"one of the most dangerous things in the books: that loving, trustworthy adults will sometimes ask them to keep secrets and break rules for them" i about got chills from that
I finally got to the end and I was not expecting Hagrid to be the winner, but holy cow I had forgotten how much inappropriate stuff he got the kids into.
I definitely wouldn't feel so passionate about HP's plot holes, weird world building and problematic choices, if it never had such a big place in my heart.
Accurate. I grew up with the movies and was honestly very glad I waited til adulthood to read the books. Bought a British set used, and for the first time in my life was actually annoyed that I essentially got a signed copy lol Seller didn't list that. Understandable these days lol
HP was there for me when I was a basically friendless child. It was heartbreaking when I found out about JK Rowling’s views, and when upon rereading the books/rewatching the movies after years I saw all those problematic things that as a kid I simply didn’t notice
There's a conversation to be had here about abuse victims coming to need direction from a controlling person to do anything, and after being "let go" they find themselves lost because they've lost that direction.
"fleur delacour is one of my favourite characters" agreed, and her actress did a really nice job making her endearing despite rowling's attempts to make us bristle at her
Funny thing about the time turner... Hermione could, and presumably should, have been able to use it to get as much sleep as she wanted. She should have been the best rested student in her year, because she could just turn time back a few hours and have a nap at any time.
Well, not exactly, because then there would have been two napping Hermiones in her bed a lot of the time, right? Other people waking up and noticing that is probably not a risk her character would ever take. And finding another location for those naps would have involved wandering through the school at night, so a lot of rule breaking.. again, not in character for her.
@@Anna-zk5zj hermoine breaks the rules all the time, when she thinks it’s warranted. If McGonagal had given her an ok, or some 24/7 magical hall pass, i think she would’ve been down
@@Anna-zk5zj These are things McGonnagal should have arranged for though. 60 Hermiones from different times could have easily napped together in the room of requirement (although of course Rowling doesn't come up with any ideas until the picosecond she needs them in a story, so the RoR deffo wasn't something she was thinking of
haven't finished video yet but wanted to add on Voldemort and the implication children born from SA are incapable of love/being loved (because to my memory he was conceived when his father was under the effect of a love potion) is just so gross to me too
Jesus Christ that's horrible. What a sick thing to imply in a book written for children. People born of rape (who know) already struggle with it. Joanne has serious issues.
This is just a stupid generalization. Just because a person who has a traumatic past becomes a villain doesn't mean that anyone who ever faces those traumas will definitely be evil. This is such a stupid and immature mindset. If these kinds of things make you people think the author is sick then you shouldn't even touch asoif as its beauty would be lost on you.
My friends and I have a running conversation that Harry Potter is the single most incurious protagonist possible for an Urban Fantasy. The kid has no desire to learn or know more, outside of combat spells. History? Theory? Current Events? those have to be imprinted into his skull via blunt force trauma.
he's so weirdly unlikable lol. intellectually curious? no, this child who grew up in our world finds the details of literal magic boring. empathetic? no, he's coldly callous to everyone who isn't part of his dumbledore-based little cult mindset. physically weak but mentally or morally strong? no, he's a famous jock. poor kid who fought his way up? no, he has literal mountains of money. we're supposed to like him because he's an orphan and because the books keep ripping any father figures he finds away from him (and because i guess he just isn't interested in viewing the weasleys that way) but like... hermione essentially orphans herself at the end lmao
@@supernova9361 The job of the "fish out of water" protagonist in an Urban Fantasy is to ask questions. To establish the rules of the setting, the magic system, all that. Percy Jackson, Valkyrie Cain, whoever your mortal protagonist who gets dragged into the supernatural is they are the audience surrogate. What we know about the world is what they know about the world.
