can you imagine how much the Jaeger Program meant to the poor and weak of the world?
like it is explicitly stated that the rich and powerful lived way inland, safer from the kaiju than those along the Pacific coastlines of the world. Can you imagine the interiors of various countries gentrifying, forcing lower-income families further and further from safety? Can you imagine having to tell your kids that you can’t afford your suddenly hyper-expensive home in, say, Idaho, and your best chance of being able to get an affordable house is on the coast of Oregon, where any day an enormous monster could pop up to say ‘hi fuck all of you’?
can you imagine how beloved the jaeger pilots are by the people on the coast? how happy they are that the battles are taking place out in the ocean rather than on top of their houses?
just
I just want to know precisely everything about the world of Pacific Rim not even just about the pilots I want to know about the average people living on the front lines of this horrible alien war and what sort of things they think about every day and how they live their lives and what kind of dumb blog posts they make and I want to see the riots that started over the Wall because no fuck you, you can’t take away their giant metal protectors and leave them with a wall that’s practically nothing, how dare you
Hey let’s destroy the pernicious myth that preteens were regularly marrying in medieval and early modern Europe and were having children as young teenagers. It’s just not true. Church records show the typical age people got married was around 18-23. Sure, around a third of brides were pregnant at the time of their marriage, but premarital sex was actually completely fine in medieval and early modern Europe if the couple intended to marry. (Oh look! Another historical fact the Victorian period completely mangled!)
Very young girls were not having babies in medieval times, people. The only people who ever bring this non-fact up are paedophiles looking to defend their dangerous paraphilia. So cut it out. Stop spreading this myth. It’s not historical, it’s not factual, it’s not true.
can we give remus lupin some credit for not BURSTING OUT INTO TEARS when he woke up and saw harry on the train?? he hadn’t seen him for more than 10 years and he managed to keep his composure
also
hello
“There was a soft, crackling noise, and a shivering light filled the compartment. Professor Lupin appeared to be holding a handful of flames.” (PoA, pg 83)
we’re the only ones in this tiny bus shelter and you’ve been crying for 10 minutes and i would give you some privacy but it’s pouring rain out so “do you want to talk about it,” i guess?
you’ve just moved into my apartment and all i want is a drink but you’ve been in the kitchen for an hour, and you’re going to judge me hardcore for drinking whiskey at noon on a sunday
you’re my waiter and “yes, i’d like a pitcher of sangria” and “no, i’m not waiting for my friends- this essay isn’t going to write itself, jesus christ”/i work in a pub by campus and am becoming incresingly concerned about the girl who’s on her second pitcher and has an essay due at 7 tonight
i work in a drive-thru and didn’t realize the speaker was still on and started singing “i am beautiful in every single way” and you heard and were like “i’m sure you are” and i’m mortified and you’re hot
you’ve been looking through the self-help section at a bookstore for at least 2 hours and this one employee keeps walking by looking more and more concerned every time
you work in a coffee shop and are in the middle of a hella rendition of ‘total eclipse of the heart’ and get WAY too into it, and a (really hot dammit) customer tried to get your attention by singing “turn around, bright eyes”
we always get into huge debates in our lectures , and one time it got particularly heated and you threw your computer mouse at me, we got kicked out, and now you’re demanding that i buy you a new one?? who even uses mouses anyways??
this class is really boring, so maybe i’ve been looking at your laptop over your shoulder, and now i feel like i know you based off the the buzzfeed quizzes that you’ve been taking
i forgot my copy of Goblet of Fire on this park bench and when i come back to get it this really hot guy is reading it, but he insists that the book is his and holy shit he’s hot, but i will fight him for the book
we’re in the same photography class and i thought i was alone in the dark room so i’ve been belting out every song on the radio and you don’t chime in until a duet comes on and i hit (and cut) my head on an enlarger because “holy SHIT how long have you been here?”
my friend and i decided to get tattoos and we’re underage but she knows a guy, so now i’m lying on her kitchen table with my pants half way down my legs and did you REALLY just ask me for my number? is now REALLY the time?
we share sheet music in band but i’m terrible at reading it so i bribe you to write in the notes and you decide that a date is suitable payback
You passed out onto me on the train. Have my water bottle.
I don’t know if my wrist is broken but you are by far the hottest doctor I’ve ever encountered so I hope so.
