Ginny VS Harry

[delwynmarch]

No: HPFGUIDX 135709

mochajava13 wrote:
"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."

Del replies:
A sure sign of a Mary-Sue...

Hermione has had flaws, real flaws, right from the beginning, and
that's what's made her human. Ginny, on the other hand, seems simply
too good to be true.

mochajava13 wrote:
"In HBP, I found Ginny to be back-stabbing, petty, malicious, hurtful,
and dismissive of other's feelings."

Del replies:
Well, she IS like the Twins, and not just physically. The Twins can be
extremely vicious with those they don't like, and Ginny is exactly
like them. I guess it's not a coincidence that the Twins's faults are
also systematically described in a positive way. I guess JKR just
*likes* people like Ginny and the Twins.

mochajava13 wrote:
"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?"

Del replies:
That's exactly what my husband said: "I never imagined Ginny to be
pretty". Upon reflection, I realised that I never imagined any of the
Weasleys to be good-looking, and that the canon never encouraged me to
before HBP. Even Bill was not described as good-looking before HBP,
IIRC: he was described as *cool*, which is different. But then
suddenly, in HBP, just like Ginny, he's supposed to have always been
good-looking. Huh??

I also feel that it's a huge missed opportunity to have made Ginny
good-looking. Cho was the pretty face that Harry falls in love with
just because she's pretty. Ginny should have been the plainer girl
that Harry falls in love with because they connect so well. Instead,
we get all that talk about Ginny being attractive, and NO
demonstration of their connection. Really a pity, I say.

mochajava13 wrote:
"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."

Del replies:
There isn't even that much snogging! For half the book Harry obsesses
over snogging Ginny, and then as soon as they get together, JKR takes
the focus away from their relationship completely.

And honestly, Harry obsessing over snogging Ginny is pretty lame IMO.
If Harry is supposed to be in love, real love, with Ginny because of
her personality, then he should be day-dreaming about talking to her,
sharing jokes with her, doing stuff (*real* stuff) with her. When I
was a teenager and I was in love with a guy, I wouldn't particularly
think of snogging him: it's all the stuff I would do with him that
interested me. Going to the movies, doing our homework, walking in the
 streets, talking about everything and anything, and so on. But Harry
just thinks of snogging Ginny. How is that supposed to be any kind of
improvement compared to his crush on Cho???

mochajava13 wrote:
"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."

Del replies:
Absolutely. And that's why Harry's mushy declaration at the end of HBP
about his time with Ginny having been something out of somebody else's
life (or something like that) just fell flat with me. His romance with
Ginny seems to me to have had less effect on him than his romance with
Cho had!

mochajava13 wrote:
"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."

Del replies:
This last one, in particular, is something that I always wondered
about. I never understood why JKR had to bring Hermione back, when
Ginny was there all the time. Ginny is supposed to love Harry, and
she's supposed to have spunk and to not be afraid of him. So WHY
didn't *Ginny* go and get Harry?? It was a golden opportunity to SHOW
us that special relationship that Harry and Ginny were supposed to be
starting to develop. But instead we get another example of Hermione
being the female who cares most about Harry (she sacrificed her
holidays with her parents to be with him) and who knows best how to
handle him.

mochajava13 wrote: 
"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."

Del replies:
The hardcore Harry fans won't be happy, but I think the only reason
Harry prefers Ginny is because Hermione always stands her own in front
of Harry while Ginny often keeps silent and lets Harry have his way.
The way I understand Harry, he does *not* want a girl who would be his
complete equal. He wants a girl who will accept his decisions without
too much fuss. And that's exactly what Ginny does. Honestly, can
anyone imagine that Hermione would have listened to Harry's little
splitting talk patiently, and would have accepted to let him go so
easily? No she wouldn't have. She would have argumentated, she would
have stormed, she would have countered every single one of his
arguments, and Harry would have HATED that. Harry simply doesn't like
the way Hermione won't systematically agree with him. We see him lying
to her, keeping things from her, and so on, just so he won't have to
*discuss* some things with her. And we saw him do the same thing with
Cho, avoiding some subjects just in order to avoid getting into a
serious discussion. Harry doesn't like getting into conflict with his
girls. Hermione will *not* step down when she disagrees with Harry,
Ginny will. That's the reason Harry fancies Ginny and not Hermione IMO.

mochajava13 wrote:
"It doesn't take much to portray romance in mystery novels; just look
at Tommy and Tuppence in Agatha Christie's novels."

Del replies:
Oh, I love those two! They are so cute :-)

Del