Let's Make Fun of JK Rowling for 14 Minutes

[@LilianOrchard]

People offering support of JK Rowling will be immediately banned. Go be a fascist, misogynistic little rat somewhere else.

[@eloisedodds5909]

@@shotgunpete5117 Mmm yes, there is no difference between hating terfs and hating trans people. Obviously. /s

[@madsgrams2069]

@@shotgunpete5117 Calling for tolerance of intolerance...smoove move, my dude!!! :)) :)) :)) Fashos hate people for WHO THEY ARE, not for their opinions. It's perfectly acceptable to not want people whose opinions make them complete p.o.s. around you. It's not the same as not wanting them around you for...a circumstance they were born with that they can't control, such as skin color or gender identity. Now buzz off with your BS.

[@madsgrams2069]

@@shotgunpete5117 Oh, look, we have a dum-dum Potter-head over here. You think this is just about the fictional world? LOL... In case you haven't noticed...ol' Jo has some very strong...let's call them "opinions" about THE REAL WORLD as well, especially pertaining to trans people, but not exclusively. And ALL of them are AWFUL!!! :)) :)): )) The point here is that her writing is TERRIBLE and can only be enjoyed by kids, so the people who still cling to these crappy books because of childhood nostalgia, but also abhore Rowling's BS politics and are thus in conflct about supporting her or not, should finally grow up and recognize this OBVIOUS fact.

[@cratwane]

@@shotgunpete5117 Do you… like read these out before you type them? No seriously I’m wondering what your thought process was before writing this out. Cause like, making sure bad people don’t talk isn’t the same as bad people forcing everyone else not to talk. Go take your horseshoe theory peddling ass somewhere else pal.

[@cratwane]

@@shotgunpete5117 the Nazi ideology was never beaten 😑

[@hiya022]

JK Rowling got a massive ego boost from Harry Potter and now believes that her writing is on par with How To Kill A Mockingbird, but it's actually on par with the scrapped ideas of a fanfic writer.

[@CrabJelly5225]

Nah, fanfic writers have some talent. Her writing is the same as an eighth grader’s idea of the best novel ever and it’s a doodled on notebook with a bunch of random crap shoved into it, leaving it shallow and decrepit. She literally sucks. An eighth grader is probably BETTER because at least most 8th graders don’t push TERF beliefs in their private time and if they do, they usually grow out of it by the time they’re JK’s age. Also seriously do not believe she wrote the series in entirety. I believe she had a ghost writer.

[@RickyCow]

I think a best representation of Rowling's writings skills show with this story. Stephan King wanted to prove his books sold well because of his writing and not because of his name. He released a book under a pen name and the book sold incredibly without having his name behind it. Rowling tried the same thing and they had to leak who the writer was within the first weeks because of how badly the book was doing.

[@LilianOrchard]

She's so pathetic, I love it

[@GunnarTobus]

Oh that’s a clever trick!

[@randomness5986]

Was that an actual thing? Like, no joke, was this real? 😲

[@RickyCow]

@@randomness5986 Yeah that actually happened. I exaggerated a bit. It was a few months before the name was leaked because of poor sales, but still.

[@randomness5986]

@@RickyCow Wow. That's kind of pathetic when you really think about it.

[@dynamicworlds1]

J.R.R.Tolkien, a man who worldbuilt more detail into his fantasy world than possibly anyone ever was revising his universe 'till the day he died. Meanwhile a huge chunk of the Potter fanbase is coming up with all sorts of crazy, borderline conspiratorial fan theories to try and explain away the inconsistencies specifically _because_ making her world building make sense is such a challenging mental exercise. But sure, she "planned it all from the start"

[@nanoff815]

"Meanwhile a huge chunk of the Potter fanbase is coming up with all sorts of crazy, borderline conspiratorial fan theories to try and explain away the inconsistencies specifically because making her world building make sense is such a challenging mental exercise." Have Metal Gear fans finally met their match when it comes to the level of mental gymnastics to justify inconsistencies and retcons? I say this as a big Metal Gear fan.

[@Akabalthy]

Jolkien rolkien rolkien tolkien is my favourite author

[@jakenewland-griffin9460]

fun fact recently an original copy of the first book signed by the author at a charity auction failed to sell last year so the world is starting to heal

[@vtmarik]

The best part about that auction is it was all internal stuff between a partner and her own charity, so even though it was a closed loop it still didn't sell.

[@stopmotiongarage220]

This is just fantastically hilarious 🤣

[@gailasprey7787]

YESSSSS finally!!

[@CrabJelly5225]

@@vtmarikliterally made this 100x better thank you for your contribution

[@Paego_]

Fantastic Beasts should have been about fantastic beasts! A wizard and his muggle friend searching for magical beasts across America and being friends. Movie one was so much fun, but they decided to cling to Harry Potter's coat tails and it failed because of it.

[@jamestrevelyan1268]

Huge agree, it makes me hugely sad as a massive fan of real life and mythological animals that that’s something we’ll never see. Just show me Newt and Jacob having fun adventures and getting in danger, with Newt pulling some cool new creature from his case like a Pokemon to help them. That would’ve been fantastic.

[@sluttyMapleSyrup]

Yeah I thought the series was supposed to flesh-out more of the world and how magical creatures are kept hidden from muggle society. Seeing it devolve into almost literally just a Harry Potter prequel was disappointing.

[@rosebloodwater13]

Yeah, if was just Newt and his new muggle buddy running around helping magical creatures I'd have been satisfied. But nope time to deal with Albus-too-many-names-Dumbledore's salty ex-boyfriend and that nonsense. 🙃 Not like it couldn't have been its own movie.

[@EvaPilot10]

Tell me about it. I want magic Steve Irwin damn it!

[@ariannakelly5535]

Yeah, the bits with Newt talking about and finding/ dealing with the fun an interesting beasts were THE best part of the first movie. He and Jacobs frendship was really nice. I hated that they went the "daarrrkkk" direction and kept shoving Dumbledore in it

[@jadespiral4673]

I love how she basically made Harry Bi without realising it 💀You never see Tom Riddle without handsome in front of it

[@MorningDusk7734]

The annoying thing about the Harry Potter books is that they have so utterly defined the genre of magical school that anyone who tries to make any form of media that centers around students going to a magical school is either going to be compared to Harry Potter because of the similarities or be forced to make every aspect different just because "we need to distance ourselves from Harry Potter". The only place I really see this not happen is in webcomics, because there's hundreds of different people doing the magical school route, and each of them have their own slightly unique take on it.

[@zljmbo]

do you have recommendations?

[@christianthrasher8677]

Thank God I grew up with winx club for my magic school setting

[@christianthrasher8677]

@@zljmbo winx club

[@667neighborofdabeast]

That wasn’t even an original concept by JK Rowling. The Worst Witch books existed before Harry Potter, there was a movie in 1986 and a subsequent TV series ironically around the time the first few Harry Potter books were released.

[@Topdoggie7]

There were literally multiple magic books where they listed them as Harry Potter meets X thing and it repulsed me away from buying. I hate it.

[@ErosDiabolico]

Seeing Potter's character becoming an auror made me appreciate Percy Jackson's character even more. His father did not take long to reclaim him at Camp Half-Blood, his mother was alive and well, his girlfriend was in a similar position and yet he looked at the fucking GODS of Olympus in the face and basically told them: you're fucking up your kids and mistreating your allies and that's why you guys almost got the shit kicked out of you! All of this to say: go read Rick Riordan's books ❤

[@thehayze259]

Not only is he just generally a great guy but he really tries to keep things fun :)

[@tricks1118]

AND Percy is based on his son with ADHD and autism, and he writes him *well*

[@blazerheata6479]

This makes me wish I chose the Percy Jackson hype instead of checking out Harry Potter from the popularity literally a year before the drama happened

[@metroidnerd9001]

I definitely agree with this. The most recent time I tried to read Harry Potter, I burnt out in book four. A few months later, I started reading through Percy Jackson again and flew through the entire first series in about a week, finishing the second series within a couple more weeks. Those books aren't perfect either, but I found a lot more to enjoy in them.

