaters a year. She cleans. She degnomes. She cooks wonderfully. And you're telling me that with all that, and magic too, she can't even do a minor alteration on a (maroon!) robe for her youngest son, such as removing the lace? This is something basic.

And, to add insult to injury, while Ron is getting his ugly-ass robes, Harry's getting his dark green, respectable robes. "To match your eyes, dear". Sure, it was bought with Harry's money (at least we all assume it was - does she have authorization for his account?), but Ron's the one who has to hear his mom fawning over some kid who's not even part of the family, while he gets snapped at for being upset that his robe is really, really, ugly. And maroon.

Ron, dear, it's not because you're poor. I don't believe you're that poor. Why? Well, because when you get to be a prefect, somehow the money comes through for a broom. Not a good broom, but a broom nonetheless - brooms are expensive, even if they're not, right? And when Percy became prefect, he got an owl. An owl is a significant investment when you add in the cost of owl treats and a cage and occasional health care and all. And when your family won the jackpot, they didn't spend the money on anything remotely practical, like adding more space to the house, or socking some of it away just in case. The only concession they made in that part was buying you a new wand to replace that one that was completely ruined last year. No, they splurged it all on a trip to Egypt. I'm not begruding the trip to Egypt, I'm just wondering how poor they are that they can spend extra money on expensive splurges instead of useful things. Given that they're on one income (and all the kids at school), I can't help but wonder if maybe certain parties in that family prefer poverty, for whatever reason.

So Ron, please, rest assured, it's not because you're poor. It's because your mom favors Harry over you. Sorry, ducky.

Comments

[ladyshrew.livejournal.com]

::giggles:: That is most excellent.

[lisaofdoom.livejournal.com]

Hee. I'd never thought about the maroon stuff before. My bet would have been that, way back when, she had just assigned each kid a color and she'll stick with that until the day she dies. My mum does the same sort of thing with my socks--my socks all have a little purple piece of thread sewn in the end of them, so she knew they were mine when she did the laundry.

I assumed the Weasleys won the trip to Egypt? Or Bill paid for it? *shrugs*

The dress robe, however, is inexcusable. It's probably what his father wore to the Yule Ball (and was in style then) so his mum just sent it to him without a thought. BAD MOVE, MRS. WEASLEY.

[aberrantangels]

I assumed the Weasleys won the trip to Egypt? Or Bill paid for it? *shrugs*

They won 500 Galleons in the Daily Prophet prize draw and decided to spend it going to visit Bill on a field assignment.

[lisaofdoom.livejournal.com]

Eww, yeah, so that makes no sense. :/

[snale.livejournal.com]

My mother (until last year, when I finally made fun of her to her face about it and probably hurt her feelings because I am a BAD DAUGHTER) was still buying me olive green clothing for Christmas gifts.
I liked olive green for about a month when I was 17, and she hadn't been able to get it out of her head that Sharon=olive green.
I don't think this makes her a bad mother, just easily distracted, or possibly just bad at remembering certain things.

[ser-kai.livejournal.com]

When Brad and James were little and had to have otherwise identical things like lunch boxes and toothbrushes, I bought blue for Brad and green for James. Otherwise arguments and confusion ensued.

Perhaps it is just his colour. Perhaps he liked maroon when he was little.As for the lace-- he could have removed it himself.

Ron has always had a warm family. Harry has had crap until now. Perhaps she wants to compensate.
Maybe it's that Harry has noone to do this stuff for him and he really doesn't know his way around the wizarding world like Ron does. Maybe his Mum is a bit sick of Ron's endless whining so has got so she doesn't care any more. It's a bit hard to judge family dynamics from the outside. My mother constantly assumes that I favour James when Brad can tell anyone that I really don't.

As for the expenditures, not everyone is logical. ;-)

Maybe I'm totally wrong. *shrugs*

[maelorin]

harry may have asked he to get a formal robe for him - after all, what does he know about formal robes ... and molly chose on ethat she though suited him.

ditto for marron and ron.



all this assumes that herself can write good, and hasn't embarked on an enterprise that is more complex than might be sensibly handled the way she has chosen. it's heavy going to handle so many characters and pull it off well.

the family may be based on one she knows/knew ...

[maelorin]

that'd be "maroon and ron"

[conuly]

As for the lace-- he could have removed it himself.

He tried. He really sucked at it. She bought this, without him along, the least she could've done is pre-emptively removed the most offensive part of it.

[conuly]

If it were just that, I wouldn't notice. I'm sure that JKR really, truly just put all that maroon into her books because she thinks it's funny. But piled up on top of a whole list of other things about Molly that I really don't like, it stands out a lot.

[conuly]

No, Harry and Ron didn't know that they needed formal robes until after Molly had bought them for them.

[conuly]

all this assumes that herself can write well

*eyeroll*

I know. As I just said up above, I'm sure that the real reason behind all this maroon is that, really, JKR thinks it's just funny. (She's got a bit of a juvenile sense of humor, if the books are much of an indication, but then, so do I, so it's not a fair complaint for me to make.) It's got nothing to do with Molly being somebody I don't like, or not caring about her kids, or anything like that, it's just JKR making a joke and not thinking through the implications, or realizing that there's millions of people who spend their time working out the implications for her.

[ser-kai.livejournal.com]

*shrugs* Iunno, then.

[snale.livejournal.com]

Well, I really didn't like her interfering with the Tonks/Lupin stuff, so I guess I've got some issues with her, too. :)

[maelorin]

my thoughts exactly.

much like the literature people getting all excited over a jane eyre. may have just been this story she wanted to write.

and frankly, often stuff works out the way it does in a manuscript beacuse that's how it was in draft 3, and by draft 9 you'd forgotten all about it - being too busy fixing important stuff like punctuation.

[maelorin]

which didn't make sense to me. until i realised that in the potter alternate universe things don't need to make sense.


[if they made sense, the fourth years would have heard about the tri-wizard cup back in their first year when the hogwarts delegation left for wherever-the-last-one-was-held™ ... not to mention the fact that if the cup garnered eternal glory, previous winners would have been mentioned at some time. perhaps even during the twc at hogwarts ...]

[conuly]

No, remember, the tri-wizard cup hadn't been held in some hundreds of years, due to a high death toll.

[eofs.livejournal.com]

a) It was held every 5 years, not 3
b) It hadn't been held for a couple of hundred years

And I don't see why it doesn't make sense. I don't remember entirely, but did Molly actually say "you need dress robes because there will be a ball" or "you'll know why soon..." Because we know that she knew ahead of time that the tournament was going to take place, the kids didn't. Maybe it was expected all students would obtain them once at school. Or already own them.

[conuly]

Aw, thanks.

[ladyshrew.livejournal.com]

You're very adorable when you rant about these things. That is completely meant as a compliment.

I have very little HP knowledge, so I can't take this quite as seriously as most. ;-)

[conuly]

I really do like your icon. I thought I should tell you. This is completely random.

[ex-chaos-by-699.livejournal.com]

That's an interesting point of view. There may be something to it. I could see Molly favoring Harry because he only has the Dursleys, and she feels sorry for him.

I don't really dislike Molly though overall. The woman has seven kids and no career. Her life sucks. Of course she has issues. I'm not saying she's a perfect mother, but I always thought she cared and that she tried.

[conuly]

Adorable? *glances up and down*

I'll have you know, lady, that I am really quite frightening in my pretty pink princess outfit!

[ladyshrew.livejournal.com]

::giggles:: Oh I know. ;-)

[maelorin]

oh. another small detail i missed in the mountain.


it it ever explained why they've decided to start it up now?