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[ofdeliverancedane]

there's a new harry potter video game coming out. jkr was not involved, but that doesn't mean we should stop criticising her, or that we should stop criticising the game. we do, however, need to be precise.

it is very important to me to criticise jkr, but also to be accurate about what she did and didn't do or say. for instance, she did not say hermione was black all along; she said she approved casting a black actor to play her. (this one is conjecture but) she didn't retcon dumbledore being gay; that was basically the first 'revelation' post-septalogy of something that hadn't been mentioned, literally years before she started obviously retconning stuff in to fill in the gaps or address fan questions or out of boredom or whatever. she didn't write about a race of big-nosed bankers; she wrote about a short, 'swarthy', oppressed-and-yet-also-unfairly-powerful, not-permitted-to-do-jobs-other-than-finance-but-then-resented-for-being-involved-in-finance, stereotypically 'bloodthirsty' race that speaks a 'guttural' language and is believed by prominent equality activists to not need allies because they're 'clever' enough to defend themselves and probably also align themselves with the fascists who hate them. (this stuff is a mixture of antisemitic conspiracy theories/stereotypes & actual legit things that have happened to jews, but a lot of people aren't informed enough about antisemitism to recognise that.) the filmmakers took all that in and went 'ah, yes, clearly this is the nose tribe™, let's put that in our character design.' she didn't randomly invent a single jewish character when confronted about the lack of jewish people; there is literally photographic evidence of anthony goldstein being a character from the very beginning, plus he is in the books, albeit not mentioned to be jewish. she didn't say there was a magen david on the floor of gringotts bank; the filmmakers chose to use a building that had that floor pattern as their set for gringotts, which is super fucked up. she didn't write one single irish character who wants to drink alcohol from a young age and blows things up all the time; that was a single joke that the filmmakers decided to turn into a years-long running gag.

she did create a world where you're supposed to be against bigotry, and yet the reasons behind the bigotry are actually objectively true. werewolves are objectively dangerous and lycanthropy is objectively harmful to the sufferer. trolls and giants are violent and fundamentally lack the mental capacity to understand why violence is bad. goblins do control the economy and hoard their literal and metaphorical wealth. house-elves want to remain enslaved despite the abuse they suffer. the list goes on.

i genuinely think this came primarily from ignorance. she had a bunch of unchecked prejudices, and like many self-proclaimed allies, did not pay enough attention to oppressed groups to understand what they actually need from allies. (for instance, based on things she's declared publicly, she honestly believes she is an ally to jews.) she naïvely believed herself to be progressive and open-minded, and when it was explained to her that this was not the case, it made her uncomfortable and she rejected the information instead of taking it in.

this is speculative, but i also don't think that she was secretly a massive transphobe all along. the progress of her transphobia is pretty clearly identifiable as a process of radicalisation as she doubled down and learned new rhetoric to justify her pre-existing prejudices. it is indeed disgusting, and she has actively contributed to the persecution of trans people both in the uk and in other countries.

people who defend her believe that people who criticise her are spreading misinformation. don't confirm that belief for them. the things she actually has said and done are bad enough.

[ofdeliverancedane]

well, i finally gave in and watched secrets of dumbledore.

i wasn't sure if i was going to. as anyone who still follows this blog probably noticed, i don't really participate in hp fandom in any capacity at this point, for the same reason that a lot of other people jumped ship. but a combination of morbid curiosity and undying affection for albus dumbledore eventually won out, and here is my conclusion:

the movie is bad.

my first and probably largest objection is how the leader of the ICW is chosen. the guy who allows grindelwald to stand for office defends it by saying that the voters have to choose, implying that there is, you know, an actual vote. but then it becomes clear that grindelwald wants this deer-thing so he can make it bow to him, and he'll win. okay, i thought, they see who the deer bows to and then people vote, and obviously a lot of people will vote for the person who's just been shown to be pure of heart. it still falls apart if you think about it too hard (how likely is it that any career politician is going to be exceptionally loyal and honest, really?) but in theory it makes sense.

but then the dead deer bows to grindelwald and that would've been it except newt reveals the twin? and even after the real one bows to santos, there's no indication that a vote takes place - people just immediately start shooting her colors in celebration.

so the ICW isn't a democracy, i guess. and even that would be okay (other than rendering the logic behind letting grindelwald participate nonsensical, but whatever.) lots of people live under dumb and bad systems of governance, and the wizarding world has never been shown as immune to that sort of thing.