this is all so criticized for no damn reason. Harry is the protagonist, and the eyes of the story-eyes that are quiet and always absorbing-but he’s only one of THREE leaders. Hermione is the curious one-it’s sort of her duty as a character… she leads in her own way and balances out Harry and Ron. It’s why she rocks. Harry is boring because Harry is a stoic and a savior. Ron is a soft goofball because Ron is the heart and the family. Hermione is the intellectual because Hermione is the problem solver and holds wicked logic. They all need each other to fill out flaws, that is the POINT. I find that people are really quick to project dumb ideas onto things that have ALREADY BEEN WRITTEN instead of just taking the story for what it is. So what? Because someone doesn’t speak it makes them incurious? That’s so silly. I find that the most curious people are also often the most composed. How could the one character in the story who wants to save others the MOST be deemed un-empathetic? Get a grip ❤️
All of Rowling's descriptions are extremely judgemental, rather than evocative. They tell us how to feel, they don't show us how to feel. It feels like the author hates her characters (that are female).
not to mention the amount of female characters considered “unattractive” (or from an objective standpoint, stereotypically masculine) or described in a negative light vs the amount of male characters held by the same standard
Oh she definitely doesn't like women - or specifically, she doesn't like any women who have slightly different desires, sensibilities, or appearances from her own.
This. I actually don't mind that the characters are flawed. I think it's good for kids to experience flawed characters and learn how to be better people from the mistakes the characters make and grow from. But that's kinda the thing with Harry Potter. I don't think Rowling intended for any of her main characters to be as flawed as the writing makes them out to be. We're supposed to support Ron, Harry, and Hermoine. Even when they permanently disfigure a child for having realistic fears. There is no learning moment to be had from that incident. Save 'snitches get stitches' which is just not a good concept to be teaching young children.
There should probably be timestamps on the video, so viewers can skip past the opening where she’s incredibly patronizing and condescending to her audience for several minutes. Actually I’m… starting to think that attitude is going to last the whole video 💀 I wish it didn’t because her actual points are very good.
@@Fantallanaa little harsh but I kinda agree. I feel like Li Speaks and Haley Whipjack are creators with similar styles that she could learn a lot from?
@@Fantallana I really like her tone in this. To me it counds condescending, but not to the audience - to Harry Potter and JKR, which I personally just see as really fun sarcasm, in a video that is a very extensive critique of how bad these characters are. So I think it's fun and fitting
I'm only just a lil bit in, and the "people can't really change" is so real because there were MULTIPLE instances where it looked like evil characters were going to switch sides and even team up with Harry (notably Draco and Dudley) but they just...didn't...and when I was a kid I never knew why but it's because Jkr really sees people as being born good or bad
Forreal!! Draco was perfectly set up for a TRUE redemption arc... But no. He just manages to survive & then grows up to have a family at a comfortable distance from the others he spent his school years terrorizing. What??
@@ZijnShayatanica after Harry saved Dudley from the dementor and the dursleys were accusing Harry of being at fault, it was so weird that Dudley just...didn't back him up. At all. I think Jkr THINKS people can change...but she BELIEVES that you are either born good or born bad. James is the other example. Born good, so him "changing" from being a bully to a good man is a foregone conclusion that doesn't need explanation.
@@powernade Forreal... Imagine going through such a traumatic experience, your parents don't believe you, a kid who you always thought was trash [largely because your parents indoctrinated you into hating him] still saves your life despite how poorly your treated him... And virtually no payoff.
@@ZijnShayatanica It was a perfect opportunity to show that EVERYONE even the precious golden child is harmed be abusive parents...but that doesn't fit in the black and white worldview. Oh well.
@@powernade At least a lot of us who grew up w/ the IP still managed to learn positive things about character growth, largely by being big enough nerds that we practiced media literacy before we even knew what it was. 😅
Small note: but "abstinence" technically only means to abstain from something. We typically only hear it reference to abstaining from sex, but I think it has a broader understanding over there. Not that it was appropriate to be talking about getting drunk (with the friars) in a kid's book either.
@@Rayne_StormsI think it’s due to realizing how the books deeper messages did have affects that you can look back on and say “yeah that definitely made me internalize x y part of myself.” Maybe that’s me though, I look back at manga I did that for as well 😂
@@thomasstone3480yeah, that sounds like her. I try to avoid fully interacting with her, but sadly she crawls out of her black mold infested cave to spew trans misogyny.
