Harry Potter is Also Ableist

[@Ember_Green]

This video is based on the books. I have seen the films, but this is about the books.

[@kalebzerger301]

This video is not based on the books it is based on intentional misinterpretations into a large degree flat out lies even though there are plenty examples you could have actually used to prove your point, however lying is undoubtedly an easier script to write 🙄

[@GillOfTheNorth]

@@kalebzerger301 there isn't a single lie in the video

[@LiamsShortFilms]

@@GillOfTheNorth Lunas name has meaning and messaging behind it, not to mention its association with her personality and characteristics, that's one example

[@gabirodriguez8007]

i read 20 times the books (literally)...you are absolutely right

[@cass7448]

@@kalebzerger301 Did you have some specific criticisms or...?

[@rubystewart2361]

Note on the memory charms being used on muggles: During the quidditch cup chapters of goblet of fire don't they mention that there's a muggle living at/near the entrance to the invisible site of the world cup (or the portkey arrival site maybe) and he's been obliviated so many times he has permanent memory problems?? This does imply that memory modification causes damage AND that wizarding officials are willing to inflict it cumulatively for frivolous purposes.

[@RenaDeles]

The muggle is the owner of the campsite, and he is having memory problems before his entire family gets assaulted by the death eaters which is the point he gets so charmed he's wishing people Merry Christmas in summer.

[@alexjewett7455]

Also the fact Lockhart was confined to a mental ward because a botched memory spell permanently fried his brain.

[@FifinatorKlon]

Pretty sure that stuff like TikTok, Instagram and even KZbin cause worse permanent brain rot than even the most effective memory spell, if you wanna talk about frivolour purposes.

[@dodixaverius9176]

​@@RenaDelesi think the more pressing question was, why even has real muggles to oversee the campsite? They had contact with Prime Minister and could just ask them to make the place temporarily closed for public.

[@nemtudom5074]

This also implies that rowling is the kinda person to take pleasure from portraying bad things happening to an innocent person as comedic. Then again, thats hardly the worst thing she does...

[@catboybananabread]

as someone with an auditory processing distorter i cannot put into words how glad i am that this video has actual instead of just auto generated captions. im really glad given the subject matter of the video you went through the effort of making it more accesible!

[@hannahcrossett3415]

Ditto

[@Cosmic_Cookie_606]

Yesss, I get it might be a bit of a chore especially for a long video like this, but I'm so glad for the real captions and not KZbin automatic trashy ones

[@winterflan]

same! subtitles are accessibility, everyone should make them for their videos if they are able

[@ronjaj.addams-ramstedt1023]

Ditto!

[@valivali8104]

It also helps those whose first language isn’t english.

[@smoothoctopus4633]

Me as a child: Wow I love Luna I don't understand why nobody likes her. Me as an adult: Oh..

[@cinnamonsplash]

Same...

[@LuckyPigeon1111]

???

[@CrescentCaribou]

same... ^^;

[@piotrwisniewski70]

I don't get it?

[@mrbork7218]

It's a reference to the hit teen dystopia series Divergent. ​@@piotrwisniewski70

[@simonopps]

Small correction: The potion Lupin takes in every month isn't preventing him from turning but keeps him conscious during him being a werewolf. He still gets the pain that comes with the turning, he's still "sick" every month.

[@FunkySoulNinja13]

Yes!

[@Felipe-xt4id]

"Fun" fact: the Brazilian-Portuguese version of HP choose to translate Squib with two different words that are the literal translation of Abortion and Aberration, so when Ms Figg says in Book 5 "I'm a Squib" the text in PT-BR reads "I'm an Abortion", thinking about it as and adult, it's crazy they did in a children/teen book

[@kahlilbt]

Nossa....

[@JRexRegis]

Honestly, a portmaneau of those two words (like Aborration) would go hard. In a better-written story, the bad guys would use harsh language like that while the liberal status quo people would use more cutesy words like squib, and the protagonist who we are supposed to emphasize with would make the argument that there doesn't need to be a descriptive noun at all, because it's a disability not some moral failing of character.

[@IGOR-yk5ll]

@@JRexRegisomg write rewrite the book cuz jk is such a failure at doing anything else but giving an idea of a magical world (that kind of existed already but yk what i mean)

[@barbarachesterton9615]

That implies that when magical people try to “magic away their pregnancy” and have a failure, they give birth to their child who has their magic removed from the experience. That’s the shame of the squib- proof of magical failure within the family. That’s harsh 😅

[@bittersweetpepper2482]

I was so shocked when I read that cus' like oh my god

[@LettiKiss]

I feel like Harry only got abused by the Dursleys bc Jk wanted a tragic backstory to gain pitypoints for the hero, but didn't care about the consequences of such a childhood

[@GentlethemJoey]

Yeah it’s kind of wild how he never seems particularly traumatized by any of the terrible things that have happened to him aside from maybe briefly being kinda sad about losing Sirius.

[@Nightman221k]

The fact they were kind of forced to adopt him and Petunia was dealing with unresolved childhood anxiety over her sister being perfect while the book lavishes Lily was beautiful descriptions and Petunia gets called a bony horsed faced woman. Them the kid she’s forced to care for literally levitates and causes weird anomalies. Yeah, I’d be salty against witches too.

[@guggelguggel7491]

@@Nightman221k I do agree that perunia is an extremely interesting character that is quite unexplored, but she did still go along with abusing an innocent child whose worst crimes (before the snake incident in book one and the occational weird magic shit onwards like blowing up marge and ruining a pudding at a dinner(she didnt know it was dobby)) was accidentally shrinking a shirt he didnt like, regrow all his hair when she tried to cut it and levitate to the school roof once. Like, its weird but managable, and a literal baby didnt deserve mistreatment, no matter how unwanted.

[@Cosmic_Cookie_606]

Yeah, and I'd be fine with Harry being bitter towards the Dursleys because anyone would be, but it's seriously weird? Like, even in the first book when we're still being shown how they abuse Harry, Harry fights back without any hint of fear that he might be punished for it, so it's not even something he eventually gets over when he gets more confident because of magic, he's just...like that. And I get that, like the video said, if you were to really tackle Harry's abuse the story wouldn't be nearly half as whimsical. But. Who's fault is that? Jk was the one that made Harry's abuse that terrible, the one that made up that he was forced to go hungry and sleep in a cupboard and everything else. Her thought process in making Harry's tragic backstory was the same as a typical 13 y/o's making their oc have an extremely sad background because it's "cool" to have a badass hero with a tragic backstory regardless of how that would actually affect the character

[@Nightman221k]

@guggelguggel7491 I dunno the narration is in the third person but it follows Harry’s inner monologue and POV and if anything I get a sense of smug elitism from Harry and bias against them for being unattractive and having petty values. He views the family as beneath him and is constantly thinking about how ugly they are and how unique and pretty his hair and eyes are. I get that we’re supposed to see him as this Cinderella type but he seems like he didn’t get acceptance from the Dursley’s because he always saw them as lower. Then when he becomes a wizard they all live in fear of him and he gets a kick out of scaring them. I kind of wonder if Harry from a young age viewed Dudley as lesser out of being a fat boy. Harry compares him to a pig with a wig for Christsakes. I mean from all likelihood part of it is genetic on Vernon’s side and Aunt Petunia’s feelings about her own perfect beautiful sister just spilled out into a mother-bearish over protectiveness. That and it kind of ruined the life that Petunia and Vernon planned to have this child they had to care for when they only expected to raise one. Harry having a place to stay and food to eat and an education was at least providing him with the essentials and to my knowledge I don’t think Vernon or Petunia physically harmed him. It’s not ideal at all for any of the family, but actually not exactly the worst abuse that could’ve happened. Again I’m not saying it’s like they treated him well but at the same time Harry complained about getting hand me down clothing in the narrative. That’s the norm for a lot of families. Harry’s the same person who gave Dobby ancient hand me down socks that stank and he hated so it’s like he’s not even consistent. Harry was delighted to see Draco get bad familial treatment from a biological father. The inconsistencies that the girl who made this video said are glaring.

[@Kitefel]

Dam that Luna section hit me really hard. I didn't realize how socially rejected I've been feeling till you described how her "friends" treat her and realized that's what I've been feeling.

[@AidanXX0]

Same. And I'm so sorry you've been through that too. I hope you find friends who truly love and accept you for who you are. You deserve it.

[@Kitefel]

@AidanXX0 thank you, you too!

[@piros100]

as someone who's very likely undiagnosed autistic, I related to Luna a hell of a lot. and was always upset how the narration treated her and tried to paint that everyone was justified to mistreat and make fun of her. I noticed the same with the "girly girls" in the story, I think JK even said something in interviews that showed her personal disdain for these girls. What a shame that such a close minded person became one of the best known children's author of our generation.

[@Air_Serpent]

Same here. It crushed me because deep down I always suspected. Now it’s put into words. But I’m with people that love me for who I am now.

[@alchemy5750]

Reminder that Luna's "best" friend Ginny treated her like garbage, mocking her behind her back until Luna saved her life in the Ministry. After that they were best friends which would be fine if Ginny's previous behavior was actually addressed in some way

[@strawberrypink.]

That grapefruit scene... Dudley is what, 16 or 17 at that point? A quarter of a grapefruit is basically nothing to a teenage boy. The fact that he's depicted as greedy for eating when he's practically starving...

[@mastermarkus5307]

I was going to say! At least give him a whole grapefruit if that's all he's having for breakfast! I regularly ate whole grapefruits as a teen. I assure any doubters that it's not a whole lot of food to have at once!

[@SunnyCress]

a quarter of a grapefruit is like.. a small breakfast, sure they’re big fruits but they’re still fruit which is not a very filling type of food

[@monkey6207]

If you have a little brother like Dudley who always eats all the hard earned groceries you help pay for, you wouldn't have patience either. Being fat is a burden on others.

[@theunseenanomalyneverseen]

like fr there are better ways to make your child lose weight instead of starving them like this

[@dogdad1997]

​@@monkey6207 Hey there's a lot that sucks about the situation you're describing, but I don't think it's your brother eating too much. It's a shame you have to help pay for groceries. It's a shame your family struggles to keep enough food on the table, so much so that you think having more than a piece of fruit for breakfast is too much. That's a rough situation that's all too common in our day. I hope you're in a better situation now, or if not I hope things get better later. Take care.

[@CorwinFound]

I grew up during the AIDS crisis and remember the ridiculous level misinformation happening. Then in my last year of highschool (1994) did a huge media project on the propaganda of the time. I got into literal screaming matches with people over how HIV/AIDS was handled in the 80's. Basically, even in the 90's, the attitude was still strong that there was "good" AIDS patients and "bad" ones. Those who "deserved" what they got and those who didn't. Flat out gay men and drug users weren't worthy of the same amount of education and research funding that straight and drug free sufferers received. Even though straight and non-drug users accounted for a tiny fraction of those with and at risk for HIV. With a special honorable hatred mention of bisexual men. Rowling's handling of werewolves 100% tracks with these attitudes.

[@celisewillis]

jeez, how awful. I'm sorry you went through that. Good on you for fighting the good fight, though.

[@sadfaery]

Damn! The biggest thing I did in my senior year of high school in 1994 was a senior thesis thematic analysis of Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness. I'm impressed!

[@FifinatorKlon]

If you willingly consume drugs or have unprotected sex, both major contributor towards getting HIV/AIDS, and both very closely linked to the demographic groups you mentioned, it is entirely understandable why you would have a lower priority. It is like having an alcoholic and a normal person compete for a donated liver. Who would you prioritize with limited resources?

[@caramel9154]

right on for screaming though, people at the time (and some still now) are bloody insane over other people coping with drugs or dear god, kissing someone not of the opposite sex

[@caramel9154]

@@FifinatorKlon Mmm, no, not understandable at all because it only takes a surface level look at someone's situation, frankly this line of thinking seems less about understanding people and more about playing into 70s propaganda which I thought people ought to be above. Ignoring the fact that people were and still are largely discriminatory towards gay people or anyone who uses drugs, life saving medicine shouldn't be given on a judgement of who's better but rather those who are more vulnerable. I imagine everyone here is very, very aware of how homophobically violent the past has been and that a lot of gay people likely did not have access to safety measures or even knew that protection was a thing. An alcoholic will likely need a liver more than someone who can get infected or unwell tissue cut out to later be regrown. Could we also talk about how you phrase at-risks groups as 'contributors' and how people bring up drug usage as if its a condemning factor instead of an indicator of extreme vulnerability? Yeah people's behaviours suck, especially when they're smug or superior about it, but they don't wake up choosing to be addicted. People lean on drugs as a means of self medication during times of extreme distress, physical or otherwise, and I thought that should be common knowledge by now. Condemning those people to death because mainstream society views them a certain way isn't understandable at all. In earnest, why is it understandable to you?

[@TsufenTheMouse]

I always related to Filch and I'm so disappointed by how he was treated in the narrative. I came from a family that kept me hidden, no documentation, and no right to go to school. I couldn't fit in either their world or regular society. I ended up as an English tutor to students who are given every right and opportunity that were denied to me. The mentions of Filch trying to learn magic from Kwikspell was just like me trying to get my own education from second-hand textbooks, and failing. But the way that characters like Ron think about him is /exactly/ the same way people treat me. I also felt there was a significant amount of ageism against Filch - he's not student-age, so he's not worth caring about anymore, and then he just gets to be an eternal antagonist. I'm so interested in way that the Harry Potter series unintentionally brings out these real-world biases and problems, and then does absolutely nothing to challenge them. In a story where the themes of good vs evil are so prevalent, the casual cruelty that runs through everything is especially jarring to look back on.

[@elenadementeva9980]

Oh god. I'm sorry you had to go through this. That sounds awful

[@mayaaditi]

I always hated that we learn about him studying so diligently, yet it serves no purpose in the plot, almost as if it’s meant to be a joke. I always wished he would have the chance to achieve something with it, earning the students’ respect in the process.

[@TheLodjur]

Even the name, Filch, must surely stem from "filth", right? Knowing how shitty JK is at writing names (or a story, for that matter) it would seem that's how she thinks of Filch, garbage only worth ridicule. Her poison seeps through the entire story, telling the reader who she is. TsufenTheMouse I am terribly sorry you had to go through that, no one should. The fact that well-known children's stories, picked up by Hollywood, only instil the prejudice and disdain the real world society already has, is beyond sad. Why HP, a mostly copypasta story, got chosen over other, far better versions of a similar story, I do not know, but it is sad and shameful, what a wasted opportunity.

[@TsufenTheMouse]

@@TheLodjur Filch can mean "to steal", usually referring to something of little value. My dad always used to use it in a joking manner when he lost something, "they've filched my tools!". That has some extra gross implications of Filch being seen as trying to steal magic that doesn't belong to him. As a Squib with the name Filch, he's essentially being referred to as a dud who can't even steal magic properly. The story tells you he /deserves/ the ridicule with just that information alone, and then justifies it with his unpleasant personality.

[@PramkLuna]

As a kid you never really think about Flitch but he's a really tragic character. Born to be unable to do something he wants to do and his job is a reminder that kids who take what he wants for granted exist. Also his poor cat is dead.

[@aroomofmIOwn]

Honestly I still think the clearest parallel between the wizarding world and the muggle world is a class one. The wizards are the upper class-- but magic. That's why they refuse to clean their own castle, even though they easily could. It would be beneath them. And in that light, the wizards' anxiety that they, this tiny minority of powerful people, could be done away with if the large group of less powerful people ever turned against them en masse strikes me as an unusually coherent bit of worldbuilding on Joanne's part.

[@TurbopropPuppy]

it's sorta like "every conservative accusation is a confession"

[@Dave102693]

It’s giving UnitedHeathcare’s CEO

[@Ann-mj4xn]

It's class consciousness from Joanne but just in the reverse direction

[@t_ylr]

Jesus so Harry Potter is just Atlas Shrugged but with magic wands and broomsticks lol

[@trashbag4796]

This is an obvious point to make but what about the classism within the wizarding world? Like the Weasleys compared to the Malfoys. And I know you probably didn't mean it this way, but this comment seems a bit dismissive of the very real ableist themes discussed in the video. But! I do think it's worth discussing stuff like this from every angle, and classism is definitely one of many valid ways to interpret it.

[@Kirio_Dorito]

Harry Potter is even more ableist in the Russian translation. They renamed Luna into Polumna so that it sounds similar to the word "poloumnaya" - a derrogatory word for a mentally-disabled person.

[@Siures]

Wow, I realize that the German translation took away a lot of the problematic aspects. To me Luna was just a name. I knew it was „moon“, but didn’t even understand „looney“ then. Same with Squibs or Muggles.

[@melissam597]

Damn

[@notpoter]

Pretty sure they did that so the "looney Luna" alliteration could work in Russian, but sure call it ableist

[@fearnach]

​@@notpoterIt’s ableist in the original and it’s ableist in the translation.

[@monkey6207]

@@fearnach How many times can you all say 'abelist'? Abelist, ableist, ableist, abelist. . . . (Think about something else please).

