Ginny as a Character (WAS Ginny & the Platform Scene)

[cindysphynx]

No: HPFGUIDX 33103

Jo wrote:

> Why do so many people seem a bit hostile to Ginny. It doesn't seem 
to 
> me that we've seen her do anything distasteful.  The only crying 
she 
> seems to do is in COS, when she has been taken to the chamber to 
die.
> In contrast, Hermione has cried a fair bit, and has never been in 
any 
> real personal danger except in POA (and not really very much even 
> there), but nobody seems to think that this shows weakness on her 
> part.
> I think that Tabouli needs to come up with an acromim for the Ginny 
> defenders.
> 

I think Hermione has faced her fair share of personal danger.  She 
risked being bonked on the head in the PS/SS chess game, she drank 
first in the potions challenge and so risked being poisoned, she was 
at risk twice from the three-headed dog, she was in the Forbidden 
Forest, and she helped Harry with the dragon.  She got petrified in 
CoS.  She handled all of these challenges well with a minimal amount 
of sobbing, and in PS/SS, Hermione was 10.

And then we have Ginny.  Ginny acts like 6-year-old child on the 
platform (I'm with Penny on this point).  Ginny has undoubtedly seen 
her brothers off to Hogwarts many times, yet she goes to pieces on 
the Platform.  I attribute this to JKR needing to have Ginny do 
something other than just stand there -- which is what a typical 
bored 10-year-old girl would have done.

Primarily, though, I have to decline membership in any Ginny fan club 
because Ginny is very wooden and underdeveloped.  Really, if I had to 
describe her character in a few words, I couldn't do it.  She shines 
for a few sentences in GoF, but that's about it.  Tragically, her big 
turn in the spotlight was in CoS, and the scenes in Dumbledore's 
office didn't do much for me, quite frankly.  Maybe it was the 
stammer, but her lines seemed a little forced.

Part of the trouble with Ginny is that she doesn't seem to have a 
very close relationship with Ron.  Oh, sure, he gives a "strangled 
cheer" when he learns she is not dead, but that's about it.  Ron is 
rude to her on the train in PoA, and he does not take her into his 
confidence.  Perhaps if he acted like he cared about his kid sister, 
then maybe I could, too.

Cindy (who will offer up Ginny if it will spare the lives of Sirius 
or Lupin)