Opinion of one single British person: we almost exclusively use the word abstinence to refer to abstinence from alcohol, to the extent that this section about the fat lady was hard to understand. Slut shaming … what? When?? I’ve googled it and discovered that in North America it seems to usually refer to abstinence from sex. I would not even have listed ‘sex’ in my top five things one might abstain from. To a British child-audience the whole joke is that adults seem to want to drink a whole bunch of wine before Christmas and then none at all EVER AGAIN immediately afterwards, and this seems fair enough to me. I want to clarify that I am not hating on your interpretation and I am finding this video a really interesting watch, well done and thank you for the huge effort you have put in, the work really shows.
It does not surprise me that Joanne is the type to not have any compassion for a woman crying in distress in a bathroom, to the point that she wrote an entire character making fun of them. She's so demented.
Jk Rowling: Trans people can't use the bathroom that aligns with their gender! Think of all the vulnerable cis women in them! Woman/girl: *is vulnerable in a bathroom * Jk Rowling: _Disgosting_
12 women/female characters when you include Winky that's rather telling when you think that generally speaking the women get less book time than males and quite a few are rather basic characters
The Umbridge thing is SO revealing. Like, "oh no you said all that out loud Joanne!" revealing. I feel like if she met that woman now she'd just be like "well that's a man".
As someone currently rereading the books as an adult with critical thinking skills, it's really insane just how unlikable most the characters are all the time. McGonagall in particular, their actors do a lot of heavy lifting in the movies !
At least she tried to keep Harry away from the Dursleys and give him a more loving family And was the only one to suggest stitching up Harry’s scar as a baby
@@tahraethestoryteller6079yeah I actually disagree with OP here since mcgonagal did surprisingly good on the series. she did have one drawback when she unfairly punished neville for Sirius break in. Neglecting that he only kept password list because Sir Cadogan constantly changed it. i did not say that Neville did not deserve point taken / light detention, I just disagree with extreme measure she taken to make sure that he alone cannot know the password.
@@dodixaber8968It just reminds me of typical ableism displayed in the school and workplace. They don’t mind the way you accommodate yourself until somethin absolutely insane happens then they decide you broke a rule.
Not only that about Voldemort's mother: it also kind of implies a bad message about being a baby who was born from a r*pe. It teaches the lesson that if it happened to one of your parents, you're likeky to turn out to be evil and trash beyong repair or Growth, just like Voldemort. Oh what a heartwarming message for children 😢
The A Nightmare On Elm Street series is also kind of guilty of this, but at least Freddy’s evil for OTHER reasons: Bullying, abuse, bad parenting, and a deal with literal demons to have an outlet for twisted vengeance. Edit: Part of the reason why Voldie became that way was because he was conceived as the product of a _love potion._ I just rechecked, and he’s a product of literal female rape, apparently.
The biological essentialism is so bad. Harry is exactly like his parents even though he grew up in the exact same environment as Dudley. Every single person with bad biological parents turns out to be bad themselves. On the other hand adoptive parents apparently have no influence on how you turn out to be. Harry would have been the same person, had he been raised in an orphanage, by other foster parents or his biological parents instead of the Dursleys. It's inconceivable that someone with "good" parents becomes bad because of circumstances or character flaws. Who you are and will become is predetermined as soon as you're born in this world view. Quite scary honestly. The emphasis this puts on genes gives me the ick.
