Why I can't stand Harry/Ginny
Sep. 6th, 2007 07:44 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sherrilinaWell I haven't really used my LJ account much so far, but for my first journal entry I thought I'd repost an essay I wrote explaining ten things I cannot stand about the Harry/Ginny ship in Harry Potter, a ship that I utterly despise. This list was originally posted on FictionAlley.org:
Ten Things I Can't Stand About Harry/Ginny:
1. It's very badly written.
I know that some people don't like it when people bash a ship by saying it's basly written, but no writer is perfect--you can bash some of their writing and not all of it. (For example, I love Eoin Colfer and the Artemis Fowl books, yet I think a majority of the AF fandom agrees that while he is an excellent writer in all other respects, Colfer simply cannot write romance well). And the fact is that cheesily roaring chest monsters and "We could have had years" (if I had given a damn and had been aware that you were alive) don't make for very great writing. And I just can't get into a ship that's not written very well.
2. It's very badly developed, and relies too much on telling rather than showing.
Sorry, but there is noooo evidence of H/G before HBP--yes, Ginny has a pathetic celebrity fangirl crush on Harry, but as far as Harry's concerned Ginny barely exists--he for the most part ignores her, barely ever thinks of her, doesn't remember huge experiences in her life ("I forgot")--in other words, he really doesn't care all that much about her, other than as Ron's sister and a member of the beloved Weasley Collective. Yes, they occaisionally stand next to each other, and Harry makes some observations about her--like practicing magic, wincing as Neville trods on her feet, and putting her elbow in the butter--but he also notices Fred and Angelina dancing energetically, and Dumbledore leading McGonagall out to dance--do you think he maybe has some feelings for one of those two women?! *eyeroll* Harry's the narrator, he has eyes, he notices stuff going on in front of his eyes, and describes it so we have an idea of the scene. Doesn't mean he has any feelings for Ginny!
So when suddenly, completely out of the blue, Harry starts lusting after Ginny (timed with a strange, OOC roaring chest monster?) in the second to last book, with no lead up, and kisses her without showing any significant reasons (besides her hawt body of course!) for why he desires to do so, that's just silly. The main love interest of the protagonist should not be random and sudden and out of the blue--we're supposed to see it coming, be invested in it--it should gradually come about, subtly, there should be clues early on--and there just aren't for H/G (except that he saves her--big deal, he saves Sirius and Buckbeak as well, and there aren't too many of those shippers around. He has a saving people thing!). Hell, I dislike Ron/Hermione a lot, and I disagree that there were really big "anvils" in books 1-5, but at least there was some clues pointing to it earlier in the series than book 6--it didn't come as a complete surprise. It should not be the case however that a side pairing gets better development than the "main" one!
Honestly, though it didn't work out in the end b/c of bad circumstances at the moment, Harry/Cho at least had good development that was a hundred times better than H/G's development, with JK dropping clues of it a book before he shows outright interest in her, and two books before they finally get together!
Then, even when they get together it's badly developed, if you can use that term for a couple that doesn't seem to develop or grow or go anywhere after they first kiss--that just seems to stick at lust and leave it at that. The break-up scene was pointless and laughable, most of their time together in HBP is off-page anyway (VERY bad development-wise--how on earth can you get invested in an off-page romance? You're supposed to SHOW, not tell!), and in DH Ginny is simply an object of Harry's desire (he thinks about the physical much more often than Ginny's personality--it seems it's her snogging abilities he cares most about), his prize at the end for defeating Voldemort, who does everything he says. Wow, they sure are equals! *eyeroll*
3. It's based on lust (from Harry) and a shallow celebrity fangirl crush (from Ginny).
The idea that Harry and Ginny are deeply in love with each other, that Ginny has loved him from the start, annoys me to no end. Sorry, but Ginny has NOT loved Harry from the start--she couldn't care less about that black-haired boy she saw on the platform (no, they did NOT meet on the train, like JK's parents--I wouldn't even call what they did then meeting, for that matter he met Lee Jordan on the train as well, if seeing someone on the platform but not talking with them or being introduced to them is considered meeting them!) until she found out he was famous Harry Potter--only THEN is Miss Fangirl Ginny interested in him! When she next sees him at the end of SS/PS, when she has not seen him or had the chance to talk to Ron about him for a year, it's clear that her excitement at seeing him is still only because of his fame. And in CoS, we see that she fully has a fangirl crush on him--a mere fangirl crush, b/c she HAS NEVER SPOKEN TO HIM, and thus does not know him at all--hearing information secondhand doesn't count as knowing a person, it's no different from a fan reading about their fave celebrity online! She even sends a fanmail valentine showing how much her crush is only about his fame of defeating LV, with lines like, "he's really divine/the Hero who conquered the Dark Lord!" And she must really know him so well, to think he wouldn't be humiliated by a public valentine like that! *eyeroll* Then in PoA and GoF we continue to see her crushing on him when we see her at all, in OoTP she begins dating other guys to get him to notice her, and in HBP at the end she admits that the reason she LIKES (not loves!) him is still because of his fame regarding the Dark Lord! So how, pray tell, is she in love with him? When exactly did her feelings for him shift from shallow fangirl crush and hero-worship (which is certainly what her feelings initially were, there's no denying it!) to something deeper? Please, give me a page number, a passage, some kind of evidence! Because I really don't see any big shifting point--so when then, did Ginny's feelings for him deepen? Where does it show that they did?
