Ana Christina

Patience

2007-06-18T15:01:25Z

Right, I posted this at HF as well, but somehow I feel I won't get answers there, and seeing as I hardly update this journal, what the hell.

Here's the thing: I've grown pretty fond of a game called Baldur's Gate and in particular, certain of its Mods. There's one of them which was released several years ago for the first game (Baldur's Gate I and Baldur's Gate I: Tales of the Sword Coast). Nowadays, its author works for the release of a Baldur's Gate II: Shadows of Amn sequel and I want it yesterday. Problem is, as far as I can tell, it is rather rude to nag the author to provide a certain release date so I can't afford that (especially because there's what, six months since I've joined the community?). So I'm trying to find ways to pass time faster.

I lurk (big surprise, I'm sure) at pretty much all relevant Modding, fanfiction and official communities for my wonderful game, but it doesn't help. The author of the Mod is German, and as such, I've even started to learn the language and bug friends who spoke it so that I could understand some of the spoilers which were released (they were in German). But it does NOT help. I still want that Mod and nothing I do can get it out of my mind. I've never been a very patient person so I'm used to this constant longing and subsequent annoyance, but this is just too much. So I thought to ask for help: how can I either 1) learn to be more patient (shouldn't be hard, since I don't need that much of it, just a scratch to keep me going) or 2) deal with my current lack of patience. Ways to help me forget that I'm waiting for something.

Any help is greatly appreciated.

Thanks. :)

Puppy pictures!

2007-01-11T21:13:43Z

Here and here. Yes, he's very small, and no, he doesn't require batteries in order to function. :D

Dear Karina...

2007-01-06T01:51:27Z

To quote darynthe in another place, "Oh, sweetheart, I refuse to do this privately!" Yesterday I've received yet another present from you. Two, actually. One was the card, with the fabulous two CDs (S6 dailies, all your work with videos and photos and so much music!) and with the splendid necklace you have sent to me (that my neck intends never to part with, by the way). The second was a puppy. Oh, sweetie, I finally have a new puppy and the best thing ever? I have it because of you. Don't ask me what his name is, though, 'cause you'll kill me if I tell you. :P Suffice it to say that he's adorable. I wasn't sure if I wanted him as I was leaning more towards his brother, who looked less fragile, but when he got hooked first in my sister's jacket and then in my own, I took that as a sign and chose him over his brother. He's currently busy sleeping (and slightly snoring!) in his basket, which happens to be in my arms. There are no words to tell you how happy I have been for the past two days thanks to the amazing gift that your presence in my life is. You know why? Because you, your friendship with me and what you give me every day, be it a smile, a word of comfort, a video, a puppy... They are simply too outstanding for words to describe. I will attempt to make sense of these rather incoherent thoughts in a-still-to-come somewhat more coherent email, but that won't be till later on. :D

By the way, you know what day it is today? It's exactly two years since you've first contacted me. You're the first reason why I even kept an interest in the HP fandom after the initial enthusiasm for various debating posts has vanished. You and the friendship with you are the reasons why I kept going for another couple of months since said loss of interest. You're the reason why I've met all my other online friends, because had it not been for your emails, I'd have long drifted off to other online activities (probably Spuffy, since my interest in HP has never been that great to begin with). I am thankful for every moment we've spent together and everything in me hopes that I'm worthy to have a person like you as my friend. And when it comes to "awesome things that graced my life with their presence"? Honey, you're above all adjectives I could ever come up with. *hugs*

Mary Sues in Harry Potter - Part II (continued)

2006-01-08T02:43:46Z

Because the post-HBP essay on Ginny's traits as a Mary Sue is very long, I split it into two parts. Before commenting, please read part I of this essay. Thank you. :)

III. The Litmus Test

The Ginny character scored in the following manner (for every "yes" answer one point was given, unless mentioned otherwise; total score is in red for each section):

Section 1 - The Name Game:

Is the character named after you? (This can be your first name, middle name, or the name you go by in chat or irc.) If so, stop now. Put your pencil (mouse?) down and turn in your test.

No.

Does the character have a really cool name that you wish you had?

Unknown.

An unusual spelling of a normal name? An unusual spelling of a normal word?

Yes. 1 point (Ginevra, instead of Virginia, which is the Italian spelling of Guinevere, again making the name unusual).

Does this lead to an intolerable amount of puns/Tom Swifties? (Note: One of two Sirius/serious jokes are okay. Ten are not. Your readers will come after you with torches and pitchforks.) Does the character have more than one name? (i.e. a nickname or a pseudonym) Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot, and Prongs count.

No (unless "Ginny" counts as a nickname).

Did you spend more than a day looking for just the right name? (This doesn't count if the resulting name has historical/mythological significance. That's the whole purpose of names in HP. Baby name books, however, count.)
Have you considered naming your pet the character's name?

Unknown.

Total Points: 1.

Section 2 - Physical Attributes

Is the character the same gender as you?

Yes. 1 point.

Is the character a hybrid of two or more species? (part-Veela count. If the character is part cat, turn in your test NOW.)

No.

Is the character beautiful or roguishly handsome?

Yes. 1 point.

Does one or more of the regulars find the character highly attractive?

Yes. 1 point.

Is s/he (or is s/he related to) a Veela? Do other regulars see him/her as a threat because of this? Does the character have an unusual eye/hair color for no apparent reason? A Weasley that doesn't have red hair? Will this be a plot point later? Do his/her eyes change color from time to time?

No.

Do you mention hairstyle a lot? (soft silver waves, thick auburn curls, etc.)

Yes. Four that I know of when it comes to Ginny. Half a point.

Does the character have an accent that is not British? Students from non-Hogwarts schools (ex: Beauxbatons and Durmstrang) count.

No.

Total Points: 3 and a half.

Section 3 - Personal Traits

Is the character the long-lost child, descendent, sibling, or ancestor of a regular or recurring character? Of Sirius, Remus, Peter, or Snape? Of Harry, Ron, or Hermione? (If it's a long lost sibling of Harry, turn in your test. I don't care how well developed s/he is; I don't want to read it) Of Malfoy, Hagrid, Voldemort, Neville, Dean, Seamus, or any other significant character mentioned in J.K.'s books? Of any of the 4 Hogwarts founders?

No. But I think that the following bit of information does count, as this part of the test deals with traits that are supposed to make the Mary Sue’s backstory unique:

The MN/TLC interview with Rowling

MA: Does she have a larger importance; the Tom Riddle stufff, being the seventh girl -

JKR: The backstory with Ginny was, she was the first girl to arrive in the Weasley family in generations, but there's that old tradition of the seventh daughter of a seventh daughter and a seventh son of a seventh son, so that's why she's the seventh, because she is a gifted witch.

1 point.

Of another original character for whom you intend to write another story or even another series?

Unknown, but probably not, if one considers Rowling’s words about not writing about HP anymore once she was done with book 7.

Is the character an exchange student from one of the other wizarding schools? And traded for one of the other major characters? Hermione? Does the character have a twin? About whom you plan on writing another story later? Is the character remarkably intelligent? As smart as (or smarter than) Hermione?

No.

Do any of the teachers have an unusual liking toward your character?

Yes. Slughorn. 1 point.

Does McGonnagal?

Not specified.

Does Snape? (Bonus if s/he's not in Slytherin)

Half a point for Slughorn's preference for Ginny.

Do any teachers particularly dislike him/her? Does Snape?

No.

Does s/he particularly dislike Malfoy, even though they're not in the same year?

Yes. 1 point.

Does s/he play Quidditch?

Yes. 1 point.

Is s/he exceptionally good?

Yes. 1 point.

Is s/he seeker?

Was. Half a point.

Is s/he in Gryffindor?

Yes. 1 point.

Does the character make more wisecracks and play more practical jokes than the Weasley twins?

Ginny’s excellent humour should be considered here. 1 point.

Because Fred and George are your favorite characters?

Unknown.

Does everyone end up liking the character (among the regulars you like)?

Almost everyone, yes. Half a point.

If an adult, is s/he unusually young for his/her position in the work force?

Not the case.

Does s/he have random hobbies that are undeniably convenient to the plot?

Not specified yet.

Do school rules not seem to apply to your him/her?

Yes. 1 point.

Does s/he get away with insubordination with teachers/authority figures? Does s/he spend an absurd amount of time depressed/brooding/sulking/being generally miserable about a situation beyond his/her control? Many Lupin fics are nauseating in this respect.

Insufficient examples.

Total Points: 9 and a half.

Section 4 - Wizarding Powers

Is the character muggle-born, or doesn't know s/he is a witch/wizard until s/he gets his/her letter? Does s/he get her school supplies with Hagrid? Is this scene nearly identical to the corresponding scenes in Philosopher's Stone? Does the character have telekinesis or telepathy? Does the character just "know things" for no apparent reason? Is the character skilled in healing? Do animals instinctively like the character?

No.

1 point for “the most marvelous Bat Bogey Hex" (Slughorn’s words), in spite of no specific question about this. The reason why I gave this point is because this section of the Litmus Test deals generally with wizarding powers that are special and that usually only the Mary Sue possesses. By the end of HBP, Ginny is the only one mentioned to do a Bat Bogey Hex, and people commenting on how great that Hex was make it a Mary Sue-ish trait.

Total Points: 1

Section 5 - The Love Connection

Does the character fall in love with Harry, Ron, or Hermione?

Yes. 1 point.

With Malfoy or Snape? With another recurring character? Double points for James/Lily/Snape love triangles. ::gag::

No.

With whom *you* have a crush on?

Unknown.

Sirius? With another original character? With an original character *you* have a crush on?

No.

Total Points: 1.

Section 6 - The Real World and Your Character

Would you like to be friends with the character if you met in real life?

Unknown.