[@elliottrae9355]

Yes, so well-said! I re-read this series every year and it never fails to fill me with a sense of adventure every time. And I know a lot of adults who grew up with the series and still follow Riordan's work. It's such a great community.

[@gab3963]

I didn’t even think about Voldemort being the allegory for what JK thinks about trans women

[@marqusmedina5983]

I didn't catch that either. I thought it was Tom trying to distance himself from what he saw as weak like Vader and Anakin

[@tenkenroo]

Because it clearly isn’t Voldemort is a fascist who wants to think he’s the most unique person in the universe but isn’t. Yes Rowling is a transphobic bitch. I think it’s an unfounded take on Voldemort but whatever

[@felixmartinez1100]

sorry but I don´t get it, why Voldemort is an allegory about trans women?

[@Rapture-nv5vj]

I don't get it either

[@sorryaboutmypfp6067]

@@felixmartinez1100 because people are insane and want to present the book as showing clues of her negative view of transwoman when there’s literally nothing, because people are fucking insane.

[@nataliestafford1535]

Yeah as a novice writer I can confidently say that "everything was planned from the start" is complete nonsense. I'm literally workshopping, scrapping and playing around with new ideas all the time. I plan a lot of the major story beats and events, but 80% of my story comes when I'm at least a few chapters in. Great video. Rowling really needs to touch some fucking grass.

[@GunnarTobus]

Facts! I swear, you can rarely ever “Plan everything from the start.” Revising and working with plots can take forever to do, and it doesn’t seem like Rowling did a whole lot of revising.

[@notactuallyacat.]

Absolutely. Writers saying that they planned everything from the start always worry me. It’s like… really? You _never_ looked at a certain element of your story and thought “Hm, maybe I should rethink this”? Never saw a fundamental flaw with your plot that you had to correct/address? That’s really not the flex you think it is. Sometimes you have to admit to yourself that what you have isn’t working and that it’s better to start over than to try and salvage it. If I stuck with the original ideas I had for my stories, they would be so much worse and have no clear direction at all. Change is a good thing!

[@starry-eyedatstarryskies1797]

I remember my grandma introducing me to the series thru the movies and I enjoyed them so much I wanted to check out the source material, but the books were just so boring and tedious to get through that I never read them again. I now realize that without the charisma of the actors, Harry Potter's got nothing I can't get from other fantasy stories.

[@HannaBerrry]

This happened with me too, I liked the movies and wanted to check out the books but it was boring and I couldn't get past the first one

[@kerrycherry3713]

I read the first 3 books stopped half way through the 4th book picked up PJ books and omg mum had to fight to get the book out of my hands xD and the only good thing of HP was me dropping it

[@orangeslash1667]

Can you give examples??????

[@Kamechan98]

It was similar for me, only the books just became a trigger for me and made me really angry. I experienced bullying throughout my whole childhood so to be so much of it, not only from the kids, but from literal adults who like to bully children just made me so angry that I couldn’t finish them. Also the whole thing about Hermione being the only one who was openly horrified by house elves being enslaved was also very concerning. And it was far from the only thing that did.

[@orangeslash1667]

@@kerrycherry3713 Good new PJ series is getting a show.

[@auburnDQ91]

For me, the disillusionment truly started when info about Ilvermorny came out and it became clear that Rowling has never set foot outside of the UK, much less opened a geography book. Only one school for the entire continental US and not a hint of Indigenous influence on how magic works? The only reason I stuck with it for so long was the friends I made within the fandom, as well as the whimsical escape it offered for me. Those rose colored glasses were stuck on tight and spicy brain got reeeal spicy for a while. But I've found other things that satisfy that want of whimsy, cozy games being chief among them.

[@wadeyhyena1657]

I'd argue that Harry is fundamentally shoved into the plot for the sake of having a protagonist that the audience can engage with. I've always loved Daniel's performance, as the movie version of Harry is a lot more tolerable. But half the time, Harry in the books is either throwing hissy fits at his friends, having a tantrum because authoritive figures criticise him, or purposely pushes boundaries for the sake of being right. Whilst I love his development, I always saw him as being toxic to be around. The only person who genuinely feels like a friend to him is Hermione and even he treats her like crap at times.

[@alpaczka6078]

one might say he suffers of main character syndrome.

[@sluttyMapleSyrup]

That might explain why I watched the whole movie series but could not get into the books enough to read past the first or second, even while the exact demographic both interations were intended for

[@acealpine6806]

We'll just have to agree to disagree. I personally think the films BUTCHERED Herry Potter. Just look at book 6, those film making morons decided to turn it into some teenaged drama about love+ jealousy But yeah, they DID manage to improve the 7th book because it was a piece of shite. 400 pages of some boring camping trip before we finally got to the meat of the story. And that Locket biz was ripped straight from LOTR.

[@wadeyhyena1657]

@@acealpine6806 Ginny was butchered the most in the movies, imo. The book version was a lot more tomboyish, comedic and central to the plot. Compared to the movies where we get stupid scenes like telling Harry his shoes are untied. Like, how is that empowering in the slightest? It's not. She's just rewritten to be the love interest and nothing else. At least Luna stayed true to what made her work in the books.

[@acealpine6806]

@@wadeyhyena1657 That's true. And what I'll never get is why people STILL tried to ship Harmony, when Harry and Luna had loads more chemistry. And that's after Kloves tried to turn Hermione into Harry's perfect match. And for all of Klove's professed "love" for Hermione, he didn't seem to like Book Hermione one bit. He erased half the things that made her "Hermione" and replaced her with some borderline Mary Sue.

[@therotryzit]

I would completely change Ron's character to be the opposite of what he is in canon, just to spite JK Rowling. Instead of being the dickhead of the group he is now the heart of the group, whereas Harry and Hermione have to deal with their problems Ron could just be there and be very supportive of his friends.

[@RJMiller73]

Ron’s not the dickhead of the group. That would be Hermione.

[@ShokuaK]

@@RJMiller73 She was stuck up at first, but she's still the reason Harry and Ron didn't die in year one, or ever.

[@sorengrace4127]

The Ron from the movies is very different from Ron in the books. He was more or less the heart of the group in the books.

[@its7am]

That is literally Ron's canon personality 💀

[@hulmhochberg8129]

yea äh, i am kinda confused were this is coming from. ron isnt a dickhead, hes pretty good in the books. its the movies that make him a dickhead and completely useles passed the 2nd, cuz they give everything he does to hermoine.

[@eloisedodds5909]

I’m one of the two people in the world who didn’t read HP despite it being published during my childhood, (got snatched up by Percy Jackson instead and I’m very glad to have done so), so I never knew the depth of the transphobia in those books until now. I knew the series worshipped the status quo, and the idea of freeing slaves was treated like a quaint joke. But just the stuff you listed here, holy shit.

[@Kamechan98]

Same. Honestly I had no interest in HP when I was a kid and avoided it, sticking to other books that were- in retrospect- a lot simpler. And Percy Jackson- which I stumbled over by accident- I immediately fell in love with and it’s still my favorite book series, as well as the other books Riordan has written. I’m not going to act like he’s a perfect writer by any means but I really do love that there are no deeper philosophies other than ‘kill the evil, bash the gods for being terrible parents, hope you survive the day’. That’s it. And the characters are what makes it good, not the world-building. It has a goofy, silly and lighthearted tone for the most part and that’s what makes me love it! Also the fact that he is light years better at writing people of color, different ethnicities and backgrounds and lgbt-people than Rowling. When I finally decided to read Harry Potter I was deeply uncomfortable with just how much horrible stuff happens in those books and no one seems to care or wanna do something about it, is truly awful. The fact that the SCB What if Harry was in Slytherin series was much more engaging than the actual story really speaks volumes to how bad these books are.

