Feelings on OoP

[mochajava13]

No: HPFGUIDX 80049

>>>>>> Salit
Where I did not like the book: I was not as enchanted with
Ginny and Neville plotlines - I felt that their personality
change was a bit too abrupt and unconvincing. Until this
book Ginny had been this little wide eyed girl with a crash
on Harry, then without warning changes into this confident,
mischievous, social butterfly and fighter. Neville was this clumsy,
rather dumb but sweet, self effacing kid who out of the blue
becomes a leading character. I suppose JKR needed them to
change for the sake of the plot (Neville set to become Harry's
No. 2 and Ginny for the long expected romance w/Harry) but there was
hardly any buildup in previous books for their personality 
change.>>>>>

OoP is my new favorite HP book.  I loved it, and all the character 
developments, plot developments, and the like that we got with it.  
And I must say, that neither Ginny nor Neville's personalities have 
changed.  We've had hints about Ginny throughout the books: Ron told 
Harry in CoS that he was surprised at how quiet Ginny was being 
around Harry because she's normally a chatterbox.  We didn't see 
very much of her at all in PoA, probably because she was off 
somewhere else.  And she did know about Hermione and Krum in GoF, 
showing that she did talk to Hermione and other girls.  I feel like 
we've been given little tibits of Ginny's personality that we 
weren't shown until now.  (However, I have to disagree that Ginny 
and Harry will have a romance together.)  We've also seen Ginny hand 
out with the trio a lot: she sat with them in the train to Hogwarts 
in PoA, and she was with them at times in GoF.  Same with Neville: 
he showed similar personality traits whenever we've seen him, and he 
was in the SS/PS much more than any other side character.  And he 
was around the trio much more than any other Griffindor in their 
year.  I don't think that Neville or Ginny had a huge part in this 
book, just in the climax of it.  (I admit the fight scenes tend to 
stick out more, but I didn't feel like these two charcters had a 
huge amount of screen time.)  Especially with Ginny, I didn't feel 
like the characters underwent some drastic personality change; I 
think they've been developing towards this for the entire series.  

And with Harry's portrayal in this book, his anger and such: I felt 
like it was very realistic.  And I do think that he was at times too 
angry because of his connection to Voldemort.   (That's my theory.)  
I think this is where the prophecy comes in: Harry can't live as 
himself while Voldemort is around.  Sort of like Voldemort's 
personality is invading Harry, and possibly vice versa.  But, I 
don't think either realizes this.  Voldemort brings out the worst in 
Harry, but Harry doesn't realize this.  Harry could bring out the 
good in Voldemort (if there is any) without Voldemort realizing it.  
My theory is that one will, in a way, take over the other's mind 
until there is nothing left of the other person except an empty 
shell, but no remanant of the original person.

Sarah