Do you think everyone who reads the story should automatically like the character and want to be friends with the character?

I think it is safe to assume an affirmative answer when correlating the following (emphasis mine):

The MN/TLC interview with Rowling

I really like Ginny as a character.

Positive assertion about a loved character.

She's tough, not in an unpleasant way, but she's gutsy. He needs to be with someone who can stand the demands of being with Harry Potter, because he's a scary boyfriend in a lot of ways. He's a marked man. I think she's funny, and I think that she's very warm and compassionate. These are all things that Harry requires in his ideal woman.

-snip-

And I feel that Ginny and Harry, in this book, they are total equals. They are worthy of each other. They've both gone through a big emotional journey, and they've really got over a lot of delusions, to use your word, together. So, I enjoyed writing that.

Argumentation.

JKR: Well, no, not really, because the plan was, which I really hope I fulfilled, is that the reader, like Harry, would gradually discover Ginny as pretty much the ideal girl for Harry.

Conclusion: the readers should also like Ginny (because she is Harry’s ideal girl).

I think this idea is further sustained by this quote:

JKR: I think so. I hope so. So you liked Harry/Ginny, did you, when it happened?

ES: We've been waiting for this for years!

JKR: Oh, I'm so glad.

1 point.

If someone tells you he/she doesn't like your character, do you take it as a personal attack on you? (Be honest)

Unknown.

Total Points: 1.

Section 7 - The Fiendish Plot

Do you introduce the character on the first page of the story? (J.K. did a great job of this in "Philosopher's Stone" and "Goblet of Fire")

No. But Ginny is introduced earlier than many other characters and she is the first girl that Harry meets. Since I think that the point of this question is to emphasize that a Mary Sue will always be introduced as early as possible, and since the first chapters of Harry Potter deal mostly with the Muggle World which later has a rather small importance to the plot (as opposed to the Wizarding world) I feel it is safe to give Ginny half a point for being present in the first pages where the real action begins.

Do you tell the story from the character's point of view, all or mostly?

No.

Does the character meet the main characters, and after a few tense pages of plot, become friends with them?

No, but Ginny does develop quick friendly relationships with mostly everyone (Hermione, Luna etc.). Again, I feel it is justified that at least half a point is given.

Does the character manage to develop a friendship with an otherwise villainous character, and through this friendship, reform the other character? Does the villain become evil again after the character dies, but retain some last vestige of goodness from his/her interaction with the character, evidenced in one selfless action at the end of the story? Is the character transformed into a magical or genetically-altered being? Is the character happier in her/his new form? Do you wish you could be transformed because of the neat powers?

No.

Does the character save the day and/or another character's life?

Half a point for saving the captured DA members in Umbridge’s office in OotP.

Through magical/mystical intervention? Through dying? Does everyone go into mourning? Does s/he get not-dead by the end of the story? In the sequel? Do you plan to write many more stories revolving around this character?

No.

Total Points: 1 and 1/2.

Summary: 18 and 1/2 points for Ginny, which according to the scoring scheme, place her here:

16-19 Borderline character. Characters in this range are potential MS's, who can go either way dependent on the author's skill.

However, I strongly feel that in fact Ginny falls under this category:

20+ Mary Sue/Gary Stu. Proceed with greatest caution.

and this is because of the following reasons:

- questions that were left unanswered because I could not give an answer which Rowling did not reveal yet;

- the half a point issue. The test does not specify if this could be done. If I were to consider every half a point I gave as a full point as per the test’s instructions, then Ginny’s scoring would go above 20.

The bottom line is that either way Ginny’s score does not put her in the Developed character section (0-15 points); she's either a borderline or a clear Mary Sue-ish character.

Note: 1) Unless specified otherwise, all quotes are from the HP Litmus Test by Priscilla Spencer (which is based on the test created by Dr. Merlin). 2) For brevity reasons, questions with the same answer (Yes/No) were grouped together.

IV. Ginny is not a Mary Sue because...

Assertion 1: The Ginny Sue hypothesis stems from Harmony bias

I think this argument against the Ginny as a Mary Sue hypothesis is incorrect for three reasons:

1) When I first wrote about the possibility of Ginny being a Mary Sue, I was not a shipper; in fact, I was one of those who thought OBHWF would happen and who didn’t care about it. Seeing Ginny as a Mary Sue had nothing to do with me being biased about the ships I saw in canon. (Links to two of my original posts here and here).

2) Other people see it, too. Shippers and/or non-shippers: Example 1; Example 2; Example 3; Example 4.

3) Even if shipper bias was an issue, this however would not cancel all the points I made now and in the first version of this essay; attacking the person and not the arguments that the person brought up is a logical fallacy commonly known as argumentum ad hominem. So, saying that just because someone called themselves a Harmonian their hypothesis was invalid (sour grapes related reasons etc.) is not an argument.

Assertion 2: Mary Sues exist only in fan fiction

I think that many people find it difficult to admit (or they are simply unaware of it) the real cause for a Mary Sue's existence in a story. Throughout the debates about this in which I was a part of, I came across the objection that Rowling could not write a Mary Sue, because Mary Sues were effects of bad writing and since Rowling was not a bad writer, she was above creating a Mary Sue. I disagreed with that argument then and I am disagreeing with it nowadays, too. The main cause for a Mary Sue's existence in a story is not bad writing - that is the effect. The cause is wish fulfillment and the cause to that is Ego. To sum these up in a sylogism, it would go like this:

Every author is first and foremost a human being who possesses an Ego

Every Ego requires self esteem validation

One way to achieve validation is wish fulfillment (which can be achieved via dreams and art etc.)

A Mary Sue is a wish fulfillment device

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Rowling, as an author with an Ego could have created a Mary Sue in Ginny

*insert proof as to why she did or did not resist the temptation*

*if said proof is reasonable enough we get to:*

The existence of a MS which comes out as:

Bad writing

As you can see, bad writing is the last effect of a Mary Sue insertion, and not its main (first) cause. Its cause - and this is why everyone is subject to creating a Mary Sue - is one's Ego. This is why one needs a Mary Sue: to fulfill a wish and thus validate the Ego. I do not need to know exactly how much of how she wanted to be like Ginny Rowling expressed in the former in order for me to analyze the possibility of her creating one, because by default, every human is subject for Ego validation. What I do need to do is to find out if she did create one, and prove it in this process, by providing arguments. And this is what this expansion of my original essay is supposed to do.

Of course a canon Mary Sue will be less obvious than a fanon one - if I may name them like this - and this is because the canon's author is loads more familiar with the world s/he created than the fanon author. So although we probably won't get any of the usual Serena Francesca Mariana Snape Potter we might get something like Ginny Weasley who although more subtle, she is still more than close to being a Mary Sue.

Note: a very eloquent and reasonable post about Mary Sues in canon can be found here.

Assertion 3: H/G does not lack in development because it is exactly how relationships happen in real life, and therefore the relationship is excluded from adding to the Mary Sue issue.

In Book 6 Harry suddenly realized he was in love with Ginny and that didn't really flow well when considering the first five books. And no, this has nothing to do with shipping; but it has everything to do with consistency. If Harry, after five years spent in indifference towards Ginny suddenly realized his true love for her, then he should have had a good reason for it in order to explain why it didn't happen before even in extreme circumstances (her crush, her near death experience, her dating other boys etc.). That reason should have been shown and proven; it was not, unless one counts how he mused in passing about the time spent at the Burrow. I think that as a general rule of believable stories one could consider motivation; one can't just write something like "And then he suddenly realized...". Not in a 7 book series out of which 5 have been spent building up other relationships (from romantic ones - Harry/Cho, Ron/Hermione etc. - to friendship types of relationships: Harry/Hermione, Harry/Ron etc.) while half of the Harry/Ginny ship spent 2 books being background.

This essay's goal however is not to argue the validity of the Harry/Ginny ship but rather to analyze how that relationship reflects and impacts upon the premise at hand - Ginny's Mary Sue-ish traits. While the argument about real life relationships which are often sudden and unexpected is very true and valid, the problem is that it cannot be applied to literature. An author that intends describing a relationship, any kind of relationship (including friendship, romance, parental love etc), must develop it, by both showing it and telling it, especially when the books in question are declared to be "character driven" and there is seven of them, out of which the first two showed the Hero's indifference to his eventual pair's crush for him and even to other significant events for her, such as her being possessed and her dating other boys. Literature has different rules from real life. In real life you are the actor. In books/movies/etc., you are the observer. You only take part in the action because an author guides you through it; and this can not be done without careful description of character's motivation.

Assertion 4: HP are not romance novels, therefore how the Harry/Ginny relationship was treated and how it reflected on Ginny is not relevant to the Mary Sue hypothesis.

In most of all art forms the major themes can be reduced to two things: love and conflict. Which can be summed up to journey. One can not exist without the other without damaging the realism. To me, a good writer must excel at both themes mentioned above. Either that or I prefer the author to refrain from approaching one of the themes. Had HP been a single book, I think that how Harry fell for Ginny wouldn’t have been that much of an argument for the Mary Sue hypothesis. As things are, we get the following though:

-Books 1-4: Ginny's crush for Harry; Harry's indifference to the crush and him pining for another girl;

-Book 5: we first meet Super!Ginny and Harry has no reaction to this, not even at the thought of her dating other boys, apart from a neutral observation about how she started to talk in front of him.

-Book 6: HBP and Harry’s sudden and passionate interest in Ginny, which apart from the flowery smell hint, starts with a direct contradiction with OotP:

"Right," said Harry. He felt a strange twinge of annoyance as she walked away, her long red hair dancing behind her; he had become so used to her presence over the summer that he had almost forgotten that Ginny did not hang around with him, Ron, and Hermione while at school.