You asked me to help you install your computer in your dorm room because I “look like I know about computers”. I don’t, but I also don’t know anyone on campus yet, so why not try? (And epic fail?)
You’re in the next seat over at the coffee shop reading my blog on your laptop what no why
I am shopping in your bookstore and you didn’t notice my mother was standing directly behind me when you really blatantly hit on me.
Thank you, neighbor, I did set the wall on fire, but only a little and it’s out now, no need to be concerned.
You keep apologizing for playing your trumpet at night in the apartment below mine but you’re actually really good and I kind of enjoy it.
You have the biggest dog I’ve ever seen and every time I see you walking your dog something awesome happens to me. I know it’s very crazy but I think your dog is my lucky charm.
We are trapped in this elevator and just barely know each other. To avoid making small talk, let’s call everyone we know and make them entertain us.
I am in this diner so often and I have such a specific order that you have named the order after me.
I will never understand why this Christmas song goes so hard.
OKAY MOTHERFUCKERS LISTEN UP
BECAUSE THIS SHIT IS NOT CAROL OF THE BELLS
IT IS CHRISTMAS EVE/SARAJEVO 12/24 AND IT IS SO MUCH FUCKING MORE THAN CAROL OF THE BELLS.
SO DURING THE BOSNIAN WAR (WHICH WAS THIS NASTY-ASS CONFLICT IN BOSNIA AND HERZGOVINA) THERE WAS THIS BADASS CELLO-PLAYING MOTHERFUCKER NAMED VEDRAN SMAILOVIC. HE WAS FROM SARAJEVO WAS UPSET ABOUT ALL THE SHIT AND NASTINESS THAT CAME ABOUT THROUGH THIS WAR (THIS WAS FULL-ON BROTHER-KILLING-BROTHER SHIT) THAT HE WENT AROUND TO BOMBED-OUT, BLOWN UP BUILDINGS AND FUNERALS—WHERE HE WAS AT RISK OF FUCKING SNIPER FIRE—AND PLAYING THE CELLO. THIS GUY WAS SO SET ON PROVIDING ONE TINY SPOT OF BEAUTY IN A SERIOUSLY NASTY WAR HE WAS RISKING BEING FUCKING SHOT OR BLOWN UP.
AND THIS IS THE GUY WHO INSPIRED THIS SONG.
HE’S WHY THERE’S THE CALM CELLO PART AT THE BEGINNING BEFORE EVERYTHING GETS ALL VIOLENT-SOUNDING. IT’S THEMATIC.
THAT’S WHY THIS CHRISTMAS SONG GOES SO FUCKING HARD.
Do you mean doctors who spent years learning about abled white cis men’s bodies
do you know anything about the world besides what you read on tumblr
Okay but this is true?? Shut up with your bullshit, the medical industry for a very very long time has used the able bodied white cis male as their standard and that has very real healthcare consequences for a lot of people.
Do you know why most women don’t know when they’re having heart attacks? Why heart attacks kill more women than men? Because symptoms of a heart attack are different for women and the ones that doctors usually recognize and publicize are the symptoms experienced by men. Do you know why it’s so difficult for Black and Brown people to get diagnosed if they have skin cancer? Because doctors have been taught to recognize it on white people. People of size are constantly told that their problems are entirely because of their weight and doctors don’t even bother to look beyond that to be sure that’s the case. So those people have medical conditions go undiagnosed properly for years, and die in the process. Fuck, even just the fact that people think it’s okay to charge women more for healthcare because “they have extra parts” (?????) is indicative of the way the male body has been considered the standard for fucking ever. And the healthcare needs of disabled people or trans people? Forget about it.
OP is 1000% right. The medical industry has used the able cis white male body as their standard of care for CENTURIES and that has real consequences for the rest of us today. It’s getting better but it’s not where it should be. So fuck off with your snarky commentary, you’re wrong. The healthcare industry is not equipped to handle the needs of people with disabilities, women, PoC, trans people, people of size, etc. and that’s in large part due to the fact that the established body of medical knowledge was created by studying able, cis, white male bodies almost exclusively.
