Embrace the charm and complexity of the Weasley family with Professor Julian Wamble as we traverse the intriguing landscape of family dynamics in the wizarding world. Prepare to engage with the characters you thought you knew, as we assign whimsical superlatives and reveal surprising poll results about the most admired Weasley. From Ginny's triumphs to Percy's pitfalls, this episode promises to reshape your perceptions of what it means to be part of this magical clan. Doubling as a reflection on our own shifting perspectives, from youthful adoration to a more nuanced adult understanding, this discussion invites you to consider the flaws and strengths of these beloved characters.
PATREON
Embrace the charm and complexity of the Weasley family with Professor Julian Wamble as we traverse the intriguing landscape of family dynamics in the wizarding world. Prepare to engage with the characters you thought you knew, as we assign whimsical superlatives and reveal surprising poll results about the most admired Weasley. From Ginny's triumphs to Percy's pitfalls, this episode promises to reshape your perceptions of what it means to be part of this magical clan. Doubling as a reflection on our own shifting perspectives, from youthful adoration to a more nuanced adult understanding, this discussion invites you to consider the flaws and strengths of these beloved characters.
PATREON
Welcome to Critical Magic Theory, where we deconstruct the wizarding world of Harry Potter. Because y'all, loving something does not mean we can't be critical of it. I'm Professor Julian Womble, and today we are busting out our yearbooks. I don't know if this is just like a United States thing, but this is basically the superlatives episode for the Weasleys. We are going to be deconstructing the best and the worst.
Speaker 1:For the past four months, we have been diving into the Weasleys. We are going to be deconstructing the best and the worst. For the past four months, we have been diving into the Weasley clan. We have been looking at who's the good person, who's a good pureblood, who's a good spouse, sibling, parent, friend, all the things, and today we are going to unpack who of the six people that we've talked about is the best and who is the worst.
Speaker 1:Now, some of these answers may surprise you, because, well, they're surprising. I was surprised personally, but I also can't wait to dive into thinking about why it is that some of these answers came out the way that they did. But first you know what we have to do Now. I've been looking at the analytics and some of us skip the theme song, and if that's your vibe, I support you, but I also support physical activity and endurance, and I think bopping your shoulders is one of those things. So for those of us who are millennials and more experienced individuals, stretch, because I don't want anyone pulling anything I'm not liable for that but it's time. Okay.
Speaker 1:So stretch, do what you need to do If you're driving 10 and 2. Or what's the new one like 7 and 5? Anyways, wherever your hands are on that wheel, you make sure they stay there, but the shoulders can move. All right, the shoulders can move and should. Here we go. Thank you See, you all thought I was in college where I bopped too close to the sun and literally gave myself whiplash, to the point where I had to wrap a blanket around my neck because it hurts so much to move, because I was a little bit too vigorous in the bopping.
Speaker 1:Anyways, I just wanted to be clear with you all that this is coming from a place that is personal, that is real, that is honest. Okay, y'all, before we dive in, I have to say the Patreon is up. Everything in my body rejected the idea of doing this, but I did it. I did it, and so I just want to go through a couple of the perks very quickly. So there are two tiers. There's the $5 a month tier. In this tier you get what I'm going to call professor's notes, which is basically just more of my rants, but just not as curated and edited.
Speaker 1:Sometimes I will be listening or reading through your comments on Spotify or on TikTok, and I'll have thoughts and I will pull up my phone and I will record thoughts very quickly just to kind of have them. Those are going to be for you. Now we're also going to have post-episode chats where we can talk about the episode after it drops on Patreon, to be able to just kind of decompress, because there are always a lot of thoughts and some of you will send me DMs, some of you will send me emails. Now there's a centralized place where we can also be in conversation with one another and not just with me, and that excites me, because there are always things that I think about after the episode is over and sometimes I'm like, who am I going gonna talk to about this? And now there's a space and hopefully there will be a group of people who will be there to chat with me about some of these things, and so now we're just creating a space, also for your support. You will have your name if you choose to. If not, that's totally fine. We love anonymity. But if you do choose to have your name kind of published, then it will be published in the episode notes as a thank you from me to you for your support.
