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“Ronan didn't need physics. He could intimidate even a piece of plywood into doing what he wanted.”

—- Adam about Ronan

Ronan Lynch
Maggie Ronan 02
Biographical Information
Full name:

Ronan Niall Lynch

Born:

November 1st

Age:
Alias:

The snake (by Calla)
Kerah (by Chainsaw, Opal)
The Greywaren
Soldier boy

Status
Status:

Alive

Affiliation
Kind: Dreamer
The Greywaren
Occupation:

Farmer
Student at Aglionby Academy (drop out)

Residence:

The Barns
Monmouth Manufacturing (former)

Relationships
Family:

Niall Lynch † (father)
Aurora Lynch † (mother)
Declan Lynch (brother)
Matthew Lynch (brother)
Opal (dream creature)

Romantic:

Adam Parrish (boyfriend)

Physical Description
Gender:

Male

Hair color:

Dark brown

Eye color:

Blue

Ronan Lynch, Orphan Girl, Cainsaw and the Night Terror

Ronan Lynch is a student at Aglionby Academy. He is the son of Niall Lynch and Aurora Lynch. He is the Greywaren, capable of bringing items out of his dreams, like his pet raven named Chainsaw. He has an elder brother, Declan, and a younger brother, Matthew.

Ronan has three friends at Aglionby: Richard Gansey, Adam Parrish, and Noah Czerny. Ronan later befriends Blue Sargent. He lives in Monmouth Manufacturing with Gansey and Noah. After the events of The Raven Cycle he lives in The Barns, the place he grew up.

Biography

Pre-Canon

In most of his formative years, Ronan and his family lived at a farm called the Barns a little outside of Henrietta, VA. Ronan was always particularly close with his father Niall and is considered by his brothers to have been his father's favorite son.  

One day, before the beginning of the book series itself, Ronan finds his father brutally murdered in the driveway outside their house.  

This trauma affects him greatly. The books say little about what Ronan used to be like before his father's untimely death, but it is implied that he used to be of a friendlier and gentler disposition. Niall's death also drives a wedge further between Ronan and his older brother Declan, with whom he already had a complicated relationship. His mother goes into a catatonic state, which leaves the Lynch boys to fend for themselves.  

His father's will prohibits Ronan and his brothers from visiting the Barns, and they are all forced to move away from the farm. Ronan moves in with his friend Gansey at Monmouth Manufacturing.   

Before the events of the first book, there was an incident in which Ronan brought back injuries he had received from a night terror in one of his dreams, and would have likely died had Noah not found him. Everyone else falsely believes it to have been a suicide attempt, as Ronan was keeping his Dreamer abilities a secret at that point. It is revealed in The Dream Thieves that Joseph Kavinsky was witness to the wounds appearing when Ronan woke, making Kavinsky the first person to know about Ronan being a Dreamer.   

In the books

Ronan copes with his trauma by drinking a lot of alcohol and going out street-racing in his father's old BMW along with other Aglionby thrill-seekers – most notably the unsavory Joseph Kavinsky. He is also an insomniac and is frequently haunted by night terrors, which manifests themselves as physical creatures in his dreams.  

In The Dream Thieves, he gets some semblance of closure with his father and finds a loophole in his father's testament which allows him to return to the Barns. He keeps living at Monmouth but often visits his childhood home.   

In Call Down the Hawk, Ronan is essentially living a simple farmer's life at the Barns. He is shown to be much more acclimated to his Dreamer abilites, but also struggles with the dangers of Nightwash.   

Nightwash

Starting in Opal, Ronan develops an affliction that seems to be connected to his ability to dream things into reality. If he goes too long without dreaming something a black ooze will begin to run from his nose, eyes and ears. If unchecked it will start filling his chest and brain and start killing him. By Call Down the Hawk it's begun to happen if Ronan spends too much time away from the Barns and the foothills of western Virginia. Ronan has named this substance "nightwash", a sexy word for an unsexy phenomenon.   

Personality

Ronan is "dangerous" and confrontational, rarely attempting to filter his words. He doesn't seem to care much about hurting others feelings. He is secretive and prone to hostility, even among his friends. Even though he appears apathetic and irritable, he demonstrates his compassionate and loving nature throughout the series through his affection for his friends and his family. He doesn't believe his education will aid him in the future and generally skips classes aside from Latin, which he excels in, and has no plans to go to college after graduation. He joined the search to find Glendower when he met Gansey, having no trouble committing himself to the search as a result of his own impossible existence as a Greywaren.

