Board 8 > Do you like this character? Day 1349: Ginny Weasley (Harry Potter)

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Rules
Just post yes or no for whether or not you like the character in question. It can be for any reason. You're welcome (and encouraged!) to give an explanation, but none is required.
No alts, obviously.
Topic generally lasts for 24 hours, but may go on longer if the new one is not up yet.
If you don't know the character in any way, please don't vote. Please also clearly state if it's a Yes or No vote. Neutral = No.
For characters with multiple versions/adaptations, you may use your own criteria (favourite, average, etc).
Nominations are welcome!
Any help keeping this bumped is appreciated.

All Previous Results
https://board8.fandom.com/wiki/Do_You_Like_This_Character

Results
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Obi-Wan Kenobi (Star Wars): 85.00% [40 votes]
Quasimodo (The Hunchback of Notre Dame): 85.00% [20 votes]
Thrall (Warcraft): 85.00% [20 votes]: 85.00% [20 votes]
Doctor John A. Zoidberg (Futurama): 84.91% [53 votes]
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Chris Thorndike (Sonic X): 5.00% [20 votes]
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Ethan Ryan MacManus (Ctrl+Alt+Del): 0.00% [22 votes]
The Kids (Trix): 0.00% [84 votes]

Last Day's Result
Quasimodo places higher than his master, Judge Claude Frollo (70.83%).

Today's Character
Ginny Weasley is an English pure-blood witch, the youngest of Arthur and Molly Weasley's seven children, and the first female to be born into the Weasley line for several generations. Ginny attended Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry and was sorted into Gryffindor House.

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Nah

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No

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No.

No.

Red string(y hair.)

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Eh, no.

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I don't find there to be anything remarkable or memorable about her, despite her being the protagonist's love interest and the tritagonist's younger sister. I feel like she was a missed opportunity.

Neutral no
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No. She's very bland and an awful love interest for Harry that I'm convinced JKR only went with because for some ungodly reason it's what the fans wanted. Even if she was dead set on Ron/Hermione being a thing, it should have been Harry/Luna.

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BlueCrystalTear posted...

the tritagonist's younger sister

Interesting remark here. I've almost always seen Ron called the deuteragonist and Hermione the tritagonist, or, alternatively, both of them splitting the deuteragonist role, but I've never seen Ron called the tritagonist.

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Underleveled posted...

Interesting remark here. I've almost always seen Ron called the deuteragonist and Hermione the tritagonist, or, alternatively, both of them splitting the deuteragonist role, but I've never seen Ron called the tritagonist.

I've considered Hermione more important than Ron because of how much plot she facilitated vs. Ron (i.e. the Time Turner), even though Ron was closer to Harry. Both of them being called the deuteragonist could work though tbh
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no

Ron is more important via his connection to the Weasleys, but Hermione does more stuff on her own

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No

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I like how Ginny is so uninteresting that we've already deviated into a discussion of deuteragonists and tritagonists

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Nah
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I'll be the dissenting opinion, I guess. Book Ginny is awesome. Movie Ginny is a disaster.

Overall, yes, because very little in the movies really matters to me much.

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yes
probs pretty damning that i remember her better as Ron's sidecharacter sister from the first 5 books than i do her as Harry's love interest in the latter 2 books tho.

Yes

Always thought she got a worse treatment than she deserved by fans

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No, mostly neutral.

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No. She's a boring piece of wood.

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No, out of neutrality. One of my clearest memories of those books was my bemusement at pairing Harry with her.

Nah

Yes

i liked how she grew out of her shell in the later books. has some cool moments like being the one to suggest the name "Dumbledore's Army" and getting an invite to Slughorn's club despite not having any connections like the others

don't care much for the romance with Harry but WHATEVER

No

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kateee posted...

Yes

i liked how she grew out of her shell in the later books. has some cool moments like being the one to suggest the name "Dumbledore's Army" and getting an invite to Slughorn's club despite not having any connections like the others

don't care much for the romance with Harry but WHATEVER

This exactly

Book Ginny in later books, especially, is good. Was never sure about the pairing but whatever. She gets like no screentime and lacks presence in the movies

Yes

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I adamantly do not like her. I wouldn't go as far as to say I hate her, but I didn't like her in the novels or films and I absolutely despise her "romance" with Harry. As far as her character it's more like I feel a raging apathy toward her.
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No

I did like her well enough prior to Harry randomly falling in love with her, but that kind of killed what positive feelings I had.

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no

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n

yes

Ginny wasn't that bad.

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no

No

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NO

Most dull character in all the movies, zero chemistry with Harry, just a disaster all around.


