I still hate Ginny Weasley!!!

[hickengruendler]

No: HPFGUIDX 131738

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, adesahafford at w... wrote:
  
> JKR knows how to lay foundations and generally writes her 
characters well. So I think she has written Ginny like this for a 
reason: We are to be as surprised by her change as Harry is. He 
hardly notices her in POA and GOF; when she's finally over her crush, 
she begins to interact with him in a normal way. He now notices her 
because they have normal conversations and Hermione has become closer 
to her, thus bringing more contact with Harry. Wow, he's thinking, 
she sure has changed. How'd *that* happen? I think the lack of info 
during Ginny's transformation/coming into her own in a family of boys 
is intentional 
> to make the reader as shocked as Harry must be.  
> 
> Adesa

Hickengruendler:

I normally didn't want to reply to that topic anymore before book 6 
is released, because I think then we'll know a lot more about Ginny's 
role in the saga, and could judge it a bit better. (Right now, I'm 
very unhappy with the way Ginny developed, and in contrast to for 
example Lupinlore, Ginny is the only character whose development I 
really do not like at all). However, I do want to say something about 
your point. I think you have a very good one, and I would agree with 
you, if Harry at least had shown some reaction. If Ginny's 
development should be a shock for Harry and the readers, than Harry 
should act shocked, or at least surprised. But he didn't. All he 
stated was, that she now talks more, after Hermione told him, that 
she's with Michael Corner. That's not much.

Also, I think the argument, that it is told from Harry's point of 
view can only take us so far. I will admit that it is harder to write 
a character who has/had a crush on Harry, since she acts unusually 
around him. Imagine how Harry would seem, if book 4 were told from 
Cho's point of view. However, it was JKR's decision, to tell us the 
story from Harry's point of view. This has many advantages, but I 
think in Ginny's case it was a disadvantage, because it made her 
development in book 5 to sudden. And even with the Harry lense, there 
were some chances, to add some information about Ginny's "real" 
character in the earlier books. And Ron's statement that she never 
shut up, just didn't do it for me. Because it tells us nothing about 
Ginny except that she's chatty (which she really wasn't even all that 
much, in OotP). My favourite Ginny moment was the pre Yule Ball scene 
in GoF. There I saw a girl with a strong character and an interesting 
personality, who still resembled Ginny from book 2 and 3. In book 4 
generally she seemed to come into her own, IMO. She still seemed a 
bit shy, but nonetheless was very fun and likeable. 

I frankly did not see this in book 5. We were just given to much 
informations at once. It was as if Jo (maybe influenced by the partly 
very harsh crticism she got for some of her female characters, and 
Ginny in particular?) made a list with some abilities that define 
a "cool" character, and than in the course of book 5 we were told 
that Ginny has them all. Add to this that inspite of this we never 
saw her doing anything interesting, and I became quite annoyed with 
her character as well. IMO, her "development" in OotP was a step 
backwards, from what promised to be a likeable and interesting 
individual in GoF to a stereotype of the cool and sporty girl in OotP.

Hickengruendler, who again wrote much more about this topic, than he 
really wanted