J.K. Rowling's Spider Tweet Will Give You Serious Ron Weasley Vibes
This past two weeks at the movies have been a testament to the terror of spiders, as It, a movie about a clown who is really a gigantic spider, has ruled the box office. But Stephen King isn't the only one using man's fear of eight legged freaks against them. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets has an entire bait-and-switch story line devoted to Aragog, the giant spider that lives in the Forbidden Forest. Harry isn't afraid, but sidekick Ron Weasley has taken a beating from fans for his fear. Which is why J.K. Rowling's spider tweet is that much more ironic, as it turns out her opinion of spiders is a lot more Weasley-ish than Potter-fied.
In fact, Ron's fear of spiders, and the comical way it comes out in the movies, is one of the first major breaks between the book Ron and the movie Ron. Fans of the man who was heralded "Weasley Is Our King" disagree strongly with how Ron is portrayed in the films, but never more when he's weak in the knees from terror of Aragog.
Aragog, it turns out, isn't evil, or bad, just misunderstood, and while not exactly friendly towards Harry, Ron and Hermione, she does keep her children from eating them on sight. That's not nothing.
Anyway, it turns out that when confronted by spiders in her only life,. J.K. Rowling doesn't even get close enough to have to worry about being eaten -- not by a spider, or her children. She won't even enter the room.
Check out her hilarious tweet:
Well now, being a strong independent woman has very little to do with irrational fears, as we know. Book Ron Weasley knows perfectly well his fear of spiders is somewhat irrational, but that doesn't make it any less powerful.
But that's talking about little spiders. As they leave the forbidden forest and the huge gang of Aragog's hundred's of children, most of whom are as large, if not larger than Harry, Hermione and company, even Harry has to admit that going into the Forbidden Forest to follow them was actually not the brightest of ideas, and that Ron was right.
Not that that's stopped the Wizarding World of Harry Potter, which opened their newest attraction, The Forbidden Forest, with the entreaty to "follow the spiders." Even though Harry admits that a terrible idea and one should never follow the spiders.
Considering that it turns out J.K. Rowling herself is so irrationally afraid of spiders, she cannot enter a room unless the one on the loose is safely under a drinking glass, one wonders how she might feel about having to Follow The Spiders for the new adventure thrill at the theme park based of her fantasy world.
Personally, considering the size of the spider in question, I'm not sure I could go into a room either. Not that it's big enough to eat me or my fiends, but that's not really the point is it?
Perhaps this spider, like Aragog is a friend of Hagrid, but then again, Hagrid is known to make friends with creatures that aren't exactly nice to other humans. And we're not just talking about Buckbeak or Fluffy either. Like Newt Scamander, Hagrid just likes animals more than people, even if he doesn't really think of it like that.
Not to worry though. With the spider safely under glass, Rowling returned to business as usual -- working on her next mystery novel in the Cormoran Strike series, and railing at the UK government for their usual incompetence, especially Boris Johnson. Within hours, it was clear she was back to doing both.
All was well.