[@Celeste-hu5vg]

I must be the only one in the world that read halo novels instead of literally any young adult novels

[@gayjebus4079]

Apparently I am the other person. I remember my mother really liked Harry Potter but I never really got into it. I like dragons. I read the last dragon chronicles. I also read Wings of Fire

[@Kamechan98]

@@Reverend_Salem Right?! Uncle Rick doesn’t just say that x character is gay on twitter and never mentions it in his work, but actually writes stories for them and they have relationships. I was a bit disappointed that we didn’t see much of Magnus and Alex as a couple because they didn’t get together until the end of the third book (boo!) but the fact that Nico and Will are set to have their own book where they are the main characters make up for that. Also, didn’t Piper also break up with Jason and have a girlfriend in TOA? Like, it was very quick and not very much representation for the bi/lesbians but still. And I know it’s not LGBT, but the fact that we have an arranged marriage couple where they actually love each other, are supportive, caring and understanding towards each other is also a big plus.

[@dynamicworlds1]

Yeah for me I grew up with the Hobbit as a bedtime story, so while I watched the movies and tried to read the books (though almost immediately dropped the first one out of boredom and a sense I was being talked down to by an unremarkable person), I could never give them more literally credit than the average summer blockbuster. At their very best, they were a thing and kinda mid. It seems pretty much everyone who found a better fantasy author first (from Percy Jackson, to Tolkien, to Le Guin) never could become a fan because even if we were all too young to point out the flaws, we all knew we'd read better. Someone in elementary school should not be feeling like your YA writing is lazy and pandering.

[@mx9226]

I read the books and never really got into them. I didn’t hate Harry Potter, I just didn’t get swept up in the wave of other kids falling in love with it. Everyone was like “oh, I wish I could go to Hogwarts and be a witch/wizard!” And I’m like, “Really? You want to go to a school that has a giant tarantula living in the backyard, a snake that can kill you with just a look in the basement, and where bad teachers can punish you by making you write in your own blood? Thanks, but no thanks.”

[@untitled-gv3qp]

I loved the books but the thing that always made me question if I wanted to go to Hogwarts as a kid (and probably the weakest thing to gripe about) was the lack of technology. I didn't even grow up with good tech. Our computer was on the landline and it was slow as heck. I never got a cellphone until I was an adult. But the idea of living without any advancement from the 21st century bothered me. I never understood why she decided to do that with the wizards. It just seemed kinda nonsensical for them to only use magic for everything to the point that they're left in the dark ages. Even if you can fly or teleport wouldn't a car be easier and less conspicuous if you're trying not to stand out. At least let the kids have normal pencils and pens and find a different way to send mail other than tying it to a bird. And why wouldn't wizards want cellphones? It feels like the wizards are too prideful to just admit that some things from muggle society just work better or are easier.

[@thehayze259]

Same! I always wondered why people would want to live in a world with Vampires, Ghosts, and Wizard Hitler when all you got out of it was some cheeky magic and the inability to use a computer

[@Sanakudou]

The attraction to it was the fact you were “special” to be able to go to such a school, the whole series can link its success back to the fact everything is wish fulfilment and kids love escapist fantasy where there’s an individual or group of individuals they can fantasise about being that would make them special/not like other kids, then there’s the idea of spells (which so often are used against bullies and other archetypal stand ins for people you hate or are used to outsmart adults/authority figures) and flying on broomsticks is a similar draw card of power/freedom a kid craves. Plus many people hate school so much they’d take any alternative school system! Personally, as a kid I use to intentionally avoid fantasy books with fantastical schools because my idea of escapism involved no school at all, but there’s people who like elements of school, especially boarding schools in their fantasy, particularly when it involves the found family/unimaginably close knit friend groups, which made Hogwarts into even more wish fulfilment for its readers.

[@misslady2639]

I was more worried about the truckloads of homework you got there. I mean it was totally normal that the lengh of the essays on parchments was ONE METER (not to speak on writing it with a feather)!!!! And you had to research it in handwritten books that weight a ton you just couldn't search on the Internet, think about it......

[@danielboyd2588]

I just read them, not got into them. Also *literally* *pitting* *AGAINST* *EACHOTHER* is an *absolutely* HORRIBLE TEACHING METHOD. Punishing EVERY student for one SPELLING MISTAKE (I mean not spells, I mean grammar)

[@madelinehutchinson]

I first read Harry Potter when i was 12 and people had suggested I read it for years. I was a big reader and once I read it, I really enjoyed it. Now, I haven’t read it in years and am content to let it gather dust. Meanwhile I read Percy Jackson as a junior in high school, and I would gladly go back and read all of it despite being far from the intended age bracket when I first read it. Riordan is a really witty writer, does actual research on the mythologies he writes about, and is always doing his best to be inclusive. He doesn’t always stick the landing but he is open to change and improvement. The original Percy series is probably his least diverse and in casting for the TV show (where he has said he’s had a lot of input) there’s been a lot of great choices. TLDR: potterheads, just read Percy Jackson

[@dynamicworlds1]

And/or Le Guin

[@madelinehutchinson]

@@dynamicworlds1 truth

[@nanoff815]

I still like Harry Potter. I was never a Potterhead or anything. I liked the movies as a kid as much as I liked Lord of the Rings, Godzilla, Avatar, Naruto, and Pokemon. Some of the movies are mid, the first 2 are good kids' movies(and in general) and about 3 of them are genuinely pretty good movies. I read the books during my Freshman year of high school because our class made us pick books to read for homework and I really liked them. Must have been the right time since Harry was 14-17 and it made me think about what I wanted out of school also the setting was cool. I like them less now but I still enjoy them, I'm not much of a reader but I think they're solid books if you don't try to tear apart every plot hole. My only experience with Percy Jackson is the movies. The first is the most mid-movie ever and the second is actually pretty terrible.

[@eddiecactus1085]

@@nanoff815 I know this comment is from a couple months ago but I will leave this here in case anyone unfortunate enough to have only seen the movie reads this: do NOT judge Percy Jackson, nor any other Rick Riordan series, off of the Percy Jackson movie. The movie is so utterly disrespectful towards the source material and such soulless corporate garbage that it is universally hated in the Riordan fan base and even Riordan himself publicly despises it.

[@orangeslash1667]

@@nanoff815 Speaking of anime, the creator of Soul Eater confirmed that Harry Potter's concept was a big inspiration for the series.

[@Trixster009]

It still amuses me that the worst of humanity (like Putin) is on JK Rowling's side, cheering her on, and she refused to absorb what that said about her. She didn't carry that to its logical conclusion: "Am I the bad guy here??" Rowling is so impervious to growth and logical sense. If someone like Trump or Putin liked me, that would seriously make me reconsider what the fuck I was doing.

[@blockyuniverseproductions]

Given that Putin is a Fascist, it definitely doesn't help Rowling.

[@josephgrube]

Her ego is so fragile that she hangs on to anything that makes her think she’s a good person

[@patchworkgremlin4993]

My fondness for Harry Potter was mostly because it was the last books I was read to by my parents, I was that young. In my teenage years I had a friend who would talk about all the boring background details because she thought that made her more adult and they always seemed to just be so confusing and boring.

[@robinhildebrand6012]

I am one of the many people who grew up with these books, like, they were my bedtime stories/went to midnight releases, etc. I would listen to the whole series on audiobook every year once I hit university, and something about the first book stuck out to me. When Harry asks Hagrid why the wizards kept themselves secret, Hagrid said "Because 'arry, people would want magical solutions to all their problems." I thought it made sense when I was younger, but now, as someone who's had some distance from it and cut myself off completely from anything HP related, it seems like the only reason wizards don't step out and do something is just... we don't want to. I find that quite a telling admission now that I'm distanced enough and can criticize things I like/d.