They way the movies treated petunias character when saying goodbye to harry i appreciated more. "I also lost a sister" she says That moment gave her more depth as you hope humans can have. She was angry, sad, heartbroken, defensive and defeated. I took that moment as she was fighting with the fact that her relationship with lily will never be repaired. And maybe that Harry is the reason that lily is gone like a "youre the reason why my sister is gone so youneed punishment" even tho he was a baby and thats insane blaming a baby but that trauma reaponse being fueled into traumatizing others happens. And making her character nothing but a bitter woman sucks and is boring
Cannot stand JK Rowking, and Harry Potter is ruined for me. With all that said RIP Dame Maggie Smith. A wonderful actress and a big part of my childhood. 🌹
This is true. I also think there’s valid criticism of the middle class/suburbia, but I see it as a part of the wider criticism of capitalism, which Rowling wouldn’t ever do. Plus, it’s perhaps too complex and propagandistic for a children’s book anyway. What bothers me too is the idea that conformity is bad and boring when the muggles do it, and Harry being different from them is an interesting and good thing from the book’s point of view. The Dursleys want Harry to be “normal,” and appearances being important is a bad thing. But then in the magic world, we still get judgment over physical appearances and “weird” characters (like Luna). It’s jarring to contrast that, which is fine bc it’s the magic world, and the criticism of the Dursleys
@@hydrogen3266 thank you and OP for pointing this out! i was just about to comment on this same thing, but you summarize it in a much more elegant and effective way than i could, which i very much appreciate as a suburbia resident and suburbia critic myself
Another thing about Ron's "Fraternising with the enemy" line: He just tried to get a date with Fleur. Which would be exactly the same thing, if he hadn't failed. The hypocracy is real.
I don't really think this has much to do with physical harm, but I've never really liked the way that Luna Lovegood is described. The character herself is delightful, but the fact that even the main characters call her weird and loony all the time and nobody seems to make much of an effort to connect with her on a human level. This is just kind of bothersome, because it implies that people like her, who read things that other people don't read and wear things that other people don't wear and believe in things that most don't, are weird and should have to be taken with a grain of salt by "the normal people". That's an odd message, especially since Luna is a way more interesting character than many of the people who call her weird.
it definitely contributed to my feelings of ostracization as kid, I was described as weird and off-putting and quirky (turns out it was just regular old autism lol) and I related very strongly to Luna, but none of the characters believing her or really wanting to be around her hurt, it added to the feeling that there was something wrong with me and if I could just be normal maybe I'd have more friends. It was nice though, having a character like myself, someone I saw in myself and could relate to. So, mixed bag I guess
@@skeleletonboi4533it also turned out that Luna was generally right and the other characters should have listened to her, so there was a real opportunity for it to become a positive message about not judging or discounting people just for seeming different if only there was a little more self-reflection depicted on the part of the protags for their earlier behavior toward her.
@@skeleletonboi4533 I think it's something the movies did well with Luna, because she's the same character, but you don't really hear that many people saying that she's weird or anything. Even friends of hers like Ginny and Harry think she's weird and Hermione and Ron essentially discredit her support of Harry completely because she wears unique earrings. She's a great character, but she's treated kind of awkwardly by JK Rowling. I wouldn't really expect any sort of understanding from JK Rowling, though.
I was a goth kid I the nineties. In Ireland. I therefore remember a time when being different in any way was a huge social problem.To me, Luna’s treatment reflects a time before any nerds or weirdos were respected for being cool.
Just the other day my little cousin, who I guess has started having Harry Potter read to him by his parents, absolutely shattered my ears yelling after I said my second favourite house was Slytherin. Totally could've just... given him an easy answer and avoided that, sure! But I hoped it'd plant a seed for him to later ask questions about the way Hogwarts works and how it isn't perfect. I remember getting Slytherin on Pottermore's quiz as a kid. I was devastated. I kept bawling until my babysitter sat me down and brought up that an entire house being labelled evil is pretty nasty and it's unfair those kids are equated with bigoted criminals from the moment they join the school, and that as a Slytherin, I should look critically at the house system and let it make me a more empathetic person and remind me to question authority when it's harmful.Silly as it sounds, it definitely impacted me and changed little-me's perspective. While things like wizard school houses may seem trivial, the things they represent stick with kids, and I wish stuff like literally everything in this video was a bigger focus in discourse about whether kids should still be read HP. Even if you 'separate art from the artist', are these genuinely the kind of things you want children to internalise?
