#this is why I hate Harry Potter

[leighbaye]

[uncleasriel]

THANK YOU. This helped articulate a lot of my misgivings with this multimedia franchise that have swirled in my head for a long while.

So many of my misgivings this truly does boil down to "overabundant, easy consumerism" and "paucity of depth in the immediate source material". I'm not beyond consumerism - I have a wall of out-of-print books and DVDs for all sorts of weird stuff - but the need to spend money on every damn thing that bears the sigil of That Thing I Love is in complete opposition to my own sense of aesthetics.

I still have a slight mistrust of the Star Wars bandwagon, for similar reasons: I thought those movies were also the coolest shit when I was 8, but don't feel the pressing need to have my entire kitchen suite remodeled to look like the Death Star. But while I would look askance at someone who had that kind of zeal for Star Wars, I could at least have some interesting discussions with them their thoughts on the differing canons, the case for whether Yazhun Vhong were compelling villains, or why The Revenge of the Sith novelization was more compelling than its source material gave it a right to be.

With Harry Potter, all we get are a series of books and films that work well as self-contained adventures, but the scope of which feels pretty local, and is best suited for individual discussions about "that development with Character A sure was something,huh?" It would be like folks discussing Star Wars going "wow, that twist about Luke's father was one helluva doozy!" And Star Wars is a much bigger setting than that. Does Harry Potter have any thing of that scope?

I I think the reason I'm writing so much about a franchise I'm so indifferent to is because it's so utterly pervasive in the modern media landscape, and on an animal level, I can't quite grasp why. The books were fine! The movies were good, even! But I don't see why some people have to make their entire personalities and personal brand. I don't see why they need to inculcate their children into that brand, especially when said brand was designed to age with the demographic at the time when they were published, and tonally transformed as they aimed at a different reading and maturity level.

I try not to get judgemental about what people like. I'm wholly indifferent to My Little Pony, but when people I know gush about how they loved the show in its heyday, I just smile in delighted befuddlement and let them carry on. Someone in 2025 still using the label of "brony" is gonna raise a question or two, but I don't feel any the need to write several essays about it - I'll just give a simple "glad you like it" before moving on. I feel don't like it when people turn a something someone likes into a target of derision. Sure, there are some parts of the fanbase that get cringeworthy, and some parts of it are even vile, but the same can be said of any similarly sized IP, be it Star Wars, Disney Animated Series, and yes, even Harry Potter. The mystery about why I feel a little defensive over someone shitting all over a brony but a bit of glee over attack Harry Potter is one that I had to crack, so I thank you @galileosballs for helping me tease this out. It's good to get at the root of one's more vicious impulses, and this certainly helped tease out a lot of my reasoning.

for the record even if we lived in a universe where jk rowling wasn't a fundamentally evil person, and every dollar spent on harry potter merchandise wasn't being funneled directly into anti-trans causes, I would still think grown ass adults who are unable to help themselves from purchasing every possible thing from a mediocre childrens book franchise are extremely pathetic people

[bawbawbridgie]

i lied. put your clothes back on. let’s talk about why cursed child is so overly hated and criticised but is actually one of the most beautiful, raw and complex pieces of work in the harry potter franchise.

[erinwantstowrite]

seeing a lot of people complaining about the fics they don't see, and not enough people picking up a pen to write it themselves 🤨

[blorger]

yes, hello, please let the record show that when Harry and Draco meet at Madame Malkin's and Harry is reminded strongly of Dudley Draco hasn't done anything that is particularly vile, he's just

been blond (technically "pale", we can't yet make the Dudley to Draco connection via hair color)

talked about having two involved parents

I direct the jury to this exchange:

Draco is just behaving like a kid, even if he uses the world "bully" ( he's clearly using it hyperbolically) and drawls (the Malfoy Special, if you will). This is not exactly villain foreshadowing 101.

Something could be said for how Draco's words suggest a power dynamic wherein he's in control of his parents, like Harry views Dudley and the Dursleys's relationship, but also... Draco is a child making boastful remarks to another child, one would expect exaggeration as par for the course.

I fail to see any signs of Great Evil; Draco's phrasing may have triggered feelings of inadequacy and maybe also envy, (Harry wants a family most of all as per the mirror of erised) but also, Harry has presumably been going to school and has met plenty of parented children, this can't be a new situation.

What I'm saying is that jkr is doing a bit of a tell don't show, she is giving us the key with which we are to interpret every one of Draco and Harry's interactions from this moment on but kind of falls flat in the execution.

What I (and others beside me) read in their following interaction is just two people not understanding eachother. One boy feels confused, insecure and out of his depth and the other one doesn't know this is happening. Draco is trying to make a good impression on a schoolmate by saying any and all impressive things he can think of, not knowing that by repeating his father's greatest hits he's inadvertently alienating Harry.

