The Consumerist Dystopia of Harry Potter

[@verilybitchie]

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[@djwormdaddy5771]

@@mitzzzu_tigerjones444 Seriously? Is Gandalf offensive cuz he does impossible magic? Is Houdini offensive for performing illusions and calling them magic? Grow thr fuck up

[@djwormdaddy5771]

@@mitzzzu_tigerjones444 Harry Potter was made for children and is akin to fairy tales. It's simplified for the children's sake. One would hope the child would desire more complex understanding of magic when they grow up if they remain interested. It's also not a tool to teach esotericism any more than Osmosis Jones is meant to to teach human anatomy. It's just for fun I never liked HP. It wasn't my thing. I think it's getting torn apart now solely because of Rowling's polemic. No one was critiquing it this way before. Now it's getting read into waaayy deeper than it need be. I liked Marvel movies growing up but only for the stories, not the merch. The propaganda aspect I was immune to. Sure you can critique it for that but you can critique anything if you think about it for too long. You can not like HP cuz the magic is ludicrous, but "offensive" implies "obscenity" (like blackface is offensive). HP doesn't claim to teach esotericism, it is not misrepresenting it bc its aim is not to teach it. "Magic" has long been a catchall term for "inexplicable ability". "Magick" denotes esoteric practices. In HP they use magic with a c. They are not practicing the actual occult. I just think the word "offensive" is a bit extreme in this situation but whatever. I'm not married to this series and thought the fandom was silly to begin with. It's turned into an overly-critical fandom now, though and appears just as ridiculous. Like, let up. Focus on a big kid book for once. HP is for literal toddler

[@djwormdaddy5771]

@@mitzzzu_tigerjones444 Well that's a Hollywood problem, not a character problem. Spin anything into a product and it turns to rubbish. That's not an issue with the story Harry waves a wand and shit happens. So does Gandalf. Functionally, their magic works the same. Gandalf didn't buy his wand but that's cuz it's pre-industrial pseudo-Europe. Harry Potter is just having fun with the notion of a wizard market and was not written with the intent to sell toys, just reflect the culture it was written in. Hollywood made it into toys The problem is not HP. It's capitalism. So don't waste time jabbing at HP for clicks (like this channel). Critique the system it works in. Start a revolution. Do something productive. This content creator is just trying to make a buck off lazy critiques of hot commodities. It's shoddy low-hanging fruit.

[@djwormdaddy5771]

@@mitzzzu_tigerjones444 What magick do you practice? Chaos magick? Hermeticism? Crowleyan? As you said, alchemy and the like were proto-sciences. We understand now that these people were historically doing science while using supernatural terms because they believed what they were doing was supernatural. What you seem to be describing is a 19th century invention of occultists like Crowley, the Wiccans and the Golden Dawn We don't have access to the true meanings behind a lot of these texts, many of which (like the Hermetic books) were falsified in the Middle Ages to appear more ancient Imo, historical magick is attempts at science, but 19th-20th century occultists and perennialists wanted it to be some supernatural secret knowledge. It simply isn't, no more than the Bible is history. It's been stated that magic is science we don't understand. Give a smart phone to a caveman and it's magic. We can rightfully separate the two because we don't need the word magic to describe science, we can use it to describe fantastical knowledge and ability And if magickal practices are real, HP is fiction. Find me an astronomer who is offended by Star Wars. They know it's fantasy and will point out it's inaccuracies but they don't call it offensive. They know no one watches it to learn about space. We can know Star Wars is silly but enjoy discarding fact for fantasy. We can know shrink rays aren't real science but let it be so for the sake of a good story. Hell, I'll let the Discworld say the earth is flat because wouldn't it be fun if it was? If someone takes it seriously, they're a fool. Teach them fact from fiction, that way they can know how to enjoy the two separately. Fact is, organized religions have done more harm to magick than HP ever could. If anything, you could say HP has done a favor by bringing children closer to the occult by making it appear fun and enticing. If you have sources you would like to direct me towards to get a better understanding of the magick you're describing I will happily look into them.

[@yeoldeseawitch]

14:25 didn't expect to see lionel train adverts in here, nice touch

[@topaz_no_life9440]

the subway hunger games ad has me literally crying. “the people in district 12 are starving… luckily you won’t be like them with our $5 footlongs !!!”

[@nineparr3110]

I’ve barely even read Hunger games and even I can tell that’s fucked

[@linagreenlyfe6705]

But the "people in District 12" are fictional characters. It's not like the add said, "like the starving sweatshop workers in Bangladesh"

[@김윤서-e7x]

That's so insanely dark that it loops back into being hilarious af

[@kostajovanovic3711]

@@linagreenlyfe6705 they might do that as well, considering the world

[@AamuAurora]

It wasn't a parody, was it?

[@kindofcl]

"Please consider the environment before printing this email" at the bottom of those emails from the Harry Potter shop is the definition of performative corporate activism

[@Servitor-lx1bu]

Indeed. I thought that this would be important information to share, given what she said about polyester. 35% of all ocean microplastics come from clothing/textiles, mostly polyester, but also acrylic and nylon as well. This is largely due to clothes made of these materials being washed, which causes these clothes to quickly erode, with the microplastic fibers entering the water system and eventually the sea. Ocean Hero is a great search engine that we can use to help clean up larger plastics before they disintegrate into microplastics.

[@joannasekua6273]

This is like in every corporate email lol. Not Harry Potter exclusive.

[@moonsocks6593]

Hmm, how often did that exact message result in me printing two pages instead of one when I decided I needed to print the e-mail? - My employer used a big logo to accompany that message so it usually required a new page!

[@wilhelmhedin8845]

Magic tomes don't feel quite as "musty" on my Kindle™.

[@DFreakus]

Also corporations making it seem like the individual is at fault for pollution instead of them. They love passing that buck after they take all of yours.

[@undeniablerealities]

I remember going to the Wizarding World when I was like 12 or 13. They do an Olivander's 'experience' where they fill up the room and select a random kid to try out wands while practical effects happen around you. I got selected from the back of the room, then went through a few wands before one 'spoke to me.' It did feel magical and special, until afterwards a plain-clothed universal employee pulled me aside to say, "You actually don't get to keep this, but your parents can pay for it in the next room if you'd like!" like really? you cant shill out 20 some-odd wands a day

[@MulinaTheAngelWolf]

Capitalism adverse brain says this is horrible and performative and bad. .. lil' girl inside really wants it to happen though. oh no

[@thecrazydisneyparksfanatic921]

People might hate on this but when you go to the galaxy’s edge in Disney world to “build a lightsaber” at least you pay prior to doing it, even if it is crazy expensive, with this it’s bad if your kid does it and doesn’t understand why you can’t keep afterwards

[@imzabatch]

That's crazy, I had the same experience at Olivander's and I got to keep my wand for free :/ the must have changed it

[@MercurialMoon]

well tbf that is how you get a wand according to the books

[@simpchimp6443]

@@MercurialMoon tru, you do have to pay for the wand that chooses you canonically. Maybe it could be like Galaxy’s edge tho and you can lay beforehand just to ease the experience a little

[@1492irina]

I would argue that Dudley was never intended as anti-consumerist, particularly - it was about him being ungrateful for it and treating his stuff badly, rather than getting it in the first place (then again, I haven't reread it in years, for obvious reasons). Whereas Harry (because he grew up without anything) is suitably grateful for all his new stuff and treats it well and takes care of it. "Ungrateful" is a more common insult than "greedy" when villain characters use it, too

[@saraoz2629]

v good point thank you sm

[@derp_wolf9688]

This entire video is just a little dumb. Yes their is consumerism surrounding harry potter, but the story doesnt actually have anything to say about it other than malfoy and duddly are pricks

[@douglaswolfen7820]

I couldn't agree more. Even the part where he complains about having fewer presents than last year fits that If he's obsessed with the number of gifts then that means he cares about the pageantry of gift-giving, the time and effort that his parents put into wrapping them, and the amount of time he gets to spend as the center of attention while everyone watches him unwrap them. He's still an entitled brat, but in some ways that's a more understandable thing for a kid to care about. Every kid deserves to get that kind of attention at least for a little while on their birthday, and it's more important than the actual gifts But no, silly Dudley. Clearly you're not supposed to care about any of that; you're only supposed to care about how _good_ the presents are, how magical and special and exclusive and _expensive_ they were

[@Kalahridudex]

Great point. Literally zero wrong with enjoying your material wellbeing.

[@beanjuiice5569]

Fr I think he was jsut ment to be the stereotypical spoiled brat. Who are consumerist and fat stereotypically.

[@Cruznick06]

I thought using shopping to introduce the Wizarding World was clever in the books. It provides an easy setting to throw a ton of information at the reader without feeling boring. Ron bringing up his family's poverty was an important contrast. I always wondered how the hell did poor kids afford to go to wizard schools? What if they're a really poor muggle-born? But this was never explained. And you are absolutely correct. The films went HARD on the consumerism.

[@janneijanneia9783]

There is actually from what i heard no tuition for Hogwarts. You still have to supply the materials though. I could also see that there is sone sort of assistance for poor muggle born children, or maybe they just get ignored. It is possible to exchange muggle money, but we don’t know the exchange rate.

[@erikas.6790]

Second hand? All Ron's stuff were Second hand, from his brothers but also from some shop of some kind that Harry never entered because he was rich

[@RobinAlucard123]

@@janneijanneia9783 £5 = 1 galleon. The exchange rate is on the Harry Potter Lexicon. Hogwarts is in a weird middle ground between state school and public school. Hogwarts doesn't have tuition fees, but they don't give/lend things the students need the same way a state school would. The school should've let Ron borrow a second-hand wand in the second book.

[@lyndonwesthaven6623]

@@janneijanneia9783 Honestly, Hermione getting her school supplies would've been a really interesting sequence... Maybe there's some kind of Ministry position/fund

[@abiw9999]

Tom riddle was given money to buy school supplies so yes there's a fund for students

[@sofiam6871]

It reminds me of that certain era of y/n fanfics some years back. You’re adopted by [insert character/celebrity here], and by Chapter 3 (at the latest), you’re taken to buy a new wardrobe, new furniture, makeups, etc. Everyone got their chance to play Little Orphan Harry but instead of Hagrid in Diagonal Alley, you’re walking with Pentatonix through the Gucci store.

[@Scarfysmom]

How did you know it was pentatonix 😭 I feel seen

[@GwendolynnBY]

this actually makes me think of annie, first and foremost

[@sofiam6871]

@@GwendolynnBY I would totally agree with you if I hadn't read ~1million “Y/N Potter: Harry's Twin" fics. HP's influence on middle school girls' fanfiction is undeniable (and terrifying) Edit: Spelling

[@francesca1687]

I’m sorry; pentatonix? I’m dying lmao

[@finalfroggitapproaches6418]

Ah.. Those were the days.. When being the Hot Topic covered, not like other girls, adopted daughter of the GameGrumps (who were a semi-platonic couple) was the peak of my fanfiction fantasies.. Those were the good times~

[@FireBird7766]

Regarding the Diagon Alley scene, IMHO there is a decent way to portray that scene. For it to work for me, it's building on Harry's first birthday cake. It's how amazed and grateful this abused child is to be receiving what most of us take for granted on a day to day basis. What is Harry buying? Magic themed school supplies and sweets ... for the first time. If you reshot Diagon Alley to feel more like a town highstreet, rather than rustic Times Square, it'd do a lot to put the emphasis back in the right place. Have wizards and witches bickering about groceries, hardware, etc. with no glow-up, and contrast that with Harry being the only one who's in awe of his surroundings. That'd be spot on for me.

[@HannaLivingston]

I really like this idea.

[@celisewillis]

Cool idea! Proof that fans do way more interesting things with the world than JK could ever hope to. Copyright is waaaaay too long. 70 years after you die ? Ridiculous. Release copyright after 5 years. That's when any property makes the most money. And then you can't sue well meaning fans creating fan works, like JKR did to that poor HP encyclopedia author.

[@OliverStarfall]

@@celisewillisblame Disney.

[@Acidfrog475]

@@OliverStarfallGladly. Fuck Disney. But similarly, fuck Rowling, Warner and every associate mentioned.

[@genever_lover]

dressing the set differently doesn't solve the basic problem though. you're still buying your way into magic, and harry is still a wealthy heir to an upperclass family - and the story doesn't have anything interesting or intelligent to say about either of those things. i don't know about you, but the idea that one can just... 'buy' magic seems fundamentally wrong to me, almost offensive. it's a very bourgeois fantasy.

[@mrowkojadmeduza]

I think the impact of HP influencers is worth mentioning. They will endorse any trash product as long as it comes with Wizarding World trademark. The funniest video I've seen was a girl comparing "REAL wands vs. FAKE Wish wands". Girl, they are all plastic and probably made in the same Chinese factory with terrible working conditions.

[@imalittletoxicjustalittle]

so every product is the same quality? thats like saying "all shoes are leather" like yeah but cheap ones normally fall apart quicker or are worse in other ways, maybe the fake wands are flimsy or are trying to pass of as the real thing there are many reasons it could be helpful also if you wanna talk about "work conditions" if you own a smart phone then those materials were mined by child slaves but i still bet you want the best phone you can get and would watch vids on it lmao

[@mrowkojadmeduza]

@@imalittletoxicjustalittle You realise those wands doesn't really do magic? They are sticks made of plastic. Also unlike smartphones they have very eco friendly, free alternative - STICKS. Those influences convince people they will be happier when they spend money on things nobody needs and wouldn't in fact make them happier in the long run. I don't even blame people who buy those things, it's easy to get manipulated and in some ways I'm also not immune to it. I do blame influences though, it's cruel to convince kids that they won't be real fans unless they spend money on particular piece of plastic instead other, cheaper piece of plastic.

[@tartaglia.]

That’s where you’re wrong! Depending on which specific sweatshop of a specific region Wizarding World products are produced in, each piece of merchandise has its own special little distinctions. I hear that arid climates make the children - sorry, employees - sweat more, producing saltier sweat and tears, lending a delicious tang to the aroma and vibe of your generic plastic wand. Very magical!

[@locinolacolino1302]

What's wrong with China

[@kedii-9041]

​@@locinolacolino1302terrible working conditions in Asia in general and an almost free labour, it's marked more often with "made in China"

[@annagoethe3941]

My childhood best friend's cousin almost died in that fabric factory in Bangladesh. She was a few months shy of 11. I remember comforting my friend about that incident on the playground at 9 years old. That'll make you hate fast fashion for life.

[@kecukraftwork1988]

Unfortunately, fast-fashion is just a symptom, not the cause. With regards to those factories: the conditions people are placed in, and the unfortunate circumstances surrounding accidents, are often more the result of a lax approach or even complete disregard towards local safety laws and workers' rights; if at all those even exist - which in many cases, they do not. This, in turn, makes those factories and workers cheap, replaceable and exploitable - not just by foreign industries, but also by the locals themselves. Exploitation can only live in the presence of opportunity - and the greater the opportunity, the greater the exploitation.

