Ginny Weasley first appeared on screen in Harry Potter And The Philosopher’s Stone as the very shy, red-haired sister of Ron, Fred, George, Percy, Bill and Charlie Weasley. She became rather important in the Wizarding World by the time she started at Hogwarts, before starting to fall in love with Harry and eventually ended up marrying him.
Despite her increasing importance in the universe, the character of Ginny ended up becoming worse and worse as time went on, both in of her actions, and the actual quality of her character.
Her Use Of The Diary Started Everything Off
Back when Ginny was a shy kid terrified of being in the same room as the Chosen One, she didn’t really get involved with anything. All of a sudden she was in Hogwarts and got her hands on a mysterious diary thanks to Luscious Malfoy.
It was her use (and continued use) of this diary that caused the memory of Tom Riddle to return to Hogwarts, release the Basilisk and re-open the Chamber Of Secrets.
And The She Destroyed The Dormitory To Get It Back
During her time with the diary, she attempted to get rid of it because she was scared of its power. When it ended in Harry’s possession in the boy’s dormitory, she decided to rip it all to shreds rather just ask to have it back.
This was a weird move and proved that Ginny has a bit of a frantic, aggressive side.
She Used A Lot Of Jinxes
As the Weasley siblings are quick to explain, Ginny is a proud and frequent of the Bat Bogey Hex, and has perfected a very powerful version of the spell.
Beyond this specific jinx, Ginny uses a lot of spells when involved in arguments. This paints her as someone who, despite being shy, is actually capable of quite extreme responses when angry.
She Pretended To Be Kind To Luna
When Luna Lovegood was first introduced, we found out that she was nicknamed Loony Lovegood. Because she was pretty weird.
This is fair, because she is really weird and didn’t really care what anyone thought. Ginny, however, pretended to defend Luna and ask that people didn’t call her Loony, even though she accidentally introduced her as such. That’s a little two-faced, don’t you think?
She Was Overly Mean To Fleur
Fleur Delacour might have spoken her mind when she needed to, but deep down she was actually quite nice and tormented by her own beauty. Ginny, Hermione and Molly all thought pretty negatively of her.
Ginny, in particular, was rather vocal in her dislike of the French witch, referring to her almost exclusively as Phlegm.
She Knew She Was Much Better At Quidditch Than Everyone Else
Even though it was Harry who was in charge of the Quidditch team in his fifth year, Ginny stood next to him, bellowing out commands to the rest of the team.
Sure, she was better than them at the game (and went on to play professionally) but she shouldn't have been using it to exercise power over people in the same team as her.
She Started Off Without Much Of A Character
In the first Harry Potter book, Ginny didn’t really have a character. She was pretty much just a female sibling to Ron who was overly shy because she was obviously very well aware of Harry’s fame.
There wasn’t really any character to explore there.
But Then Her Shyness Basically Disappeared
However, JK Rowling pretty much did away with this debilitating shyness as soon as she needed to use Ginny as a prominent storyline element.
This pretty much turned Ginny into a worse character, because the only interesting thing about her (her shyness) was turned off and she wandered into the realm of pretty much total normalcy.
And We Never Got To See Much Of Her Backstory
This is an issue that pretty much ends up only impacting the film adaptation of Harry Potter. In the books, JK Rowling had the time to explore each of her characters, including Ginny, building them very specific and recognizable personalities.
This simply didn’t happen in the films, and pretty much the only storyline not related to the main characters she was given was her brief relationship with Dean Thomas. The main thing we never got to see was her acquisition of a weird owl-like creature called Pigwigeon. The closest we come is seeing him on her shoulder aboard the Hogwarts express.
Bonnie Wright’s Acting Was Never Great
A more overarching issue with the character of Ginny was that Bonnie Wright simply isn’t the best actress of all time. She seems like an incredibly lovely person and has since gone on to put her film talents to directing with much more success, but as the films went on it because more and more clearer that she wasn’t an actor at heart.
It could be looked past in the earlier films in which she was young and not overly relevant, but as she became Harry’s girlfriend and a key part of the story, it detracted from the impact of Ginny as a character.
