This post contains spoilers for "Harry Potter and the Cursed Child."
In "Harry Potter and the Cursed Child," we get to see Harry, Ron, and Hermione two decades after the events of "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows." For fans of the series, it's an opportunity to see how much they've changed.
Harry is the head of Magical Law Enforcement, married to Ginny Weasley, and has three children. Hermione is the Minister for Magic, married to Ron, and has two children with him. Ron... is running Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes, the joke shop founded by his twin brothers.
Ron Weasley is one of the three principal characters in the "Harry Potter" series, but in "Harry Potter and the Cursed Child," he shows up as mere comic relief. In "Deathly Hallows," Ron destroyed one of Voldemort's horcruxes. In "Cursed Child," he's there to crack dad jokes when things are getting too dark.
J.K. Rowling demoted Ron, which plays into his worst fear: that he is less important than Harry and Hermione. By neglecting Ron's heroic transformation at the end of "Deathly Hallows," Rowling is betraying the details of the rich world she has already created.
Ron's role throughout the "Harry Potter" series was less heroic than Harry's or Hermione's. He was Harry's best friend and bridge to the wizarding world. Their first meeting on the Hogwarts Express was fate.
As the series progressed, Ron became more frustrated playing a secondary role to Harry in his heroic journey, which came to a head in a fight during "Deathly Hallows." But he redeemed himself by returning to Harry in a crucial moment and helping him finish off Voldemort.
In the years since then, it looks like Ron's stock has fallen. And while it makes sense for the play's writers — Jack Thorne, John Tiffany, and Rowling — to put the old characters in the background to make room for the new ones, no one's fate has suffered more than Ron's. As with other details in the play, some parts of "Cursed Child" make this new entry in the series feel like it doesn't quite fit into the "Harry Potter" series as a whole.