As things are, that paragraph is not consistent with OotP!Harry who did not care about either Ginny dating Michael Corner or Ginny choosing Dean Thomas. An example of consistency is Ron’s interest in Hermione’s crushes, ever since they were 12 (Lockhart) to more serious issues such as Krum and McClaggen, in spite of his own interest in other girls (Fleur etc.). As Rowling had already proven with Ron/Hermione that she is capable of consistency, and seeing that in the Harry/Ginny case she did not adhere to its rules, it thus follows that yes, once again we're looking at a Sue-ish element (weakly developed romances) which adds up to the premise of this essay.

Assertion 5: Ginny is not a self-insertion, as Hermione is the already admitted self-insertion

A Mary Sue is supposed to be two things, which are complementary between each other:

1) she is a wish fulfillment device. This means that the character's personality is not, nor has it ever been real, otherwise the author wouldn't desire to fulfill said wish;

2) because this is a wish and one tends to wish for the most Ego-satisfying things, the wish tends to lack in flaws and bad parts as much as possible.

When correlating the above with a quote like this one:

J.K. Rowling interview transcript, The Connection (WBUR Radio), 12 October, 1999

Q: I was going to say, are you a Hermione?
JKR: Yeah. I mean none of the characters in the books are directly taken from life, but real people did inspire a few of them, but of course, once they are on the page they become something completely different. Yeah, Hermione is a caricature of what I was when I was 11, a real exaggeration. I wasn’t that clever. Hermione is borderline genius at points and I hope I wasn’t that annoying because I would have deserved strangling. Sometimes she’s an incredible know-it-all.

... I think it is rather clear why Hermione is disqualified from being a Mary Sue because as per the author's own words, Hermione is a caricature of her former self, and thus far from being a flawless instrument to serve for wish-fulfillment, by the very definition of the word "caricature". There are multiple other quotes from Rowling interviews which show that although she loves Hermione, she is neither considered perfect, nor ideal, but rather a flawed character. I don't think an author who created a Mary Sue would state that at some points said character was so annoying that it deserved strangling. While a joke, it is still a powerful statement that shows how the author is conscious of the character's flaws - a thing that does not occur when an author talks about a Mary Sue.

Assertion 6: The reason why we don’t see any flaws in Ginny is because we see the characters through Harry’s point of view and since he happens to like Ginny, there are hardly any flaws he notices.

I confess I never really understood how Harry not seeing any flaws in Ginny because he liked her was supposed to excuse her Mary Sue characteristics when it is the very fact that a character is supposed to have its flaws confirmed via other characters that we’re discussing here. If Harry does not consider some flaws of Ginny because he likes her too much for that, then this only adds up to the Mary Sue issues, it does not counter it. It is common sense that there are two sources that can tell us how the author views the Mary Sue and those are:

- the author her/himself;
- confirmation of point a) via other characters present in the story (because the author’s views are often stated by means of other characters).

One can not bring Harry not perceiving Ginny’s flaws because he liked her as an argument to this issue for two reasons:

1. Double Standards. If this argument was valid, then it (“Mary Sue is flawless because it is the Hero who perceives her as such”) should apply for every other known and pointed at Mary Sue, and for her lack of flaws in all fan fictions and all canon material everywhere, as per the logical rule against double standards. Example: if Aragorn/Legolas/Snape/Angel/*insert random desired object of wish fulfillment* sees any other original/canon character as perfect, flawless, ideal, it is because they are in love, and not because the character in question is a Mary Sue. It shouldn't matter if the characters in question come out as Sues. It thus results that LJ communities, essays, posts etc. which deal with Mary Sues in general and their perfection in particular have no point in their existence.

2. Authorial intent. If Harry sees no flaws in Ginny, then this is Rowling’s responsibility and not Harry’s, seeing as she is the one in full control of her own work. Because Mary Sues come from wish fulfillment causes, if Rowling’s wish was for Harry to fall for the idealized version of herself, then she will make it as such. The point is that when considering the issue of lack of flaws with Mary Sue, which boils down to them being idealized versions of the author, bringing character intent into the picture is irrelevant, as the main premise for discussion is the authorial intent, which is ultimately the one responsible for how characters perceived one another.

V. Conclusions

I feel that even by the end of HBP, we've yet to see every detail and every attribute that make Ginny a Mary Sue; book 7 is still to come and it might be possible that Rowling fixed Ginny's characterization into something more realistic (and more palatable for that matter). However, as far as I am concerned, I doubt that this will happen, considering that she had HBP to do it and instead of adding some flaws to Ginny and thus changing her from a borderline Mary Sue character to a developed one, she did not, as the canon analysis and Litmus Test show. Judging by her comments on Ginny in the MN/TLC interview as analyzed in this essay I find it safe to assume that the best that will happen to Ginny in book 7 is that she'll become a borderline Mary Sue while the worst will be her remaining the almost fully-fledged Mary Sue that she is now (of course, with additions to her already existing perfection and idealistic features).

I've said it before and I'll say it again: I don't think that loving Rowling should keep you from observing her possible weaknesses; I am rather tired of those people who keep jumping in protest against any form of criticism at Rowling's address. I won't start my own rant on why a part of the HP fandom has a rather unhealthy tendency to worship and defend Rowling beyond any limits. I'll just say what I said so often in the past: no one is, nor should they be, above criticism.

VI. Links

1. Analysis of Ginny's characterization:

Why is the difference in Ginny’s character between GoF and Books 5&6 poorly written?

On Authorial Intent, Mary Sues and Ginny

The Two Faces of Ginny

Report of Ginny at canonsues

Ginny's Powers: Beyond the Bat-Bogey Hex

2. General Mary Sue information and analysis:

The Mary Sue Concept on Wikipedia

The Mary Sue Manual

Shameless Setteis and Mary Sues

Fantasy, Self-Indulgence, and Wish-Fulfillment

General article

The Essential Guide to Mary-Sue

A Summary and Discussion on the Mary Sue Phenomenon

Just because it’s funny :P

Credits: Many thanks to violaswamp, sistermagpie and myrhlyn for allowing me to link to their insightful and thought-provoking essays about Ginny and for giving me the privilege of reading them in the first place. :) I am eternally grateful to thereader, Darynthe and Mad Eyed Mike for all the support they’ve given me with this essay now and in the past. *hugs*

Mary Sues in Harry Potter - Part II

2006-01-08T01:56:09Z

Part II - Post-HBP release

Note: The essay is supposed to be an expansion of my pre-HBP essay on why Ginny was a possible Mary Sue. It would be better if they were read together, but they can also stand on themselves. :)

I. Introduction

I've been wondering about Ginny's characterization ever since OotP. Back then, I wrote the previously posted essay which questioned some of the elements in Ginny's characterization and advanced the hypothesis that she had the potential to become a Mary Sue. What inspired that essay was what I saw as "Ginny's character make-over". I never really understood how such a drastic change could be just because she decided to act more naturally in Harry's presence; that she's always been the spunky, feisty, excellent Quidditch player etc. Ginny that was described in OotP and HBP, and that the only reason we didn't see her as such was because we never really got the chance. It seemed and it still does seem out of the blue to me.

violaswamp and sistermagpie wrote brilliant and very eloquent essays on why Ginny was different in OotP and HBP, which can be found here and here. I don't have very much to add to them, except for two things:

"Looking for Ron?" she asked, smirking. "He's over there. The filthy hypocrite."
Harry looked into the corner she was indicating. There, in full view of the whole room, stood Ron wrapped so closely around Lavender Brown it was hard to tell whose hands were whose.
"It looks like he's eating her face, doesn't it?" said Ginny dispassionately. "But I suppose he's got to refine his technique somehow. Good game, Harry."

Personally, I find it odd that the girl who was blushing about going with a boy at the Yule Brawl can comment so "dispassionately" about such an intimate act like kissing. I think this is one of the many scenes that add up to Ginny's personality make-over and how she has changed from Books 1-4 to Books 5 and 6.

"Harry, you've got a maggot in your hair," said Ginny cheerfully, leaning across the table to pick it out; Harry felt goose bumps erupt up his neck that had nothing to do with the maggot.
"'Ow 'orrible," said Fleur, with an affected little shudder.

I find the above paragraph to be in contradiction with pre-Ootp!Ginny who couldn't even look at Harry. Granted, she grew out of the crush and she is less immature and more in control of her feelings, but I honestly can't see how this is supposed to justify the huge contrast. It seems to me that we're dealing with extremes here: on one hand we have Ginny putting her elbow in the butter and hiding behind slammed doors from Harry and on the other hand we have the Ginny who makes physical contact with Harry in a cheerful manner. While I can understand a more neutral reaction from her, such as her approving of Harry and Luna's "date", I still don't get how she can make physical contact with the boy she has been pining for years and be "cheerful" about it when in the past she could barely look at him. It seems like too much of a contradiction for me to accept. While people do change their behaviour, they seldom make 180 degrees changes in their personality.

I don't think that all the above and Ginny's character make-over add up that much to the Mary Sue hypothesis; the only reason I am mentioning them is because it was a sum of such contradictions that first made me think of said hypothesis.

Anyway, after HBP, I find myself almost 100% sure that Ginny is a Mary Sue; my main objection with Rowling's series is this one. So, no, personally I do not believe Hermione was out of character, nor that Ginny is a sl*t, nor that there are more plot holes than ever and so on. Considering what we got in Books 1-5 (which was not exceptional, in my opinion), I was not taken aback by HBP being that different. Pre-HBP, I applied the Litmus test to Ginny and she scored very high (14 points) in spite of questions which were left unanswered. Now, I wish to expand on my original essay by adding the following: Rowling's comments about Ginny in the MN/TLC interview; an analysis of how she is portrayed in canon; the post-HBP Litmus test; an analysis of the counter-arguments to the premise of this essay.

