I still hate Ginny Weasley!!!

[Laura Ingalls Huntley]

No: HPFGUIDX 131701

<SNIP Phoenixgod's whole post on Ginny (131692)>

YES, YES, YES!  Phoenixgod, I think I love you.  I may even have to forgive you for all those 
horrible things you said about Hermione.  *grins*

Now, onto the stuff that will make this *not* a unforgivable "me too" post.

Claire said:
> How would you like being the only girl with six
> brothers?  My brother was the only boy with 7 sisters, and didn't
> get "noticed", if you will, until he went into college and his
> personality was strong enough to counteract whatever we could dish
> out. 

Rebecca said:
> As a female with no sisters and 3 brothers I know what it is like to be
> ignored for the most part by my older brother and his friends.
<SNIP>
> This is just my experience.  Since I am the only female of my generation in
> my family (on both sides!)
> I get the Ginny story line.  I was pretty much ignored until I was 13-14 by
> my brother and his friends..before then I was just a baby.  After I hit
> puberty my brother's friends suddenly started to become interested in what I
> had to say or what my interests were.  Hormones sure are fun.

Both of these are totally valid responses with respect to RL.  However, HP is a *story*.  In a 
story, you really do need to follow the "show, don't tell" rule when it comes to 
characterization.  It's true that we're (sort of) limited to Harry's POV, but IMO Jo could 
have/should have dropped little hints along the way that Ginny was going to go Super!Girl 
in OotP.  A good example of this would be the twins scratching their heads and wondering 
where their brooms had got to, perhaps, and a bit later a part about Ginny coming in 
looking flushed or perhaps Ron being unable to find her.  JKR's done this sort of thing 
before, and done it masterfully, which is part of the reason that Ginny's characterization 
seems especially bad and out-of-the-blue to me. 

smilingator4915:
> Except for Ginny's role at the end of CoS, I too never really thought
> much about her until reading OotP. But let's remember that we are
> following Harry in these books, not any of the other characters. Since
> Ron and Hermione spend a lot of time with the hero, then we get to see
> all sides of their personalities. But honestly, who saw that Krum and
> Hermione would end up at the Yule Ball together? 

Ahh, you've made my point for me.  ^_~ See, JKR left "clues" that Viktor was staking out 
Hermione.  She had a build-up with Hermione's refusal to name her date.  She also had 
the reader's attention drawn to the topic.  I agree that most people probably did not guess 
the "twist", but that's not the point.  A good twist is not easily guessable, but it *is* 
something you should be able to look back and say "Oh, yeah!" about.

Not only did JKR do none of these things for Ginny, a characterization should really not be 
a twist, per se, unless there's a very, very good reason for it.  If, as Phoenixgod and I 
suspect, the reason is to quickly beef up her to be The Perfect Girl For Harry in the 
upcoming books . . . well, that is a pretty lousy reason, IMO.

Personally, the only conclusions I can think of that would make me accept her 
characterizations as is are 1) She's actually residually evil from Tom's influence in CoS or 
2) She's actually a plot device to show how cool *Neville* is (by ending up with him, that 
is).  Option 2) is actually quite satisfying, if you think about it.  The girl that spent her 
childhood mooning after an idealized "hero" she didn't really know grows up to recognize 
that some people are "quiet heroes", once you take the time to know and appreciate them.

Hey, he did try to "save" her from the IS when Umbridge guessed that Harry was trying to 
break into her office.

Claire, again:
> I believe Ginny is the same -- a lynchpin --
> her powers have been growing steadily through the books.

My response to this is: SHOW ME.  This isn't really a challenge to you though -- it's a 
challenge to JKR.  To me, it seemed like Ginny's "steady" growth rather suddenly exploded 
onto the scene in OotP.

*shrugs* But then, to be fair, I never did like her.

Laura