Meanwhile, where do we see Harry loving Ginny in HBP? I see a chest monster (pure lust and hormones), and a fixation on her looks, appearance—and he fantasizes about her saying she LIKES him (way to aim high Harry—forget love! *eyeroll* ). Then in DH while he shows more signs of deeper feelings, he still spends most of his time thinking about her snogging abilities and what dirty things they did in dark corners at Hogwarts, rather than her personality or self—like when his last thoughts are of the touch of her lips (again with the physical only!) rather than her “humor” or alleged “warm and compassionate” personality!
In other words, lust is a large part of the equation in his feelings for Ginny, while an obsessive fangirl crush is the source of Ginny’s feelings—can you say SHALLOW and SUPERFICIAL? But that’s just what this ship is, and I just can’t get into a ship like that.
And why would I want Harry to end up with someone who only likes him because of his fame, especially considering what a reluctant celebrity he is? It just doesn’t seem fair to him.
4. The ridiculous idea that only Ginny understands and knows Harry, who can comfort him.
Sorry, but how? She barely interacts with him for the first four books--how can you know someone you barely interact with?! Sure, she can hear about him from Ron, but how is that really all that different from me reading about Dan Radcliffe online? In the end, it's still all second-hand knowledge, and you can't really know a person from that! And where on earth does it show her understanding Harry then? If she really understands him in books 1-4 as I’ve heard claimed, then why does she treat him like a zoo animal in SS when he hates being the center of attention then, as well as send him a very public valentine (which humiliated him), and a singing card (which he loved soo much he put it under a vase to shut it up!)? And in OOTP, she understands him sooo well that she can’t be bothered to get him to come out of his room when he’s sulking and brooding, but only says her oh-so-comforting spiel after Hermione does most of the work for her in bringing him out of hiding—why couldn’t the “love” of his life Ginny bother to do this? But no, she lets him stew….and he would have kept on stewing and brooding and being miserable if it weren’t for Hermione getting him out of there. Which is why the idea that his feeling better then was only because of Ginny (forget that JK says he felt better after listening to what they ALL said), that only she can comfort him, is rather absurd! Furthermore, in DH, we just see how well Ginny knows Harry with her “Gee, Harry, I had no idea what to get you for your birthday”—which is generally a sign you know someone well; no one else he loved had any problem picking out something appropriate for the occasion, well perhaps except Ron-please-find-another-girl-besides-my-sister-take-this-book Weasley—“so I’m just offering my body to you!” *eyeroll*
5. Ginny is a Mary Sue, whose only purpose is as Harry's Love Interest, or Trophy Wife.
Sorry, but Ginny is definitely and officially a Mary Sue—as the old CSTAR thread read, she took the Mary Sue test and passed! (I took an online Mary Sue litmus test twice, the second time more forgiving, and she still scored in the Mary Sue range—and when I had my friends do it, even non-virulent-Ginny-haters like myself, they still scored in the Mary Sue range!). From her sudden popularity (now all the guys at school desire her, even the ebil Slytherins!), quidditch skills (so good she becomes a star player in a few years!), and gorgeous looks, to her special (but never seen!) bat-bogey hex, her foreign and special name amongst the normal names of her family, her special-only-girl-in-family-seventh child of seventh son status, and her ability to get away with anything and still be loved unconditionally by all, makes her clearly a Sue beginning in OoTP, and definitely in HBP. The fact that Ginny has no purpose besides being Harry’s love interest furthers her Sue credentials. Now I don’t like ships that involve the Hero and a Mary Sue—I think it’s just a travesty and shame, he could do soo much better—so I cannot stand H/G on those grounds alone. I also just don’t like ships period in which the love interest is only that, nothing more—I like a ship in which the love interest has some other role or purpose already, who doesn’t exist only as a prize/snogdoll for the hero, and who just sits around and waits for him when the Hero is busy. And yet this is what Ginny is—a love interest, a walking womb, no more! We especially see this in DH. I’d rather Harry end up with an actual person in the books, not a robot created specifically to please him and serve his every need!