[@gh0st588]

Not only fast fashion but most designer brands

[@TigerPrawn_]

@@gh0st588 Guess I'll just have to weave my own clothes... But in all seriousness, I remember Rana Plaza so vividly. I think it was because in Geography lessons in school we had been learning about Fairtrade.

[@winkwonk32]

@@TigerPrawn_ thrifting is an option. you are a sick individual for reading that and then defending fast fashion

[@TigerPrawn_]

@@winkwonk32 The "weaving my own clothes" was a reference to how there is basically no ethical consumption under capitalism seeing that nearly all clothes on the market are made using the same terrible labour standards in factories, regardless of whether they are fast fashion or designer brands. I'm in no way defending these practices. I was saying that there is practically no way to bypass this short of making your own clothes. Obviously I wasn't clear enough seeing that you have labelled me a "sick individual" and I have no obligation to defend myself against a stranger on the internet, but here we are. I am indeed aware of thrifting, seeing as I practice this myself and only buy socks and underwear new, the rest of my clothes (~95%) I get from charity shops and have done for the past 7 years or so. So thanks. Hope you can assume good intent net time you read a comment ♥

[@insertcrochetpunhere]

I love that the email that tells you "we can't tell you where our merchandise was made" also says that the bottom, "please consider the environment before printing this email." WTF?

[@Marispider]

I know right? It sums up pretty much everything about corporate environmentalism I've ever seen lmao, it's like it's satirizing itself

[@hannahsflahnnels]

this isn't just about harry potter, but the connection between merch and doing one's "duty" as a fan is INSIDIOUS. while i have never been into harry potter, i have been told that i'm not a "true fan" of things i like because i don't own "enough" merch (or got most of what i do have for free one way or another instead of spending money on it) and therefore am not doing enough to support them. the ideology of fandom consumerism has absolutely trickled down to fans themselves, and it's kind of sad.

[@KossolaxtheForesworn]

oh yeah it seems to be kind of the thing with pretty much all fandoms. its like in order for you to be considered a true fan, you need to have an x amount of stuff. you like a band? buy all albums as physical copies, a poster, t-shirt, and go to at least one concert. you are fan of x francize? you need to buy this much merch to be a fan. you want to be part of this subculture? you need to appear this way and not at all that way or else youre a poser. we live a time when people are allowed to identify them selves as they desire, and yet people are just as territorial of their fandoms as they ever were.

[@klisterklister2367]

This tbh. I'm so tired of merch. I'm so tired of fandom elitism.

[@kraziiXIII]

It's ironic that I am opening my laptop to look at merch for Dragon Age (which I haven't bought any of for three years) and I desperately want to get some things when they aren't particularly useful. It's definitely sentimentality more than actual "fandom pride" but I am embarrassingly attached to a particular character and I'd like to have the necklace he wears. It isn't my "duty" as a fan but it does make my serotonin receptors quite happy.

[@imageez]

The idea of individual art and consumerism unfortunately kinda feed each other. Idk, I'm in this doomer headspace in which at minimum artists contributes to fabric and dye pollution from clothes merch and at worst becomes a pretentious laundering scheme. And the alternate, more communal society only requires few artist's view to make public art, because individual expression is inherently consumptive because people don't really need them to live and since ideas are repeatable on everyone, what's the point.

[@teamchaos5101]

@@imageez go away please

[@chasenovak122]

I once heard someone describe the character of Harry Potter as that kid who goes to college, and learns about all the injustices and flaws with the world and society around him, and then decides to become a Cop because his dad was the chief of police or something. And I think that’s just an incredibly apt metaphor for the series as a whole; just barely brushing its fingers against self awareness, ALMOST recognizing the grievous ills of the social structures around us, before taking a sharp U turn and going, “Well wait, what if slavery’s GOOD actually!”

[@rb71256]

no cuz he literally becomes an auror, basically a wizard cop, at the end 😭

[@muddlewait8844]

@@Blaze6108Nah, if you’re this guy, you’ll blame and jettison the women and minorities the moment you think any of them are standing between you and your money. Even if they aren’t.

[@smorre4004]

@@muddlewait8844 Whites need not apply is the name of the game nowadays

[@ErinWinslow]

@@Blaze6108 Well-put!

[@amandaarebel]

I genuinely think Hermione was the character that actually took part in rectifying societies flaws that she witnessed in the realm of magic.

[@shimmerence]

when that factory incident happened in Bangladesh, my grade 9 teacher showed us an article about it. i remember realizing that there were probably girls my age there who died making cheap clothes. there is an ugly truth behind so many products in our daily lives and it’s definitely not talked about enough. thank u for ur commentary!!

[@geeman.8081]

It's a daily existential crisis when you look at what you own and think who maybe died making it.

[@zebunnahar767]

Bangladeshi here, i was child when this happened and it is one of the worst tragedies of our country. Ppl were stuck inside for days and so many ppl lost their lives. And tho buildings are not collapsing like that anymore, the conditions inside aren't really that much better. Big western companies never cared and never will care

[@t.fairuz29]

Another Bangladeshi here. Unfortunately, we're not immune to brainwashing consumerist messages despite being on the receiving end of the exhaust pipe. In fact, we tend to look up to "Western culture" because you guys have awesome shit.

[@millykendrill5301]

Reminder that we all have white Christians to thank for this.

[@lunarose9]

The british may have left but the colonial force of capitalism didn't. It was the east india trading company that made the british government intervine in the area anyway.

[@LeonAvalos]

The amount of different editions they put out for the novels alone is INSANE. There's thousands of different boxed sets, special editions, anniversary editions, illustrated editions, deluxe editions, slipcase editions, the Minalima ones, trunks with books, etc. etc. The amount of paper they're wasting on those is CRAZY.

[@rhythmandblues_alibi]

Ikr? I borrowed the books from a friend to read the series originally, but I wanted to buy a nice set myself to reread whenever I like. With all the different printings coming out continuously, it makes it so hard to make a decision like "yep, that is definitely the version I want, I'll get that one." They really capitalise on the FOMO factor, like "if I don't buy it now, will it ever be reprinted in this same style?" I really liked the large format illustrated set they came out with over the past couple of years but just could not afford to pay $40-$50 per book. It really sucks.

[@geoffreyprecht2410]

But please, consider the environment before printing *an email!*

[@babahu15]

@@geoffreyprecht2410 that made me laugh thinking of an office drone wistfully comsidering trees and mountains and babbling brooks before printing out an email

[@CaatsGoMoooo]

Man, fuck that. My family's had the original british editions of the series for like, 20 years now. Sure, GoF and OotP have needed some repairs over the years, but they're all still in fantastic shape! I could care less about all the special editions. Only version I want is the Philosopher's Stone slytherin edition, because it's pretty slick and I may or may not be weak to slytherin merch...

[@danielaardila5081]

I used to work at a bookstore and it was insane the number of versions of the books and books about harry potter in the young adult section. Only Stephen King books could fill the same amount of space that the Harry Potter books and their versions alone filled.

[@bindablinda]

The wand buying always struck me as kind of weird. Like, wands are supposed to be unique and fit only one wizard - but somehow Ron has a wand from one of his brothers. In the second book, when his wand breaks, Ron actually suffers because his family cannot afford a new wand for him. There's no way for him to go to Ollivander's shop and get a new one during the school year, no one at school says anything except for "you need a new wand", there's no way to fix it and nobody even thinks of it. Just... Buy a new one, duh. His EDUCATION is actually at risk because his magic tool is broken and he can't get a new one in ANY way. And also, am I supposed to believe that Molly Weasley wouldn't sew her son something nice for the ball in the book 4? Or at least, wash the thing?

[@joshuahutchings558]

Yeah Ron inheriting a wand is really weird. Why did his brother stop using a wand?? Also Molly totally could have made Ron something for the ball, and there still could have been comedy in it. It could be in maroon, which he hates. Or she could have modified the second hand dress robes, and the modification could have come undone so it looked weird. Like maybe Molly says "Ron you just have to attach this chocolate frog to it with a simple adhesive spell right before the ball." But he doesn't do his part and the robes look funny when he has to wear them. Maybe his robes make ribbit sounds but without the frog its just contextless and odd.

[@anxiousteatable4428]

And not only does Ron's broken wand risk his education, it also risks his and the other students' safety! Snape literally tells Lockhart not to let Ron participate in a duel because his broken wand would send Harry to the nurse.

[@MercurialMoon]

you'd think something so essential to the everyday life of a wizard would be accessible to everyone...

[@goncaloferreira6429]

hum. there are bancks in universe, so i guess loans could be a thing? Ron´s father works at the mnistery, isnt that a safe job?

[@michaelwalker552]

@@goncaloferreira6429 at that stage they were providing for 5 kids and 2 adults. a job can be safe but also not provide enough for a family of that size

[@bigbrownhouse6999]

When I was a kid I remember the whole “writing on napkins” thing coming off a bit weird implausible. Like how do you write on free cafe napkins? For one, they rip apart if you apply any pressure or try to write small, so you’d have to have hundreds or even thousands of them. Each napkin is going to fit like half a sentence tops. Is the cafe just giving her hundreds of free napkins while she spends an afternoon writing multiple drafts of a chapter?

[@drawingsticks5333]

I use to write on napkins out of boredom, it's way more doable than you think...but also how expensive could a notebook have been, at least today I can just go to Poundland

[@Haunted_Plush]

​@drawingsticks5333 I know that's probably the European dollar store but the name Poundland is so fucking funny to me

[@alexin4k]

@@drawingsticks5333HELPP i want a store named poundland

[@Blaze6108]

It depends I guess, Italian bar type napkins are actually the opposite, they are difficult to rip and arguably too tough and impermeable for a real napkin. (fun fact - this is because the point of napkins in Italian bars has nothing to do with cleaning yourself, as that was traditionally done with personally-carried cloth napkins; instead, it is expected that the napkins be used to grasp pastries without ruining their delicate decorations and dirtying yourself, hence why they don't absorb fluids)

[@CErra310]

​​@@Haunted_Plushthere used to be a videogame developer called "Nutting Associates"

[@amymagdaleneta]

"forced to write her novel on napkins in a cafe" as a poor person in the UK, that part of her poverty legend never made sense, like, she spent way more on that cafe cup of tea/coffee, assuming it was a greasy spoon than paper costs

[@wiesejay]

She was undoubtedly also wearing shabby fingerless gloves, her face besmirched with coal dust, while she begged for ha’pennies

[@dopex89]

Well I think she clarified later on that she frequented the cafe because her kids slept better there? And writing on napkins could be because inspiration strikes and you just have to put down the words or something.

[@ravenouself4181]

Tbh, You can enter a Cafe and use napkins without actually buying anything. At least in the Civilized World You can do so.

[@haileys5224]

@@ravenouself4181 “in the civilized world” tf does that mean?

[@TandaSandaBanda]

@@haileys5224 I think that was meant to be a joke

[@HikariAreFiatLux]

I love the parallel that can be made between Lyra's shopping spree in Northern Lights and Harry's in The Philosopher Stone. At first Lyra is so happy that Mrs Coulter takes her shopping and she tries new clothes, makeup, food in joyful abandon. But soon she realizes that Mrs Coulter is buying her. Harry's consumerist spree really never ends.

[@beeeeeesbury]

This! (Was it not Northern lights though? Been a while admittedly)

[@HikariAreFiatLux]

@@beeeeeesbury yes absolutely, the names have been changed in the French edition so I got mixed up

[@aralornwolf3140]

The Golden Compass was it's original name . . . but it was a bit obvious she was being "bought" which her daemon pointed out to the reader not aware of what was happening, lol. At least that's what it says on the book I bought in 2000 in Canada.

[@Some_guy_passing_by]

Wait , what? In those books he only ever spent for necessary items , school materials and fancy stuff for special occasions. The only thing he indulged in was food because he was used to getting starved. He was the rich kid , yet his shopping spree was nowhere near the fans'.

[@TheWhiteGyrfalcon]

Part of her waking up to this was her daemon Pan making fun of her and calling her attention to the buying love. Daemons represent a kind of mix soul and consciousness

[@GothicSillyBat]

On my 11th birthday, I decided I wanted a harry potter themed party. So my parents and I made almost everything by ourselves: wands, brooms, a giant aragoge, the plushies, the fucking death eaters, the letters coming out of the fireplace with thousands of fake candles floating. It was magical and it was far better than those plastic, soulless merchandise. Btw, I still have some stuff and I usually give out to other harry potter fans.

[@internetkurator9256]

THAT is the spirit, bravo!

[@GothicSillyBat]

@@internetkurator9256 thanks!!!

[@Shenanigans_333]

Yes!!! My mum, (who is a graphic designer) threw me the best Harry Potter themed party without spending any money on official merchandise. She printed hundreds of wax sealed letters addressed to me, and suspended them above our fireplace with fishing wire! And my dad carved 10 real wooden wands for us to play with.

[@CraftyVegan]

My oldest dressed as a hogwarts student when they were young. I sewed the cloaks myself and just put them in a white button-up and black pants underneath. They got a wand at some point, but the first Halloween was with a sturdy stick for a wand 😂

[@rainyrouge5123]

I actually have a similar story. As a kid, I was in Girl Scouts. When my troop and I got older, we started putting on these events for other, younger scouts. Because all of us were Harry Potter fans, we put on a Harry Potter-themed party. It was pretty magical. The whole event took place in the cafeteria of our old middle school because that was the only venue we could get. The girls would enter and go to Diagon Alley(AKA the hallway)and get a pet and wand. They'd get sorted into houses, in other words, sorted into groups for each of the four girls in my troop to lead. We'd lead them through a bunch of different classes where they'd do different activities and at the very end we had them do a little quiz on Harry Potter lore as the final exam. It was incredibly fun both for the girls and for me and my friends. I made this PowerPoint presentation for the muggle studies class that said crap like rubber ducks are used as weapons that made all the girls in my group laugh, for Defense Against the Dark Arts we taught the girls different spells from the book and they all started killing each other when we taught them Avada Kedrava, and we did this weird slime craft for the potion class. The girls varied a lot in age, I think the youngest ones were six and the oldest ones were either middle school or only slightly younger than me and my friends, but they all had fun. And this should go without saying, but we didn't buy each of the 30 or so girls attending one of those $40-80 wands. We made all of the wands and pet plushies ourselves. I did most of the work on the wands which was really fun for me. I put a lot of work into making them all unique. I think the only actual Harry Potter merchandise we used were these little stickers we gave to the girls as party favors and maybe some decorations. I think a good takeaway from that story is that it's possible to enjoy franchises/fandoms in ways that don't involve buying overpriced merchandise.

[@combogalis]

I really love Shaun's video on Harry Potter pointing out that JK Rowling's morality is basically "if a character we dislike does something, it's bad, but if a character we like does the exact same thing, it's good"

[@karolinasedilekova3217]

That video is a masterpiece

[@danielfogli1760]

“To my friends, anything; to my enemies, the law”

[@seekingishwara737]

So gratified to encounter this important criticism. I think people raised on Harry potter demonize others so easily.

