Harry Potter Discussion

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In a way, I'm actually a bit disappointed in how I ruined the HP series for myself.

Basically, what happened is... when they first came out, I was at a stage where I was trying to grasp onto certain pop culture things to try and fit in. I begged mom to buy me Sorceror's Stone. She balked at first, because she believed the urban legends of boys harming themselves by trying to become wizards. I told her it was mostly bunk, but she refused to budge for a long time.

Finally, I ended up with her buying me the first four books. I remember reading through all four in mere days. But over time, I realized that surprisingly, no one else in my small circle of friends was really into them. I was a really miserable sheltered assburger in high school, and so it just kind of gutted me that here I was, latching onto this Big Thing in an attempt to "fit in", and it wasn't working. So I lost interest before book 5, and never cracked the first four again.

And now, when I look back at the franchise, I remember bits and pieces here and there (oddly, not so much the plots themselves, but the characters, the setting, etc.). So by that token, I can see them as books well deserving of their fame, since they created a world and characters that were instantly memorable. But all of that just gets overshadowed by me also seeing 14-year-old sadsack me, trying and failing to latch onto a piece of pop culture in an ultimately failed attempt to fit into the world.
 
I've never read the books or watched the movies, but have a generally positive impression of the franchise, because nothing that got kids standing in line waiting for bookstores to open can possibly be a bad thing.
 
I liked Harry Potter growing up but I was quite a sperg about it but not like "What's my House" and more like "These wizards are a threat to British national security." I remembering reading Goblet of Fire, where the Quidditch stadium is "hidden" because muggles who cross a boundary suddenly "remember" something else they have to do urgently and go home. What if you went across with a note or a radio and someone reminded you, have you beat the magic? Or how does this hide it from Satellites? How can the Wizards get an auror as the PM's bodyguard when they barely know how muggle-tech works? Did they have a wizard add their plants records into government computers?

That and thinking about how stagnant a society the wizards are, consumed by arrogance and doomed to die-out in any even semi-realistic interpretation of the setting. Weren't Wizards who built steam-trains was it and is my tax-money paying for that railway to Hogwarts? Why does being wizard-poor mean the Weasley's live in a shit house? Sell your acres of Devonshire countryside and by a town-house in the North.

Everyone else in school thought I was taking it too far - probably right.

The new American movie kinda rekindled all this for me. Like why does the US Magic Government use American symbols? Looked it up and they pre-date the USA apparently. Why do they have a "Federal" agency when they aren't a federation? "Director of Magical Security" ffs. Why do they conform to any national-boundaries at-all? Makes sense in Britain as the island itself is all one country and the Ministry of Magic makes no reference to anything British in it's composition. In Goblet of Fire there are Bulgarian wizards and it's set in 1994, so was there a Communist Magical USSR up until recently? East German Magic? It's a bit retarded frankly; far too "American" and uninspired.
 
I have decided to necro this thread given the present controversy around J.K. Rowling, and just why people are so passionate about the books and the characters within them. I figured it was relevant, especially now.

I have read through most of the books, I am in the middle of book 6. I haven't yet read book 7, or any of the other supplementary materials and films. I don't know what other people think of them, but maybe necro-ing this thread might make for interesting discussion.
 
I was heavily into HP in its heyday, when the latter books were still being released. (Please don't judge me too harshly, I was young and a hopeless geek.) imho, the best thing about HP was the online community that grew up around it. Absolutely it was rife with autism but in other ways it was amazing. Millions of people all over the world brought together by a few books. Anything you could ever want was there, up to and including watching different areas of the fandom itself implode on Fandom Wank.

Right now the books are being rereleased in lovely illustrated popup editions by Minalima and I''m rereading them for the first time in many years. It does make me kind of nostalgic for the heady days of fandom, but honestly, I don't have the energy anymore.
 
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The-Mad-Asshatter said:
I have decided to necro this thread given the present controversy around J.K. Rowling, and just why people are so passionate about the books and the characters within them. I figured it was relevant, especially now.

I have read through most of the books, I am in the middle of book 6. I haven't yet read book 7, or any of the other supplementary materials and films. I don't know what other people think of them, but maybe necro-ing this thread might make for interesting discussion.
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I never read the books, but back then when the first movie came out I was 7 year old and watched. Then the second movie came out and I watched it as well. But after the third I just never watched it again. But I was alive and could remember the buzz of when the movies came out or new books being released, it was funny to see my friends reading it as I was reading the first book of Lord of the Rings.

Then when I was 16, I watched the fifth movie in Cartoon Network and I thought it was alright. Even today I think the setting of harry potter could be really great, but the story and other adjacent materals not focusing on other parts of the characters and settings is a bad thing after all.