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Yes but only in the books

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No

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Yes

Book Ginny is great. Movie Ginny is atrocious.
Everyone forgets she's supposed to be very attractive in the books. Imagine a teenage boy being attracted to a hot girl that he knows likes him.

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I don't dislike her, but I don't really like her either. So...

no

Like...of the three students who are basically declared as tertiary characters at the end of book 5, Luna, Neville, and Ginny, I really like both Luna and Neville, and just...don't have a strong opinion on Ginny. Didn't leave much of an impression on me.

Part of this is a writing flaw, I think. Ginny is prominent in book 2, then kinda just disappears for two books. Like...basically doesn't exist in book 3 and 4. Exists again in book 5, but sets up no real foreshadowing for her future role. (There is foreshadowing for the romantic pairing, but it's all self-contained in book 6. The kind of foreshadowing I liked was foreshadowing between books. Like...literally the fandom figured out that Petunia saying "I overheard that awful boy telling her" about Dementors, the fandom actually correctly deciphered who the "awful boy" was before the book came out--that was a cool moment).

Alright, so anyway, no real foreshadowing before book 6, fine whatever. Won't matter to people entering the fandom after the books are written, which is probably most of the fandom today and I'm just old. Now that this whole romance has been set up in book 6, what's done with Ginny in book 7? Oh right, Harry's like "we're gonna save the world, sorry, you can't come with us", and...she's basically not in the book. You know, before the series ended, my friends and I speculated that the trio would expand to the six with Luna Ginny and Neville, and eventually to 7 members because "7 is the most powerfully magical number" (the obvious 7th member being Draco Malfoy). But nope, none of that, only the trio. Now, there was still room for people to have a cool moment in book 7. Harry's confrontation with Lupin is flat out one of the best scenes in the book. Luna doesn't do too much in the book, but we get a nice long scene with Luna's dad, and it feels like character development for Luna. There's some redemption arcs for characters previously portrayed as villains; I'll avoid spoilers there. A bunch of good guys get some really memorable moment in the big final battle. Hagrid does, Neville does. Ginny moments in the final battle...well...she, Hermione, and Luna do end up in this three-on-one duel against a death eater. But like...a different weasley steals the spotlight from all three of them. Even After all the bad guys die, and Harry sneaks away to have a personal moment...he doesn't sneak away to have a personal moment with Ginny, though, he sneaks away to have a personal moment with Ron, Hermione, and a painting.

The end result with Ginny is a character that...is just in and out of the series--in some books almost absent, basically a minor background character about as important as, say, Kingsley Shacklebolt in books 3, 4, and 7. Her disappearing in books 3 and 4 is fine--she's not really marked a major character yet, but her general absence in book 7 feels really, really weird. And then the books where she is important, 2, 5, and 6, she's like...a different character with a different role in each of the three books. With not a lot of setup for the character shifts. Not that characters need to have on-screen character development--Neville Longbottom is an example of a character who mostly has an off-screen training montage, which makes sense, Harry doesn't dislike Neville but he doesn't have a reason to be paying more than normal amounts of attention to Neville. But he does have a reason to be paying more than normal amounts of attention to Ginny, and even if he arguably doesn't before book 6, Ron does.

Meh...I want to like her, she's an archetype I often tend to like, but I feel she wasn't executed all that well, and...in the end I think there's about five or six Weasleys I like more than her.

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5tarscream posted...

Everyone forgets she's supposed to be very attractive in the books.

Maybe that's because she's unmemorable for the first three books, and I can't remember anything she did in books 4 through 7 (though I haven't read them in a decade). Voldemort's zombie in Chamber of Secrets could've been anyone - there was no reason it had to be Ginny specifically, and it being her didn't raise the stakes since we'd only been told to care about her since she's Ron's sister. We hadn't yet learned to care about Ginny herself, and we never really did.

metroid composite posted...

Like...of the three students who are basically declared as tertiary characters at the end of book 5, Luna, Neville, and Ginny, I really like both Luna and Neville, and just...don't have a strong opinion on Ginny. Didn't leave much of an impression on me.

And this is a good way to put it. Ginny is dwarfed by Luna and Neville. I can even name things that even less important characters did, such as Parvati Patil (the whole Yule Ball sequence). Ginny is also dwarfed by most of her brothers. Bill married Fleur, Percy was a prefect who worked for the Ministry of Magic, Fred and George are unforgettably wacky, and Ron is Ron. I'd only put her above Charlie and Percy, about even with Bill.

Again, she's a missed opportunity, even in the books. She and Harry never had what was necessary to be a memorable romance. So that's why I am a neutral no.
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BlueCrystalTear posted...
and I can't remember anything she did in books 4 through 7 (though I haven't read them in a decade).

I mean, she's okay in book 5 and 6.