[@adamfleetwood3980]

Shaun who? I’d like to watch it!

[@dekopuma]

@@adamfleetwood3980 His youtube channel is just "shaun". If you search Shaun Harry Potter, it should pop right up.

[@emma7933]

This may be just a personal gripe of mine, but the city where I study has one of the only intact medieval streets left in Britain, which is also spiritually significant to many Catholics as it was where a sixteenth century martyr lived and she has a shrine there. It's almost impossible to find anything out about said history now as the street is entirely full of fucking Harry Potter merch, because if you squint it kind of looks like Diagon Alley despite there being no evidence JK Rowling ever visited there while writing the books. There are at least four different Harry Potter themed shops along one 300m long street front, including next to the house of a woman who was fucking tortured to death who gets one dusty plaque no one looks at. I'm not even Catholic but I am an archaeology student and it is infuriating.

[@carlies7660]

York?

[@emma7933]

@@carlies7660 yes lol

[@arwenvr6462]

I read your description and immediately knew you were talking about York! 😅 Hello from a fellow York resident who avoids the Shambles like the plague 😅

[@sagidraconis9376]

Honestly I was thinking of The Shambles for most of this video. York rail station even has a potions shop now, it's crazy. And I do love that street, I love the medieval structures, but throughout my 3 year stint studying there I never found out about that martyr or that she has a shrine there. Which is a real shame and I'm really disappointed about that. Although that could be because no sane York resident actively GOES down the Shambles unless they're showing people around...

[@sinnsage]

this reminds me of salem massachusetts, a city where the state murdered innocent humans, where their actual graves reside, and it’s proliferated with silly “witch” shops (selling harry potter merch, by the way)and a statue of Samantha from the tv show Bewitched. it feels quite trivializing.

[@babyblue3717]

Funny how most of the recognizable buyable objects from the HP universe are simple easily handmade objects from accessible fonts. Like, wooden wands and brooms. Simple woolen black robes. Hand knitted scarves. But ALL of those things are almost entirely made of plastic in the official HP stores. They're lifeless and ugly and do not look fantastical at all. When i was in my HP phase, i carved myself a wand from a branch of a tree, bought a choir kid's used black robes and adapted them to look like Slytherin robes, hand stitched owl plushies and got my grandma to knit me a Slytherin scarf. Everyone was always flabbergasted by the quality of my "collectibles" and asked me where i bought them and somehow they always looked disapointed when i said "i just made them myself". Like they *want* the consumerism part of it. They *want* to spend ridiculous amounts of money on plastic merch.

[@abdalln8554]

I got nothin' to add but to say that's rad as hell. Good work.

[@mossandfable]

I think the reason why they want the consumerism part is obvious: They want to manufacture themselves to fit into the same bland system, want the "official" stuff that everyone has access too. Not because they want to be different, but because they want to be the same and the idea of not having the official logo on it takes away from the brand. Also it's so cool that you made all this by yourself! You rock!

[@chemtrayliaindafukkinskya]

Awww my husband carved me Bellatrix's wand from a walnut branch!! It's awesome to create these things yourself 🥰

[@kecukraftwork1988]

Personally, I think it stems from the idea of trade-off, and its association with brand loyalty; and in turn, the disappointment fans feel when official products are inferior to something you could just make from scratch. You'd hope for the license holder to want to release the most genuine and high-quality products that they could, so that those fans paying large amounts into the franchise would be unsurpassed in their likeness to the 'real' or represented thing. However, when the reality doesn't meet this expectation, it can cause fans to feel betrayed on both fronts: betrayal from the franchise holders for only selling lesser-quality products; and betrayal from those who produced better iterations, without even needing to pay out to the former. It breeds a sort of shame, in that the fan feels duped or conned into having bought an inferior product; and as such, that can create a type of bitterness and jealousy from fans who buy official merch, towards creators who make own versions. The final result often devolves into gatekeeping and a type of 'no true Scotsman' fallacy ("you aren't a 'real fan' if you make your stuff instead of buying it").

[@JaceMorley]

There's also a factor that people lack the self-confidence and availability of time to invest in learning to make something themselves. There's a lot going into just living, ready-made consumables allow for a joy of ownership by spending the resource of money instead of the resource of time and there's a value judgement that needs making there in which one you go with. So for many hearing "I made it myself" is another way of hearing "There's no way you could ever have it".

[@hellothere1266]

the "commodified fantasy takes no risk" thing is also exactly why Netflix is digging its own grave. They were left to stand only on their own IP, but they don't want to take a risk on their IP and potentially make a single iota less money than "the next Stranger Things" **could** make them, so they back out of any good series that seems a lil risky, a lil weird. Good fantasy requires good risk. Le Guin knew that damn well, being a woman writing high fantasy about black and brown characters back in the 70s? That takes cajones the likes of which I will never know.

[@cortomaltese5206]

I think the closest to "cajones" the fantastical department of netflix has (aside from the animation department) is Snyder. And while yes, Snyder is a passionate guy who has standed for good causes, he isnt as creative as his fans think he is. The best he can do is make the joker talk about blowjobs.

[@somedragonbastard]

Yeah. That's probably why Disney didn't merchandise the fuck out of The Owl House, even though it absolutely had the potential for it.

[@blu-]

What did Leguin write? It sounds interesting

[@level5650]

I think they’re talking about the Earthsea series. I heard Le Guin made an effort to subvert the European-fantasy aesthetic that flooded the genre after Lord of the Rings and drew upon cultures like Polynesia when coming up with the setting.

[@ARCtheCartoonMaster]

Because are a minority, amirite?

[@jessiechapters]

Tbh I think it's a neat idea having consumerism as an element in the world of Harry Potter. The problem is that the books aren't the least bit critical of it.

[@elk7308]

Imagine being on the train to Hogwarts and wanting to buy a wispa and a coke only to find out that nouveau riche Potter kid everyone's been talking about for years bought the whole cart Edit: I thought it was obvious this was a joke. I have no interest in debating the logistics of the Hogwarts Express food cart supply chain Edit 2: A second edit to make the first edit more prominent because Potter fans in 2024 still can't detect humour nor display basic reading comprehension 🤦

[@whiteraven181]

I honestly thought Harry was sort of stupid or willfully unaware of his actions' effects on others early in Sorcerer's Stone specifically because of that. I was 9 and going, "There's no way they can eat all that candy. Is he really just going to make it so no one else on the train can buy snacks?"

[@katgreer6113]

​@@whiteraven181 I think he was unaware

[@jerrywemhoff]

@@whiteraven181 you do realize that trains have an entire car where you can buy refreshments...? Where the fuck do you think the trolley cart gets its shit from? You think they have enough for 500-700 kids on one little cart?

[@lenahughes6380]

I am sure there’s some magic loophole where they can magically be restocked or something

[@Luca-yb4sh]

@@lenahughes6380 Yeah, surely somewhere some happy house elf slave is preparing freshly baked snacks.

[@Afroofthenight]

Imagine if a beanie of his own face was used to free Dobby

[@SamNeedsCoffee]

I'm sure Warner Bros. is trying to digitally insert that for the special special edition of the Chamber of Secrets.

[@KaaneDragonShinobi]

"It took my entire summer break from Hogwarts and half of the money my parents left me, but I finally won the rights to The Boy Who Lived merch and now they just send me shitty product samples every week." -Harry Potter, probably

[@HangryOnPaws]

"Dobby has been given his own face, Dobby is merch."

[@vitoc8454]

Imagine if there was official merch of the knife that killed him I mean, I was able to buy *Voldemort's wand*

[@RandomDude-Z840]

"Dobby... is... a consumer!"

[@tarniabook3076]

When I wanted a Hufflepuff scarf, I decided to learn to knit, did it and made myself one. Is it a good scarf? No! It's too short and the stripes aren't even, and it doesn't even have any Hufflepuff related looks besides the colors. Do I love it? Of course, and I would not trade it for any brand made scarf. I wonder what would the story be like if the kids had to carve their wands or earn them somehow.

[@Shenanigans_333]

My dad carved me and my friends our own wands when we were little!!!

[@charlesiiofengland3608]

@@Nemamka YES and the wands are literally just sticks off the ground that gain the ability to channel magic through the power of ｡･:*:･ﾟ★,｡･:*:･ﾟ☆love｡･:*:･ﾟ★,｡･:*:･ﾟ☆

[@sanamana6388]

@@Nemamkayour idea wouldn’t sell well and would flop sorry to crush your bubble. no one wants to read some sort of pro-ecology, "plant trees and save turtles!!" bullshit. xoxo

[@heybuddy3616]

I did the same thing! red and yellow yarn were on sale and my mom taught me to knit. unfortunate that I finished it around the time JK started getting on the TERF train, and felt uncomfortable wearing my own creation for several years.

[@erraticonteuse]

BRB writing the next kids' franchise that romanticizes making your own stuff. (WB can still merchandise craft kits if it means they stop pushing HP so hard)

[@ripwednesdayadams]

Everything is an ad. Everything is for sale. It’s so depressing.

[@phoebegee54]

Everything has a price. I miss when the internet was less ad filled. Or did I just notice the ads less because they weren't specifically targeted to me.

[@kenetickups6146]

capitalism

[@14Ramjet]

The issue with recycling is that.....People forget the rule, Reduce, Reuse, Recycle. Recycling is the LAST thing we should be doing. Reducing and reusing is far better than any recycling. This leads into consumerism though. I try to be mindful with my purchases for things that last and don't need to replace/upgrade for a long time. Like for my birthday, Christmas, and any other gift giving times, I'd rather get a gift card or asked exactly what I'd need, because anything extra is unnecessary waste that is outside my interest area most of the time and a less than half the time when it is in my interest areas. I am finding it harder to give gift ideas to people because I am getting to the point that useful stuff is either stuff I buy regularly that is consumable or larger items I am saving for I need.

[@Bongobert]

I thought this was going to be about the consumerist dystopia of the harry potter world but instead became about the consumerist dystopia we live in

[@4651adri]

Not a queer adept missing the chance to s*it on JK Rowling.

[@himoffthequakeroatbox4320]

Ah, grasshopper. They are the same thing.

[@Servitor-lx1bu]

Indeed. I thought that this would be important information to share, given what she said about polyester. 35% of all ocean microplastics come from clothing/textiles, mostly polyester, but also acrylic and nylon as well. This is largely due to clothes made of these materials being washed, which causes these clothes to quickly erode, with the microplastic fibers entering the water system and eventually the sea. Ocean Hero is a great search engine that we can use to help clean up larger plastics before they disintegrate into microplastics.

[@immersive_meditation]

😭😭😭😭

[@sawanna508]

@@Servitor-lx1bu This was also presended me with the problem a couple of years ago when I was looking for a pullover and couldn't find any who were not mixed with nylon or other which I don't like to wear. I hate the feeling of that kind of mixture on my skin.

[@davidpeer5769]

And rich people "donating to charity" is just another way they are able to control how resources are distributed. If you hold the purse strings, you can control how things are done.

[@dannyvalward1524]

And get this nice "good person" points while you ad it.

[@eskikanal6325]

it is also how they do tax evasion but legal

[@DavidSmith-oy4of]

I remember reading somewhere that the richer people donate to things like having new parks built whereas poorer people donate more towards things like food banks and other life essential charities.

[@lynn858]

And remember churches can be deemed charities, and so can groups that help people in some way, while espousing covert hatred for transgender people.

[@docopoper]

Very inefficient too. That wealth would do a lot more good directly in the hands of the poorer people along the supply chain. Though admittedly it is a challenge to make sure they get it instead of having another rich person secretly absorb it.

[@725ken]

God I remember when I would hang out at Barnes and Noble reading books everyday after school and there was this really cool wizard chess set that I wanted so badly. I would stare at it for minutes every day thinking how cool it would be to own. I never did end up buying it and I'm really glad I didn't. If I had any money at all at that age I would've spent it all on HP merch. Thank god a friend helped me carve my own wooden wand instead of spending however much money one was at the time.

[@jaspervanheycop9722]

I have one and it's a piece of plastic shit (I was one of those kids who begged their parents into getting them one) with a cardboard faux marble board that withered away at first contact with tea, and the representations work in the movie but don't work at a glance, especially people not familiar with the first movie get lost (f.e. the king and queen are virtually indistinguishable, and since every piece has a castle base, the castles are not distinct enough to tell), and they're all pointy and sharp-edged... and they fall over easily ... it's in summary trash to actually play chess with. I'm much more fond of my wooden travel-set and that has lasted me since the 90's.

[@freemagicfun]

Being a magician (tricks, not wizard) I wanted a nice wand. I worked at a local renaissance fair and had a lady hand carve a wand. It is beautiful and I have had it almost 15 years. So much better than any branded merch, and less expensive than a lot of it. It is not based on any Potter design, but these days any wooden wand is seen as being Potter'esque. 😎

[@electric_whelk1653]

god the thing about shopping is so true and tbh I think it's a big part of why Harry Potter (for all its faults) really struck home as an escapist fantasy - it presented a fun fantasy world where you did fantasy analogues to the stuff you do in real (capitalist) life. Sure it's fun to imagine yourself as Aragorn for a bit, but Aragorn's either adventuring (hiking through mud in unwashed clothes) or ruling (probably involves a lot of Elf name memorization). At the end of the day, most of us don't want to be kings. But you can superimpose Harry Potter onto your real world passtimes and ambitions and creature comforts, and escape into a world where you can study hard at a good school, get a good job from it and use that to buy things you like, while starting a family and keeping up your hobbies - but in a cool fun way where there's magic and mystery and strange creatures. It's not the fantasy of leaving the real world behind, it's the fantasy of being actually fulfilled by the things capitalism conditions you to strive for.

[@MewWolf5]

So true and something I was also thinking while watching the video. The shopping aspect of the story was about a more magical version of familiar things.

[@sarahr8311]

It's true of so much, especially in the early books. It's school shopping, dealing with bullies, and joining the school sports team, but there's ✨️magic✨️

[@Krystalmyth]

About as much escapism here as the fantasy of being put into chains.

[@hamhotpocket3788]

I love LOTR and Harry Potter. I can see your point, but this man would rather settle down in the shire with a bag of old Toby and blow smoke rings with gandalf than I would want to be King.

[@AlbinoAxolotl1993]

What do we know of Aragorn's tax policy?

[@Frogbog11]

Fun fact about gendered toys, when I was five years old, I asked for a toy garage to play with miniature cars. It had a system of pulleys that would bring the cars on the top floors and then drop it down à slide. My mother, worried, then asked my father if buying me the garage would make me a lesbian. I just thought the pulleys and slides were cool. Anyway long story short, my dad bought me the garage.

[@ABCQTBREB]

And, are you a lesbian now?

[@Frogbog11]

@@ABCQTBREB Pansexual, after 25 years of internalized homophobia and very strong denial. Call me crazy, but somehow I don't think a plastic garage influenced this outcome. ( Chel and Miguel from Road to El dorado tho 👀 /jk)

[@ABCQTBREB]

@@Frogbog11 yes i feel that 😀 tho garages are stronger than you might think :) i played with multipe as a little kid and look at me now 🤷 im 🏳️‍🌈 and yes i know what you're talking about, Road to El Dorado woke up the queer in me many many years ago.