Speaker 1:You'll also get the PowerPoint presentations that I use to kind of guide the episodes. That's where I put all of the results from the survey and a curated list or group of the open-ended responses, so you'll be able to see a little bit of the behind the scenes of what it is that I use. Also, I should say this is an important caveat this list is very much a work in progress, so if you all have other ideas of things that you would want, please feel free to let me know, because I am totally down to make this, whatever kind of experience it is that you want. There is also a $10 a month tier where you get things like a live episode shout out. You get the full access to all of the results from the survey so you'll get to read, if you so desire to read, the hundreds of open-ended responses. You'll also be able to vote on certain aspects of the episode.
Speaker 1:For example, the upcoming episode on Narcissa Malfoy has a question that would ostensibly be is she a good friend? We don't know that. We don't really get to see Narcissa. We know a lot about her from Family Trees. We get to understand a little bit about her from Draco, but we really don't get to see her that much, and we certainly don't get to see her in the capacity as a friend, and so I am going to ask people in this category what question do you want to know about her? What things do you think we should be able to dive into? And I think that this is going to be true, moving forward, for so many other characters, where some of the questions that I ask are just not going to be applicable to them, and so there we get to fill in the gaps with whatever it is that you all are interested in.
Speaker 1:So many of you have sent me comments and emails saying what if you ask this question, and so this is an opportunity for people to be able to kind of help curate some of the way that the episode is run. There will also be a live once a month study slash, lecture slash, q&a session with yours truly. Some of you have really asked for this, and so this is it. This is the moment, this is the time where we will be able to get together. The details of that are still kind of very much in the works, but I'm excited for us to kind of be together in a space to be able to just chat and talk and kind of unpack things and you guys can riddle me with questions. And last but certainly not least, for those in this particular tier, there will be an opportunity for you to join me on an episode where you and I will co-host together. Now, don't worry For those of you who may be nervous about this we will meet beforehand and kind of figure it out the details and how it's all gonna work.
Speaker 1:But this is another way for us to kind of be together and to have the voices of the listeners heard and also to kind of experience what it's like to have to navigate some of the comments and things that are left in the survey. Also, I wanna be able to do bonus episodes. I already know that I want to do a comparison of Molly Weasley and Narcissa Malfoy based on survey results, suffice it to say. I hope that there are plenty of things that entice you and incentivize you to join the Patreon. It's going to grow, it's going to bloom. It's going to be what you want it to be. Is this how Santa Claus feels? Anyways, we're not going to get into it. I am so excited for you all to take a more active role in curating this podcast and that more of your voices can be heard.
Speaker 1:So that moment that kind of has all the Weasleys in it. I think the one that stood out to me the most is when they go to Egypt and then they come back and they're staying at the Leaky Cauldron. And I love this moment because what we know is that, because of whatever financial situation the Weasleys find themselves in, they don't really get to enjoy themselves very often. We know we get to see kind of Hermione going on vacations every so often and this and that, and we don't really get to see that for Harry either, but we definitely don't get to see the Weasleys be able to kind of enjoy anything that requires a lot of money. Now, historically, I have been a very big critic of this moment, namely because I'm like well, if y'all don't have a whole bunch of money, then why are y'all blowing all of these galleons on a vacation to Egypt when y'all should be out here buying new books for your kids and doing all of these things? And then I thought to myself Julian, do you want people telling you how to spend your money? And to that end I said all right, because what is true is that on average, save maybe Ron. None of them are really complaining about the position that they are in. Most of them are just kind of being very aware of the fact that they don't have a lot of money. It is really only Ron who's like we're broke and this is terrible. Everyone else is kind of doing what they need to do to survive. Well, you're not actively complaining about not having any money, and so then you get to go and spend the money however you see fit. Just the idea that they get to go and have a good time, the fact that they get to have and create memories that they will have for the rest of their lives and this is an experience that they may or may not be able to have ever again to be able to travel as a family. And, to be fair, they do get Ron a new wand. So the money is spent on things that are not completely and utterly kind of what we might consider frivolous. But honestly, y'all, I don't think creating memories is frivolous. Now, this is coming from someone who enjoys shopping and spending money, and so, to that end, take what I say with a grain of salt. If you have critiques of the way that they spend their money, then more power to you, but I feel that it would be outrageously hypocritical of me to do that, and also because I think that this moment is so amazing and something that they don't get to experience very often and we don't get to see them experience it again, and so this is one of the few moments where we really do get to see them as a happy, loving family, and that is something that I think really only the Weasleys as a unit can really provide us in these books.
