Ginny Weasley vs Bella Swan : Character Studides

I originally wrote this  just over two years ago (wow – longer than I thought!), and decided to repost it having watched both series of movies quite recently.

This is the first in a series of three entries that examine (to one degree or another) "female role models" that young adults are presented with, and the way the internet has reacted to them. 

You will start to see a theme as it goes, since I do have fairly strong opinions on this matter.

GINNY WEASLEY vs BELLA SWAN – 

So – a few weeks back, I saw this – http://cheezcomixed.files.wordpress.com/2011/07/koma-comic-strip-breakups-are-rough.jpg

(The link doesn’t actually work any more, but the image was reposted here :-  http://themetapicture.com/ginny-weasley-vs-bella-swan/)

And for various reasons, it really, really annoyed me.

Since the release of Deathly Hallows (actually – since the first Twilight Movie came out), the web has been full of people comparing Twilight to Harry Potter, generally in an attempt to slag off Twilight.

Quite why this bothers me, I am not certain. I think it’s because I actually quite like Twilight, and don’t really get why people don’t like it.

I know all of the arguments – vampires don’t sparkle, the writing is crap, Edward is a wuss – and can actually refute all of those arguments pretty well, given the chance.
 

( Vampires don’t actually exist in real life, they are just myths. At various points in time, vampires have had reflections, have not had reflections, have burned up in sunlight have been able to walk in sunlight. "Buffy" says it is direct sunlight, "Angel" says it is direct terrestrial sunlight. Dracula has them sleeping in coffins, The Lost Boys has them sleeping bat-like on a roof. "Buffy" and "Dracula" have them ‘dusting’ when poked with a stake, The Lost Boys has them just lying there. I think it is safe to say that – even before Twilight came on the scene, there was a LOT of differing opinions about what properties a vampire has, and this is just one more.

Edward sparkles. Edward doesn’t kill humans – except he does at some point in his life. So clearly Edward is a wussified wuss who isn’t a "real" vampire. 

Edward wrestles mountain lions. Bears. Tigers. Edward ripped the head off another vampire. 

Alice sparkles. Alice doesn’t kill humans. Yet when you watch her in the battle in Eclipse, and in Breaking Dawn II, she is phenomenally violent and powerful.

Anyone who calls these vampires wussifed wusses clearly needs a better dictionary.

But anyway —-)
This one made me think for a little bit, before dismissing it.

Why? I am glad you asked.

When Harry broke up with Ginny at the end of “Half Blood Prince”, it was because he had something specific to do, and Ginny knew this. Harry wasn’t leaving because he didn’t want to be with Ginny, he was leaving because he had to kill Voldemort, stop the darkness from rising and save the known world.

Which, as reasons to break up with your girlfriend go, are pretty much okay. If My Girlfriend came to me and said that we had to break up for a while because she had to go and fight a group of zombies who were threatening to kill everyone in the world, I would be okay with that. Obviously I would offer to help, but still – I wouldn’t hold it against her.

In addition, the war Harry was fighting came to her school as well. Hogwarts was taken over by the forces of darkness, and she – being a child of the light – felt compelled to fight against it.

Plus – to be honest – they were not (at that point) soul-mates. They had been going out a little, but it didn’t seem to be a matter of life and death. If it was, then – regardless of why he was leaving – she wouldn’t have let him go.

Finally, she knew he would be back. That he wasn’t leaving because he didn’t love her, and that – once the war was finished – they could get back together again.

Now – Bella Swan is a whole other issue. She and Edward were devoted on a level most people would consider scary. They lived for each other, to the point where – when she almost died at the end of Twilight – Edward was contemplating seeking out the Volturi then. And – as much as I think Ginny and Harry were cute together – I don’t see Ginny walking in to Aragog’s lair if Harry bit the dust.

Then there is the matter of Edward’s departure. He left her, telling her that he no longer wanted to be with her. That she wasn’t what he wanted, and that they were done. That even if he returned to Forkes, there was no hope they would get back together.

This is a WHOLE different level of break up from Harry leaving Ginny to go fight in a war.

So while Edward was off doing what ever he was doing, Bella was left utterly and completely alone. If the army of vampires had come during New Moon, maybe she would have had a purpose, and maybe she wouldn’t have been so utterly alone. Or if the wolves hadn’t turned out to be kind of decent, and she had to fight them, then maybe she would have done better than she did.

But no – she was alone, completely and utterly, with nothing to fight for, or even to live for.

So – if your beloved had gone off to fight in a war, and you were living under enemy occupation, with every day seeing the potential for death in any number of nasty ways – would you just sit back and mope, wallow and do nothing?

And conversely – if you were in Bella’s situation – abandoned by the one, by the person you would live and die for, thinking that that person didn’t love you any more – how would you cope? Would you just say “hey-ho” and move on? Or would you allow yourself to wallow for a bit?