[@cadweirdness6133]

Something interesting me and some friends found when writing a story set in the Harry Potter world is that the system would fail everyone. It was broken enough that a fascist could take over twice and by the end of the original series nothing has changed. So with the three main characters of this story. It's all about how the system has failed them and needs to change by brute force. It's all about unpacking the implications and saying, "fuck this. We can do better." And then they do.

[@Mythic_Fire]

Yeesh the anti-trans parts of the HP stories went over my head (which makes sense because yeah I was a young kid who didn't know enough to catch that). But yeah the books age like milk.💀

[@inori_shiki]

Same

[@robinhildebrand6012]

Yeah... I feel the same way. Reeta Skeeter's entire existence ruined my favourite book in the series once I started catching on.

[@sluttyMapleSyrup]

@@nicak777alex9 I know you've only got two braincells and they are _desperately_ trying to fuck a third one into existence, but my guy, why would you come to a battle of wits not only unarmed but entirely untrained?

[@haleywalker1640]

@@kellycowley3535 I think that it's her invading the privacy of minors and doing something against the rules (unregistered animagus [even though Sirius Black and James Potter also broke this rule and helped future Death Eater Peter Pettigrew do it, albeit to try to help a friend instead of get gossip material]) to do so and being hyper feminine (femininity is constantly shat on in this series by being a trait given to characters we're supposed to hate/not take seriously [Umbridge, Petunia Dursley, Lavender Brown, even Fleur to some extent]) is what makes people think she's another example of what Rowling thinks trans people are like, though I'm not sure if that part was intentional I think Rita was based off a tabloid reporter Rowling had beef with for some reason.

[@kellycowley3535]

@@haleywalker1640 Thank you for the information. Editing to say I found the answer to the question I asked a minute ago. (was Rita trans in the book?) I found the answer in the video (1:45 quotes doesn't outright say it but implies that Rita might be trans).

[@genieglasslamp5028]

I didn't get into Harry Potter until I was in my late teens. As a kid my hyperfixation was on. A book series called Molly Moon. A series about an orphan who discovers hypnotism uses it to make her life better, and from there get more OP. So op she can even travel to the beginning of time. Thats who I wanted to be as a child. A GOD!

[@animaysons728]

OMG MOLLY MOON

[@animaysons728]

I read that series and it was good but I also got kinda confused bc I read the books out of order and was so lost, but I’ve never heard of someone else reading them!!

[@LordPyro25]

Used to love those books, I must have read the first two half a dozen times each. Such good stories, and Molly found ways to use her powers to help other people without revealing herself. Unlike the selfish wizard world.

[@s-the-survivor8506]

My mother never let me watch or read Harry Potter as a child sue to her religious objections, so for me the only real memories I have of it are advertising and watching a quarter of the first movie at a friends house in secret 😂 Honestly though, the Voldemort thing I never knew, god that’s just so fucked up

[@skyblueblazes9332]

I grew up reading Harry Potter and enjoyed the books, but they never had a large impact on my life. I wasn’t begging my parents to take me to Universal so I could go to Diagon Alley or whatever or getting HP merch every Christmas, I just read the books and had fun with them. And when JK Rowling’s TERFness started to become increasingly obvious, it was easy to distance myself from the franchise entirely. It’s honestly kinda sad seeing people who built their entire lives around being a Potterhead, but it also makes me relieved I never grew up to be like them.

[@critrabbit8975]

Honestly I just wanted to go for the jellybeans and Butterbeer

[@locurset]

@@critrabbit8975 And then the butterbeer there turned out to be root beer with whipped cream on top... Yeah, it tasted good but not mindblowing and not really worth $7

[@Regina-ys4ct]

I have a similar relationship to Harry Potter that you had to Warcraft (Sylvanas), in that they were around for my formative years and I drew great comfort from them. Personally, regardless of everything my favourite book is the first one, where an abused little boy with no friends or means to live is whisked away to where he’s safe (kinda), has friends and is special, which resonated with me as an abused child, I wanted to be the Little boy whisked away to a Fantasy world. I have however come to the fact that during book 4, Rowling had a shift. She went from being whimsical, focusing on Harry’s abuse to focusing on the Wizarding world as a whole. She would mock progressivism and social change, introduce characters with the sole intention of killing them off (Cedrick, Tonks, Moody, etc.) and it’s like all the bile and nastiness spewed out and instead of it being about an Abuse victim finding sanctuary, it was like she was now torturing that Abuse victim just from beyond the page.

[@akinmytua4680]

Actually that really encapsulates my feelings. 1,2,and 3 are just a different books

[@AccountDeletionPending]

As a trans person, I like some things about the setting, but as I get older, develop my writing skills, and recognise things in the HP books, I question my love for this franchise more and more. She inspired me to write as a child, but the authors that inspire me now are Douglas Adams, Phillip Pullman, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, C.S. Lewis, and Tolkien. Their writings are phenomenal and this video sparked me to start re-reading the Harry Potter books and I can't say the writing is good at all.

[@thenecessaryevil2634]

Jk's claim of having it all planned hinges on that she wrote the epilogue first. But unlike everyone who's really good at doing it that way she refused to budge on it when the story wandered off in a different direction.

[@zoeb3573]

I regard Harry Potter and Twilight in similar ways: they both have elements that could be used to make an interesting story, but I don't like how the author used them, and so I could never really get into it. I never managed to really read more than one and a half book and always favored fanfics because they focused on just the characters doing fun things, and instead of a child dragging their parents to see the movies, it was my mother dragging me along every time (she is a rare case of an adult adoring the books without any childhood nostalgia because of how old she was at the time, but then again, she's the kind of really bigoted person who doesn't realize (admits) how bigoted they are because they were nice to a black person that one time, so yeah, no wonder she'd love JKR's work)

[@crimsontrooper9425]

Finally! After years of dodging the entire wizarding world franchise ever since the beginning and watching the vast majority of kids glaring at me for not being invested in it like they were, it all comes full circle! Harry Potter is now on the downturn, transformers is more popular than ever, and the satisfaction is DELICIOUS.

[@RJMiller73]

😂. Harry Potter is not n the downturn.

[@ShokuaK]

@@RJMiller73 Yeah it is

[@sabrinaking1873]

I prefer the first two books and movies specifically because of how warm and wondrous the tone is before it starts to turn all bleak and grim. I couldn't really get into the rest of the book series and the rest of the movies are eh. But I do like the animation they did for the story of the three brothers, that was fun.

[@Error403HRD]

I reread the books recently, and man was there a lot of hatred of fat people in there. It actually made me put down the books a few times because I was so disgusted. Just read the fanfiction, we have plenty of great writers that have fun with the premise, without hating on trans people and fat people (and jews, which, YIKES JK)

[@barrettbirks1058]

for years I've been wishing for a magic/superhero school story that didn't just turn into Harry Potter again. just take a normal slice of life story set in a school but the characters can do magic, it's not that hard. but no, we always have to have the special special, and ancient evils, and a mysterious villain tied to the main character's past somehow. I was a big YuGiOh nerd and my favorite series was GX. my favorite episodes in GX were always the ones where Jaden meets some wacky student with a unique deck and they have a throw down. yeah a bunch of students getting mind controlled by a cult leader who wants to use a satellite lazer to blow up the planet or whatever is the best kind of crazy bullshit, but one of the side characters dueling his hot sauce drunk dad is way more memorable. What the hell was I talking about again?