That’s personally why I think it’s hard to separate “art from artist” if the art is fundamentally harmful. Like there’s this webtoon I heard about that literally has the mc be a victim of grooming, and the creator glorifies it. It’s gross as hell- and in my opinion, you can’t separate the art from the artist who chose to depict an illegal and gross relationship.
@@Suited_Nat I absolutely agree. Art does not exist in a vacuum and art does reflect the views and feelings of its creator!! I begrudgingly acknowledge that many parents just won't give up Harry Potter on the basis of JK Rowlings behavior, unfortunately, but I can't understand why they won't engage with the media they give their kids on a deeper level than "It's just a fun fantasy". It's not fun when it's harmful! It's not fun when it comes back to bite in insidious ways in society! And webtoon has... so many cases of romanticized abuse
A better interpretation of the house system: They are not about who you already are but which traits you could improve on still. So Slytherins are not necessarily already ambitious, goal-driven and disciplined in the process but they might develop that skill in Slytherin. But yeah, doesn't make JKR's work better, it only helps to better cope with the Harry Potter childhood 😅
If I remember correctly, in the American magic school, they sort students based on their magical skills, like a major, which makes way more sense to me than sorting by arbitrary personality traits.
One of my favorite HP tumblr threads is the one where they imagine how the books would’ve changed if the students got re-sorted every year. It was really compelling. I think I remember it being said somewhere that JK based the Hogwarts house system on British school house systems? But as far as I know those real schools don’t assign morality to certain houses. But then again I’m not British so.
Abstinence isn’t a word typically used to refer to abstaining specifically from sex here in the UK - I feel like I typically hear it used to talk about not drinking rather than in the American sex ed/purity culture sense
Purity culture is not big in uk this 100% about drinking - abstaining from drink. But i see why you would think that in the US. Loving all the other points you make though and I definitely would live to see the chart and ratings and all chatacters you went through fir this video 😂 my inner geek was thrilled 🤓💜
33:50 I think people remember a lot of these characters as being better written than they actually were because the actors in the movies gave great performances.
Seriously, I’m pretty sure a good chunk of the Snape apologists exist because Alan Rickman was such a talented actor and gave the character a lot more life than what we had on the page.
@@VoidNull9222yeah, the charisma of Alan Rickman saved sooo much of this mess. And I think Molly, Arthur and pretty much everyone was just... Less extreme 😅
This is seriously big with Ron specifically. Never read the books as a kid, only watched the movies. I liked him! Now that I'm reading it as an adult (my wife's copies) I absolutely HATE Ron.
Really says a lot about Maggie Smith's acting chops that she is the reason why McGonagal was my favorite teacher for a while(we all know Lupin's the goat, though). Rest in peace.
Yeah, Lupin was definitely my fave - as someone who was struggling a lot [chronic illness, queer, lotsa trauma], I appreciated that he was still surrounded by people who loved & respected him, even if society was trash.
Yeah, when you think about it, Harry turned out to be a Nepo baby who grew up to be a cop and named his son after one of his abusers, who directly caused his parents to be killed
Hey Caroline, I jus wanna thank you and other ex potterheads for callin out the abhorrent story lines and plots. It has made me rethink my relationship with the Harry Potter franchise and make peace with my child self.
This entire video and your analysis made me question if my not-like-other-girls phase was heavily informed by these books I read as a child. I wasn't even that big of a fan, but definitely liked the series more than casually. Even if my anti-femininity mindset for a time was subconsciously influenced by the bigot that is JK Rowling (thankfully current me is actively and continuously working on reminding myself to reject said mindset daily), this is mind boggling and more than a little upsetting of a realization to come to. Thank you for the wonderful 4+ hours!