[@nergregga]

I have a small note about the fatphobia, as a person who grew with a "weight problem" in the 90's. The attitude depicted in the books is pretty much the attitude that surrounded you, if you were considered to "struggle" with your weight. I grew up believing I was fat, and always had to "watch my weight" while my brother got to eat everything he wanted. And the real kicker is that when you see pictures of me from I was a child, I only got slightly overweigth when I inevitably developed a full-blown eating disorder.

[@legendswarble2845]

One of my best friends is like this. Her natural body type is more thick than mine. She looks just like her mom, and neither of them are unhealthy in their lifestyle. They just naturally carry more body fat than other folks. It was so heartbreaking to see bullying push her into an eating disorder. I'm so sorry this happened to you both. It's why I'm so determined to include fat characters in my books who are just as complex, valued, and beautiful as the skinny ones. No child should ever have to feel shame over their bodies like that. Thank you for sharing your experiences.

[@Giantkiller130-t]

@@legendswarble2845 Thank you for being so compassionate. I hope that your books sell well and bring you and others joy.

[@maca76]

i can tell the opposite story, i was very skinny as a teen because of ARFID, to the point of malnutrition that stunted my growth and pushed back my puberty. When i started working and earning money for myself i gained weight to a healthy point, and EVERYONE told me i was too fat and needed to lose weight. When i was skinny i binged on safe food and it was fine, but the moment i started eating enough i was "putting my life on risk" so i had to make diets to go back to my former body, which was basically pre-pubescent since my period, breasts and hips came at 18. It all contributed to a current ED, body dysmporhia and self steem problems, like if im not as skinny as i was at 17 im not worthy

[@rinsuu9848]

I was a fat kid. I remember specifically doing the bit that Dudley did where he snuck food up into his room. The amount of shame I felt for that, for doing something that I already did out of shame.

[@deathwishtommy9773]

I have recently learned that it was named “Heroin Chic”. Add on top of that what we now know about food additives, sugar, and GMO, plus that most healthy food is more expensive then packaged, it is no surprise that most people struggle with weight. Want to know something worse? Look at all the famous child actors and actresses, from Judy Garland, Brooke Shields, Zac Efron and more, they are all perpetually starving, on drugs, and sleep deprived.

[@SandyTheDesertFox]

I relate to Luna both as an autistic person on the schizo spectrum (schizoaffective) When i have odd beliefs like that someone is poisoning me or the sky is fake or something it's something that i actually think in that moment and often very distressing. We're so vulnerable to abuse and being treated as laughing stocks or creeps.

[@pantsmasterx]

I actually was thinking Schizoaffective when hearing Luna’s character description and how she’s “eccentric and odd” and “likely to believe false things”. I wish that more people on the schizophrenia spectrum got representation, because I am almost certain that JKR doesn’t even know what Schizoaffective disorder is, let alone having compassion for people who have it.

[@rroes7319]

That sounds like literal hell. Brains can bastards, sometimes our worst enemy. I'm autistic anxious and depressed, and I know the games my brain likes to play on me can be very debilitating. But, like, I'm able to reason with myself, even if it's just a little bit. I can't imagine how horrifying it must be to wholeheartedly believe in such things. I hope you get interesting ones that are just fun and cool, at least.

[@SandyTheDesertFox]

@@pantsmasterx yeah me too. I can't think of any character that explicitly has a schizospec condition that's treated well by the writers and isn't outright demonized. Having a condition like this is hard enough without the isolation and stigma.

[@SandyTheDesertFox]

@@rroes7319 When i'm having an episode it really is a living hell, yeah. I have more neutral symptoms too that are tolerable at least. I wouldn't wish Schizoaffective disorder on my worst enemy, honestly. But i just gotta live with it

[@user-mq7vf9me3y]

Lol

[@jambott5520]

Harry Potter as a series so consistently shows and recreates the injustices of our world through a wizarding lens, but instead of critiquing those injustices just goes, 'yup, thats how things are. OOh look at the quidditch!'.

[@rileyfaelan]

And that's why real-world fans of quidditch renamed it to quadball. They could do without Jowank's toxicity.

[@sendmorerum8241]

Do all books have to be preachy and pointing out the obvious? Readers aren't stupid.

[@animeotaku307]

@sendmorerum8241No, but if your book says “BTW, racism is a part of the plot,” you can’t just go back to funny hijinks while ignoring the racism.

[@alswaniharris]

Interesting take. Have you watched Schindlers list, or the boy with the striped pyjama's?

[@thestoryofjyo]

​@sendmorerum8241apart from the critiques discussed in this video highlighting how the "narrator" is not a neutral bystander, but makes specific judgements - a huge issue I personally have is that the narrator is a clear stand-in for Rowling herself. the narrative is a reflection of her philosophy and perspective, and unlike let's say Agatha Christie's The Murder of Roger Ackfroyd, there is no excuse for a subjective or an unreliable narrator. Rowling could have stepped away and said, "Hey! Readers aren't stupid, I don't need to feed them moral narratives." Instead, she has made it clear over and over in her personal life and public opinions that she has no criticisms of what the narrative stands for. She is a lazy writer with bad ideals, and she doesn't even have the capability to distance herself from that because she is too vapid and indignant in her perspectives.

[@seleuf]

1:26:20 My original takeaway from the story of Voldy's mum was "Did Rowling just confidently state that r*pe babies are incapable of love because of how they were conceived?" But it's actually worse than that, isn't it? She states children born of any intercourse lacking love will never know or feel or understand love, and through no fault of their own. They're just born evil, apparently.

[@zoeb3573]

Which is crazy because a lot of people in the past, especially BUT NOT ONLY nobility, used to marry for power and connections and money and have intercourse with someone they didn't especially like just for the purpose of having kids, no love required. So wouldn't that mean thata giant portion of the world population all throughout history should have been incapable of love because their parents weren't in love? And what about people who had children together because they had to, and don't love each other, but DO love their children? It's so baffling the more I think about it.

[@indigopines]

EXACTLY!!!! I realized the same thing!!

[@carmenolle5967]

In the interview she claimed that a loveless child begotten by a loveless relationship is supposed to be a poetic parallel rather than a real consequence of the use of amortentia

[@Sobsilus]

@@carmenolle5967 Honestly, I was never willing to cut Rowling any slack with her explanations and justifications after the publication. She sucks as an author, but she has always claimed to be a brilliant author and that she had thought everything out from the start. So every flaw in the books has to be intentional by her own standards. Which means if Tom Riddle can't feel love because he was conceived by a couple who didn't really love each other, that is exactly what Rowling wanted. It's not poetic. Rowling is too stupid and her writing style too simple for that. With her, everything is what it is. No multiple layers, no double bottom.

[@Yelloweyedrobo]

@@carmenolle5967 which i would believe if she didnt have an extremely well known habit of making things up in interviews

[@FurbyFullyLoaded]

The fact that JKR insisted on giving the racist incel who bullied his students a redemption arc but not the grumpy disabled janitor is very telling.

[@EFYletsplays]

The main antagonist in school gets pushed into being a murderer by the main baddie but doesnt want it? Yeah, lets show he‘s not that level of evil. The janitor/hall monitor that hates the children doesnt deserve a redemption arc. He is an obstacle to overcome and be considered when planning. Not a dynamic character in the series

[@colinvandenberg3446]

Snape's arc is an extension of The Author's misogyny, which is a bigotry that tends to fuel other bigotries.

[@EFYletsplays]

@@colinvandenberg3446 explain this further?

[@BigDaddyshir]

He never had a real redemption arc.

[@EFYletsplays]

@@BigDaddyshir i assume youre talking about Malfoy. He went from wanting to be like his father and become a death eater. Getting there, and being thrust deep into the darkness that was entailed of being one. And turned back. Being a bully to be „cool“ in school is so different from being an evil deatheater who wants the mixed bloods and muggles to bend to their will. That is redemption

[@whytho212]

Harry Potter was bullied, isolated, neglected, and abused but still had no problems making friends has never sat right with me. Because I was horribly bullied growing up and lived in an incredibly isolated area and thats had some serious detriments to my ability to make friends. like bruh Edit: I never said bullied people can't make friends, its just harder for them. What I was actually pointing out, was that Harry, despite all the things that would hurt his ability to make friends, had a fairly easy time of it.

[@woodie3030]

Harry has no personality or character depth AT all, this doesn't surprise me

[@Matt_the_pirate]

Harry is just meant to serve as a self insert for kids that read the books imo, that's why he's so cookie cutter, approaching Mary Sue territory

[@rob4ctwo]

true! i struggle with making friends after meeting new people cause i skipped that part of social development growing up (sheltered and actively kept from going out and making friends for most of my life because my mom was really paranoid). it's wild to me that harry didn't blow half of his fortune on buying other people things (due to the buying out the trolley and eating it with ron being his first friendship event, and being able to afford things now that he suddenly wasnt pennyless). him being so well adjusted is crazy. not like he was imitating the dursleys, theyre messed up too

[@cryingwatercolours]

it’s almost like no two experiences are the same. and not everyone is bullied to the same extent or the same way. ive seen lots of shows where one child is picked out of a group of friends to bully but that doesn’t affect their ability to have friends entirely.

[@kerrimccauley1245]

I was bullied by people who were once friends which has created trust issues for me.

[@oergpoerg4658]

Another thought that occurred to me towards the end of the video: since none of the systemic injustices in the wizarding world are fixed, doesn't that mean it's very likely that sooner or later another Voldemort will rise? "All was well" sounds very much like "the end of history".

[@FrozEnbyWolf150-b9t]

Yup. Perhaps the next one will work from within the system, using the existing hierarchies and levers of power that the wizarding world has set in place. Perhaps he will convince more than half the wizards to love him because he'll promise to fix all their problems at the expense of the underclasses. And perhaps he will be a corrupt cop, who was entrusted with institutional power. I'm kind of surprised it hasn't happened already.

[@PlatinumAltaria]

In the liberal worldview we can never actually defeat our enemies, just spend all our time fighting them and being generally principled. Actually improving society is impossible, of course.

[@kalebzerger301]

Isn't that how the real world works? Do you really think the books would be better if every single injustice in the Wizard world was addressed and solved?

[@PlatinumAltaria]

@@kalebzerger301 That is usually how heroic narratives work.

[@T.E.S.S.]

it's peak complacency

[@seleuf]

The other day, I was thinking about Harry's childhood abuse and the normalisation of it, how Dumbledore and other witches and wizards knew exactly what Harry was suffering and not only left him in it but sent him back to it every summer. Then I thought about Quiddich, and the fact there are two balls that are little more than leather-bound rocks flying around and trying to literally bludgeon kids who are already flying around a break-neck speeds a hundred feet in the air with no safety nets of any kind (nor is there any protection for the audience.) Then I found myself asking "... Does... Does Rowling actually literally hate children?"

[@Dante02d12]

There is a lore reason for that. The mother's magic shield only works as long as Harry lives with his bloodline, but Dumbledore thought it was too dangerous for Harry to grow up in the magical world. The only persons with his bloodline but that are the furthest from the world of magic are the Dursleys. As for the Quidditch, you're being ridiculous and you fkin know it. HP is before all an adventure book. There's no adventure without danger. It has nothing to do with hate ; if anything, the hate comes from you.

[@seleuf]

@@Dante02d12 I'm not the first nor the last to point out the issues with Quiddich (a sport that children get to participate in and not actually intended to be the source of danger in the narrative; you can tell by how the narrative is written), Harry is repeatedly sent back to the Dursleys even after going to Hogwarts and entering the wizarding world so the excuse you present doesn't hold water, and if I'm so hateful, how come you're the one who resorted to swearing and personal attacks? All of this without even mentioning Rowling's actual hate for trans people...

[@ceejno7861]

You know, I had this thought recently, and it hasn't left me since - that the vibe from the series is 'children's books written by someone who doesn't like children'. Not only in the books, where she seems to find endangering children funny(?), but also the way she interacts with her mostly-teenage fans irl. Like she profits off of children but can't seem to stand them.

[@Dante02d12]

@@seleuf "OtHeRs SaId ThE SaMe ThInG So I'm RiGhT!" Literally you. "Harry is repeatedly sent back to the Dursleys even after going to Hogwarts" Yes, because Harry STILL NEEDS that protection when he's ouisde the school. It's even clearer once Voldemort is brought back to life. Rowling doesn't hate anyone. She brings up valid issues that you guys are too dumb to think about.

[@spiderlily723]

@@Dante02d12 You mean Blood Wards and those only exists because Dumbledore put them up. He chose for Harry to be forced to stay with Dursleys.

[@TheWinterscoming]

1:03:09 don't forget, ron gets poisoned in book six because he eats a bunch of chocolates from a girl who was trying to dose Harry with a love potion. He literally found some chocolate, assumed it was for him, and then ate it

[@Vyx__]

I'm also pretty sure Romilda Vane doesn't face any consequences for trying to roofie someone? Like did Harry not notify *anyone* that it was another student who drugged his best friend?? What if she tried the same thing on someone else, and that time it worked???

[@animeotaku307]

@@Vyx__Just the way love potions work and are treated in-universe is creepy. The most serious it’s taken is Merope essentially roofying Tom Riddle Sr. And even then there’s more sympathy for Merope than the guy who was forced into a relationship without his consent.

[@atlas956]

oh right, that was a thing… teenagers drugging other students in secret without their consent. it‘s played for laughs, and the girl got the drug from an irresponsible teacher. she doesn’t even get in trouble bc oh she’s just a girl with a crush. i hate how these books portray teenage girls and their romantic relationships in particular.

[@Matt_the_pirate]

It was always disgusting to me how easily available what is basically a grape drug was in hp world

[@eospolaris9472]

Not a teacher, but actually from Fred& George's "prank" store. Because selling love potions is legal and funny/s ​@atlas956

[@ohkaypoh]

joanne loves to 'have a few concerns', and then gets upset when readers genuinely have some for her own work

[@monkey6207]

I don't remember her ever saying she was upset though. :0

[@ohkaypoh]

@ of course she wouldnt outright say it, hardly anyone would, that is admitting the things people say affect her. joanne tends to instead dig herself deeper than admit a portrayal or take was harmful or incorrect, because she despises above all else being seen as making a mistake, instead outright stating that she would 'not accept the apologies' of the main actors in harry potter when she thinks they inevitably will grovel to her after the supposed nonliteral divine revelation where everyone realises that trans people are evil. she is pissed, but she will never say so. her actions speak much clearer

[@monkey6207]

@@ohkaypoh But her post about women was not a mistake. A bit entitled you assume anyone agrees with you that it was.

[@narutardednerd]

Like so many other things in the books, some of the ableism seems like it's set up to be challenged and changed... but then it just isn't.

[@RowanTS]

I really think it’s underestimated as part of the pull of Harry Potter that yes, the majority of people did see these things, and assumed this stuff was being raised to be changed. It’s part of why many people felt disappointed by Book 7 even when they couldn’t put their fingers on why. And why it felt ‘so progressive’ - because it highlighted these things. But most people didn’t change their mind when the last book came out and…none of it was fixed.

[@thomasley4006]

I think that‘s an important point, even though, given how deliberately destructive JK is these days, it seems too benign. But I think the JK of the 90s didn‘t conciously write a children’s book series with institutionalist, supremacist, racist and ableist subtexts and messages. She just wasn’t a good enough writer to challenge these obvious problems and find progressive solutions. So, she SEES the problems of having all-powerful heroes and toxic hierarchies within a world where superheroes exist - but she doesn‘t know how to deal with that. So she just kind of mentions it - and then forgets about it.

[@albertonishiyama1980]

​@@thomasley4006 to be completelly fair to her, this is kind of a thing from the time. A LOT of the media foccused on younger audiences would do things like this. Where they show a bad representative of something (a racist, a bully, etc.) and just say things like "dont give them atention, you have friends who love you somewhere else". I think she probably believed, and to some extent maybe still does, that this is actually a good and mature solution instead of an extremelly watared down version for literal kids in need of a safe place. That would explain how she's so adamant in the "you guys should just ignore me while I personally help to make your lifes illegal" mindset she has towards the "Witch Hunt" she suffers (taking the name she herself choose for her documentary)

[@chriscollins2095]

I agree that Rowling probably didn't put much thought into Harry's character or backstory, but a lot of the complaints about ableism just seem silly to me. Especially regarding Lupin being a werewolf. That's a common take on werewolves--that they can't control who they attack when the wolf takes over. Lycanthropy wouldn't be a curse if there was no drawback. I think some people--especially activists--try too hard to create parallels between fantasy stories and the real world.

[@ViperhawkX]

@@chriscollins2095 That could be the case... if Rowling herself had not EXPRESSLY said that her werewolves were meant to be an AIDS metaphor. Like, that's not something people are reading into it, that is something that Joanne directly told us.

[@NocturnalTyphlosion]

the most fun harry potter game is How Many Things Did Joanne Write That Are Lowkey Eugenics?

[@FunkySoulNinja13]

I took the eugenics or "muggle blood" theme to be showing that way of thinking is wrong. I mean when Draco called Hermione mudblood it wasn't taken well?

[@FunkySoulNinja13]

I personally interpreted the pure blood concept to be a mirror to the Nazi ideology, hence that was a mentality in the villains camp in the books. Plus it came off like the pure bloods were disfigured and incest abominations. Like I think it was in the half blood Prince book where Voldemort' mother and grandfather were messed up from the years of pure blood breeding. So again Eugenics not put in a positive light I think?