She did some stuff in book 5 (early on, Harry hides himself away cause he's worried Voldemort is mind controlling him, and then Ginny's like "you idiot, you should have come and talked to me cause I'm the only person you've known who was mind controlled by Voldemort." She joins "Dumbledore's Army", responds with Luna and Neville in the crisis moment at the end of the book, although I think she disappears offscreen pretty fast in that fight. In that fight...Ron gets some interesting moments, cause he gets super duper high and starts giggling about brains. Neville is the one who is really memorable, chasing down Bellatrix while he's so injured he can barely talk. I guess Luna is memorable for transportation to the ministry suggesting using Threstals. Hold on, let me check a wiki...Ginny in that fight...sprained her ankle off screne. Yeah, OK).

And then in book 6 Ginny...has this pretty funny scene in Fred and George's shop, where Ron has been feeding Fred and George information on people Ginny's been dating, Fred and George get mad at her, and she's like, yo, I date who I want you're not the boss of me. In that book we find out she's...really good at quidditch. Supposedly her brothers never let her play, but she was sneaking into the broom closet when they weren't looking, and is like...better than Ron. Ends up in the slug club cause Slughorn sees her hexing some slytherin. Gets one of the top chaser roles on the team. Harry and Ron walk in on her and Dean snogging, which makes Harry and Ron mad for different reasons. And then when Harry gets detention, Ginny fills in as seeker, and wins the game for them. And finally she does the kiss in front of everyone.

Although...honestly, it doesn't help that JKR was getting really tired of writing quidditch scenes by the time she wrote book 6, so she makes every excuse to have Harry off the field so that the actual match doesn't need to be narrated. And a lot of the quidditch drama that does exist in book 6 is centered around Ron with "Weasley is our King". And...the second most memorable character in Quidditch that year is Luna Lovegood with her commentary ("Loser's Lurgy"). So...even though Quidditch is a big breakout thing for Ginny in book 6, she still kinda takes a backseat in quidditch writing.

Still...before book 7 came out, I was generally on forums defending Ginny, sure, maybe Ginny didn't yet have a super satisfying moment (like hermione punching malfoy in the face and saying "that felt good"), but clearly this is all setup, and Ginny will get her cool moments in book 7 right? Right?? Right???

And then book 7 came around, and Ginny got literally nothing.

BlueCrystalTear posted...

Ginny is also dwarfed by most of her brothers. Bill married Fleur, Percy was a prefect who worked for the Ministry of Magic, Fred and George are unforgettably wacky, and Ron is Ron. I'd only put her above Charlie and Percy, about even with Bill.

Among Weasleys, I don't think I would put Bill above Ginny. Like...other than being described as a super cool dude just about the only conversation I can remember where he says or does something interesting is warning Harry about how goblins conceptualize ownership of property. (I would, however, put Fleur above Ginny, if we're counting Fleur as a Weasley by marriage).

Not mentioned in your list cause they're not Weasley siblings, but I would put both Arthur and Molly above Ginny for sure.

And...honestly, not necessarily in terms of overall likeability, but in terms of how well the character is written, I would for sure put Percy above Ginny as well. Has a real character arc, with an incredibly satisfying conclusion "Hello, Minister! Did I mention I'm resigning?"

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BlueCrystalTear posted...

Maybe that's because she's unmemorable for the first three books

Actually she's pretty damn important in Book 2.

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Luna has a lot more personality than Ginny as well, so that's important. There's also more payoff with so many more characters, in part because Rowling kind of forgot about Ginny. Harry marrying and reproducing with Ginny felt kind of out of nowhere. There was some "like" there but it never blossomed. And perhaps that was Rowling growing weary with writing the series. The Quidditch scenes being cut were tragic - and that started with book 4, with just the professional match and the rest not happening because of the Triwizard. Umbridge stopped Quidditch in 5 unprovoked, and they were away from Hogwarts for most of 7. I don't remember 6 much, which goes to show how it was written.

metroid composite posted...

Not mentioned in your list cause they're not Weasley siblings, but I would put both Arthur and Molly above Ginny for sure.

Yeah, that's a given. As for Bill... I just remember him being pretty likable and down to earth, but not much else. Hence why she's even with him. I had forgotten Percy's resignation scene - shows that it's been a while - and that sounds awesome. Better than anything Ginny did.

Underleveled posted...

Actually she's pretty damn important in Book 2.

I elaborated on that, and why I felt that said importance doesn't make her memorable.
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Yes

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Yes.

Nominate Bass (from Mega Man)

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^

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Yes

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New round probably later today

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No. Boring in the movies and the books I've read.

I haven't read every book but I read most of the last few and I feel like people saying "she's better in the books" are exaggerating a bit.

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