II. Ginny's Portrait in Canon

Having cleared that one up, the next issue is about Mary Sues and their supposed perfection. First of all, a distinction should be made here and that refers to perfection versus idealism. Mainly, a Mary Sue is not necessarily perfect, but she is what the author sees as perfect. Hence, her being an idealized version of the author and not a perfect one as per the definition of "perfect". Furthermore, from this it logically follows that while some readers might perceive the Mary Sue as perfect, others will not.

The MN/TLC interview with Rowling

JKR: Well, no, not really, because the plan was, which I really hope I fulfilled, is that the reader, like Harry, would gradually discover Ginny as pretty much the ideal girl for Harry. She's tough, not in an unpleasant way, but she's gutsy. He needs to be with someone who can stand the demands of being with Harry Potter, because he's a scary boyfriend in a lot of ways. He's a marked man. I think she's funny, and I think that she's very warm and compassionate. These are all things that Harry requires in his ideal woman. But, I felt - and I'm talking years ago when all this was planned - initially, she's terrified by his image. I mean, he's a bit of a rock god to her when she sees him first, at 10 or 11, and he's this famous boy. So Ginny had to go through a journey as well. And rather like with Ron, I didn’t want Ginny to be the first girl that Harry ever kissed. That's something I meant to say, and it's kind of tied in.

-snip-

And I feel that Ginny and Harry, in this book, they are total equals. They are worthy of each other. They've both gone through a big emotional journey, and they've really got over a lot of delusions, to use your word, together. So, I enjoyed writing that. I really like Ginny as a character.

In light of the above and of the Rowling interview, I think it is interesting to remark the repeated mention of the word "ideal". One of the Mary Sue's reasons for existence in a story is to become the love interest of the Hero; this is why she is often so "perfect" - she's an ideal which stands as a wish-fulfillment device for the author. The quotes above practically spell out these two points so it is reasonable to assume that they add up to the Mary Sue hypothesis. A Mary Sue usually takes over the story in her haste to upstage every other character and plot point. In Ginny's case, however, this is less obvious because although her purpose to exist in the story is apparently the same as in any other Mary Sue's case (i.e., to become the love interest), the fact that Harry Potter is a seven book series which focus more around the conflict part than on the romance one, prevents this from happening.

When I say that Ginny displayed no flaws starting with OotP, I wish to point out that this is about the big picture. Saying that she appears flawless just because we see her less often than let’s say Hermione, does not make it less true that even in those few appearances, she is always presented in a positive/neutral manner, never negative. Below, I split into categories several canon quotes which show how this is done.

1. Ginny’s physical features

A Mary Sue will generally be considered pretty/physical attractive by as many characters as possible. In the scenes below, this is shown when random people comment positively on Ginny's appearance: from people like Harry who have a thing for her, to total strangers (in the first quote), Slytherins and even Death Eaters:

"One for your little girl, madam?" he called at Mrs. Weasley as they passed, leering at Ginny. "Protect her pretty neck?"

"Right," said Harry. He felt a strange twinge of annoyance as she walked away, her long red hair dancing behind her; he had become so used to her presence over the summer that he had almost forgotten that Ginny did not hang around with him, Ron, and Hermione while at school.

"… and this charming young lady tells me she knows you!" Slughorn finished.

"Potter, precious Potter, obviously he wanted a look at 'the Chosen One,'" sneered Malfoy, "but that Weasley girl! What's so special about her?”
"A lot of boys like her," said Pansy, watching Malfoy out of the corner of her eyes for his reaction. "Even you think she's good-looking, don't you, Blaise, and we all know how hard you are to please!"

Harry now saw red hair flying like flames in front of him: Ginny was locked in combat with the lumpy Death Eater, Amycus, who was throwing hex after hex at her while she dodged them: Amycus was giggling, enjoying the sport: "Crucio - Crucio - you can't dance forever, pretty-"

2. Ginny’s popularity

Just like with physical appearance, the popularity of a Mary Sue will be remarked upon and confirmed by as many characters as possible. It is often that only the villains dislike the Mary Sue, and this is because that element is supposed to show what a bunch of evil beings they are to begin with. The majority of the regular characters will like her at best and be neutral towards her at worst when it came to their perceptions of the Mary Sue; some will even fall in love with her. In Ginny's case, one can remark this tendency in the following quotes:

It was as Harry had suspected. Everyone here seemed to have been invited because they were connected to somebody well-known or influential… everyone except Ginny.

"Potter, precious Potter, obviously he wanted a look at 'the Chosen One,'" sneered Malfoy, "but that Weasley girl! What's so special about her?”
"A lot of boys like her," said Pansy, watching Malfoy out of the corner of her eyes for his reaction. "Even you think she's good-looking, don't you, Blaise, and we all know how hard you are to please!

"I doubt you'll be alone, Ginny'll probably be invited," snapped Ron, who did not seem to have taken kindly to being ignored by Slughorn.

"Harry, Blaise – any time you're passing. Same goes for you, miss," he twinkled at Ginny. "Well, off you go, off you go!"

Ginny's been nice, though. She stopped two boys in our Transfiguration class calling me 'Loony' the other day --"

"He did the commentary last time, of course, and Ginny Weasley flew into him, I think probably on purpose, it looked like it. Smith was being quite rude about Gryffindor, I expect he regrets that now he's playing them - oh, look, he's lost the Quaffle, Ginny took it from him, I do like her, she's very nice. ..."

And to complicate matters, he had the nagging worry that if he didn't do it, somebody else was sure to ask Ginny out soon: he and Ron were at least agreed on the fact that she was too popular for her own good.

He had not dared to return to the Room of Requirement to retrieve his book, and his performance in Potions was suffering accordingly (though Slughorn, who approved of Ginny, had jocularly attributed this to Harry being lovesick.

The MN/TLC interview with Rowling

ES: Was James the only one who had romantic feelings for Lily?

JKR: No. [Pause.] She was like Ginny, she was a popular girl.

3. Ginny and Quidditch

I find Ginny's Quidditich performances to be Mary Sue-ish because of two reasons: the first is that in GoF Ginny was shown to be "horrorstruck" at the violence that this game was implying ("He’ll be okay, he only got ploughed!” Charlie said reassuringly to Ginny, who was hanging over the side of the box, looking horrorstruck.") while in HBP she was perfectly okay with clashing her broom into Zacharias Smith; the second is the contrived way in which her performance at Quidditich was explained in OotP: “She’s been breaking into your broom shed in the garden since the age of six and taking each of your brooms out in turn when you weren’t looking,” said Hermione from behind her tottering pile of Ancient Rune books.". I find it hard to believe that a six year old - who was shown to be horrified at the idea of violence - would break Fred and George's broom shed at the age of six to learn how to practice a game which implied violence, and also that in a house of 9 people no one noticed this behaviour, not even once. Therefore, Ginny being both a good Seeker (who apart from saving the Gryffindors from a clear defeat in one of the early games, also won the House Cup) and an excellent Chaser add up to the probability of her being a Mary Sue. Examples:

(OotP) "Ron and Ginny not here?" asked Fred, looking around as he pulled up a chair and, when Harry shook his head, he said, "Good. We were watching their practice. They're going to be slaughtered. They're complete rubbish without us."
"Come on, Ginny's not bad," said George fairly, sitting down next to Fred. "Actually, I dunno how she got so good, seeing how we never let her play with us...."
"She's been breaking into your broom shed in the garden since the age of six and taking each of your brooms out in turn when you weren't looking." said Hermione from behind her tottering pile of Ancient Rune books.
"Oh," said George, looking mildly impressed. "Well-that'd explain it."

(OotP) "I'm just glad we won, that's all."
"Yeah," said Ron slowly, savoring the words, "we won. Did you see the look on Chang's face when Ginny got the Snitch right out from under her nose?"

(OotP) The miracle was that Gryffindor only lost by ten points: Ginny managed to ***** the Snitch from right under Hufflepuff Seeker Summerby’s nose, so that the final score was two hundred and forty versus two hundred and thirty.

He spent most of his days playing two-a-side Quidditch in the Weasleys' orchard (he and Hermione against Ron and Ginny; Hermione was dreadful and Ginny good, so they were reasonably well matched)

and Ginny Weasley, who had outflown all the competition and scored seventeen goals to boot.

After letting in half a dozen goals, most of them scored by Ginny, his technique became wilder and wilder, until he finally punched an oncoming Demelza Robins in the mouth.

Ginny and Demelza scored a goal apiece, giving the red-and-gold-clad supporters below something to cheer about.

With half an hour of the game gone, Gryffindor were leading sixty points to zero, Ron having made some truly spectacular saves, some by the very tips of his gloves, and Ginny having scored four of Gryffindor's six goals. This effectively stopped Zacharias wondering loudly whether the two Weasleys were only there because Harry liked them, and he started on Peakes and Coote instead.

4. Ginny’s powers

Yes, the Bat-Bogey Hex is very powerful. Yes, Ginny uses it and people cower. However, do we really need to hear how wonderful and special that curse is every time someone mentions it? Are words such as "superb", "really good", "most marvelous", "pretty impressive" etc. really necessary every time that hex and/or Ginny's powers are mentioned? If they are, do they all need to be superlatives? For these reasons (repetition of excessive superlatives) I count that hex as another Mary Sue-ish trait of Ginny.

(OotP) "Yeah, size is no guarantee of power," said George. "Look at Ginny."
"What d'you mean?" said Harry.
"You've never been on the receiving end of one of her Bat-Bogey Hexes, have you?"

(OotP) "But Ginny was best, she got Malfoy-Bat-Bogey Hex-it was superb, his whole face was covered in the great flapping things.

