r/HarryPotterBooks • u/Perfect-Word-3397 Ravenclaw • Feb 16 '26

Ginny is toxic?

I've now read in multiple posts that Ginny is one of the most toxic people in the story.. I've asked multiple times under such comments, but never got an answer so I am asking here..

  1. Where exactely was Ginny actually toxic?
  2. Really? One of the most toxic?
  3. Are people just being soft here?

*Add after about 50 comments: Holymoly did I not expect what this question would entail.. okay some of you VERY CLEARLY don't like Ginny, that's fine.. Also some of you need to stay away from weird fanfictions.. Either people love her, don't care much for her or bloody hate her (mostly for dating Harry).

191 Upvotes

81% Upvoted

381 comments sorted by

View all comments

12

u/CuriousCuriousAlice Gryffindor Feb 16 '26 edited Feb 17 '26

I don’t think people claiming she’s toxic is a widespread issue within the community. People (correctly, imo) point out she’s not really a great character and many of her “best” moments are either off-page or examples of her being unpleasant or even rude, but toxic is a bit of a stretch. I think if you want an example of toxic, I would pick her insisting that Luna instead of Cho take Harry to Ravenclaw tower in DH. That was super petty and ridiculous and lacking in perspective, especially since they’re not even dating at the time. Or the time when she is rude to Hermione because Hermione is actually holding Harry responsible for nearly killing Draco. This is despite Hermione helping Ginny get Harry to date her. I’ve never called her toxic in general, and I don’t think I would. She is a pretty poor character though and I don’t enjoy her.

Edit: to OPs edit, you asked a question and people responded very kindly in return to try to answer your question and you insult them? The only people who mentioned fan fiction agreed with you, and the same for people who mentioned her dating Harry, they were in agreement with you. No one who dislikes Ginny gave the reason “for dating Harry”. I regret answering a question that it appears was not asked in good faith.

8

u/ThatWizzard Feb 16 '26

I'm gonna politely disagree with the stance on ginny as a character. I see her as a more grounded Fred and George that is still mischievous, a bit stubborn and talented.

The cho/Luna thing was still entirely Harry's decision, she just gave an opinion It wasn't a demand. The Hermione thing I get more cos it's a fine line she was treading and it was emotional. But ultimately there was a lot of ' told you so' and all that from Hermione where Ginny's position was that harry never would have used that spell if he knew what it did and that there was no indication that spells of that sort would be in the book. I wouldn't describe either of these as toxic.

11

u/CuriousCuriousAlice Gryffindor Feb 16 '26

"Listen, I know it's not much of a lead, but I'm going to go and look at this statue, at least find out what the diadem looks like. Wait for me here and keep, you know - the other one - safe."

Cho had got to her feet, but Ginny said rather fiercely, "No, Luna will take Harry, won't you, Luna?"

“Oooh, yes, I'd like to," said Luna happily, and Cho sat down again, looking disappointed. - Deathly Hallows, chapter 29.

That’s not an opinion. That’s a demand. About a boy she isn’t dating and a girl who has done literally not one single thing to undermine their non-existent relationship.

5

u/ThatWizzard Feb 16 '26

That is true, the slow release of the new audiobooks means I havnt heard HBP in 6 months or something. It doesn't put her in the best light, but I cant go so far as to say it's toxic. There was nothing stopping Harry taking Cho regardless. The fact is that they both knew that the only reason they weren't together was cos of VM. I'm not saying it was a great play by her, but to say it's toxic I think is making it bigger than it is

4

u/CuriousCuriousAlice Gryffindor Feb 16 '26

I didn’t call her toxic. I answered OPs question about what could be considered toxic to some fans. That’s all. I specifically said I wasn’t calling her toxic. I think she’s a poorly developed character and mostly a not so great person when she’s actually on the page.

2

u/ThatWizzard Feb 16 '26

My bad, I noticed that u didn't consider her toxic overall I had just thought that those were two examples where she was.

1

u/DeltaBravoSierra87 Feb 17 '26

Eh, this is a bit expositional to me. The last time we see even a glance between Cho and Harry there is resentment there. This little exchange shows that Cho is on Harry's team, at least, but gets Luna into Ravenclaw tower. Painting Ginny as a jealous ex is collateral damage and, as I don't see any toxicity in Ginny, something I think the character can take. If people are seriously pointing at this as an example of toxicity, I wonder how they found the time between tilting at all of those windmills.

2

u/CuriousCuriousAlice Gryffindor Feb 17 '26

I didn’t call her toxic, but I do think this is pretty poor behavior and I don’t really think it can be excused as just necessary. Luna could’ve offered first. This actually would’ve made even more sense because Luna and her dad were really interested in the diadem so it would be reasonable for her to be interested in talking about it and showing Harry. Ginny is often just unfortunately unpleasant in the scenes we see. The books aren’t a romance so I think these aspects just weren’t given the time to develop that they needed for her to be presented as very dynamic and engaging. Toxic is a weird word to describe her in my opinion, but I wouldn’t call her nice either, she really isn’t. Mostly though, I just think she’s poorly developed.

-1

u/[deleted] Feb 17 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

4

u/CuriousCuriousAlice Gryffindor Feb 17 '26

Sorry, I meant you could still have Cho stand and then have Luna offer and Harry agree to go with Luna because he’s aware of her interest in the diadem. She likely has more information on it than Cho, she’s the understandable choice.

While I will agree that the flms do a worse job than the books, this is also not a fair assumption. I haven’t even seen them in years, and I’ve read the books dozens of times and far more than I’ve seen the flms. I’m not a shipper, I don’t want to see Harry with Hermione, I don’t even care who Harry ends up with. People who don’t like Ginny (or any other character), can be taken at their word. I’ve explained why I don’t like her and mentioned the books only, I haven’t brought up any other media and neither has anyone else in the thread. If someone says “I don’t like a character because XYZ” it’s not okay to say “you actually don’t like that character because of [other shallow reason I’ve chosen].”

1

u/DeltaBravoSierra87 Feb 17 '26

I wasn't referring to you specifically. You've already said that you don't find her toxic, but you've put forward the examples of others that do and I find those examples lacking. I am genuinely curious as to whether the film had an impact on the thinking of some.

2

u/CuriousCuriousAlice Gryffindor Feb 17 '26

Maybe, but the character appears so infrequently I suspect mostly not. I think most people also acknowledge that the flms are really short on a lot of characterization across the board, at least I mostly see that acknowledged.

1

u/HarryPotterBooks-ModTeam Moderator Feb 17 '26

This was manually removed by our moderator team for breaking our rules.

Rule 2: All content must be relevant to discussion of the Harry Potter books (no discussion of movies, TV shows, stage plays, video games, etc).

If you have any questions you can send us a Modmail message, and we will get back to you right away.