[@genderenigma8276]

@@ABCQTBREB ngl i wondered the same thing, looked at their profile picture, saw the frog and went, "Hm, well look at how that turned out"

[@sarahr8311]

@@genderenigma8276 I have no idea how a froggy with a flower hat indicates someone being a flavor of queer but... you're not wrong

[@fmadesunoto]

When I was a teenager, my aunt took me to see the temporary HP Warner Bors exhibition in Paris. At that time the universe was still very dear to my heart, but I remember feeling disgusted and extremly disappointed when the tour ended in a huge giftshop. I didn't know what consumerism meant at the time and I couldn't accurately explain the feeling, but I know now it was a kind of overload. I felt like I was being forcefed merch and it ruined the whole experience for me. You explained it perfectly in that video and I have to say this might be the best commentary video of 2023 so far ! Glad I stumbled onto your channel, can't wait to see what you do next !

[@meykenhokzii4848]

Where on Brazil on CCPX, I don't remeber what year was, I think It was 2017 or 2018, the event had a little space with a small castle with Happy Potter theme, me and my mom (I was a minor at that time) skiped the GIANT ROW by using my card that show I'm autistic (here anyone who have any disable can skip any row no matter what u have, other countries should have that) and when we enters it was a disapoint, is a entire merch thing with shirts and cups that u can find less expensive on pirated shop, I remeber begging to my mom to buy something but she refused and went out with me, only thing good about this is that we got free Ruffles on the exit :)

[@KingAlanI]

sometimes a franchise tries to sell you so much that you say F it to any of it, actually buying less. like if a collectibles set is a manageable size I'd try to get all of it, but if it's too big I might pick out only a few pieces. Magic the Gathering, this means you

[@joannasekua6273]

Have you been to a museum before? Every museum has a gift shop

[@kittykittybangbang9367]

@@suz3787 That and the fact they built the biggest mall in Manhattan (I think) next to 9/11 Memorial. Let that sink in for a bit

[@alienrat-z3g]

@@suz3787 That is disgusting! Why does that museum have to rely on a gift shop for funding? Why is stuff like that nit publicly funded?

[@Shenanigans_333]

I’d also like to point out how this applies to Jurassic Park - the first film was entirely anti consumerism, but now they’re “slapped it on a plastic lunchbox”

[@sawanna508]

That's not entirly true. At least here in Austria it started the sale of all kind of dinosaur toys (before that time dinosaurs could hardly be found at toy shops) and McDonalds sold collectibles of the movie with their Happy Meals and of course there were Jurassic Park shirts from the beginning.

[@bananaempijama]

Damn...JP craziness back in 1993 was real. Remember it well here in Portugal .

[@NitroIndigo]

I never thought that Jurassic Park was anti-consumerism. Could you elaborate?

[@ofthewilderwoods]

@@NitroIndigoJeff Goldblum’s character criticizes the rich billionaire who funded the park for ignoring safety and the hefty considerations of reviving dead species in the name of profit.

[@dekopuma]

Jurassic park isn't anti-consumerism, it's more anti-technology.

[@evieluna6462]

for years now I've found the consumerist world of Harry Potter so disturbing. I feel like it's managed to not only eclipse the books - as young children who have never read the books or seen the movies are begging their parents for merch - but also eclipse other major merchandisers like Disney. I don't know if who Disney v WBs profits actually stack up, but Disney at least still seems to rely on producing new content. Children are still excited to watch the Disney movies, then want the merch of their fav characters. I don't know anyone who's actually seen any of the new HP movies. I know the box office for them has gone down. But everywhere I go there's so so much Harry Potter merch. I moved to the UK last year, and was so disturbed to find HP merch everywhere, as if it was considered part of the history and culture as double decker buses, or the old architecture of the buildings themselves. I guess it's just like Marvel (Disney) trademarking actual religious figures and having art of these figures removed or taken down due to copyright. We don't own shit anymore, especially not culture.

[@DaveGrean]

Yeah it's fucking weird. A decade ago no one gave a shit about Harry Potter, now every single store that sells geek culture collectibles or merch has over half of its shelves dedicated to Harry Potter, and less than half for literally anything else you might think of, from Star Wars to superhero comics to Transformers and He-Man

[@sunriseparrabellum5505]

Let’s not forget that the series started 30 years ago. They’re so desperate to stop the series fading from relevance because it’s their golden goose

[@Anhonime]

The craze isn't as big in Poland, but quite recently there was a big section with HP merchandise in our biggest bookstore chain (Empik) and I was very surprised, asking myself if some new movies are coming out or is it some kinda new "retro" trend? I know there are like Wizarding World movies and books, but I didn't really see anyone care about them, only the OG Harry Potter. I did like Harry Potter a lot as a child, but I never really participated in the fandom (too young to use internet which wasn't as widespread in my country at the time) and I didn't own any merchandise, because I plainly never wanted it. In some weird way 7 year old me kinda-sorta believed in the possibility of magic being real and loved the idea, but I separated it from Harry Potter which was fiction: I didn't want to be Harry Potter, a fictional wizard, I wanted to be myself, a real wizard. Somehow (my family was into some New Age stuff, so I blame that) I organically came up with some pagan-style ideas and assumed a real wand would obviously be made out of wood and you had to make it yourself to make it special and infuse it with magic, not buy a plastic one in a store, so that's what I did (decorating a stick and meditating on it). I also had some generic cheap wizard hat and robes, but nothing branded. Actually later (when I was like 10/11) when I got internet, I wasn't interested in the fictional world of the movies/books, but rather searching for "real magic" which led me to reading about wicca and neopaganism (the very little you could find on Polish internet, Catholicism was/is strongly dominant in the country, so it did feel like finding dirty secret knowledge) which fueled my natural-magic worldview even more. From today's perspective it's kinda cool, but because of things like this I wasn't a very popular kid.

[@Nassifeh]

​@@sunriseparrabellum5505 It's interesting and a bit distressing to realize that when Harry Potter came out, Star Wars was practically considered ancient history. Now, HP has been out longer than Star Wars had been at the time, and somehow they're both worth orders of magnitude more than any other media properties. At some point, yes, I do blame the fans for continuing to spend yet more resources on these things instead of going and consuming new original media. As long as they keep buying the same stuff, we all suffer, and that's *before* the ridiculous environmental damage aspect.

[@marianletterio]

@@Anhonime i resonate a lot with your experience. I fell in love with the books when they came out, especially because I was the same age as harry when i started reading them. I was also into books and magic, and my mom started studying astrology when i was very young (this was before it became popular), so i dreamt of becoming a witch. I was never that much interested in the merch either, and i never really cared for the movies.

[@LinnySays]

The hypocrisy in JKR's "Harry Potter is anti slavery" narrative is mental tbh. Harry frees Dobby because slavery is bad, he agrees with this. Then doesn't care about slavery at all for the rest of the books (Ron makes fun of Hermione for caring about SPEW, Harry does nothing; Slughorn tests his food on a house elf after the poisoning of Ron, Harry thinks "good job Hermione isn't here"). Then Hagrid says that Dobby was a weirdo and house elves like being slaves. And in the epilogue of the last book (19 years later) Harry actually gets his own slave and thinks, hey, this is quite nice. He even thinks he's going get Kreacher to make him a sandwhich when he comes home!

[@Dryadkal]

That was such a weird ending to any book ever really.. the big evil bigot who wanted to enslave and kill every one he deemed lesser then is finally defeated. And then Harry be like, I gone do night night, my slave can get me pie later yay. But his slave has white puffy hair now, Hawwy gave him a necklace and his slave likes him too soo. These are among the final lines of HP, before the epilogue of course. The ending is literally I have a slave yay but golly I suffered a bit mate innit. If there ever was a moral of HP it blew up right there in a way

[@llars1559]

Kreacher was totally hoping for freedom

[@Bluelink13]

And honestly the worst part is that you could have written it in a way that is not awful because house elves are quite literally brownies, except brownies you have to respect and reward for their work. It could easily be that House Elves love to help wizards for the simple reward of some food and common decency but people like the malfoys are evil and use magic to enslave them because the mere idea of putting another plate on the table is too much for them, but nope, acording to Rowling they just, are naturally slaves like apparently all other sentient creatures whose place in the natural order is to serve wizards without question or expectation of not being seen as equals and valued for their contributions to wizard society

[@ybediz]

Harry doesn't care about Dobby being a slave. He cares about his master being an abusive master. If Dobby were, say, the Weasleys' slave, then he would be perfectly fine with it. Once Winky is set free, she gets drunk and loses her will to live anyway, so it's better that she's a slave- for her and for the society. Hermione's SPEW campaign is portrayed as a nuisance to the slaves. They don't want to be emancipated! They want to remain slaves! Now when Sirius treats his slave, Kreacher, badly, of course he betrays him and causes his death. But when Harry treats his slave well enough, the same slave makes him a sandwich. That's Kreacher's redemption arch. Becoming a good slave. Bit of a rant, I know. If anything, the Harry Potter books are pro-slavery. Thanks for indulging me if you've read up to here.

[@LinnySays]

@@ybediz Very good point. Harry only sets Dobby free to get back at the Malfoys.

[@aquaintsound]

In this consumerist hellscape, don't forget about how JK Rowling has always been super ableist. To the point where she refused to make a lot of aspects of HP theme parks accessible in the bare minimum way (installing elevators, not having 2 or 3 little steps up into buildings, diagon alley stores with doors that can't fit wheelchairs). When she was informed of some of these issues, she refused to change her "vision" - which is trash.

[@42seven]

weird how my disabled dad absolutely loves jk honestly

[@tacobell1299]

@@42seven weird that he loves her when she said how she doesn't think people should get special treatment, such as things to help disabled people

[@Dr.Mrs.Pancakes]

Makes me sad knowing I can't go, not that I'd want to anymore but 6yr me would be crushed

[@annaphallactic]

I don't know why Universal hasn't been sued yet, that part of the park isn't ADA compliant.

[@helloamanda04]

didn't she also write a book where she basically openly mocked disabled people and made them the villains bullying the poor abled protagonist? i haven't read it so i don't know the full context but i came across some passages and it was pretty disgusting

[@emmetharrigan5234]

Also harry’s unexpected ostentatious wealth is also the first thing that personally signifies him as uniquely special

[@KD-ou2np]

Thats not true at all. You don't have to lie to join in on the criticism. It's his scar, his past, and then there's the very early scene where he gets his extra special wand. Or how about when he speaks to a snake. I remember his wealth being brought up when it became relavant to the plot in the books, like if they needed to buy a bunch of things, but otherwise rarely mentioned. That is a key part of his story, but not who he is.

[@loiracitr]

​@KD-ou2np nah. He sits on that train with two kids. The first kid is immediately portrayed as the booksmart one (she fixes his glasses). The second kid is identified by his poor economic status and his hand-me-downs (even his pet used to belong to a brother) and the second thing that Harry does, right after showing the scar, is to buy the whole cart of food. Straight away. He could have bought a couple of things to share but no, he had to buy the whole cart

[@literaterose6731]

What a fantastic analysis! Gotta say, this made me think about Bill Watterson, the cartoonist who created Calvin and Hobbes. He refused to ever license any of his characters (despite the popularity they reached), and never wavered from that. I’ve always respected him so much for that. It is a choice that can be made… though it requires being able to put ethics before money.

[@Autistic_Sandw1ch.official]

I’m also glad Calvin & Hobbes merch was never licensed because when I was really little, I was obsessed with it and that definitely saved my parents a fortune lol

[@millies2788]

Yes, ESPECIALLY since Calvin and Hobbes critiques consumerist culture and the way tv and ads exploited children. It would have felt hypocritical. But he stuck to his message instead of selling it.

[@mrbeckegruvan16]

That explains why the old pissing Calvin design is the only reference I've seen to the comic outside of it

[@gateauxq4604]

@Me Beckegruvan he sued anyone he could who tried to touch his copyright but unfortunately there were too many people making those stickers for him to catch them all.

[@FairyBogFather]

that man never sold out. so badass.

[@noraunhappy]

The thing that you have to understand about basically any commentary JK makes in her stories is that JK does not believe in systematic issues. Her political beliefs are very much to stick to the status quo and any issues that arise are not faults of the system, but rather the fault of bad actors within that system. A system ripe for abuse is not the problem, it’s the people who actually abuse it. I mean look at the way she discusses slavery in her books, or the articles written about it on what was then pottermore. According to her, house elves being slaves isn’t the problem in and of itself. No, actually the problem is that some people are mean to their slaves, and that’s the real issue. If Serius has just been nicer to his slave maybe he wouldn’t have been betrayed. There’s also the important way she depicts the morality of actions in her books. There are no good or bad actions. There are only good or bad people on good or bad teams. And depending on which of those you are, your actions are also those things. The fatphobia in the books is a great example. Harry and his friends can make fun of Dudley for being fat all they want, and it’s fine. Because Dudley is bad and Harry is good. So Dudley deserves it, and Harry’s actions are inherently morally acceptable. But when Malfoy makes fun of Molly Weasley for being fat (except she’s never actually described as fat because that’s reserved for bad mean people), then Harry gets mad and it’s portrayed as a bad thing that Malfoy would say something so mean about Molly. Because Molly is good and Malfoy is bad. So Molly doesn’t deserve it, and anything Malfoy does much be evil.

[@rhel373]

I keep going back and forth on this, cause, on the one hand she does perhaps overemphasize individual attitudes, but at the same time she very much painted the picture of the ministry and wizarding "high society" being kind of rotten to the core. She just never really followed through on that.

[@lollyberry007]

A youtuber by the name of Shaun made a 2 hr video discussing this very topic. He delves into jkr’s political affiliations and beliefs, and how it impacts her writing. Very well done, worth the watch

[@cyber_softie]

@@lollyberry007 seeing as this comment is Shaun’s talking points exactly and nothing else, I’m thinking OP has already seen it. Good, concise reiteration though. :)

[@JT5555]

molly is not fat: she's huggable.

[@Servitor-lx1bu]

Indeed. I thought that this would be important information to share, given what she said about polyester. 35% of all ocean microplastics come from clothing/textiles, mostly polyester, but also acrylic and nylon as well. This is largely due to clothes made of these materials being washed, which causes these clothes to quickly erode, with the microplastic fibers entering the water system and eventually the sea. Ocean Hero is a great search engine that we can use to help clean up larger plastics before they disintegrate into microplastics.

[@AlyssaBotelho]

When you compared buying the wand to Gandalf having to buy his staff, something clicked. I think this consumerist issue is a big subconscious reason why I’ve never been a Potterhead and always been a Lord of Rings fanatic. People have often asked me, “But Harry Potter is peak fantasy!! Why aren’t you into it that much??”…the heart of the story matters much more than any fun spells or trinkets you slap onto it for sales

[@findyourcenterbbc8483]

Buying the wands could have worked, Harry buys his wand and it is essentially a plain stick, and is told that the wand chooses the wizard, and that it will grow with you. we can have the government pay for the wands since wizards need wands to channel magic. So as Harry grows with the wand, it communicates through him with feelings and images and its appearance changes as Harry grows like how the wands from movie three on have different appearances. so we play into the sentience of wands that is never really touched upon in the books and we still have the magical moment with Ollivander's and know it is more like a character going to a blacksmith for the basic sword and there power changes the blade.

