Wingardium Leviosa. Quidditch matches. Potions classes. Anxiously expecting our letters from Hogwarts. Ever since its advent in the late 90s, the “Harry Potter” series has charmed and bewitched the millions of people who read the books or watched the movies. Many of the characters, locations, and phrases from the series have become eponymous with magic itself, since the series has impacted so many people.
Lately, though, the Wizarding World has come under fire, primarily because of its creator: J.K. Rowling. The famed author has been widely criticized for her inflammatory and exclusionary statements about trans women and equality, particularly on Twitter.
She refers to trans women as “not really women” (a post made in early 2022 on the @jk_rowling account on Twitter) and wants them excluded from feminist and women’s rights organizations. She has also been criticized for her continual updates to the “Harry Potter” lore, where she changes aspects of the story.
Some changes are slightly strange but not really offensive, like Uncle Vernon, the rude Muggle uncle of the titular character, being a Brexit supporter and a fan of the BBC series “Top Gear”.
Others are stranger and have more serious, disturbing implications, such as Nagini, Voldemort’s pet and one of the objects containing a fraction of his soul (called Horcruxes, which must be destroyed to harm the Dark Lord), being a human woman in the past who is forced into becoming a snake.
Rowling has addressed the more problematic aspects of the original story, such as characters from different ethnicities having stereotypical names such as Cho Chang, and Pavarti Patil.
However, she has also undercut her stronger characters, like Professor McGonagall, by making the challenges she overcame in her life revolve more around her romantic relationships instead of her accomplishments.
Other changes contradict things Rowling herself has said, like the pronunciation of the series’ villain’s name (Rowling claims the ‘t’ in ‘Voldemort’ is silent in order to line up with the French word for ‘flight from death’, but continually pronounces the name ‘VoldemorT’ and never corrected this pronunciation in the films).
Rowling has tried to smooth other more questionable portrayals of characters like the goblins, which are presented as harmful stereotypes of Jewish people, by including a person of the Jewish faith into the halls of Hogwarts. This comes with its own problems, however, as giving the character the name Anthony Goldstein, a stereotypical last name, is problematic on a few levels. The sole mention of a single Jewish character over a decade after the last book was published felt like a cheap way of adding inclusion into the series for many fans.
For something like the “Harry Potter” franchise, it’s hard to separate the art from the artist, since JK Rowling has maintained such a tight grip on the rights to the story. The most recent film in the spinoff series “Fantastic Beasts”, “Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them: The Secrets of Dumbledore”, was written by Rowling herself. That film, as well as its predecessor, “Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them: The Crimes of Grindelwald”, both received less-than-favorable reviews, mostly citing the somewhat questionable motivations of the heroes.
The primary antagonist of these movies, Gellert Grindelwald, is a wizard who gets a glimpse of the future crimes the non-magical people, Muggles, will commit during the Second World War and beyond. During the scene, we see glimpses of atomic bombs detonating, as well as sensitive images of the Holocaust and American Japanese Internment. To prevent these tragedies from occurring, Grindelwald decides that wizards must take control over the Muggles to stop them from committing those atrocities.
The heroes of the film, Newt Scamander, Albus Dumbledore, Leta Lestrange, and Jacob Kowalski, team up to stop Grindelwald from carrying out his plan. The criticism comes from the fact that the ending of the film, in which the heroes prevent Grindelwald from taking over, implies that the wizards are willing to stand by and let the atrocities of WWII happen, something that never needed to be explained within the “Wizarding World” universe.
The movies were praised for representing a same-sex couple with Grindelwald and Dumbledore having an implied romantic relationship in the past, but this aspect of the films was criticized as well, seeing as all scenes mentioning the relationship and any lines discussing any romance between the two were removed for releases in countries where same-sex relationships are still not welcomed. It’s amazing to see representation in films, but it’s unfortunate when that representation is easily and quickly removed for international releases so the film doesn’t lose money in those countries.
The most recent canonical installment to the “Harry Potter” story will be a video game. Set to release in February 2023, the PlayStation, Xbox, Nintendo Switch, and PC game “Hogwarts Legacy” has caught many people’s eyes with its flashy, nostalgic, and classic Harry Potter gameplay. It’s visually stunning, and its personalization and customization features let the player step into the shoes as a fifth year student at Hogwarts, allowing many people to live out a childhood fantasy of going to the School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. There’s hundreds of spells
However, the game has already garnered massive criticism over the central plot of the game. In the story, set in the 1800s, goblins start a revolution for better rights in the wizarding world. To do this, they team up with Dark Wizards, a group of people who believe in a pureblooded, exclusively magical race ruling over the world. The goblins fighting for equality are seen as the main antagonists of the film, and having them team up with the Aryanistic Dark Wizards only adds salt to the wound.
The purpose of this article is to urge people not to buy “Hogwarts Legacy” and to not watch “Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them: the Secrets of Dumbledore” or its two planned sequels. It’s a difficult time to be a “Harry Potter” fan. The original books and movies, separated from their author, can be appreciated for their messages of inclusion and tolerance. It’s almost impossible to separate the series from its author, though, as she continually alters her stories and churns out low-quality, questionable movies and games to maintain the rights to the characters and the original novels.
As much as it hurts to, we collectively need to move away from the “Harry Potter” franchise. It defined a lot of people’s childhoods, including my own, and the original stories, unchanged by the author, are still amazing children’s books that teach kids the importance of friendship, standing up for what’s right, and remaining strong in the face of evil. The more money that goes to JK Rowling, though, the more she’s prompted to create more controversy, to add more things to the “Harry Potter” canon. Even “LEGO Harry Potter: Years 1-4” for the Nintendo Wii still earns money for the “Wizarding World” franchise.
If the original seven books and eight films could be seen for what they did for people, how much money they raised for charities like LUMOS, this would be a different article altogether, but because of the continual interference with the source material and questionable choices in current and, most likely and unfortunately, future projects in the “Harry Potter” universe, it’s time to step away from the Wizarding World.
The “Harry Potter” series started as Dumbledore. Let’s stop it before it ends as Voldemort.
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