[HPforGrownups] Re: Ginny Weasley!!!

[Vivamus]

No: HPFGUIDX 122414

> Nicky Joe wrote:
> 
> Thank you, Phoenixgod!!! I am no longer alone in my Ginny-loathing!
> She always annoyed me, but I definitely agree with your OoTP 
> analysis. Except for the damsel in distress routine in CoS, 
> she was pretty much a non-character. Now she rivals Hermione 
> for Super Girl status - what the heck happened to break her 
> out of her little mousy shell? It's almost like JKR wrote a 
> different character in OoTP and decided at the last minute to 
> make her Ginny instead. Some development hints in PoA or GoF 
> would have been nice.
> 
> vmonte responds:
> There is a good essay about Ginny on the Lexicon:
> 
> http://www.hp-lexicon.org/essays/essay-harry-ginny.html
> 
> Vivian


Vivamus:
That really is a *very* good essay.  

Despite all the other excellent comments here in defense of Ginny, I have to
toss two bits in.

I posted to one of the Harry Potter lists (not this one; I hadn't discovered
HP4GU then) my theory of Ginny Weasley a few years back.  It was about the
time GoF was due to be finished, and there was much shipping speculation, of
course.  I posted that I was pretty sure that JKR had planned from the
beginning to bring Harry and Ginny together, because of the way Ginny was
brought into the story.   I also speculated, however, that if she was
planning to do that, we would see Ginny detach from Harry and show interest
in other boys -- probably Neville.  That would be so that Ginny could
develop more as a character in her own right and stand as an equal with
Harry.  She would have to get away from the little girl crush before she
could possibly be a real love interest for either her or Harry.

GoF was delayed, and it took another nine months of waiting before it was
finished, but sure enough, Ginny showed some detachment from Harry, and
began to appear more as a real character, interacting with him, and going to
the ball with (!) Neville.   In OOtP, of course, you finally see Ginny as an
equal character to the Trio, but it is still only an extension of her growth
up until that point.  

All that is to say that not only were there development hints in the earlier
books, they were so clear that at least one reader posted predictions about
precisely this development long before GoF came out.   I'm sure there were
similar posts in this list; I just wasn't here yet.  I still think the signs
are there from the very first scene on the train platform in PS/SS. 

As always, JKR is in charge of her world, and she alone can decide how
things will go, and stories do take on a life of their own, so anything
really is possible.  Still, I think the wild heart of Ginny was clear in
PS/SS from her laughing and crying while chasing the train, and her
persistent enthusiasm in wanting to see Harry.  Every book since has quietly
reinforced her character, just as they have reinforced Neville's.  Both have
major roles to play before the end of the series that are foreshadowed in
the first book.  Neither have been in the forefront -- yet.

Ginny, burst on the scene?  I was delighted to finally see the Ginny that
has clearly been there all along -- just not noticed by Harry.

Vivamus, whose can Snickersqueak claims to have learned the cat-bogey hex
from Ginny Weasley
dum vivimus, vivamus