Hey there folks, speaking as a trained EMT and a pre-med student, I can confirm that the above person is approximately 7000% accurate. In my EMT training, I would repeatedly ask ‘’but what if my patent is a woman” or “what is my patient is a person of color” and at first all I got was shock. Then I got confused bumbling. I got some answers–basic symptoms of a heart attack in women, how to recognize cyanosis in someone of color, the basics of how to work with an autistic patient or someone who for whatever reason can’t communicate well with you. In fact, EMTs and other EMS workers are getting a lot better at learning the differences between the health care for a person of color or someone disabled. We were even told that we would need to ask our patients for their biological sex (I know, I’m really sorry, I know that there are people who find this intensely uncomfortable or even harmful, but there are real medical reasons for this and most decent EMTs will use whatever pronouns you ask them to). But most if not all of the answers we were given about women were directly related to gynecological issues. The guys teaching me? They were good guys. Nice. Funny. Smart. Devoted to caring for patients. Impassioned about protecting people, especially women and teenaged girls, from assault. Largely not sexist toward me or their coworkers. Hell, they were even smart enough to say “listen, boys, the women in this class have a higher pain tolerance than you, they just do, and as a rule if a women says their pain is a 5 on a scale of 1-10, assume it’s somewhere around an 8” when a kid laughed during the gyno unit. But they just didn’t know what to say when I asked “so if you’re supposed to palpate the patient’s chest, what do you do if your patient’s a triple-D” or when I asked “so if your patient gets menstrual migraines, how do you know if this headache is a stroke or not.” They had never been taught. This is a real problem, one that many medical professionals work hard to remedy once they start practicing. But this is not bullshit. At all. The standard patient is a cis white guy with no disabilities or chronic illnesses. It’s a huge fucking problem and I’m going to need you to step down with your bullshit, there, friend.
This has to be true. I mean, it’s the internet….
So I get what you’re saying here. Internet facts tend to be dubious in nature. You don’t know me personally. That’s fine, although I’m not sure why you bothered to reblog for just one snarky sentence. But, um…you asked in your tags why I didn’t do something about it, if I was so passionate about feminism…you mean like getting a pre-med degree so that I can be a doctor and try to help people? Because. Uh. That’s what I’m doing with my life right now. And why I got the EMT training I talked about here. And why I try to help people understand the flaws in the system so that they can help themselves, too. So. Yeah. I stand by what I said.
Also, you could have messaged me if you just wanted to call me a liar, would’ve been quicker, no?
So, this happened months ago but I think it’s still a worthy tale.
I was going to a conference this summer that I knew a bunch of my friends from all over the country who are also Fury Road fans would all be at. It’s not a film-related conference, but we kept half-joking that we should organize a MMFR screening because so many of us liked the movie. Except it was one of those situations where everybody was saying “yeah, we should do that,” with nobody doing it, so I was like Okay mofos, you all are talking about it but I will actually do it.
Because of the location of the conference and the fact that it was a number of weeks after Fury Road had come out, it was determined that going out to a movie theater was not practical. But most of us were staying in the conference hotel, and it turned out someone who was a fan who lived in the host city of the conference had a projector, and someone else had speakers, and someone else who maybe had learned how to schmorrent exclusively for this purpose got a copy of the movie. And then it turned out that all of the people I’d be sharing my hotel room with weren’t getting in until the second night of the conference, which meant that on the first night I’d have a hotel room all to myself, and that just seemed like fate. So I Facebook messaged maybe a dozen people who I knew were fans to say that we were all watching MMFR in my hotel room that night after the last event of the conference, and I expected maybe half of them to show up.
Except…somehow the word spread and people kept asking me about it. And of course I was like, yeah, invite anyone you want, cause it’s not like I was going to tell people to not watch Fury Road. Except, clearly I now had an obligation to deliver.
So another superfan and I spent the dinner break figuring out the best angle to project from and painstakingly taping a hotel bedsheet to the ceiling of the room to use as a screen, and then worrying that it would fall down because it was a much nicer sheet than any I own and therefore heavy. (It stayed up.) And it turned out that another fan solved the problem with the projector I couldn’t figure out, and the person who was doing the conference A/V for us had a cable we were missing, and I found a workaround for the speakers initially not hooking up to the projector.
And then people started showing up and they…kept showing up. People were sitting on the beds and on the chair and on the floor and on each other’s laps, and at one point there were at least two people sitting on a bench in the corner watching the movie through the opposite side of the sheet from everybody else. And in case you’re wondering how many people you can cram into a hotel room to watch a movie on a sheet, the answer is somewhere between 22 and 25, and the reason I don’t know the exact number is that some people showed up after we started the movie and it was dark, and some of them were friends of friends so I still don’t know who they were.