"He saw me hex Zacharias Smith," said Ginny. "You remember that idiot from Hufflepuff who was in the D.A.? He kept on and on asking about what happened at the Ministry and in the end he annoyed me so much I hexed him … when Slughorn came in I thought I was going to got detention, but he just thought it was a really good hex and invited me to lunch! Mad, eh?"

"Oh dear!" chuckled Slughorn comfortably, looking around at Ginny, who was glaring at Zabini around Slughorn's great belly. "You want to be careful, Blaise! I saw this young lady perform the most marvelous Bat-Bogey Hex as I was passing her carriage! I wouldn't cross her!"

"ENOUGH!" bellowed Harry, who had seen Ginny glowering in Ron’s direction and, remembering her reputation as an accomplished caster of the Bat-Bogey Hex, soared over to intervene before things got out of hand

The MN/TLC interview with Rowling

MA: Does she have a larger importance; the Tom Riddle stufff, being the seventh girl -

JKR: The backstory with Ginny was, she was the first girl to arrive in the Weasley family in generations, but there's that old tradition of the seventh daughter of a seventh daughter and a seventh son of a seventh son, so that's why she's the seventh, because she is a gifted witch. I think you get hints of that, because she does some pretty impressive stuff here and there, and you'll see that again.

5. Ginny’s sense of humour

I'm the first one to admit that I don't really have that much of a sense of humour to begin with; I seldom find anything in HP to be funny and the things that I do find laughable were probably not intended as such. This is a matter of personal taste, I suppose; while I find Terry Pratchett a genius with humour, for others Rowling might qualify in this category. However, I genuinely find it interesting with regards to the premise of this essay that all of Ginny's pranks and jokes are supposed to be funny and everyone laughs at them. While it is a matter of debate if imitating Ron's Quidditch performance or pretending to vomit at Fleur and Bill's fluffiness qualify as successful pranks and attempts at humour, that the majority of people who are around usually find them downright hysterical is not. Ginny makes people laugh if she intends it as such; Ginny makes wonderful pranks if she intends them as such; everyone laughs and feels good. Well, this is not that far from what a classic Mary Sue gets as a reward for her every attempt at humour.

(OotP) "There are plenty of eyewitness accounts, just because you're so narrow-minded you need to have everything shoved under your nose before you-"
"Hem, hem," said Ginny in such a good imitation of Professor Umbridge that several people looked round in alarm and then laughed. "Weren't we trying to decide how often we're going to meet and get defense lessons?"
"Yes," said Hermione at once, "yes, we were, you're right...."

"Yes, well, your father and I were made for each other, what was the point in waiting?" said Mrs. Weasley. "Whereas Bill and Fleur... well... what have they really got in common? He's a hardworking, down-to-earth sort of person, whereas she's..."
"A cow," said Ginny, nodding. "But Bill's not that down-to-earth. He's a Curse-Breaker, isn't he, he likes a bit of adventure, a bit of glamour... I expect that's why he's gone for Phlegm."
"Stop calling her that, Ginny," said Mrs. Weasley sharply, as Harry and Hermione laughed.

"E is always so thoughtful," purred Fleur adoringly, stroking Bill's nose. Ginny mimed vomiting into her cereal behind Fleur. Harry choked over his cornflakes, and Ron thumped him on the back.

On the landing he bumped into Ginny, who was returning to her room carrying a pile of freshly laundered clothes.
"I wouldn't go in the kitchen just now," she warned him. "There's a lot of Phlegm around."
"I'll be careful not to slip in it." Harry smiled.

"Au revoir, 'Arry," said Fleur throatily, kissing him good-bye. Ron hurried forward, looking hopeful, but Ginny stuck out her foot and Ron fell, sprawling in the dust at Fleur's feet. Furious, red-faced, and dirt-spattered, he hurried into the car without saying good-bye.

"Panicked," Ginny said angrily, landing next to Demelza and examining her fat lip. "You prat, Ron, look at the state of her!"
"I can fix that," said Harry, landing beside the two girls, pointing his wand at Demelzas mouth, and saying "Episkey." "And Ginny, don't call Ron a prat, you're not the Captain of this team -"
"Well, you seemed too busy to call him a prat and I thought someone should -"
Harry forced himself not to laugh.
"In the air, everyone, let's go. . . ."

Admittedly, it took very little to set her off lately; she had been crying on and off ever since Percy had stormed from the house on Christmas Day with his glasses splattered with mashed parsnip (for which Fred, George, and Ginny all claimed credit).

Her imitations of Ron anxiously bobbing up and down in front of the goal posts as the Quaffle sped toward him, or of Harry bellowing orders at McLaggen before being knocked out cold, kept them all highly amused. Harry, laughing with the others, was glad to have an innocent reason to look at Ginny; he had received several more Bludger injuries during practice because he had not been keeping his eyes on the Snitch.

'You'd think people had better things to gossip about,' said Ginny, as she sat on the common-room floor, leaning against Harry's legs and reading the Daily Prophet. Three Dementor attacks in a week, and all Romilda Vane does is ask me if it's true you've got a Hippogriff tattooed across your chest.'
Ron and Hermione both roared with laughter. Harry ignored them.
'What did you tell her?'
'I told her it's a Hungarian Horntail,' said Ginny, turning a page of the newspaper idly. 'Much more macho.'
'Thanks,' said Harry, grinning. 'And what did you tell her Ron's got?'
'A Pygmy Puff, but I didn't say where.'
Ron scowled as Hermione rolled around laughing.

6. Ginny’s temper

Often, a Mary Sue will have a fiery temper: she'll be passionate, strong in expressing her opinions, extraverted in showing her anger, contempt and other negative feelings; she'll put people in their places and this behaviour will not be frowned upon by the majority of the other characters, no matter how out of line it might be in some cases. In addition, she'll be generally cheerful, cool, not taking nonsense from anyone, telling off people who normally wouldn't put up with such behaviour and she'll be praised for all these or reacted positively/neutrally at by the majority of the other characters. She used to blush, put her elbow in the butter and look "horrorstruck" at violence; now she's cool, she's dispassionate, she calls people "idiot" and "cow", she snaps, she's angry, she speaks crossly, she's outraged, she demands. Whatever reaction she displays, it is seldom questioned, and never commented upon negatively by other characters in the story without said comment to be shown as a pseudo-flaw in the end.

(OotP) "Course I will," Harry said. Ron and Hermione beamed.
"Fine!" shouted Mrs. Weasley. "Fine! Ginny-BED!"
Ginny did not go quietly. They could hear her raging and storming at her mother all the way up the stairs, and when she reached the hall Mrs. Black's earsplitting shrieks were added to the din.

(OotP) "We wanted to talk to you, Harry,” said Ginny, “but as you’ve been hiding ever since we got back-"
“I didn’t want anyone to talk to me,” said Harry, who was feeling more and more nettled.
“Well, that was a bit stupid of you,” said Ginny angrily, “seeing as you don’t know anyone but me who’s been possessed by You-Know-Who, and I can tell you how it feels.”
Harry remained quite still as the impact of these words hit him. Then he turned on the spot to face her.
“I forgot,” he said.
“Lucky you,” said Ginny coolly.
“I’m sorry,” Harry said, and he meant it. “So…so do you think I’m being possessed, then?”

(OotP) "Luna and I can stand at either end of the corridor," said Ginny promptly, "and warn people not to go down there because someone's let off a load of Garroting Gas." Hermione looked down in surprise at the readiness with which Ginny had come up with this lie. Ginny shrugged and said, "Fred and George were planning to do it before they left."

(OotP) "You can't come down here!" Ginny was calling to the crowd. "No, sorry, you're going to have to go round by the swiveling staircase, someone’s let off Garroting Gas just along here-" They could hear people complaining; one surly voice said, "I can't see no gas..." "That's because it's colorless," said Ginny in a convincingly exasperated voice, "but if you want to walk through it, carry on, then we'll have your body as proof for the next idiot who didn't believe us...."

"I suppose you like the way Phlegm says " 'Arry ", do you?" asked Ginny scornfully.
"No," said Harry, wishing he hadn't spoken, "I was just saying, Phlegm – I mean, Fleur –"
"I'd much rather have Tonks in the family," said Ginny. "At least she's a laugh."

The door opened again and Mrs. Weasley popped her head in. "Ginny," she whispered, "come downstairs and help me with the lunch."
"I'm talking to this lot!" said Ginny, outraged.
"Now!" said Mrs. Weasley, and withdrew.
"She only wants me there so she doesn't have to be alone with Phlegm!" said Ginny crossly. She swung her long red hair around in a very good imitation of Fleur and pranced across the room with her arms held aloft like a ballerina. "You lot had better come down quickly too," she said as she left.

Zabini gave a tiny little cough that was clearly supposed to indicate amused scepticism. An angry voice burst out from behind Slughorn.
"Yeah, Zabini, because you're so talented ... at posing..."
"Oh dear!" chuckled Slughorn comfortably, looking round at Ginny who was glaring at Zabini around Slughorn's great belly. "You want to be careful, Blaise! I saw this young lady perform the most marvellous Bat Bogey Hex as I was passing her carriage! I wouldn't cross her!"
Zabini merely looked contemptuous.

Ginny did not seem at all upset about the breakup with Dean; on the contrary, she was the life and soul of the team.

"Don't call her that, Ron!" snapped Ginny, pausing behind Harry on her way to join friends.

"What?" said Harry, wheeling around to stare at her. "He's ill? What's wrong with him?"
"No idea, but it's great for us," said Ginny brightly. "They're playing Harper instead; he's in my year and he's an idiot."