[@fodonogue3]

In short: pretty much all.

[@garuspiks]

the whole muggle segment made me realise that the perfect world according to most wizards is an apartheid ethnostate where muggles and wizards never interact. also, as someone who is both neurodivergent and physically disabled, and who wrote a graduate thesis on portrayals of physical disabilities in Frankenstein and Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, i highly appreciate this video

[@connerblank5069]

Strictly speaking, the average wizard wants an _isolationist_ ethnostate. They want nothing to do with the muggles, they just want to leave them alone. It's the fascist minority that want the apartheid, with actual authority over the non-magical populace.

[@paultapping9510]

from this perspective Voldemorts genocidal fascism is merely a logical extension of the more benign, but no less fascistic, status quo

[@Cosmic_Cookie_606]

It's a super long video, but talking about the Wizarding World being an apartheid ethnostate, there's a really good (imo at least) section of Lily Simpson's video "a brief look at Harry Potter". As I said, it's a very, _very_ long video, but you can skim the chapters to find that section. The whole video is a really good, very in-depth critical look at a lot of different sections of the Harry Potter world as a whole that also delves into the wizard/muggle racism and the blood purity stuff if you want to see more of it

[@Starkinator]

That sounds like a really interesting thesis, especially where Frankenstein is concerned. It (to me at least) really reads that the sin belongs to the doctor for rejecting his 'child' and that Adam's cruelty comes from the world rather than anything inherently wrong with him. Considering when and where it was written, it's hard for me not to see it as a call for compassion towards people society deems lesser.

[@pa-pa-plasma]

It's been a long time since I last watched Wolfblood so I can't speak entirely on the flaws of the series, but near the end, some of the main characters decide that keeping the werewolves a secret from the human world is stupid, dangerous, & pointless. I don't think I'd ever seen a series do that before, create a world where the main characters need to keep this huge secret & then actually deconstructing it & asking *why* they need to keep it in the first place. Like, who exactly does it benefit? Maybe centuries ago, when witch hunts were still a thing & people were less open, less empathetic, but right now? It's more dangerous to keep it a secret than continue with this whole charade, even if there *are* some people that will be bigoted about it. I feel like, as a writer myself, more writers need to consider the reasons behind their plot devices. Deconstruct them, or at least create new reasons behind them being how they are, compare them to real life things they may be a metaphor for. Though, I think Harry Potter would have stayed the same, if not been worse, considering the author's beliefs. There's just no "saving" a series where all that shit isn't just an accident.

[@LeahCassidy-tl1tn]

On the classism issue, I've noticed that most (if not all) of her characters who have working class accents also happen to either be unintelligent, dodgy, or just straight-up evil. Oh and they're usually implied to be unattractive or unkempt.

[@Olivia-jpa]

You could argue the same for the orcs in Tolkien though.

[@LeahCassidy-tl1tn]

​​@@Olivia-jpa absolutely! And this is a problem.

[@FifinatorKlon]

@@LeahCassidy-tl1tn Why would that be a problem?

[@LeahCassidy-tl1tn]

​@@FifinatorKlon think about it.

[@ArmelSight]

Interesting, I'm starting to understand the criticism of the books now

[@bowers8242]

Thinking about when Ursula K Le Guin called the HP series unimaginative & mean-spirited

[@GrayYeonWannabe]

leguin rarely missed. rip to a legend

[@gabirodriguez8007]

uou...really...uau

[@IRocaNox]

Mean-spirited is an understatement for the HP series.

[@DameDarcy999]

Love Ursula ❤

[@arianbyw3819]

She was absolutely right.

[@Sneaker3719]

36:07 "Said Hufflepuff, 'I'll teach the lot, and treat them just the same." Wow, even in-universe, Hufflepuff's defining characteristic is more or less "none of the above"

[@starfinney6308]

I know right, like if you wanted to portray hufflepuff as like the egalitarian or accepted house she easily could have had it been "& I'll teach the lot, & treat them KINDLY all the same" & boom they are now the accepting ones who are nice no matter your circumstance or upbringing but instead it's just "we are the leftovers if you are not smart, pure(racist), or brave"

[@monkey6207]

What a reach. Hufflepuff valued kindness and you have to pretend you didn't get that because it's popular to make up complaints?

[@wildcardjoey4776]

​@monkey6207 sometimes character traits exist to justify the setting. Yes, Hufflepuff was kind, but her kindness does not refute the fact that Hufflepuff acts as the 'all others' house. Hufflepuff's kindness, in the quote Op references, exists to justify the way Hufflepuff House is. In real life, the way Hufflepuff House is would be a resultt how its founder was, but it's not, becuase niether are real, so the lore comes about second as a way to justify the setting.

[@monkey6207]

@ Now you're mad that it isn't real, what do you want from the woman??

[@AgusSkywalker]

​@@monkey6207You're making a Thermian argument. Helga Hufflepuff wasn't a real woman. She didn't create the Hufflepuff house. JKR did. And she could have given them a defining positive characteristic, but they are just "the other house", even inside the story. The only semi important Hufflepuff character we meet is Cedric and he only lasts one book.

[@vpenguin333]

Harry Potter was a source of escapism for me growing up, but I had a hard time understanding why my best friend struggled to get through more than a couple chapters of the books. Both of us were bullied but for different reasons. I was the weirdo who would later be diagnosed as ND, and she was the heaviest kid in our grade who was from a poor family. It took me until rereading the books as an adult to realize that the first chapters were always the worst in terms of how cruel JKR was to overweight people. My best friend didn't view the books as escapism but instead reinforcement of what she was hearing in the real world.

[@availanila]

I was at an inclusive school, I was poor, I was older, I developed disability in such a way my body looked different (as a child I thought I was ugly now I see convalescence), I was older and this book series was in it's popular days. I hated it with so much vehemence and hated the author with just as much passion. The most hurtful things I was called was squib then that muggle cousin's name and everyone did it plus adding the fact I could never buy the book to demean me. I didn't want a book that articulated so much hate against so many marginalized people to children and teens. The most vindicating moment in my life was when everyone saw JKR for what she is (she's always been like that).

[@monkey6207]

@@availanila Sad and everything, but such a logical fallacy to fill yourself with hate for the author because of bullies, and to blame everyone else who enjoyed the series, and claim it had no merit just because of that. I get that it's popular to say you don't like it now, but still such a logical fallacy and no one should have to care or get out a violin or agree with you that it wasn't a good series. Why are you so great if you're filled with hate anyway?

[@availanila]

@monkey6207 if you read the book and saw nothing wrong with how it was written that's on you. People think like they are and create by their awareness and JKR has shown exactly who she is through her creations and her actions. Such a logical fallacy _you_ have thinking people don't taint their creative works with their own essence.

[@monkey6207]

@@availanila Please learn what 'fallacy' means. Actually the fact that you can't tolerate a different level-headed opinion and imagine it means the person raising concerns is a monster who never wrote a single good thing in their lives is on you. Time to learn how to have a conversation or you won't get very far at all.

[@availanila]

@monkey6207 I know what fallacy means, you didn't use it correctly either and I thought that was the joke. I can tolerate a different opinions but I don't respect certain types of opinions or certain originators of these opinions. Recent events have shown that JKR depicted certain things as normal because they are ideal circumstances for her... you've read her works, you know the abhorrent things she depicts (and in real life thinks) as normal.

[@Bryan198026]

As a totally blind individual who's had trouble finding meaningful employment I can't honestly blame old Filch for being bitter, even though I try not to go too far down that path myself if I can help it. But this reminds me of an essay that an acquaintance of mine wrote years ago, which listed all the reasons why attending Hogwarts would be a terrible idea and probably even dangerous for blind folks. And yes I know Hogwarts Legacy introduced a blind character but I can't actually play the game myself so I don't know his backstory.

[@edamamame4U]

There's a wonderful Japanese manga called Atelier of Witch Hat that is being developed into an animated series. The manga does a wonderful job of handling various disabilities including achromatopsia, and LGBTQIA+ identities. It is much more diverse and kind-hearted than Harry Potter.

[@FifinatorKlon]

I've been wondering about that; what are forms of meaningful employment for blind people?

[@Bryan198026]

@@FifinatorKlon Probably the same as the rest of the world. The only thing we really can't do is drive.

[@a.n.9800]

@@FifinatorKlon I briefly worked in a nursing home a few years ago, and one of the dishwashers was blind.

[@Lernos1]

Ominis Gaunt (you might know that family name) was born blind and nobody was able to do anything about it. So he walks using his wand to navigate. That's... basically it. The wiki says it's supposed to mimic a snake sticking out its tongue to feel around. I dunno if that makes sense, because snake analyze traces of molecules with their tongues, it's essentially a smell organ. Maybe Ominis's wand navigation is more akin to echolocation. But his blindness doesn't really come into play in regards to the overall plot, as far as I remember. At least he's actually a kind soul, despite being a Slytherin (obviously rare for Harry Potter fiction), who hates his family and the Dark Arts because of his memories of hearing them torture muggles.

[@_lichen_]

I mean, it makes sense to me that Harry is mean to others when he gets to have power over them, he's scared of being a victim again, of being "weak", so he becomes the aggressor and distances himself from characters that he considers to be "too sensitive", so he doesn't make himself vulnerable HOWEVER, he never really grows out of this, it's not addressed as a real issue, as far as I remember, and those books are for kids, so.... Not good

[@Lia-zw1ls7tz7o]

I remember being bullied at school and once having a revenge dream where I was very cruel to my classmates. I will spare you the details but I remember when waking up I felt so horrible for even having that dream. I was never a fighter and I rarely if ever stood up for myself. And worse: this had let me to demonize myself for feeling stuff and yearning for things that are completely normal but that people like me are told to not deserve.

[@rusted_ursa]

He gets half a character arc, going from the victim to the bully. Then instead of completing that arc and realizing that bullying is wrong, he just becomes a cop.

[@_lichen_]

@rusted_ursa yes, exactly

[@Cosmic_Cookie_606]

Yeah, that's what I thought too! It's common that someone who's been a victim of bullying becomes more mean when they get to have power over others, but it's often complimented in stories by rounding it down to the character realizing that being an abusive bully is Not Cool. But that general meanness that Harry has is never even considered as a flaw as far as I remember. Everyone in school (except for Slytherin I guess but even then the only one we see bother Harry is Draco) thinks he's the coolest kid ever, and the narration treats anyone Harry doesn't like as wrong, generally -no, I'll never get over how Cho is treated badly because she's traumatized about her boyfriend dying by Harry and his friends

[@_lichen_]

@@Cosmic_Cookie_606 feels so good to see other people notice this too

[@ShiraCheshire]

It's surprising to go back and realize just how unpleasant Harry is as a main character. I remember not feeling much about him when reading as a kid, but I just figured that's how things were. A main character that's boring at best, unpleasant at worst. But the text constantly praises him and everyone looks up to him, so he must be a good guy, right? You can tell the most about an author's world view based on what they don't say in their books. The things they assume, the things that don't get spoken about. Writing horror doesn't mean you have a disturbed mind, writing tragedy doesn't mean you're depressed, writing crime doesn't mean you're violent. But when you write your story based on the unspoken assumption that everyone is selfish and the only possible change is who gets to bully who, that speaks a lot louder than the worldbuilding you put it on purpose.

[@taetersanguis]

Exactly my thoughts. I still can't decide who would be my favourite hp character... I didn't like any of them much

[@silviomerchan4564]

You know. I think about how something may slip while i write and be something offensive or wrong that i assumed about something or related to my worldview. I know rowling has well earned the backlash but it make me feel scared of writing. Like my subconscious could betray me and write something wrong because an assumption that i though it was normal, harmless or that i doesnt paid mind. And since writing is something personal, judgement scares me a bit. Hahaha I'm not defending Rowling, mind you.

[@ShiraCheshire]

@@silviomerchan4564 If you wrote something accidentally cruel because of a subconscious assumption and then got called out on it, I'd say that's a good thing. That's what gives people a chance to challenge their beliefs and grow as a person. Everyone makes mistakes. I grew up in a racist homophobic small town, and I had a lot of really disgusting beliefs when I was younger because of that. But that in itself doesn't mean you're just a bad person forever and always. The important part is that when your assumptions are challenged, you stop to think and consider that you might be wrong. The important thing is that if you are wrong, you're able to say "I made a mistake, and I am sorry." If JK Rowling had been able to say "I made a mistake in how I wrote this sensitive topic, and I am sorry to the people I hurt", then the discussion around her would be very different. Since she's still making works and new lore in the Harry Potter universe, it would even give her a chance to fix some of those past mistakes. To make the next addition to the series a kinder story. Better to work on yourself and become a better person than to have those ideas festering inside of you, hidden away.

[@silviomerchan4564]

@@ShiraCheshire Well the thing is, the ideas sliping because i didnt know about them, about what i could have been internalized without realizing so i cant even know what i have to improve. Obviously there are so many things that i dont know that i may assumed something wrong. Maybe i'm just overthinking. In the end i'm talking about feeling insecure and scared of writing something wrong because my lack of knowledge/ wrong assumptions/moral/ideology that i didnt realize i had.

[@ShiraCheshire]

@@silviomerchan4564 See, that's exactly what I'm saying. If you get them out there and have a chance to discuss your ideas with people, you might realize you have biases you weren't aware of. Then you can work on them and improve as a person.

[@astrealbrizbee9815]

It's always been weird to me that stuff like Love Potions and Sleep Charms aren't unforgivable curses that would get one expelled, but you do magic once outside of school and you're kicked out for defending yourself? Malfoy's friends were still ruffied by Hermione, Ron and Harry and Ron was still assaulted by a women looking to force her love on him with a potion.

[@rovenachi]

yes, really, like using Imperio and controlling someone's mind is unforgiveable, but using love potion and controlling someone's mind by making them love someone they don't is not?

[@KossolaxtheForesworn]

using love potion to SA someone - perfectly acceptable behavior defending your and your family members life - will get you waist deep in shit

[@TGPDrunknHick]

technically self defence isn't supposed to be an issue. Ministry just wanted to target Potter. that said you aren't wrong about the potions.

[@rennakahara7851]

As a disabled fantasy writer, I have put a lot of thought into how to include disability in worlds with magic. I'd like to share a few of the things that I've come up with, and I would like to hear from others if there are other things they can think of. - First and foremost, medical magic should not be able to do EVERYTHING. Maybe it can stop bleeding and close a cut, but it'll leave a scar. Maybe it can fix a broken bone, but can't heal a larger musculoskeletal issue. Potions can cure simple illnesses, but only treat symptoms of more complex things. Have some limits to what the magic can do. Have some stakes for serious injury and illness. If you make it a non-issue to heal just about anything, there won't be much disability. - Magical mobility aids, medical equipment, and adaptive devices. A wheelchair that can move by itself and fly up the stairs. Oxygen tanks that follow you around. A ring or bracelet that translates sign language into audible speech. Books that read themselves. Writing utensils that write as you speak. Glasses that magnify whatever you're looking at. Really, there are endless possibilities here. - Magical familiars that can double as service animals. A character with selective mutism that has their familiar speak for them if necessary. A blind character whose familiar can act similarly to a guide dog and can communicate relevant visual information. Basically, there's a lot that can be done when you have highly intelligent talking animals willing to help a disabled magic user. - A magic system that focuses on intent, rather than specific spells, incantations, and movements. I specifically wanted to focus on that because Rowling's idea of spellcasting would be impossible for people with certain conditions. In Harry Potter: Can't move your arms enough to wave a wand? Guess you're not doing magic. Dyslexia? Good luck reading all those nonsense words on the page. Dyspraxia? You'll likely have difficulty aiming your wand. Can't speak? Nonverbal magic is highly complex, so you'd have to work twice as hard as everybody else. Aphantasia? You can't even do nonverbal magic because you need to visualize what you want the spell to do. I really could go on with all kinds of examples. But with intent-based spellcasting, the only requirements are being able to think, the user's skill/practice, and it being within any other limits of your magic system. - This one might be more specific to my work, but using magic can damage the wielder. Overuse of magic can cause damage to the body. Using fire magic can burn you. Using ice magic can give you frostbite. Magic is inherently volatile and dangerous. Having this limitation can reduce the amount of people that just want to pick fights with somebody, and also create the potential for magical disabilities. I'd love to hear everyone's thoughts on these.

[@animeotaku307]

The last one reminds me of Holly Black’s Curse Worker books. They take place in our world, except there exists people who can change something about a person by touching them; whether it’s altering memories, emotions, or just straight up killing a person. There’s two caveats to using this power, however. First, it has to be bare skin on bare skin. And since there’s no masquerade in this setting, gloves have become part of everyday wear the same as shirts and pants. Going out with bare hands will get people treating you like you strode out naked at best and like you’re openly carrying a gun at worst. The second one, which links back to your idea, is that workers suffer blowback every time they use their powers. Memory workers lose memories, emotion workers become more volatile, and death workers’ have their body parts wither away with each use. It’s a neat limitation and that’s why I brought it up in response to your idea.

