that Ginny meta I always meant to write
Please create the standard disclaimer about how this essay is a peice of crap and I'm so sorry I wrote it and please don't judge me if it's horrible in your heads because I can't be bothered to write it all out. *laughs* But, really, I've wanted to write something about what I think Ginny's character was meant to come off as and what JKR was trying to do with her for a while now. It's not about Ginny as a Mary Sue or a slut or anything like that. It's where I think Ginny's flaws were meant to be and how I think she changed over the course of the 6th book. Submitted for your consideration. Meaning, comments are so totally appreciated because I love thinking about this shit. ^^
As a disclaimer, I do still think Ginny's a Mary Sue and I don't think JKR did the best job in bringing the following examples out as faults. Reading her character still frustrates me like crazy for that reason. But, you know, I'd really hate to be a hypocrite. And, well...I dunno, I'm like Mulder. I wanna believe. Only, you know, without getting the government or little green men involved.
Generally, Ginny's characterization in book 6 makes me want to beat my head against a wall, which depresses me, because she reminds me of Draco and is (I think) supposed to be connected to him, at least through Harry. I mean, Ginny wants to be, I think, what Harry loves most at the end of the day, or at least wanted that before the end of book 6. It would explain her resentment of Ron and the way that she goes out of her way to embarrass him whenever Harry's around. In book 4, he was defined as the thing that Harry would miss most, and I really wouldn't be surprised if there's some jealousy on Ginny's part there, especially because she probably doesn't get what it is that makes Ron so special. He's not particularly bright, he’s not particularly good at anything, he’s not sexy; there's nothing obvious you can really point a finger at with Ron and say, 'Wow, that's what makes him special.' And I think the only way that you can really understand why it is that he's so important to Harry or what it is about Ron that makes him so great is by having been with Harry all the times he's faced off with Voldemort and by having witnessed Ron's acts of courage and loyalty in these situations.
And Ginny really hasn't. In fact, Ginny hasn't been a big part of any serious combat until the end of book 6. She was at the MoM, yeah, but she broke her ankle and was stupefied before the actual fight really began. And before she was knocked out, I think the thing she did see was Ron getting all goofy and summoning the brains to him. Which was not so...impressive. And so I really do think that Ginny, at the beginning of book 6, doesn't get it in the same way that Draco doesn't. It's why she hexes Zacharias for just asking about what happened at the ministry; maybe she's embarrassed because she really doesn't have all that much to say. She sounds so...pretentious is maybe the word, when she talks about it, like Zacharias doesn't have every right to question her about an important current event that she was present for because he's somehow not worthy. I'm not saying it wasn't brave of her to go in the first place, I'm just saying that even after the MoM, Ginny really has no way of knowing the extent of what it is that Harry's up against because she really didn't see it, but she thinks she does.
And this is illustrated when she dares to accuse Ron, Ron who has stood by Harry come hell and come high water for six years, who was willing to sacrifice himself for the greater good at 11 years old, not really knowing what it was that might happen to him for doing it, of being less mature than she is because he hasn't kissed a girl. It shows how high school Ginny's perceptions of maturity really are and it shows exactly what the limitations of her perspective are. That's what was so galling about that event more than anything. Honestly, she walks around all year thinking that she's the shit, telling off Hermione (who has kept a clearer head than anybody in the face of danger for six years now and plotted when Harry was too busy moping to do it) for not knowing about something as silly as Quidditch, breaking up with Dean for being helpful because she can do it herself, thank you very much (sorta like at the MoM after she'd broken her ankle and Luna went to help her and she said she was totally fine to walk by herself and then nearly collapsed), doing something as dangerous as slamming into a podium in a fit of pique because of something that Zacharias just said. Calling Ron a prat in front of the entire team and embarrassing him unnecessarily because she's just that sassy and tough. Her world has been boys and Quidditch for the past few years, and it really, really shows.