[@amandachristen3454]

OMG I love the drunk on hot sauce dad episode! That one episode is why GX is the best YuGiOh, you're absolutely right that GX was better when it was about Card Game High School

[@barrettbirks1058]

@@amandachristen3454 the Moki Moki episode and the episode with the dude with the spaceship deck are also stand outs

[@wholesome_weeaboo5054]

I have nothing to add here, I just wanna say I could not stop laughing at her “oNly FoR aBOuT 2o YeaRs” bit. 😂😂

[@kelstitch]

You know, I think back to that critique I first heard about the book series where that one lady made disliking how the series was going dark by the fourth/fifth book and wanted things to stay wholesome and about the kids going to magic school and having misadventures, a critique that Rowling apparently disregarded. Honestly as someone who’s tired of stories going dark from what I’ve seen this past decade in stories and have been embracing stories in these years that are genuinely endearing and wholesome, I think that lady who made that critique on the series back when had a point.

[@s.kanessuperbiatv6464]

I always liked Neil Gaiman's description of writing, in that the first draft is writing the story, and the second draft is making it look like you knew what you were doing all along. Alot of the Harry Potter series felt like first drafts Rowling jumped the gun on.

[@HenryGray-sy4pu]

Yeah, well, it's Neil Gaiman, so genius is a given.

[@beejorgy6002]

I used to be a MASSIVE potterhead on gradeschool. Had all the books (including cursed child which i immediately disliked) and used to be my prized possession. While i look back on those days fondly, i realize the worldbuilding sucked, plotholes were immense to the point stories looked like Swiss cheese, and nowadays the only interaction i have with the fandom is through fanmade works, like fanfiction, and that is *very* rarely The last time i picked up one of the books was my copy of Order of the Phoenix to used as a weight to shape a beret (i do agree that book, esp thw hardcover copy should classify as a weapon

[@haleywalker1640]

Honestly, I can only enjoy the fanfics that tear her version of Harry Potter to shreds first, in part because of how awful she is (and that she's not even trying to hide it anymore) and because so many things just don't add up when all the pieces are put together (if Dumbeldore's supposed to be a good guy and so powerful that the main antagonist fears him and the Minister up until the end of book four was constantly asking for his advice, why did he allow two men [Sirius Black and Rubeus Hagrid] to go to jail for crimes they didn't commit and without even getting a trial [Hagrid literally getting shipped to Azkaban so that the government would look like it was doing something] and why couldn't he have tried to find another way to get rid of the Horcrux attached to Harry that did not involve raising him to die [end of book two onwards, you have a slain basilisk beneath your school with all its venemous teeth intact and you have a phoenix who can basically heal anyone on the brink of death by shedding tears; do something!]?).

[@LordPyro25]

Hey wait a minute, why didn’t the horcrux get destroyed in book 2 when Harry got bit? Did he need to be poisoned for longer? Probably a non-issue but the fact that there’s so many little bits that don’t line up highlights how mediocre her writing is

[@Dhorannis]

Another thing that people try to overlook in the books: Rowling's casual racism. Rowling tends to give characters very evocative names. The two werewolves were named after a man raised by a wolf (Remus) and the literally apocalypse-starting wolf from norse mythology (Fenrir). How does she name the one important black character? Shacklebolt. F*cking Shacklebolt! A hint towards slavery? Really? Not to mention the only East-Asian character in the books: Cho Chang. This name doesn't exist anywhere in East Asia. Both parts of her names do exist as names, but not in the same language. And both are family names. Cho is a Korean surname and Chang is a Chinese surname. Her name looks like a name for a racist parody of Asian people. Imagine a book where the only European character is named Smith Schmidt.

[@Dhorannis]

@@carlthelongshoreman1979 I am not sure if you are trolling or actually serious. But I will treat you as if you wre serious. 1. Where have I ever disputed that the names of the two werewolves come from mythology? I literally stated the mythological background of these names as examples of how Rowling names important characters: in a very evocative manner. 2. Where exactly does Shacklebolt come from then? What is the context that matters so much here? Could be that she simply didn't think much about it, but it still seems a bit out of place. 3. If Cho is supposed to be half Korean and half Chinese, where exactly is that stated in the books? And more importantly: Even if I grant you that she supposedly has parents from different countries, her name still doesn't make sense. The problem is not that both parts of her name come from different cultures. The problem is that they are both surnames.

[@denelian116]

That but about the plumbing - when I heard about that, I was BEYOND naked. The ROMANS had plumbing! IN LONDINIUM! Why the AF would it take until *the 18th century* for the wizard world to adopt plumbing?! (And why wouldn't they have outhouses and/ or garderrobes like every OTHER castle?!) Every time I learn more, I'm glad I had no interest in HP when it happened (and less now)

[@laughingjack85]

Honestly makes sense that one of the strongest impressions the books gave me and also gave me a cognitive dissonance was why Hermione and Ron got together when it made so much more sense for Hermione and Harry. With how focused we were on the main trio I guess even then we could see how messed up some of the dynamics were.

[@emerycorner]

My journey on the HP fan to transgender pipeline was rouuuugh. Especially when realizing she managed to offend MULTIPLE groups of people all in one franchise.

[@Joseph-ph8sd]

I genuinely don’t see the appeal of Harry Potter. It confuses me that people still even care about this mediocre franchise.

[@21forevergone]

My problem with her and Harry Potter is that Harry is a vapid protagonist. He never takes charge, and never takes advantage of what he has. Then when he wins, he never attempts to change anything.

[@kenyedaadams]

I am back again for my quarterly lily essay playlist walk! Love your stuff! Anyway, The Nagini thing is hilarious bc I had read a fanfic about that very idea back before the movies came out.

[@darkmint6448]

Thing I did while in my Potter phase was headcannon random characters as trans. Like I would plot out entire plotlines centred around a random character being trans, specifically characters I liked. Sometimes I would make a headcannon of the character being trans, then the plot I made of them made me love the character more. This was before I found out about JK's terfness. I, as it turns out, am not cis. (Trans Remus Lupin and Trans Regulus Black has my heart. Why? Because of the plotline I made in my head)

[@critrabbit8975]

There's this post on Tumblr where a woman climbs up the steps and looks back to see they haven't fallen flat. She smiles tearfully as she says she knew she was a girl.

[@kelstitch]

Ooooo I’ve been looking forward to seeing this video all week, so worth it after finishing midterms! You know with thinking about how Rowling’s ideas reinforces so heavy handedly to stick to the status quo, it began to make me think if there were any villains that were like that, who were intimidated by the protagonist challenging the status quo by being unconventional, and my thoughts immediately went to the Fairy Godmother from Shrek 2. As while she’s trying to usurp the royals by having her son marry Fiona, she’s also threatened by what Shrek and Fiona’s love represent: that the fairytale formula she worked in with helping protagonists find their happily ever after was beginning to change and she just couldn’t accept that notion and stuck into her traditionalist values so stubbornly to tear the couple apart, which is what propels her to intimidate Fiona’s father to do something about breaking up their marriage. Hell even Fiona’s father Harold was also on that same ship too when he sees his daughter again and the ogre she married and tries in his fruitless attempts to get rid of Shrek until he realized at the end when he can’t go through with giving a love potion to his daughter to have her fall in love with Charming that he considers Fiona’s feelings and takes the love potion himself (unbeknownst to the Fairy Godmother until she realizes Harold did not slip it to Fiona) he defends Shrek when the Fairy Godmother tries to kill him and Fiona, apologizes to both his daughter and to Shrek, and finally gives Shrek and Fiona his blessing as he finally realizes that the way he felt about their marriage that interfered with the happiness of his daughter just wasn’t worth it. And best of all, Harold’s wife Lillian is just a fucking boss throughout this as she accepts her daughter’s marriage and keeping an open mind about it despite the initial shock of seeing her daughter as an ogre married to an orge, brushes that aside quickly even if it’s a little odd to her but what matters more to her is her daughter being back and being happy, and when Harold’s revealed to be a frog at the end, she still sticks with him worts and all. We could’ve had a trans girl Harry and her friendship with her friends be what challenges the status quo as they grow up together and go to school and make a villain out of that tangential support for the status quo trying to stop them but no, she just pisses that all away

[@kelstitch]

Also forgot to mention this and I don’t want to go back in and edit this big chunk of a comment again, but it’s important in regards to Harold is that he was like Shrek but the opposite in which he had the fairy godmother’s help to get his happily ever after, as it was implied that he thought Lillian wouldn’t love him for the way he was and not see past his appearance, and so caved to the status quo of traditional fairy tales in order to get his happy ending. Which is an interesting parallel to what Shrek goes through in the second film with him and Fiona being human until midnight and learns thanks to Fiona reminding him about what really mattered: the love that they have for each other, not about how they looked or adhering to a complacent standard.

