Post by Teresa on Sept 6, 2018 8:28:54 GMT -5
To be honest, Ginny is my least favorite Harry Potter character along with Severus Snape. She was underdeveloped, her romance with Harry was forced, narrative obviously agrees that she's perfect, it tries too hard to make us love her and she's a Mary Sue.
Ginny in the 2nd book is decent. She didn't have any screen time in any other books anyway. She had some impact on the plot of the 5th book but I forgot her pretty easily.
Then the 6th book...
Our shy Ginny is suddenly great. She's actually good at Quidditch, has mastered a spell enough to get a ticket into the Slug Club and she's so popular that even the FUCKING SLYTHERINS say that she's attractive. Siriusly? Doesn't that scream a Mary Sue to you?
Narrative shoves her down to our throats, repeating how awesome she is and how we should totally love/idolize her. One of the biggest points I value in a great work of literature is the objectivity of the narrative. The fact that Rowling's aim with Ginny was to make her likable was enough to get her on my list of hated characters.
Her personality came out of nowhere. It has nothing to do with the Ginny we met in the 2nd book. That's not just character development, she was completely someone else. Also, when you think about it, her personality tends to get pretty nasty at times yet she's never called out for that, the narrative serves this as strong and badass.
Harry was her celebrity crush. I like storylines where one side grows up to actually get to know the other side despite starting out kinda superficial at first (why do you think I still love Sakura from Naruto even though the author practically fucked up the series in the war arc) but Ginny didn't have that development. She suddenly ended up awesome and Harry had what we call "Chest Monster". They didn't get to know each other, at all, on screen. There aren't any undeniable, unarguable, solid points to suggest Ginny knows Harry and has a connection to what he actually is.
Do you know what Universal Mary Sue Litmus Test is? Check it out if you don't, it's a really helpful guide if you're interested in such topics. Anyway, I've seen a post that says they've taken the test for Ginny and she got above 50 points, which makes her a Mary Sue and a bad one at that. I've taken the test for her myself and yeah, it's true, she really has high scores.
Now that I think about it... There was a scene in the 4th book which Harry offered Ginny to be his partner in the Yule Ball but she refused, having promised to Neville already. I think that was a great scene, making her nice, unlike her self in the 6th book.
Anyway, this was just a small rant about Ginny. It had been a long time since I read the books, I'm currently re-reading them more carefully but I've only finished the 1st one by now.
Ginny in the 2nd book is decent. She didn't have any screen time in any other books anyway. She had some impact on the plot of the 5th book but I forgot her pretty easily.
Then the 6th book...
Our shy Ginny is suddenly great. She's actually good at Quidditch, has mastered a spell enough to get a ticket into the Slug Club and she's so popular that even the FUCKING SLYTHERINS say that she's attractive. Siriusly? Doesn't that scream a Mary Sue to you?
Narrative shoves her down to our throats, repeating how awesome she is and how we should totally love/idolize her. One of the biggest points I value in a great work of literature is the objectivity of the narrative. The fact that Rowling's aim with Ginny was to make her likable was enough to get her on my list of hated characters.
Her personality came out of nowhere. It has nothing to do with the Ginny we met in the 2nd book. That's not just character development, she was completely someone else. Also, when you think about it, her personality tends to get pretty nasty at times yet she's never called out for that, the narrative serves this as strong and badass.
Harry was her celebrity crush. I like storylines where one side grows up to actually get to know the other side despite starting out kinda superficial at first (why do you think I still love Sakura from Naruto even though the author practically fucked up the series in the war arc) but Ginny didn't have that development. She suddenly ended up awesome and Harry had what we call "Chest Monster". They didn't get to know each other, at all, on screen. There aren't any undeniable, unarguable, solid points to suggest Ginny knows Harry and has a connection to what he actually is.
Do you know what Universal Mary Sue Litmus Test is? Check it out if you don't, it's a really helpful guide if you're interested in such topics. Anyway, I've seen a post that says they've taken the test for Ginny and she got above 50 points, which makes her a Mary Sue and a bad one at that. I've taken the test for her myself and yeah, it's true, she really has high scores.
Now that I think about it... There was a scene in the 4th book which Harry offered Ginny to be his partner in the Yule Ball but she refused, having promised to Neville already. I think that was a great scene, making her nice, unlike her self in the 6th book.
Anyway, this was just a small rant about Ginny. It had been a long time since I read the books, I'm currently re-reading them more carefully but I've only finished the 1st one by now.