And among the audience were people who had seen the movie multiple times in the theater like me, and people who were watching it for the very first time, and while I would not say that a hotel bedsheet is the ideal virgin viewing experience for MMFR, if that’s how I got you to watch the movie, then so be it. And people who had seen the movie cheered at the Doof Warrior reveal, and everybody cheered when Max handed Furiosa the rifle, and it was generally awesome. And I am still meeting people I don’t know who were like “Oh yeah, I was at that screening! Thanks for organizing that!”
The next morning the rest of my roommates showed up before housekeeping had made the rounds and were like, “…What happened in our room last night?”
In Chamber of Secrets when Harry confesses not knowing what floo powder is, Ron’s immediate reaction is “Sorry, Harry, I should’ve realized”. As in him, Ron, should’ve remembered that Harry’s life is different from his own. No “you should’ve told me!” or “Why didn’t you say anything?” The first thing out of his mouth is to assure Harry that he, Ron, is to blame here, not Harry for not knowing a thing that’s everyday and ordinary to Weasleys.
Entertainment Media:
With JJ Abrams dropping out to work on "Star Wars," Bob Orci being kicked to the curb, the three original writers having been fired, and their script junked entirely, "Star Trek Beyond" has a troubled production...
Star Trek fans:
Oh, hey, this might actually end up being a good movie
this whole discussion about a Mulan life-action baffles me. Like… I love the fun with Mushu and all but? Why do we need a Disney remake of the movie when there is
a pretty much epic
beautiful
actually Chinese version
with great characters
and Mulan’s more accurate story
readily available???
Since 2009??
Well I know what I am watching now
UPDATE: I just watched this and I have so many emotions. Seriously, check this out
OOH! On my list!
i didnt know this existed!!! ok
I’ve failed all my followers for not letting them know about this immediately. I’m sorry you guys missed out.
Here is a link to watch it free online with English subtitles.
Just as a warning, it is a little violent, some horses are killed during the battles, and there is a scene where Wentai cuts open his wrist. It is a very good movie, I just finished watching it and would recommend everyone watch it.
We’ve all had that otp where one person falls in love way before the other. It starts with a lingering glance or two, then excessive worrying, maybe a little jealousy. You watch them get deeper and deeper while the other person has no idea and the whole time you’re just sitting there like you poor asshole
HARRIET TUBMAN ESCAPED FROM SLAVERY AND THEN WENT BACK TO GET OTHERS. LIKE, I KNOW YOU KNOW WHO HARRIET TUBMAN IS AND THAT SHE DID THAT, BUT I JUST WANT YOU TO TAKE THAT IN FOR A SECOND.
HARRIET TUBMAN WAS HELD CAPTIVE AND BOUND TO UNPAID, BACK-BREAKING LABOR SINCE BIRTH UNDER PENALTY OF TORTURE OR DEATH. SHE MANAGED TO ESCAPE THAT LIFE, AND SHE TURNED THE FUCK AROUND AND WENT THE FUCK BACK TO GET EVERYONE ELSE WHO WAS STILL TRAPPED IN IT. AND THEN SHE DID IT AGAIN EIGHTEEN MORE TIMES.
WHEN ABRAHAM LINCOLN WAS UNSURE WHETHER OR NOT HE WAS PREPARED TO MAKE A STAND AGAINST SLAVERY, HARRIET TUBMAN BASICALLY SAID HE SHOULD STOP BEING SUCH A DIAPER BABY AND THAT GUYS WHO ARE TOO SCARED TO END SLAVERY DON’T DESERVE TO WIN WARS.
NOT ONLY DID SHE SECRET OVER 300 SLAVES TO FREEDOM ON THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD, BUT SHE ACTED AS A SPY FOR THE UNION ARMY DURING THE CIVIL WAR, AND BECAME THE FIRST WOMAN TO LEAD AN ARMED ASSAULT IN THE CIVIL WAR. THAT RAID BROUGHT FREEDOM TO OVER 700 SLAVES IN ONE GO.
SO I JUST WANT YOU TO STEW ON THAT FOR LIKE A MINUTE. ACTING IN THE SHADOWS, SHE WALKED INTO HELL ON EARTH 19 TIMES TO SAVE HER FELLOW HUMAN BEINGS FROM THE TORMENT SHE ENDURED, AND THE SECOND SHE WAS GIVEN EVEN A MODICUM OF POWER, SHE MANAGED TO FREE SEVEN HUNDRED SLAVES IN ONE DAY.
