I Hate Ginny Weasley!!!! Mass Response

[phoenixgod2000]

No: HPFGUIDX 122564


My respones to various posts on the thread I started follow.

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "Rebecca" <bleckybecs at y...> 
wrote:
> With that many brothers to learn from, she's bound to have had 
> some sort of head start.

Except for her brothers at school are just as surprised about her 
Quiddich talents. She had to sneak around to ride the twins' brooms
(brooms that the great pranksters never thought to charm against 
theft, yeah right).  Hermione had to *explain* that to the others. 
We weren't shown anything.  We were told about it second hand.    

> We never had an explanation as to why Bill and Charlie were good 
> enough to be head boys. I'm guessing they just had the brains and 
> aptitude.

They are irrelevant to the story so far. I expect better from a  
character who accompanies Harry despite having done almost nothing 
in earlier books.
 
>Seems to stand to reason that Ginny will be involved.

Neville too, but his character changes arrived logically and 
slowly over the course of several stories.  Hell, Luna's tiny bit 
of characterization is better handled than Ginny's.

> Hickengruendler:
> I don't hate Ginny. But she's also not one of my favourite
> characters. She is, so far, one of those who are just there 
> and who don't really interest me. That said, I dislike the 
> term *Mary-Sue*. I think fandom uses the term way too often,
> describing every female character, that dares to be likeable.

First of all, I don't necessarily like the term Mary Sue either 
but I think it was fair to use since, if I wrote a character with 
every trait of Ginny's thats what she would be called. And for the 
record, I didn't find Ginny all that likeable. Certainly if I met 
Ginny I wouldn't hang out with her.  
 
Now Luna on the other hand...

> Hickengruendler:
> Nope. If you mean the scene in Grimmauld Place, it were Ginny,
> Hermione and Ron together. All three of them were offering a part 
> to reassure harry, that he isn't possesed by Voldemort. Ginny in
> talking about her own experiences, Ron in telling him that he 
> never left the dorm and Hermione in reminding him (again) that you
> can't apparate into Hogwarts. It were all three of them together,
> and not just one person. You could say that it was Ginny who 
> reminded him, that she, too, had made bad experiences, but on the
> other hand it was Hermione who was able to make him leave the room
> and I think Ron was the one who begged Hermione to come. Therefore
> I stand by my opinion that all of them helped.

Phoenixgod2000 responds:

You know, I think you are the first person I've come across that's 
stated that particular opinion. Everyone runs through that scene 
through the lens of their own ships. I've certainly never thought 
about it quite like that.

> Chancie:
> Why should it be unbelievable that Ginny turns out to be a good
> Quidditch player? Harry after all had never even been on a broom
> in his entire life, and was made seeker the first time he had ever 
> flown!  That IMO is more unbelievable than Ginny taking Fred and 
> George's brooms and getting a feel for flying and ending up as a 
> decent player.

Phoenixgod2000:

The title of the series is Harry Potter and the 'Blank'. He's the 
hero, of course he can do things that others can't duplicate. It's 
the same reason why Luke Skywalker can blow up the death star 
while never having flown a X-Wing. He's the flippin' hero. That's 
what they do. Others should not be able to do the same thing.

So you find that Ginny can sneak out, away from her domineering 
mother, stealing the broom of one of her prankster brothers, who 
would never do anything like booby trap their brooms, leave the 
small creaking house she lives in, and then flies around their 
small plot of land at night in order to get good at flying?  Please.
Even if that was true, she could never have practiced with Quidditch 
balls or anything, and never played against anyone. That's 
no way to become good at a team sport.

> vmonte responds:
> There is a good essay about Ginny on the Lexicon ...

That Essay seems to be more about H/G than Ginny herself. It's also 
a little insulting. I didn't see uberGinny coming and I am not a 
shallow reader.

> Antosha:
> Becky, I _welcomed_ Ginny's blossoming in OotP. And I disagree 
> that the character has gone through a sudden change. Rather 
> Harry's PERCEPTION of her goes through a transformation. 
 
The problem is that the change was too sudden and IMO illogical. 
One of the basic rules of writing is that you are supposed to show 
changes not explain them.  All of Ginny's changes were explained 
second hand by Hermione or someone else.
 
And how did Hermione even get to be such good friends with her?  
They are in separate years and have no classes together. They stay 
in separate dorms. There has never, as far as I can recall, a 
mention of Hermione ever even spending time with Ginny in previous 
books, which the boys would have noticed because you know Ron 
would have complained about it.

Seems like sloppy writing to me.

> Antosha:
> It isn't until OotP that the opportunity for Harry truly to get 
> to know Ginny appears. It's not that _she's_ gone through a 
> transformation: we've been told before that she's talkative, good
> with hexes, etc. 
 
Once again, told not shown.  I don't care that she's good at a 
spell I've never heard of and never demonstrated.  Where did she 
learn it? How did she get good at it if she can't use magic over the 
summer? Did her mother teach it to her in order to help keep the 
twins in line? Or did the twins teach it to her in order to tweak 
their mother's goat?  
 
See, these are the types of questions that could have helped to 
make her plausible.

And one throw away line about not shutting up is good enough 
foreshadowing to me.

> Antosha:
> That's not the point of phoenixgod's objection, I think. Rather 
> s/he doesn't like the fact that all this pluck/spunk/whatever has 
> come from nowhere. But I don't think it did, as I've pointed out
> above. 

To be fair, I have problems with both parts. The personality she 
showed was irrating and made more so by the suddenness of the 
transformation.  And one quote, 'that she never shuts up' means 
nothing in terms of personality. It tells us nothing about her 
other than she likes to talk.  So what. If she's going to be a big 
player there should be a lot more than that.
 
JK's nuturing of the character Neville Longbottom was an excellent 
piece of transformation that I bought completely and found logical. 
Now I just want to see him stand up to snape with that shiny new 
backbone of his. Ginny's transformation was the opposite of Neville's 
in every way.

> Antosha:
> But I am sure we'll see more of her--and I am comfortable that 
> what we see has been set up by what has come before.

I do admit that part of my problem comes from my dislike of H/G 
ships. I fear that JK is rushing her characterization in order to 
turn her into a cool chick for the boy hero to fall for.  Harry and
Ginny pairing up just seems...pathetic to me.  Look, Wittle Harry 
has gone and fallen for a spunky redhead just like his dad did. It's 
trite and pathetic on more levels than I can possibly articulate 
over the computer.

Of course that just IMO.

Phoenixgod2000

I was glad to see so many responses to my post even if I am in the 
clear minority.