Harry Potter And The Last Book Came Out 20 Years Ago And The Movies Came Out 15 Years Ago And We All Know Who And What She Is Now And Fuck Everything About That You're Allowed To Grow Up And Stop Caring About This Shit Now.
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Harry Potter And Whether You Like It Or Not That Whole Story Is About A Trust Fund Baby Turned Sports Jock Who Went To A Posh Boarding School For That Particular Kind Of Sports Jock Where The Smartest Girl In That Posh Boarding School Carried His Ass In Every Class Every Year And Then He Married His Narrative Afterthought High School Sweetheart And Eventually Graduated And Became A Cop But If You’re Still Buying The Merch 20 Years Later Then You’re Not Ready For This Conversation.
@mhoye really annoyed that I have to care about harry potter this much, because of how much of a bigot Rowling is
I can't just go "oh that's a little silly" about it, it's annoying -
Harry Potter And Whether You Like It Or Not That Whole Story Is About A Trust Fund Baby Turned Sports Jock Who Went To A Posh Boarding School For That Particular Kind Of Sports Jock Where The Smartest Girl In That Posh Boarding School Carried His Ass In Every Class Every Year And Then He Married His Narrative Afterthought High School Sweetheart And Eventually Graduated And Became A Cop But If You’re Still Buying The Merch 20 Years Later Then You’re Not Ready For This Conversation.
@mhoye that's not even getting into any of the real uncomfortable stuff in the story either.
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Harry Potter And Whether You Like It Or Not That Whole Story Is About A Trust Fund Baby Turned Sports Jock Who Went To A Posh Boarding School For That Particular Kind Of Sports Jock Where The Smartest Girl In That Posh Boarding School Carried His Ass In Every Class Every Year And Then He Married His Narrative Afterthought High School Sweetheart And Eventually Graduated And Became A Cop But If You’re Still Buying The Merch 20 Years Later Then You’re Not Ready For This Conversation.
@mhoye but the trust fund baby was abused as a kid so that makes him relatable and sympathetic!
You also forgot the Destiny component, which relieved him of responsibility for choosing or working to be a hero.
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@GroupNebula563 @mhoye No, this is not a justifiable statement. Don't get me wrong, there are plenty of legitimate objective criticisms one can make about the series, but "they're just not very good" is not one of them. It's an opinion, and one that many many people do not share. (I happen to think that casting opinions as facts like this tanks one's credibility and undermines legitimate criticism, but I suppose that's just my opinion.)
@diazona
A statement beginning with "in all honesty" is clearly framed as an opinion, so what are you even talking about?Besides, her prose, story structure and world-building are widely and uncontroversially held to be mediocre. It's not incompatible with a lot of people liking them, but an opinion that the books "aren't very good" is not only justifiable but nearly unassailable on its own terms, and merely saying it isn't objective is saying nothing.
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@diazona
A statement beginning with "in all honesty" is clearly framed as an opinion, so what are you even talking about?Besides, her prose, story structure and world-building are widely and uncontroversially held to be mediocre. It's not incompatible with a lot of people liking them, but an opinion that the books "aren't very good" is not only justifiable but nearly unassailable on its own terms, and merely saying it isn't objective is saying nothing.
@petealexharris No, "in all honesty" does *not* clearly frame something as an opinion.
I haven't heard anything about the prose, story structure, and world building being widely held to be mediocre. That may be true for some definition of "widely", but whether that's the case or not, it doesn't really affect my point. (And I'm ignoring all this stuff about "uncontroversially..." and "unassailable on its own terms" - that may be wrong, but again, it doesn't really matter.) What I'm saying is, the post I replied to presented an opinion - that the stories are not very good - as objective fact, and it was incorrect to do so.
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@GroupNebula563 @mhoye No, this is not a justifiable statement. Don't get me wrong, there are plenty of legitimate objective criticisms one can make about the series, but "they're just not very good" is not one of them. It's an opinion, and one that many many people do not share. (I happen to think that casting opinions as facts like this tanks one's credibility and undermines legitimate criticism, but I suppose that's just my opinion.)
@diazona @GroupNebula563 @mhoye yeah the justifiable statement is that they’re rancid dogshit
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@petealexharris No, "in all honesty" does *not* clearly frame something as an opinion.
I haven't heard anything about the prose, story structure, and world building being widely held to be mediocre. That may be true for some definition of "widely", but whether that's the case or not, it doesn't really affect my point. (And I'm ignoring all this stuff about "uncontroversially..." and "unassailable on its own terms" - that may be wrong, but again, it doesn't really matter.) What I'm saying is, the post I replied to presented an opinion - that the stories are not very good - as objective fact, and it was incorrect to do so.
@diazona
grow up, small bitch -
Harry Potter And Whether You Like It Or Not That Whole Story Is About A Trust Fund Baby Turned Sports Jock Who Went To A Posh Boarding School For That Particular Kind Of Sports Jock Where The Smartest Girl In That Posh Boarding School Carried His Ass In Every Class Every Year And Then He Married His Narrative Afterthought High School Sweetheart And Eventually Graduated And Became A Cop But If You’re Still Buying The Merch 20 Years Later Then You’re Not Ready For This Conversation.
