In the annals of Parks and Recreation, there is perhaps no friendship that is so touching, and so confusing, as the one between Leslie Knope and Ron Swanson.
The two of them are so radically different in so many ways that it’s hard to see how they managed to say friends for so long. In fact, there’s plenty of evidence in the series to suggest that they aren’t really friends at all, despite what they might pretend.
Despite the fact that Leslie is one of the most tireless advocates for women’s rights that popular television has ever seen, somehow she still manages to lose out on a prestigious award for woman of the year to… Ron. As if that weren’t bad enough, Ron then had the gall to annoy her with his win. While played for laughs, Ron’s willingness to use an award that meant the world to Leslie in such a way doesn’t say much for their friendship.
If Ron was being a bit of a jerk by using an award to taunt Leslie, then Leslie wasn’t showing very good friendship by being resentful of him about it.
One of the hardest things about being a friend is being willing to be happy for a friend who wins or gets something that you want. The fact that Leslie had such a hard time doing so suggests that she has more resentment toward Ron than she’s willing to admit.
Ron Swanson hates many things, but one thing he particularly dislikes is having people celebrate (or know about) his birthday. As a result, he is filled with dread at the thought that Leslie will throw him one of her vaunted birthday bashes. Of course, she does celebrate his birthday, but only in the way that he would have liked. The fact that Ron couldn’t predict this display of Leslie’s thoughtfulness shows that he doesn’t know her nearly as well as he should.
In the time that elapsed at the end of the fifth season, Ron did something that was truly unthinkable: he tore down the house that Ann had once lived in. While this isn’t totally out of character for Ron, being a man not known for his displays of sentimentality (particularly toward inanimate objects) he should have known that it would hurt Leslie’s feelings. The fact that he did it, and that he knew what he was doing, suggests how easily broken his bond with Leslie really was.
One of the hallmarks of Leslie’s personality is her thoughtfulness. Some of this apparently gets lost as she makes the transition from local to national government, which partly explains why she stands Ron up for a lunch date. More sinisterly, perhaps, it suggests that maybe, after all, her friendship with Ron was more fragile than either of them had expected (which may also explain why Ron responded with such anger and resentment toward her).
Part of being a good friend requires standing down when you know that you’re behaving foolishly, aware that your own ego has gotten in the way of your friendship. This is a lesson that neither Leslie nor Ron seem quite willing to accept, particularly in the early parts of the final season.
The fact that both of them would prefer to stand on their own principles rather than confess their feelings for one another reveals a rather fundamental weakness to their friendship.
Parks and Rec is well-known for its rather cartoonish villains, and Councilman Jamm is at the top of that list. He is certainly one of the more disgusting and reprehensible people in Pawnee (and that’s saying a lot), which makes the fact that Leslie and Ron compete against one another for his vote all the more extraordinary. They both know what a loathsome person he is, and yet the fact that they are both willing to woo him at the other’s expense reveals how much they value their self-righteousness over their friendship.
The episode “Pawnee Rangers” sees Leslie and Ron setting up competing groups of young campers, each with their own distinct ways of looking at wilderness survival. While they both end up seeing the strengths that they respectively bring to the table, you can’t help but wonder why they didn’t just try to understand one another better at the outset, rather than going through all of the hoops. It’s funny, sure, but the fact that they’re always willing to assume the worst of one another speaks volumes.
As they so often do, Ron and Leslie decide to put someone else in the crosshairs of their competing ideologies. In this case, it’s a young high school student who is still trying to figure out what she wants to do with her life. Leslie tries to strongarm her into doing an internship with government employment, while Ron tries to get her a job at the sawmill. Again, rather than simply talk things out like mature friends, Leslie and Ron decide that it’s better to fight.
As likable a curmudgeon as he is, Ron still has some flaws, and some of them reveal that he might not be as close friends with Leslie as it appears. For example, while Leslie is always willing to live and let live when it comes to Ron’s libertarian leanings, he frequently takes pot-shots at her faith in and love of government. We love Ron, but we can’t help thinking that a better friend would have been able to give Leslie a little more respect for her chosen profession.
