Quad not Trio: Ginny Weasley Should Been Part of the Inner Harry Potter Circle
One thing that really bugs me about the later Harry Potter books is how the trio doesn’t become the quad. That Ginny is unnaturally excluded or pushed to the side with people more naturally not part of the best-friends group. At the beginning it is completely understandable that Ginny isn’t part of “the” group. Towards the middle it looks like that is naturally changing, but then in the later books the progression stops and a weird barrier is put in place around the trio, as if it is more about the marketing idea of the trio than a realistic and satisfying portrayal.
Oh, bear in mind that I’m talking about book Ginny (Ginny in the movie is as much of a loser as movie Ron, don’t get me started on that subject).
Two young boys become best friends fairly easily as kids can do. Through unlikely circumstances they befriend a previously annoying young girl. They are all at an age when life is very boys vs girls, when a year’s difference in age is huge in their eyes, and when younger siblings are automatically annoying. So it totally makes sense when one boy’s kid sister isn’t included in their friend group. Add to that the fact that said kid sister has an awkward star struck crush on the other boy and it really makes including her unlikely. Since Hermione and Ginny get along and Hermione is around constantly, its pretty natural that those two become close.
In the middle books, when Ginny gets over her crush (or hides it well), when they are all at the age when boys and girls start becoming more interested in each other and co-ed stuff is more normal, and with the pattern of the four hanging out over the holidays plus many of the dark events affecting Ginny as much or more than the rest, Ginny is more included in things as expected. Obviously siblings in a friend group can cause some clash, as well as all the complex crush stuff, but she is more obviously in the midst of things.
Then Ginny is added to the Quidditch team, the DA is started, and Ginny and Harry are mutually interested in each other and then later, together. So it seems as if, with the four so close already, this would make Ginny their equal, right? Not in fossilized marketing fan driven writing land apparently (or whatever it was). No, the trio still have their inner circle catch ups that it makes no sense for Ginny not to be in, on no planet, no reality; she’s with them all the time, she’s sister to Ron, best friend to Hermione, girlfriend to Harry. She’s as smart as them all and braver than two.
The crowning insult is in The Deathly Hallows when the trio go off on their own, and independent Ginny is forced by Mum to go to school while the others are off on their own adventure, and Harry doesn’t do much to change that. She’s excluded from their plans for “safety” or whatever. She is just a year younger and acts older than Ron anyway. Its not merely that she doesn’t go with them, she is hardly in the book in that period, she’s not given as important a place, she’s just sort of “waiting” for Harry to appear like Prince Charming which is a role that doesn’t fit him or her at. all. Ginny Weasely meekly waiting?! As if.
8 Comments
Skye
I really need to read the books. I’ve seen the movies, and really didn’t like Ginny, but I had heard that she’s better in the books. I wonder why they did that in the movies.
Livia Rose
Yeah, Ginny’s a nonentity, mooning sort of type in the movies, SO different in the books its insane. I love Ginny and Harry in the books. I don’t love most of the portrayals (I think the twins are the closest in the movie, although they get so little time plus Hermione accurate, Harry’s not great, he has way more personality in the books, Ron is not a doofus in the books)
MovieCritic
I don’t know why I hadn’t thought of this, but you are 100% right! They didn’t need to keep the trio just as it was because that’s unrealistic! As you grow up you make more friends and expand your “circle”, and even “inner circle”! Good points all around
Livia Rose
Thanks! I don’t know that I liked Ginny when I first read the books (I blamed her fight with Ron for the Ron and Lavender thing, although that is mainly Ron’s fault for one thing), but now she is a favorite, and I had thought that she was pushed to the side for a awhile, but I had an inspiration during a walk and thought out some major points for a post which I thought would be fun.
Elizabeth
I watched the first movie when I was really little but my mom was very against Harry Potter so I just never kept going. Although I’ve meant to get to them for the last few years, I just haven’t yet. I’ve been really curious how the characters in the movies differ from the books so this was really good to know.
Livia Rose
I watched the 4th movie when I was around 20 and then started reading the books and then watched the first half of Deathly Hallows in theater before I finished the series. I do of course, usually recommend reading the books first, but I’d first thought they were bad (no one ever really asked to read them anyway), then when my sister started reading them in later years, thought they were little kids books. And the earlier ones definitely are more middle grade but still much more than “little kid books,” the later straddle the line between middle-grade and ya (meaning keeping the better writing of the former while adding darker and more mature elements).
Catherine
You’ve definitely got a point! I think for the final book though it would have changed the dynamic too much. Harry and Ginny were also a pretty new relationship – his bond with Ron and Hermione goes much deeper at that point in his life so they seemed like the natural companions for the horcrux bit. Ginny’s kind of dismissive of Ron and that would have displaced him a bit. And Ron and Ginny would have fought like cat and dog. I can see Harry just getting fed up and going off on his own in that scenario. Would be interesting to see more Ginny/Hermione dynamics though! (Sorry, long comment!)
Livia Rose
I don’t think Ginny and Ron always fought, there are many times and implied times the quad hang out together, although I can certainly see it happening more in the seventh, but Ron already caused drama then anyway. I feel like he still would have left and then come back, but then I never loved that story line either. Ron wasn’t allowed to mature as much as the others (I also think Ginny would have risen to the occasion and not baited him as much), I feel like doofus movie Ron started influencing the writing of Ron at that point.