The Greatest Dollar Bean

Eight years olds aren’t stupid. Katara knows that her mom lied about being a waterbender to protect her. Thus, Katara knows that her mom took a bullet that was meant for her. Katara and her family had to see her charred corpse in their own house.

“We aren’t taking prisoners today.” He probably was just being sadistic, but if not, if he knew that that terrified little girl was the last waterbender of the Southern Water Tribe, would he have taken her prisoner as an exception? Or would he have been cruel enough to kill her?

I find it funny when people think of Ron as someone who values loyalty the least of the trio, when he clearly values it the most. Every single argument he has with either Hermione or Harry, in his mind (while not necessarily correct) is framed as a question of loyalty.

For example:

Scabbers was there first

Don't go behind your friends' back: (A) telling McGonagall about the Firebolt, (B) Harry not telling him he got past the Goblet of Fire (don't get me wrong, I believe Hermione is right that he doesn't actually believe this)

Don't fraternise with the enemy - Harry is our champion and best mate, not Krum (yes, Ron... that's your issue with Krum and Hermione going to the Yule ball... my dear sweet teenage boy)

And of course the most important: the argument in DH. This I think geniunely is such a point of how loyalty matters to Ron. Ron's already inbetween a rock and a hard place. Ginny is clearly struggling with the breakup, however much Harry focuses on the fact that she understands why they've broken up. For Ron though, that's his little sister hurting. So he's a pain at the Burrow, but he never stops being Harry's best mate. He never truly blames Harry, but he does want to protect his younger sister. We often make Ginny close to some of the other Weasley brothers, but the two that most often show a protective streak are Ron and Percy. There are three people Ron truly looks out for: Hermione, Ginny and Harry, and two of these roles are, in his head, at odds.

So Ron's already struggling with this before they set off. Then of course we get the whole debarkle after Ginny is caught by Snape. Harry is dead worried about her too, we know that, but Ron doesn't see it because Harry does not remotely communicate his nerves, only his relief. On top of this, Ron's worried about Hermione, and how they're out there tenting without a plan. Importantly, in the books it's far less about jealousy (although that plays a part). "We thought you knew what you were doing." Not I. We. We've talked about it. We thought you knew.

“Take off the locket, Ron,” Hermione said, her voice unusually high. “Please take it off. You wouldn’t be talking like this if you hadn’t been wearing it all day.” “Yeah, he would,” said Harry, who did not want excuses made for Ron. “D’you think I haven’t noticed the two of you whispering behind my back? D’you think I didn’t guess you were thinking this stuff?” “Harry, we weren’t — ” “Don’t lie!” Ron hurled at her. “You said it too, you said you were disappointed, you said you’d thought he had a bit more to go on than — ”

But first and foremost it's about Ron's family, which has suffered a fair bit, and how he question's Harry's loyalty to them (I mean, Harry literally throws Molly in Ron's face: "Did you think you'd be back to Mummy's by Christmas?")

“Go home then,” said Harry. “Yeah, maybe I will!” shouted Ron, and he took several steps toward Harry, who did not back away. “Didn’t you hear what they said about my sister? But you don’t give a rat’s fart, do you, it’s only the Forbidden Forest, (...)” “I was only saying — she was with the others, they were with Hagrid — ” “Yeah, I get it, you don’t care! And what about the rest of my family, ‘the Weasleys don’t need another kid injured,’ did you hear that?” “Yeah, I — ” “Not bothered what it meant, though?” "Ron!” said Hermione, forcing her way between them. "(...) I’m sure that’s all he meant — ” “Oh, you’re sure, are you? Right then, well, I won’t bother myself about them. It’s all right for you two, isn’t it, with your parents safely out of the way — ” “My parents are dead!.” Harry bellowed. “And mine could be going the same way!” yelled Ron. “Then GO!” roared Harry. “Go back to them, pretend you’ve got over your spattergroit and Mummy’ll be able to feed you up and--" Ron made a sudden movement: Harry reacted, but before either wand was clear of its owner’s pocket, Hermione had raised her own. “Protego,” she cried, and an invisible shield expanded between her and Harry on the one side and Ron on the other (...) “Leave the Horcrux,” Harry said.

During the entire argument, Harry has to tell Ron to go multiple times before Ron leaves. It's not an easy decision, even under the influence of the Horcrux. It's not an easy decision, even though I am pretty sure not being needed is Ron's greatest fear (after, or possibly before, spiders), because who would really miss him as the sixth son--especially when his best friend is just saying: fine, leave, why don't you?