I think a lot of women had a 'not-like-other-girls' phase regardless of which generation they grew up with. It's just as present today as it was back on tumblr. A lot media portrays a standard view of women and put the women, usually the main character or love interest, who don't confirm to that on a pedestal. Ginny from HP, Bella from Twillight, Jess from New Girl, etc. It makes sense girls don't want to be like other girls when girls and women are portrayed as plain, incapable and anything but unique unless they're not like the stereotype. Most girls know they're more than that. It doesn't help that a lot of main-stream area struggles conveying women well. When people write women it so often ends up either a prize with no depth for the male MC or a Mary Sue. Even the Harry Potter movies kinda went the Mary Sue way with Hermoine. It seeps through in society as well, I was still called 'not like other girls' by men somewhat frequent in my late 20s for having 'masculine' hobbies, even though plenty of women share those hobbies. The other side of that is being told you don't belong in the space, so why not cling on to the positive of being 'special enough' to not be like other girls. (Not at my age, but as a kid, yes).
A lot of this is due to society and how women are viewed. Like to some degree every girl goes through I not like other girls phase. Because of the patriarchy and generally hatred of femininity.
I still to this day have to deconstruct the internalized ideas that some more "girly" or "feminine" activities or interests are not as worthy and valuable as more masculine or gender neutral perceived interests. E.g. reading a romance novel or doing my make up feels "shallow" and "frivolous" compared to other activities even though realistically watching a football game or playing video games is just as frivolous. At least I'm aware of it but ohh, those attitudes are ingrained deeply and it sucks.
Not like other girls mentality is unavoidable in a misogynistic society, but I see what you mean, because I lived through the HP girls vs Twilight girls time and it was nasty and brutal. These books totally contribute to that mindset and validate girls hating other girls.
Between the Marietta Edgecombe stuff and how Rowling’s responded to the actors who have distanced themselves from her, it seems that Rowling takes “disloyalty” INCREDIBLY personally, no matter the circumstances behind it.
I love how salty Rowling is that Daniel took a stance against her and basically told her "I might have become famous thanks to your work, but that doesn't mean I owe you blind obedience." She really is the real-life equivalence of Dolores Umbridge😂
19:55 I'd also say that in context of hp "fat" kind of... Is a bad word. Because if a fat character is supposed to be unsympathetic they're fat, if they're supposed to be sympathetic (like Molly Weasley) they're "plump" or smth like that. So although normally "fat" is obviously not a bad word, but in context the association is pretty clear.
I'm very early in the video but I just had the thought during the Cho Chang section that there could be a better version of the story where that's a bit of an arc of character growth. Imagine Harry reacts the same way initially, but is *presented as in the wrong-* the way he's learned to cope at this point is by pushing things down so he doesn't understand why she can't just do the same; maybe it reflects some *inner* frustration more than anything, about the fact that it is still a struggle for him, he can't always suppress his own emotions. Maybe he's been having an especially hard time with it lately, and he's worried that being around Cho's big emotions might make him break down, too. And ultimately, rather than the narrative making fun of her, he has something to *learn* from her, that letting yourself feel and talking about things *is* dealing with them and is important. And it wraps up in a scene where they both genuinely open up to one another and we learn more about her and her perspective while our main character also gets a chance to grow. ...Of course this is not a version of the story that was ever going to be written by JKR, but.
Also, He could recognize that he was upset because he wasn't ready to talk about Cedric yet. To Harry, it's had only been a few months since he witnessed a death, and up till that point, he never saw someone die. Quirrel was someone he wasn't attached to, and he never directly saw die. Tom Riddle was a ghost to Harry, and he didn't like him anyway given the attempted murder. Also, he knew about his parents being dead for years, so it's not like Harry really had to grieve over anyone before. Then Cho was asking him tons of questions, and what are the odds Harry knew them? Harry liked Cedric, but Cedric also died because of Harry's choice to tie them. It's a lot for anyone to deal with, not just a 15-year-old boy.
Also, Harry grew up in abuse anyway. The dursleys weren't a safe place to express any emotions at all, whether negative or positive, so of course that would make him nervous. So your interpretation makes a lot more sense actually!
