Canonalicious

[arabellasq]

So I was in the cab thinking about the powa of da canon to wipe out old prejudices. Namely, I was mulling over of all the times I'd seen Ron/Lavender in fanfic, and how I always turned up my nose at the very idea of it. It seemed preposterous. It had no place in the arc of the story. What did we know about Lavender, anyway? Why would Ron ever

Comments

And that, boys, is why you should never go for looks alone!

[dr_c]

Ashtur-- I had already been developing a chart to that effect, to go with an essay which I hope to finish in the foreseeable future (please work, HTML table codes!):

HarryRonHermioneGinny
The First CrushCho (PoA/GoF)Fleur?
Rosmerta?LockhartHarry
The Available OneCho (OotP)LavenderViktorMichael,
Dean
The Right OneGinnyHermioneRonHarry

Not, of course, that JKR consciously drew this up as a pattern to follow; only that it's a common path followed by kids as they grow up, and that JKR drew up the characters' lives so as to be both (1) realistic given the tendencies of teenagers in general, and (2) appropriate to the given character's personality.

I agree, of course, with peachespig's point above, that Ron needed to see that "the best looking girl who'll have you, even if she's completely horrible" (Hermione, GoF) wasn't really what he wanted. JKR said as much to Melissa and Emerson: Ron up to this point has been quite immature compared to the other two and he kind of needed to make himself worthy of Hermione. Now, that didn't mean necessarily physical experience but he had to grow up emotionally and now he's taken a big step up. Because he's had the meaningless physical experience - let’s face it, his emotions were never deeply engaged with Lavender - and he's realized that that is ultimately not what he wants, which takes him a huge emotional step forward.

Meanwhile, as for Harry (who, to my surprise, has now leapfrogged ahead of his friends in this department)-- what fascinates me about his feelings for Ginny as described in HBP is that never once does it say that he thought she was pretty (or cute, or beautiful, or-- the horror of it-- "hot," or any such thing). This is, I'm quite sure, a deliberate contrast on JKR's part to Harry/Cho, which began with "Harry could not help noticing that she was extremely pretty." But with Ginny: well, we see that he wants to be around her; we find out indirectly that she's one of the things that most attract him; we see that he gets insanely jealous when he finds her and Dean snogging in the corridor; we see him dreaming of her in ways of which Ron would be unlikely to approve; we even see her long red hair "dancing" across the scene once or twice; but as far as we are told, the thought "Ginny Weasley is pretty" never registers in Harry's conscious mind. (Surely he does hold that view, of course! But it's no longer where the emphasis lies.)

Re: And that, boys, is why you should never go for looks alone!

[peachespig]

the thought "Ginny Weasley is pretty" never registers in Harry's conscious mind.

Though we do get to overhear, along with Harry, as Pansy and Zabini talk in the train compartment about how "a lot of boys like her... even you think she's good-looking, don't you, Blaise, and we all know how hard you are to please!"

So clearly Ginny is in fact hawt, and Harry is surely aware of it - but I agree that his lack of emphasis on that fact is a telling change from Cho.

Re: And that, boys, is why you should never go for looks alone!

[arabellasq]

I agree that his lack of emphasis on that fact is a telling change from Cho.

So do I. Ginny's attractiveness is clear to us, which means that it must be clear to Harry, since we only know what she looks like through Harry. But he didn't dwell on it as one of her strong points. In the end, what mattered to him was that she understood him and vice versa. Though I'm sure her good looks didn't hurt. :)

Nice chart, Dr. C. I love to see that Ginny is the one whose initial venture into love is the only one that came full circle. Considering that Love is Harry's greatest advantage over Voldemort, I have to wonder if it wasn't Ginny's greatest advantage too, when fighting the Horcrux. Her "first crush" was on the "right one" and I've always considered that first crush to be true love (I don't care if she's eleven).

Re: And that, boys, is why you should never go for looks alone!

[peachespig]

I've always considered that first crush to be true love (I don't care if she's eleven).

This is interesting. Ginny is taken with Harry from the moment she sees him; at what point do you think her feelings could be said to become something more than just a little girl's crush on a famously heroic boy who she didn't even know, and could have started to become genuine love? By the end of the first book, for example ("Be quiet, Ginny, and it's rude to point"), seems a little early to me. Even the beginning of the second book (the bright brown eyes in the doorway), by which time she's heard a lot about the real Harry from Ron over the summer, she still doesn't really know him herself. Maybe by the time she sends him the valentine?

Re: And that, boys, is why you should never go for looks alone!

[edeainfj]

Considering that Love is Harry's greatest advantage over Voldemort, I have to wonder if it wasn't Ginny's greatest advantage too

Ohhh, I really like that.