Even the whole "you choose him" shows exactly how Ron is my little Gryffindor first, Hufflepuff second, baby, because to Ron, the choice is personal. Hermione is making the choice based on the task ahead and the cause and keeping her word (and the fact that Ron's is the wrong) but to Ron, being in the right or wrong doesn't really matter. You have your friend's back, no matter what.

Ron wrenched the chain from over his head and cast the locket into a nearby chair. He turned to Hermione. “What are you doing?” “What do you mean?” “Are you staying, or what?” “I …” She looked anguished. “Yes — yes, I’m staying. Ron, we said we’d go with Harry, we said we’d help — ” “I get it. You choose him.”

Hermione choses to stay, so thus she's choosing Harry.

So yeah, loyalty is the most important thing to Ron. We see this in his better moments too:

“That is the second time you have spoken out of turn, Miss Granger,” said Snape coolly. “Five more points from Gryffindor for being an insufferable know-it-all.” Hermione went very red, put down her hand, and stared at the floor with her eyes full of tears. It was a mark of how much the class loathed Snape that they were all glaring at him, because every one of them had called Hermione a know-it-all at least once, and Ron, who told Hermione she was a know-it-all at least twice a week, said loudly, “You asked us a question and she knows the answer! Why ask if you don’t want to be told?”

Doesn't matter if Ron actually slightly agree with Snape, no one gets to hurt his friends.

Instead he contented himself with scrawling a note to Ron: Let’s do it tonight Ron read the message, swallowed hard, and looked sideways at the empty seat usually filled by Hermione. The sight seemed to stiffen his resolve, and he nodded.

Doesn't matter he hates spiders, he's following them into the Forbidden Forest if he has to.

This is the boy who sacrifised himself age 12 to help Harry get to the Philosopher Stone. This is the boy who stood up to Voldemort, a man he was so afraid of he couldn't use his name, at the absolutely darkest point in the battle--when everyone thought everything was lost:

“You see?” said Voldemort, and Harry felt him striding backward and forward right beside the place where he lay. “Harry Potter is dead! Do you understand now, deluded ones? He was nothing, ever, but a boy who relied on others to sacrifice themselves for him!” “He beat you!” yelled Ron, and the charm broke, and the defenders of Hogwarts were shouting and screaming again until a second, more powerful bang extinguished their voices once more.

Ron is loyal, and he's self-sacrifiing (sharing his family which he already feels he's pretty invisible in with his famous best mate), and like all loyal and self-sacrificing people, they sometimes snap, because they feel like they're willing to give up the world for those around them, and they don't always feel recognised. Quick reminder, our boy got Fred and George to come help break out Harry at the Dursley's, age 12, because his best mate hadn't replied to his letters.

It makes perfect sense that it's Ron's lifeplans who change when George loses Fred, because it's in Ron's nature to put those around him first. If George needs help with the store, then Ron is going to help.

Not to mention the fact that Katara agrees with this, too. Katara, whom Zuko just jumped in front of lightning for. Katara, who ran to him in almost reckless abandon to heal him. Katara, who despite wanting to so badly, couldn't kill her mother's murderer.

He is quite literally a subversion of the bad boy archetype. He is a failure to bad boy by design. His whole characterization from the beginning is that he's empathetic and cares about others, was punished for it, and goes out of his way to try to be the kind of man his father wants him to be opposite to his true nature. As long as he tries to be this person that he is not, he will suffer for it and fail until he embraces who he is and rejects the notions his father put into his head.

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Let's go over some of the common traits of the bad boy archetype!

Charisma/Confidence

See Zuko's complete social awkwardness and inability to talk like a normal person. He's literally a sputtering mess; he actually gives me second-hand embarrassment.

Emotional Unavailability/Avoidance

Zuko pretty consistently is empathetic, and especially with Katara is more than comfortable talking about his feelings and pretty personal life issues in an open way. He also is pretty consistent about persistently confronting problems and dealing with them even when it's an uphill battle. He takes issue with Mai being more shut down and avoidant. He doesn't ignore problems or run away from them.

Manipulative

He literally is incapable of being manipulative or deceptive, he's too forthright; times when he does try to lie, he is shown messing it up spectacularly and being incredibly obvious. If he was more manipulative or used any of his circumstances to make excuses for himself, his life would have been so much easier gaining sympathy with and getting into the group. But he takes the hard way through almost everything he does. He is a blunt instrument and takes the most direct path even if there's 100 obstacles in his path.