I GUARANTEE, HOWEVER IMPRESSED YOU ALREADY ARE WITH HARRIET TUBMAN, YOU ARE FALLING LIKE AT LEAST 40% SHORT OF HOW IMPRESSED YOU SHOULD BE WITH HARRIET TUBMAN. SHE IS ONE OF THE BEST EXAMPLES OF BADASSERY IN THE ENTIRETY OF AMERICAN HISTORY.
I just feel like it should be noted that she navigated her way across the Underground Railroad (through thicket and swamp and forest and every risk of wildlife you could imagine) with her own knowledge of the natural world. Some call her “the first Eco-womanist” because it was that understanding of the plant and animal life around her as well as knowledge of the stars that allowed her to bring people with her. Her prowess for dealing with immense problems and obstacles on the spot was nothing short of genius.
She didn’t stop there, either. Harriet Tubman also worked with the Union army during the Civil War as a cook, nurse, scout, and spy. She organized black men in the area as scouts, and often led missions herself with the task of gathering information and to persuade slaves to leave; most of whom joined the regiments of black soldiers for the Union.
She also got ripped off by the government, who wasn’t paying her what she deserved (and wouldn’t even give her her pension after the war for her service- but instead eventually granted her pension as the widow of a veteran), so she supported herself by making and selling root beer.
She used her earnings to support free black women, she worked to support two schools for freed men in the south, she provided food and care to the black people that came to her home, and she fought for women’s suffrage. When she died, she was buried with military honors.
Oh, and when she had brain surgery, she denied anesthesia and instead bit down on a bullet.
THESE ARE EVEN MORE AWESOME THINGS ABOUT HARRIET TUBMAN, GOOD ADDITIONS, YOU GUYS!!
Also worth noting that she did all this while living with the results of a traumatic head injury sustained in her childhood, which included pain, bouts of dizziness, and episodes of hypersomnia (sudden passing out)
she was not just a badass, she was a disabled badass
Reblogging particularly for that last comment, because plenty of people know Harriet Tubman was a hero but don’t know she was a disabled hero. Not in a “how inspiring she worked through it” kind of a way, eugh, not that. But I mean that a lot of people don’t include that fact in the literature or lessons about her in school and that’s a fact that shouldn’t be erased.
do you think after Ron and Hermione got out of the trapdoor and raised the alarm and were being patched up in the hospital wing
do you think they were given the most royal proud mama smackdown by McGonagall like “ how DARE you infiltrate a death maze you are ELEVEN and miss granger how on earth did you solve my chessboard i”
and hermione interjected like “oh professor it wasn’t me. i’m useless at chess. it was ron.”
and McGonagall turned to look at Ron Weasley in total amazement at this 11 yr old kid who had been pretty ordinary in all her classes but had apparently beaten her in death chess and he just shrugged like “rookie mistakes, professor. you made some rookie mistakes.”
As some people might already know about me, I’ve never been one to shy away from a good debate. That’s a trait that I share with Hermione.
There are some people who don’t particularly like arguing or disagreeing. Some people genuinely do. Hermione falls into the second category, and since I do as well, I wanted to try to explain what’s up with all of the arguing between her and Ron.
I don’t think there are that many people who would say that she isn’t an argumentative person by nature. In addition to Ron/Harry, Hermione clashes with Lavender over the rabbit, Luna over her theories, Umbridge over Ministry rules, Snape over the lesson plans for Lupin’s DADA class, Professor Trelawney, Parvati, Draco over Hagrid/Buckbeak, etc. And she argues with everyone about house-elves. Hermione is argumentative, and that’s how she prefers it.
Hermione finds it intellectually stimulating to argue, and needs someone who’s going to argue right back.
Genuine Friendship
Hermione is not the sort of person who’s afraid of being the person reading the book while everyone else is having fun. When she fights with Harry/Ron in PA, she doesn’t buddy up with Lavender/Parvati or apologize to the boys just to have someone to sit with at lunch. She just goes it alone. In other words, Hermione is not the kind of person who chooses a bad friend over no friend at all.
If she did not enjoy spending time with Ron, she would have no problem sitting on the other side of the common room reading a book while waiting for Harry to return. And yet, we constantly see her in Ron’s company even when Harry’s not around.