In conclusion, your honor, I posit to you that upon their meeting Harry immediately feels strongly about Draco but, in his inexperience (and lack of emotional development see: cupboard), he is unable to identify the origin of said strong feelings and attributes them to dislike (the Dudley Connection). Thus a scene meant to highlight their incompatibility ends up foreshadowing Harry and Draco's unusual bond instead.

tldr: drarry is a great ship, jkr is an idiot savant who managed to write the greatest enemies to lovers storyline of all time without meaning to and also I know I'm reaching but I've decided this is the bible truth since truth is what you make of it.

[cl0wnstuff]

no one will ever make me hate you ronald weasley

[coldnightdreamthewriter]

I have a little confession to make. Since I only read Snape fanfictions (yeah, it's always him for me lol), I want to say what I really dislike in some of them. I'm talking about canon character x OC or Y/N type of fics. What bothers me most is when they completely change Snape's personality and make everything about his love interest. Even when it's his point of view and he's alone in a scene, he's still just thinking about them nonstop. Like, can the man have a moment to breathe? Yes yes, I do believe Snape would deeply love and care for someone, but it should be balanced. It's so stupid when his whole character is reduced to just being in love. And don't get me started on how they describe him!🤦🏻‍♀️ They write him as some super tall, six-pack, broad-shouldered guy.. like, what? Snape is supposed to be thin, hooked-nosed, grumpy, and sharp-tongued. That's the Snape I love!! not some overly buff emo dude.

[danadiadea]

Your daily reminder that Severus Snape didn't have to ASK Albus Dumbledore for any lives. Potters were not Snape's personal possessions, or family members, or even his friends. The person who was interested first and foremost in keeping his soldiers and their child alive was Albus himself.

What Snape had to do was to WARN him.

And he DID.

[bluestonewings]

Shocking nobody, moldy jkrowling is acephobic as well. Anyways

[princey-poetry]

If any of y'all pull that 'erm actually my fave is snape or smth' 😮‍💨😮‍💨

[misty-memories09]

I hate trying to look in the HP fandom because one of my faves is Percy, not many people care about him but the people who do talk about him in that group there's literally so many people go ahead and call him a narcissist...like just ignore his whole character, why don't you?

In this essay I will—

[iamnmbr3]

I have this obnoxious picture of Draco Malfoy on my closet door that almost killed our printer because I didn't realize how much ink it would use

-- Harry in no-magic modern AU

[myokk]

quidditch champions seb

[friendsdontlieokay]

Rewatching ootp for the first time and I just love how Ron is so protective of Harry in his own subtle way

[casszanova]

I was wondering if you could draw regulus wearing james winter hat and jacket while holding a little baby lamb? Please 🐑 with a pink bow 🎀

This was really cute bit I'm NEVER drawing a lamb again...

+ a lil polaroid ver cus my dad said it looked like one.

[pleeborp]

Guys I’m actually crying right now I’m so sad all the time over how Harry’s abuse is never addressed

He was ABUSED guys and NOBODY ever talked about it

And can you just imagine Harry James Potter waking up that first Christmas expecting nothing and then Ron Weasley his FIRST friend telling him he has PRESENTS. The joy the shock that boy must have felt. But can you imagine for a split second he doesn’t believe him. Can you imagine for one second that Harry thought Ron, his first friend, could be playing a cruel trick on him. You think Dudley never pulled that shit on him? You think he was never given false hope that he had presents before?

Or how about the fact that Harry probably woke up every morning for what was probably his first four months at Hogwarts at least, panicked and rushed to get up to make breakfast for the Dursley’s only to realize he didn’t have to. Can you imagine the relief? The weight off his shoulders. Or even worse can you imagine the guilt he felt? He had been raised to cook for them every morning and you think it wasn’t deeply engraved in his mind that in order to feel some sort of acceptance without doing something for others? You think he didn’t try to do things for his friends those first months at Hogwarts, believing it to be the only way he’d be accepted?

Think even harder about how as the years went on and as he did more things for people it seemingly fed into those beliefs? How every time he saved someone, every time he did something for the school, everyone loved him for it? How Hogwarts was his safe haven, but even then they always expected something from him in return. And when they hated him, and he did something else to save them, suddenly they loved him again. You think he didn’t solidify in his poor, hurt mind that in order him for him to be accepted he had to do these things for the people around him?

Or even the betrayal he MUST have felt when he learned all of this was PLANNED. That he was raised and built and forged to be nothing else other than a hero for a society that always expected that from him.

That despite the fact that he escaped the Dursley’s, he would never be without expectations and responsibilities shoved into him from those around him.

Guys I’m so upset I just want to hold him. He deserved a loving, supportive home, where he should have had no expectations other than to be a child and to be loved. This is secretly a PSA that I fucking hate Albus Dumbledore for the pressure and the manipulation he put on Harry.

Thank you for coming to my Ted Talk.

Also FUCK Jk Rowling