@mhoye Harry Potter and the Trash Can I'm Yeeting Those Stupid Garbage Tier Books Into Because I'm Giving My Kids The Earthsea Books Instead
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@GroupNebula563 @mhoye I mean the Sorting Hat was sort of a clue to the odious opinions she would later espouse: "You are who we say you are and your role is ordained."
Directly contrary to that, Terry Pratchett wrote in A Hat Full of Sky: "The only hat worth wearing was the one you made for yourself, not one you bought, not one you were given."
@mhoye @Catriona @GroupNebula563 i remember reading the books as a kid and being for some reason that i didn’t fully understand back then scared of the idea of the sorting hat. I think it’s that i hate the intrusiveness of a thing reading your mind as well as the fact that it assigns you into a category that will define what your life will be like for the rest of your adolescence. Me, a trans and neurodivergent kid (even though i didn’t know i was back then) really didn’t like that.
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Harry Potter And The Cold Hard Fact Of It Is That If You Were 10 When The First Book Came Out You’re Creeping Up On 40 Right Now And Maybe It’s Time To Stop Acting Like A Bigot’s Book About Magical Children Is Something That Matters.
@mhoye All of this anger over a story that encourages wonder and curiosity in many.
Isn't it more productive to separate the author from the books, and criticize the former?
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@mhoye All of this anger over a story that encourages wonder and curiosity in many.
Isn't it more productive to separate the author from the books, and criticize the former?
@stardust not when the author is using the money they get from the books to fund harassment and hate campaigns, no.
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@stardust not when the author is using the money they get from the books to fund harassment and hate campaigns, no.
@mhoye Sure, but one can read the books without paying.
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Harry Potter And Whether You Like It Or Not That Whole Story Is About A Trust Fund Baby Turned Sports Jock Who Went To A Posh Boarding School For That Particular Kind Of Sports Jock Where The Smartest Girl In That Posh Boarding School Carried His Ass In Every Class Every Year And Then He Married His Narrative Afterthought High School Sweetheart And Eventually Graduated And Became A Cop But If You’re Still Buying The Merch 20 Years Later Then You’re Not Ready For This Conversation.
@mhoye a lot of that wouldn’t bother me so much if people didn’t insist it has great morals, continue to enrich the hateful cult leader author and bothered to read other books. A lot of fiction unfortunately is copganda because catch-bad-guys is an easy plot structure to work with.
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Harry Potter And Whether You Like It Or Not That Whole Story Is About A Trust Fund Baby Turned Sports Jock Who Went To A Posh Boarding School For That Particular Kind Of Sports Jock Where The Smartest Girl In That Posh Boarding School Carried His Ass In Every Class Every Year And Then He Married His Narrative Afterthought High School Sweetheart And Eventually Graduated And Became A Cop But If You’re Still Buying The Merch 20 Years Later Then You’re Not Ready For This Conversation.
@mhoye I think this is why I never got into the books in the first place. As a white trash, working class nerd, a middle class nerd to jock fantasy just wasn’t interesting to me.
Besides, if I wanted a hero’s journey, I already had Luke in Star Wars. And that had much better lessons about compassion and fighting against the system with a bunch of weirdos. That’s my kind of story.
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@mhoye I think this is why I never got into the books in the first place. As a white trash, working class nerd, a middle class nerd to jock fantasy just wasn’t interesting to me.
Besides, if I wanted a hero’s journey, I already had Luke in Star Wars. And that had much better lessons about compassion and fighting against the system with a bunch of weirdos. That’s my kind of story.
@JoscelynTransient @mhoye *nod* Luke Skywalker may be a nepo baby but he doesn't have a trust fund, and he becomes a magic teacher not a magic cop
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@JoscelynTransient @mhoye *nod* Luke Skywalker may be a nepo baby but he doesn't have a trust fund, and he becomes a magic teacher not a magic cop
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@mhoye Sure, but one can read the books without paying.
@stardust if you can’t find a better fandom to stump for than this one, that’s a you problem.
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Harry Potter And The Last Book Came Out 20 Years Ago And The Movies Came Out 15 Years Ago And We All Know Who And What She Is Now And Fuck Everything About That You're Allowed To Grow Up And Stop Caring About This Shit Now.
Companies doing this in 2026 are picking a side. Just leave and don't say "I'll come back if/when", just walk away.
@mhoye goddamn harry potter is 20 years in the rearview now. can't blame everyone for moving on but yeah - jk rowling's whole schtick is toxic af. companies aligning with that? pass. raspberry pi home server? fighting the good fight. maybe a cup of overpriced drama-free coffee. <small>(╬ಊ_ಊ)</small>
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@mhoye not to mention, in all honesty, even if the books and author weren’t horribly problematic, they’re just *not very good*. if you’ve only read harry potter, go pick up another fantasy series. you will be BLOWN AWAY
@GroupNebula563 @mhoye I much prefered Phillip Pullman's His Dark materials series
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