6. Ginny is petty and unreasonably jealous.
It’s pretty crazy and pathetic when you get jealous about an eleven year old girl, and can only think of veela your “love” might randomly hook up with when he goes away, rather than the fact that he’s doing something dangerous to fight LV, and can possibly lose his life, and it’s a silver lining that he won’t find have many opportunities to date other people! Not to mention her raising her hackles about Cho when Cho is just trying to help out (perhaps get back into the good graces of the DA and prove herself after the Marietta incident?), and Harry is in a big, life-threatening hurry—what, does she think Harry and Cho will have a quickie in the Ravenclaw common room? *eyeroll* I mean, he’s only ignored and shown contempt and disdain for Cho for the last two and a half years, while he’s made it clear that he’s keen on Ginny….I know all these jealous incidents are supposed to be cute, but I just find them annoying and stupid, not to mention silly. They really must have a strong bond, if Ginny can get so easily jealous about Harry! *eyeroll*
7. Even after they're together Harry ignores Ginny's feelings, and contributes nothing to the relationship.
I gotta say, you know Ginny’s the love of Harry’s life when he ignores her in her time of grief and would rather hang out with Ron and Hermione—sorry Ginny, Harry just doesn’t seem to crave your company THAT much I guess! It’s pretty disgusting how Harry expects Ginny to provide comfort to him when he needs it, but doesn’t feel compelled to ever reciprocate and give HER comfort when she’s grieving. It was the same thing with Cho—Harry just seems unwilling to work hard in a relationship and give anything to the other person. It’s all very well to accept Ginny giving herself for him, but as soon as she could use some support from him, it’s “Erm….gotta go!”
Really great relationship there! *eyeroll*
8. Ginny is completely submissive to Harry, going along with everything he does, never questioning him or his will.
Well it’s to be expected she would act in such a way given that she was created for the sole purpose of being Harry’s love interest and giving him babies. But it’s still rather irritating, the way she just goes along with anything he says—“Using dark magic are you Harry? Almost killing someone? Why there’s nothing wrong with that—don’t listen to that pesky conscience, it’s perfectly fine to use Dark Magic when it suits your purposes!” (Fine moral compass you are Ginny—no wonder in DH he’s torturing people for spitting on people he likes! *eyeroll* )—no matter how wrong he is. A yes-man, or woman in this case, is not a good thing, especially given how prone Harry is to mistakes and bad judgement. You need to be challenged once in a while by your love interest, disagreement is healthy once in a while—you shouldn’t just get with someone who mindlessly agrees with everything you say to keep in your good graces! Yet that’s exactly what Miss GinBot does—molds her every opinion and action to fit Harry’s will. Even in the end of DH she’s submitting to his will without argument in regard to the final fight—“well if you want me locked up in the tower, safe from everything, I’ll do that—whatever you say!”, and in HBP she allows him to break up with her without much protest (when he really had no reason to do so—Draco the Death Eater already knew she was Harry’s girlfriend, supposedly since CoS, and left before the break-up occurred—so as far as the Dark Lord knows, Harry’s still with Ginny. And meanwhile no one ever attacked Ginny to get to Harry—the break-up was completely pointless and stupid, just a pathetic excuse for a lame, cheesy, Spiderman-rip-offy scene. She could have pointed out the illogic of it to Harry, but no, that’s going against her programming to argue with Harry about such a thing! I mean, I don’t like Ginny much, but I still find this aspect of their relationship disturbing and sickening!
9. They both bring out the worst in each other.
You know, I used to like that Harry Potter kid a lot as a character—even in OOTP, once I got past the first reading, I liked him well enough, since I could get where he was coming from (I mean, this kid did have it pretty bad, he was neglected and abused as a child, people whispered about him in the halls, the Wizarding papers mocked him, he felt isolated, haunted by Cedric’s death….I think I’d be a little cranky too if I were in his shoes! Meanwhile Ginny was tolerable before HBP, though beginning to get Mary-Sueish in OoTP to pave the way for HBP I guess.