'And what did you tell her Ron's got?'
'A Pygmy Puff, but I didn't say where.'
Ron scowled as Hermione rolled around laughing.
'Watch it,' he said, pointing wamingly at Harry and Ginny. 'Just because I've given my permission doesn't mean I can't withdraw it -'
"Your permission",' scoffed Ginny. 'Since when did you give me permission to do anything? Anyway, you said yourself you'd rather it was Harry than Michael or Dean.'
'Yeah, I would,' said Ron grudgingly. 'And just as long as you don't start snogging each other in public -'
'You filthy hypocrite! What about you and Lavender, thrashing around like a pair of eels all over the place?' demanded Ginny.
But Ron's tolerance was not to be tested much as they moved into June, for Harry and Ginny's time together was becoming increasingly restricted.

"And get the book? Yeah, I am," said Harry forcefully. "Listen, without the Prince I'd never have won the Felix Felicis. I'd never have known how to save Ron from poisoning, I'd never have -"
"- got a reputation for Potions brilliance you don't deserve," said Hermione nastily.
"Give it a rest, Hermione!" said Ginny, and Harry was so amazed, so grateful, he looked up. "By the sound of it, Malfoy was trying to use an Unforgivable Curse, you should be glad Harry had something good up his sleeve!"
"Well, of course I'm glad Harry wasn't cursed!" said Hermione, clearly stung. "But you can't call that Sectumsempra spell good, Ginny, look where it's landed him! And I'd have thought, seeing what this has done to your chances in the match -"
"Oh, don't start acting as though you understand Quidditch," snapped Ginny, "you'll only embarrass yourself."

7. Ginny getting away with things

From mild things such as calling people "idiot", "cow", "prat", "filthy hypocrite" to bringing to Hogwarts a pet that is against the rules, to lying to her mother without a blush (OotP, about Dungbombs), to finally not facing even a mild telling off for crashing into Zacharias Smith and getting away with no one accusing her for petrifying four people and a cat in CoS, this is again about how when looking at the big picture Ginny presents this particular Mary Sue trait, i.e., she gets away with breaking the rules without acknowledgement from other characters of what she's doing.

"Mum, can I have a Pygmy Puff?" said Ginny at once.
"A what?" said Mrs. Weasley warily.
"Look, they're so sweet..."
Mrs. Weasley moved aside to look at the Pygmy Puffs, and Harry, Ron, and Hermione momentarily had an unimpeded view out of the window.

-snip-

Mrs. Weasley and Ginny were bending over the Pygmy Puffs. Mr. Weasley was delightedly examining a pack of Muggle marked playing cards.

and

The Ministry cars glided up to the front of the Burrow to find them waiting, trunks packed; Hermione's cat, Crookshanks, safely enclosed in his traveling basket; and Hedwig; Ron's owl, Pigwidgeon; and Ginny's new purple Pygmy Puff, Arnold, in cages.

In PS we were told via the letter that Harry received from Hogwarts that students were allowed to bring with them as a pet a toad or a cat or an owl. As far as I remember, until HBP, the only exception to this rule was Ron's rat, Scabbers and that was necessary for plot-related reasons. In HBP, however, we find out that Ginny wants a pet; she chooses a pigmy puff, which according to the Harry Potter Lexicon and to Fred and George is a miniature puffskein and hence not even close to being a toad, a cat or an owl. She brings that pet to school, and said pet is still around not getting involved in the plot by the end of HBP, which leaves me wondering what exactly was the purpose of breaking that rule about pets in Ginny's case. I choose to view the Arnold issue as a typical Mary Sue-ish situation when a Mary Sue character owns a cute and sweet pet which no other character has, for no plot-related purpose.

"Ginny, where're you going?" yelled Harry, who had found hint self trapped in the midst of a mass midair hug with the rest of the team, but Ginny sped right on past them until, with an almighty crash, she collided with the commentators podium. As the crowd shrieked and laughed, the Gryffindor team landed beside the wreckage of wood under which Zacharias was feebly stirring,: Harry heard Ginny saying blithely to an irate Professor McGonagall, "Forgot to brake, Professor, sorry."
Laughing, Harry broke free of the rest of the team and hugged Ginny, but let go very quickly.

No comment from Professor McGonagall, who in Book 1, although in the end she let Harry in the Quidditch team, she still scolded him for breaking the rules in the first place (the Remembrall incident). In addition, Ginny's behaviour is further commented positively upon by Luna:

"He did the commentary last time, of course, and Ginny Weasley flew into him, I think probably on purpose, it looked like it. Smith was being quite rude about Gryffindor, I expect he regrets that now he's playing them

"He saw me hex Zacharias Smith," said Ginny. "You remember that idiot from Hufflepuff who was in the D.A.? He kept on and on asking about what happened at the Ministry and in the end he annoyed me so much I hexed him … when Slughorn came in I thought I was going to got detention, but he just thought it was a really good hex and invited me to lunch! Mad, eh?"

Usually, when a teacher sees that students use magic because of personal motivations, they take action against it. In Ginny's case, she is praised for it and gets as a reward more popularity.

"Stop calling her that, Ginny," said Mrs. Weasley sharply, as Harry and Hermione laughed.

But she doesn't stop. And it's still supposed to be funny:

"I wouldn't go in the kitchen just now," she warned him. "There's a lot of Phlegm around."
"I'll be careful not to slip in it." Harry smiled.

...which of course disqualifies what in another case could count as a flaw of Ginny and as her getting a telling-off from another character. By the end of the day, she still gets to do whatever she wants and it is still balanced with positive connotations ("Harry smiled").

"Au revoir, 'Arry," said Fleur throatily, kissing him good-bye. Ron hurried forward, looking hopeful, but Ginny stuck out her foot and Ron fell, sprawling in the dust at Fleur's feet. Furious, red-faced, and dirt-spattered, he hurried into the car without saying good-bye.

Despite being furious, Ron does not confront Ginny about her deed.

Finally, I want to make something clear about the CoS incident. When I mention it as a Mary Sue-ish type of situation, I do not mean that Ginny should have been punished; I am perfectly aware that she was 11 and a victim etc. What I do mean however is that no one ever commenting about her involvement in that episode is Mary Sue-ish when considering that people at Hogwarts frowned at and blamed Harry in similar conditions: when they thought it was him who was guilty of the attacks; in spite of both his young age and lack of solid proof against him. That nobody blamed or at least commented on Ginny's role in the CoS incidents strikes me as being inconsistent with Harry's previous situation and the only way to avoid this lack of consistency is to claim that Ginny's involvement was kept a secret. Unfortunately, this again brings us to a discrepancy, because as per Dumbledore's words in PS:

(Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone) "What happened down in the dungeons between you and Professor Quirrell is a complete secret, so, naturally, the whole school knows.

Again, if what happened with Quirrel was such a big secret and everyone still found it out, then how come not even a rumour transpired in Ginny's case?

8. Pseudo-flaws

A Mary Sue always stands out amongst other characters for certain unique, special traits. It is often that other characters have such traits, but the problem with the Mary Sue is that instead of displaying one or more positive qualities which are balanced by flaws, she will display one or more positive traits unbalanced by any flaws. Even those traits which might appear to the reader as flaws, will be explained away and/or presented in a positive light by the author, via other characters (such as said characters accepting/praising the Mary Sue for her fiery temper which otherwise would be nasty - see Fleur for instance - or other characters being put down in favour of the Mary Sue; this means that in a scene where another character comments on a possible flaw of the Mary Sue, the comment will be presented in such a context that in the end, the commenter will come out as having unjustified claims and the Mary Sue will be the misunderstood/wrongfully accused/the victim-like character). A pertinent example of the latter case is the scene in which Ron confronts Ginny about her love life:

Dean and Ginny broke apart and looked around.
"What?" said Ginny.
"I don't want to find my own sister snogging people in public!"
"This was a deserted corridor till you came butting in!" said Ginny.
Dean was looking embarrassed. He gave Harry a shifty grin that Harry did not return, as the newborn monster inside him was roaring for Dean's instant dismissal from the team.
"Er . . . c'mon, Ginny," said Dean, "let's go back to the common room. ..."
"You go!" said Ginny. "I want a word with my dear brother!" Dean left, looking as though he was not sorry to depart the scene.
"Right," said Ginny, tossing her long red hair out of her face and glaring at Ron, "let's get this straight once and for all. It is none of your business who I go out with or what I do with them, Ron -"
"Yeah, it is!" said Ron, just as angrily. "D' you think I want people saying my sister's a -"
"A what?" shouted Ginny, drawing her wand. "A what, exactly?"
He doesn't mean anything, Ginny -" said Harry automatically, though the monster was roaring its approval of Ron's words.
"Oh yes he does!" she said, flaring up at Harry.
"Just because he's never snogged anyone in his life, just because the best kiss he's ever had is from our Auntie Muriel -"
"Shut your mouth!" bellowed Ron, bypassing red and turning maroon.
"No, I will not!" yelled Ginny, beside herself.
"I've seen you with Phlegm, hoping she'll kiss you on the cheek every time you see her, it's pathetic! If you went out and got a bit of snogging done your self, you wouldn't mind so much that everyone else does it!"
Ron had pulled out his wand too; Harry stepped swiftly between them.
"You don't know what you're talking about!" Ron roared, trying to get a clear shot at Ginny around Harry, who was now standing in front of her with his arms outstretched. "Just because I don't do it in public - !"
Ginny screamed with derisive laughter, trying to push Harry out of the way.
"Been kissing Pigwidgeon, have you? Or have you got a picture of Auntie Muriel stashed under your pillow?" You -
A streak of orange light flew under Harrys left arm and missed Ginny by inches; Harry pushed Ron up against the wall.
"Don't be stupid -"
"Harry's snogged Cho Chang!" shouted Ginny, who sounded close to tears now. "And Hermione snogged Viktor Krum, it's only you who acts like it's something disgusting, Ron, and that's because you've got about as much experience as a twelve-year-old!"
And with that, she stormed away.