[@lordbuss]

Lord of the Rings (in the movies, at least) still has great focus on wealth and on having expensive items. You don't find them in shops, though. You find them in treasure chests of enemies you killed. Or just in the forest.

[@MABfan11]

that's why they're clearly wrong, One Piece is peak fantasy

[@MABfan11]

@@findyourcenterbbc8483 this is a really good point and could actually highlight the danger of the Elder Wand even more, because it would be a wand that doesn't need to grow with it's user and could draw out their maximum potential instantly

[@lordbuss]

@Eclipsestar150 So reading Percy Jackson and Narnia is fine, but One Piece not?

[@anniehuckaby2649]

As someone working in the timber industry it is beyond ridiculous that they can't give you any information about where their wood is coming from! In the US you basically can't sell wood that isn't produced sustainably and has at least one certification either SFI, SFC, or a few others.

[@Jane-oz7pp]

Yea it's similar here, if you can't find out where your wood is sourced, it's illegal.

[@wmvmetalsmithing]

@@Jane-oz7pp Yup. I worked for a flute manufacturing company for a while; I won't go into details, but there was a reason they wouldn't tell customers where their grenadilla wood came from...

[@sg_dan]

​@@wmvmetalsmithing as a flutist myself who has had contact with many a flute maker, I second your comment.

[@ajjolly4618]

I wanted to add that the opera house from the 1920's version of Phantom of the Opera, which was the oldest surviving movie set at the time, was demolished to make room for one of the Wizarding World theme park locations. Other movies like Universal's Dracula and the 1940's Phantom remake were filmed there too. As a massive horror fan, I'm really disappointed that I'll never get to see it. A beloved piece of history replaced with a cash cow that keeps a disgusting bigot wealthy

[@E.V.-il]

I'll never forgive them for demolishing that set.

[@vitoc8454]

Reminds me of that metal plaque that goes something like, "This commemorates the oak tree which graced this site for 50 years Until it was felled by the bureaucracy To make room for one more car."

[@MikaMoonlight]

Well, I didn't know about this and now I'm upste

[@alim.9801]

I didn't know this but now...now I'm pissed

[@eatatjoes6751]

When I heard about that I was like, "Nope, that's not possibly gonna backfire, now is it?"

[@DieVorleserin-ok8zr]

That's funny because I actually never liked HP-merch though I was a huuuuge fan of the books as a child. I actually got repulsed by the extensive consumerism of the Dudleys or even Harry buying all the stuff from the trolley lady in the train because I was like "what about the other kids on the train?!". And I'm fat.

[@sycastells1212]

I was the same. I was a "books only" fan who kind of looked down on officially licensed merch (to the point of being a gatekeeping douche at times). What I enjoyed most in the books was barely, if ever, represented by the merchandise. At the time I blamed the movies for shifting the aesthetic cannon, but as is so often the case, it was neoliberal capitalism all along

[@eatatjoes6751]

Me too. I read the books but never bought the cheap merch.

[@zkkitty2436]

tbh I just thought most of the merch was pretty ugly and kind of unusable so I didn't want it

[@flamingo6828]

I felt similar about the merch, but for me it was because honestly, the quality is crap. Harry Potter merch looks nothing like the movie props, which was what I was actually invested in. I litterally have a big investment in my bookbinding hobby now, thanks to Harry Potter, because I was always so obsessed with having a pet monster book of monsters, but the merch version was so fake and ugly, so I decided I would just have to make my own 😂

[@kkkender]

As a kid coming from a small town and not spoiled by frachises by the time HP catches me, I didn't really think after watching the movie, "there must be merch for this!". The only thing that got me interested was the food, and mom managed to satisfy my curiosity with a homemade pumpkin juice :) for all other things - I just knew toymakers wouldn't make actual flying brooms/snitches or wands trowing sparks, so in my eyes those would have been no better than any stick I find on the street

[@StoneWeevil]

What's funny about the symbol of the Deathly Hallows is that in book 7, Krum sees Lovegood wearing the symbol and says it was used by Grindelwald, the dark lord active during the WWII era... So when you think about it, the Deathly Hallows symbol is basically the swastika of the wizarding world, and the Lovegoods are like those people you sometimes hear babbling on about "reclaiming" it. Something to chuckle about next time you see it stuck to a car or tattooed on someone.

[@ofthewilderwoods]

Omg I forgot about that

[@deliri0um]

i really wanted it tattooed as a kid thank god lol

[@miraj5569]

It really is like the swastika, but not really in the way you're saying. The swastika was a symbol in Hinduism, Buddhism and Jainism long before the Nazis abused it and has been in continuous use since then. So people seeing the Deathly Hallows symbol and automatically associating it with Grindelwald is more like people seeing a swastika in a Non-Western context and going "Nazi!" when in reality, these people are only using it in the way it was intended to be used.

[@rooty]

You say that like people reclaiming it are all delusional. But... they're right

[@crispysatyr0355]

Wtf, the Lovegoods wore that symbol because they are conspiracy theorists that believe they do exist.

[@Aliandry]

JK didn't seem to have been a single mother when she began writing the first book. By her personal (and most recent account) she wrote it on actual paper, while living in Portugal, and would apparently use the printer at the private school she worked at to make copies of the manuscript. She had a house and was still married. She said she wrote the book in one of Porto's most beautiful cafés, The Magestic. Lately, a lot of conflicting accounts have started showing up about her life in Portugal. It's also noteworthy that she said many a thing about her inspirations coming from Portuguese culture while there and in the following years (some are obvious renditions of culturally significant things, such as Portugal's University culture influencing the uniforms to the architecture and shops of the city she lived in, Porto being sometimes nearly identical to places in the HP universe), but apparently, said no such thing outside the country for a long time. Years later, when asked, she implied that many of the places she had gone to for inspiration "before" didn't exist, or even outright dismissed things she'd said in interviews years before (sometimes to a ridiculous degree). Sometimes Portugal was hell, she was poor and she suffered because of her Portuguese husband and had to run away to England where she started writing the book, sometimes Portugal was heaven, a centre of inspiration and a place where she could truly be herself and lead a good life while working on a small side project. Peculiar how her narrative changed.

[@Jane-oz7pp]

Honestly I don't believe a single thing she's ever said about her life. I'm not even sure I believe the abusive husband narrative, because that was only really ever brought up as a response to criticisms to begin with.

[@deldarma4509]

Harry Potter wasn't made in a day, she started writing the story on and off many years before it was published. There is no discrepancy. She made copies of the manuscript at work because her husband was abusive and had threatened to burn her work before. Then she ran away from him and left Portugal and she was a single mother without a lot of financial ressources, but she never said she was on the streets either.

[@deldarma4509]

@@Jane-oz7pp Disgusting comment. He was litterally arrested for domestic violence and publically said he hit her. I guess you guys believe women unless they have a different political opinion...

[@jonasdowner]

the web gets complicated, no? believe women, yes. but if you attack a vulnerable community, go full TERF, and just generally be an insufferable prick, well the empathy train will eventually stop going "choo-choo!"

[@MorganChaos]

I don't find it peculiar at all. Writing a book is something that happens over a very long time period, months or years, during which time you can experience life changes. And a time in your life can be great in some ways and hell in others, nothing is ever all good or all bad.

[@mk_oddity2841]

I've been avoiding JK's IP like the plague recently, but your videos are good enough to merit an exception. Something that I loved about the books as a kid was that the material stuff in them felt so high-quality and real. Olivander was an old fashioned craftsman of the kind that modern capitalism has made increasingly obsolete. The clothes were tailored to measure. Books were bound in leather. Food was made from scratch. Buildings were built of wood and stone. Plastic, drywall, printer paper, etc. were largely left behind in the muggle world, leaving the reader in a blissfully tactile environment of beautiful things. Having reminders of that material beauty packaged and sold as more of the same cheap crap that it contrasted to so powerfully in the books was such a cutting disappointment. The first---and least---of many from that quarter, alas.

[@FrogsForBreakfast]

Ok I agree with you, but also purely stone walls suck. Long live the cavity wall, for it is less damp, and long live the drywall, for it is easier to hang posters on.

[@rhythmandblues_alibi]

This 100%. I have absolutely no desire to buy a fake plastic wand. It seems like utter anathema to the world she created. I just don't get it.

[@Sophiesmakeupbag]

Really well said!

[@GloomGaiGar]

Kid you took the world for granted.

[@sophieh.4097]

what a wonderful analysis

[@junkmail2223]

it's a complete footnote, but the existence of a rubik's cube cartoon utterly floored me

[@tetrofita1787]

Yep… robot chicken made *2* parodies of it!

[@gusty7153]

oh man! the wand buying is a good point. technically each wand is suppose to be unique and special with some core that resonates with the chosen user similar to the components of a jedi lightsaber, but the lightsaber is forged by the jedi in training through ceremony while the wands seem already exist before encountering the users they were meant for and its always bothered me every time i reflected on it.

[@bigamateur9055]

Also the fact that 'twin wands' are apparently rare as hell. Are you telling me, that dragons hearts only have one heart string each? And they use only one hair from each unicorn in existence? They never use more than one part of that specific animal you make a core of? That's not only very inefficient, it's ridiculously unlikely

[@gusty7153]

@@bigamateur9055 oh ya thay crap too like thats definitely some bullshit. probably a bandaid thing to make the wands seem more special than what they are but definitely a plothole now i think about it. i actually been speculating that most of the wizards that are abnormally weaker than what a wizard should be, and i forgot the name for, probably come from never finding their special personal wand since their all premade and so randomly assorted. maybe the wand makers shoulda made more "twin wands". meanwhile with lightsabers, from what i can understand, jedi go into some mineshaft full of kyber crystals to meditate over the pieces of the lightsaber they handcrafted themselves or something. the wand thing woulda made some sense if the kids made the wands thrmselves in the same as the jedi made their lightsabers. oh and in that one book there was the girl who was half magical being with a wand made from her own mom's hair or something.

[@JT5555]

to be fair,you CAN pass down your wand (like with ron's first wand). it might not work as well as a custom fit wand but it will still technically work.

[@gusty7153]

@@JT5555 i know that but thats not the point. the point is that the wands are a mass produced commercial product within its universe and only has frivolous and arbitrary details to distract the reader from this and make them seem more special than what they actually are. and the only reason why ron got a second hand wand passe down to him is cause the family was too poor to buy a replacement.

[@leannegallacher8434]

It’s weird to think I’m an anomaly who heard about the books from a friend despite being Scottish born and bred. My first wand and broom were sticks I found in the woods near my house. But I remember my mum buying me a Hermione doll for my Christmas. I, however, was not allowed to open it out of the box. It was a collectible and I had to think of the fact that it would increase in value. I was 9. My brother got all the original HP Lego, it was built and put on display but could not be torn down and put in the Lego bin, instead each piece when dismantled had to be done so carefully and put in it’s box. We were often discouraged from playing with it. Consumerism isn’t just the buying but the fact that in some cases we weren’t even allowed to play with the things we got because the scarcity of the product meant parents saw them as investments that would increase in value. This may just be a totally incomprehensible rant, but honestly I commend you for bringing this information to a wider audience.

[@Mags_isthename]

wait wait wait hold on. so your parents bought you, a 9 year old, a hermonie doll knowing that you'll not be allowed to play with it because they already planned, it'll be used as an investment. wtf was the point of buying it for you? did they at least like promise you the profit from selling it? cause then there really was no point, I'd call it cruel even

[@leannegallacher8434]

@@Mags_isthename we get the pieces to sell ourselves later. My brother loves Lego and so do his kids, think it’s all ended up there XD they weren’t trying to be cruel, just didn’t think it through. They tried to do the same with an Anastasia Barbie and me, that doll did not survive in mint condition cause though she came beautifully presented in her blue dress I was determined she had to wear the dress from once upon a December XD.

[@Mags_isthename]

@@leannegallacher8434 well that's a slight relief lmao

[@Cruizinelli12]

I always found it strange that poor people like the Weasleys and Lupin existed in a world full of magic, I must admit. It always bothered me that they had to suffer, while Harry had a vault full of gold underground too, that he never once used to help pay the Weasleys back for their hospitality. I think that’s why Rowling introduced the 5 principals of magic to the series later on, that said food and other materials (maybe elements necessary for manufacturing money) could not be duplicated. She must’ve had millions of fans bugging her about why wizards and witches couldn’t just make food, clothing, and money appear out of thin air.

[@SilentProti]

In Goblet of Fire you could read that Weasleys didn't want to use Harry's money.

[@sasharama5485]

If i am correct harry gave the money he won in the tournament to the Wesley's to open their tricks shop. The parents probably didn't want the money because of pride.

[@hippityhoppitybleblebleb2236]

Its been stated that the weasleys are too prideful to accept other's help or pity and i can understand that too but it is weird. If ppl have spell to repair things or spellotape why the need to have ragged clothes and things? Unless those things can't repair permanently? Personally i just chalk it as jk not being big brain enough to talk about class and economical discrepancy in her world

[@gabrote42]

I love when a fanfic takes the time to point oyt how dumb that is. Like HPMOR, despite it's problems

[@vytah]

"food and other materials (maybe elements necessary for manufacturing money) could not be duplicated" If I had to provide an in-universe explanation why, the cynic in me would answer "the ruling class of wizards enchanted the entire world so that those spells no longer work to keep the wizarding plebs poor."

[@xym07]

This is probably off-topic but when I saw the movie clips with Dudley I was so glad that Henry Melling has become a respectable actor. Especially when the HP franchise, which took a big part in my generation growing up, has become a corporate machine.

[@erraticonteuse]

The DIY merch aspect is one of my favorite things about Our Flag Means Death fandom. HBO/WB doesn't give a shit about promoting the show, so tons of independent artists/fans can make a decent chunk of change from it. Even the number of India-based Etsy stores selling pink bird robes, while probably not completely free of sin, are making those robes because they noticed a direct demand because of the amount of people buying the (100% cotton) fabric from them in the first place, not because they've been hired to fill a corporately determined quota, and they don't have to give a cut to WB. Also, yeah, those Hogwarts robes being polyester is 100% of the reason I didn't buy them when I went to Universal. Like, it's already hot and humid enough in Florida, why would I willingly swathe myself in several layers of black plastic on top of it?

[@halfpintrr]

God I love OMFD.

[@literaterose6731]

Oh man, I’d SO much rather have something handmade representing OFMD than anything HP ever! Come to think of it, my younger daughter is a textile artist, I think I know what to ask her to make for my next birthday!