Speaker 1:So the first question that we have to grapple with is who of the Weasleys is the best person? So I'm going to read these off to you and then we'll start from the bottom and work our way up. So, with 49% of people saying yes to this individual being a good person, we have Percy in dead last, followed by Molly at 59%, followed by Ron at 66%, at 66%, followed by Fred and George, and then Arthur at 88%, and the person who is seen as the best in the family is Jenny, eking in at an 89%. I know that some of us are not pleased, because I know that many of us love Fred and George and think that they are the best and can't believe that by one percentage point Ginny was able to win. This could be explained two different ways. Ginny had the least amount of people take it, which would then sway the results in her favor, because the more people you have, the more diversified the outcome is going to be, and the less the less right.
Speaker 1:But also, she is Harry's love interest, and so everything that we see from her from his perspective is positive. He sees all the things that he wants to see, and JK Rowling presents her in such a way that she is kind of made to be worthy of his affection and of his attention. And to that end we as readers then kind of see the same thing, and this is in no way to diminish Ginny being seen as the best person of her family. But I do believe that there is something specific about the fact that she, fred and George and Arthur are all so closely aligned, when we know that Harry is definitely starved for a father figure and Fred and George are basically the older brothers Ron wishes he had in them, but they are that for Harry. And then Ginny is imbued by JK Rowling with all of the characteristics that Harry finds attractive, and also this is something that many of you brought up when, I think, I posted a video on TikTok about Harry and Ginny. But she looks like Lily, and so all of Harry's parental trauma, you know, is made manifest.
Speaker 1:Not even parental familial trauma or familial desire is made manifest in these characters, who we all then get to see as these kind of infallible, lovely, loving individuals in ways that we don't necessarily see for the other people. I mean, we get to spend a lot of time with Ron. Percy is always portrayed as just being a big mess, and Molly is a mom who is so often forgotten until she is present. The way that we come to understand Ginny, fred and George and Arthur is through the lens of someone who sees in each of these individuals something that he feels he was missing and wants desperately. And so then it's not surprising, when we think about it in those terms, how it is that the three of them kind of were within one percentage point, and maybe, I think, even less than one percentage point, of being seen as the best people. And this is just one of those situations where something that you all bring up to me all the time, of having a main character who is like Harry, informs the way that we then view these characters. This is probably why Percy is also seen as the worst person in the Weasley family.
Speaker 1:I know that many of us right now are nodding our head vociferously like, yeah, he is the worst because he chooses himself over his family. And I think that for someone like Harry, who one wants nothing more than to have a family that he can feel love and support, and to support the idea of doing that is kind of blasphemous. And then also he's best friends with Ron, who also sees the actions of Percy in such a way that it is inherently negative. And so then we also then see that, and I think that you know there are lots of reasons why I think Percy makes the choices that he makes, and I talk about those in his episode. But I do understand how we could arrive at a place where relative to everyone else in his family who are willing to make the kind of sacrifices that are necessary to listen to Voldemort, to not listen to Voldemort, to listen to Dumbledore Although some are saying that there's not that much of a difference between them. But that's a different episode and a different day I do think that there is something about the fact that Percy comes off as being a very selfish, ambitious, problematic person. That leads us to see him as being like the worst person in the family, and I can understand that to a certain degree, and I think that where Ginny benefits and so do Fred and George and Arthur, from coming from Harry's perspective, because they all possess things that he wants, what we see in his kind of portrayal and understanding of Percy is that Percy is everything that Harry does not want to be, or everything that Harry sees as being inherently bad.
Speaker 1:So the next two questions are really going to be focused on Molly and Arthur, because they are questions surrounding who is the better spouse and who is the better parent. We will start with who is the better parent between the two? The better parent between the two? 56% said that Arthur was a better parent relative to Molly, who got 51%. So we're talking five percentage points.