I am not saying that in this scene Ginny should have been blamed/ranted at/punished etc. for her dating and kissing boys; this is neither my point nor my interest for that matter. What is of interest for me, however, is that this is one of the very few scenes where another character asserts a flaw of Ginny. Instead of confirming the flaw by having Ginny change her attitude or at least show some other acknowledgement of this flaw, the writer chose to make Ginny the wrongfully accused and Ron the insensitive j*rk who was being horrible with her with no reason. By the end of both this fight and later on of HBP itself, Ginny's behaviour is proven to have been the right and correct one - Ron was acting like that because he was immature (which probably in the HP world translates into lacking snogging).

No one is flawless and in a book an author should try to avoid having characters which appear as such. Ginny was acting normal for her age, and Ron was being a j*rk - fair enough. But then, when correlating scenes like this one with others (be them scenes which point out Ginny’s positive attributes or lack of scenes which should have been present in order to assert/imply the existence of a flaw) - we get back to the argument about the big picture and how in such a picture Ginny comes out as generally flawless, because no other character in the story confirms her flaws as being flaws (as was the case with Ron’s jealousy, Harry’s saving people thing, Hermione’s nagging etc.), which again brings us back to the Mary Sue hypothesis.

Some interesting comments on this scene can be found here.

(OotP) He would have liked Cho to discover him sitting with a group of very cool people laughing their heads off at a joke he had just told, he would not have chosen to be sitting with Neville and Loony Lovegood, clutching a toad and dripping in Stinksap. "Never mind," said Ginny bracingly. "Look, we can get rid of all this easily." She pulled out her wand. "Scourgify!" The Stinksap vanished.

This scene is very telling for the antithesis it brings by two means. First, Harry mentions how he would have liked Cho to have found him entertaining a group of "very cool people"; this wish is opposed to the reality, because instead of this, Cho finds him with Neville and Luna, "clutching a toad" and "dripping in Stinksap". It results that Harry thinks that Neville and Luna do not fall into that "very cool people" category. Notice how although present, Ginny is excluded from the contrasting sentence (only Neville and Luna are mentioned), therefore leading to the conclusion that she was not the same category as Neville and Luna. Secondly, please note how the antithesis is further sustained by how Rowling wrote Ginny doing something positive, i.e., cleaning the Stinksap (another "uncool" element from Harry's point of view). The conclusion we get is that, unlike Neville and Luna, Ginny did not fall into the different than very cool people category but rather she was the opposite of it, and thus another thing that could have counted as a flaw of Ginny's is explained away.

Ginny raised an eyebrow skeptically. "Do they work?" she asked.
"Certainly they work, for up to twenty-four hours at a time depending on the weight of the boy in question..."
"... and the attractiveness of the girl," said George, reappearing suddenly at their side. "But we're not selling them to our sister," he added, becoming suddenly stern, "not when she's already got about five boys on the go from what we've..."
"Whatever you've heard from Ron is a big fat lie," said Ginny calmly, leaning forward to take a small pink pot off the shelf. "What's this?"
"Guaranteed ten-second pimple vanisher," said Fred. "Excellent on everything from boils to blackheads, but don't change the subject. Are you or are you not currently going out with a boy called Dean Thomas?"
"Yes, I am," said Ginny. "And last time I looked, he was definitely one boy, not five. What are those?"
She was pointing at a number of round balls of fluff in shades of pink and purple, all rolling around the bottom of a cage and emitting high-pitched squeaks.
"Pygmy Puffs," said George. "Miniature puffskeins, we can't breed them fast enough. So what about Michael Corner?"
"I dumped him, he was a bad loser," said Ginny, putting a finger through the bars of the cage and watching the Pygmy Puffs crowd around it. "They're really cute!"
"They're fairly cuddly, yes," conceded Fred. "But you're moving through boyfriends a bit fast, aren't you?"
Ginny turned to look at him, her hands on her hips. There was such a Mrs. Weasley-ish glare on her face that Harry was surprised Fred didn't recoil.
"It's none of your business. And I'll thank you'' she added angrily to Ron, who had just appeared at George's elbow, laden with merchandise, "not to tell tales about me to these two!"

Unlike Ron in the scene discussed above, the twins assert a possible flaw of Ginny's with more tact and diplomacy. Authorial intent intervenes however and Ginny still comes out as flawless from this scene, because her anger is justified via the author's words ("Harry was surprised Fred didn't recoil" and Ginny having the last word on the matter without the twins ever approaching that subject again).

When correlating all the attributes described above, they can be summed up to the general tendency of a Mary Sue character to being special. Regular rules and types of behaviour and reactions do not apply to her; she gets special treatment from the majority of the characters who usually remark upon her uniqueness; she has special powers, which no other character possesses; she has a more than pleasant physical appearance upon which even the villains marvel; she is funny, spunky, sporty and generally what the author sees as being the ideal girl for the hero; and finally, most of these features are told, not shown and no motivation or backstory is given for them.

Note: Unless specified otherwise, all quotes are from HBP and all emphasis is mine.

Part II.1

Mary Sues in Harry Potter - Part I

2006-01-08T01:17:07Z

Part I - Pre-HBP release

Note: This essay is a summary of a discussion going on in this thread at Portkey. It was written before HBP was released and its premise is that Ginny is a possible Mary Sue. Links to Mary Sue information and analysis are given at the end.

This is about the character Ginny as a possible Mary Sue. Don't hate me after you read just this sentence; just allow me to try to explain myself. :)

First of all, I must mention that the Mary Sue situation does not occur necessarily in fan fiction (as everybody tends to believe). One of the first Mary Sue-like characters officially recognized and pointed at was Wesley Crusher in Star Trek: The Next Generation. He was not the common Mary Sue that appears in fan fics. He wasn't stunningly beautiful, he didn't marry a canon character and so on. But... He was a Mary Sue: he was extremely intelligent, he got away even when breaking the rules (and others would get punished) and, most important of all everybody loved him/or was neutral towards him, because he occasionally saved the day.

Okay, a few basics things about Mary Sue in canon:

1. No author is immune to the self-insertion temptation. This is what a Mary Sue is all about: not mainly about poor writing skills, but about will power – resisting the temptation. Also, the Mary Sue character, when inserted, must be a projection of the way the author wishes s/he could be in real life. This is why the Mary Sue is often “perfect”.

2. If one draws a line and eliminates all the subtle or less subtle Mary Sue traits, there is one thing that distinguishes a Mary Sue from other characters: she has no character flaws. Either her characterization is moderate/neutral in praises or perfect. Never negative. If, however, the characterization presents the Mary Sue as a villain, it will always be explained away by her tragic past or other different reasons.

3. One common feature of the Mary Sue characters that does not feature in the Litmus Test is the fans’ attitude towards a Mary Sue: the majority of fans of the work in question seem to dislike or adore her with passion.

4. The author would never admit, not even to him/herself that the character in question is a self insertion. It's a psychological means of protection.

5. Mary Sue characters have usually only two possible purposes for their existence in the story (please note that both can happen):
a) She becomes a love interest, usually of the main character;
b) She dies a heroic death and everybody mourns her death.

6. Mary Sue authors have an unconscious strong positive feeling that everybody would love the Mary Sue character; they think it's impossible for readers to hate such a perfect character. And "if they don't, then that's their problem", thinks the author, "because, after all, it's my story and I write it (especially this character) for myself".

7. The Mary Sue as displayed in fan fiction is different from the Mary Sue as displayed in canon. Often because fan fiction authors are less experienced than canon authors and they lack the latter’s insight into their own work. However, this is not the main reason for their existence. Their existence is primarily defined by some psychological laws: wish fulfillment. But this doesn't mean that the canon author is protected from creating a Mary Sue. The point is that the Mary Sue in canon is a little bit more subtle than the one in fan fiction. Some authors recognize this from the beginning and don't create a Mary Sue. But this is a very hard thing to do, especially since this "battle" takes place with the author's Ego as main opponent.

8. Another thing that also helps to identify the Mary Sue character is her apparent/real lack of purpose in the story. One can identify a Mary Sue by asking: "Would the story have the same plot and plot resolution without the character in question? Now, if I adapt this question to Ginny and CoS, it would be something like this: "Would the CoS plot be the same without Ginny?" For instance, if Hermione, or Ron (also a pureblood, like Ginny), or even Neville (as a character that is likely to "pour his soul into a journal") was the victim dragged in the Chamber of Secrets, would any of those change the plot in a way that is damaging to the story? I will not even begin to ask myself if the absence of Ginny at the DoM would have changed the plot since it's obvious that the answer is negative.

9. The thing that set me on this track was the super-Ginny in Order of the Phoenix. All of the sudden, she is famous for her bogey-hex, she is a Quidditch player, and she is a so-called more than possible Love Interest for Harry. Let me not forget to mention the way she stands up to Harry, calling him "stupid', being "cool" and "calm" etc. Those would still not make her a Mary Sue were in not for the fact that in all four previous books she was but a mere name (with a crush on Harry). No/minor previous character development has indicated her fiery temper before OotP.