BUT! no one points out that "strange women lying in ponds distributing swords magical scale-y deer things bowing at people is no basis for a system of government." even after this system has just been shown to be fallible! the "right person" (i'm assuming from the musical cues, since we know literally nothing about santos or her policies) won and that's all that matters, apparently.

and you know, even that would be forgivable if this were just a kids' action movie, because only an idiot would look for a coherent political message in one of those. but jkr herself has compared to rise of grindelwald in these movies to the current destabilization of global democracies, which makes it completely unacceptable that apparently no one decided whether the ICW is a democracy, let alone whether or not it ought to be.

my other major objection is how this movie handled queenie.

lots of people were not happy with her joining grindelwald in cog. now, i actually liked that decision, as i wrote at the time. i thought it made her character much more interesting, created a lot of narrative potential by means of putting her and tina on opposite sides of the war, and most crucially, showed that movements like grindelwald's don't only attract clearly evil people.

but this movie squanders all of that potential. we don't get any additional insight as to why queenie joined him. we don't really get any indication for what caused her to regret that. (i mean, she sees him kill the deer-thing, but am i honestly meant to believe that queenie didn't realize grindelwald was capable of violence before?) jacob, and seemingly everyone else, welcomes her back with open arms! we don't even see her and tina reuniting! the whole thing is completely and bafflingly forgiven, without any discussion.

and that's especially jarring given that this movie introduces aberforth. albus and aberforth never fully reconciled from albus's early partnership with grindelwald. i fully expected tina and queenie's relationship to be a clear parallel (i even wrote a fic with that idea), but instead we got nothing.

it would be interesting, in an academic sort of way, to know how much of those issues (and various smaller ones) come from jkr vs kloves vs yates, but ultimately it doesn't matter. this is a bad movie and wb should just put the franchise out of its misery at this point.

[ofdeliverancedane]

“I feel I owe you another explanation, Harry,” said Dumbledore hesitantly. “You may, perhaps, have wondered why I never chose you as a prefect? I must confess… that I rather thought… you had enough responsibility to be going on with.”

Harry looked up at him and saw a tear trickling down Dumbledore’s face into his long silver beard.

page 844, Harry Potter and the Order of the Pheonix

[ofdeliverancedane]

"Gerçeği." İç çekti Dumbledore. "Hem güzel, hem korkunç bir şeydir gerçek, çok özen ister (...)"

~Albus Dumbledore

~Harry Potter ve Felsefe Taşı

[ofdeliverancedane]

[ofdeliverancedane]

All fandoms are, to an extent, fandoms of the idea of the media they revolve around, but some fandoms are so much about the idea of the media they revolve around and so little about that media as it exists in the world that they always seem mildly scandalised when reminded what the ostensible subject of their fandom is actually like.

[ofdeliverancedane]

JUDE LAW as Album Dumbledore Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindewald (2018)

[ofdeliverancedane]

Phew! After a very long April, I believe a nap is in order! I just wanted to offer a huge Thank You to everyone who took part in the challenge, specially those veritable wizards and witches who managed to post every single day! Wizard April started as a way for us to deal with these most unusual times we’re living in, but it’s so wonderful to see how many of you took it seriously enough to create portfolio-worthy pieces, which is why - if you’re game - I’m thinking of making it an annual event ✨ I have several days missing so expect to see some more HP-related pieces within the next few weeks. Sooooo, if you also skipped days or have just found out about it, let’s keep it going a bit further! After all, we’re still gonna need some more magic during the months ahead ️ Thank you again and stay safe!

[ofdeliverancedane]

Regret is my constant companion. Don't let it become yours.

- Albus Dumbledore

[ofdeliverancedane]

“Do you know why I admire you, Newt? More, perhaps, than any man I know? You don’t seek power or popularity. You simply ask, is the thing right in itself? If it is, then I must do it, no matter the cost.”

Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald (2018) dir. David Yates

[ofdeliverancedane]

Newt Scamander.

[ofdeliverancedane]

Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald 2018, dir. David Yates

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[ofdeliverancedane]

je ne peux pas m'arrêter de le dessiner

[ofdeliverancedane]

There’s a rumor that Newt Scamander is headed to Paris. I know he’s working under your orders. What do you have to say for yourself, Dumbledore? If you’d ever had the pleasure to teach him, you’d know Newt is not a great follower of orders.

Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald (2018), dir. David Yates

[ofdeliverancedane]

Any decent realtor, walking you through a real shithole, chirps on about good bones: This place could be beautiful, right? You could make this place beautiful.

[ofdeliverancedane]

Zoë Kravitz as Leta Lestrange in FANTASTIC BEASTS: THE CRIMES OF GRINDELWALD