Speaker 1:So this is not a massive difference, but I do think it is fascinating to think about the fact that many of us, on the grounds of parenting, were very critical of Molly but also highlighted the fact in Arthur's episode that we really don't get to see him be that much of a parent. He is what I called the parent P-E-E-R-E-N-T, the Phil Dunphy right when he gets to be the fun one who doesn't really discipline the boys for most of what they do. He chastises Ginny one time but we don't really get to see him take an active role in being a parent in the same way that we see Molly. And I think that we are particularly critical of Molly because of the way that she treats Fred and George and the strictures with which she kind of operates about how to be successful in the magical world and we unpacked a lot of her own trauma and the way that that plays a part in the way that she approaches being a mother.
Speaker 1:But I also think that this is the byproduct of society just being harder on moms and kind of women parents than dads and men parents, because I think that there is an expectation and a much stricter definition of what it means to be a mother than what it means to be a father. And my friends and I always joke sometimes about how easy of a bar it is to clear for many men when it comes to being a dad, when it's like, oh, you see them out without their partner with their kids and everyone's like good for you partner, you know with their kids and everyone's like. Good for you, but the expectation that is set for women in terms of what it means to be a good mother is a list that is a million miles long, and or kilometers for those of us who are in the UK. Don't think I don't know that. You all are listening. I appreciate you and I don't always know the conversion rates, but I know that one. So there it is.
Speaker 1:But I think that there is something so fascinating about this kind of manifestation of him as being a better parent, and I wonder the extent to which some of this is just how hard we are on Molly, because the kind of credentials or the expectations that she has to meet in order to be seen as a good mom is just significantly higher and more difficult to clear than it is to be a good dad. Now, it's interesting because when we look at who is seen as the best spouse between Molly and Arthur, molly gets 76% of people saying yes and Arthur only gets 52%, and so we see the inverse here, right, whereas Arthur is perceived as being the better parent, molly is seen as being the better spouse, and part of that is that, as you'll remember, in the Molly episode and if you haven't listened to that episode, I highly recommend going back, because it's one of my favorites, I think. But anyways, that's neither here nor there. What we will remember in that episode is that people really highlighted the fact that she was so supportive of Arthur and very much there for him in all of the decisions that he's made, including working a job that may or may not be able to fully provide for their family, and also taking care of the kids and keeping the house together and bringing in all of these people as kind of surrogate family members, while not really having, or at least not appearing to have, much of a life herself. And she is so supportive of him and Arthur's friends are her friends. Arthur's enemies are her enemies, and we just don't necessarily see Arthur being the same for her.
Speaker 1:And many of you pointed to the fact that he doesn't take as much of an active role in parenting and kind of leads all of that to Molly, which is then interesting when we think about the result we just talked about, but that this kind of is not really a partnership, and that Molly plays a much more active role in being a support system for Arthur than Arthur does for her, and that I think also is this kind of very gendered idea about what partnership looks like, particularly in more kind of traditionally understood relationships. And I think that many of us see what Molly kind of puts up with with Arthur and are like absolutely not. And I think it's not only just what she puts up with, I mean, because Arthur is obviously a very lovely man, but it's also the sacrifices that she's had to make to be with him. We talked about that a lot in the first episode as well, and I think we cannot ignore that reality that Molly really did sacrifice a lot of things to be with Arthur. She had to let go of a lot of things in order to kind of marry into his family, and so there are a lot of things about their dynamic that I think resonate with many of us because some of it feels very real, maybe not in our own lives but in the things that we see kind of out in the world.
Speaker 1:There's a large conversation within the kind of zeitgeist right now about partnership and, you know, reciprocity and the role that gender plays in those things, and I think that one of the things that really stands out to me in assessing these characters as an adult is the way that we've come to understand the roles that they play and what is seen as acceptable in those roles based on their gender. For many of us we recognize a lot of what Molly is having to put up with, and she does so with a smile and she is taking care of everything, while Arthur is kind of running around and providing for his family to a certain extent, but also gets to have hobbies and gets to have fun, and we just don't get to see Molly doing those types of things. You know, jk Rowling has a very particular understanding of gendered roles and Molly embodies a lot of those things. And part of that embodiment means not expecting more of your partner, particularly if that partner is a man. And what these results point out to me is that we recognize the sacrifices that she is making and we want to make sure that she gets her flowers and I love that for us and for her.
