Ginny VS Harry

[mochajava13]

No: HPFGUIDX 135699

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "d." <doliesl at y...> wrote:
> 
> 
> --- a_fabrefr <Fabre.a at c...> wrote:
> > "flyingmonkeypurple" wrote:
> > > I have read that alot of the people here don't like Ginny. 
They 
> > > either did not like her before or they don't like her now for 
> > > telling Hermoione for yelling at Harry. I think that had 
nothing 
> > to 
> > > do with the fact that because Ginny can play Quiddithch. I 
know 
> > some 
> > > of you thought thought what she said was offensive to women. 
> > <SNIP>
> > 
> > 
> > Yes but as far as we know Hermione is Harry and Ginny friend 
while 
> > Narcissa is not really in their inner circle ;-).
> > I have had a problem with Ginny in HBP, part of them came from 
her reaction toward
> > Fleur and her sentence toward Hermione, and part from her being 
nearly perfect (I mean
> > great at Hexing great at quidditch, 
> > good look) with few flaws (beyond been full of herself. So I 
would 
> > like have seen a more human side. But she has next volume to 
redeem 
> > herself ;-). All I hope is some nice phrase toward Fleur and an 
> > understanding between them, and see a more faillible Ginny.
> > Alexandre
> 
> The problem I have with Ginny is not that she is without flaws, 
JKR spared her a bit here
> and there. But it is that her 'flaws' are not supposed to be view 
as 'unpleasant' by the
> author; they're supposed to make her real, endearing and 
interesting. So the problem is
> really how JKR handle her character, which felt forced to me, and 
that puts me off. All
> the supposedly 'kind & compassionate' qualities the great and fine 
Ginny supposed to have
> are *told* to us through other characters, hardselling like a 
radio advertisment, instead
> of showing. And readers are pound over the head constantly: to 
admire her as a tough
> cookie, to look up to as the strongest female role-model who would 
never cried or let a
> man to act with that gentlemen crap toward her; to desire her 
dazzling beauty; to be in
> awe by her goddess greatness and resemblence to Fred & George + 
Ron + Molly + Lily
> (etc.). That just irked me as a reader, because  whenever Ginny 
appears on page what I
> see is this smug girl who mocked other women behind their back, 
who tell off a crying
> nurse in deep grief to *shut the hell up* at funeral, who is catty 
that no one can dare
> to admire another woman's beauty in front of her, who went up and 
arm against all those
> who dare to tell off their men, yet would never compete with them 
or jealous of them,
> despite she's a capable seeker herself, because a perfect girl 
would never steal nor
> threaten Harry's spotlight. A perfect girl is always so convenient 
like that! so ideal! A
> true 'equal' in a non-threatening, supporting way.  
> 
> I'm also sick of fictions that reinforcing the girl (whom he only 
started caring in a
> year ago, and gone out for few months) as the single most 
important person in the hero's
> life. So Ginny is the love of Harry's life, therefore she is the 
no.1 most dangerous
> target for the villain. Yet the two dearest friends who are like 
Harry's family for 7
> years are in no danger that the hero should concern for. And the 
silly villain would
> always go for the girlfriend blah blah. All the scenarios and 
setup that dealt with Ginny
> was just...*roll my eyes*  
> 
> I ended up completely oblivious to this supposed greatest love 
between Harry and Ginny.
> In fact it tainted Harry's character for me. I fear this would be 
the fatal downfall of
> this series for me, if this greatest love for Ginny is supposed to 
be source of Harry's
> super duper extrordinary power (that no other has), and the one 
true thing that matter
> most in defeating Voldemort.
> 
>  D.

Now me:
I basically agree with everything you're saying about Ginny's 
character.  I did not like Ginny in this book, mainly because her 
flaws were portrayed to be non-flaws.  In other words, her flaws 
come from some "endearing" part of her personality, are an off-shoot 
of something good, and therefore not really flaws.  Her flaws are 
dismissed, and not portrayed as flaws at all. Like her hexing 
Zacharias Smith; it's supposed to be OK since it shows that she's 
powerful, spunky, and doesn't take crap from people.   And Rowling's 
interviews made it so much worse, because it's not Harry's hormone-
induced crush on Ginny that colors her personality, but this is how 
the readers are supposed to view Ginny.  All the character traits 
that Rowling said that Ginny has, I didn't see.  We might have been 
told about them, but I personally saw more of Hermione's character 
than Ginny's in Rowling's description of Ginny.  

In HBP, I found Ginny to be back-stabbing, petty, malicious, 
hurtful, and dismissive of other's feelings.  For example, her 
treatment of Fleur was very poor.  She has no reason to be jealous 
of Fleur, and every reason to try and like her, or at least give her 
a chance.  We don't see any of this, we only see her moking Fleur 
behind her back.  Hermione did as well, but we have seen exactly why 
Hermione dislikes Fleur.  We haven't seen why Ginny dislikes Fleur 
so much, and this makes Ginny seem very shallow.  Then Ginny curses 
Zacharias Smith because she can, and lashes out at him when she 
dislikes his commentary on the Quidditch match.  Sure he was biased, 
but her reaction wasn't one that was very nice.  As for Luna, 
Ginny's nice to Luna to her face, but still calls her Looney (which 
Luna found hurtful in OotP) behind Luna's back.  