[@trashraccoon2635]

the last one honestly makes sense and when i started reading HP books even as a kid i was disappointed there was no backlash to magic. we get physically tired even just walking sometimes, why wouldn't magic have a "price" of sorts? why wouldn't using fire spells burn you? you may be able to produce magic but you're not immune to the heat. and absolutely magic healing should not be able to do everything. my personal favorite approach to this is lifespan/life energy in exchange of the act of healing. can you cure a cold? sure, but you'll be tired for the next few days. can you bring someone from the brink of death? maybe, but you might die in the process instead. good luck, healing mages. and mobility aids in magical worlds!! i've seen some posts in tumblr way back when discussing about this, and yeah, why wouldn't a deaf person have a spell that can record someone's speech and turn it into subtitles? why don't we have telepathy spells for nonverbal people? though for utensils that write as you speak, there actually already is one in the books. or movies? rita skeeter has one and in the 4th movie it's seen writing as she interviewed people and scratching things as she instructed. but as far as i remember this is the only instance for something like this.

[@Avatarfan10000]

Some ideas for the first one would be to make it so: 1) Magic can only bring you back to your default state. For example If you were born blind then you can't "heal" vision you never had. 2) magic only speeds up the natural healing process and helps make sure things are done correctly but can't do what the body can't. So while you can fix broken bones because the body heals them you however can't heal heart tissue cause it doesn't grow in the same way same with heart tissue. It's also why you couldn't just grow a full leg from scratch because while the muscles and bones would come back you can't regrow nerves and so most magic users chose to stay without a leg. 3) You must heal the body within a certain amount of time otherwise there will be scars or it will be unhealable because the body thinks that is the default state. Brain damage can be corrected but only if within a few minutes because the brain gets used to the default state quickly. Like wise if the body has already healed to a certain point then you would just be speeding it along so you will see the same kind of scaring that non-magic based healing would give. That just my 2 cents anyway.

[@SamAlderDesign]

@@Avatarfan10000 Your third point feels like the most potent one as a story telling device. Old stories about body transformation often were connected to a person actually going through a mental transformation. The circumstances of the transformation often reflect a persons new insights from being forced to experience the world differently. Or a monstrous transformation would often be about the experience of suddenly seeing a person in a new light after witnessing them doing something you never thought them capable of.

[@SamAlderDesign]

I think to feel realistic, medical magic has to be constrained by the mind of the person practicing it. It can't just come from a well of raw power that does what you ask it to regardless of whether you are healing eye tissue or muscle. I think the process of learning how to heal needs to include the risk of doing harm, but also the risk of being helpless in the face of the unbearable unknown. That no matter what you have achieved before, you must concentrate and bring a level of attention to the work that reflects the things which only humans can do. This is the opposite of the wish fulfillment of nanotechnology which heals the body as if it is a military with an infinite number of troops. Medical magic, to feel real, has to require an effort of emotion as well as will. And when your emotion has been spent, drawn down by an uncaringly alienating and exploitative world, no amount of will can recover what must be repaired by healing from another person, whether they are a "magic" worker or just a regular magical being.

[@oergpoerg4658]

1:40:04 This part also hit hard: Joanne thinks there is no solidarity between minorities. Maybe that's why she's trying to cosy up to lesbians in the hopes that they would 'drop the T' (although she does get told to eff off). But we are stronger together.

[@mansanayanaranjado]

There isn't solidarity.

[@ronjaj.addams-ramstedt1023]

​@@mansanayanaranjado speak for yourself

[@vurpo7080]

@@mansanayanaranjado None of us are free until all of us are free.

[@TheEnmineer]

@@vurpo7080 Simply put, none of us are free nor will ever be free. But we can atleast fuck up the stuff that gets in our way!

[@mansanayanaranjado]

@vurpo7080 yeah I used to think that. But then they disappoint me.

[@and0210]

When I was younger, I remember drawing myself with Filch as I attempted to help him clean the castle with Mrs. Norris because I felt so bad for him

[@monkey6207]

Sounds to me like she wrote an interesting character then. Everything does not have to be resolved perfectly in a story.

[@and0210]

@ of course, but that doesn’t mean that it shouldn’t be resolved at all, specially when there’s hints that it very much should. We don’t just stop ourself from ending injustice simply because it’s a part of life

[@monkey6207]

@@and0210 It was such a big story she didn't round every detail off at the end. Doesn't mean she had to or that it wasn't a good story.

[@and0210]

@@monkey6207 But it’s not just any detail, it’s almost every single discrimination plot (elves, squibs, goblins), minus the muggleborn one. There’s just so many elements that she introduces that don’t go anywhere, which makes for a slightly frustrating read. And I’m sure a few lines in the epilogue hinting at a sort of systematic change couldn’t have hurt, or felt weird, specially since it’s a story regarding discrimination. Or better yet, start somewhat resolving it during the franchise, not just the end Don’t get me wrong, HP is pretty dear to me, and there are a lot of very powerful scenes, but that doesn’t mean that everything that was written in the book is great. And that’s okey.

[@monkey6207]

@@and0210 I think it's a reach to say a couple missing sentences she did not think of putting reflect her character and the quality of everything else in the story.

[@robokill387]

This kind of ideology was very common, growing up as a diagnosed autistic kid. It was very much, "autistic people being excluded/victimized is natural, human nature, you can't change it, you just have to change yourself and stop giving them a reason". To the point that in the 90s and 00s autistic kids who were bullied often ended up being the ones made to change, sent to therapy or excluded from school instead of the bullies.

[@RedKincaid]

Yeah, I'm autistic too and have a few other mental differences, growing up I frequently got in trouble for being bullied but the bullies never got in trouble for anything, up to and including physical assault. It was always assumed I had done something to "provoke" it. Then at home I'd be hit with a belt over it. Everyone around me was trying to beat me into the right shape, it took until I was an adult before I could accept that I'm just different and that trying to be normal just leads to worse mental health. Congrats on surviving, friend.

[@azurekutella3812]

It’s not even most people who actively abused neurodivergents. Just a few people and everyone else looking away. But they didn’t take antisocial behavior like violence as a serious problem that would lead to DV or incarceration later. It wouldn’t be everyone going to therapy, just a few people with cluster B symptoms. I wish schools could get their heads right on this.

[@monkey6207]

Or maybe everyone in the world has a unique personality and there's no such things as 'normies' and you are not special?

[@LineOfThy]

@@monkey6207 Dude, not cool

[@monkey6207]

@@LineOfThy Calling others 'normies' is not cool, a hideous trend that the people most outraged about 'discrimination' always happen to follow.

[@JeantheSecond-ip7qm]

I never put this kind of thought into the Harry Potter books. All this went right over my head, but I was always bothered by how *nothing* changed in the wizarding world. They had this huge, brutal war and then went on with the exact same system.

[@ildikokecskemeti1027]

And even that war was riddiculous. Like... it was fought between a school and like... at max 100 something enemies. Also how the f is that a thing, that at least 1/3 (if not more) of the world's population are wizards/witches and "there was only one person not afraid of Voldemort"? If they actually wanted to get rid of him then they'd just assembled an army from magic people all around the world and whoop his ass along with his followers. Grindelwald at least was a big deal, making half of the wizard world stand behid him. Voldy? "I'm gonna terrorize Brittain!"

[@dortheschlelein5000]

It wasn’t actually a war. It was a battle.

[@monkey6207]

@@ildikokecskemeti1027 No one believed Harry until, like, one year too late. They thought the Order of the Phoenix were conspiracy theorists. You did read the books?

[@woodfur00]

@@ildikokecskemeti1027Where do you get "at least 1/3"? I figured it was like 1% tops.

[@ildikokecskemeti1027]

@@woodfur00 I just said a realatively big number. But even if it was only 1% if the best of all countries got together, they could have kicked Voldy's ass. (And we are not considering the horcluxes here bc nobody knew about him having those.) If the whole thing wasn't (riddiculously) localized to Britain.

[@dermade83]

Not to the main point, but when you said she wants to be seen as this literary genius who invented a consistent fictional world, I can't help but think of a specific tweet from her. After she "revealed" that Nagini was actually a submissive Asian woman all along (😬), a fan asked her how long she had that in her head. Her answer was a very smug "only 20 years or so," implying she had all this backstory planned when writing the original series. An attempt at "look at me, aren't I smart?" She clearly didn't know anything about that backstory back then. But her neediness to be seen as particularly clever is, I think, visible there. Billionaires being needy for the adoration of the commoners seems to be a thing going around.

[@marnenotmarnie259]

i really don't think she has the self control needed to keep something like that secret for 20 years lol… and even if she had that should have been moooore than enough time for her realize how stupid of an addition it is on top of it being grossly racist. then again… cho chang… jeeze dude it's painful just typing it out

[@animeotaku307]

Stuff like that just intimidates new writers.

[@fieryrebirth]

Billionaires seeking adoration is an ego-trip thing, also for their benefit. They do not want the unintelligent masses to see them as criminals with an insatiable greed, but as benevolent people -- when their actions say otherwise.

[@GrungeGalactica]

It reminds me of when you ask your parents about the logistics of father xmas as a kid and they just make up bs on the spot until they run out & just say “idk magic?”.

[@MelissaWickersham-k4o]

@@dermade83 The thing is, her fictional world isn’t consistent at all. Especially when she keeps making retcons to the canon. The world building falls apart at the slightest scrutiny.

[@claudefrollo6000]

I think Luna is autistic coded, but in the sense that J.K did the thing she did with Umbridge where she wanted to write a character based on a type of person she doesn’t like, and it was a Freudian slip of not liking autistic people

[@l.n.3372]

Genuine question here: What if we read the books and didn't see Luna as autistic coded? People (not you) act like people they personally view X, it must be true. But I was also a loser, oddball at school who was bullied and had very few friends. I think that's just a common feeling that teens go thru in life, so Luna is very likable and relatable to everyone. She's a character who can appeal to almost everyone. But her experience isn't exclusive to autism. It's fine if you view her as such but it frustrates me when people say she is autistic and get mad when others don't share their head canon.

[@claudefrollo6000]

@@l.n.3372 I think even if you look at it through the lens of Luna not being autistic, the constant portrayal of the bullying being her fault, or deserved, or having the characters we’re intended to like treat her differently, also make for a sour message in a book intended for a younger audience. Her experience isn’t exclusively that of autistic people, but it’s also one that most autistic people have experienced, so I think that part is important to consider, as her role, in the real world, is so often that of someone autistic. But yes, if we assume that she isn’t, it still seems like a poor way to have written her part in the story. I think any portrayal of a victim of bullying who deserves it in any way in your book aimed at older children and young teens is a little bit grim, but obviously it makes sense for people who aren’t autistic to relate to her, and see themselves in her

[@l.n.3372]

@claudefrollo6000 OK, so, I don't think a book *needs* to show positivity, ya know. It could be a commentary of how bad people are, you see? A book can be making a message on how outsiders are treated poorly and suffer bullying. That said, JKR isn't good enough as an author to MAKE commentary lol. But in the hands of a better author, such a tactic could be used to SHOW how loners and oddball suffer at the hands of people who look down upon them. It could be a social commentary. But again, JKR is not that good of a writer to make this commentary.

[@hackidreemurr]

Umbridge deserved it though 😂

[@laurensb1b]

Thats just you pasting your own interpretation on JK Rowlings words though, there is zero evidence for this.

[@bradiedean7466]

Honestly, the Percy Jackson series has a lot of similar arcs and narratives to the ones that HP tries to tell (or accidentally tells) but executes them better. Percy is abused by his step dad (and family bullied by teachers and other students pre series) and this has actual, acknowledged effects on his relationships and reactions through the series. Percy has a baby cyclops brother who is also seen as a dangerous and subhuman creature with low intelligence, just like Hagrid's brother. And when you find out a cyclops is the reason Thalia died and another is the primary antagonist of the book who wants to eat people the whole time, you think the narrative might be validating this portrayal. Percy is ashamed of Tyson bc people treat it as something to be ashamed of at best, and gets resentful that others avoid him because of Tyson. He gets angry that Tyson doesn't even try to act normal (a la Luna). But that's where the arc STARTS. it ends with him feeling guilt for not being a good brother, realizing that if people can't see his brother for who he is rather than his appearance then they can go to hell, that his brother is far more capable and self-sufficient than he thought, etc Countering hereditism is a series long theme arc, with at first it around like the half-bloods are just their parents made over, doomed by Fate to keep repeating the past and falling to their fatal flaw. Percy wonders if he's doomed to be just like his father, like the monsters he meets who are also children of Poseidon, or that he's doomed to be just like heroes of the past, like Hercules and Theseus, who used people and threw them away when they got what they wanted. And then he realizes, no, I REFUSE and he literally rewrites the nature of their world with the wish he's given at the end, choosing to break the cycle by turning down godhood in favor of forcing the gods to pay their damn child support bc like hell was he going to become part of an oppressive system. This isn't even all of them i can think of, but this is getting long

[@mikejeffries3333]

Percy Jackson really just is kinda like... Harry Potter, but better in every regard.

[@judedante4067]

I really like the Kane Chronicles, too. It's Percy Jackson but with Egyptian mythology. It's been a long time since I've read it, but Riordan brings up racism (e.g., in academia, racial profiling, and prejudices that mixed race people specifically deal with), chronic illness/disability, trauma, grief, and blended families, among other stuff. All in a way that's easy for kids to understand

[@anna-flora999]

Although part of his motivation to reject immortality was annabeth. I'm not fully convinced he would have still rejected it had the gods told him they'd ascend annabeth too if he wanted to Nevermind he would have rejected it because he knew Annabeth would kill him for treating her like a price

[@WhoEustace]

this has convinced me to give Percy Jackson a try, thanks. the books never got popular where i'm from when i was a kid, sadly, but i'm still willing to read them now as an adult :D

[@buhundi]

YES! Thank you, I was hoping to find this comment! Percy Jackson excels where Harry Potter drops the ball. Something else that PJO does monumentally better that only occurred to me while watching this video is the way they handle the people _outside_ their magical world. It's the way that muggles are seen as lesser-than in the HP universe to the point where "muggle" is straight up treated as a derogatory term, whereas _mortals_ (the term in the PJO universe for people who aren't connected to the demigod world) are just... other people. I find it really interesting, because I've seen the term "mortal" used in a derogatory way _outside_ the series, but within PJO it's just another thing you can be. It's never an insult; it's even favorable most of the time! (Also, one of the coolest, most important characters in the series- Rachel Elizabeth Dare- is a mortal. Love her.) Not to mention PJO gives a much stronger explanation as to why mortals shouldn't learn about the demigod world and how that's avoided. And it's certainly better than the HP method of "let's just wipe their memory they've seen too much."

[@kayleighgrant4007]

Most of the dialogue in these books is "Character notices an injustice and asks about it in a fit of casual curiosity, then older, wiser, character justifies it as normal, natural or necessary, or just dismisses it out of hand and then the first character says "Oh that makes perfect sense, quite all right then" with no further interrogation. Ever.

[@mikeswierczek]

💯

[@Auron1Roxas2]

No clown, it's not. It's very much seen as not right. Hermione literally starts a whole movement when she finds out about house elves.

[@WolframiteWraith]

And the lesson Hermione learns from this is that she is too ignorant to understand that house elf slavery is good actually.

[@Auron1Roxas2]

@@WolframiteWraith No it's not. The lesson is that even in the magical world that Harry is so fascinated with and sees as a wonderful escape from the dursley's, is still a world with the same kinds of prejudice and horrors as the muggle world.

[@Nyrinx]

I guess Rowling writes what she knows.

[@animeotaku307]

Someone probably pointed this out already, but why couldn’t the squibs just take courses that don’t require magic like herbology or potions? There are still options, Joanne!

[@jesusramirezromo2037]

Aperantly someone said, Magic plants and potions don't work without a magic user using them

[@Rime_in_Retrograde]

@@jesusramirezromo2037 Excuse me, but magic *plants* don't work without a magic user??? What, does a squib just touch one and it goes "nah, think I'll just die"? wtf

[@jesusramirezromo2037]

@@Rime_in_Retrograde Idk, Im not a Harry Potter nerd, But it's more so like, The plant and potion will have no magical properties, So if a squib drinks a luck potion it won't have an effect, if they eat a healing plant it won't heal them, and if they make a magic potion, it won't have magic effects, it would just be a disgusting mess I think it's to explain why some existing real plants like Wolves vein have magical properties for wizards but not non magical people

[@AnnoyingSquib]

Or. And this is one that drives me f'ing bananas. Why not have Squibs be the ambassadors between the Wizarding and muggle world? They can easily serve as the bridge for understanding in both, yet the Ministry of Magic rather stubbornly continues to keep things separate. And Rowling is happy to ignore this I guess. Like...that is a whole new series of kids books right there.

[@Aliandrin]

@@Rime_in_Retrograde Cooking seems to work like this. Two people can do the same exact recipe, measure the same exact amounts, add them in the same exact order, and the mater cook's food will be delicious, but the bad cook's will be crud. So yeah.

[@glimmerthesilkwing6067]

I think we were robbed of a socially awkward, bullied Harry, who wasn’t naturally good at everything, and was scared of authority, like you said. That would’ve been very interesting to read.

[@S1ckly_sc3n3-k1d]

Yes!!! As a person similar to that I think that Harry had sm potential

[@theemployer-pj4iv]

Tbh Neville should've been the main character.