But then in HBP Harry becomes a complete jerk, acting sometimes as if he wanted to rival his father, whose behavior had once horrified Harry, but which now he seemed to want to emulate. He threatens people with hexes who annoy him (just like dear old dad!), cheats, barely seems to grieve over Sirius (Sirius who?), suddenly has a monster roaring in his chest, and acts like a total a-hole towards poor Dean. Likewise Ginny has turned into a full-blown Sue and bitch to boot, knocking into people on brooms when they say stuff she doesn’t like, hexing people who merely irritate her (also so like James), backstabbing her friends in order to get back at other people or brown-nose the guy they’re trying to land, using poor Dean without a thought to get noticed by Harry and then dropping him like a hot potato without a care for his feelings (because, here it comes, he acts like a gentleman! *gasp*) when he’s served his purpose, making fun of people for laughs (so like Malfoy!), making up immature names for Fleur, etc. It is after they have both become such awful people that they get together—almost as if JK felt the need to turn them into such jerks in ORDER to get them together—which just goes to show that they really do bring out the worst in each other, that their characters are completely jerk-i-fied and ruined in order for H/G to happen. This is something I cannot forgive—Harry used to be one of my favorite characters!
10. The way Ginny dedicates her whole life to landing The Boy Who Lived.
This is almost disturbing, and definitely sends the wrong message to girls IMO. It’s also rather archaic in this modern age for a girl to be completely defined by one man, and her struggle to land said man—people should have more aspirations in life than that! You shouldn’t have to remodel yourself to attract your guy, adjust all your opinions to fit with his, and devote so many of your energies to the pursuit of him—sometimes I wonder if she partly tried so hard to learn Quidditch just to get closer to Harry! Plus Ginny’s whole conceit in OoTP that she had given up on Harry (when she had never done so), and her dating two different boys just to get Harry to notice her is just so manipulative and conniving, while the whole “I never really gave up on you Harry” thing is pathetic—I mean, she’s been holding this fangirl, hero-worshipping candle for 6 years—you’re not supposed to hold on to celebrity crushes! And why, really? I guess Ginny just wants to be with a famous person that badly….but still, the whole thing is so bizarre and unrealistic. Sorry kids, but you can keep on crushing on Brad Pitt all you want—you’re not going to get him! *eyeroll* Even if JK’s message with H/G is otherwise!
And really, isn’t Harry just a little disturbed by her crush for him all these years? I mean, it’s almost obsessive, the way it absorbs her whole life….I guess hormones are just too powerful for Harry.
If you can't tell from the above essay, I'm a very opinionated and passionate shipper, especially when it comes to Harry Potter, where the only canon ship I like is Snape/Lily, and it's not even quite a canon ship as far as it being mutual (though JK said Lily could have potentially grown romantic feelings for him in time, under different circumstances, and that she loved him dearly as a friend). Otherwise, I hate H/G and R/Hr (though the former more so than the latter), as well as Lupin/Tonks, which is just so random and pointless, not to mention poorly done as well.
My OTP in the Potterverse is H/Hr, though I don't just hate H/G and R/Hr only because they interfere with my OTP--for one thing, see my long essay above for why I dislike H/G independently of my ship. For another, I do like Harry/Luna quite a lot, which obviously interferes with HHr as well! As for my other Harry Potter ships, they are Snape/Lily (as I said), James/Sirius (my only HP slash pair), Neville/Ginny, and Dean/Luna. I used to ship Ron/Luna instead, and while I still like it somewhat, I was converted to Dean/Luna by DH, with it's D/L hints, and b/c they make such a cute, artsy and Bohemian couple, and they both deserve some romance and happiness, especially the way poor Dean was so mistreated in HBP!
Ten Things I Can't Stand About Harry/Ginny:
1. It's very badly written.
I know that some people don't like it when people bash a ship by saying it's basly written, but no writer is perfect--you can bash some of their writing and not all of it. (For example, I love Eoin Colfer and the Artemis Fowl books, yet I think a majority of the AF fandom agrees that while he is an excellent writer in all other respects, Colfer simply cannot write romance well). And the fact is that cheesily roaring chest monsters and "We could have had years" (if I had given a damn and had been aware that you were alive) don't make for very great writing. And I just can't get into a ship that's not written very well.
2. It's very badly developed, and relies too much on telling rather than showing.
Sorry, but there is noooo evidence of H/G before HBP--yes, Ginny has a pathetic celebrity fangirl crush on Harry, but as far as Harry's concerned Ginny barely exists--he for the most part ignores her, barely ever thinks of her, doesn't remember huge experiences in her life ("I forgot")--in other words, he really doesn't care all that much about her, other than as Ron's sister and a member of the beloved Weasley Collective. Yes, they occaisionally stand next to each other, and Harry makes some observations about her--like practicing magic, wincing as Neville trods on her feet, and putting her elbow in the butter--but he also notices Fred and Angelina dancing energetically, and Dumbledore leading McGonagall out to dance--do you think he maybe has some feelings for one of those two women?! *eyeroll* Harry's the narrator, he has eyes, he notices stuff going on in front of his eyes, and describes it so we have an idea of the scene. Doesn't mean he has any feelings for Ginny!