It is quite funny because my favorite franchise also does have mages and school mages but rather than finishing after telling the MC story, focused on other stories set in the same world.

and here it is an early 00's fanart of the artist of the franchise of Hermione

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The-Mad-Asshatter said:
I have decided to necro this thread given the present controversy around J.K. Rowling, and just why people are so passionate about the books and the characters within them. I figured it was relevant, especially now.

I have read through most of the books, I am in the middle of book 6. I haven't yet read book 7, or any of the other supplementary materials and films. I don't know what other people think of them, but maybe necro-ing this thread might make for interesting discussion.
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I read the books as a kid and liked them well enough, they’re definitely what got me into reading in the first place (though at this point I haven’t read for fun since high school lmao) but I never really got the extended obsession people seemed to have with the series. Like, they’re really solid for children’s books and one of the classic cases of the story “growing up with the audience”, but people try to make it more than it is.

Because I read the books first, I was disappointed with the movies past the Prisoner of Azkaban, which is when the books really started becoming door stoppers and containing way too much to reasonably adapt into a movie without significant cuts.
 
I really enjoy the series. First read them in middle school and I own the audio books and hardcovers. The series is definitely the best books Rowling has written. Lightening in a bottle really. All the crazy shit the series has attracted over the years has been amusing as well.

If you don't feel you have the energy for reading, get the audio books read by Jim Dale. The man is able to pull off a lot more distinguishable voices than any other narrator I've heard.

Also, the new video game, Hogwarts Legacy, has me intrigued. I wish they'd give out more details on it.
 
Enclave Supremacy said:
I liked Harry Potter growing up but I was quite a sperg about it but not like "What's my House" and more like "These wizards are a threat to British national security." I remembering reading Goblet of Fire, where the Quidditch stadium is "hidden" because muggles who cross a boundary suddenly "remember" something else they have to do urgently and go home. What if you went across with a note or a radio and someone reminded you, have you beat the magic? Or how does this hide it from Satellites? How can the Wizards get an auror as the PM's bodyguard when they barely know how muggle-tech works? Did they have a wizard add their plants records into government computers?

That and thinking about how stagnant a society the wizards are, consumed by arrogance and doomed to die-out in any even semi-realistic interpretation of the setting. Weren't Wizards who built steam-trains was it and is my tax-money paying for that railway to Hogwarts? Why does being wizard-poor mean the Weasley's live in a shit house? Sell your acres of Devonshire countryside and by a town-house in the North.

Everyone else in school thought I was taking it too far - probably right.

The new American movie kinda rekindled all this for me. Like why does the US Magic Government use American symbols? Looked it up and they pre-date the USA apparently. Why do they have a "Federal" agency when they aren't a federation? "Director of Magical Security" ffs. Why do they conform to any national-boundaries at-all? Makes sense in Britain as the island itself is all one country and the Ministry of Magic makes no reference to anything British in it's composition. In Goblet of Fire there are Bulgarian wizards and it's set in 1994, so was there a Communist Magical USSR up until recently? East German Magic? It's a bit retarded frankly; far too "American" and uninspired.
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It's a nice world but it breaks apart when you think about it too long. Better look at it with a child's innocence, not with the mind of an adult.

And I'm not sure if it's secretly based, or britbongs just crave a authoritarian regime that cares for only its interest secretly pulling the strings. Like, there's magical creatures and everywhere and there's 6bn muggles that either travel or are military. There has to be a task force of significant size that runs 24/7 trying to erase memories of muggles.

What if some military dude discoveres a magic creature, reports to his official, and a whole mission is made to retrieve it. Are there wizards in military who can intervene and overrule? If they can prevent/drive away military expeditions, they must have a shitton of power.

So like there's a conspiracy shadow government that secretly controlls high ranking members of parliments and military, and with the pretext to keep the wizard world traditions in place. A lot of money goes into keeping muggles out of magic for no good reason other than tradition, and who knows what other nonsensical traditions they have. There a lot of corruption. I'm guessing there's a lot of high ranking officials who want to keep these traditions cause they gain a lot both in wizard world and in muggle world. So this is all probably obsolete, and only exists because it benefits the powerful few.

I don't think Harry's main problem is a wizard who tries to cheat death and wants to reenact revenge...
 
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I avoided the series for years until I was stuck inside in early 2020 and needed whatever distractions I could find. I used a kindle unlimited trial to read all the books for free. They were alright. They didn't suck as much as I thought.

The way things are going regarding JKR, I may revisit and buy them all. Not even to read. Maybe a copy of Hogwarts Legacy too.
 