[@KuningannaSansa]

This was fantastic! The "people she likes getting to hold power over people she doesn't like" really hit home. I'd also like to add that the default punishment in the WW is to be sent to Azkaban to be tormented by dementors, who deprive their victims of all positive emotions and make them mentally unwell. "Most go insane", according to Lupin. Sirius only didn't because he could protect himself as a dog, but honestly he's still suffering from some major PTSD clearly. And this is widely known and the intended result. The government punishes criminals by mentally torturing them and everyone is just okay with that.

[@juliamavroidi8601]

Azkaban is so fascinating, because obviously you gotta keep the Dementors in check *somehow*. Keeping the general public safe from them was probably one of the more considerate things the wizards ever did for the muggles. They cannot be controlled nor killed (presumably, at least we never hear of that), so at one point it was decided that sacrificing the "undesireables" of society to them was the lesser evil, the only solution. And this has to be highly controversial and a hot button issue, but there doesn't seem to be another way to keep them under control, than feeding them just enough so they don't get rowdy. Would their be a more "just" way to achieve that goal? Volunteers? I doubt there would be enough. Conscription? Have everyone get driven just a little bit insane? Would that be more "just"? And more importantly,would the public stand for it? There's no easy solution. It's such an interesting ethical dilemma and, as usual with interesting bits of worldbuilding, one that barely gets explored in the series. The problem isn't that the Wizarding World is flawed. Our world is flawed and in many countries prisoners are treated as lesser and exposed to cruel treatment. The problem is that those flaws are not explored and challenged in the narrative, which leaves the world feeling flat and - considering the flaws of the Wizarding World mirror real world issues - betrays a reactionary world view that arguably has always been an unfitting backdrop for what is purportedly an idealistic children's/YA book series, but especially has aged poorly in the past 10 years.

[@Cosmic_Cookie_606]

Yes yes! Like, I get it, maybe you don't want to delve into every little aspect of world building in your book because you thought of a lot and it would get too bloated. But this is Joanne, she thought it interesting enough to drop that wizards used to take their dookies anywhere and vanish the evidence with magic, she made a bunch of posts on The Site Formerly Known As Pottermore about a lot of things (one which included further defense of house elf slavery), couldn't she have made more posts going into dementors and the culture surrounding them? Explore why having people go insane for crimes like being an unregistered eagle is the best solution? It could be a legitimately interesting bit of world building, but no

[@ombrenightcores]

She could’ve made that a huge point about how horribly the prison systems are around the world. But nah - it’s “always been that way” so why change it

[@damejanea.macdonald2371]

It's kind of wild and terrifying to watch video after video talking about how much awful stuff went into a book that I read as a kid where I only noticed like two or three things that struck me as odd, but when people look at it closely, the hole is never ending. Great video! Thank you for the work on it!

[@yourlocalnerd7788]

The thing is, you were a kid and not a grown adult. There's probably a lot of things I watched or read as a kid where if I read it now with my english major eyes, I would notice a lot bigoted or at least problematic subtext underneath the surface. (Not to diminish the laundry list of things wrong with Harry Potter)

[@CorwinFound]

I read them as an adult with my kid as they came out. Having read science fiction and fantasy my entire life, I assumed through all the books that most, if not all, of the problems would be solved. Because that's how epic fiction tends to work, a build up and slow reveal of universe spanning issues that are often resolved at the last minute. So as an example, S.P.E.W. was of course quite silly, but it was Hermione's first effort at activism as a young teen. It was cringe for sure. But I assumed it was laying the groundwork for a more mature narrative later on how to solve the slavery problem. It never occured to me that the more "mature" narrative would be, "Slavery is fine as long as you are a _nice_ slave owner." So I literally went through all seven books with blinders on, getting increasingly annoyed at how feckless Harry was, but fully expecting some final reversal that would fix everything or at least end with, "And now the hard work if rebuilding a fair system starts." Certainly not, "All was well." None of it helped by Rowling teasing at systemic reform and then just basically saying that no reform is needed if people are nice.

[@Jdudec367]

Honestly a lot of it is exaggeration tbh it isn't really that bad.

[@moosepatil5946]

​@@CorwinFoundtruthfully, I think you're looking for what is not there. This is a children's book. Concepts such as systemic inequality and structural inequality are from sociology and I just don't see how they would fit in in a children's book. Harry Potter is not the only children's book guilty of this plenty of children's books suffer from this kind of storytelling. If you tilt your head to the side nearly all of them are in perfect in this way. I'm not sure what really the statement or argument is to be made here. There's no such thing as a perfect children's book . Wagging our head slowly about a children's book written 20 years ago yes, I'm sure the criticisms would be endless. But just because you can drive those things from the narratives of the book does not mean that the author intended to put them in the book, nor did the author intend to build on or create those themes. To examine those things as hard as you are in a children's book is inappropriate to the subject material.

[@Cosmic_Cookie_606]

It's fair, you were a kid after all. As a kid, you aren't really able to grasp at the more "nuanced" topics, as badly executed as they ended up being. I never really got to read the books as a kid (couldn't afford them), but I watched the movies a lot, especially the first three ones to the point I could quote a bunch of lines. I held the franchise close because of them, so I was really shocked by how mean the books could be when I started seeing the videos online too, not to mention when I decided "screw it" and finally got the books as pdf It's shocking how different you can see something once the childhood magic wears off

[@bradiedean7466]

I think it's incredibly poignant that when Harry hears Luna mention being mistreated in a way that Harry also mistreats her (ex: "some people even call me 'Loony Luna'") Harry NEVER feels guilt. The word guilt is nowhere to be seen, just embarrassment and pity. It makes it about the ways Luna makes Harry uncomfortable when it should be an epiphany moment

[@mikejeffries3333]

Ah, the good ol' folks who have no qualms about making you feel like absolute subhuman garbage wherever you go, but the moment you dare do anything slightly 'weird' or unusual, you need to be told about how 'uncomfortable' you make people and why you don't deserve to be forgiven for that.

[@Oreganoothyme]

Wow good point. If you zoom out it really reflects the way that JK deals with criticism, too. Never with self reflection. The sympathy is with the perpetrator for being made to feel bad, not with those they harm

[@maca76]

maybe its the spanish traduction or me feeling empathy, but i kinda remember him feeling guilty, i mean thats how i would feel so obviously our hero would feel guilty right???

[@Jdudec367]

He does feel guilt eventually and does start treating her better though. So no he gets an epiphany moment.

[@Jdudec367]

@@Oreganoothyme Until you realize that Harry does start to treat Luna better later on.

[@NovemberOrWhatever]

One of the weird things about British culture in general is how much of it seems to be backwards-facing. I'm not British, but, like, the British stuff you see in America is almost 100% set in the past/heavily relating to the past. Harry Potter may be set in the 1990s, but once they're in Hogwarts it may just as well be the 1690s

[@lunalee3021]

???? It's called fantasy and escapism and timelessness? These are typical literary devices?

[@monkey6207]

I wish they just went to a sleek modern sky scraper, that would have been such timeless escapism. Why would you want a story set in a castle with timeless, superior architecture?

[@lunalee3021]

@@monkey6207 Just watch any dollar bin movie about the magical creature that goes to New York. Creating a new world actually takes skill.

[@emleighbee]

I'm realizing as I'm watching this video that a lot of the things I related to as a kid in both Luna and Hermione are the things that they get made fun of for the most in the books. I'm sure that didn't affect me at all! /s

[@Ember_Green]

Hermione is treated like trash throughout too

[@lordfreerealestate8302]

JK Rowling: depicts bullies like family members, classmates, teachers, etc as wrong Also Rowling: bullying is okay in the right circumstances and against the right people. Ursula Le Guin was right about it being "mean-spirited".

[@Sleipnirseight]

Well, yeah. As a kid I found that experience to be relatable and realistic, and interpreted the portrayal in the books as a criticism of those who casually bullied Luna, Neville and Hermione. All three were gradually filled out as intelligent, beloved characters who grew to be appreciated by their peers the more those peers actually got to know them. And Hermione was a great example of persevering to do the right thing even if it p!sses others off (e.g., her relentless fight for House Elves' rights). I never thought Rowling was trying to get the reader to laugh at these characters. It felt more like a slow turn of the mirror that revealed the shallow callousness of such judgements/bullying. And disclaimer, Rowling is undisputedly a transphob!c POS. I'm no fan of hers. But I do believe in giving credit where it's due.

[@Eyclonus]

@@Ember_Green The SPEW arc for Hermione is just JKR telling everyone her views on activism of progressive causes, it really struck me as a teen and seemed to mirror the disdain a number of people I was at school with had towards anything that challenged entrenched, systemic biases.

[@Roseforthethorns]

Oh my god same.

[@howdyitsren]

It’s unsettling to realize how a fantasy world you loved so much as a kid and consumed uncritically (of course you did, you were a kid and didn’t have those skills yet), hated you without your realization. on a more light-hearted note, dr. Frank-n-furter put more thought into making an accessible castle and he didn’t even have magic at his disposal. i know who i give my salute on four wheels to.

[@namelessliberty9869]

I found out my beloved author wanted me dead at age 20, isn't that a bitch?

[@larissabrglum3856]

I related to both Hermione and Luna (autism) and it's been disheartening to discover how mean JKR was to them in the books. I think, like many, my appreciation for characters who reminded me of myself overrode the way they were framed in the text.

[@MarkHogan994]

@@larissabrglum3856 Jkr wasn't "mean" to Hermione or Luna. Both characters are absolutely wonderful and are portrayed as extremely intelligent, insightful, brave, loyal, and likeable people. They're both great. Not to mention the fact Jkr loves Luna and has also said that Hermione was basically a self-insert. Both characters are amazing and you have to be unhinged to think the person who created them was "mean" to them.

[@flicnerdy4385]

@@MarkHogan994 gurlie pops, did you watch the video.

[@diamondmx3076]

@@MarkHogan994 You definitely didn't watch the video, lol. The video has receipts, and every one of them says you're wrong.

[@redearth6267]

The giants siding with Voldemort because he promised them rights always stood out to me. I also remember the arguments in fan spaces when the books were coming out about S.P.E.W. Many, many people hated Hermione over it and believed Ron to be right. It made me uncomfortable that she included these parts more for Ron’s pov sake than Hernione’s, and to lampoon sjws. Icky af.

[@redearth6267]

“JK: My sister and I both, we were that kind of teenager. (Dripping with drama) We were that kind of, 'I'm the only one who really feels these injustices. No one else understands the way I feel.' I think a lot of teenagers go through that. E[van Solomon]: In Britain they call it 'Right On' or something. JK: Exactly. Well, she's fun to write because Hermione, with the best of intentions, becomes quite self-righteous. My heart is entirely with her as she goes through this. She develops her political conscience. My heart is completely with her. But my brain tells me, which is a growing-up thing, that in fact she blunders towards the very people she's trying to help. She offends them. She's not very sensitive to their… E: She's somewhat condescending to the elves who don't have rights. JK: She thinks it's so easy. It's part of what I was saying before about the growing process, of realizing you don't have quite as much power as you think you might have and having to accept that. Then you learn that it's hard work to change things and that it doesn't happen overnight. Hermione thinks she's going to lead them to glorious rebellion in one afternoon and then finds out the reality is very different”

[@redearth6267]

Yep she definitely included SPEW to comment on Hermione’s activism and ONLY on that. Then nothing is resolved.

[@a.n.9800]

The sad thing is, I feel like there is a point to be made about how it’s hard to create systemic change and how all the passion in the world doesn’t necessarily give you the power to do so. But JK’s point seems to be “so it’s not worth trying.” Accepting that you alone don’t have the power to change the status quo doesn’t mean accepting the status quo itself.

[@Jdudec367]

I mean no she did it for both povs really.

[@Jdudec367]

@@redearth6267 I mean no she pointed out that Hermoine had a point in the end which Dumbledore admitted and Harry agreed too to a degree and even Ron admitted that house elves shouldn't be fighting their battles.

[@gravityaisa]

The fact that in book 2 when Harry is revealed to speak parsletongue, many people turn on him because they believe he is related to salazar slytherin and so now must be bad. These children know him, and previously have got along with him but this small detail of a potential ancestor is enough for them

[@FunkySoulNinja13]

I hate to say it but people are that quick to change in real life to. I've seen it with people who were friends for decades even. Its a shitty part of life, so this is not a great criticism of the book.

[@gravityaisa]

Oh yeah people definitely can I’ve seen it, but it is a consistent through the book including Ron that people will just flip on a dime and switch to immediate hatred. And this is a book not IRL which means she (to an extent) was making a choice about their behaviour. But I do see your point

[@FunkySoulNinja13]

@ True but Ron flipped on Harry in Goblet of Fire because he thought Harry lied about putting his name in the goblet to get attention. In that instance Ron was giving into the group hate on Harry out of petty jealousy. And when Ron ran away from Hermione and Harry in Deathly Hallows it was from wearing the horcrux to long which exacerbated his petty jealousy and insecurity that he wasn't good enough for Hermione. Both times though Ron realized he was being an idiot lol. It wouldn't be interesting without these inner conflicts and these characters either giving into their base instincts or overcoming them. I just see these writing choices as just that, literary devices to push the story forward. I'm not sure how this is all bad. If anything I can just agree that if you don't like it and feel like it could have been another way that's fine too. Nonetheless to me its great that even after all this time these books can get people talking, its all good for the brain!

[@sophieplumeridge3253]

@gravityaisa the parseltongue one is the worst case cos it’s his potential relation to a bad guy… from like 1000 years ago! So for these people, that one distant connection (which actually thousands of people could have based on how many centuries its been) apparently completely overwrites any good he would have from the at least 2 generations of Gryfindors in his family. The numbers aren’t numbering here

[@annsh.6487]

It's crazy to me that she would include wheelchairs in a place so full of stairs... When brooms and flying carriages exist..? It would be so rad to picture broom-based mobility aids and every classroom and floor accessible via flying powder or whatever it's called

[@Laezar1]

Or, y'know, magic carpets. Instead of keeping the magical lore of other countries for exoticism think about how it'd be incorporated in daily life when a practical application is shared.

[@ExtremeMadnessX]

​@@Laezar1Aren't magic carpets illegal in the HP universe? I'm sure that was mentioned in one of the books?

[@MsLilly200]

@@ExtremeMadnessX Afaik it's illegal in wizarding Britain anyway. Iirc it's considered a muggle artifact? At some point Arthur Weasley complained about some dude wanting to import them into britain. Or something iirc.

[@ExtremeMadnessX]

@@MsLilly200 Definitely not racist implications...

[@GloomyFish]

Or like... idk flying wheelchairs? That could probably be a thing

[@Jess_talks_book]

Rowling writing Merope as a bad mother because she *checks notes* DIED IN CHILDBIRTH was a choice. She also established that Merope's magic abilities were very weak, so how was she supposed to save herself?

[@viking-astronaut]

I'm pretty sure she's a bad mother bc she date rape drugged a guy for months but okay?

[@animeotaku307]

Because she’s a mother and all mothers must be capable of summoning godlike strength to save their children or they’re failures, don’t you know? /s

[@RitaSilva-nj6ek]

It's actually really weird because technically Merope is a rapist, she used a love potion on her husband for years. This is the worst thing she has ever done and, yet, the author prefers to focus on something that was not under the character's control when making a moral judgment.

[@hispanicwitch4929]

@@RitaSilva-nj6ek Thinking of the time period she was born in, maybe she thought Tom Riddle was her only way out of her miserable situation. I mean, he was from a bourgeois family and could maintain her. She was desperate. And also, given how her butthead father was (seeing as that was her window to the outside world and relationships with other persons), probably didn't know any better. Also, she had no education, she had an hereditary chronic disease which affected her physical appearance (and at the time, society was much more superficial than today) and she was an orphan girl (and most persons at that time, if you've seen or read Oliver Twist, didn't trust orphans, considering they could be used by mafias). The circumstances of her upbringing and the time she lived in do NOT justify kidnapping and poisoning a man, sure, I agree, that is a crime. But I think it's important to look at the full scope of the situation. There are ways to write characters like this in novels for children (e.g. Oliver Twist), but J.K. Rowling is no Charles Dickens and she is far, VERY FAR, from being even remotely close to him.

[@l.n.3372]

Isn't it stated in canon that after Riddle left her, she didn't lift a wand to help herself when she was pregnant. It sounded like she lost the will to live and died of malnourishment during childbirth. But she's a rapist so I didn't really pity her. She chose to give up on her own baby.

[@MumboJ]

Even as a kid, I found it unsettling that Voldemort was inherently super evil specifically because he was the product of r*pe. That's it, that's the explanation given in the books. It's not subtle, it's just disgusting.

[@themanwithoutaplan9389]

Magically enabled r*pe, the explanation given was that those conceived through a love potion become incapable of feeling love right?

[@albertonishiyama1980]

I think the worst part isnt even the "was evil because of it" part (that can work, as blatant and shitty as it is), but the "he would never be able to be good, because of this" part. Specially so because I was reading Narnia (where Lewis make the extremelly based argument that if you're a "Good Satanist" you're actually praising God because Satan is incapable of acepting good faith and pure hearts) and Tolkien (that passed his whole fucking life fighting the paradox he put himself in, of "can the offsping of a thing of pure evil be redeemed? If yes attacking them is prejudice and if not God forsaken their souls from birth because of someone else's choices"). Seeing someone just go "yeah, you use the "Grape" Juice, you condemn your whole fucking lineage to evil" was wild, in the worst sense of the term.