[@DC_let_the_Waynes_be_happy]

Oh absolutely, OFMD made me get back into embroidery so that I could personalize a jacket, I love the show so much and I love how creative I can get with it

[@StargazerSkyscraper]

@@DC_let_the_Waynes_be_happy SAMMMMMME Holy shit. I made a white iron-on patch version of the title so it'd show up nice on my black jacket, but I'm tempted to redo them and a. use fuscia or pink for the letters to reinforce the queer-anarchist theme of my jacket, or b. make the word "flag" trans colors for pride-related reasons. Either way, it's going on the back across the shoulders, right over my massive glow-in-the-dark velociraptor patch (which, to be fair, I didn't embroider - I cut it out of an old t-shirt I couldn't bear to throw away).

[@DC_let_the_Waynes_be_happy]

@@StargazerSkyscraper dude your jacket sounds cool as fuck,I didn't put the name of the show on mine (I embroidered a Lighthouse with kraken tentacles around it in the pocket and painted blackbeard's flag with his bar&grill name on the back) but I made a boton with it, I put the ace and the Bi flags as background and draw a flag with the name on it, I wanted to include the enby flag too but I'm not out,but now that you mentioned I could repaint the word flag with the colors,idk tho,gotta see if it works

[@dakotasillyman5495]

This video really underlines to me how special the Calvin and Hobbes series is. Bill Waterson only ever officially licensed a couple calendars. Everything else (especially the Calvin peeing stickers you always see on big trucks) are all bootlegs. As I get older I find some of my favorite media from childhood feeling cheaper and cheaper (especially Harry Potter,) but Calvin and Hobbes remains totally unsullied. I'm so glad those messages were never undermined in the way many of the attempted messages in HP have been.

[@zuresei]

i feel like he should have licensed at least one Hobbes plush. i would have killed for that

[@justas423]

​@@zureseihand knit one then

[@mastermarkus5307]

@justas423 I feel like that's easy to SAY. While I disagree with all this corporatism I think that we shouldn't have some sort of expectation of everyone having to be great at everything so that they can have something of their own. Why not have more opportunities available for someone to hand-craft the plush?

[@zuresei]

@@mastermarkus5307 etsy was probably the best platform for that, but like ebay before it, it's been made a public stock and will forever be indebted to the shareholders. i think the "hand knit one" wouldn't be such painful advice if it weren't for that genuinely being my only option, haha

[@wmvmetalsmithing]

Bill Watterson is a fucking legend. The man made one of the most popular and highly regarded newspaper comics of its time, and then when he felt that he didn't have any more to say he ended it instead of keeping it alive as a shambling zombie. He saw the writing on the wall and knew what would happen if he let Universal Syndicate commercialize it, so he took the money he made and went to live his best life out in the woods painting. Contrast him to the Dilbert guy who has said himself that he was in it for the money from the start. He didn't even work in an office setting for that long--most of the ideas for his comics were fan-submitted because he did this revolutionary thing at the time of including his AOL email address at the end of the strip. In one of his books he literally brags about how smart he was because he was able to pander to that crowd without knowing much about office culture himself. I bring him up because one of the only reasons he is where he is today was because his comic got picked up after Calvin and Hobbs ended, and newspapers were scrambling to fill the void. After this lucky break he would spend the rest of his career leaning into commercializing Dilbert at every opportunity he had. When you contrast this to the comic it was replacing in the papers, it's like you said--it really highlights how special Calvin and Hobbs was. (And that's not getting into the *other* reasons Scott Adams isn't regarded as a luminary in his field these days.)

[@Geospasmic]

The only thing that makes the wizard shopping area different from a typical mall is the aesthetics. Wizard stuff is better because it's quaint, old fashioned, fantasy flavored.

[@Bionickpunk]

Cottage core, but capitalized and merchefied.

[@JoseLuisGarcia9540]

Can we also talk about the books getting new editions every year? They change the cover illustrations, or make 4 versions of each book according to your Hogwarts' house, or make the Minalima editions, or the Jim Kay illustrated editions, or books only with quotes, or themed about beasts, quidditch, and so on. It's getting frustrating and also it's a BIG problem if we think about the paper...

[@baladosempolan8054]

Another hypocrisy then... as I remembered at Deathly Hallow's release book interview, she mentioned about to prevent lesser usage of woods by using eco-green papers for her last novel. My little self back then was so awe, because I like eco-green papers, and hope she could continue doing that in case she writes more novel. Well yeah what an innocent mind back then... a decades ago....

[@Rhianna.M]

I've said it once and I'll say it again, if Harry Potter was actually written in a boardroom by a marketing team I would not be surprised, imagine millions of people buying the same shit in four different colours, now that's divide and conquer. It's like the worldbuilding was MADE to sell merch, the brands, the hogwards shit. STICKS, THEY MADE US BUY PLASTIC STICKS.

[@leonardokallas9350]

I've never thought of it that way but... damn. I wouldn't be surprised either.

[@charlottewilliams1707]

But making your wand is a lot more fun…

[@Rhianna.M]

@@charlottewilliams1707 and a lot more expensive if you do it at.. Universal Studios! *cha-ching!*

[@Newton-Reuther]

And, like many wealthy businessmen, it has all sorts of idea about ethnic minorities.

[@aModernDandy]

That is a really good observation - I wonder if a factor in this is, that the system of Houses at posh schools was intended to give people (well, boys really) a feeling of belonging that would make them irrationally devoted to their group within the system. Works in the 19th century, and in the 21st!

[@randomnerd3402]

The main writer for He-Man actually hated writing the series because it was an exaggerated toy commercial, and soon left. He went on to be one of the lead writers for Batman The Animated Series and many other DCAU shows, which were probably some of the best stuff done with DC's characters. He also wrote Batman Arkham City and Arkham Asylum. Edit: Btw this and the Barbie video convinced me to not buy toys, (Which I haven't done for a couple of months). I feel bad that I'm gonna have to dispose of the toys that are wasting away in my room. For context I am 14. So a lot of the stuff is from when I was a lot younger.

[@tikki2340]

Imo, I think it’s more important not to buy from the source than it is to throw out the stuff you already have. I buy thrifted toys and keep them so that they don’t end up in landfills. It’s all the question of where is your money going towards. If your money spent on that Pokémon plushie is going to a charity thrift store, you’re probably fine. I doubt the corporations are gonna see any of it.

[@randomnerd3402]

@@tikki2340 yeah true, I try to find toy companies that at least attempt to have good business practices as well, McFarlane isn't half bad

[@marthademovimaus5140]

Eb@¥ if you have time, if not (ra¡craigslist free section with a good, specific, description and put the stuff on your curb.

[@ferinzz]

It really depends on what you're buying. Is it manufactured junk that you won't actually care about or is it a plush that you'll keep for years. It's okay to buy things that you want. But you don't need everything that a company makes. It's very good to ask questions about what you're actually spending your money on, but it's also okay to just enjoy a new figurine if you have the space to display it and enjoy looking at it.

[@the_aberration7398]

Don’t tell people on the internet your age.

[@tabs4917]

Living in the old part of Cambridge, there are literally more harry potter merchandise shops than supermarkets. The town isn't particularly tied to the series much, it feels like an invasive element in the city centre. They're always close to Gonville and Cauis College, which funnily enough has notoriety as the transphobic college.

[@alicefullofice]

oh my God that is nonsensical, more merchandise than FOOD? invasive is a great word for this situation!

[@victoriansquirrel]

When I first moved to my English town of choice, I was so surprised to find a Harry Potter themed shop near the high street even though the town denied the series to be filmed there because of the occult themes. But hey, the tourists love it

[@red_velvetcake1759]

I live in Cambridge and there's only one Harry Potter shop that I know of, and the big supermarkets aren't in the town centre, they're a mile out, as it's a medieval town so there's not room for them in the centre. York however, there are at least 3 Harry Potter shops in just one street in York, all selling the same merchandise

[@Faick99999]

I live in the North of France and in both my city of birth and my city of studies there is a Harry Potter themed shop. It has always boggled my mind that running a Harry Potter shop could be a sustainable business.

[@luciasoosova2182]

I visited Cambridge in 2017. I was surprised to see a merch shop entirely dedicated to HP. We all sprinted inside and everyone who dared to call themselves a fan, bought something. Truly bizarre

[@ronturner3598]

The LeGuin quote brings to mind the mechanical and shallow nature of magic in the wizarding world. The final battle between good and evil was literally a wand vomit contest.

[@marocat4749]

And that would be fine, if ther wer other vfights that are using more creativity like the dumbledore voldemord fight .

[@Trashboat760]

Can I get time stamp for the quote? It’s so spot on, and I’d love to cite it.

[@ronturner3598]

@@Trashboat760 Can I get some researcher pay?

[@clara_corvus]

@@Trashboat760 here you go: 32:24

[@gunnersg2700]

The final battle was meant to be simple. Harry beat Tom with a single Expelliarmus. It's hardly as shallow as a big theatrical fight scene

[@Owesomasaurus]

"He-Man... on his way to a pride parade" - apparently a non-trivial percentage of the animation team were queer so this vibe was 100% intentional.

[@marocat4749]

Heman has even a surprising big female cast that does i get a ratio, but they are really good characters too. And just get more agency every incarnation. Eve-lyn /evillyn is proably an icon too. And the whole hiding and , magical , yeah besides having good m,orals and characters its incredibl queer too. So that doent surprise me. Alo yeah thehemans look.

[@ChoppaBoy]

@@marocat4749 Teela wasn't a damsel in distress, she was straight-up in charge of Eternia's army. And Queen Marlena was basically female John Crighton.

[@ksvo2157]

I'm currently study the Philosopher's Stone for an English class for university (fantasy children's literature). While the paper that I'm writing doesn't relate to the blatant consumerism in the Harry Potter, this is something that I noticed while reading. One thing that bothered me (that you mentioned) that the movie simply glosses over Ron's embarrassment over his poverty compared to Harry's new found fortune. I throughly enjoyed this video essay, and the thoughtful academic approach and analysis done.

[@Pseud0nymTXT]

I finally understand why the robes in the moves were less robes as described in the books and more weird overcoat things, because simple black woolen robes originating in the medieval era (perhaps customised by students to show their house) doesn't make good merch

[@limbobilbo8743]

Its so weird that rowling basically added a caveat saying that if you duplicate food it slowly becomes inedible. Like magic can heal pretty much anything mundane easily, you can turn into animals but cloning food would obviously just be too powerful I guess.

[@zoeybourke9617]

Yeah it just seems like Rowling wanted all these limitless magical abilities that could do anything, but never cared for any repercussions of such powers.

[@SomeoneBeginingWithI]

I think she did that mostly for plot reasons, she wanted them to be hungry and misserible while camping, so had to come up with some reason why magic couldn't solve that problem for them. She manages to avoid mentioning that the magic she put in the early books (to make magic seem cool and impressive) would have solved their problem. If you can turn random household items into animals, you can turn basically anything into a chicken. Kill the chicken. Roast chicken for dinner.

[@jordanbomb32]

@@SomeoneBeginingWithI if the food becomes obselete after a few hours than the amino acids and carbon molecules made up of the food should disappear from their body. Magically made food would taste amazing but would effectively be like eating air. That's very interesting. The Harry Potter books are extraordinarily complex. Too complex to expect one lady to have made fool proof. Fucking hell 🤓

[@vylbird8014]

@@zoeybourke9617 Reminds me a bit of Star Trek and the replicator technology. The writers for that franchise are careful to avoid going into detail on how the economics of the future work, because talking about that would come uncomfortably close to politics. So there's no explanation of how you can have a machine which manufactures everything except living cells and latinum, yet also have a whole culture built around business and make a good part of the episodes start with a dilemma over trade.

[@tvsonicserbia5140]

@@vylbird8014 Since when is Star Trek afraid of being political, isn't that what it's famous for?

[@TwelvetreeZ]

7:42 I've always thought it was odd how often the Deathly Hallows symbol appears on HP merch. In the last book, we're led to believe that some wizards see it as equivalent to a Nazi swastika, so it seems a bit strange to put it on a cheese board... Right?

[@rhel373]

I mean, I literally know someone, someone who I consider pretty much above any suspicion of racism or transphobia, with a freaking dark mark tattoo. And consider all the Imperial SW merch.

[@mariarantesmoreira]

Have you read the book all trought the end? I don't think you have...

[@JT5555]

i've pretty much only seen the movies so i might be wrong but i never got the feeling that the deathly hallows symbol was anything more than some obscure thing that only people that actually believe the story world wear. the DEATH EATER SYMBOL on the other hand is 100% the wizard version of a nazi swastika and having THAT on things is weird.

[@genericname2747]

Yes, but hear me out: I am edgy and the deathly hallows symbol looks really neat.

[@sushilampa8287]

I guess it's like with star wars where people love to dress as Darth Vader a lot when he's quite literally Hitler (George Lucas said that the factions are parallels of ww2)

[@StoneWeevil]

No matter how many times I come back to this, I still have trouble believing the Subway ad is real..i It is quite possibly the most tone-deaf piece of media I have ever witnessed in my entire life

[@quillsandspells1502]

Just a few days ago, I saw Hogwarts themed foot creme at someones house and wondered how we got to this point

[@clawcakes]

foot? creme?

[@quillsandspells1502]

@@clawcakes that's exactly what I said after I saw it

[@sholem_bond]

(Chills voice): "Hogwarts school foot lotion"

[@radiorender7163]

@@clawcakes i.ebayimg.com/images/g/AeIAAOSwBgRkaS9m/s-l1200.jpg

[@hyenaedits3460]

I think this is why Animorphs is never gonna get the movie or tv show adaptation the fans want. It's not as toyetic. The darker themes are more prevalent. It's just harder to market once you get past the first six or so books. On the other hand some beautiful art has come from the fandom regardless. People hand make Andalite plushies and print t shirts with their own designs that actually fit the themes of the series instead of distilling it to a soulless logo.

[@TeagueChrystie]

I want an andalite plushie!

[@trickstergods]

Animorphs is so dark for something I started reading in middle school. those covers were nightmare fuel.

[@vylbird8014]

Like Harry Potter, it darkens over time. It starts out as happy-adventures-in-shape-changing, stories where no-one dies and the status quo is mostly preserved through minor victories. And gradually gets grittier as you progress through. I don't recall exactly how it ends, but I vaguely remember that half the characters are dead and the rest have PTSD. I wonder if this was the intent from the start, to have the story age with the audience, or just the writer's own personality shifting over time and wanting to take a more serious tone.

[@silverstorm3729]

@@vylbird8014 I mean, animorphs definitely gets darker over time, but I recently reread the books and found that even book 1 is shockingly dark...like, there's these vivid descriptions of humans in cages? And screams as people are burned alive? It's really intense. The body horror that the series is famous for is also very present in the early books as well. So animorphs in general I'd say started out dark and just gets darker. Though if there's an argument to be made for animorphs being "unmarketable" I think the very explicit anti- colonialism and pro enviromental themes might play more into it, not to mention the kind of inherent queerness of the shapeshifting - the characters literally transform into male or female animals casually all the time, regardless of their own gender, which is unto itself is an idea that would scare people like JKR.