That description of the person who apparently inspired Umbridge made me so upset. It was so derisive and condescending despite the fact that she seemed to be acknowledging it was unjustified, and like... a hair bow like that sounds cute. I buy kids jewelry more often than stuff designed for adults because I just think it's so much more fun; my room is pink and full of toys and probably would be assumed to be a kid's room; my style is very childish and I guess twee, and I'm going to continue to have this style when I'm an older adult too. I don't care what J.K. Rowling thinks of me; I don't hold her opinion in any regard. But hearing stuff like that makes me self-conscious anyway, you know?
Honestly, when I heard that, all I could think about with Rowling is how upsetting it must be, to be pissed off at people for being happy. Or themselves. Then I thought about it and realized: it makes sense, considering she’s such a miserable bigot. TDLR: as someone who is nonbinary, and is Afab; it’s literally so fine to love pink, and colorful jewelry. Like- I’ve personally never been fully into feminine things- specifically dresses cus of dysphoria, but have never understood hating on others for being feminine. I’m sure there was a time as a child that I was internally misogynistic, because my own father was misogynistic to me growing up. What I’m trying to say is though: don’t let JK ruin your fun and style. Based on what you’ve said, you sound like a cool ass person :>
My best friend from school embraced her girly girl after graduation and is now all blond her, pink, rosegold and cream colours 😂 i think we look like Marceline and princess bubblegum and its so funny to me Honestly dont change. Be an example to those that have internalized some shit and dont dare yet to be like themselves 😊
Don’t let JK make you feel self conscious. She is filled with hatred and is just constantly looking for someone to lash out at. There’s nothing wrong with the lady who inspired Umbridge. I bet she was super sweet and looked adorable.
I remembered that from interview even she clarified that the real teacher that become inspiration for Umbridge was not particularly mean or anything but she just felt her annoying for some reason that at the time was not that obvious to us now.
I think this video is a great argument against the whole ‘why can’t we all just act like someone nice wrote Harry Potter’ thing or the people taking the black mould joke seriously. JK Rowling’s biological essentialism and judgemental tendencies aren’t new phenomena, she’s been putting them in her work at every given opportunity. Pretending her transphobia is separate from the misogyny, racism, fatphobia, and antisemitism in her books is super disingenuous, because even the smallest bit of analysis of her character work shows the sheer hatred she holds towards anyone who doesn’t fit her standard for normalcy She used to act like a liberal icon who’s on the side of anyone who doesn’t belong, but the open disgust, hatred, and fascist sympathies we’re seeing now has always been just slightly below the surface for her
Ahh, her "standard for normalcy" is exactly what we should examine! I've noticed it especially badly with the way she depicts women - if they are even SLIGHTLY different from her in appearance or lifestyle, they are to be hated.
@@Levacque literally, like she claims to be a feminist but she holds so much contempt towards young girls in particular. If a girl enjoys femininity in her works, she’s vapid and annoying or just plain evil, and masculine girls are ugly and also evil. To be a good person, girls have to be feminine enough that they could become conventionally pretty if they tried, but not so feminine that they actually care about their appearance. They constantly have to be pitted against each other, and they can never be friends with other girls unless they’re related because other girls are awful It’s not surprising how much she hates trans women, because she doesn’t seem to believe you can have a positive relationship with womanhood. She seems to think only her experience with womanhood is valid, so trans women who absolutely love being women have to be faking to get off, and androgynous/masculine women who are comfortable in being women have to be lying. She seems so deeply insecure that I’d almost feel sorry for her if it hadn’t turned her into such a vicious bigot
Lets not forget that not only was Dumbledore friends with wizard Hitler, he was *gay* for wizard Hitler. JKR really looked at her creepy old man character who spied on prepubescent boys sneaking about the castle and had a close relationship with a bigot during his younger years and was like, yeah, that's the one I'll make the singular gay character in this whole franchise now that its over. jfc
Quick! How would JKR describe you? Me: Julie was a plain, chubby spinstress, with fat fingers, no chin, and a mannish nose. She taught magical psychology - a silly subject for silly girls with silly feelings. Whenever a child got seriously hurt or punished on school grounds, Julie would complain at staff meetings - making her a proper nag.