In every book after CS, she arrives the Burrow/Leaky Cauldron/Number 12 before Harry does. Harry takes it for granted that Ron and Hermione will be sitting together when he shows up in the common room, but that’s not a small thing. In PA, the two of them return from Hogsmeade “looking as though they’ve had the time of their lives.”
Despite how much they fight, it’s very clear that Hermione genuinely enjoys spending time with Ron.
Comfort with Conflict
Harry was raised by the Dursleys, and sees arguing and conflict as associated with strife. He also doesn’t feel comfortable expressing his emotions, so he tends to bottle things up until they explode.
Hermione frequently nags Harry, which Harry does not particularly appreciate. He basically has three strategies when being nagged by Hermione. The first is avoiding/ignoring her, the second is lying to her, and the third is exploding at her. Examples of the first and second include occulmency, sneaking into Hogsmeade, his doubts over Dumbledore’s past, the egg clue, his homework, his feelings about Ron’s absence, Voldemort’s visions in DH, his grades, etc.
Nagging is simply Hermione’s style, and while she might learn to tone it down, it’s always going to be part of who she is.
When he can’t lie/avoid/ignore, Harry will explode at Hermione. At which point the balance of power tilts sharply toward Harry. When Harry explodes, Hermione crumples. She will cry, shrink back, speak “in a small voice,” etc.
The problem is that Hermione needs feedback. Because Harry doesn’t engage with Hermione’s nagging, it’s hard for her to know when she’s entering the danger zone.
Like Hermione, Ron is pretty comfortable with the idea of conflict. He was raised in a house where such behavior was acceptable. He knew that just because his mother shouts or his brothers tease doesn’t mean that they don’t love him. He might be insecure about his worth, but he never has to worry that his family will simply stop loving him if he crosses some kind of invisible line.
Both Hermione and Ron wear their emotions on their sleeves and give each other instant feedback. If Hermione is upset with the boys, she tells them exactly why. Ron is the same way. Even when he fights with Harry, he chooses to immediately engage with him that night rather than giving him the cold shoulder and forcing Harry to work it out on his own.
Ron/Fleur/Krum/Hermione is a good example as well. When Ron sees something developing with Hermione/Krum, he immediately reacts and Hermione reacts right back.
When Hermione sees that Ron has a crush on Fleur, she wastes no time talking about how Fleur “really thinks a lot of herself” and “scowls” when Fleur gives Ron attention. Hermione reacts to Ron kissing Lavender not by sulking but by sending a flock of birds flying at his head. Neither of them are great at hiding how they feel.
There is a brief period in HBP where Ron decides to give Hermione the cold shoulder after finding out that she kissed Krum. Hermione is actually quite rattled and upset by this behavior saying she “doesn’t know what she’s supposed to have done.” Because normally when Ron is upset at Hermione, he tells her why.
A lot of the problems in the later books regarding their romantic lives stem from the same thing - for the first time, they’re not being honest and upfront with one another. Which creates a comedy of misunderstandings and poor decision-making.
Arguing as Conversation
There’s not really anger between Ron/Hermione’s arguments. I know that sounds odd, but to them it’s a cross between a rational discussion and intellectual exercise. Ron presents an idea, Hermione counters, Ron counters, and so on and so forth. It’s basically just a way to pass the time and exchange perspectives.
The morning after Ron/Hermione’s heated argument about Krum after the Yule Ball, Harry notes that they were being “quite friendly to each other, though oddly formal.”
In other words, they’re bending over backwards to be polite to one another and it’s making things weird. It’s totally different from their normal behavior.
There are many times in canon where they will segue from an argument to a normal conversation with no visible ill-will.
Even with Scabbers and the Firebolt, when an argument is finished, it’s finished.
PA:
Hermione flung her arms around Ron’s neck and broke down completely.
Ron, looking quite terrified, patted her very awkwardly on the top of the head.
Finally, Hermione drew away.
“Ron, I’m really, really sorry about Scabbers…” she sobbed.
“Oh — well — he was old,” said Ron, looking thoroughly relieved that she had let go of him.
“And he was a bit useless. You never know, Mum and Dad might get me an owl now.”
They’re perfectly capable of stopping in their tracks in order to focus on Harry or something else that’s just happened.
For another example, look at OP:
“Poisonous toadstools don’t change their spots,” said Ron sagely. “Anyway I’ve always thought Dumbledore was cracked trusting Snape. Where’s the evidence he ever really stopped working for You-Know-Who?”