Also, Ginny still hasn't been shown to be repentant at all for the 
events of CoS.  She may have been possessed by Voldemort, but she 
still stole the diary back from Harry simply because she didn't want 
him to know about her obvious crush.  She knew not to trust her 
diary, she knew she might be the one petrifying people, but she 
still stole it back.  Causing two more people to get petrified.  She 
cared more about concealing a "secret" than she did for other's 
lives.  And after the diary was destroyed, she didn't ask about the 
petrfied students, or show any type of relief that they would be 
alright.  Instead, she cries because she might be expelled from 
Hogwarts.  That's it.  She showed no remorse, nothing!  Which, to 
me, is a major character flaw pointing towards her being utterly 
self-absorbed.  Not to mention all of Ginny's new qualities that 
appeared out of nowhere.  Since when is Ginny pretty?  She was 
compared to the twins in OotP, and wasn't described as being pretty 
in the Yule Ball.  Nothing about anyone finding her good-looking 
until HBP, when it is suddenly shoved in our face.  And this isn't 
supposed to have been an overnight transformation, but one that the 
Slytherins noticed from before.  What?  Her sudden skills at 
Quidditch in OotP were also out of the blue; she never expressed an 
interest to play with the boys in GoF when they went out to play.  
But suddenly she's fantastic at Quidditch, and able to play more 
than one position?  

Then there's Harry and Ginny's shallow relationship.  There was no 
substance there, just a lot of snogging and Harry obsessing over 
wanting to snog Ginny.  Fair enough, he's 16, and that's what most 
16 year old boys (and older men, as well I dare say) think about.  
But there's no partnership shown at all.  Nothing.  Harry doesn't 
confide in her, she's just an object of his hormones.  They don't 
really have many interactions at all.  Fine if this is supposed to 
be a short-lived teenage romance, but if Ginny is supposed to be his 
One True Love, then I don't buy it.  And all the "clues" that fore-
shadowed a relationship between the two could apply to others as 
well.  A look here, a conversation there, and that's it.  If this 
was foreshadowing, then Harry could potentially have feelings for 
Parvati, Luna, Hermione, Fleur, or Tonks.  There's nothing different 
about Harry's relationship with Ginny.  (I have a similar problem 
with Hermione and Ron, as Hermione treats a lot of other people the 
same way as she treats Ron.  Only now she reacts vindictively 
because of jealousy.)  All of the clues (and traits of 
Harry's "perfect girl") apply equally to Hermione or Luna.  And I 
want to see why Harry's love interest is so special, but I don't see 
what's so special about Ginny.  All reasons that Ginny is perfect 
for Harry (stands up to him, kind, gets through to him, brave, 
caring, etc) apply more to Hermione than to Ginny, in my opinion.  
And Hermione is portrayed as getting through to Harry, and getting 
an apology from  him, much more than Ginny.   Ginny helped Harry 
talk to Sirius in OotP, Hermione came up with a plan to help save 
Sirius.  Ginny talked Harry out of his funk at Grimmauld Place, but 
Hermione is the one who got him out of his isolation so he could 
talk to Ginny in the first place.  Harry apologized to Ginny, after 
he apologized to Hermione for snapping at her.  Harry had an extreme 
reaction to Ginny's "death" in CoS, but forgot about her after 
defeating Riddle (until he heard her groan or something like that).  
Harry's reaction to Hermione's "death" was more extreme: he 
panicked, couldn't think, and didn't forget about at all; he even 
mentioned her a few times when he ranted at Dumbledore in OotP.  
Which is why I don't get why on earth Hermione, who has the 
characteristics of Harry's "perfect girl" in spades, is only his 
best friend while Ginny is his love interest.  In my opinion, the 
only difference between platonic love and romantic love is sexual 
attraction, which we now know Hermione and Harry have.  (Harry 
called her pretty at the Yule Ball, something he still has yet to 
call Ginny, despite others describing her as pretty.  Hermione flat 
out said that Harry is fanciable.)  Harry and Ginny don't have any 
real bond, aside from mutual attraction.  So until the issue of 
Hermione and Harry's bond is discussed in the books, and why 
Hermione isn't the one for Harry, any other love interest that Harry 
has will fall flat, in my opinion.  And Ron is not a reason for 
there being no romance between Harry and Hermione, in my opinion.  
Ron's an excuse, but not a true reason.  

So all in all, I agree with others who are dissatisfied with the 
romances in these books, even though these books aren't romance 
novels.  It doesn't take much to portray romance in mystery novels; 
just look at Tommy and Tuppence in Agatha Christie's novels.