[@adrianadamsson6757]

I would argue that an example of a hero challenging a villain who represents the status quo by being unconventional is Luz from the Owl House, Luz kind of obviously represents imagination, out-of-the-box thinking, open-mindedness and individualism while her archenemy Emperor Belos pretty much represents conformity as well as a type of rigid worldview as he refuses to accept the possibility that his original ideology might be flawed. The Owl House is really kind of a better version of Harry Potter now that I think about it. It has the magic school setting, as well as a bookish star student type who starts out as a rival of the main character but quickly becomes friends and eventually significant other in Amity. And I find it hard to argue that Voldemort holds a candle to Emperor Belos as far as villains are concerned. And I should also mention that the show is super progressive and kind of the ideological opposite of JK Rowlings stance.

[@kelstitch]

@@adrianadamsson6757 Ah yes who could forget the shining loveable disaster bi Luz? Good point indeed there with your given example given for the owl house in challenging the status quo and having Luz in that role challenging the norms of the BIC so much so that it does in turn inspire the magic school setting she eventually goes to adopt the idea of taking more than one track. Although if there’s one thing that puts The Owl House on top of HP’s magic school is that the Owl House’s magic school has actual subjects associated with a coven you can take or even more than one while HP has you sorted into a house based on your personality and strictly keeps you in there, which for that specifically is best to compare HP with Divergent as the series operated the same way with it’s factions.

[@adrianadamsson6757]

@@kelstitch Good point, it does make more sense to sort students according to field of study rather than personality type.

[@oi6915]

Shrek 1 and 2 achieve in 3 hours what 7 long and consulted books couldn't do

[@zerozeroren]

I was never actively into HP. I did read the books when I was little (because they made for a good inexpensive gift from my financially struggling adults, lol), but i ended up never finishing book 5 because it was just that miserable. Like everything went so dark and so unpleasant that I couldn't make myself do it. Younger me was actually pretty smart 😂

[@inamelzvoice]

Great video as always, and you gave me more content to watch by mentioning a good critic video about the book? Now it's my ADD brain who is happy! Conservatives wanting to hide their bigotry by trying to sounds woke and mature is so apparent with Rowling... and I'm sadly seeing the same thing with my friend's wife who is still obsessed with Harry Potter. She's always defending the abusers in her life by saying things like "they have it difficult too" and some other shitty excuses. The classic "you have to understand, she (JKR) got traumatized because she had been raped before" is the one that make me boil the most, because bitch, I got raped too, do you see me going around and doing hate speech?? The worst was, that same "friend" wanted me to be the best man at her wedding so she could show that she was "open minded" to have a trans man at her ceremony, but first thing she told me was "to not mention your gender because my family is conservatives and I don't want to ruin the wedding for them." So basically, she was asking me to feel crappy and unsafe because she valued more the status quo with her family, but don't ever question the fact that she's a bigot helping bigots because "how can I be transphobe if I want a trans to my wedding?" Bitch, if you really wanted a trans at your wedding, you wouldn't have ask me to hide! So yeah, I didn't go to the wedding, and she's still surprise I'm cautious in her presence. I wish my friend wasn't so spineless and insecure to the point he thinks she's the only woman who will love him, and thus stay by her side... (Btw, KZbin algorithm have been a bitch to you recently, I always make a point to watch all your work, and turns out it didn't recommended me the three last video you published... So if you ever saw some weird fluctuations of views, it might be why, but I can say that it's definitely not because of a lack of quality or interest in your content.)

[@gailasprey7787]

It’s ironic that when I grew up with Luna Lovegood I thought she was meant to be a representation of an autistic character, I thought the same of Newt Scammander, but considering the transphobia, misogyny, racism, slavery positivity and everything else she’s ever done I’m positive J.K did that on accident. 🤣 She’s probably ableist on top of everything else it would not surprise me at this point.

[@Goldenevil91]

Harry Potter books helped me learn how to read out loud better as kid but even without re-reading them I can recall at least one big issue per book about how Hogwards was run or huge mistake magic government did. Not to mention how one-dimensional were some characters despite them playing parts in all 7 books. Only thing I personally think fondly of when come to harry potter ip...is music from games/movies

[@SparkpadArt]

Agreed. The stories may have been full of problems, but composers like John Williams and Jeremy Soule really knew how to make a magical soundtrack. I still think fondly of the pause menu in the PC version of the second game.

[@RainbowDashShadesOfApproval]

I imagine a writer who actually planned everything from the start (correctly and well done) never actually brags about it cause the writing actually speaks for itself.

[@srg24601]

Tbh I should thank Rowling. When the final book came out, I waited at the store to get a copy at midnight then read through the night. When it was over, I finished the final page of Harry sending his children to school, and slowly closed the cover. Then I threw that f*cking thing across the room. Hermione got with Ron and not Krum at the last minute? AKA, the guy who always respected her? Harry casually encourgaging his son to bully a kid, despite similar actions hurting him as a child, and when called out is all "haha just kiddingggg." This was before I was knowledgable enough to really pick apart the problematic elements so my gripes at the time were all story related. But the biggest one was: HE DIDNT NAME A CHILD AFTER HAGRID!? Albus Severus was named after "two great men" who used people and contributed to the abuse of children and actively worked to keep Harry in traumatizing situations. Hagrid was *always* in Harry's corner! Hagrid carried Harry's body and wept! He invited Harry to tea all the time and asked about his well being. How often did Sirus ask Harry how school was going, and actually listen, instead of finding some way to work in a comparison to James!? Hagrid *always* saw Harry as his own person and never as a substitute for the people he lost. Anyways, I was filled with such rage I entered 6 different student writing contests and won decent sums of money. Now, I work in game design, have written some short stories and have a side gig of paid DMing at the local game store all because Rowling pissed me off so much I decided I was going to be a better storyteller than her. If I ever write a full length book I should dedicate it to her and the piss puddles of ink she calls manuscripts. "Thanks J.K! Literally wouldn't have done it without you! Love, a nonbinary, mixed, asexual"

[@misslady2639]

Not to mention, that it was HAGRID who introduced Harry into the wizarding world, bought all the stuff for him like a parent and so on.....

[@sunseraph1919]

I love it, Lily! You really knock ‘em dead, so I knew this video was gonna be great. I didn’t want to seem like a contrarian (since sooo many people loved Harry Potter in 2016, when I first read the books), but I did find her writing style to be so abysmally bad. I understand that a writer’s first work won’t always be great. But, how did she get published? How did she get ONLY 12 rejections? And I just kind of dismissed my concerns because she was “writing for children”. *Lily rolls up a newspaper, smacks me on the nose and says, “No!”* It’s funny that you say that she’s childish. Because she constantly tells her sob story about how poor she was and how many rejections she got, as if she was OWED publication in order to alleviate her poverty and “make her dweams come twue”. What’s worse is that she didn’t STOP even when she became a billionaire. She wrote an adult novel, it didn’t instantly get accepted by some agents because of her star status, but because of the contents of the novel itself, and she had the nerve to complain to some news outlets about her rejection letters. 🙄

[@viko1326]

It's things like these that make me thankfull i didn't read Harry Potter as a kid

[@Debaronii]

This was so interesting as someone who’s never read Harry Potter! Thank you for your insight as always :)

[@mz7315]

I love harry potter. That tweet about "people who menstruate" was a total bombshell for me. I completely condemn JK Rowling's world view, and this video perfectly mirrors the arguments that I had in my head with her. A world that is unfamiliar to YOU is not a world without common sense. This kind of narcissistic thinking is why bigotry persists. I'm sure as these people pass away and the new generation leads, this will become a thing of the past. Great work as always!