So when suddenly, completely out of the blue, Harry starts lusting after Ginny (timed with a strange, OOC roaring chest monster?) in the second to last book, with no lead up, and kisses her without showing any significant reasons (besides her hawt body of course!) for why he desires to do so, that's just silly. The main love interest of the protagonist should not be random and sudden and out of the blue--we're supposed to see it coming, be invested in it--it should gradually come about, subtly, there should be clues early on--and there just aren't for H/G (except that he saves her--big deal, he saves Sirius and Buckbeak as well, and there aren't too many of those shippers around. He has a saving people thing!). Hell, I dislike Ron/Hermione a lot, and I disagree that there were really big "anvils" in books 1-5, but at least there was some clues pointing to it earlier in the series than book 6--it didn't come as a complete surprise. It should not be the case however that a side pairing gets better development than the "main" one!
Honestly, though it didn't work out in the end b/c of bad circumstances at the moment, Harry/Cho at least had good development that was a hundred times better than H/G's development, with JK dropping clues of it a book before he shows outright interest in her, and two books before they finally get together!
Then, even when they get together it's badly developed, if you can use that term for a couple that doesn't seem to develop or grow or go anywhere after they first kiss--that just seems to stick at lust and leave it at that. The break-up scene was pointless and laughable, most of their time together in HBP is off-page anyway (VERY bad development-wise--how on earth can you get invested in an off-page romance? You're supposed to SHOW, not tell!), and in DH Ginny is simply an object of Harry's desire (he thinks about the physical much more often than Ginny's personality--it seems it's her snogging abilities he cares most about), his prize at the end for defeating Voldemort, who does everything he says. Wow, they sure are equals! *eyeroll*
3. It's based on lust (from Harry) and a shallow celebrity fangirl crush (from Ginny).
The idea that Harry and Ginny are deeply in love with each other, that Ginny has loved him from the start, annoys me to no end. Sorry, but Ginny has NOT loved Harry from the start--she couldn't care less about that black-haired boy she saw on the platform (no, they did NOT meet on the train, like JK's parents--I wouldn't even call what they did then meeting, for that matter he met Lee Jordan on the train as well, if seeing someone on the platform but not talking with them or being introduced to them is considered meeting them!) until she found out he was famous Harry Potter--only THEN is Miss Fangirl Ginny interested in him! When she next sees him at the end of SS/PS, when she has not seen him or had the chance to talk to Ron about him for a year, it's clear that her excitement at seeing him is still only because of his fame. And in CoS, we see that she fully has a fangirl crush on him--a mere fangirl crush, b/c she HAS NEVER SPOKEN TO HIM, and thus does not know him at all--hearing information secondhand doesn't count as knowing a person, it's no different from a fan reading about their fave celebrity online! She even sends a fanmail valentine showing how much her crush is only about his fame of defeating LV, with lines like, "he's really divine/the Hero who conquered the Dark Lord!" And she must really know him so well, to think he wouldn't be humiliated by a public valentine like that! *eyeroll* Then in PoA and GoF we continue to see her crushing on him when we see her at all, in OoTP she begins dating other guys to get him to notice her, and in HBP at the end she admits that the reason she LIKES (not loves!) him is still because of his fame regarding the Dark Lord! So how, pray tell, is she in love with him? When exactly did her feelings for him shift from shallow fangirl crush and hero-worship (which is certainly what her feelings initially were, there's no denying it!) to something deeper? Please, give me a page number, a passage, some kind of evidence! Because I really don't see any big shifting point--so when then, did Ginny's feelings for him deepen? Where does it show that they did?
Meanwhile, where do we see Harry loving Ginny in HBP? I see a chest monster (pure lust and hormones), and a fixation on her looks, appearance—and he fantasizes about her saying she LIKES him (way to aim high Harry—forget love! *eyeroll* ). Then in DH while he shows more signs of deeper feelings, he still spends most of his time thinking about her snogging abilities and what dirty things they did in dark corners at Hogwarts, rather than her personality or self—like when his last thoughts are of the touch of her lips (again with the physical only!) rather than her “humor” or alleged “warm and compassionate” personality!
In other words, lust is a large part of the equation in his feelings for Ginny, while an obsessive fangirl crush is the source of Ginny’s feelings—can you say SHALLOW and SUPERFICIAL? But that’s just what this ship is, and I just can’t get into a ship like that.
