Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling

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snugglepot
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Re: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling

Post by snugglepot »

Farwa wrote:I'm glad you agree with me, Snugglepot. Good references too. :)

P.S: And for those who think that Harry and Ginny couldn't be paired, it turns out that Ginny liked Harry from the start. Why else would she "stick her elbow in the butter dish" when Harry entered?(Chamber of Secrets)
Thank you for your support.
I agree Ginny was so cute with her crush. What sold her for me as the girl for Harry was when she stood up to Malfoy in the bookshop at the beginning of Chamber. She had been so shy around Harry but the moment he was verbally abused she jumped in to defend him, showing her hidden depths and fiery nature. I love that moment.
With Ron and Hermione it was Ron cursing Malfoy for calling Hermione the "M" word and getting a mouthful of slugs when his wand backfired.
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Re: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling

Post by Farwa »

Yeah...that's a cute moment. I also love the part when Harry announces his love, and Ginny tells him that she had always hoped for this moment. Do you like it too?
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Re: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling

Post by Katharine »

7upromana01 wrote:Also, I find it a tiny bit weird that Harry married his BESTEST friend's sister.
I wonder why you find that weird? My uncle married my mum's close friend from school, and they remained very happily married for over 40 years until he died.
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Re: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling

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I love it when he tells her that he wishes he would have noticed her earlier so they could have had more time before he had to leave and fight Voldemort. The whole time I was thinking that if he hadn't been so dumb to have a crush on that painful Cho and waste all that time pining for her, then trying to date her, he could have been with Ginny.
I guess he needed to have the bad relationship to find out who and what he really wanted.

I love two scenes in Phoenix as well, the one at Christmas when he thinks he's possessed and he forgets about Ginny and the diary and she says "Lucky you!" plus the one where they eat Easter eggs in the Library and she makes him feel better. I was devastated that these were cut out of the movie. In fact I hate what the movies did to Ginny and their relationship. They cut out all their good scenes, including the Common Room kiss, and replaced them with trash!

And I fail to see how marrying your best friend's sister is any weirder than marrying your best female friend! In fact as Harry refers to Hermione as "like a sister' it would be even weirder if he'd ended up with her!
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Re: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling

Post by Farwa »

Well, in most cases, the brother wouldn't be very pleased, but if he's OK with it, then there's nothing wrong with it, no doubt.
You know, I'm glad she he didn't end up with Cho Chang. She was a sort of 'outsider'. There's no one better than Ginny for him to marry, really.
And if Harry had married Hermione, Ron would end up with a person we're not very familiar with, and that wouldn't have been good either. So the pairing is perfect.
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Re: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling

Post by Anita Bensoussane »

snugglepot wrote:I hate what the movies did to Ginny and their relationship. They cut out all their good scenes, including the Common Room kiss, and replaced them with trash!
Although I think most of the casting in the Harry Potter films is inspired, I don't much like the casting of Ginny. She comes across as rather cold, and Harry has been through such a lot that he deserves to be with a partner who is warm and tender.
Farwa wrote:There's no one better than Ginny for him to marry, really.
Even though I feel that Hermione could also have made a good partner for Harry, I agree that Ginny (not the film Ginny, but Ginny as portrayed in the books) is a great match in many ways. She understands all that he has been through and has always been supportive. Mrs. Weasley has looked on Harry as one of her brood ever since he was eleven, and Ron is like a brother to him. In becoming Ginny's husband, he also becomes Mrs. Weasley's son-in-law and Ron's brother-in-law and gets to be part of a large, loving family after having had a hard, lonely childhood.
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Re: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling

Post by snugglepot »

Although I think most of the casting in the Harry Potter films is inspired, I don't much like the casting of Ginny. She comes across as rather cold, and Harry has been through such a lot that he deserves to be with a partner who is warm and tender.
I don't think we can blame the actress, herself.
I blame the scriptwriters and directors for failing to give Ginny any of her meaningful scenes from the book and writing trash like the shoelace scene instead.
Look at Phoenix, they knew by then that Ginny and Harry would get together in the next book and that this was their chance to spotlight her as the future love interest, but what did they do? Rip out all her scenes and even her emerging character and replace them with this shy girl who looks sad whenever Chang's name is mentioned!
Then they put all their focus on Loony Lovegood and gave her extra scenes and wrote her bonding with Harry! it makes me so angry even to think about it!
Then in Prince they cut out all of Harry's unrequited love from his point of view and just had their "favourite" Hermione keep bringing it up. I wanted to see Harry staring longingly at Ginny! I wanted to see him getting jealous but no! The movie focused on Ron, Lav and Hermione. Ron and Lav got the Common Room kiss, noooo!