Speaker 1:And now we are moving on to the Weasley children, with the first question being who is the best child? So I'm going to read these off from the worst child to the best child. So Percy comes in, with 36% of people saying he is a good child. Fred and George come in at 65%, ron comes in at 68% and Jenny comes in at 68% and Ginny comes in at 81%. This is one of those instances, I think, where because we really don't get to see a lot of Ginny as a child but we do get to see a lot of Percy, a lot of Fred and George and a lot of Ron as children in their relationship with Molly and Arthur that Ginny gets the benefit because we get to see Ron mouth off to his family. We get to see Percy abandon his family for his job. We get to see Fred and George kind of give Molly a lot of grief over and over and over again. We get to kind of see these dynamics.
Speaker 1:But we really don't get to see that for Ginny. We really get to see Ginny being the baby of the family and she doesn't really not do what Molly and Arthur ask of her, unless it's in a situation where she feels very strongly that she needs to be there. So obviously I talked about this in Ginny's episode, where she doesn't listen to her family, not because she doesn't respect Molly and Arthur, but because she loves them so much and she says to them I am not going to sit here and wait for you all while you sacrifice your lives and I have to wait to hear what happens. I'm just not gonna do that. And so we get to see these moments for her where she's not really causing a lot of trouble, and especially not intentionally. And again, I think that this is the by-product of we don't get to see a lot of Ginny until she becomes someone that Harry is attracted to and cares about in that capacity, and so we don't get to see her be kind of a messy child and also maybe she isn't one and maybe she's like these other people have given y'all enough grief, and I'm just trying to fly under the radar and live my life and also, as I've said before, as an older sibling.
Speaker 1:What tends to be true for younger siblings is they get away with murder, and so not literal anyways, you get what I'm saying, and so because of that, parents treat them differently, and so it is also possible that this would be the result, namely because we don't necessarily get a sense from Arthur and or Molly that Jenny is a problem. But we know that. You know for Percy, for Fred and George, for Ron, you know for Bill and Charlie. Not so much either. I'm sure they would have ranked really well on this, because we just don't get the sense that they were problems. In fact, we get a sense from Molly that they do all the things that she wanted them to do, even though Percy did as well, but we're not getting into that, and so it's fascinating, because I'm wondering if these results are simply because, relative to her brothers, ginny is an angel. Isn't that how it goes?
Speaker 1:Sometimes, older siblings sound off, but I think that, for Percy right, why he would be seen as the worst child is that he makes choices without the family in mind. He makes choices that benefit him, because we have to take into account the fact that our narrator is Harry. There's meaning in this, right, but I also do think that what Harry misses, and what we talked about in Percy's episode, is the fact that is his family good to him. Some of you just screamed absolutely, and to that I say okay, let's we, we'll talk about that later. I do think, though, that Percy is the child that Molly wanted.
Speaker 1:Percy is the child that Molly wanted. He achieves all the things that she wants him to achieve, everything that she characterizes as being a successful member of the wizarding community. Percy accomplishes it. He does so, though, at the cost of his family, and there are questions that arise about whether or not it is Percy's fault that he was not taught these ideals of what you do when you are faced with a choice that challenges your own belief structure if it stands in the face of your ability to ascend to certain heights. And I don't know, and we don't really get a sense of whether or not that is something that Percy understands. But I think that what stands out to me is that Percy, seemingly, is the only one of the kids who has to make the choice about whether or not to make the kinds of sacrifices for the success that everything in his family life has suggested would be what he should be doing. Right? Everything leading up to this point has told him that all you have to do is be successful and everything will fall into place. And then Voldemort comes back, and then it all gets complicated and then it all falls apart, and at no point would we have expected that Molly and Arthur would have kind of had to feel the need to explain this to him, because they probably weren't thinking Voldemort was going to come back, but he did, and it completely upended everything. So I can understand how we would think that Percy is the worst child, but how do we reconcile that particular belief with the fact that he did everything that Molly wanted him to do? How you tell me and if you're in the Patreon you can Marketing who of the Weasley children is the best sibling. Only 25% of us said that Percy was a good sibling, 46% of us said that Ron was a good sibling, 61% said Fred and George, and then 79% of us said that Ginny was a good sibling. So once again we've got Ginny at the top and Percy at the bottom.