I still don't see how the goblins in Harry Potter are supposed to be anti-semitic.

They're portrayed as the finest craftsmen in the world, making artifacts that are literally indestructible by most normal means that can last practically forever.
They have a very unique concept of ownership wherein the person who makes an object is the true owner, and buying a thing grants the buyer inviolable rights to that object until their death. When the buyer dies the family must either give the object back or negotiate for it's continued ownership.

They do run the banks, yes. But unlike anti-semitic Jewish stereotypes they aren't unscrupulous about it. In fact, they're often insanely scrupulous to the point where they're the most trustworthy people to hold your wealth. They wouldn't even allow the Ministry of Magic to seize the accounts of the followers of Voldemort who were convicted of horrible crimes and sent to Azkaban. They're so trustworthy they would outright rather fucking die than break a contract.

They're portrayed as an oppressed people who have legitimate grievances with wizards who decided they're in charge and see fit to dictate to the goblins what goblins can and can't do. Yeah, they do fuck with wizards on occasion, pulling a leaf from the book of Diogenes and teaching trolls to talk just because wizards decided that the only difference between magical beasts and magical beings was the ability to speak. "Behold, a magical being!" they say as they try not to laugh their fucking asses off at the seething wizards.

This is probably the least anti-semitic Jewish caricature I've ever fucking seen. If anything it makes Jews look fucking based.
 
Still Exceptional said:
I still don't see how the goblins in Harry Potter are supposed to be anti-semitic.

They're portrayed as the finest craftsmen in the world, making artifacts that are literally indestructible by most normal means that can last practically forever.
They have a very unique concept of ownership wherein the person who makes an object is the true owner, and buying a thing grants the buyer inviolable rights to that object until their death. When the buyer dies the family must either give the object back or negotiate for it's continued ownership.

They do run the banks, yes. But unlike anti-semitic Jewish stereotypes they aren't unscrupulous about it. In fact, they're often insanely scrupulous to the point where they're the most trustworthy people to hold your wealth. They wouldn't even allow the Ministry of Magic to seize the accounts of the followers of Voldemort who were convicted of horrible crimes and sent to Azkaban. They're so trustworthy they would outright rather fucking die than break a contract.

They're portrayed as an oppressed people who have legitimate grievances with wizards who decided they're in charge and see fit to dictate to the goblins what goblins can and can't do. Yeah, they do fuck with wizards on occasion, pulling a leaf from the book of Diogenes and teaching trolls to talk just because wizards decided that the only difference between magical beasts and magical beings was the ability to speak. "Behold, a magical being!" they say as they try not to laugh their fucking asses off at the seething wizards.

This is probably the least anti-semitic Jewish caricature I've ever fucking seen. If anything it makes Jews look fucking based.
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In the movie they have big noses and are good with money. Therefore, they're meant to be Jews.

The people who promote this kind of shit aren't readers. Maybe they'll skim something here and there, but actually getting down into a book and reading it, studying the author's background, the influences on the text, pulling the text itself to pieces... the only analysis these people do is to find something to be offended about and prove their raging bias right. There's an article on here bemoaning (at length) how no one wants to study the humanities anymore. It's based on American universities, but it's a trend happening around the world. Aside from the fact that very few people anymore can earn a living off of the humanities, those that do want to study them just don't want to spend all their time writing queer decolonialist antiwhite analyses of the Bronte sisters.

The 'goblins are Jews!' people at best at hyperfixated on finding something to be jealous about, and at worst are projecting their own raging narcissism and paranoia and racism onto others.
 
Warner Bros. Nears Deal for Harry Potter Online TV Series (A)
TL;DR:
  • Sources are two anonymous people who claim to know about it. Deal is not yet finalized.
  • There will be 7 seasons, so one book = one season.
  • Rowling will be involved to make sure it stays close to the source material, but won't run the show day-to-day or serve as the primary creator
  • Mentions Zaslav deciding he wants to invest in fewer movies and TV shows and have the ones the company does make be of a higher caliber.
 
⠠⠠⠅⠑⠋⠋⠁⠇⠎ ⠠⠠⠊⠎ ⠠⠠⠁ ⠠⠠⠋⠁⠛ said:
They appeal to the deeply mentally retarded and gay
View attachment 4335597
PLEASE MINISTRY OF MAGIC SEND WIZARDS TO DESTROY RUSSIAN ARMY
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Alexey Navalny on Twitter: "1/6 I already quoted this great phrase in…

archived 25 Jan 2023 23:13:13 UTC
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Pretty sure that quote isn't even from the books. It was a sappy scene between Luna and Harry added for the movie where she spoonfeeds him the theme.
 
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