And why would I want Harry to end up with someone who only likes him because of his fame, especially considering what a reluctant celebrity he is? It just doesn’t seem fair to him.
4. The ridiculous idea that only Ginny understands and knows Harry, who can comfort him.
Sorry, but how? She barely interacts with him for the first four books--how can you know someone you barely interact with?! Sure, she can hear about him from Ron, but how is that really all that different from me reading about Dan Radcliffe online? In the end, it's still all second-hand knowledge, and you can't really know a person from that! And where on earth does it show her understanding Harry then? If she really understands him in books 1-4 as I’ve heard claimed, then why does she treat him like a zoo animal in SS when he hates being the center of attention then, as well as send him a very public valentine (which humiliated him), and a singing card (which he loved soo much he put it under a vase to shut it up!)? And in OOTP, she understands him sooo well that she can’t be bothered to get him to come out of his room when he’s sulking and brooding, but only says her oh-so-comforting spiel after Hermione does most of the work for her in bringing him out of hiding—why couldn’t the “love” of his life Ginny bother to do this? But no, she lets him stew….and he would have kept on stewing and brooding and being miserable if it weren’t for Hermione getting him out of there. Which is why the idea that his feeling better then was only because of Ginny (forget that JK says he felt better after listening to what they ALL said), that only she can comfort him, is rather absurd! Furthermore, in DH, we just see how well Ginny knows Harry with her “Gee, Harry, I had no idea what to get you for your birthday”—which is generally a sign you know someone well; no one else he loved had any problem picking out something appropriate for the occasion, well perhaps except Ron-please-find-another-girl-besides-my-sister-take-this-book Weasley—“so I’m just offering my body to you!” *eyeroll*
5. Ginny is a Mary Sue, whose only purpose is as Harry's Love Interest, or Trophy Wife.
Sorry, but Ginny is definitely and officially a Mary Sue—as the old CSTAR thread read, she took the Mary Sue test and passed! (I took an online Mary Sue litmus test twice, the second time more forgiving, and she still scored in the Mary Sue range—and when I had my friends do it, even non-virulent-Ginny-haters like myself, they still scored in the Mary Sue range!). From her sudden popularity (now all the guys at school desire her, even the ebil Slytherins!), quidditch skills (so good she becomes a star player in a few years!), and gorgeous looks, to her special (but never seen!) bat-bogey hex, her foreign and special name amongst the normal names of her family, her special-only-girl-in-family-seventh child of seventh son status, and her ability to get away with anything and still be loved unconditionally by all, makes her clearly a Sue beginning in OoTP, and definitely in HBP. The fact that Ginny has no purpose besides being Harry’s love interest furthers her Sue credentials. Now I don’t like ships that involve the Hero and a Mary Sue—I think it’s just a travesty and shame, he could do soo much better—so I cannot stand H/G on those grounds alone. I also just don’t like ships period in which the love interest is only that, nothing more—I like a ship in which the love interest has some other role or purpose already, who doesn’t exist only as a prize/snogdoll for the hero, and who just sits around and waits for him when the Hero is busy. And yet this is what Ginny is—a love interest, a walking womb, no more! We especially see this in DH. I’d rather Harry end up with an actual person in the books, not a robot created specifically to please him and serve his every need!
6. Ginny is petty and unreasonably jealous.
It’s pretty crazy and pathetic when you get jealous about an eleven year old girl, and can only think of veela your “love” might randomly hook up with when he goes away, rather than the fact that he’s doing something dangerous to fight LV, and can possibly lose his life, and it’s a silver lining that he won’t find have many opportunities to date other people! Not to mention her raising her hackles about Cho when Cho is just trying to help out (perhaps get back into the good graces of the DA and prove herself after the Marietta incident?), and Harry is in a big, life-threatening hurry—what, does she think Harry and Cho will have a quickie in the Ravenclaw common room? *eyeroll* I mean, he’s only ignored and shown contempt and disdain for Cho for the last two and a half years, while he’s made it clear that he’s keen on Ginny….I know all these jealous incidents are supposed to be cute, but I just find them annoying and stupid, not to mention silly. They really must have a strong bond, if Ginny can get so easily jealous about Harry! *eyeroll*
7. Even after they're together Harry ignores Ginny's feelings, and contributes nothing to the relationship.
I gotta say, you know Ginny’s the love of Harry’s life when he ignores her in her time of grief and would rather hang out with Ron and Hermione—sorry Ginny, Harry just doesn’t seem to crave your company THAT much I guess! It’s pretty disgusting how Harry expects Ginny to provide comfort to him when he needs it, but doesn’t feel compelled to ever reciprocate and give HER comfort when she’s grieving. It was the same thing with Cho—Harry just seems unwilling to work hard in a relationship and give anything to the other person. It’s all very well to accept Ginny giving herself for him, but as soon as she could use some support from him, it’s “Erm….gotta go!”
