this post was submitted on 11 Nov 2023
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[–] Stamets@lemmy.world 187 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (7 children)

Edit: Can y'all please stop downvoting this person for being confused? Rule number one. Be kind. They're not being a dick here or being cruel or anything. Give them the benefit of the doubt please.


JK Rowling is the author of Harry Potter and was primarily known for this. Loved, even, for this. An enormous fanbase. Not to say that there weren't issues with her portrayal of POC characters or doses of antisemitic behavior (The Goblin Bank literally has a MASSIVE Star of David in the middle of their lobby) but people still loved her nonetheless.

Yet overtime she started adding random stupid things to canon. People asking about bathrooms and her randomly tweeting in response that wizards used to just shit themselves and then magic it all away. This happened more and more with all manner of subjects that started to really point out she was a piece of shit. When people started talking about her portrayal of various different characters, she sort of went off the deep end. She started getting really entrenched in her position and bitter towards everyone. One of these positions was that trans homies are not homies. The typical "mental illness/grooming/rapists" reasoning. Her position within the fandom fell into utter freefall and fractured an enormous amount of said fandom. This then bled into popular culture as a whole because she's such a popular and influential public figure. She just kept digging and digging and digging and now she's primarily known online as "That bigoted bitch who wrote the wizard books". The entire Harry Potter franchise has become slightly toxic to the touch. Hogwarts Legacy was released to immense backlash and almost none of it was the fact that the game was a raging, repetitive and extremely badly written pile of hot garbage that had no character development or story consequences. Even the actor who played Hermione (not sure about others) came out and said that they would have nothing to do with a Harry Potter continuation or reboot if JK Rowling was involved in any way whatsoever which is what led JK and WB to team up to remake the Harry Potter series. There has been a TV show that was announced with JK herself being heavily involved.

While still a massive franchise and a massive fandom, Harry Potter has aggressively slouched in those ratings and has been inextricably linked to the personal opinions of the author formerly known as JK Rowling. Honestly I just refer to her as "that transphobic bitch who wrote about the wizards" most of the time now.

Edit: Fix'd.

[–] YaksDC@lemmy.world 90 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Thank you for the very detailed explanation. I knew who she was but not about any of this. I read one or two of the books when they first came out but never really got into it. Also thank you for pointing out that just because someone does not know about the thing you like, does not make them a troll. I just wanted to understand the image.

[–] Stamets@lemmy.world 58 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Hey, you asked. I try my best to be helpful when I can.

Also, of course. I'm trying my best to make this place welcoming for everyone except trolls and bigots. You are neither. I give everyone the benefit of the doubt until given a reason otherwise. Can't say that I don't fuck up a lot but I'm trying to help make Lemmy a better place than most other internet rabbitholes.

[–] InEnduringGrowStrong@sh.itjust.works 29 points 1 year ago (1 children)

A nice, civil and wholesome thread, thank you.

[–] Stamets@lemmy.world 17 points 1 year ago

No, thank you! With how often I post, I try my best to maintain that. Especially as a mod of !memes@lemmy.world. Trying to not come off like the mods of that other place.

[–] SuckMyWang@lemmy.world 15 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

I’m not defending a lot of what she said but saying that wizards shit themselves and magic it all away is funny

[–] Stamets@lemmy.world 19 points 1 year ago

Oh it absolutely is but it's also just a fucking insane thing to just randomly say

[–] chaogomu@kbin.social 49 points 1 year ago

The bathroom thing was just so stupid.

It contradicts the lore of the books.

The entrance to the Chamber of Secrets was literally built in a bathroom. She could have just said it was a Roman style bathroom that was later retrofitted to be modern.

And Dumbledore let's Harry know about the Room of Requirements by telling a story about how he once needed a chamberpot. A magic chamberpot? Sure. Makes more sense than shitting himself.

[–] glorious_albus@lemmy.world 19 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Even the actors of Harry and Hermione (not sure about others) came out and said that they would have nothing to do with a Harry Potter continuation or reboot if JK Rowling was involved

Source on this? Curious because the only thing I can find Radcliffe saying is "I'm very excited to see what other people do with it. The comparison I've made is to a story like Sherlock Holmes. I think the Potter series of books was always gonna be bigger than one interpretation or one franchise, so it'll be cool to see the torch get passed on."

[–] Stamets@lemmy.world 30 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Huh, I can't find it either. I must have conflated Daniels speaking out against JK with Emma Watsons refusal to ever work with JK again. I'll edit the post.

Genuinely sorry for that!

[–] glorious_albus@lemmy.world 13 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

No worries. It's easy to see why you'd get confused :) All the Harry Potter stuff gets conflated in the head sometimes.

[–] Huby@lemmy.world 16 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I agree with this for the most part, but saying Hogwarts Legacy objectively sucks is just wrong. Most people liked the game, including me (although the main story plot is not great).

[–] Norgur@kbin.social 7 points 1 year ago

Wait... Wasn't Harry Potter written by Hatsune Miku?

[–] Lemjukes@lemm.ee 7 points 1 year ago

I like this writeup mushroomdude

[–] BrickTamland@lemm.ee 5 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Hogwarts Legacy was a beautiful game. Sucks it's linked to JK Rowling still

[–] Stamets@lemmy.world 11 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Visually, yes. However the actual gameplay loop becomes hyper repetitive within the space of 2-3 hours and that the plot is genuine garbage that has no resolution or consequences.

[–] ObviouslyNotBanana@lemmy.world 7 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I actually think it's pretty nice but you can tell that it's been gutted a lot because of time constraints.

[–] Stamets@lemmy.world 8 points 1 year ago (2 children)

I cannot find a single redeeming part of the storyline at all. It's all hyper contrite, characters motivations/personalities seem to make no sense, the random seasonal jumps are jarring and demonstrate how little characters grow, and the ending literally has no consequence. I chose the 'evil' ending and nothing happened outside of that professor dying. Despite absorbing all the ancient energies of doom that these 4 paintings had sealed away, not a single one of them cared despite them insisting on me stopping someone else who was doing precisely the same thing. Despite them saying that no one should have that type of power. I rocked up with said power and they're just like "Hey Jason."

[–] thanks_shakey_snake@lemmy.ca 6 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

I wonder what I shall use my immeasurable ancient power for?

a) Good

b) Evil

c) Shenanigans

d) Literally nothing

Oh, don't get me wrong, I'm not saying it's a masterpiece. It's nice, but could have been way better.