[@MumboJ]

@@albertonishiyama1980 Arguably you could interpret it even worse because the direct quote of "conceived without love" implies that anyone whose parents didn't love each other is an irredeemable monster.

[@juliamavroidi8601]

@@albertonishiyama1980 The Kalormens were representing Muslims, not Satanists (or rather Lewis believed Muslims to be unwitting satanists)

[@andreab380]

Except that "conceived without love" can be read as: since there was no love for him from the start, and nobody was actually there to show him love, he never experienced it and that has impacted his worldview. This doesn't detract anything from the legitimate criticism that can be made of JKR as a person and as an author. I totally hate her transphobia, find her representation of body types extremely problematic, and find her obsession with retconning things for the sake of world-building and fake inclusitivy ridiculous. But she was very, very explicit on the message (fully compatible, alas, with her neoliberal bent) that "it is our choices, not out (inherited) abilities" that determine who we are. Things come, alas, in shades of gray. Even beloved children's books.

[@Kiiriminna]

It always bugged me how all the "good" guy's treated the word mudblood as a definite no-no, but no one ever even blinked an eye when words like squib and muggle were thrown around, even when they were clearly used as insults. Damn double-standards and all that jazz...

[@zoeb3573]

It was only a no-no because Hermione was in the group and she was a muggleborn so it was bad to insult her. If they didn't happen to have a muggleborn in the group and met a muggleborn slytherin they'd definitely use it.

[@ombrenightcores]

@@zoeb3573 “I’m not mugglephobic! I have muggle friends!”

[@watcher314159]

There's also the bit about Joanne saying that "a short period of reflection convinced me that any latent wizarding genes would never survive contact with Uncle Vernon’s DNA" (from the blog post "Harry and Dudley: Future Hope?"), one of the most blatantly eugenicist things she's ever said (a distressingly high bar). It's a perfect distillation of her ideology of innate characteristics mattering more than actions. It also frames the disability of lacking magic as not just a moral failure, but a contagion.

[@Nightman221k]

When I read that I genuinely couldn’t believe she could be so weird about the genetic line of a person who literally did inherit some of the same blood as Harry and his mom. Like this woman is really fixated on inheritable traits to the point where it’s like, “nope one drop of Vernon blood makes it impossible.” Imagine if she said this about someone with a different ethnicity.

[@sendmorerum8241]

Y'all overthinking it. Vernon is so bland and his mind is so closed, he is the exact opposite of what Lily embodied. Y' know, magic as a metaphor for creativity and whimsy.

[@chaodan3029]

​@sendmorerum8241ah yes, blandness and closemindedness... which DNA sequence causes those traits again?

[@watcher314159]

@sendmorerum8241 1: So why bring DNA into it, hmmm? Why make the symbolic touchstone for something so ephemeral as whimsy, something so concretely physical as DNA? At best it's a bad metaphor, and more likely it's suggestive of the author's ideology. 2. This is far from the only example of hereditarianism in Joanne's work. There's a whole chapter on it in the video. 3. By talking about a lack of magic as a disability in the specific framing of a moral failure I was drawing a parallel to Joanne's consistent use of fatness as a moral failure in her work. Again, the above quote is a salient example in a much broader web of behaviour, not an isolated thing to be rhetorically dismissed and moved on from in all swiftness because it's uncomfortable to confront.

[@Jdudec367]

That's pretty clearly hyperbole though.

[@juncohill]

I remember as a kid feeling so bad for the way Filch was treated.

[@alisaurus4224]

I was in my twenties when i started reading HP, but i understood the kids’ attitude to Filch as the spoilsport who wants them to obey stupid rules and not be traipsing around the school at night or in off-limits areas. Looking back now, i notice how despite basically living as a Squib himself since he’s forbidden to use magic, Hagrid considers himself above Filch. I think the only Squib portrayed favorably is Mrs. Figg, who testified on Harry’s behalf at his trial in Book 5.

[@Cosmic_Cookie_606]

I mean, about Hagrid, I guess it's because he isn't a squib even if he kinda has to live as one because he isn't allowed to do magic. He still does in secret, like the pig tail he gave Dudley and lighting the fire when he picked Harry up for school; so I guess that it's implied that he still does magic in secret. Also Hagrid is kind of openly racist, so it's not really too surprising all things considered.

[@Noaartetc]

This was the first "people treat you like shit and so you will be vile and bitter and never will be here a good end, never will anyone here get out of the loop of hatered" story that I had consciously seen. The Parfumer author, Zuskind, has a short story like this. You can find your own thoughtful insights everywere. Also a lesson from HP, or from anything else, really.

[@monkey6207]

@@alisaurus4224 I mean? He hung people by their thumbs in the dungeons? So why does he have to be likeable just because he's a poor little squib?

[@alisaurus4224]

@@monkey6207 i def forgot about that 😆 Squibs can be bad people too, of course

[@NightmareLyra]

I feel like the whole thing of Harry being able to become popular and successful despite his traumatic upbringing is what appealed to a lot of us with these books. I just wish the actual moral of them were "you're not broken, you can be loved" instead of "as long as your parents were rich you can be as rude as you want and still be a beloved hero"

[@GodofGamesss]

Just like the real world. Seriously reading all these toxic and resentful comments just once again proves to me that whatever you do there will always be people that have a reason to hate. Whatever you do people will see flaws in it and hate you for it. And the ironie is that this kind of behavior comes from the people with the visible disabilities that are hating on people for having smaller ones. Good job on making the world worse for everyone. Because when far right leaning people read shit like this they are only more justified in hating on all of you, Good job on getting Trump elected, he couldn't have done it without all this hate you guys are spreading.

[@FlamingoSugar]

As a kid who was fat, had buck teeth, and was autistic, I can say that stuff sticks with you, even if you don't realize it. The first book came out when I was in 4th grade and I can distinctly remember that being the time when I became aware that my appearance and actions were something I could (and by the Harry Potter series' opinion, should) be ashamed of. I read the first 4 books, but fell off after that and I could never articulate why. Honestly, it was probably the mean spirited approach to anyone that was 'different' that made me drop the books. Actively aware or no, it was these books that first introduced me to the idea that because I was fat, had buck teeth, and had autism, I deserved to be made fun of by 'the good guys'.

[@monkey6207]

Please, please, complain about another book series then. The 'not like other girls' trope has been outrageous, all girl characters have to be 'more like a man' to be worthy of being the MC. Yet you're all on about HP. . . So selective, this series actually had way more merit and good parts than most books you could pick on.

[@FlamingoSugar]

I am a random person on the internet with no platform. My opinion shouldn't matter to you. Have a good day.

[@monkey6207]

@@FlamingoSugar You're part of a mob.

[@FlamingoSugar]

@@monkey6207 Cool. I didn't realize that leaving a single comment on a single video discussing only my personal experience with the books and otherwise not discussing Harry Potter in my time online makes me part of a mob. I hope they offer benefits.

[@i0xiaY]

Please do not take this commenter seriously. They have been leaving bigoted comments under a bunch of other comments. Your experiences are valid and how the books handle the topic is not great.

[@lordfreerealestate8302]

FINALLY. As a disabled and neurodivergent person, JK Rowling's ableism is an underdiscussed aspect of her toxicity. Cormorant Strike series (specifically Ink Black heart) has a villain who fakes their disability. Also, her infamous anti-trans essay also had much problematic crap on people with autism (like me). She mocks people on disability benefits in Ink Black Heart, despite the fact she relied on government assistance as a single . In the UK *where Rowling is from* there's the ableist trope of the "benefits scrounger" and people on disability benefits are literally TARGETED FOR HATE CRIMES. Rowling KNOWS this. She also frames (again in Ink Black heart) able-bodied people as the victims of disabled, but not the other way around. She depicts an author unaliving themselves because they were called ableist (not kidding) but holds no space for the victims of ableism to really be discussed. It also shows invisible disabilities as invalid but visible/physical as valid, and compares "good" vs "bad" disabled people, and purports the idea that productive disableds are the "good ones" and the bad ones are just lazy/not trying/leeching. And again, in all these situations, Rowling views herself as the victim (as Ink Black heart shows) and refuses to educate herself, take accountability, and do better. Yet no one calls out the ableism. Ink Black Heart was published in *2022*. WAY too late to have any excuse for this crap.

[@ronjaj.addams-ramstedt1023]

Hear, hear! 👏👏👏 (applause)

[@screaminmeani]

@lordfreerealestate8302 Omg omgosh. I anxiously await your many hours long video essay of this. Or just write the essay cause it sounds great but I don't want to read her books. I'll send you 5 canadian doll hairs for that essay. Reality is crushing my brain.

[@douglasfreer]

I haven’t read those books but when it came out how the one villain was her view on trans folk I refused to read anymore of her books until she either redeemed herself or died so none of the revenue would go to her. I’m kind of scared who she’ll demonize in her next book, though how she’s able to write any book with all the crazy tweets she does daily is beyond me.

[@DragonsEatTofu]

The depiction of Comoran Strike himself is very limited and icky. She doesn’t really take the time to think about how his disability would affect him besides making it hard for him to chase criminals or making him feel ugly. That last bit isn’t so bad though apparently because JK loves to describe how many shallow women desperately want to sleep with Strike because his scariness and ungliness make him twistedly manly. A wild intersection of her misogyny and ableism that was a constant motif and very difficult to read through. I read all the books up to ink black heart because I wanted the full context of her depiction of trans people. I couldn’t bring myself to read the last book. There is a particular death scene in the second book that still makes me feel queasy when I think about it. They are very unpleasant books and I would never recommend them.

[@bellarosethorne]

I'm an autistic trans woman. Yet to understand whether I'm a monster or just a victim who didn't know better and was misled. But well, with her views on trans people I kind of have to assume she thinks a uterus is the provider of innocence and autism - or at least the kind of autism that removes agency (somehow). Because we all know full well, despite any trans woman having autism, it will *never* be that a trans woman is the victim to her. Our autism is *not* the kind that removes agency. we are fully aware and capable and understanding the consequences of our actions, and we understand them *so well* that daring to be trans is inherently choosing to commit evil deeds and automatically makes us monsters and dangerous to children...

[@SometimestheY]

As an American, I had no idea--until this video--that "squib" was a real, common British slang word (with such an awful, clearly intended meaning). This also made me look up muggle, which JKR apparently has said she based on the term "mug," for a foolish or unintelligent person. Yikes.

[@Siures]

As a German I never knew… They didn’t translate the words here. Thought they were just nonsensical words.

[@j_fenrir]

mate im not gonna lie, im english and i fully thought squib was made up too

[@quiestinliteris]

That one is slightly overblown. It's not slang, and it's not British slang. A squib, for anyone in the pyrotechnics community, is just a firework that makes noise without lights. It doesn't imply disappointment. A "WET squib" is one that doesn't burn, because it's wet. Like any incendiary. "Squib" itself had no negative connotation before Joanne got her hands on it. That connotation was a RESULT of Rowling's work, not an inspiration. Basically, JK made it into an insult though it never was before. The use of the term as a hereditarian slur is purely Rowling's invention. Unfortunately, she didn't even use an existing slur; she literally coined one.

[@Dave5400]

I hate to dampen your squib, so to speak, but squib being used as a slang word is absolutely not common parlance in the UK.

[@Leon_the_wildcat]

It fits though. Wizards are supposed to think they are above the non-magical world so they would naturally attach insulting words to people without magic. In a similar way the game vampire: the masquarade establishes that vampires refer to humans as kine (while noting that it rhymes with swine) and think of them as literally a different species. It works great when the intention is to criticize widespread bigotry in a society.

[@brookelawrence6740]

As a disabled neurodivergent kid, I knew these books weren’t safe for me. The characters made fun of people like me and I couldn’t imagine feeling welcomed into this world.

[@GaiashKetoji]

The “now the good guys get to be to bullies” point does a good job of explaining why she’s gotten as cruel as she is. That and the other transphobes she’s friends with.

[@emexdizzy]

As a wheelchair user, the fact this world has FLYING BROOMS and instead of some kind of double-broom-catamaran with a seat between the broom-staves they just have regular wheelchairs is kind of appalling. Like... do you have ANY idea how many impossible-to-build-IRL mobility devices I can think of to move me around? LOTS. I CAN THINK OF LOTS.

[@AnxiousGary]

double-broom-catamaran is so good 😂

[@bulshock1221]

@@DaddyBiscuits Part of the problem there is that the robot leg solution is not a possibility for everyone who needs a wheelchair. I grew up with someone who was born with his spine exposed, the doctors closed that up but it left him with permanent mobility issues that got worse and worse as he got older. It wasn't his legs that were the problem, it was his spine and nervous system. I also know someone with cerebral palsy, which is another condition that can have similar effects, though brain rather than nervous system. In his case he can walk a little ways and even drive, but can't walk for long periods because of the tremors that can happen and the balance issues. From what he said in his case it's more the balance issues, which is why he can drive without much problem.

[@quiestinliteris]

Like, with all their wonky-ass magical prostheses that would probably be absolute nightmares IRL, I was honestly kind of amazed that they just had normal wheelchairs and not some horrific alternative like turning people into D&D driders and then just expecting them to be grateful for it.

[@AmandaDavis6130]

Or heck, they animated a bunch of other inanimate objects - why not a walking chair that carries its user like s tiny horse, but with cupholders?

[@no1uno388]

@@quiestinliteris I would be grateful o/

[@dstrctd]

Let’s not forget about the time Joanne made a movie about the evil wizard who wants to prevent the Holocaust.

[@PlatinumAltaria]

The sequel to Harry Potter is literally "wouldn't it be awful if Cedric had lived? It's such a great thing that he died!" Woman is so dang insecure.

[@juliamavroidi8601]

Grindelwald is an interesting case, because of how he is introduced: Relatively soon after Harry finds out he is a wizard, Hagrid infamously explains that wizards don't want muggles to know about them, because it would essentially be annoying to deal with their problems. That is an (overly) simple, kidfriendly reason that fits the cartoonish, comedic tone of the book. However for people reading with a critical eye like parents reading to their children (or nowadays people who grew up with the books re-reading them as adults) this seems callous at best and outright cruel at worst. Then in the very next chapter Harry boards the Express and finds the chocolate frog card of Albus Dumbledore where, among other things, the headmaster is lauded for "his defeat of the Dark Wizard Grindelwald in 1945". This is one of the very few mentions of an exact year in HP and, aling with Grindelwald's German sounding name clearly is meant to evoke associations with WW2 among the adult readers. I always read this as an aside meant for adults: "Hey, don't worry: Hagrid said wizards don't interfere with muggles, but in case of an actual crisis of course they help out. Look: Dumbledore fought the n^zis!" Otherwise the line seems to have no additional significance besides illustrating Dumbledore's competence. In DH this connection to real events is already toned down, when Grindelwald is presented as another follower of the pureblood ideology that mirrors real world facism, but is unconnected to it. This means the implication that English Wizards fought against N^zi-Germany is lost, instead it's now implied that wizards at the time were not involved in WW2, because they had "bigger fish to fry", trying to prevent muggles from facing equal if not greater atrocities. That leaves wizards as active agents in human history, but without directly inserting the escapist fantasy world of HP into real life tragedy. I'd call that a positive change. Then CoG comes along and suddenly not only drags the Wizarding World right back into actual historical events, but we learn that there actually was a movement of wizards trying to prevent the N^zi regime, but were thwarted and they're portrayed as the villains? I genuimely do not understand what happened here. At this point JK is actively ruining things that did work in the original books. She seems to be getting worse each year.

[@atlas956]

I think Grindelwald and the whole attempt of diving into „darker“ aspects of wizarding politics revealed more about Rowling than about her world at large. She doesn’t really understand fascism beyond „bad people do bad things and must be stopped“, while emphatically agreeing with a whole lot of alt right talking points (just not the proposed course of action, euphemistically speaking). She‘s completely blind to the fact that her wizarding government being inefficient, incompetent and fanatic bleeds into her worldbuilding beyond just being a caricature of how she sees the actual british parliament. Actually, a novel or movie about Grindelwald and his quest to overthrow the statute of secrecy would be super cool. There‘s many good reasons to be against the ministry of magic, even aside from their catastrophic neglect of the muggles. Hell, we know nothing about how the rest of the wizarding world treats each other or the muggles. A villain with a point who eventually gets defeated by Dumbledore (who can‘t get over his own muggle-related trauma and ignorance) could have been a really interesting idea. But no, instead Grindelwald had to become another charismatic fascist, because word of god said so. Ugh.

[@RobloxFilmsAndAnimations]

@@juliamavroidi8601 No, I'm pretty sure I read in one of the books that Grindewald didn't care what blood type everybody was

[@S.D.323]

Insanity she keeps falling further and further off the slippery slope

[@nathanyou1899]

My general problem with Harry Potter (JK's nonsense aside) is that it's an ok whimsical children's fantasy series that tries to become an adult dark fantasy series and ends up not only being shit in it's own right but retroactively making the previous instalments worse by forcing them to try and exist within the confines of a story with socio political implications. For example Hagrid saying that wizards keep secret to not be bothered by muggles is cute at first but deeply stupid if trying to do serious world building.