Speaker 1:You all know how I feel about this Percy dynamic at work here, because thus far he has been seen as the worst person, the worst child and the worst sibling, and there's a lot there to unpack, because I think that there are a lot of justified reasons as to why these would be the conclusions that you all would draw. I just think it's more complicated than that. But I also recognize that some of this is my fault, because I only ask yes or no questions, and so I have to. You know, lie in the bed that I've made with this survey, and you all know how I feel about Percy and the fact that I think that in a lot of cases, he did the best with what he had. In the words of Mariah Carey, I think he would have been a lamp.
Speaker 1:Anyways, that's not the point. What is the point is that and I confess, I don't think that these results are fair, because I think that Percy was bullied a lot by Fred and George, and I just don't know what we expect of him in terms of being a good brother, when so much of his dynamic with his siblings is born out of the fact that he is the butt of everyone's jokes and the way that he's treated by Fred and George, by Bill and Charlie, by even Ginny to a certain degree, though not as much, and certainly Ron right, no one takes him seriously. No one seemingly cares about the work that he's doing. Does he take himself too seriously? Yes, of course he does. Cares about the work that he's doing? Does he take himself too seriously? Yes, of course he does. Does that warrant the kind of treatment that he experiences? I'm going to go with no.
Speaker 1:Some of you said yes, though I would like to point out that, when it came to Jenny, y'all were not pleased about the way that she treated Percy. And so again I want to point I'm just in the spirit of hashtag keep that same energy, let's keep that same energy. Because if we can sit here and condemn Jenny, who is being voted as the best sibling of the bunch, well then there's something to think about, isn't there? And thinking about Jenny as the best sibling, I wonder if this is also simply because, again, we don't really get to see her in the capacity of being a sister other than cursing Ron out, which you know I stand, and also holding Fred and George to account as well, and so she doesn't do anything actively kind of mean to any of them, unless provoked. Normally she is kind of fending off these kind of older brother, patriarchal things that they use to try to constrain her behavior. And so we really don't get to see Ginny as a sibling unless she's on the defense, because they are coming at her for making choices about who she's going to date or you know whatever other things that they've deigned to dictate about how she should live her life. And so I wonder again if the preference for Ginny, or the belief that she's a better sibling, is simply because we don't really get to see her in that capacity.
Speaker 1:In other words, justice for my man's Percy. He deserved better. I'm looking at Fred and George with bombastic side eye because I'm like how it is that you guys were able to eke it out even above Ron is crazy to me when your entire sibling dynamic is bullying. But I'm not here to start a fight with anyone. But I said what I said and there it is.
Speaker 1:Who in the Weasley clan is the quote-unquote best pureblood? Now, the way that this question is worded obviously makes it a bit difficult to really interpret it, but 51% of us said that Percy was a quote-unquote good pureblood, which leads me to believe that many of us answered this question with the belief that being a good pureblood means that you're upholding pureblood supremacy. After my whole tirade about Percy, I this one I get, I understand, because he's working with the ministry and the ministry is obviously doing the thing of upholding pure blood supremacy. So in that way he kind of operates from that space. I just fine. Whatever you guys can have this one, I don't really have much of a defense for him in this case because it's like how are you working for the ministry when they're rounding up muggle borns and your girlfriend is half blood? You really are down bad in terms of how much you drank the Kool-Aid.
Speaker 1:Only 32% of us said that Fred and George were good purebloods, and this is interesting to me because I think most of the Weasley family kind of other than Percy, kind of hovers right. So Ginny was at 43%, ron was at 38%, molly was at 37% and Arthur was at 35%, with Fred and George being 32. And so in that way, I think Fred and George offer us an ability to think about what it means to be a good pureblood, which we've talked about a lot. I think many of us saw Perseus kind of upholding the pureblood supremacist structure that kind of operates and dominates within the world, and Fred and George, I guess, seemingly subvert that, though to me I'm not convinced by this, namely because and I've talked about this in their episode, a lot of what they do is very much in the way of recognizing the privileges that they have as purebloods and occupying that space without much thought about it. I think that what motivates a lot of this is the fact that in the fight against Voldemort, fred loses his life, and that that motivates a lot of us to see the sacrifices as him fighting against pure blood supremacy. And while I do not want to diminish Fred's sacrifice, I think it is really important to point out the fact that Voldemort is a symptom of pure blood supremacy, not the end-all be-all, and so, while fighting him is an important part of bringing down, or at least seemingly correcting, some of the structure, it doesn't do the work of that, and I think that a lot of the way that Fred and George operate is within the benefits of a pure blood supremacist structure, which isn't to say that they are pure blood supremacists, but rather that they are beneficiaries of a structure that doesn't really require much from them other than to be pure blood, even if they're poor. That's all I'm going to say on that. And just like I love them, they're great, but like also we have to, this is critical magic theory y'all. So we got to be critical. It doesn't mean I don't love them. You see how I did that. Anyways, you get it.