[@tophatstudios9069]

well at least Voldemort didn't get a rushed redemption ark.

[@rosebloodwater13]

For some reason i had a "naw maybe later" attitude towards the Harry Potter books which is weird since I was a VERY avid reader as a kid/teenager. I devoured The Inheritance Cycle even when the beginning of the final book was so damn dry. Thank SANITY things picked back up in a few chapters otherwise I was seriously considering just not continuing. But sunk cost fallacy was deep rooted and I was INVESTED. I'm happy I did finish it but as I've gotten older I just don't have the patience anymore to slogg through something if i stop enjoying it. I'm finding that it's ok to stop. Maybe come back if I want to, but I don't feel like I HAVE TOO just because I started it so should finish it.

[@LilianOrchard]

It's because you're an avid reader that you never got into Harry Potter. Harry Potter is like Percy Jackson and Discworld, it's diehard fans generally loathe reading except for their one chosen series of books.

[@dianehallmeyer8901]

Weirdly enough, book three has always been my favorite. Its arguably the lowest stakes story, given that Voldemort isn't in it. Huh

[@dylansturdivant5404]

I had to drop HP after the 3rd book in 4th grade cause my school had a dumb lexile system and I had to read books in my lexile range for it to count towards our monthly quota and I tested to have a super high reading level. Luckily I found A Series of Unfortunate Events which also likes to seem more mature than it actually is but was still much more enjoyable to return to as an adult than HP.

[@scarletletter4900]

(Looks up from reading Children of Blood and Bone) This makes oddly happy that the Harry Potter books came out when I was 14, and at an age where i was inclined to dismiss them as "kiddie books". Not a good attitude to have, but in my defense I was 14 and had far more pressing concerns involving trauma.

[@kaitlynjohansson1951]

Looking back now, I feel like J.K. Rowling is someone who wanted to be seen as some progressive humanitarian with Harry Potter, but she didn't want to do any of the work or take any of the risk to make that happen. Retroactively claiming a prominent character is gay only after making millions of dollars is super slimy. She's also incredibly arrogant. She takes umbrage with any kind of criticism thrown at her no matter what it is and her inability to set aside and expand her own worldview. The result is she spent the decade after DH's release trying to retroactively airbrush her own legacy and ended up demonstrating that she refused to learn anything.

[@Kamechan98]

Please tell me I’m not the only one who thinks, whenever people say that they want ‘serious’, ‘ realistic’ or ‘meaningful’ stories, “why do you want your entertainment to be boring/depressing/bland?” Seriously, I don’t get it. I recently watched Our Flag Means Death and it’s easily one of the most delightful things I’ve seen in quite a while. It’s nothing deep or dark or depressing (except the ending, that cliffhanger tho) it’s just about guys wanting to be pirates, being terrible at it, talking about their feelings and denounce toxic masculinity entirely. Also some of the best LGBT rep as well! And I keep asking myself why people want shit like Game of Thrones, or Fantastic Beasts, Sherlock or whatever is popular right now, when we can have this. Do you guys just not like being happy?

[@nanoff815]

I like Terminator 2. Just because it doesn't give you good feelings doesn't mean it's depressing or boring. Same with Aliens. Yeah, Ripley and Newt are wholesome but it is a movie where people die and where immediately after waking up from fighting 1 xenomorph a traumatized woman has to confront a whole colony of them. Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon isn't feel good at all but its action is amazing and its story and visuals are amazing. None of these movies make you happy in the way you described but they "take themselves seriously" and they're great.

[@giovannateixeira9400]

Every time you bring up the “people actually don’t want dark and gritty stories, that’s a lie” I remember the realization I had in regards to the media I consumed and the stories I read. Like I enjoyed My Hero Academia for example, but after your review of Spy X Family I stoped to think to myself “do I enjoy the war arcs and the stuff about society … or not?” And the answer has largely been “actually you enjoy the first season where it was school days and dorm shenanigans” and when I go searching about what others are writing about the show it’s overwhelmingly the same thing: Fix-it fics, Class 1A being friends, Aizawa adopting all 20 of his students and some other problem children on his way + many cats, Bakugo learning to get over himself by the power of this large stick Uraraka found on the ground. Almost every fandom I have ever been part of always writes about the show with the lens of “but what if wholesome?” Hell, I’m watching the House Of The Dragon Game Of Thrones spin-off and after every episode I have the urge to write a “and then there was no war and everyone took a chill pill and nothing was wrong” and as I go searching for fanfics about it I find the same sentiment. People say they want grey characters and dark story lines but when a character does something morally dubious they throw a hissy fit, even when their actions is in character. Because they say they want complexity but they actually want is a a dude that over all makes good and wholesome decisions and commits murder from time to time (and not any complex kinda of murder where they may just be a trigger happy ass noooooooo they want the Justifiable Murder™️) This long thing was to say that you did make me think more critically about the things I enjoy and made me realize what exactly I enjoy about them. Thanks 😊

[@beeziebubs2756]

I find it hilarious that JKR thought the real reason HP was so successful was because she was a master at writing fiction that explored deep and mature content while still being placed in a fantasy setting, and that it had nothing to do with the 3 best friends going to magic school/having magic adventures, and also being able to guess which Hogwarts house you’d be in. Like she was so sure about it that she released Fantastic Beasts, The Cursed Child, and a crime series (one that she released under a different pen name to hide the fact that it was her who wrote only to reveal that information later) that all flopped because she’s a moron who didn’t understand why her own book was successful.

[@angedenpeacelove_411-00]

JKR does not write characters, she writes caricatures. only characters that "slightly" get better is Neville and Harry

[@catguy4996]

I'd argue that even Harry gets less and less likeable as the series goes on.

[@angedenpeacelove_411-00]

@@catguy4996 Harry's constant douchebag monolog definitely does not like him but man it is somewhat justified with being the MC. No one is more poorly written than Hermione

[@catguy4996]

@angeliquelee441 And Snape too. I literally don't get how he's supposed to be a sympathetic character, he's just a straight up nasty human being who deserved the fate he got!

[@TehNoobiness]

It makes me sad that "separate the art from the artist" is so heavily associated with this kind of shit. I _enjoy_ writing horrible fucked-up fiction about horrible fucked-up things happening, but I'm always gonna have to worry about being compared to someone like Rowling who wrote a horrible fucked-up universe because she thought the horrible fucked-up things were _good things._

[@kyurama6443]

Something that bothered me was the hatred against the house Slytherin. If I remember correctly, Harry didn't care in which house he would enter as long as it isn't Slytherin because all evil wizards were Slytherin, according to Ron. And when Harry's son was scared of entering Slytherin, he was told that the talking hat would listen to that wish. What bothers me is that there was an issue of an 'evil' house, where they are sorted into by personality and memory by a hat and the criteria isn't being evil but being ambitious and cunning. Just because the evil wizards were Slytherin doesn't mean that all Slytherins are evil. Might as well be a metaphor of something. Like I said this was just from my memories since the last time I saw the last Harry Potter movie was when it came out

[@cheezbunni3530]

I’m really hoping Percy Jackson’s disney+ series does well enough to shut people up about Harry Potter

[@Tata45868]

I have 2 things to say about this video the first is the "they weren't discussed in class because they were garbage", yes but I think that is more reason to discuss it in class make kids analyze shit they like even if it's shit (also they used that excuse even for good books kids liked, so while it is garbage it's more that they say everything the kids like to read it's garbage so of course they are going to be right sometime) And the second thing is the darker stuff is so bad that the things people are actually nostalgic for are thing that become irrelevant the "darker" the plot became, I read those books and watched those movies when I was younger and when I started dating my current boyfriend some 9 years ago He said we should watch all the movies together one at a time as bonding because he couldn't do that when he was a kid, we couldn't get past the third one, we started the fourth a dozen times before giving up, and so we both noticed how bad it became when it stopped being a fun adventure o a little wizard in a weird school and that people got attached to things that by book 4 were inconsequential, like the house cup

[@wanderingsystem9674]

(Hex) I wouldn’t call jk rowling a child. Most children we’ve met are way smarter than her.