Really great relationship there! *eyeroll*
8. Ginny is completely submissive to Harry, going along with everything he does, never questioning him or his will.
Well it’s to be expected she would act in such a way given that she was created for the sole purpose of being Harry’s love interest and giving him babies. But it’s still rather irritating, the way she just goes along with anything he says—“Using dark magic are you Harry? Almost killing someone? Why there’s nothing wrong with that—don’t listen to that pesky conscience, it’s perfectly fine to use Dark Magic when it suits your purposes!” (Fine moral compass you are Ginny—no wonder in DH he’s torturing people for spitting on people he likes! *eyeroll* )—no matter how wrong he is. A yes-man, or woman in this case, is not a good thing, especially given how prone Harry is to mistakes and bad judgement. You need to be challenged once in a while by your love interest, disagreement is healthy once in a while—you shouldn’t just get with someone who mindlessly agrees with everything you say to keep in your good graces! Yet that’s exactly what Miss GinBot does—molds her every opinion and action to fit Harry’s will. Even in the end of DH she’s submitting to his will without argument in regard to the final fight—“well if you want me locked up in the tower, safe from everything, I’ll do that—whatever you say!”, and in HBP she allows him to break up with her without much protest (when he really had no reason to do so—Draco the Death Eater already knew she was Harry’s girlfriend, supposedly since CoS, and left before the break-up occurred—so as far as the Dark Lord knows, Harry’s still with Ginny. And meanwhile no one ever attacked Ginny to get to Harry—the break-up was completely pointless and stupid, just a pathetic excuse for a lame, cheesy, Spiderman-rip-offy scene. She could have pointed out the illogic of it to Harry, but no, that’s going against her programming to argue with Harry about such a thing! I mean, I don’t like Ginny much, but I still find this aspect of their relationship disturbing and sickening!
9. They both bring out the worst in each other.
You know, I used to like that Harry Potter kid a lot as a character—even in OOTP, once I got past the first reading, I liked him well enough, since I could get where he was coming from (I mean, this kid did have it pretty bad, he was neglected and abused as a child, people whispered about him in the halls, the Wizarding papers mocked him, he felt isolated, haunted by Cedric’s death….I think I’d be a little cranky too if I were in his shoes! Meanwhile Ginny was tolerable before HBP, though beginning to get Mary-Sueish in OoTP to pave the way for HBP I guess.
But then in HBP Harry becomes a complete jerk, acting sometimes as if he wanted to rival his father, whose behavior had once horrified Harry, but which now he seemed to want to emulate. He threatens people with hexes who annoy him (just like dear old dad!), cheats, barely seems to grieve over Sirius (Sirius who?), suddenly has a monster roaring in his chest, and acts like a total a-hole towards poor Dean. Likewise Ginny has turned into a full-blown Sue and bitch to boot, knocking into people on brooms when they say stuff she doesn’t like, hexing people who merely irritate her (also so like James), backstabbing her friends in order to get back at other people or brown-nose the guy they’re trying to land, using poor Dean without a thought to get noticed by Harry and then dropping him like a hot potato without a care for his feelings (because, here it comes, he acts like a gentleman! *gasp*) when he’s served his purpose, making fun of people for laughs (so like Malfoy!), making up immature names for Fleur, etc. It is after they have both become such awful people that they get together—almost as if JK felt the need to turn them into such jerks in ORDER to get them together—which just goes to show that they really do bring out the worst in each other, that their characters are completely jerk-i-fied and ruined in order for H/G to happen. This is something I cannot forgive—Harry used to be one of my favorite characters!
10. The way Ginny dedicates her whole life to landing The Boy Who Lived.
This is almost disturbing, and definitely sends the wrong message to girls IMO. It’s also rather archaic in this modern age for a girl to be completely defined by one man, and her struggle to land said man—people should have more aspirations in life than that! You shouldn’t have to remodel yourself to attract your guy, adjust all your opinions to fit with his, and devote so many of your energies to the pursuit of him—sometimes I wonder if she partly tried so hard to learn Quidditch just to get closer to Harry! Plus Ginny’s whole conceit in OoTP that she had given up on Harry (when she had never done so), and her dating two different boys just to get Harry to notice her is just so manipulative and conniving, while the whole “I never really gave up on you Harry” thing is pathetic—I mean, she’s been holding this fangirl, hero-worshipping candle for 6 years—you’re not supposed to hold on to celebrity crushes! And why, really? I guess Ginny just wants to be with a famous person that badly….but still, the whole thing is so bizarre and unrealistic. Sorry kids, but you can keep on crushing on Brad Pitt all you want—you’re not going to get him! *eyeroll* Even if JK’s message with H/G is otherwise!