Speaker 1:Who is the most heroic person in the Weasley clan? 19% of us said that Percy was a hero, followed by 40% who said that Arthur was one, 44% said that Molly was a hero, 59% said that Ron was a hero, 75% said Jenny was one and a whopping 80% said Fred and George were heroes. I understand this. I understand why we would say that Percy is not a hero. We see him come back at the 11th hour and that cannot be kind of understated in terms of the importance of that. But the time that it took for him to come back, you know what the impetus for that was.
Speaker 1:I think that there are lots of reasons why some of us would see his behavior and not think immediately heroic, especially when you juxtapose it to the behaviors and sacrifices that many other people in his family were making while he was working for a governmental structure that was trying to oppress not only his family but like dear family friends. And I can also understand why 80% of us would say that Fred and George are heroes. And I think one thing that I remember coming up a lot in people's statements was the sacrifices that they made, the fact that Fred does lose his life, that George loses his ear in the pursuit of these things, and that they were so willing to kind of stand up to authority even when they were at Hogwarts, that there is this kind of streak of heroism inside of them. And I get this, this one I understand. And not only do I get it, but I do appreciate it because I do think that, as I've said, for all of the Weasleys, when it comes to this question, the fact that they are all purebloods speaks volumes about the sacrifices that they do make in the name of bringing down Voldemort, because they don't have to, and we see time and time again their willingness to engage in really dangerous behavior, like turning into Harry to make sure that he gets safe passage to a safe house, and that, to me, is such an important part of heroism, and I think there are lots of things to unpack about what it means to be a hero. But one of the big things for me is being committed to the idea of putting yourself in harm's way for the sake of a belief. This is a tangent, but I'm writing a. Well, I wrote a book. That's not Harry Potter related, but I wrote a book, and one of the big things that I talk about is this idea of sacrifice and commitment, and so it always resonates with me when I think about the Weasleys, because so much of what they do is what I call community commitment, and they have a lot of it and they occupy that space in such a meaningful way. Also, I'm really proud of myself for kind of connecting this, but that's a different story for a different day. We're adding that to the list, but I think that the Weasleys do such an amazing job at recognizing that they don't have to, but believing enough in the cause to put themselves in harm's way. And I think that this is also why we look at Percy and we say how is everyone else in your family making these choices? And you are not. And not only are you not, it's not as if Percy is just sitting at home, you are actively working with the opposition.
Speaker 1:Who in the Weasley clan is the best friend? Unsurprisingly, only 13% of us said that Percy was a good friend. Also unsurprisingly, 87% of us said that Fred and George were good friends. This all makes sense. I get it. We really don't, admittedly, get to see Percy as a friend. We only really get to see him as a brother. We get to see him as a prefect, we get to see him as a head boy. But if we were to extrapolate out a lot of his behaviors, we don't really get. We could imagine a world where he wouldn't be the best friend, especially if your friendship meant like getting in the way of his success. And we see that in a letter that he writes to Ron, where he basically is like you need to get rid of Harry. He's an issue, he's a problem. Like bump him, choose yourself, do what's best for you. Like don't be like mom and dad and just befriend everyone just because, and don't just listen to whatever right. And so we see, in that moment, his perspective on friendship is one that's like it's fine as long as you don't get in my way. I understand why people would then vote him to be the least likely to be a good friend.