Before his father's death, according to Gansey, he was a completely different person. He is suggested to be a loving individual plagued by his abilities, the circumstances surrounding his father's death, and his relationships with his brothers. When Adam is being beaten by his father, Robert Parrish, after getting dropped off by Ronan, Ronan returns to defend him by fighting his friend's abuser. When the police arrive, Adam decides to press charges against his father, realizing that Ronan defended him and that he would be kicked out of Aglionby, and Monmouth Manufacturing--as a result--if he was arrested. This fosters a better relationship between the two boys; following the incident, Ronan goes to the library to study for an exam out of respect to Adam, knowing that he sacrificed his family and everything he knew to keep him from being arrested. Adam gains respect for Ronan for coming to his defense.

In The Dream Thieves, when Aglionby's tuition is raised, he convinces the landlord of Adam's apartment to accept his own money to cover the extra cost and tell Adam that his rent has been lowered by a tax reassessment. He knows that Adam is barely scraping by as it is and that the additional cost would be too much to handle on top of his other problems. He mentions that Adam has appeared in his dreams, and has what is reminiscent of a strange dream of Adam touching his bare back. He notices the changes in Adam following his sacrifice to Cabeswater, finding him "stronger, stranger, farther away" than before. it is implied that he fears for Adam, either as a result of his ties with Cabeswater or association with Ronan himself; in another dream, Adam wears a mask of Niall's and turns into a monster, attacking Ronan, and starts to bleed out when Ronan removes it. Later, in the group's first trip to the Barns since his father's death, Adam tries to look at the real mask on the wall and Ronan violently intervenes by grabbing his arm. By the end of the novel, Adam reveals that he knows Ronan is the one who covered his rent, unnerving Ronan, and it is suggested that this is when Adam discovers Ronan's feelings for him. Ronan reveals that Adam is "his second secret" - in other words, his crush.

Tumblr n0cm6zfmq91qck31zo1 500

Fanart drawn by Cassandra Jean

 In Blue Lily, Lily Blue, the relationship between Ronan and Adam continues to develop and improve to the point where Gansey picks up on their changing relationship and regards it with suspicion. Throughout the novel, Adam is exposed to more of Ronan through their interactions, realizing that he barely knew him at all and witnessing his softer, more compassionate side. Ronan visits Adam at work to give him lotion made in Cabeswater, noting his cracked skin, which Adam is implied to be using. Adam reveals his knowledge of Ronan's crush, finding it flattering to the point where he doubts it can be true that Ronan could like him when he could like anyone else. Ronan takes Adam to the Barns to show him the objects he has been creating to combat the lifeless state of his father's dream things; he carries out these experiments with such fervor that Adam discovers that Ronan is also trying to prevent his brother Matthew's demise upon his own death, revealing that Matthew is one of his dream things. Ronan had asked Adam to help him to set up Colin Greenmantle in revenge for hiring a hit man to kill his father. However, in order to do that, Adam needed Ronan to dream evidence that he committed criminal acts of murder and possibly pedophilia against children. While dreaming these events, Ronan's night horrors arrived, and he had to dream a double of himself for them to kill. Adam, who used his connection with Cabeswater to show Ronan an image of Greenmantle's phone, wakes up to discover the double's body and believes that it is the real Ronan who is dying. Ronan reveals his survival by talking—echoing the same words Adam hears in his vision from Cabeswater—and is disgusted with the work he's done and himself for allowing Adam to witness the damage it's caused, seeing that Adam is unnerved by his dead double. Later, they go together to Greenmantle's home to deliver an envelope of the evidence, effectively chasing him out. By the end of the novel, Ronan and Adam become partners in Cabeswater, working together to clear a cave in pursuit of Blue's mother and demonstrating a closer relationship than ever.

Finally, throughout The Raven King Ronan and Adam take it up a notch. Ronan is quite aware that his feelings for Adam are getting much stronger. And Adam is also showing more signs of being attracted to him -- describing him in depth, noting this speech, reading his expressions, paying attention to little details that we don't see from anyone else's perspective, etc. his eyelashes -- so we are lead to believe that somewhere in the book they become an official couple. Ronan seems to be able to handle much more intense situations, and follow his heart, while also making decent decisions. 