“I think Dumbledore’s probably got plenty of evidence, even if he doesn’t share it with you, Ron,” snapped Hermione.
“Oh, shut up, the pair of you,” said Harry heavily, as Ron opened his mouth to argue back.
Hermione and Ron both froze, looking angry and offended.
“Can’t you give it a rest?” said Harry. “You’re always having a go at each other, it’s driving me mad.” […] The vision of Ron and Hermione’s shocked faces afforded him a sense of deep satisfaction.
Ron/Hermione are shocked, offended, and angry at Harry’s remark, because they don’t see anything wrong with their behavior. That’s just how they talk.
Harry leaves the table and goes straight up to Divination, and Ron joins him a few minutes later:
The rest of the class arrived over the next five minutes. Ron emerged from the trapdoor, looked around carefully, spotted Harry and made directly for him, or as directly as he could while having to wend his way between tables, chairs and overstuffed pouffes.
“Hermione and me have stopped arguing,” he said, sitting down beside Harry.
“Good,” grunted Harry.
“But Hermione says she thinks it would be nice if you stopped taking out your temper on us,” said Ron.
“I’m not -”
“I’m just passing on the message,” said Ron, talking over him. “But I reckon she’s right. It’s not our fault how Seamus and Snape treat you.”
So in a matter of minutes, Ron and Hermione resolved their argument and discussed the best way to handle Harry. Notice that Ron doesn’t actually apologize for arguing with Hermione, he just tells Harry they’ve stopped.
An Expression of Trust
When you get to know someone, you learn that there are certain things they’re sensitive about, and you try to steer away from those topics. This is no different with Hermione/Ron. They both know what’s safe and what’s off-limits.
Hermione can call Ron tactless numerous times and nag him to do his homework, but she’s not going to take a shot at his family’s finances. Ron will tell Hermione to stop nagging and call her a know-it-all, but he would never insult her appearance.
That’s how they operate. And Hermione knows that if she accidentally strays into the danger zone, Ron will let her know. And vice versa.
Keeping Things Balanced
The movies turn Hermione into this perfect superwoman and Ron into a cowardly idiot who’s the butt of the joke, but the truth is that both characters are flawed in their own way.
One of Hermione’s more abrasive qualities is her tendency to be a bit of a know-it-all.
To be clear, being a know-it-all is not the same as being smart. Being smart is knowing the answer. Being a know-it-all is being unable to resist telling everyone else the answer. Essentially the way that Hermione and Ron negotiate a balanced relationship is by Ron engaging her when she nags him or acts like a know-it-all.
Hermione cannot help telling him that he’s not pronouncing something correctly. Plenty of people are offended by that kind of behavior, even when the other person is right. But Ron, instead of ignoring her corrections or acting as though he’s been gravely insulted, just calls her a know-it-all to keep things even. This evens the scales between them and prevents their relationship from becoming Hermione bossing Ron around.
It’s important to understand that Ron does have a huge amount of respect for Hermione’s abilities. He’s not always the best about coming out and saying it, but he takes it for granted that she’s the cleverest person in the room.
PS:
“But we’re not six hundred years old,” Ron reminded her. “Anyway, what are you studying for, you already know it all.”
GoF:
“But Hogwarts is hidden,” said Hermione, in surprise. “Everyone knows that… well, everyone who’s read Hogwarts, A History, anyway.”
“Just you, then,” said Ron. “So go on - how d'you hide a place like Hogwarts?”
When the O.W.L.s arrive and Hermione looks slightly unhappy and says that she did “not bad,” Ron takes the paper and announces that she got 10 Outstandings and 1 Exceeds Expectations and then playfully makes fun of her for being disappointed given how impressive her scores are. When Ron and Hermione take their apparition tests, he tells Harry that Hermione was “perfect, obviously.” Even when he himself fails, he doesn’t seem to bear any ill-will toward Hermione.
Ron’s not threatened by Hermione’s intelligence, and he’s not too prideful to do exactly what Hermione’s told him to do. But his teasing and his unwillingness to automatically agree with Hermione is what creates a balanced relationship between the two.
And Hermione genuinely needs this in a partner. She needs someone who will volley right back when she argues with them. She needs someone who will understand that her tendency to be a know-it-all is an instristic part of her personality. She needs someone who finds it endearing rather than annoying.