[@Dave102693]

She was trying to do a Toriyama, except Toriyama stayed apolitical, which was a good thing.

[@l.n.3372]

Deeply stupid. What did London based Muggles do during the London bombings of WW2? Pretend that their houses weren't on fire? How could they not realize a war was happening.

[@Dante02d12]

Except Hagrid never said that.

[@l.n.3372]

@Dante02d12 Pretty sure Hagrid and other characters have said some variety of this, yes. Aka wizards want to be left alone by Muggles.

[@Dante02d12]

@@l.n.3372 The books are easily available. How about you prove your point?

[@fromthethirdplanet]

As someone who related to Luna a lot, it was always sad when there were classmates who also loved the character but proceeded to bully me for being a bit … different.

[@monkey6207]

Imagine if she didn't invent Luna at all, so you wouldn't be offended. Would the world be a better place?

[@fromthethirdplanet]

@ I’m not offended, I’m just pointing out the irony

[@Wolfdette]

I was a huge fan of Hermione, as an (undiagnosed) audhd kid with buck teeth who never had any friends except when they needed me and was bullied by those friends when they didn't. This was before book 5 came out so Luna wasn't in the picture yet and I really related to Hermione. We had this thing with my classmates (we were around 10-11 then) that everyone got to pick a character and that was your nickname for the rest of school. Obv I wanted Hermione, but a popular kid wanted it too and there was a "democratic" vote and she got that nickname. It isn't big in the grand scheme of things and I rarely think about it anymore, but as a kid that really hurt me. I got the name Dumbledore because... Reasons? 😂 I can laugh about it now but as a kid seeing the character you relate to get taken by popular kids while they simultaneously bully you for being like that character was not fun at all

[@Ummuri2000]

Growing up in a potterhead family, I was regularly told to behave more like Hermione and less like Luna. After years of coming home crying because of bullying and exclusion, my potterhead mom eventually gave up on me becoming a "strong, impressive woman like Hermione," and began telling me to "accept my lot in life, like Luna." My very obvious autism behaviors (and the associated depression/anxiety/OCD) were completely dismissed by my mother because "there's nothing wrong with you, Luna does that too," and any bullying that I faced was fair because, "that's what happened to Luna." I know autistic interests help us understand the world, but my mom's interest in hp showed me at a young age how that can go too far

[@2008-wii-remote]

That is immensely fucked up dude I'm sorry

[@soundofazure]

I hope you’re in a better environment now. 😢

[@cambriaofthevastoceans6721]

Good god, that is deranged

[@Ember_Green]

omg I'm so sorry you went through that

[@DrippyWaffler]

That's fucking horrific

[@blueberrydragon5160]

I used to kinda like the world of Harry Potter- the fanatsy of being “whisked away” into a group of people that might understand and relate to me. I’m autistic- but of course as a girl in the early 2000s I didn’t get a diagnosed. Reading the books was… nice (again- escapism), but it always left me wondering why I felt so… icky about certain aspects. When I went to uni, I also loved the fact that it was a great topic to connect with others as most people my age are familiar with the books and it wasn’t “niche” like my other favourite things. I only had to “revisit” my feelings about the series thanks a Shaun video. And suddenly it clicked- why all those little offhand descriptions made me feel so uncomfortable. Rowling made an imperfect world and that’s OK. But the ugliness was always glossed over or even depicted as “virtuous”. And now even the “magic” of the magical world is being siphoned away as they market the shit out of the property all over the world. I made a friend a handmade “felix felicis” as a crafting project and it felt like a special charm, because I had put my love and care into it. Now you can buy ridiculously overpriced merchandise, mugs, “potions” and whatnot at every lame-ass supermarket in town.

[@happytofu5]

Yeah same. I loved the escapism. And the books progressively got worse imho. The more "adult" the problems, the more infuriated I was at the "solution". Dobby being free is because he is a special case? The goblins being in the wrong for how they view property? Are you kidding me, JK?

[@AutheYste]

I strongly disagree about Luna being the only autistic representation. For me it was Hermione I related the more. She has an obsession for rules until she feels they become unfair, she usually has a very strong sense of justice (except with joanne blind spot), she is usually highly logical, she is also too honest and socially awkward, her involvement with books and knowledge definitely counts as special interests, she isn't as influenced by common narrative than others. Her relationships are also very true to an autistic experience, she is being used most of the time for her knowledge and discarded when she put a toe out of line. For me, Luna is the autistic girl who's more on the emotional/artistic side and stay true to herself, where Hermione is more on the rational/logical side and learn to mask and repress herself progressively to fit in. It's still a very ableist representation since it's made clear to her that she needs to change herself to be acceptable and it's shown as a positive when she repress herself to not annoy others.

[@BirdsAndWhales]

Hermione is the epitome of a neurotypical character to me! Funny how we all have our own interpretations

[@lokcachte]

@@BirdsAndWhalesi agree, mainly because she is actually incredibly emotionally aware, has more or less typical reactions to conflicts, etc. The only thing i noticed that a lot of autistic people experience is the string sense of justice, intelligence and reading, bring bullied sometimes. I honestly think those things come from being gifted, that there’s a whole unexplored world out there, and then learning you are considered second class. If the original commenter sees her as autistic that’s still alright!

[@megawonszrzeczny9]

I also think Hermione could have been autistic. I relate to her a lot and I am. Having empathy doesn't disqualify you from being neurodivergent. Women tend to mask more often than men, so I think she might have been masking her whole life. Some people mask so much they don't know that not everyone feels the same way they do. If I remember correctly the average age for a woman to get diagnosed is around 18 (don't quote me on that) while men get diagnosed around 4 years old. I think the way we teach young girls to socialize has an impact on how easily we percieve them as neurodivergent rather than assuming they are just shy/overexaggerating/etc. That said this is just my opinion and any character may be interpreted in many ways

[@IAmBoredAsHell4]

I agree! From what I've heard, many Aspergers experts have compared Hermione to an example of Aspergers in girls

[@yllejord]

So if Hermione is JK's self insert... have trans people become JK's special interest?

[@seleuf]

1:48:02 Can JKR really be credited for the inclusion of disabled characters in a video game adaptation that she didn't write?

[@mastermarkus5307]

I say no. At most, you can say she maybe "signed off on them".

[@raelogan]

Ron immediately defaulting to his kid defiantly marrying Draco's kid as the end game when they are children who haven't even MET yet is certainly... a choice of events to add to the ending.

[@l.n.3372]

We ignore the epilogue for our sanity

[@FrozenFennekin]

See, that actually could be really cool bit about how Ron’s pureblood upbringing affects him, as even the Weasley family keep meticulous track of their family lineage despite seemingly not putting any stock in arranged marriages like other pureblood families. Unfortunately I don’t think this was intentional on Rowling’s part considering how she rarely thinks about the implications of how a character was raised would affect them.

[@Axolautism]

1:30:09 immediately thinking of the tumblr post "what did you think 'levicorpus' would do?? IT LEVIES YOUR GODDAMN CORPUS"

[@GentlethemJoey]

This is why, in a world where incantations are based on Latin, it’s wild that astronomy is a core class Hogwarts students have to take and Latin is not. 😂

[@masterofthecontinuum]

@@GentlethemJoey Did they ever explain why all spells are voice activated latin phrases?

[@victoriab8186]

It feels rather telling, the way Ariana was treated by her family was described. She was ‘hidden’. ‘The few people who saw Ariana often got the impression that she was being imprisoned’. This is not saying ‘she was imprisoned’; it seems like it’s trying to imply that people could get that impression, but they’d be wrong to, because the family was being *reasonable* in keeping her ‘hidden’ for her own good. You wouldn’t want her to be seen and attacked again, would you? Or be seen and risk the family’s reputation again, would you, but don’t say that aloud.

[@candace219]

I'm really appreciative of you actually captioning the entire video with proper captions and not just KZbin's auto captions or just copy-pasting your script. I know it's small but it's the reason I could watch this video and it was a great one! So thank you :)

[@benjaminpower8286]

On Lupin, the potion didn’t prevent him from turning. He still turned, but it just allowed him to lock himself in his room and stay sedate until the sun rose. It dulled his aggression. But he clearly still suffered in that state, be it fear or pain or guilt. It wasn’t that the potion removed his sinful nature, it was that it allowed him to hide himself away until he could “pass” as a true person again. Not to refute your interpretation at all, you’ve done a lovely job here! But I feel that the concept of him still turning but basically sedating himself so he couldn’t risk hurting anyone, that guilt he faced, is a really Bad Take if JK wanted this to be empowering queer/AIDS rep

[@electrochipvoidsoul1219]

Your first mistake was assuming she wanted it to be empowering.

[@l.n.3372]

He wasn't sedated like you are saying tho. You're making it sound like drugged or anesthesia. In canon Remus says he becomes a tame conscious wolf who can control his own actions. He has a human mind in a wolf body. That's not being drugged or sedated.

[@Rosa-kd2cl]

@@l.n.3372I swear that he became sleepy or whatever when taking it. But yeah, still transformed but controllable. Kinda like a forced animagus transformation then.

[@l.n.3372]

@Rosa-kd2cl He definitely wasn't sleepy. It just says he's a tame wolf with a human mind. He chose to curl up in his office, fairly harmless.

[@S.D.323]

I mean it's kind of a bad metaphor for gay people if you ask me because werewolves actually are a potential danger to children

[@Aliandrin]

You're right that Harry is just a regular jock. He's naturally good at everything, charismatic, social, and flippant about consequences, which everyone else will always reward or at least overlook, while punishing others for the same actions.

[@KookiesNolly]

He is basically James except James had the upbringing to back his over-confidence and charisma. When re-reading the series i found it jarring every time characters compared Harry to his mom. He wouldv'e never befriended somebody like snape and stuck around him for so long. He would've been exactly like his dad, take one look at him and decide it was acceptable to bully him for years bc his vibes are off and he looks ugly. He couldn't even be kind to Luna from jump, LIly would've. And i am saying all this as someone who actually likes James as a character more than Harry lol. Because James at least has the merit of making sense!

[@MattEldritchHorror]

@@KookiesNolly At least Harry never SA someone, like how his father pantsed Snape and threatened to strip off his underwear next.

[@stvrmistic3700]

@@KookiesNolly Was Lily that good, tho? She continued to be best friends with Snape at school while he was secretly practicing dark magic and she knew about it. She never bothered to do more than tell him off, she broke up their friendship only when he called her a derogatory word. It seems like it didn't matter to Lily that much that Snape's prejudice towards muggles/muggleborns was possibly harming other kids at school, it only mattered when he turned against her. I know that ending friendships can be difficult, but if my best friend turned out to be a racist bigot they simply wouldn't be my friend anymore, end of story.

[@FunkySoulNinja13]

In terms of how he is in quidditch I agree about the jock thing. Actually shit while you mention that he always had Hermione do his essays for him! Lmao The only point I don't agree with is charismatic. He does not handle girls well, and even comes off short with people. Alot of times I think people like him because when it comes down to it Harry ends up doing the right thing (at least when were talking about macro situations like killing basilisk, facing Voldemort, all the big stuff) if you Catch my drift?

[@Aliandrin]

@@FunkySoulNinja13 That wasn't the right thing though. They told him not to do it. If I went down into the sewer to kill a rogue alligator I'd be a criminal, not a hero, and nobody would dispute that. The wizarding world has rules too. We just forget about them because it's Harry.

[@zainmudassir2964]

I genuinely think it's the HP franchise was cleaned up thanks to fanfics and films which deliberately ignored weird bigoted stuff in the books. Read the Earthsea books instead

[@ExtremeMadnessX]

Or watch Little Witch Academia anime.

[@launcherx2044]

@@ExtremeMadnessX or read the Witch Hat Atalier manga

[@ExtremeMadnessX]

@launcherx2044 It will also get an anime. Is that good?

[@AmandaPrice-f8c]

Yeah

[@cb034]

I'm just realizing that Dudleys diet was a grapefruit *quarter*. No even a half. The poor kid was literally on a starvation diet

[@saoirse2963]

It isn't meant to be taken seriously ffs.

[@MattEldritchHorror]

@@saoirse2963 we're supposed to think its funny that a child is being abused by their parents over their weight?

[@marnenotmarnie259]

19:37 yeah i remember loving luna but being confused by her characterization. a lot of her actions and mannerisms were framed as overly weird, and i related to them. the whole series pretends to love weirdos, but we're supposed to be laughing *at* her. it was just off putting, and i didn't know why. turns out jkr just thinks luna (and by extension, i) was weird and uncanny and should make you feel uncomfortable. thanks joanne that's very inclusive and very consistent with what you claim your morals are!

[@alexs.5871]

i don't know if you're still into fantasy, but the animated series "Owl House" is amazing and has great representation of neurodivergent characters :)

[@marnenotmarnie259]

@@alexs.5871 omg i love the owl house!!! i'm still working my way through it cause i don't want it to be over lol. it feels like everything harry potter should have been (and thinks it is)

[@alexs.5871]

@marnenotmarnie259 amazing! and o true, which makes the few dunks on harry potter even more hilarious

[@_r._7513]

Same

[@rgs8970]

I feel so bummed about the way not just the main characters but the books themselves treated "annoying" characters like Luna and Neville. JKR assumes that we will all share her worldview, and that the "best" outcome for these characters is that they can entertain or assist the protagonists 🙄

[@demeter7958]

Yes. Neville was my favorite character because I am forgetful and lose things, and because my mom had severe mental illness.

[@happytofu5]

I never understood people calling Neville and Luna part of the friend group. They were not treated as friends in any capacity!

[@namelessliberty9869]

Harry: no Neville, I don't give a SHIT about your plant talk or anything you ever say, unless you got a plot device plant that lets me win the tournament thingy Neville: phew, I got one of those, I guess we're "friends" for another year Edit: yes I know dobby gives the plant thing in the book don't bother me about it

[@vdvklaas]

Not to speak of Cho who literally lost someone she loved and had a hard time working through the emotions and all our "heroes" we're supposed to love do was shit on her, and speak only bad of Cho's friend who looked out for her as she was a "complication" as someone questioning their ways and for Cho not blindly admire and serve them. Not once did I see any main characters in these books try and empathise and change their behaviour to be better friends for Cho and her friend. Why do the Patil sisters even hang with them after their horrible treatment at the Yull Ball without ever apologising or show them friendship? Being good people requires actual work on your behaviour and thoughts. Just going through the plot for defeating the evil dude, doesn't make characters that are likeable or good people. Even between the golden trio there was barely any actual understanding of being a good friend; Ron and Harry never apologised for bullying Hermoine in year one and never apologised for hating Hermoine wanting to feel feminine and loved at the yule ball. Harry never took the time to sit down with Ron and show understanding for Ron's jealousy and listen to Ron's insecurities & feelings about all the power differences in their relationship (fame/money/looks/talent) - it was always Ron who had to come around. We all know they never had Hermoine's back on any good she tried to do besides serving Harry and Ron. Did Harry ever had a sit down with Hermoine about being bullied by MsWeasly as an adult (with the easter egg) or listen to her feelings on being smeared in the press by Skeeter? It was always "some things you can't just experience together and not be friends". I so dislike all these characters.

[@zionborealis]

The sad thing is i relate to luna heavily. Since i am not well read on the books and movies i didn't realize how characters treated her....she was treated the way i was in school. Fantasy is fantisy because it is not reality. Here things could be different. Things could be better....but instead they are just as terrible as reality here

[@ericksandoval8276]

29:49 Don’t forget Remus gets his bite because his dad wants all the werewolves to be on a registry and the bad evil werewolf doesn’t want that so he attacks a lil 8 yr old and transmit the virus like really jk🤨🤨

[@ao9688]

Me, a bullied, isolated ten year old: I think me and Harry Potter would be friends ☺️ Me, a diagnosed neurodivergent 30 year old: Oh. Harry would’ve found me extremely annoying, too.

[@AnthonyJMurph]

Harry Potter isn't a "Mary Sue" character. He's got his own boneheaded views. Thats kind of the point of the whole series. Everybody is a little odd and imperfect.

[@ao9688]

@@AnthonyJMurphnot sure where you got me calling Harry a Gary Stu from. Merely my adult understanding that young me’s wanting to be friends with the main character because of a common understanding of being the outsider would have gone entirely ignored at best and made fun of at worst.

[@PirateQueen1720]

21:30 - This feeling of "People finally sort of like me; I don't want to be associated with the outcasts" isn't a good look, but is definitely something kids feel*! It just would have been nice to see Harry more explicitly move past this, to decide that Luna and Neville are kind of awesome, actually, and it was bad for people to make fun of them. *I was an undiagnosed autistic kid, and I remember the accepting tolerance from the girls instead of friendship (because it was better than the outright bullying I got from the boys; who cared if they never invited me to THEIR birthday parties if they would come to mine and not be rude, right?) and the trauma when my main actual friend dropped me for "cooler" friends in high school...but I also remember distancing myself from the 1-2 people who were even further down the social hierarchy from me. And I regret that quite a bit now, but at the time I didn't see that we had enough in common to risk being bullied worse.

