This is an awesome essay. Anyone who doesn't believe Ginny is a Mary Sue should read it and anyone who does believe will enjoy reading it.
Link to essay
Link to essay
Harry Potter Ginny the Mary Sue
- Thread starter immolo
- Start date
I wouldn't call that "conclusive proof". There's hardly any textual citations. Personally, I don't believe Ginny qualifies. And no, I am not particularly a fan of the H/G pairing. I'd have preferred Harry/Luna by miles.
As for whether Ginny's a self-insert, Rowling has stated on numerous occasions that if anyone in the books is a self-insert, it's Hermione.
Personally, I'd say Nymphadora Tonks is much closer to Mary Sue-ishness than Ginny, being that Tonks is the one who shows up on the scene with new, previously unknown powers; enthralls the cast with her coolness; and then becomes a love interest for a significant character. Too bad that she's killed off-screen by her aunt. I guess that probably disqualifies her.
If you want to see a CONCLUSIVE essay, I think this one debunking H/Hr is much better. It was written in 2004 and only covers five books, but I don't think it would *need* to cover six and seven. Linky.
As for whether Ginny's a self-insert, Rowling has stated on numerous occasions that if anyone in the books is a self-insert, it's Hermione.
Personally, I'd say Nymphadora Tonks is much closer to Mary Sue-ishness than Ginny, being that Tonks is the one who shows up on the scene with new, previously unknown powers; enthralls the cast with her coolness; and then becomes a love interest for a significant character. Too bad that she's killed off-screen by her aunt. I guess that probably disqualifies her.
If you want to see a CONCLUSIVE essay, I think this one debunking H/Hr is much better. It was written in 2004 and only covers five books, but I don't think it would *need* to cover six and seven. Linky.
The second part since no one noticed there was more than one.
The third part.
Besides a self insert is very different from a Mary Sue. Most SI's have flaws but end up being Deus ex Machina which Hermione is. On the other hand Mary Sue's are perfect but have pseudo flaws. If you name a Mary Sue after yourself it is still a Mary Sue but a SI actually has your real personality.
The third part.
Besides a self insert is very different from a Mary Sue. Most SI's have flaws but end up being Deus ex Machina which Hermione is. On the other hand Mary Sue's are perfect but have pseudo flaws. If you name a Mary Sue after yourself it is still a Mary Sue but a SI actually has your real personality.
I think you have to be pretty egotistical to say the character you have described as the cleverest witch of her generation is a self insert.
The characterisations in Harry Potter aren't bad. Luna's character is consistant and enjoyable, Ron's is also pretty consistant, as is Hermione, Dumbledore, Snape and Voldemort. With the shit going on in Harry's life it's no wonder he's all over the place.The rest don't really matter.
Ginny is the only main character with poor development if you ask me. After being posessed by Voldemort in her first year and thoroughly exploited, I can't understand how she transformed into the character she was when she was reintroduced in book 4, just two years later. Her character, fears, and motivations weren't really explored.
The characterisations in Harry Potter aren't bad. Luna's character is consistant and enjoyable, Ron's is also pretty consistant, as is Hermione, Dumbledore, Snape and Voldemort. With the shit going on in Harry's life it's no wonder he's all over the place.The rest don't really matter.
Ginny is the only main character with poor development if you ask me. After being posessed by Voldemort in her first year and thoroughly exploited, I can't understand how she transformed into the character she was when she was reintroduced in book 4, just two years later. Her character, fears, and motivations weren't really explored.
To call Ginny a mary-sue is to assign her a great deal more importance than she really deserves based on her virtually non-existent impact on the actual plot of the books. The only one where she was really significant in any way was COS and you could replace her with pretty much any other character in the series and get much the same results from it. Beyond that, her role is almost entirely superficial and brief with her existing solely to be the object of Harry's teenage lust. I really don't understand how anyone could strongly ship the pair of them or have strong feelings about her character; neither have any meaningful impact on anything important.
I suppose I should have a look. I've just read so many damn essays bitching about flaws in HP, both real and imagined, that it's hard to get the motivation up. That was more of a general response to the amount of 'Ginny is a Mary Sue and hence the devil child! Rargh Harry should have gotten together with Hermione/Cho/Susan/Pansy/Tracey/Daphne/Hannah/Parvati/Padma/ whoever' I've seen. The level of hate she gets in some quarters is rather bizarre. At least I think so.