Mysterious/Unpredictable

LOL Mr. Capture the Avatar Restore My Honor. He's got literally one thing on his mind and spends the entire show realizing that this narrow path he's clinging onto around every turn is not the only one.

Rebellious/Cool

Spends the majority of the show following the path put in front of him. His only true rebellion happens at the end of season 3 where he is arguably at his most "good", and it's him rebelling against the worldview put in front of him by someone evil. This is also when he sheds trying to be someone he's not, and his personality is furthest it's ever been from being like unto a bad boy.

I'll cede that his design might be cool, or his abilities- but competence at anything is cool on its own and does not make an individual's personality cool. He's a loser; he gets styled on so often for yuks. He's a dork. His personality is cringefail. He is cringe and he fails at nearly everything he does. It's great, it's endearing how uncool he is. He practices talking to himself to hype himself up to talk to the group, says "Hello, Zuko here", is like "no that's stupid I gotta say something else", and then goes up to the group and is like, "Hello, Zuko here." PLEASE.

Socially more dominant

My boy sat outside Katara's tent all night like a wet cat because he cared about her feelings so much, spent the rest of that episode making sure things were taken care of for her, and in general kept trying with her pretty patiently while she was consistently raging at him. He took his lumps from her for a long while. Also, the progression of his facial expressions seeing her to when he finds out she's mad at him are literally :D -> :c

Also, he's just constantly being clowned on to the point of utter resignation. He's very often a character you're supposed to point and laugh at.

The whole "fixing him" element, the emotional rollercoaster instability, maladaptive responses to conflict

But Zuko fixed himself. Him coming back and trying to prove himself is all his choice. The appeal of him with Katara is that he balances her out and makes an effort for her all on his own. He knows it's her choice to forgive him and he doesn't expect her to; he acts because he wants to and cares.

He is also shown to be stable and safe; she lets herself be mad at him for all manner of other issues because he's a safe person to be mad at, and he doesn't feed the flame or run away from the problem. In TSR he is the rock to her storm; he is a consistent, stable counterpart fully determined to show up for her no matter what just for her peace. There is no hot and cold to their dynamic. No emotional dysregulation. They actually help each other process their emotions when they talk about their problems. The appeal is that it's healthy and reciprocal (and dare I say cute)!

And for the whole "he corrupts Katara" argument I see against him in TSR all the time, look at his dialogue again. He doesn't once tell her what to do, he just trusts her to make her own decisions... like an autonomous human being... who he respects. He solely backs up the decisions she chooses to make, and makes sure she's taken care of and safe in the meantime. When she makes a decision contrary to what he expected, he goes along with it. He is just there to be there for her. His only motivation is to get Katara closure and justice on a man who otherwise will never see it and leaves it up to her how she wants to go about it. (In this case, justice was letting him live out the rest of his miserable life.) Is it toxic that he let her make her own decisions regarding her trauma and helped her process her emotions about it, or is it toxic that people act like Katara is incapable of making her own decisions and it must be because a man forced and corrupted her?

When he’s trying to relate to Katara, Aang says “how do you think I felt when the sandbenders took Appa?” And that’s an odd choice for him to make. Thinking about Katara’s situation, the more logical comparison to make would be to when Aang found Monk Gyatso’s body. Gyatso was Aang’s parental figure, and like Kya, he was lost to the fire nation, so this is actually a reasonable reference point. So why choose to talk about Appa instead? I think it’s because Aang’s feelings about his own behaviour when he lost Appa are driving what he’s saying to Katara.

When Aang lost Appa, we saw him at one of his lowest points in the entire series. He yells at his friends and makes unfair accusations.

He seems to genuinely wish harm to the sandbenders in a way that’s very uncharacteristic for him. He even (probably) kills a buzzard wasp, which is I think the only occasion when we see Aang deliberately kill anything.

If Katara hadn’t pulled Aang out of the Avatar State, he may well have killed some sandbenders too.

If Aang regrets the way he reacted to Appa’s loss, and that regret is informing his words, it makes sense that he would see Katara’s anger and become focussed on trying to keep her from making the mistakes that he himself made (and almost made).

I think most critiques of Aang (mine included) centre on how he acted, and the moral high ground he (and the writers) took against Katara, but seeing it as a projection of his guilt for how he acted in The Desert is a more nuanced angle to look at it from.