Ah yes, another monday night spent shirking schoolward responsibilities in order to write a blog post. Originally I wanted to call this post "The Lucas/Rowling Love Affair" but I figured that wouldn't look good in potential Google search. Besides that, I figured out that it was Twilight, not Harry Potter, that I'd compared the Star Wars prequels to a little while back.
Yes, this is another blog post about Harry Potter, but it's one I mentioned in the last one...you know, way back when. You might recall that I said that Harry Potter and Ginny Weasley's relationship is an essay in and of itself. Well, this is that essay. And while this pair is going to be my ginny pigs, I'd like to expand the idea to all literary and film relationships. In addition, I promise that one day soon Harry will get his respectful dues. One thing I've noticed is that, as I've grown up with the Potter series, I think I dig into it a little more because I dig into myself a little more as time goes on. That's why I see this series as an equal, and again, soon I'll give Harry his due.
For now however, we need to discuss his love life, because it's something that always bugs me, particularly in the films. I know, I know, you can't make an argument out of something they changed from book to film. True, but I can if the book makes similiar errors. The most egregious error of the film is that Ginny Weasley does not get enough screen time, particularly when it comes to shots with Harry. This is somewhat less egregious in the books, yes, but there's still one thing I really don't get.
Seriously, why does Ginny get no respect? The only thing she ever really seems to be is the go-to girl for babying, and it really pains me to use that word. What I mean is, she's always on the end of "stay here and be safe" or "you can't come with." This makes no sense in context considering she's presented as a more competent which than something like 99% of her peers. Conjurer of the best Reductor Curse in Dumbledore's Army? Nope, can't come with us to the Department of Mysteries. Emotionally strong enough to handle possession by Voldemort and an unrequited obsession for Harry Potter that lasted several years? Nope, can't come with us to find Horcruxes. Re-started a rebellion by committing several brave acts of defiance in a school gone bad? Nope, be the only one to stay here and do nothing.
I know how hard it is to insert another character into things. Before you know it, you're having a hard time fitting all the characters together, or there's too many opinions floating around to make progress. I get that, but Ginny had every right to go on a hunt for Horcruxes in the Deathly Hallows, and Harry didn't need to be so bleak about breaking up with her at the end of Half Blood Prince. Okay, Harry doesn't want to make her a target. Considering that, he does an awfully good job not thinking about her for the duration of the countryside trek. Voldemort, I believe, still had access to Harry's mind at the time to some degree (although I could easily be wrong on this, since it'd be a huge plot hole seeing as how Voldy could've just mind melded to find Harry). This isn't to mention the fact that Harry has spent gratuitous amounts of time with the Weasley family over the years, and that Ginny is openly rebelling against Voldemort's men in Hogwarts. Yeah Harry, you're really keeping her safe.
This all stems from the fact that the Harry/Ginny ship (which I'm all for, by the way) was fairly underdeveloped. A mutual relationship had been budding since Order of the Phoenix, and things became apparent on Harry's end throughout most of Half-Blood Prince, but then, once Harry leaves for Horcuxes, bam, we're stuck. Normally, a book and a half of romance would be fine. This, however, is the soul mate of a character who has four and a half books of history and development behind him as the main protagonist of the entire series. Harry's love story needed to be full and gratifying. It needed to be a story of its own, and it needed to be an exploration of Ginny's character as much as it was of Harry's. We know comparatively little about Ginny as we do Harry, and even compared to Ron and Hermione. Yet this is the girl who marries the main character. This is why Harry and Ginny getting together and subsequently breaking up (I think Harry's relationships are even shorter than mine) always seemed like a bit of an ass pull for me.
I understand and sometimes roll my eyes at the fact that Ginny is good for Harry based on what we know. She's tough, exceptionally good at magic, and funny. Why do I roll my eyes? Because Harry marries his mother. Now, we know even less about Lily than we do about Ginny, and what we do know about backstory separates them, but really...Harry marries a tough redhead? This all contributed to an Epileptic Trees theory that Harry has some sort of conflict about recreating the past, and this results in him marrying his mother and naming all of his children after dead people, sometimes several dead people. All that aside, it's true, Harry Potter should have an action girl as his woman...but the whole point is moot when he and her family constantly try to take her out of the action when her moment to shine finally comes.