I believe that with a decent script and more to do, more emotions to play out, Bonnie Wright would have done well as Ginny.
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Re: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling

Post by Anita Bensoussane »

You make some good points, Snugglepot. Ginny wasn't really given the opportunity in the films to make much of an impression.
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Re: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling

Post by Courtenay »

Reading the books, I certainly never thought Harry and Hermione were an obvious item, but I do feel they had more in common with each other than Hermione had with Ron. I wouldn't have predicted Hermione and Ron on the face of it, to be sure - although I was disgusted when JKR later declared they wouldn't make a good couple, since, as I said, she's the one who invented them and put them together in the first place. :roll:

What bugs me about Ginny is that even in the books (I've only seen the first two of the films), she never really becomes important or develops much as a character. I was downright incredulous at the point when Harry unexpectedly realises he has deeper feelings for her than for anyone else. If she had participated in the adventures more, shown a lot more brains and guts, and actually done at least a few things central and essential to the plot, it would be understandable (and a whole lot more satisfying). As it was, it felt to me like she was more or less roped in to fill the role of obligatory romantic interest, suddenly going from relatively uninteresting background character to the love of Harry's life (and still not doing much even after that). Right from the fourth book, when Rowling starts giving Harry and friends serious teenage crushes, I got the clear impression that she was NOT good at writing romance. Unfortunately, she never improved on that score. :evil:
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Re: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling

Post by Farwa »

Which do you think is better - Enid's books or the Harry Potter ones? Do share your thoughts.

I've merged this post with the main Harry Potter topic. - Anita
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Re: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling

Post by Anita Bensoussane »

Courtenay wrote:What bugs me about Ginny is that even in the books (I've only seen the first two of the films), she never really becomes important or develops much as a character.
We know that J. K. Rowling kept notebooks with a lot of background material and extra ideas, some of which never found a place in the published books. It sounds as though she had a strong concept of Ginny in her head - and perhaps in her notes - but didn't quite manage to put it across in the books.

Farwa, it's hard to compare the seven books in the Harry Potter series with the whole of Enid Blyton's varied output. One of the main differences has already been mentioned by Katharine - that J. K. Rowling's characters develop and mature and go through teenage angst much more noticeably than Enid Blyton's. And of course the themes are much darker and more complex, and the story carries on from book to book, whereas each Enid Blyton book tells a complete story and it's not necessary to read a whole series (the Barney and Six Cousins books are something of an exception, but they still don't have complicated threads running through them in the way that the Harry Potter series does).
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Re: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling

Post by Farwa »

You're right, Anita - it's a hard choice - even for me!:)
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Re: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling

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Fiona1986 wrote:I understand what you mean Deej. Issues like the prejudice against muggle-borns and half-bloods can be likened to racism in the real world.

Harry's trouble with his adoptive family too, Ron coming from a large and happy but poor family, children not fitting in at school, bullies... All that sort of thing happens in the real world.
Yes that's exactly how I saw it. Interesting point you make about racism and prejudice. The chart which the Nazis used to distinguish Jews is very similar to the blood divisions used in Harry Potter.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Politics_o ... and_Nazism" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
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Re: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling

Post by Deej »

On the relationship subject: I don't think Harry and Hermione would have been right as they always came across more as friends to me. I think they thought about it but they knew their boundaries.
The give-away for me is in the Deathly Hallows film when they are dancing with each other in the tent but realise they can go no further. Ron and Hermione were different in many ways and fell out a lot but don't they say opposites attract?
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Re: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling

Post by Katharine »

I think the relationship between Harry and Ginny is much better explained in the books than the film.

One loose end that I would have loved to see tied up is what happened between Hermione and her parents? Presumably once their memories had been modified they couldn't get them back again, but did she ever track them down and befriend them? Or did she have to spend the rest of her life without having anything to do with them. That part of the film almost has me in tears.
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