And really, isn’t Harry just a little disturbed by her crush for him all these years? I mean, it’s almost obsessive, the way it absorbs her whole life….I guess hormones are just too powerful for Harry.
If you can't tell from the above essay, I'm a very opinionated and passionate shipper, especially when it comes to Harry Potter, where the only canon ship I like is Snape/Lily, and it's not even quite a canon ship as far as it being mutual (though JK said Lily could have potentially grown romantic feelings for him in time, under different circumstances, and that she loved him dearly as a friend). Otherwise, I hate H/G and R/Hr (though the former more so than the latter), as well as Lupin/Tonks, which is just so random and pointless, not to mention poorly done as well.
My OTP in the Potterverse is H/Hr, though I don't just hate H/G and R/Hr only because they interfere with my OTP--for one thing, see my long essay above for why I dislike H/G independently of my ship. For another, I do like Harry/Luna quite a lot, which obviously interferes with HHr as well! As for my other Harry Potter ships, they are Snape/Lily (as I said), James/Sirius (my only HP slash pair), Neville/Ginny, and Dean/Luna. I used to ship Ron/Luna instead, and while I still like it somewhat, I was converted to Dean/Luna by DH, with it's D/L hints, and b/c they make such a cute, artsy and Bohemian couple, and they both deserve some romance and happiness, especially the way poor Dean was so mistreated in HBP!
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Date: 2007-10-25 11:38 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-10-26 02:18 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-04-23 02:27 pm (UTC)I don't think there's anyone for Harry in this series to be honest.
You sure must have burst an eye vessel with all the eye rolling though.
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Date: 2008-04-23 02:32 pm (UTC)Anyways, all the stuff you say is before they get together so you can't really say they bring out the worst in each other ... because your "evidence" is before and so if anything, the lack of evidence after their getting together would show that they bring out the best in each other. Just though I'd point that out.
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Date: 2008-04-23 06:42 pm (UTC)And you may have loved the thing with Hermione, but I consider that back-stabbing a friend--she blabbed a secret Hermione had confided in her to Ron so that Ron suddenly hurts Hermione by kissing Lavendar after Hermione had just plucked up the courage to ask Ron to the party with her, leaving Hermione bewildered and confused--and then doesn't bother admitting to Hermione that this action of hers might be the reason Ron is doing this....if your friend obnoxiously shut you down like that in front of a mutual friend you would consider that to be perfectly alright and not back-stabbing at all? Okaaay....
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Date: 2008-04-23 06:55 pm (UTC)I'm sorry that you think most of my reasons are crap, though I'd be interested to know which ones--the one about her having no other purpose than to be Harry's LI? The bad writing and development? That Harry doesn't contribute anything to the relationship? That Ginny goes along with pretty much whatever he says? Because as I showed with my examples, these things are all present in the text....and really, I don't just dislike H/G because I'm and H/Hr-shipper--if that were the case, then I wouldn't have enjoyed H/C or have been rooting for H/L in DH. There is something specifically offensive about H/G in its own right, as I go on about at length in my essay...
And while the veela thing might have been a lame joke, her clear jealous reaction to a TEN-year old girl was not--it's pathetic and petty. Maybe you think a 16-year-old being jealous of a 10-yr-old making the moves on your 17-yr-old LI, but I don't....
If Hermione were the Mary Sue of the series, she wouldn't have been perceived so negatively by her peers for her faults--she gets called out on her crap, and has people making fun of her and hating her and insulting her, whereas Ginny acts like the biggest bitca of all in HBP, ramming into people and jinxing people and saying mean things and making fun of people, and people do nothing but praise her, even going out of their way to say how beautiful she is (Death Eaters and Slytherins too, to make SURE everyone knows of her splendor!). Hermione also has other purposes in the series besides being a LI....and what do you mean "where did that come from" in DH, "books and cleverness" has been a central part of her character since book 1, and even if she OOC-ly cowered away from battle in HBP, she has bravely fought/carried out missions before in OOTP and PoA.
I respect your opinion that there probably isn't anyone for Harry in this series--by the end I might be inclined to agree. Certainly not easily at least....