What the books and movies needed were some focus points for Ginny. The books were far better about this, giving her Quidditch matches to win and situations in which to defy death. What we needed though, were just a few bits from Ginny's perspective. A quick little shift like this can give you more information on a character than an outsider ever could. Give Ginny the spotlight for a little bit. Bring some of her offscreen moments onscreen, and when you do, don't pair her off with another girl or something. You have to give Ginny weight and importance. You have to make sure that she can become a main character, because when you're the girlfriend of THE main character, you have to be that developed.
The romance between Ginny and Harry should have been a romance for the ages much like Voldemort should have been a villain for the ages, but again, the feeling just falls short. This is no more evident than in the end, after the Battle of Hogwarts is won. Nothing between Harry and Ginny is evident. It's just like I said, this is the moment when Harry said they could be together again, and they don't get together. This should be the moment where we see that the next chapter in both of their lives will open. Now that Voldemort is out of the way, Ginny is Harry's next chapter. That's kind of important. To a degree I could understand trying to keep Ginny out of the battle. I can understand Harry not talking to her on the way to his death (though that is a bit of a stretch). I can't understand why Ginny isn't the first thing Harry wants when it's all over. Love is Harry's ultimate power. While it's an interesting plot point that it is not actual romance that drives Harry and gives him his heroic determination, it's a bit of a romantic letdown that Ginny does not end up factoring in to his last moments and final battle. Ginny was more of a sideshow, rather than the promise of a real future. Ginny should have been the reason Harry wanted to beat Voldemort. She was what lied beyond that quest. It just makes her seem like a bad motivation.
The movie, interestingly, gave Harry and Ginny a little bit more during the final battle. In a deleted scene, Harry joins hands with Ginny on the way to the Great Hall, and randomly kisses her later (with her trying to play the old Han Solo line, "I know" and nothing else). The former bit was incredibly random, short and fleeting as the two didn't exchange any words whatsoever, so it wasn't all that helpful, but it was honestly a bit better than the book's trying to keep her down. That all was avoided by the changes in presentation to the beginnings of the final battle. Ginny's lack of shining moments and reunion with Harry are still absent, as previously mentioned. Otherwise, the movies saw even less of Ginny than the books did and their relationship in Half Blood Prince consisted of a secret kiss and a few mentions afterward. An awkward moment in the seventh film helped a little, and sets up for one of the best lines in the movie ("Mooorning"), at the cost of a real show of passion between the two that was present in the books...though I'm apt to say the tradeoff was fair.
Still, there ultimately was no difference at the end. I believe in the book we didn't really hear anything about Ginny after the battle, and the fact that the movie includes something is kind of a shame. Once again, instead of with Harry, who she marries and fornicates with years later, she;s...elsewhere, and doesn't even seem to give Harry a look when he walks by. Not that many others do much differently, which again is the weirdest thing on the planet, but once again, the only person/people more important to Harry are Ron and Hermione. Or at least, one would think.
This, the main love story in Harry Potter, or rather, the love story involving the main character, is another example of how Harry Potter isn't quite perfect. Its strength lies in making magic out of normal, relatable characters and continually escalating thier situation until it reaches a grand scale. It is one of the great stories of our time, but it is not without its imperfections. In my eyes, it doesn't reach the heights it should in several areas, one of which is its villain, who admittedly has brilliance in his backstory, another of which is the central romance, which is a big deal when part of your appeal is the fact that your main character is an adolescent that's experiencing things like love for the first time...and struggling with it like many of its readers.
I admit, putting together a love story that works and has the desired emotional payoff is one of writing's greater challenges. It's easy to screw up...I mean, just ask Twilight, which follows a guy and a girl who have nothing in common and yet....let's not get started on Twilight actually. Let's not talk Anakin and Padme either...although one less balcony scene would have done wonders for their believability...oh, and one less biggest-dumbass-move-in-the-entire-history-of-film. If you want an example of a good love story, look at Simon and Nia in Gurren Lagann. They share an innate goodness and innocence, and she actually has a reason to be a little robotic. GL just has a way with characters in general, to the point where Yoko/Kamina seems...right.
The more frustrating thing is that there are fair examples within the HP universe itself. Lupin and Tonks' relationship was mostly off-screen, but it hit audiences in just the right way. Ron and Hermione was fairly developed, though once again held back and not quite explored as much as it was simply exposed a lot more. Shit, even Harry's mother had a better developed love story...or rather, she was involved in one. I understand very much that Harry Potter isn't a teenage romance story...but like I've said, the fact that this is part of Harry's development and the fact that Ginny ends up being a huge part of his future, and a potential symbol of hope, makes it a wall-banger that this particular story was not fully developed.
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