10. Mary Sues, both in fan fiction and canon, display the problem of character development: either they are just flawless from the beginning (with no proper motivation for their abilities/personalities) or, in a saga (both television or literature) they are just there, as a mention, and only become Mary Sue-ish at one point. Non-Ginny example of what it would be Mary Sue-ish: in PoA, if Ron suddenly created a Patronus in the train, when the first Dementor appeared in the Hogwarts Express. With regards to Ginny, I call improper character development the fact that no thing in canon supports her sudden development. I know this is Harry's point of view and so on, but remember that it has also been Harry's point of view every time Hermione or Ron got a description through his eyes. And the argument that Harry wasn't so far interested in Ginny, that's why we have very few testimonies about her, is invalid. Because the Mary Sue does not relate to character intent, but to authorial intent. And the fact is that, although she could have placed some hints about Ginny's progressive development throughout the four books before OotP (something like Ginny meets the trio after the exams, and Ginny complains about how she would rather have a double Charms exam, instead of History of Magic, because Charms were her passion and she was loads better at it; yes, I know it's not a very good example in what regards quality, but this is not the example's point, the latter being that the author must avoid Mary Sue creation by justifying her existence in the story), JKR didn't. The author has a very clear picture of the Mary Sue in his/her head; so he/she assumes everyone will have the same picture while reading, thus making the character's development flawed.

Character flaws when considered in discussing a possible Mary Sue refer to the following: there are necessary three categories of "observers" of the character in question to acknowledge the flaw in a non-ambiguous way in order to make it somewhat set in stone.

1. the author perceives them as flaws - we have no indication for what Rowling thinks about Ginny (with regards to the author questions in the Litmus test);

2. the other characters perceive them as flaws. With regards to Ginny, it seems Mary Sue-ish to me that nobody blamed her for the CoS incident; Especially since almost all regular characters were quick in looking accusatory at Harry when they thought he was the heir. That nobody blamed Ginny for three years is unrealistic. And Mary Sue-ish, when correlated with other things about her.

3. the readers perceive them as flaws. As far as I can see, in all fandom there are, with few exceptions, only two possible emotions/feelings for Ginny: great dislike, or great admiration. This adds up to the Mary Sue hypothesis. The few neutral reactions I gathered so far were based on readers not knowing her enough. I suppose the HBP will clear this up.

To sum up, a real, realistic, pertinent flaw is, for example, Hermione's ex-large front teeth; or Ron's freckles; or Harry's knobbly knees. Or, with personality: Hermione's tendency to being a "bossy know it all"; Harry's saving people thing; Ron's jealousy. Those are real flaws. They can be interpreted as qualities (such as: Hermione being a "bossy know it all" is because, well, she pretty much knows a lot of stuff; Ron's jealousy means he loves Hermione; Harry's thing with saving people is OK, because people really have to be saved; all those are correct interpretations), but the bottom line is that they are not. They are loved by us because their flaws make them real. And this is what is all about. This is why Hermione's bossy, know it all attitude is a flaw, for example, because, besides the trio, Snape, also for example considers it so. This is why Ron's jealousy is a flaw: because it makes Hermione suffer, because it leaves Harry upset and clueless and friendless (besides Hermione) in GoF. This is why Harry's saving people thing is a flaw: because it led to Sirius' death.

Here, I'll make a point in what stands as character flaw for both Ginny and another character:

1. Ginny. Ron's ambiguous statement in CoS: "Ginny, said Ron. You don't know how weird it is for her to be this shy. She never shuts up normally" (CoS, Ch.3, p.33, Romanian Edition);

2. Hermione. (Snape): "Five more points from Gryffindor for being an insufferable know-it-all" "...and Ron who told Hermione she was a know-it-all at least twice a week" . (PoA, Ch.9, P.127, R. ed.)

In Ginny's case, in five books we have no previous mention of possible character flaws. I provided Ron's statement because it's the closest I could find about possible Ginny character flaws. And it's still ambiguous; it still can't be labeled as a certain character flaw. Because it goes into the thing I've mentioned below, about how Mary Sue flaws are explained away and can still be neutral or positive. For example, that statement can be looked at in two ways:

1. Ginny's so talkative that she drives Ron crazy; unconfirmed by other characters mentioning this;

2. Ginny is not usually so shy (and here we go into flaws-as-qualities territory), she's talkative and forceful and so on.

With Hermione, the situation is different. Snape, Ron and other people at Hogwarts (from other houses and maybe Professors too) are shown to consider Hermione's know-it-all attitude to be a flaw.

I can't know JKR's view of Ginny. But I do know that parts of the author's positive impressions about the possible Mary Sue character can be deduced through other character’s reactions. If no other character in book confirms Ginny's flaws, then they are still subject to interpretation in their existence as flaws.

The problem with Mary Sue-ish flaws is as follows: originally, the author realizes that the character is too perfect and tries adding a couple of flaws. But the Mary Sue law (this belongs to me, it was never officially named "law") is that the author loves so much the character, that actually explains away the flaw, transforming it into a quality. Example, not Potter related, in general. Mary Sue will be quite temperamental; she'll make some angry statements. There, she's not perfect. But then comes the transformation, further in the book, when the author explains away the flaw, by motivating it in a positive way. I.e. Mary was angry and snappy because she had a tragic past, because the other person deserved it and so on.

I have "given" Ginny the Litmus Test and she scored 14 points, which is very close to the limit. Unfortunately, some of the test's questions I left unanswered because I had no idea of JKR's views on Ginny. Also, I was limited in my application of the test, because this test is meant for an author to respond to.

The Ginny character scored at the following sections (for every "yes" answer I counted one point):

Section 1: unusual name (Ginevra, instead of Virginia);

Section 2: same gender as the author + almost beautiful – (see the descriptions made through Harry's eyes) + hairstyle mentioned a lot; I should have also added an extra point for having the same astrological sign as the author, but I refrained;

Section 3: special relationship to canon (she is the only girl born in the Weasley family for centuries) + she particularly expresses hostility to Malfoy in order to protect Harry (CoS) + she plays Quidditich as a Seeker, and wins (she probably will be Chaser in the next year, so this should give her double points, but I counted only one) + she is in Gryffindor (JKR's favourite house) + school rules do not seem to apply to her ( I took as an example the way everybody forgave her for the CoS incident);

Section 4: Wizarding powers: 0 points, since so far we only know about her famous bat-bogey hex;

Section 5: one point for the fact that the Ginny character fell in love with the main character;

Section 6: it refers to personal author questions (such as 'Would you like to be friends with the character in the real life?" etc), for which I had no answer; so zero points, I suppose;

Section 7: 1 point for introducing the character in the early chapters + one point for the character becoming best friends with the trio after short time spent together.

Please note that the worrying part about Ginny is that she scored 14, in spite of the fact that quite a few questions were left unanswered.

Link to the Mary Sue Litmus Test for Harry Potter

Other things about Ginny that point to her being a Mary Sue in future books if nothing changes:

1. Neville taking her to the ball; one of the main reasons for this is that I have to ask myself what previous proof in canon justified Neville's interest in her; I can see where his interest came from when it comes to Hermione - her helping him with his classes and all- but not to Ginny. Also, please note that, although the books are from Harry's point of view, authorial intent could have placed even a single line to justify Neville's interest in her, such as "On his way to Divination, Harry noticed Ginny helping Neville with his homework".

2. Telling instead of showing her development. The twins told us about the bat-bogey hex. Hermione told us that Ginny’s given up on Harry. Hermione told us about how Ginny learned to fly. Ron told us (CoS) that Ginny is usually far from being quiet. We were told about her two winnings at the Quidditch games. We were never shown her performance at the DoM. Ron told us that Ginny hexed Malfoy with a very powerful curse. And so on.

3. If Harry falls for Ginny in books 6/7, it would be Mary Sue-ish. Harry Potter is a series of seven books. We have read so far the following with regards to the H/G relationship:
- Ginny runs after the Hogwarts Express, waving, half crying, half laughing. Harry's reaction: he watches her. No feelings involved.
- Ginny has a crush on Harry. Harry's reaction: indifferent. He’s embarrassed by her Valentine.
- Ginny still has a crush on the Boy Who Lived. Harry's reaction: indifference.
- Ginny still has a crush on Harry, Ron suggests for Ginny to go to the Yule Brawl with Harry. Harry's reaction: indifference.
- Ginny doesn't have a crush on Harry anymore. His reaction: not only does he not notice that she's over him, but it takes Hermione's saying that Ginny is over him to make him realize that this was the reason that made Ginny talk in front of him.

Also, on a side note, Harry forgot about Ginny being possessed by Voldemort.
Now, if after 5 books of indifference to Ginny from Harry, we get all of the sudden how he realized she's the love of his life, would it be realistic? No. Would it be Mary Sue-ish? Yes. This could have been done in Book 5. And it wouldn't have been so Mary Sue-ish. Still, it could have been made realistic by pushing Hermione's development in the background. One could say that after Harry becomes friends with Ginny, he'll realize his feelings. However, where would be the realism in that? Harry is already friends with a girl: Hermione. So, in order to avoid the Mary Sue-ism, JKR would have to be very plausible in her explanation as to why didn't Harry fall for his best friend Hermione, whom he already loves, but for the more obscure Ginny.

4. Pre-OotP Ginny was but a bare mention in almost 100 sentences in four books including CoS. All of the sudden, she's way more present, she displays a personality that was only once and only in passing (Ron) hinted at, and she's a possible Love Interest for Harry.

5. Her friendship with Hermione. It was told, not shown, and it had no basis when one takes into consideration Hermione’s rather introverted personality.

Conclusions

At the moment, Ginny is not yet a Mary Sue in all her glory. Time will tell if she becomes one. The bottom line is that she’s already very close to being one. It's all about your faith in Rowling. I do like the Harry Potter world. I do like the plots. I do like her wonderful work with her characters. But this just means that I've come to expect a lot from her. And this is what makes a Ginny character just jump into my eyes when compared to others. I don't think that loving Rowling should keep you from observing her possible weaknesses.

Links to Mary Sue information:

150 Years of Mary Sue

The Original Mary Sue Test

Mary Sue – An Explanation

Comments are disabled because I am evil and I want anyone who bothers to commnt, to have read the expansion of this essay, here and here. :P