It's kind of like how Draco would always walk around like he was the man for provoking Harry. Absurdly childish. Ron's kissing Lavender meant absolutely nothing in the face of what he's done for Harry over the years; that he’s not particularly popular and awkward both bodily and socially mean even less, but they’re all Ginny could see. You cannot deny that, with Ginny, the end goal was Harry, she flat-out says it; she did it all so that maybe Harry would take more notice of her. It’s why she’s always acting so badass in front of him. To some extent, I think that yes, she did toy with all the boys she dated because she was only dating them in order to gain the self-confidence to get with Harry. And whether she used them for something positive or negative doesn’t really matter in the face of the fact that their feelings didn’t even really enter into the equation. Dean liked her, he genuinely liked her, and I think he tried his best to do right by her. When he made the Quidditch team, he was so excited to go and tell her (which also says that he may have felt that, to some extent, he had to prove himself to her). And she gets mad at him for something as silly as helping her through a door. And after they break up, seems to forget about him almost immediately; is, in fact, happier than ever. It meant nothing to her, and the fact that it maybe meant something to Dean also meant absolutely nothing to her. And she flaunts that fact right in front of his face and thinks nothing of it. And it just goes to show how silly and how inconsiderate and just juvenile Ginny actually is. This is one of those moments where JKR disguises how bad the whole thing really looks by using Harry’s perspective to tell us what’s going on, not unlike the incident with Moody and ferret!Draco.
And I’m not saying that Ginny is some kind of horrible person for acting the way that she did,or even that the qualities JKR described her as having aren't there. She was mostly just a very pretty 15-year-old girl who didn’t have the perspective to understand how she was hurting people and how incredibly foolish she was being about everything. I don’t think she’s a slut for using those boys the way she did, I think she was just a girl who’d been hurt who had something to prove and felt that that was the way she needed to go about proving it. Once again, it’s innocence, but not the way that people like to understand it. Children are most innocent when they’re most cruel when they make wrong assumptions, when they don’t consider other people’s feelings, when they have no real perspective on the world they live in. And I think JKR has an extremely good understanding of that and that she’s used it very well with both Draco and Ginny.
And Draco learned this year exactly what it is that Harry’s been up against his whole life, which is what Draco had to do in order to gain a better understanding of why he’s not Harry’s number one enemy and sometimes isn't even on Harry's radar (which is what he wants, I think, or wanted, anyway, the enemy part). And he also, I think, has seen exactly how vulnerable his entire family is to the whims of a madman. And by the end of book 6, I think that Ginny has experienced a lot more, too. She has been a part of an actual battle, she has seen the kind of horrible damage that can be inflicted upon the people that she loves (she barely knew Sirius), and she has seen that it’s not about how badass you are or how popular or how pretty or how easily you can lure boys to you (which is probably why she, of all people, was so quick to judge Fleur, she thought she was playing the same kind of games that Ginny’s played all these years, luring in the cool boy with her feminine wiles) it’s about how much you consider the feelings of the other person in the relationship and what you do when times get shitty. Which she hasn’t done; she’s never considered that maybe Harry just wasn’t noticing her because the things that he had to deal with were just that much bigger than any crush he might have had, were bigger than Quidditch and ordinary school life. Like she says, he’s been too busy saving the world. And I think that's why she laughs there, because it's as if he's apologizing to her for not noticing and she knows that that's a ridiculous thing to apologize for.
There’s a distinct difference between the Ginny of the beginning and middle of book 6 and the Ginny of the end, just as there’s a difference between the Draco you see at the beginning an the Draco you see at the end. And I think that when she makes that final remark about Fleur, proud Ginny is really just trying to save some face because she’s been so ridiculous about the whole thing and she knows it. But after the battle, Ginny doesn’t go around playing the badass, she stops bullying Ron, she doesn’t try and make any snappy remarks when Harry breaks up with her, she goes to bed when he starts talking about Voldemort and what he plans to do instead of getting all excited and helping him to plot because I think she finally sees that it’s over her head and that, no, she can’t compete with what Harry has with Ron and Hermione because that’s not even the point. The point is that Harry has to save the world or else millions of people will die. The point is that it’s not about how many girls you kiss or the amount of money you have or how well you know how to ‘play the game’ or dress, it’s about how much you care about other people, it’s about how well you love, about what you’re willing to do when life gets serious. It’s like JKR’s been saying this whole time, romance isn’t important, it’s not what these books are about. And Ginny, I think, is finally beginning to see that by the end of the book and it’s a nice thing to watch.
ETA: I thought of this while commenting. Ginny's growth is actually most in evidence when she takes Harry away from Dumbledore's body. Back at Sectumsempra, Ginny pretty much told Harry what he wanted to hear, despite the fact that what he'd done really had no defense. And she did it because she felt as though everyone was being too hard on Harry and he needed to hear something positive. Which I don't think he did, he'd just nearly killed someone, there clearly wasn't anything positive coming from his using that book and Hermione was probably right that he should stop. And if that Ginny had been present after Dumbledore died, she would most likely have tried to stop Hagrid from trying to get Harry to move away from the body. The fight was over, there was no danger that demanded he leave immediately, and he was extremely close to Dumbledore. It would have been the indulgent thing to do and it was what Harry wanted. But she does what's best for him instead and takes his hand and leads him away, and I think that that, more than anything, marks a turning point in her character.