[@kidpixel4818]

10:21 - 10:31 Yikes!😬 I only watched the first (not) Fantastic Beasts movie (was under the separate the art from the artist mindset for a while plus my oldest sister wanted to watch it and I wanted to spend time with her) and I don't remember that plot line at all. Only thing I remember from watching it is the cute magic zoologist who just wants to take care of his magic animals but the mean council wizards who want to take them away from him and the poor non-magic user who just wants to open his own bakery but gets dragged along into the shenanigans. .............. Which honestly sounds like a WAY better idea for movie then. Whatever bull Rowling was trying to do.

[@DrPinkieDie]

Almost no one plans this shit out this many years in advance. I don’t plan my vampire the masquerade campaign even a year in advance and… well Jesus Christ vtm is fucking absurdly complex

[@gayspaghetti3374]

As a nonbinary person that was brought up on Potter and is still a semi-fan of it, it genuinely hurts to be a fan of this knowing how Rowling would see me if she ever met me and knew I was nonbinary and therefore under the trans umbrella/spectrum. I spent my childhood thinking she'd be like Minerva, only to find out she's Umbridge and it broke my heart.

[@LilianOrchard]

This is the kind of emotional attachment to media that you need to get away from.

[@EveleenKisune]

Been anticipating this video eagerly since you announced it. I wasn’t disappointed.

[@sunsetvibe1063]

I will never find it not funny how my school used to tell us this story about how JK Rowling went from publisher to publisher trying to get the first Harry Potter book published, but no one wanted to publish it. And how she never gave up despite every publisher telling her that the book wouldn’t be a success, and how our teachers told us how Rowling overcame the odds and never gave up. And between the time when I finished school and now was when all this stuff about Rowling came out. Now I think, does that school still use that story while knowing all that stuff, or did they have a big a meltdown when trying to find another inspirational story about an author to tell to young kids who is not transphobic.

[@Ellie-bj2uw]

Just a few minutes and I'm literally so shocked. Because I was only ever aware of her hate for trans people. Which was enough for me to immediately stop engaging in her content as a sapphic woman. But I didn't know about any of the stuff regarding slavery, or the fatphobia and such.

[@memecat9830]

This is why I read Percy Jackson

[@DragonLovingGirl6]

Ya know, it's only recently that I realized something slightly disturbing. In the Deadly Hollows it is said that goblins believe every object belongs to the people that made it, either the individual or the culture. In that moment this is colored to be a bad thing that disregards heritage rights. But now think about British colonialism and all the stolen land and artifacts in museums. Yeh, no, those things definitely belong to their original owners. Put that thing back where it came from or so help me!

[@Starrclown]

I actually got the first Harry Potter book when I was around 8-9. Wanna know why I only got half way through? *I got bored*

[@leilarandall9518]

Rewatching because visiting family won't shut up about Harry Potter and I can't wait for the day I can cut them out of my life

[@madamerainbowfish]

This video made me realise that a majority of my consumption of Harry Potter has been fanfiction so the Harry Potter I love is fundamentally different then what jk wrote

[@cartermcgregor7325]

Even if it was one image I am SO glad the jailer was shown when talking about planning the whole story from the start. I used to love WoW but let me tell you, the point I stopped white knighting it was when the plot point that "ThE jAiLeR pLaNnEd EvErYtHiNg YoU gUyS i SwEaR!!1!!!!" was revealed. one of the worst decisions you can make as a writer. At least Dragonflights enjoyable.

[@gameinspection4999]

Kinda off topic but I really hate that "I planned everything" mentality. Because it's a lie on so many levels. Take Eichiro Oda for example. He has been workshopping one piece since he was a child and he still would routinely just make stuff up as he was writing. Toriyama did this with dragon ball, GRRM did this with ASOIAF, frank herbet did it with dune etc. The idea that the author planned everything for a long running series is imo impossible because for starters as you're writing your brain will probably give you better ideas or just different ones as you're writing. And I've seen so many people fall into the trap were they genuinely think every bit of a multi year long series was planned from the beginning.

[@benwelsh5265]

Rowling and the HP books were a big influence on my desire to be a writer and now with the benefit of hindsight I can safely say "holy fucking shitballs am I glad I found better writing influences."

[@christopherkraft1376]

I never read the books... I tried to but they were never able to catch my interest... I would start reading and then after about 30 minutes I would set it down and not touch it for months. I was the perfect audience for it too, love to read, love fantasy novels, was in the age range... and now I don't want to try reading them again because I know I'll get the same results as before and I don't want to support J.K.R by contributing to her royalty checks Edit: I'd have to buy the books again... got rid of them

[@RailwayRunaway]

I honestly think it’s sad. At least with H.P. Lovecraft he kinda gets a pass because he was… y’know… a deeply nutty individual, and was also born in the late 1800s so it’s not like he was uniquely racist for the time. Rowling on the other hand, is a shitty person for the current era.

[@hineraable]

Thank you for mentioning how much of a dick Ron is in both the novels and the movies. The HP fandom usually just blames the movies for Ron's behavior, conveniently forgetting that he's an asshole who's "character development" happens off-screen in the novels too.

[@gisellerios8037]

I’m unmedicated too. Man it really is a trip.

[@elithesia781]

The only thing Harry Potter was good for back when I was a kid (other than being a sort of "Oooo shiny" type of fantasy that appeals to children) was the AR Reading Program that every child in my school was forced to complete every year, and you are 100% accurate about how those books can be read in a week in comparison to the other boring slogs that English classes would put out. Because the books were so big, there were worth a lot of points, and they essentially carried me through 4th and 5th grade when everything else bored me to tears. Almost everything else about the books in hindsight...Yeah, I think I'll just write my own stuff, thanks.

[@jonathanmartin9845]

And Universal Studios closed many of their classic rides like Jaws to make way for Rowling's now outdated series, because why? Merchandising! Where the real money from the movies and books is made!

[@forbiddenelixer8693]

Ya know i never really payed attention to Rowling because I was never a huge fan of Harry Potter even tho I saw the movies as a kid. But when I watched fantastic beasts the development that Nagini was a human person was extremely off putting to me because of how it recontextualizes the previous scenes with the character. I suppose i should have realized it earlier but I had no idea that her views were so goulish. Welp, at least we get the same thing we get out of every poorly made yet popular franchises. That being fan works!

[@Gillness88]

Thank you Lily! ❤ You made me entire week! :D

[@XainRussell]

I may be a little older, a little wiser, but damn I wish I had stuck to my guns back in second grade and not let my mother read the first four books to me. I was not interested in the series, I told her that, but she was nothing if not determined to get me on that bandwagon.

[@saidadda1582]

In conclusion captain underpants is the best

[@gamingkitsune484]

I know when I engage with this property, I mainly is through fanfiction and non licensed fanwork, since JK hates both with a passion.

[@thepoetjean]

I remember being extra pissed at Beasts cuz (besides what was mentioned in vid) was that it took place in 1920s Harlem with NO POC PPL AROUND!

[@basicwitch6562]

Rolling out Banger after Banger, Lily!