Physical description

Ronan

Ronan, drawn by Maggie Stiefvater

Ronan has an intimidating presence. He is tall and muscular, with a shaved head and blue, sharklike eyes. He is a, "a pale-skinned, dark-haired Celtic sort". Adam thinks Ronan has nice eyelashes. In Maggie Steifvater’s book trailer, Ronan is portrayed as Irish and white. Ronan’s wardrobe is mostly grunge, featuring black muscle tees, expensive jeans, and a leather jacket. He wears five knotted leather banks on his wrist. His Aglionby uniform is deliberately rumbled, with his tie worn loose and sloppy. He has a $900 tattoo of a Celtic knot covering his entire back and creeping up the nape of his neck. The knot is interwoven with objects from Ronan’s dreams, and Gansey mentions seeing new imagery every time he sees it. 

Possessions

  • BMW car: Ronan's shark-nosed black BMW was stolen from his father's possessions shortly after his death.
  • Chainsaw: Ronan dreamed up a raven chick and called her, "Chainsaw". She is a loyal and intelligent companion who refers to Ronan as, "Kerah."

Relationships

Romance

Adam and Ronan are friends, though it is in The Dream Thieves that it is revealed that Ronan considers Adam his 'second secret', and has romantic feelings toward him. Ronan saved Adam from his father's attack in the first book. During Blue Lily, Lily Blue, Adam and Ronan grow closer together, and it is hinted that Adam may reciprocate Ronan's feelings. Gansey notices them spending more time together. In the final book, The Raven King, Ronan describes himself to be in love with Adam — and aware that the latter knows this. He is shown to put Adam's well-being above his own life. He kisses Adam in his childhood bedroom, and Adam kisses him again on the porch of The Barns. They acknowledge each other's feelings for each other by the end of the book and begin dating.

Friends

Gansey was the first person to become friends with Ronan at Aglionby. They have been friends the longest of the Raven Boys. In The Raven Boys and throughout the series, it is implied they think of one another as brothers. Both suffer from insomnia and occasionally spend time together when neither can sleep. 

Noah and Ronan are friends, and Ronan is not as troubled about the fact that Noah is dead as the others. At the end of The Raven Boys Ronan writes remembered onto the dirty window of Noah's abandoned car after it is found out that he is a ghost. He throws Noah out a window in The Dream Thieves because he knows that it won't hurt him. They are like brothers and care about each other deeply.

Blue found Ronan intimidating within the first moments of their meeting and was noted to have an ambition to earn his approval: "She realized, again, that she was trying to impress Ronan only because he was impossible to impress," and "there was something about his antagonism that made her want to court his favor, to earn his approval." Ronan and Blue's relationship grows deeper and they both care for each other, though they typically communicate through sarcasm.

Family

Declan and Ronan, despite being brothers, are very hostile toward one another and are constantly getting into arguments and physical fights. In The Raven King, it is revealed that the brothers truly care for each other, and Ronan gives Declan the ORBMASTER, a dream thing that can turn into glowing lights.

Matthew is Ronan's younger brother. Ronan loves Matthew deeply and makes allowances for Matthew that he does not make for anyone else. It is revealed that Matthew was dreamt by Ronan and he searches for ways to keep Matthew animated after Ronan's own eventual death. 

Others

Kavinsky and Ronan share several secrets. He drugs and manipulates Ronan before kidnapping Ronan's brother. Kavinsky is also the one who teaches Ronan how to 'steal' from his dreams. Kavinsky eventually confronts Ronan about "swinging that way". He also bullies Ronan about his sexuality. In TDT, even at a point asks if Gansey and Ronan are a couple. It is also implied that Kavinsky is gay himself and, moreover, is romantically interested in Ronan, but Ronan ends up rejecting him near the end of TDT.  

TBW

Appearances

Trivia

  • The door to his room at Monmouth is covered in his speeding tickets.
  • Spent $900 on a giant back tattoo only to piss off his brother Declan.
  • Is often described listening to blaring electronic music.
  • He is a Scorpio, according to the author.
  • Might seem like a fierce person but is actually pretty soft-hearted inside

Gallery

Maggie Stiefvater

Fanart

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