So let me get this straight, you hold a confused, conflicted, angry 17 year old's action up to the same measure as a fully grown man in a committed relationship?

Gods, I would hate to be your friend growing up, I don't go out for a movie one day when you ask and woops, bye bye, who needs you, out of your life forever.

He's human. More than that, he's a teenager in incredibly extraordinary circumstances. And you have got to admit, Hermione had to put up with WAY less bullshit (fame related, see previous posts) than Ron did, she never had any reason to want to leave, to be angry at Harry, to have their friendship tested and pushed every single day just  because of the sheer existence of your friend.

I'm with Darth Praxus on this one, Ron is not useless by any stretch of the imagination, but I don't think he's there to serve the same kind of purpose you want to judge him by Zarbs.

He is there as, not a foil, but at least a sounding board for how screwed up Harry's existence is inside the magic world. Along with being the only one of the 3 who has street knowledge about the wizarding world, (Harry and Hermione both being raised in the Muggle world. Granted he's a bit of an idiot sometimes about some stuff, but hey we all have that friend), he's also the only one that can really give a bit of perspective to us (the reader) about Harry and his fame. He's the friend that always get's shafted because his friend is famous, he always gets shafted because his family is poor. He always get's shafted because he's a bit of an idiot. And there's an incredible amount of tension there that obviously comes to a head in DH, but there's also a very strong friendship there.

So while he might not do much to progress the "plot" of the story, he doesn't have too, he gives us a lot of perspective about the world and the other 2, and in a lot of ways is the most sane of the three. He's, to get incredibly cliched, the heart of the group. Hermione is the brains obviously, and Harry is the courage, but without Ron I think they tend to get very wrapped up in their own heads, Hermione because she is so intellectual and Harry because he is so confused, Ron is always the one that brings the problem back down the dirt level.

Sorry bit of a wandering path of thought in this one, hopefully it makes sense.

BIIIIOOOOSHOOOOOOCKKKKK!

I- I- I don't understand what's going on...

You're not even gonna like... call me a fag or anything? I just- convinced you? Not even gonna maybe...like... insult my mother or something??

This is so weird.

This.

Except any wizard worth his salt will have cast 6 defense spells before you even pull the gun, so any muggle projectile/anything really, can't even get near them while they're doing their fancy charms. Read that Quote that Dorkman posted again. Those aren't super complicated spells that take a lot of time to conjure. Those are split second flicks of the wrist performed by really really damn good wizards/witches. That's something I think a lot of people miss. Most of the magic we see in the first 5/6 books is beginner level, performed by students who barely even have a grasp of the fundamentals. They're essentially doing magic longhand, I mean hell, for most of the series they aren't even doing anything non-vocally.

So when we see REAL wizards and witches in full battle mode, it's fast, it's intense, it's chaotic, it's messy, it's everything under the sun to try and kill that other person while the other person is doing everything under the sun to not get killed, or try to kill back, and it's daaaamn fast. It's supposed to be impressive, this is what real magic looks like in a real world fight.

There's a line in Deathly Hallows about the defense spells they cast around their campsites, something to the effect of having done them so often that even Ron could bbasically do it in his sleep. And there's one right after they escape the Wizard Cops I believe, where they are all panicked, and Hermione is just throwing up defensive spells in a panic and the way it reads it's like a minute and there's 16 different spells up. If I remember tomorrow, I'll try to find the exact quotes because I think it's really telling about how bad they are magic, really, and how much they still have to learn.

Interesting.

Then sharks.

Lapel mics unfortunately won't happen (It's not in either of our budgets atm. Hopefully it's something we can look into down the line), but I do have an external shotgun mounted above the stage now. Unfortunately this performance was filmed before I had the mounting gear, so the shotgun is just strapped to the camera.

Books:

1) Order Of The Phoenix
2) Deathly Hallows
3) Goblet of Fire
4) Prisoner Of Azkaban
5) Half Blood Prince
6) Chamber Of Secrets
7) Philosophers Stone

I know most people probably bawk when I put Chambers and Stone at the bottom, but for the most it's really just due to my preference for the darker, more twisted elements that started to really come in after Azkaban. That, and I also much prefer the longer reads, there's more happening, it's more complex the stories are more epic in scale. So I still love them dearly but they are definitely the 2 that are most aimed at a younger audience, and feel like it. (Which is the point yes, but this a preference list, get over it)

Movies:

1)Deathly Hallows Pt1
2) Philosophers Stone
3) Chamber Of Secrets
4)
5)
6)
7)
8) The rest

Deathly Hallows Pt 1 because I can distinctly remember sitting in front of it go, "wow, they actually finally managed to figure out how to make one of these damn movies" and then the movie ended, and I didn't hate it. And then DH2 came out, and all of that was undone.

Stone and Chambers, because I can still remember when I was too young to have ithem overshadowed by everything that came after it, and I could still enjoy them.

And the rest because it's been too long since I've actually sat down and watched them all in some sort of order to remember what each one was like individually. So they're pretty much all just a big ball of angry in my head.

I don't really watch late night talk shows anymore, but they do still have their moments apparently.