8 Indispensable Harry Potter Movie Moments That Weren't In the Books

7. Harry Potter And The Chamber Of Secrets - Ron The Etymologist

The movies do a disservice to Ronald Weasley. They give him the fear of spiders without ever explaining why. Ron in the movies has an aversion to spiders the same way my younger sister had an aversion to our basement. It was just that way without having real logic. In the books, we know that Ron hates spiders because his brother turned his teddy bear and we agree with him when he says, "You wouldn't like it either if you'd been holding your bear and suddenly it had too many legs and..." The one thing that the movie got absolutely right was Ron's worst nightmare: he's being asked to go into the Forbidden Forest without any kind of protection and with the sole purpose of tracking down spiders. I imagine that it would be like asking Harry to hunt down Horcruxes with a dementor and Dolores Umbridge as his loyal sidekicks. Rupert Grint said in an interview that he didn't like his own performance in the first couple of movies because he was really just reading lines at times. This is a notable exception. Can we blame Ron for going very squeaky at this point? No.
Contributor
Contributor

That's Kaki pronounced like the pants, thank you very much, my family nickname and writing name. I am a Red Sox-loving, Doctor Who-quoting, Shaara-reading walking string quartet of a Mormon writer from Boston. I currently work 40 hours at a stressful desk job with a salary that lets me pick up and travel to places like Ireland or Philadelphia. I have no husband or kids, but I have five nephews to keep me entertained. When not writing, working or eating too much Indian food, I'm always looking for something new to learn, whether it's French or family history.