[@nothing-jl2dz]

But people are huge on nostalgia, I feel like it could be a hit

[@Enkiaswad]

The official wands are plastic cheap shit (and not even actually cheap). You can have an artisan make you a wooden wand with woodturning and it will look gorgeous for not a lot more money.

[@limetime9045]

Or hey, if you're feeling particularly DIY, learn some whittling, grab some sandpaper and stain, and you could probably make a fairly charming wand of your own. Might not come out as professional, but it'll have soul to it, y'know?

[@mrbeckegruvan16]

@@limetime9045 We used to do this in middle school, it was even an assignment in wood workshop

[@sarahr8311]

My friend's mom bought fancy chopsticks at garage sales for us to use as wands.

[@mechanomics2649]

@@limetime9045 Sometimes, you can feel particularly DIY and not have the resources for it.

[@max_meliani]

That's precisely what I did! Comissioned a talented sculptor/woodworker about ten years ago, still have it, tropical hardwood and truly one of a kind

[@timelywings7025]

Would actually love to see cheap bbc straight to tv Harry Potter films

[@Wyrd__One]

It could be good tbh. The BBC did phenomenally with Bella Ramsey’s “The Worst Witch”

[@TheQueerTailor]

As a sewist here’s a quick guide to sustainable fabric 1. Fabric that already exists (especially natural fibers) 2. Linen 3. Wool 4. Organic cotton 5. Silk 6. Conventionally grown cotton 7. Heavily processed natural fibers such as bamboo rayon 8. Any synthetic fabric such as rayon, nylon, polyester, spandex, etc.

[@Coccinelf]

What about hemp?

[@TheQueerTailor]

@@Coccinelf very good, up there with linen but sometimes hard to find

[@neuralmute]

Except that traditionally, rayon isn't 100% synthetic - I've studied textile arts, and rayon is in between natural and synthetic, since it's usually made of old paper and related reclaimed cellulose. The first proto-rayon was made in the 1700's in Japan, if I recall correctly, both as a way to reuse paper, and as a cheaper alternative to silk. I agree wholeheartedly though as a fellow sewist - natural fibres win out anytime! (Except when I've had to make dance costumes. When your commission explains that she needs to be able to do the standing splits while balancing on a couple toes, bent fully backward over her partner's arm, spandex becomes an unfortunate necessity.)

[@TheQueerTailor]

@@neuralmute agreed wholeheartedly, like as someone who binds, synthetics will always be part of my wardrobe, they have a place but don’t need to be in everything

[@Flameclaw123]

Thank you! This is hugely helpful for me as I have some sensory issues for certain fabrics but I also want to avoid contributing to plastic waste

[@kyralemieux1271]

I lived in Edinburgh for seven and a half years. The amount of Harry Potter stuff marketed to tourists in that city was (and is) just... off the charts. Whole shops dedicated to Harry Potter merch, Harry Potter tours of the city, you just can't get away from it. Edinburgh is such an amazing city with so much rich history, but all these companies care about is making it relate to Harry Potter in every way possible to sell more wands and more tours where you can see the graves she took the names from and the cafe where she wrote it. It just feels frustrating loving this city so much as my home and knowing how much it had to offer beyond just Harry Potter, but feeling like that's all the companies wanted to squeeze out of it to get that tourist money. Could go on a whole rant about how focusing on just raking in unlimited tourism instead of the happiness of people who actually live there is a wider problem in Edinburgh in general tbh. But just in relation to the Harry Potter thing, shit sucks.

[@amyschmelzer6445]

Well, if it helps, my American family visited Edinburgh last summer and didn’t do anything HP related. I thought it was a beautiful city with a lot of interesting history and architecture.

[@biancaslittlesister]

As someone who visited London (I've not yet been to Edinburgh) as a tourist a few years ago, I was confused and stunned by how many shops sell just Harry Potter merch. The shop at Kings Cross made sense to me and the studio tour, sure, but the the overload of just STUFF that was being pushed at people when there's a whole host of other things in England that I can't see in Australia. The overload of one series was weird, why try to base your whole countries identity on one set of books and films when there is so much more to find than that?

[@FZ-bk9kh]

Lived in Manchester for a couple months. Found the push for selling Harry Potter stuff almost nauseating. The souvenir shops at the tourist traps mostly sold either HP crap or Royal Family merch

[@Thor-Orion]

To my understanding Scotland could use the tourist money pretty handily? My brother was just there earlier this month, it’s a beautiful city, and it definitely hurts to see a place as genuinely magical as Edinburgh being reduced to a tourist trap peddling fake magic.

[@katierasburn9571]

so many of the uks towns and cities have ended up this way and its sickening. Edinburgh, York, Oxford, Manchester. There was even a harry potter shop in fuckin llandudno, a seaside town in north wales thats mostly a place people retire to! I hate it more than anything, i wish it would just go away but as long as chumps keep giving cash it never will. Its ruining everything

[@bert1029]

The Shambles in York has not one, not two, but FOUR Harry Potter shops, despite there being absolutely no connection to Harry Potter whatsoever. (It’s a long story - one person set up a Harry Potter themed shop there and these businessmen saw the opportunity to copy his idea and flood the street with Harry Potter shops). Tourists ask where the “Harry Potter street” is and ngl it gets on my nerves a little. The Shambles is a historic street with authentic Tudor buildings in it. It is the home of Saint Margaret Clitherow, who was tortured to death for hiding Catholic priests in her house. I enjoy Harry Potter (outside of JK Rowling’s bigoted nonsense) but the constant association of The Shambles with Harry Potter irritates me because it’s a beautiful site with real history and culture in its own right, and it’s turning into Disneyland. Phew. Rant over.

[@natashatuskovichcoworking]

Wow. "Magic is so tied to consumerism, presumably in an attempt to modernize it." It starts with a flimsy critique on greed, but really it's just a critique on excluding someone from capitalism. The problem with the Dursleys is not that they overindulge, it's that they leave Harry out of that consumerism. This viewpoint also makes the Harry Potter books read as a how-to manual for creating a marketable franchise: give your characters fun escapist shopping sprees! Divide your characters into personality-based factions with clear visual identities! Include easy visual symbols! Make their magical abilities dependent on the purchase of an item and make fitting into this fantasy world dependent on the purchase of many items!

[@SeanHartnett-t8c]

lol

[@TenositSergeich]

Tbh English boarding schools ARE like that. They do be having the houses.

[@alienovel]

I’ve been wondering why I walk into Walmart in 2023 and still see new Harry Potter merchandise when the movie series ended over a decade ago

[@100iqgaming]

because its the biggest media series ever?

[@iamrightandyouarenot2466]

do you get confused when you see star wars shit in walmart also?

[@darksidegryphon5393]

6:38 Fun fact, in Star Wars lore, the jedi build their own light sabres, using the kyber crystal which the force has guided them to.

[@jorgerincon6874]

They were also a government funded organization, and basically "worked" for free, so it's not like the light sabers were actually free. The Jedi would eventually pay for them.

[@hello_alpine1693]

@@jorgerincon6874 tbf I feel like the concept of a Force user learning and honing their skills completely detached from the systems of the Jedi or Sith would be a very interesting narrative, but I guess it'd be too out-there to explore beyond an obscure novel in the canon rn

[@ammieloris]

Thanks for this. I'm a parent to four young children, and I really appreciated what you highlighted here. Resisting the call of consumerism is certainly challenging for me and the children in my life.

[@apathybronson]

Idk even when I still liked Harry Potter, it never read as anti-consumerist. There's a reason why the shopping scenes are so detailed and drawn out. Probably the most lively written part of the first book. Dudley didn't read to me as 'don't be consumerist' but as 'say please and thank you when you get shit full of presents, you little brat' it wasn't about capitalism being bad it was about children should be thankful and deferential. Harry always was, that's why he was the good guy.

[@camillagudnason7110]

I agree, the long passages in the books are sorta to make us feel what Harry's feeling. And to introduce the wizarding world in a way where it's logical to have world building. A lot of the things Harry observes are things neither he nor us know yet and they illustrate this new world as something to be explored which we (alongside Harry) will do througout the books. As another commenter said, Shaun made a video saying how in Harry Potter there are no good or evil actions (besides major ones like torturing and killing ofc). There are only "the people we like" and "the people we don't like". An example is when Draco remarks on Mrs. Weasley's weight it's mean and infuriating, but Harry's allowed to think whatever of Dudley's and Marge's weight because Harry is good and the others are mean. It's basically the same with this. Consumerism is not bad in the world of Harry Potter unless it is a trait of a bad person.

[@rekacolour]

I think I have exactly one piece of HP merch (a monochrome metal pin with the crest of Ravenclaw House) simply because I find almost everything so tacky, ugly and cheaply made. I went through all the stores at the WB Studio in London and the shop at Platform 9 3/4 without finding a single souvenir I thought was good enough quality and aesthetically pleasing. Also a less than favorite moment from my studio visit was when I stopped by a desk where an employee was explaining how the Death Eater masks were made, and held a demonstration of the manufacturing. I went closer to see the process and he was talking to a few people. He gave me the once over, turned to two girls next to me in Hogwarts robes, and said "I will explain to you because at least you made the effort to dress up" and I was ignored for the rest of the presentation. Apart from being a real shitty move (imagine the wound if he said this to someone who couldn't afford merch and had saved up for years just to afford the entrance fee) this was a really good illustration of the consumerist obsession of the franchise.

[@EmelieWaldken]

Soooo agreeing on the tackiness and cheap feeling of a lot of the merch. Figurines in full plastic, polyester robes and ugly plushies that don't even look like actual owls. I used to adore Harry Potter but never got to the merch because of that.

[@himoffthequakeroatbox4320]

Take comfort from the fact that he's on minimum wage and will be discarded like last year's toy when the fad fades.

[@frayacinth]

I was so excited to buy a Slytherin scarf when I was a kid, and when I finally got one I could feel how cheap it was, it was so disappointing. The only Harry Potter thing I treasure is the real wand my grandad, a woodworker, made me when I was 11. Something handmade, with a lot of care put into it by a treasured family member. No cheap merch can beat that.

[@rkah6187]

Ugh, that is awful, sorry you had to go through that. I also went to the shop at King's Cross and everything was just so expensive - it was very discouraging. Growing up in rural Hungary, we just made our own things and had fun immersing ourselves in the fandom. Seeing that all this is just a cash grab really ruins the magic.

[@yannickvanhoutte4403]

This made me think back a bit on when I was younger, and around the time of the 2nd movie my mother went through the effort to hand-make Harry and Ron dolls for me and my brother for Christmas, complete with a little Hedwig with actual feathers and a tiny broom with twigs. I really wish we had been more caring for those two, because that's the kind of gift not even the highest-quality mass-produced toys can replace. My mother has always been quite wary of how consumerist kids media was in the 90s (I was one of the few kids who had pretty much 0 Pokémon merch outside of scrounged-together trading cards and a plush), but no amount of careful parenting is able to really resist the onslaught for long, even back then. Years later we got a little sister and I distinctly remember mom working super hard to ensure she wouldn't come into contact with the IPs of a local kids media mogul. That lasted until the first day of school... As much as you try to avoid it, your kid will be fascinated by whatever they don't have that others do, regardless of quality or value. I kinda worry how we'll fare if and when my wife and I decide to have a child. In the incredibly unlikely case mom reads this: I love you!

[@krose6451]

I distinctly remember school picture day in the 5th grade. Despite no arrangments whatsoever everyone else showed up in tshirts supporting their favorite show for the day as "obviously" their favorites were cool and so wearing them would make them cool for their pictures. There was much bullying and grouping up based on who'd shown up in what. I as the sole kid to not have thought this way (and didnt have shirts like that anyway) was the only one who showed up in a blouse and got ridiculed pretty hard. It made me feel aweful to be on the outside but my mom loved the picture so that helped some. Years later I came across the school year book and laughed my butt off at the fact that over a third of the class were wearing yellow sponge bob shirts that clashed with the background and got cut off by framing to look seriously disturbed. I feel sorry for the parents that spent money getting prints of that.

[@feykingjulian]

aw your mom sounds really amazing. if i ever have kids i would love to handmake them things like that. really i think more of us should get in the habit of making things for our loved ones. like you said there's nothing quite like it, and it's better for the world to boot.

[@optimisms]

I'm a little later than the 90s kids, but my mom was also exceedingly skeptical of the consumerism and did a great job keeping us away from most of that. An example: we almost never went to the theater (only movies at home), never listened to the radio (only CDs and tapes), and we never watched live TV (only episodes taped on the DVR) so that we rarely ever saw.heard advertisements and could fast-forward whenever they came on. We also never watched Nickolodeon or Disney Channel, which she said was mainly because a lot of it wasn't high-quality/educational, but I think it was also partially because there was a lot of merchandising there too. But it's true that there was only so much she could do because as soon as we started going to school, we felt like we were missing out and wanted what our friends had. My best friend was always watching iCarly or Hannah Montana and I would watch as much as I could when I was at her house. My cousins had DSes and video games and all I ever wanted for two years was a DS; I never got one and I kind of still want it just to have it! I remember fads like Silly Bandz and Bakugan where I wanted them just because everyone else in school had them. It's exactly what you said; children are fascinated by whatever they don't have that others do.

[@Aelffwynn]

It's weird, because my mom used to rail against consumerism, but is now the one who keeps buying me random HP crap I don't want. Yes, I still enjoy Harry Potter for the immersive world and the nostalgia, but when I tell her to STOP BUYING ME STUFF, it falls on deaf ears. Let me enjoy my old books, DVDs, and unofficial robes in peace, mother! At least most of what she buys is thrifted, I guess.

[@eurekamreum5458]

Your mom sounds absolutely amazing!

[@Violet_Crush]

Fun fact so some of the 'Harry Potter House Feather pens' being sold at Primark are the exact same mold of pens being sold as novelty feather pens at asda, which is also the same mold as some random pens on amazon. So while Primark could just have bought the same mold and is making them independently and ethically, this is, at least for me, very much an occam's razor situation of a clear example of Primark using mass made factory products as 'exclusive merch'.

[@rjd-kh8et]

Your point about the Harry Potter movies reminds me of Yu-Gi-Oh! Kazuki Takahashi's manga was originally about all kinds of games. Seto Kaiba and the card game Duel Monsters (originally called Magic & Wizards) only appeared in one chapter. But after they became popular with fans, Konami took the opportunity to make it a real card game and sponsored a new anime focusing on Duel Monsters. The main difference is that (as far as we know) nobody forced Rowling to change her own work to focus on the marketable elements.

[@nebs6888]

The best decision Konami ever made.

[@Newfiecat]

I really liked the original manga where absolutely anything could be turned into a game (and Yami Yugi was UNHINGED!) I was disappointed when it all turned into a card game.