Speaker 1:I also do think that we see Fred and George operate from a space of being good friends. Their relationship with Lee Jordan is amazing. We get to see their relationship with each other, their relationship with Harry, their relationship with Hermione and other people on the Quidditch team. It's so clear to me that they are individuals who really do value friendship. I think that there's something to be said about not only the kind of friends that they are, but the kind of enemies that they are, and, needless to say, I wouldn't want to be on the bad side of them, but I do think that when we see how they behave for people who are on their good side. They are loyal and they come to your aid whenever you need it, and I think that there's something so beautiful about that. When we think about their role as friends, one thing that always stands out to me is how much like Arthur they are in this capacity, they are willing to do whatever they can to make sure that their friends are safe, that their friends feel loved and protected. While their being good siblings is kind of rife with a lot of negative things, their being good friends is very clear and apparent in a lot of really really amazing ways.
Speaker 1:Now is the moment in the episode where I reflect a little bit. Now, obviously, this episode's reflection is going to be a little bit different because this is more of a culmination of what we've talked about for the weasleys. But I think when I think of the Weasleys, I think about the transition between childhood and adulthood and the way that so much of the critiques that we leverage seem to be the byproduct of us now being adults. Many of us are adults. Some of us may not quite be in adulthood. There is something to be said about the relationship that we have with the Weasleys from when we were children to now. It makes me think of.
Speaker 1:You know when you grow up, and so much of your perception of your parents or guardians are based on the fact that they are your parents or guardians, and so you don't really know any better about whether or not they're good or bad or effective or ineffective until you get older. And so for me, reading these books as a child, I was just always so enamored with the Weasleys. I was always so happy when Harry would go back to the borough because I thought, finally he's going to get love, he's going to get food, he's going to get support and care. And he got all of those things, and he still does when I read it as an adult. But now I'm looking at with a much more critical eye at the way that Molly treats Fred and George, or the way that Arthur doesn't really play as much of a role in the parenting as Molly does, and all of those things come to the fore for me, and I think my conclusion is always that the Weasleys are so perfectly imperfect that when we look at them through the lens of Harry, we see this family that is just so rich with love.
Speaker 1:I think that the Weasleys operate from a space of. This is just how things go, and some of that is really beautiful and some of it is not, and some of it requires us to be very critical of them. I think that what is true for the Weasleys in our perceptions of them is that when you get older and the scales are removed from your eyes about life and what it means to be a parent or a guardian or a sibling or a friend or a hero, we begin to get more critical, because we can, because we know more, and I think that because they were Harry's safe haven, they were our safe haven. And as you get older and you realize this space may not have been as safe as we thought it was, and that's meaningful and that doesn't take away a lot from who they are or what they offered us or what they offered Harry. But I do think that it makes it much easier for us to be more critical of them than we will be, say, of Draco or the Malfoys, because we know that they were supposed to be bad, so that when they do anything good, we're like well, this is a surprise and it deserves a reward. And we don't do that for the Weasleys because it's like, no, but you're supposed to be good, and if you transgress even a little bit, then you've really messed up. And so, as we move into the Malfoys and we have this next episode about Narcissa, I want us to keep this same energy and the criticism that we extended to the Weasleys in terms of some of their behavior being problematic. I want us to keep that for the Malfoys, because I already feel it in my spirit that many of us are going to make excuses for Narcissa, we're going to make excuses for Lucius, we're going to make excuses for Draco, because it's like, well, they were supposed to be bad and they did a good thing one time. I can't wait to dive into that with you all, but I want us to keep that same energy and that same level of criticism even for Luscious, lox, lucius, for Narcissa and for all of y'all's little baby boy who you refuse to allow to grow up, because if you did, you'd have to hold him accountable for his actions the one and only Draco Malfoy. Okay, thank you so much for listening.
Speaker 1:This has been another episode of Critical Magic Theory. I'm Professor Julian Womble and y'all. We made it through the Weasleys. We are moving into the Malfoys. Next we're starting with Narcissa.
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Speaker 1:This has been another episode of Critical Magic Theory. If you like what you heard first off, thank you, please rate, subscribe, like, follow all the things that one does where pods are cast. If you want to follow me on socials I am profwprofw on TikTok and profjw on Instagram Feel free to email me at criticalmagictheory at gmailcom or go to the website criticalmagictheorycom. I will see you all in two weeks. Until then, be critical and stay magical, my friends. Bye you.