MAC*

[Carol]

No: HPFGUIDX 179655

Carol earlier:
> > with Ginny as the champion nerve grater in the last three (mostly
OoP and HBP).
> 
Pippin Fowler asked:
> Carol, could you elaborate on that please? I ask because Ginny never
bothered me once in any way, and I'm just surprised to see her 
mentioned among the MAC attacks.
> 
Carol responds:

I'll be glad to, though, of course, taste in characters is subjective,
and I'm only giving my personal reaction with no attempt to persuade
anyone to share my feelings about her.

I didn't mind Ginny in CoS (she was almost a nonentity in SS/PS),
aside from "His eyes are as green as a pickled toad," and I had rather
liked her for spunkily standing to Draco in Flourish and Blotts, and I
cut her a lot of slack (youth, inexperience, and Diary!Tom's superior
powers) in the opening of the chamber and siccing the Basilisk on
people. I didn't pay much attention to her in PoA or GoF (at least she
had the grace to be ashamed of herself for accepting Neville as a date
to the Yule Ball only so that she could attend; I suppose she got her
just deserts when Harry never even thought of asking her). But I hated
her brazenly lying to her mother about the dungbombs she was throwing
at the kitchen door, blaming Crookshanks and not even washing her
hands afterwards. (Why Molly didn't put two and two together, I don't
know.) I did like Ginny's telling Harry that she knew how it felt to
be possessed (and calling attention to his obliviousness in not asking
her about it; I wish I could attribute his failure to ask her about it
to tact, but I can't). And in HBP, she criticizes Ron for calling Luna
"Loony" when she's done it herself, and she repeatedly attacks
Zacharias Smith (possibly in OoP as well; I've forgotten) when all
he's done is not to take Harry's word that Voldemort is back even
though Harry refuses to present a shred of evidence or even give a
general account of what happened in the graveyard. Nope: Harry says
he's back, and if you don't believe Harry (or insult Gryffindor in
your Quidditch commentary), you must be Bat-Bogeyed and have the
Quidditch podium knocked over onto you. Shes' supposedly talented and
powerful, but she uses the same hex over and over again rather than
displaying any prowess. IOW, we're told, not shown, that she's
powerful, Bat-Bogey Hes excepted. And suddenly, in HBP, she's Miss
Popularity. We've always known that she was small and red-haired, but
we were given no indication (thanks, I suppose, to Harry's
oblivousness since he's the pov character) that she was pretty, much
less so good-looking that even Blaise Zabini acknowledges it, and
she's supposedly funny, yet her remarks and antics didn't amuse me at
all, not arousing so much as a chuckle or a grin. (I don't always like
Fred and George, either, but at least they sometimes get genuinely
funny lines. "Even "Shut up, Weatherby" made me laugh out loud, I
suppose because it caught me by surprise and really put Percy in his
place). 

Unlike some people, I do buy Ron's explanation that her shyness in the
early books is not her real personality, but I actually prefer her
shyness to the brazen instant Quidditch star we get in HBP (and OoP? I
need to reread that book). And I realize that brother-sister bickering
is normal and that Ron is being hypocritical in criticizing Ginny for
public snogging when he does the same thing himself, but in a school
like Hogwarts that seems to have a double standard, I think her
conduct is unwise at the very least. (The same is true for Lavender,
who is probably earning herself a reputation as "easy." Forgive me,
but it's the WW that still uses the term "scarlet woman," not me.) And
what is with her "hard, blazing" looks? What does that even mean?
Also, she calls Sectumsempra, which it doesn't take a genius to
identify as Dark magic, "something good," and when Hermione criticizes
Harry for using it (and IMO, he was really foolish to try out a spell
markde "for enemies" without even knowing what it did or looking up
the Latin roots to discover that it means "cut always"), Ginny jumps
on the weakest part of Hermione's argument (that using SS keeps him
from playing Quidditch) with a scornful remark about Hermione's
ignorance of Quidditch. Maybe Ginny realizes that she's in the wrong
but won't admit it or maybe she actually believes that Harry's use of
a Dark Curse was justified; either way, she's wrong in my book. Rather
than justifying her own position or answering Hermione's objections
rationally, she hits back with a low blow (an ad hominem, or should
that be ad feminem, attack). In DH, she knows that Harry has broken up
with her, yet she lures him to her room for a birthday snog (I don't
think she was actually seducing him; after all, she's just short of
sixteen, legally and emotionally a child, almost certainly a virgin
since this is ostensibly a kids' book, and not stupid enough to get
herself pregnant or sophisticated enough, I hope, to know any
contraceptive spells), possibly in hopes that he'll want her to come
along with him and his best friends on their secret mission despite
his expressed wish to keep Voldemort from using her against him (and
to keep her safe). She ought to be more grateful and considerate, but,
yes, she's fifteen and those sentiments don't come easy at that age, I
realize. Which doesn't make me like her any better. I'm very glad she
wasn't along to distract Harry from his Horcruxes. 

All in all, I know that I'm supposed to think that Ginny is wonderful,
the perfect future wife for Harry, but she rubs me the wrong way. But.
then, so does Lavender, her brother's first girlfriend. 

Carol, who forgot to include Lav Lav on her list of annoying characters