Ginny VS Harry

[phoenixgod2000]

No: HPFGUIDX 135136

 
> Now me:
> I daresay that anything I post will be viewed with suspicion 
because 
> I have been a staunch supporter of H/Hr for a long time now, but I 
> think that there is a problem with Ginny's character development 
that 
> goes far beyond shipping preferences.

I totally agree with you about everything in this post but the H/Hr 
part. I hate her so much now that I've become a D/H shipper. Those 
two deserve each other as far as I am concerned.
 
> I think in focusing on keeping Ginny under the radar, the author 
did 
> her character a big diservice. Ginny's character development in 
OotP 
> and HBP is, in my humble opinion, disjointed, contradictory and 
> uneven. In her most recent interview, Rowling said that she wanted 
> readers to slowly realise that Ginny was the perfect girl for 
Harry. 
> She also said that the two characters had evolved together and 
> were `equals' who were perfect for each other. With all due 
respect 
> to Ms Rowling, but I beg to differ. 

This really upset me too. I cannot see how, in any world, Ginny can 
be seen as Harry's equal.  What has she done that puts her on the 
same plane as him? We hear that she is a great and powerful witch, 
but we've never even seen the one spell she is very good at which, 
wait for it, makes boogers fly out peoples noses and attack them. 
Oh, yeah, thats just like surviving a battle of willpower against 
Voldemort or using a patronus against a hundred dementors.

I don't understand how we are suppose to believe that they are 
perfect for each other when Harry spends more time alone comforting 
Hermione over Ron and has better chemistry with Luna during their 
only meaningful scene together (Harry laughing at Luna's actions in 
the party was a gem of a moment with more warmth and humor than a 
thousand forced beastial moments of jealousy over Dean/Ginny).
 
> When have we ever been privy to Ginny's evolution? We have always 
> merely been told that this is so. When have we ever seen Harry and 
> Ginny sharing their feelings on a significant emotional issue or 
> working in partnership with each other? Their mutual connection to 
> Voldemort is prime material for this, and yet it is never actually 
> used by the author. 'Telling' might work in real life, but in 
> literature it smacks of amateur writing.

I agree. there is a lot of build up to Ginny/Harry and then when we 
get it and they kiss, we fast forward to weeks later. We miss their 
talk, the confrontation of their feelings, and just about anything 
that sells me on this couple. Why does Harry like her? What do they 
talk about? What was the trigger moment that altered Harry's 
perceptions of Ginny? We just don't know anything about them.

I don't like H/G but I could have been sold on it. I've been sold on 
Bill/Fleur and I hated the idea of them together (I liked H/F in 
GoF). But not only did I get a ship I hate, I got it in about the 
most unsatisfactory way it could possibly have been delivered. Not 
to mention theirs is the most chemistryless ship in the books. Is 
hooking Harry up to Ginny so important to the plot that it can't be 
switched over to a character that would mesh better with him?

At this point I don't care who. I'd live with the giant squid making 
gooey eyes at Harry if it'll get Ginny away from him.
 
> Part of the reason why some fans were invested in Hermione and 
Harry 
> as romantic partners were exactly these reasons – their equality 
in 
> talent (demonstrated time and time again in their adventures 
> together); their understanding of each other (demonstrated 
repeatedly 
> by the two of them being on the same page, sometimes ahead of even 
> Ron); the ability to work together in desperate situations and 
come 
> to a compromise (nowhere demonstrated better than in the Sirius 
> argument in OotP). Rowling, seemingly by complete coincidence, had 
> developed their friendship in this manner.

I have to disagree with you here. I don't think H/Hr ever had any 
real chemistry together other than as friends. Hermione strikes me 
as too momish when it comes to Harry.  I keep expecting her to pull 
out a thermomater and check his temperature like a mom with a sick 
kid.

Of course, to be fair, I can't figure out why Ron likes her either. 
Hermione is pretty unlikeable.

 It would give us an opportunity to watch their `perfectness' 
> for each other in its early, blossoming stages. Instead, the 
author 
> just tells us – this is how it is and we're just meant to suspend 
> disbelief and come along for the ride. (Am I really expected to be 
> more invested in Ginny's bat-bogey hex – which I've never actually 
> seen - than, say, Hermione's protean charm or Ron's chess skills? 
And 
> Slughorn's invitation to Ginny to join him in his carriage is the 
> worst possible contrivance).

Amen. 
 
> I accept the anvil-like clues for Ron and Hermione's evolving 
> romance, but there was nothing in canon pre-HBP to suggest that I 
> should accept Ginny as Harry's equal.

H/L wouldn't be so popular if H/G was a obvious as JKR seems to 
think it was. R/Hr was played much more obviously because it was 
textual. We know why Ron was jealous of Krum. We know why Hermione 
was irritated with Lavender. We know why Ron gave Hermione perfume 
during OOTP. Thats all in the text. We can see it coming. H/G is 
only an inevitability if you've read too many cliched fairy tales. 
Its something you have to look for as a reader and not something 
that can been seen within the text by a character. From within the 
story it would be the easist of things to hook Harry up with just 
about any girl at the school because Ginny was never really in the 
picture.
 
> That's why, in my opinion, Rowling was forced to overcompensate by 
> demonstrating how `perfect' Ginny was in HBP (which came across as 
> pretty much a Mary Sue). And this is not something that can be 
easily 
> explained away by the Harry-lens we are forced to wear as readers. 

For gods sake we get death eaters talking about how pretty she is. 
That's just stupid.

It 
> is simply bad writing. It is the writer telling us how it is 
rather 
> than showing us. I shouldn't have to rely on interviews with 
Rowling 
> to understand the hero's relationship with his love interest.

Also Amen. We are told so many things about Ginny that just don't 
bare out in the text. she is the 'heart and soul of the quddich 
team' not you know, the really famous exceptionally charismatic 
Harry Potter, star seeker and team captain. She is supposed to be 
really nice, but half the time she's doing anything she's being as 
asshat about it. She's really powerful magically but we almost never 
see her cast a spell.

> 
> Also, as a side note, the constant comparisons between Ginny and 
Lily 
> became a bit tiring. At the end of the day, both our boys will end 
up 
> marrying their mothers. Eeek. ;)

It is squicky isn't it.
 
> Sienna

Sienna, you have said everything in this post that I have been 
complaining about for ages and you did it better than me. I tip my 
hat off to you.

phoenixgod2000