[@Chelsea_E_Lindsay]

Also, Takahashi specifically set out to make a comic where the fights do *not* involve fists. That ties into how Harry Potter fights with wands vs. swords or guns. There is still violence (people get hurt and die even in the card games!) but it's technically due to intellectual battles rather than physical ones. Takahashi accidentally created a toyetic universe; JK Rowling probably didn't intend to be toyetic but most of the common merch symbols (the Deathly Hallows symbol, "always", the Patronuses) are from later books

[@mod321]

23:06 actually slavery is portrayed as good in the books. Hermione was the only one who spoke out against it and everyone told her she was crazy.

[@mariarantesmoreira]

You are REALLY bad at text interpretation

[@seajay632]

My main problem with the books themselves is that JK said Hermione could be black after she wrote pages and pages of Hermione speaking up against slavery and either being ignored or downright laughed at. It's bad enough when she's white, just imagine those parts if she was black! Disgusting.

[@sunbirth4795]

@@mariarantesmoreira can you defend that belief?

[@enekaitzteixeira7010]

@@seajay632 It wouldn't change anything if she was black. Slavery is equally wrong regardless of the color of the skin of the person denouncing It.

[@heavenlyarianator6335]

@@sunbirth4795 the idea is that hermoine being against slavery and being known to be more intelligent than everyone else, is the text being against slavery

[@prikas4313]

Towards the end, I was like "Oh, this sounds like that Ursula K Le Guin quote," and then immediately after you included one by her, but a different one than I was thinking! The one I was thinking of comes from later in that passage: "What the commodifiers of fantasy count on and exploit is the insuperable imagination of the reader, child or adult, which gives even these dead things life--of a sort, for a while." It feels like a lot of properties are built with this in mind and try to capture audience imagination so that the audience will do the work of building the story (and consuming), rather than tell a story that can stand on its own.

[@jellybebe2753]

It sounds familiar because it's part of the same foreword to one of the later Earthsea books :)

[@MK_ULTRA420]

"What the commodifiers of fantasy count on and exploit is the insuperable imagination of the reader, child or adult, which gives even these dead things life--of a sort, for a while." That's what Disney Magic (TM) really is.

[@TheQueerTailor]

One thing I find really interesting is that with the very queer, very trans, offshoot of the Harry Potter fandom that is the marauders fandom and within really only the last two or three years you’ve seen this explosion of fan made merch that can sometimes have very obvious HP imagery, but often are things people outside of the fandom (and even those in most of the HP fandom) wouldn’t recognize as something associated with Harry Potter. There’s an interesting kind of subversion going on there because if there’s one thing JKR hates it’s there being HP merch she can’t make money off of😂

[@neuralmute]

That's funny, I didn't know about that. Of course, I kinda left the fandom when JoJo started getting TERFy, and having grown up as an abused, bullied goth kid, I wasn't fond of the marauders anyway. You know why. 100% trans Snape in this house! XD

[@TheQueerTailor]

@@neuralmute it’s really interesting, I’ve noticed that there are a decent number of queer kids who have become Marauders fans through fanfiction who haven’t even read the original books, which, iconic honestly

[@rayafoxr3]

You may have already watched it but anyone interested in this can watch The Queer Utopia of the Marauders Fandom! I… have not watched it yet admittedly, but, I’ve seen it recommended LOL.

[@Aelffwynn]

Tbh I don't know if she cares as much about money at this point-- it's more about "muh creative control."

[@samitonita]

@@rayafoxr3 it's a really good video!! I recommend it

[@flawlix]

I worked at a bookstore during the midnight releases. They really were a lot of fun, even when working overtime to finish sales. I miss that sense of community from the HP events, even knowing how orchestrated the whole thing was.

[@monkey6207]

"Well the fun is over, I'm a boring grown up now."

[@zappababe8577]

When I went to the Warner Brothers Harry Potter Experience, I couldn't believe the prices of things in the gift shop. One chocolate frog - £7! A cardigan was around £50 IIRC and robes were £75 upwards (for larger sizes)! The food was expensive as well. However, my father enjoyed it there, and that was the last trip out we had together before he became too ill with myeloma. So, I treasure the memory for that reason.

[@Mulbert]

Sorry to hear about your dad x

[@apersonlikeanyother6895]

Poor people can't afford to sit in a cafés every day. I never bought the poverty myth. Thanks for clarifying.

[@billcipher8645]

Well if you are homeless sitting in a cafe all day seems like a better alternative than freezing on the streets.. but she was faaaaar from homeless lol

[@KingFluffs]

@@billcipher8645 I remember she came to our school at the height of the HP craze (Only for the upper years, so I didn't see or meet her) but even then, the kids were laughing at her "woe is me, i was slurping on a coffee and came up with the Harry Potter story, and wrote it on a napkin!" yarn. We knew back then it wasn't as cut and dry.

[@MercurialMoon]

No I always wondered why she didn't go to a library instead

[@theunkindnessofravens]

Her opinions are not of a person who was really touched by poverty and it kinda shows

[@deldarma4509]

Of course they can ? In a big café with enough people you can have one drink and stay there for hours. Bizarre comment

[@ghirathim]

Oh my gosh the recycleable plastic thing was something my sister and I discovered recently when our supermarket chains stopped offering to take plastic to be recycled. The company that was recycling plastic here stopped accepting any so they had to close their programs, and its because of the reasons you said, they ended up with too much plastic that was degrading or not viable for recycling anyway, and presumably other companies didn't want to buy it off them. But also, I wouldn't be surprised if this recycling company was set up by "big oil" to encourage people that using plastic was "fine, actually!"

[@vylbird8014]

You're actually right. You can find details if you do a little googling, but plastic recycling was indeed promoted by a consortium of plastics manufacturers who were well aware of how ineffective it is. They even went so far as to make their 'resin identification code' out of a triangle of arrows that looks almost the same as a recycling symbol, though it means something entirely different. Most plastic is just not recyclable. It's the chemistry - once the polymer is formed, there's no viable way to reduce it to the original monomer again. Some plastics like PET and HDPE can be recycled to a limited extent - they degrade in the process so you can't turn a plastic bottle into a new plastic bottle, but you can turn it into garden furniture or carpet or insulation. Most plastics, though, are just impossible - the only use you can get out of those is to throw them into an incinerator and burn them for energy. Yet all of them, recyclable or not, carry that symbol that is intentionally made to look like a recycling symbol. Even those plastics that can be recycled generally aren't, because there's no way to separate them out - when a big bag of mixed plastic arrives at the recycling center, how do you break them out into piles of the different plastic types? There's no way other than sorting by hand, and paying someone to do that costs more than the plastic is worth. So the whole lot is likely to end up in the incinerator.

[@aggylyf]

Oof that polyester thing makes me mad!!! The EU are basically trying to ban the production of our national costumes in Norway, because they are mostly made of wool, and propose that we should use polyester instead. And not only the plastic, but the fucking disrespect of trying to BAN our national costume, but also.. do you wanna know something? Those costumes are NEVER thrown away, but rater is inherited for generations, and still they want us to use garbage to make them

[@aggylyf]

Did I mention we aren’t even a part of the EU..

[@chickenx777]

why though?

[@Jane-oz7pp]

Wait they want to ban you from using wool? One of the least environmentally damaging clothing textiles? The EU is so not fit for purpose.

[@KD-ou2np]

What is the reason the EU gives for doing so?

[@ranunkeloppidum8270]

Do you have a source for that? That would be horrible. But a quick google search on EU and textile bans only gave me results on either debates about religious clothing or about prohibiting the praxis that clothing brands/ stores destroy unsold clothes.

[@bybookandbone]

I both love and hate how commercial HP is. Being able to buy such specific magical stuff from the the world that was my main place for escapism growing up means a lot (I've no interest in the chibi stuff or faces printed on tshirts/notebooks etc.) but I won't be giving any more money to Rowling. There's also so much official merch that's just horrendously made.

[@Ash-wf6me]

I feel like a good middle ground is finding independently made/fanmade merch

[@bybookandbone]

@@Ash-wf6me Yes, and maybe going with the more obscure merch too. So it feels less related to Rowling

[@millykendrill5301]

Can always steal the official stuff too. I would have zero shame in screwing over a bigot

[@Ash-wf6me]

@@millykendrill5301 great idea!

[@bybookandbone]

@@millykendrill5301 I'm not sure stealing would impact her. Unless you mean pirating which then of course Yo Ho Ho and a bottle of butterbeer :D

[@noneofyourbusiness3288]

Harry Potter was the thing that got me started on read like proper thick books as a child, but other than that I have grown to really dislike the franchise over the years. It is an accessible children's book series, but I cannot take any adult who is running around pretending it is the best fantasy novel of all time seriously. Like tell me you have not read a lot of fantasy, without telling me you haven't read a lot of fantasy.

[@KristinaVeshtort-Kask]

Completely agree on that last part! By the time these books got translated to my native language and appeared in my school library I've already read the Hobbit and LotR (had an all-in-one edition with appendixes, god that thing was a brick), most of the Witcher series, some Pratchett, and started on Le Guin. I took out the first two books - they were easy and fun to read, but didn't leave much of an impression, so i didn't go for the rest of the series. There's so much brilliant, far more interesting and thought through fantasy out there!

[@emilymaybe5405]

would appreciate recommendations

[@noneofyourbusiness3288]

@@emilymaybe5405 LotR and SIlmarilion are the obvious ones. "Malazan Book of the Fallen" if you are up for a challenge. "Dresden Files" is fun wizardry urban fantasy. The "First Law" trilogy by Joe Abercrombie is also excellent. If you want some borderline parody DnD-esque book, "Kings of the Wyld" is very fun. "The Cradle Series" is basically a shounen action manga , but in the form of a fantasy novel. "Mistborn" is a great entry into Brandon Sanderson, or "Stormlight Archive" is also very good.

[@emilymaybe5405]

@@noneofyourbusiness3288 thank u sm!

[@judyh3707]

Children's fantasy, maybe. I don't read a lot of that genre either but... that might be because I'm not a child

[@Kohana006]

As far as schools go, the Accelerated Reader program gave the Harry Potter books HUGE numbers. AR was a program that rewarded you points if you could pass a test about a book you read and the number of points was usually tied to the difficulty of the book that I remember being important in grades 5-8. It also puts it off on the school and teachers to provide prizes for the points. Harry Potter had points that were at the top of the scales. CoS was lower but Goblet of Fire was one of the top scoring books. I remember most of the kids in our class read it for the points. When the first movie came out a bunch of kids in my class, myself included, tried to take it and failed because some of the questions were specifically the parts of the book that differed from the movie. This got a lot of us to read the book and the library had multiple copies that were never in stock. It was how I first learned that the books even existed after seeing the movie.

[@lucyp1591]

oh my gosh you gave me such a flashback with AR 😭 We did it one year and I got the top score in my school, mainly because i spent a lot of time in the library reading almost all the books in there - but also because i did all the harry potter books which instantly gave me a massive boost. I was very proud lol

[@scrollnoir4253]

Holy fuck I remember that. I GOT SO MANY CANDIES AND CAT BOOKMARKS. Interestingly though I didn’t read Harry Potter until I was out of the age range for AR. Honestly sucked compared to the lesser known ones I read when I was younger

[@cpcks18]

Yea I definitely remember this. I never read them as a kid and took the AR tests anyway just for the points😂

[@turquoisecrow4513]

I REMEMBER THAT and i remember hating the first two books enough to outweigh the benefits of AR points

[@seamusb9012]

It's crazy how programed we are that we'd buy the myth of JKRs struggle to publish HP. When you pointed out the true story, the loans, gifts and grants, I kinda didn't believe it. Even with who she's revealed herself to be, we feel like we know that story. Proves everything is marketing.

[@fairylesbyaintdve6536]

I’m glad my main obsession was Percy jackson and yes I think you can buy camp half blood tshirts but i don’t know that there were any official licensed ones until much after the original popularity, and other than that there wasn’t much merchandisable shit from the stories?? annabeth’s invisibility cap literally just being an old yankees hat … the camp necklaces having handmade clay beads..just a lotta fun imo

[@PercabethIsMyLife]

I've always felt a similar way. On top of that, Rick Riordan did the opposite of JoKe Rowling by rising to the occasion when he'd heard of the scope his novels had. The amount of people and nationalities and identities and communities his novels had brought joy and comfort to. No instead of using the novels to preach his views, he pushed to add more and more representation to those groups and peoples, even disabilities. I'll always feel lucky that I grew up with an author willing to listen to the fan base and seemed to care more for the story and the characters than the money they could make him. At least that's how it feels so far.

[@FileCode1459]

right!! i've got a friend who's a huge consumerist and one day we were hanging out at a fair and she spotted a cap that had just the exact blue shade of the one annabeth wears in the films, so she had me buy it for her and gave me her old one, which was just a slightly lighter shade of blue. now i have percy jackson "merch" for the price of a normal blue cap (even though i'm not a fan), and my friend got to have a piece of "merch" from a random local fair. i think that's really nice when you can add your own meaning to normal things, it makes it much more fulfilling

[@fairylesbyaintdve6536]

@@FileCode1459 ah that’s such a nice story!!!!! the personal meaning and history is definitely the point and it was in the books I think also !!!!

[@Cassapphic]

​@@PercabethIsMyLife I want to say their name was alex but I may be wrong but the genderfluid charactet who was a child of loki in the magnus chase books was so good.

[@dijira1235]

My mum would always go on rants of how she hates Harry Potter for this very reason... Like she used to read us all the great fantasy sagas when we were kids and she couldn't stomach HP, because she couldn't get over the fact that you had to buy magical stuff in the magical world and basically wealth dictated everything. Anyway, great and insightful video!

[@Servitor-lx1bu]

Indeed. I thought that this would be important information to share, given what she said about polyester. 35% of all ocean microplastics come from clothing/textiles, mostly polyester, but also acrylic and nylon as well. This is largely due to clothes made of these materials being washed, which causes these clothes to quickly erode, with the microplastic fibers entering the water system and eventually the sea. Ocean Hero is a great search engine that we can use to help clean up larger plastics before they disintegrate into microplastics.

[@captainhades1583]

What books did your mom read you?

[@isabellabybella460]

you also have to buy non magical stuff for our non magical world

[@BlackCanary87]

Your mom sounds like a smart lady!

[@Jenna_Talia]

@@isabellabybella460 but the point of fantasy, especially YA and children's fantasy, is to escape from those horrid chains that exist in our world. We wanna be excited to recieve a letter of invitation to hogwarts and escape from our lives like harry did, not have to deal with financial issues exactly like the weasleys. The point of magic in storytelling is often just to provide an explanation for the impossible within some scope, denying things like a post scarcity society so that you don't need to deal with The Poors is kinda dumb. Especially when your worldbuilding eludes to that being possible.

[@kingampharos1600]

It should be shared that this video was interrupted multiple times by ads for the new Hogwarts Legacy video game... point made.

[@JT5555]

i think they might have changed that because i didn't get a single ad while watching it just now.

[@ashikjaman1940]

God bless KZbin Vanced

[@ButterFlyGardenBlossom]

Is it just me or does videos about certain IPs always get an ad for a new product related to the same thing?

[@drachna]

@@ashikjaman1940 RIP KZbin Vanced more like

[@ashikjaman1940]

@@drachna still out there out there, just harder to find