As a disclaimer, I do still think Ginny's a Mary Sue and I don't think JKR did the best job in bringing the following examples out as faults. Reading her character still frustrates me like crazy for that reason. But, you know, I'd really hate to be a hypocrite. And, well...I dunno, I'm like Mulder. I wanna believe. Only, you know, without getting the government or little green men involved.
Generally, Ginny's characterization in book 6 makes me want to beat my head against a wall, which depresses me, because she reminds me of Draco and is (I think) supposed to be connected to him, at least through Harry. I mean, Ginny wants to be, I think, what Harry loves most at the end of the day, or at least wanted that before the end of book 6. It would explain her resentment of Ron and the way that she goes out of her way to embarrass him whenever Harry's around. In book 4, he was defined as the thing that Harry would miss most, and I really wouldn't be surprised if there's some jealousy on Ginny's part there, especially because she probably doesn't get what it is that makes Ron so special. He's not particularly bright, he’s not particularly good at anything, he’s not sexy; there's nothing obvious you can really point a finger at with Ron and say, 'Wow, that's what makes him special.' And I think the only way that you can really understand why it is that he's so important to Harry or what it is about Ron that makes him so great is by having been with Harry all the times he's faced off with Voldemort and by having witnessed Ron's acts of courage and loyalty in these situations.
And Ginny really hasn't. In fact, Ginny hasn't been a big part of any serious combat until the end of book 6. She was at the MoM, yeah, but she broke her ankle and was stupefied before the actual fight really began. And before she was knocked out, I think the thing she did see was Ron getting all goofy and summoning the brains to him. Which was not so...impressive. And so I really do think that Ginny, at the beginning of book 6, doesn't get it in the same way that Draco doesn't. It's why she hexes Zacharias for just asking about what happened at the ministry; maybe she's embarrassed because she really doesn't have all that much to say. She sounds so...pretentious is maybe the word, when she talks about it, like Zacharias doesn't have every right to question her about an important current event that she was present for because he's somehow not worthy. I'm not saying it wasn't brave of her to go in the first place, I'm just saying that even after the MoM, Ginny really has no way of knowing the extent of what it is that Harry's up against because she really didn't see it, but she thinks she does.
And this is illustrated when she dares to accuse Ron, Ron who has stood by Harry come hell and come high water for six years, who was willing to sacrifice himself for the greater good at 11 years old, not really knowing what it was that might happen to him for doing it, of being less mature than she is because he hasn't kissed a girl. It shows how high school Ginny's perceptions of maturity really are and it shows exactly what the limitations of her perspective are. That's what was so galling about that event more than anything. Honestly, she walks around all year thinking that she's the shit, telling off Hermione (who has kept a clearer head than anybody in the face of danger for six years now and plotted when Harry was too busy moping to do it) for not knowing about something as silly as Quidditch, breaking up with Dean for being helpful because she can do it herself, thank you very much (sorta like at the MoM after she'd broken her ankle and Luna went to help her and she said she was totally fine to walk by herself and then nearly collapsed), doing something as dangerous as slamming into a podium in a fit of pique because of something that Zacharias just said. Calling Ron a prat in front of the entire team and embarrassing him unnecessarily because she's just that sassy and tough. Her world has been boys and Quidditch for the past few years, and it really, really shows.
It's kind of like how Draco would always walk around like he was the man for provoking Harry. Absurdly childish. Ron's kissing Lavender meant absolutely nothing in the face of what he's done for Harry over the years; that he’s not particularly popular and awkward both bodily and socially mean even less, but they’re all Ginny could see. You cannot deny that, with Ginny, the end goal was Harry, she flat-out says it; she did it all so that maybe Harry would take more notice of her. It’s why she’s always acting so badass in front of him. To some extent, I think that yes, she did toy with all the boys she dated because she was only dating them in order to gain the self-confidence to get with Harry. And whether she used them for something positive or negative doesn’t really matter in the face of the fact that their feelings didn’t even really enter into the equation. Dean liked her, he genuinely liked her, and I think he tried his best to do right by her. When he made the Quidditch team, he was so excited to go and tell her (which also says that he may have felt that, to some extent, he had to prove himself to her). And she gets mad at him for something as silly as helping her through a door. And after they break up, seems to forget about him almost immediately; is, in fact, happier than ever. It meant nothing to her, and the fact that it maybe meant something to Dean also meant absolutely nothing to her. And she flaunts that fact right in front of his face and thinks nothing of it. And it just goes to show how silly and how inconsiderate and just juvenile Ginny actually is. This is one of those moments where JKR disguises how bad the whole thing really looks by using Harry’s perspective to tell us what’s going on, not unlike the incident with Moody and ferret!Draco.