[@kenhollis6197]

Harry did acknowledge Luna and Neville's awesomeness. In Half-Blood Prince, a girl who wanted to flirt with him said he didn't have to sit on the train with Luna and Neville, and he crossly told her that they were his friends and basically told her to fuck off. There's also his very first day at Hogwarts when he soundly told Malfoy to fuck off when Malfoy called Ron "riff-raff."

[@robokill387]

Except he then goes back on that in DH.

[@kenhollis6197]

@@robokill387 How? Honest question.

[@Jdudec367]

But he does decide they are awesome and saw how bad it was for people to make fun of them, hell Neville and him have a startling number of similarities.

[@sandpiperr]

Yeah it's a very real thing, and totally realistic that a pre-teen who went from being the abused black sheep of his adopted family, to being wealthy celebrity with magic overnight...would have it go to their head! I mean whomst among us, if we'd been given major power and influence at that age, wouldn't have ended up abusing it? What would have been a real coming of age story is him eventually aging into having a "what have I become?" moment when he's no longer a little kid flexing his new found power for the first time, and instead is a young man who's having to come to terms with the fact that he might have to give his life to save the world.

[@_foxpuppet]

YES. I haven't finished this video, but I always had a bug up my butt about wizards because of that exact line from Hagrid about muggles. It's completely established that not only is magic infinate, but you don't even need to have magic to use many magical items. They could cure disease! They could feed people! House the homeless! But like, nah. Can't be effed. Let them suffer while we waste magic on turning snot into living bats???? Could not get into the series like everyone else did after that

[@RitaSilva-nj6ek]

Joanne already had the mindset of a billionaire before she even became a billionaire.

[@MargaretBurmingham-qm5dx]

@_foxpuppet That is the level of suspension of disbelief in most fantasy stories though. In most fantasy stories if there’s a secret society of magic they won’t have solved every issue humanity has ever faced.

[@_foxpuppet]

@MargaretBurmingham-qm5dx edit to clarify: it was a shit excuse. I could come up with DOZENS of reasons that actually don't paint wizards as pieces of shjt for why they don't help. But they don't help because they don't care. They don't help because they're bad people. That is the reason given, even if the author doesn't see it that way

[@MargaretBurmingham-qm5dx]

@@_foxpuppet that´s fair, I do actually think Hagrid at some point literally states that the reason they´re secret is bcs if they weren´t, muggles would try to make them to fix problems and stuff, and that would be ANNOYING. The worldbuilding in Harry Potter is very bad.

[@Leon_the_wildcat]

@@MargaretBurmingham-qm5dx I personally like the theory that the wizarding world doesn't seclude themselves because they just don't care, they seclude themselves because the higher ups are dead scared of muggles with flaming torches, fighter planes and atomic bombs and pretending they're above it is how they cope with being unable to take over the mundane world. They might have even lost the fight against medieval peasants in the past, which is why they are governed not by an archmage but by a ministry who has to keep the muggle prime minister informed on major events even though the prime minister doesn't know himself about what deal had been made in the past.

[@nathanyou1899]

Gotta love how Rowling invented a fictional slur and proceeded to use it against real people who annoyed her.

[@causticwit]

She calls people mudbloods? Sorry, I'm not on social media... unless KZbin counts 😂

[@nathanyou1899]

@@causticwit not that I've seen but Muggle itself is meant to be derogatory.

[@mikejeffries3333]

So, like... a very popular writer despite debate over how good their work is, working in a magical fantasy universe that's still based on our own, being unbelievably bigoted, and even being known by two initials and a surname... is Rowling just HP Lovecraft reincarnated?

[@Jdudec367]

@@nathanyou1899 No? It's a general term the world Muggle isn't a slur, mudblood would be one though.

[@YouveBeenMegged]

@@Jdudec367I mean, I did see that “muggle” is based on an actual British slang term for stupid people, so maybe not full-on slur, but definitely a questionable thing to be calling people.

[@Cereja-Lua]

The discussion on squibs reminds me how Fire Emblem: Three Houses did the whole thing better. The whole Crest system is basically eugenics and a means for the nobility to keep good graces with the Church of Seiros; and those born without them, nobility or otherwise, are marginalised and oppressed (either forced into poverty like Dorothea, being a bastard child, or nearly forced to marry their stepfather like Mercedes). However, the game gives these characters potential to either succeed in life (Dorothea can marry Petra, a princess; or Mercedes becomes a teacher), or overthrow the system entirely and build a new world where anyone can thrive with or without Crests, and where people can look out and care for each other. It also actually has ACTUAL queer rep, unlike HP.

[@nervousbreakdown711]

I’m nearly 30 and I STILL get treated like ‘Loony Luna’ by peers and colleagues. Bullies so often never grow out of it

[@FifinatorKlon]

The strongly implied self pity in your username kind of implies it is not just bullies who do not grow out of it.

[@nervousbreakdown711]

@ bruh you literally do not know me you have no idea why I chose this username

[@anzaia2164]

"There was a muggle somewhere in their lineage" is probably the stupidest reason for squibs' existence one could have come up with. Human lineages get ridiculously large ridiculously quickly (exponentially!), and since muggle-born wizards don't present any differently than "normal" ones, it's safe to assume that pretty much all family trees contain a muggle somewhere. Yes, including puritan families like the Lestranges, who do have a largely documented family, but that only goes back a few generations.

[@earthaforester3141]

From an evolutionary standpoint, all wizards and muggles would have diverged from a shared ancestor not even that long ago.

[@anzaia2164]

@earthaforester3141 that too!!

[@Haze-xr9rc]

^^^ true! plus, genetic mutations naturally occur for any number of traits, it could happen with two real "purebloods" having a "squib" child

[@CorvusSung]

I headcanon it as the pureblood families interbreeding too much which ends up leading to genetic defects, such as loss of magic. It makes more sense to me that way, since they do tend to engage in incest in the series. So, magic is genetic, and the purebloods think they're saving that magical gene for themselves when in reality, they're unintentionally breeding that gene out of the family tree. Which leads to squibs, and squibs lead to muggleborns. Another way of saying the class system is ridiculous because wouldn't they technically be distantly related to their oppressors? The purebloods? Meanwhile the purebloods are like, oh no, muggleborns have stolen the magic somehow and that's how squibs are created in their very flawed logic.

[@teylawhite687]

The impact of the abuse Harry is so small (if not nonexistent) that when I saw one of those cringy pieces of merch that says “Harry Potter taught us nobody should live in a closet” it took me a bit to figure out what the hell it meant

[@NovemberOrWhatever]

If Harry is traumatized, where are the scenes where people get concerned about just how often he flinches, when does he get surprised that his friends don't think it's funny to cause him pain, where does he struggle to trust anyone?

[@lunalee3021]

Not everyone who was mistreated flinches and acts traumatized like they do in fanfiction. I like how HP is one of the few series that doesn't overdo this in the name of "realism" (an angst fetish that tumblrinas pretend is deep).

[@rizwitch]

@@lunalee3021 I think that's why I can never enjoy fanfiction. It is just feels p0 rn, and it's not believable to be that dramatic. Like you said, in real life when people go through hard things, they move on, it's like those writers never experienced anything. . .

[@abigaillancaster382]

On Harry’s trauma- I get that it’s a children’s book, but as an adult who has cptsd from an abusive childhood bad enough to shock people with but better than being raised by physically abusive people who lock you in a cupboard, Harry should be a mess. He should be covered in scars, and head shy, and have debilitating flashbacks, and be terrified of back talking authority and probably scared of men in general. Beyond that, the fact that he can properly speak English and handle schoolwork is amazing given spending nearly all of his formative years in a closet. How on earth are his eye hand coordination skills not affected? How is he not physically disabled from lack of sunlight or lack of movement? And yes, I agree that it can only be so realistic because it’s a children’s book, but there are plenty of children’s books with abused characters who act more understandably while preserving a fun plot. I pointed out recently to a friend that Harry coming to Hogwarts should have been more like when Snape came to Hogwarts- painfully thin, socially awkward, bullied, no friends, and susceptible to following anyone who gives him attention, even if it leads him into the wizard notsees. And yet, Snape is taken from his also canonically horrific childhood and becomes a terrible adult who bullies his students and is used by both sides of a war despite what his views are on the subject, and Harry gets to be a hero who never actually does anything wrong and rarely shows any signs of major trauma despite his trauma being worse than Snape’s. He even gets to be mean to people without any adult stopping him- not even Molly Weasley or McGonagle. It’s interesting the way that JKR takes two major characters with confirmed childhood trauma and turns one into a morally grey borderline villain with a halfhearted redemption and the other into a perfect hero who is barely affected by any of it. The other characters with childhood trauma (confirmed or simply highly probable) are somehow treated worse- Neville, Luna, Sirius and Regulus, Remus.

[@nor4205]

THIS 👆 👆 back in the days of 2002 fanfiction, there was one fanfic author that rewrote the beginning of book 1 with all of these points in mind. Harry was a mess in that story! This was before book 5 came out and the books were still fairly whimsical and there was still plenty of room and potential for the series to get better (spoilers: it got progressively worse). Yes, we know it's a children's book but by the time book 5 came out, those 8 year old were in their mid-late teens and they saw the plot holes EVERYWHERE, which is probably why the fanfiction boomed at that time. There was so much good alternative stories being written, that when book 6 came out it just read like a REALLY bad fanfic with all the worst, nonsensical ships and tired clichés. I remember feeling embarrassed to read it... and relieved to return to the fanfiction 😅

[@aj7058]

The thing about Harry having to act a certain way because it's a children's book isn't even really valid cause like yes he needs to get up to all his mischief and heroics at hogwarts for the story but he absolutely did not need to suffer abuse of that extent for the story! Like those parts aren't set in stone, they're a choice she made!

[@aj7058]

Honestly it sounds ridiculous but the portrayals of Harry and his abuse in these books contributed to my own lack of understanding of the abuse I was suffering throughout my childhood.

[@AnthonyJMurph]

Why don't Grim Fairy Tales get this kind of criticism? Cinderella? Sleeping Beauty? Childhood stories are filled with some pretty dark things.

[@nony_mation]

@@AnthonyJMurph probably because they usually end before the manifestation of ptsd or cptsd can occur. Maybe (very probably) I'm missing something, but your point doesn't make a ton of sense here

[@oergpoerg4658]

I read all the books as a kid but it's shocking to hear now how mean-spirited and cruel the supposedly good guys can get because I don't remember it being so bad. One thing I remember that definitely felt disproportionate even when I was a kid was how Hermione disfigures Marietta Edgecombe in OOP after she exposes Dumbledore's Army although she was just trying to protect her mother who works at the Ministry. Like it's okay to scar someone for life if you are a designated goodie because good guys don't do bad things and even if they do the victim deserved it. Great video too, I think you covered the topic thoroughly and added many points that I haven't really considered before. Seems like Joanne didn't know many disabled people given how inconsiderate if not openly hostile the books can get towards these characters.

[@Ember_Green]

there was SO MANY incidents of bullying by the good guys, but that one is particularly mean you're right

[@sendmorerum8241]

Officially, those weren't permanent, just long-lasting.

[@idonotknow8503]

​@@HahaDamn no, but they should face judgment and consequences like everybody else.

[@liabowden8526]

​@@idonotknow8503that person is just a troll, they are All Over these comments, I don't think they even watched the video.

[@Jdudec367]

@@idonotknow8503 And they do

[@Jethric]

Joanne really missed a trick with the Arthur Weasley character. You have him die by the snake in the 5th book, and then in a later scene they find he's got a secret bookshelf full of muggle books that he's meticulously catalogued and pored over, so it actually turns out that even though he's a pure blood with a magical upbringing he actually does know his stuff, he got an Outstanding NEWT back in school in Muggle Studies and as an adult he's gone out of his way and made the effort to be an expert and he's a legit specialist on muggle culture (you know, like he's actually supposed to be in his career...) and Harry and the other kids realise that his bumbling act around his knowledge regarding muggles was just a bit of fun for the kids and then that's part of their growing up and their realisation that in the adult world people aren't always how they're presented and there's more about people beneath the surface than meets the eye (i.e, foreshadowing for the resolution of the story for characters like Dumbledore, Snape, Malfoy's mum...). Rather than, you know, committing to this character quirk of having the guy be unable to tell the difference between a 5 and a 20 on muggle banknotes, be unable to light a match after dozens of attempts, or be too lazy to buy a muggle aviation book from a charity shop and read a couple of pages to find out "how aeroplanes stay up". Way to make an otherwise alright character seem like a foolish and rather sad man. There we go, I've instantly made an element of Harry Potter ten times more interesting and have far more gravitas to it.

[@tbotalpha8133]

Don't do this to yourself. If you give Harry Potter any space in your head, a million better stories will fold out of it in a fractal motif. It's not worth it. Take this energy and invest it in your own original fiction, if you really need an outlet. Harry Potter doesn't deserve it.

[@samhainlegge9563]

*rapidly scribbles notes*

[@albertonishiyama1980]

​@@tbotalpha8133to be fair, "what would I do with this Character / Plot" is one of the beat ways to come up with your own characters. This idea can be used on a "Mr. Weasley adjacent" character on a original story.

[@l.n.3372]

Why does Arthur need to die for any of that to be true tho. His death isn't necessary for everything else you said to be true.

[@tbotalpha8133]

@@albertonishiyama1980 Oh, I know. The seed of a story I've been working on for years is "I wish Theon Greyjoy could have a happy ending."

[@havcola6983]

Everyone: We just want Harry Potter to be a cute little story about a wizard going to school JK Rowling: Hold my Thatcherism

[@sophdog2564]

I do think there's an argument to be made that the sorting hat putting people in the same families in the same houses is probably in part because of nurture rather than nature. If a family values courage or cleverness or racism, then the kid is likely to have similar values. And it also seems to at least take the child's thoughts into account a little bit since Harry's insistence on not Slytherin impacts the choice. But there is a lot of herediterism in the books regardless like how Harry is a perfect blend of parents he never really knew.

[@JesseD3511]

I’ve never realised that Luna was short for Lunatic, because in my language “Luna” means “Moon”, and it never strike me that it’s different meaning in English. That so sad:(

[@carlwhy]

The word lunatic comes from the belief that the phases of the moon affect peoples mood and behavior.

[@JesseD3511]

@ I genuinely believed that she was named Luna because she was as mysterious though

[@carlwhy]

@@JesseD3511 she's not mysterious though. she's basically a wizard alex jones/Qanon fan

[@petrfedor1851]

My language change her name to Lenka, but they nickname her Střelenka, which basicly means lunatic but with less negative conotation

[@JustSomeDude42]

@@carlwhy I’d argue she’s more like cryptozoologists who go chasing after paranormal phenomenon; ghosts, mothman, the Loch Ness monster. But in a world where unicorns literally exist it feels weird to say that part out loud.

[@jaybee4118]

1:00:07 that kind of fat phobia was completely normal then (when she wrote the first book). That’s why no one batted an eye lid at the time. It was horrible for me at the time, and the couple of decades before. Born in 1973, just 8 years younger than Rowling, but I’ve thankfully kept up with changing attitudes but for someone like me who never fit in because ADHD just diagnosed recently and increasingly suspecting autism, fat, bi, somewhat genderqueer and from a “weird” family in a small town, it was a lot easier to understand the changes because it was me. Edit to add, it was completely normal even 10 years ago. I don’t think people realise how recent this shift in perspective and it still is the norm for a large amount.

[@ronjaj.addams-ramstedt1023]

*waves* in solidarity from Finland (fat, AutDHD, bi/pan/omni, agender)

[@SamAlderDesign]

Yeah, I remember not really believing how two dimensional so many characters were and especially with the way JKR would focus on people eating... but I didn't really start to unpack how anti-fatness existed in my mind and assumptions until like 10 years ago. It's everywhere and doesn't go away just because you learn to see it and talk about it. You have to keep reminding family members that medicine is complicated and doctors can't always be assumed trustworthy and how you look doesn't have much bearing on whether you are doing okay. The world is so much more interesting when you make room for there to be actual other people in it with you.

[@totokekedile]

It's hard to shrug it off as a product of its time when Rowling still stands by everything she's written. She's been a public figure for ages but hasn't walked _anything_ back.

[@pa-pa-plasma]

I would like to point out (not accusing, just talking) that something being normalized at the time doesn't make it okay to have happened, especially when Rowling clearly doesn't give a shit about it. I've seen other artists apologize openly about some shitty stuff they'd put into their works a long time ago. plus, there's series like School of Rock (2003) where they very specifically have a scene where Jack Black tells a black girl that her being fat is not a moral failing, with examples of other fat singers that succeeded. same thing can be said about basically anything, like queerness & neurodivergence. even in Animorphs, Tobias specifically says he'd love Rachel no matter her gender, & that's from the 90's (the authors are queer allies, so this was not random or a mistake). children's media does not need to cow to all normalized bits of bigotry to succeed. *should* not, *because* of them being aimed at children. Rowling is just an ass. no one ever deserved that shit. she'll never admit it, though

[@limasierra6639]

People are still fat phobic. They're just quieter about it now.