And I’m not saying that Ginny is some kind of horrible person for acting the way that she did,or even that the qualities JKR described her as having aren't there. She was mostly just a very pretty 15-year-old girl who didn’t have the perspective to understand how she was hurting people and how incredibly foolish she was being about everything. I don’t think she’s a slut for using those boys the way she did, I think she was just a girl who’d been hurt who had something to prove and felt that that was the way she needed to go about proving it. Once again, it’s innocence, but not the way that people like to understand it. Children are most innocent when they’re most cruel when they make wrong assumptions, when they don’t consider other people’s feelings, when they have no real perspective on the world they live in. And I think JKR has an extremely good understanding of that and that she’s used it very well with both Draco and Ginny.
And Draco learned this year exactly what it is that Harry’s been up against his whole life, which is what Draco had to do in order to gain a better understanding of why he’s not Harry’s number one enemy and sometimes isn't even on Harry's radar (which is what he wants, I think, or wanted, anyway, the enemy part). And he also, I think, has seen exactly how vulnerable his entire family is to the whims of a madman. And by the end of book 6, I think that Ginny has experienced a lot more, too. She has been a part of an actual battle, she has seen the kind of horrible damage that can be inflicted upon the people that she loves (she barely knew Sirius), and she has seen that it’s not about how badass you are or how popular or how pretty or how easily you can lure boys to you (which is probably why she, of all people, was so quick to judge Fleur, she thought she was playing the same kind of games that Ginny’s played all these years, luring in the cool boy with her feminine wiles) it’s about how much you consider the feelings of the other person in the relationship and what you do when times get shitty. Which she hasn’t done; she’s never considered that maybe Harry just wasn’t noticing her because the things that he had to deal with were just that much bigger than any crush he might have had, were bigger than Quidditch and ordinary school life. Like she says, he’s been too busy saving the world. And I think that's why she laughs there, because it's as if he's apologizing to her for not noticing and she knows that that's a ridiculous thing to apologize for.
There’s a distinct difference between the Ginny of the beginning and middle of book 6 and the Ginny of the end, just as there’s a difference between the Draco you see at the beginning an the Draco you see at the end. And I think that when she makes that final remark about Fleur, proud Ginny is really just trying to save some face because she’s been so ridiculous about the whole thing and she knows it. But after the battle, Ginny doesn’t go around playing the badass, she stops bullying Ron, she doesn’t try and make any snappy remarks when Harry breaks up with her, she goes to bed when he starts talking about Voldemort and what he plans to do instead of getting all excited and helping him to plot because I think she finally sees that it’s over her head and that, no, she can’t compete with what Harry has with Ron and Hermione because that’s not even the point. The point is that Harry has to save the world or else millions of people will die. The point is that it’s not about how many girls you kiss or the amount of money you have or how well you know how to ‘play the game’ or dress, it’s about how much you care about other people, it’s about how well you love, about what you’re willing to do when life gets serious. It’s like JKR’s been saying this whole time, romance isn’t important, it’s not what these books are about. And Ginny, I think, is finally beginning to see that by the end of the book and it’s a nice thing to watch.
ETA: I thought of this while commenting. Ginny's growth is actually most in evidence when she takes Harry away from Dumbledore's body. Back at Sectumsempra, Ginny pretty much told Harry what he wanted to hear, despite the fact that what he'd done really had no defense. And she did it because she felt as though everyone was being too hard on Harry and he needed to hear something positive. Which I don't think he did, he'd just nearly killed someone, there clearly wasn't anything positive coming from his using that book and Hermione was probably right that he should stop. And if that Ginny had been present after Dumbledore died, she would most likely have tried to stop Hagrid from trying to get Harry to move away from the body. The fight was over, there was no danger that demanded he leave immediately, and he was extremely close to Dumbledore. It would have been the indulgent thing to do and it was what Harry wanted. But she does what's best for him instead and takes his hand and leads him away, and I think that that, more than anything, marks a turning point in her character.