I'm transmasc without any HRT or top surgery, so I don't want even start thinking how JKR would describe me 💔 But I enjoyed your description! I think you're a great person :)
Alright, let’s see how I can make or translate this into something more objective… Julie, is an average looking, 5’7 human woman who’s not fat, but chubby, has a small chin, and prominent nose. She teaches magical psychology, which also involves alternatives in psychological treatments that may or may not include magic spells. She reports at school meetings about serious incidents where children get hurt.
What a fun game! Here's mine: "She was a thin woman with big buckteeth, a strong jawline and sharp cheekbones. Her hair was dirty blonde and boyishly short, which made her facial features look even more masculine. She wore black all over: black jeans, a denim jacket with all sorts of embroidery patches sewn on the back and and a t-shirt that had a 70's rock band's logo on it and looked like she had picked it from her father's closet. Harry thought she would have looked quite cool actually had the embroidery patches on her jacket not included various political movement signs. Her overall aura gave a strong impression of a woman who never had been nor ever was going to find a man to live with." I really think due to being a slim tomboy on the other hand JKR would label me as a cool not-like-other-girls, on the other she def would put me in the same box with Luna and/or Hermione with SPEW: a haha funny weird bullied woke sjw who will never get a man. The best plot twist? I'm non-binary.
Harry Potter is a boy who grew up in the muggle world just like Hermione. He’s our POV character. And we’re supposed to NOT be horrified when he’s just… okay with slavery? Despite having been raised in modern muggle society? He’s one of the first people to roll his eyes at S.P.E.W. We’re supposed to like this kid?
He literally inherits a slave at one point and his only complaint is that that particular slave sucks…. Even as a CHILD this bothered me. Dobby is his “black friend” but he’s still a racist.
@@raingilkes3502Harry initially hates Kreacher because he views him as responsible for Sirius' death. He also has no desire to own a house elf. It's not like he was like oh man, I wish I inherited a different one.
@@propogandalf That doesn’t negate the fact that he has no problem with the concept of slavery, or the idea of inheriting a slave, regardless of his personal feelings for him. He’s still pro-slavery and it’s never addressed as a negative trait. At no point is he bothered by the concept of slavery the way he should be. Your argument is weak.
@@adamdavis1648 It might explain it but considering it’s never brought up as an in universe explanation, it’s just behavior Harry performs/believes in, and we’re not supposed to question it. Which means one can only logically come to the conclusion that the author endorses these behaviors and beliefs. If at any point Harry had stopped and gone WOW MY AUNT AND UNCLE WERE WRONG you might have a point, but he doesn’t.
I'm at my 2-hour break, we're talking about Dumbledore, and it occurs to me that the other problem with JK Rowling's character development is that her desire to make it known who is good and who is bad is so strong that it loses an opportunity. Think about how different the series would be if it turned out that Dumbledore saw himself as training Harry Potter for one purpose: to die, to fight and die. Literally almost no plot needs to be changed, but this character becomes complicated and tragic, and driven to great evil by his desire to stop Voldemort.
i think this is one reason why harry potter fanfic is so popular. there are so many obvious changes that would make the story and characters more compelling
Am I missing something? The Pensieve scenes at the end of book 7 are all about Dumbledore doing precisely that. If anything, you've highlighted one of the only parts of the series that actually examined right and wrong.
@@Levacque Yes, but those scenes feel very retcon to me. The real problem is that JK Rowling could not have made Hogwarts, a military academy to teach young children how to participate in the wizard battles and civil war, appear to be what it really is, because no child would want to go there, and the entire point of Harry Potter is that every child wants to be Harry Potter. She could have written a better story, but it may not have been a commercial success.
@@DannyDevitowashere I know right!? But let's not get started on the problematic politics and discourse of OSC, or the bizarre neoplatonist direction the entire series went.
The weird thing is that I started out as a casual HP fan and yet I still have all the books because the books and movies were still part of my childhood all the way up until high school/college when I went to see a midnight premiere of Deathly Hallows Part 2. This feels a lot like meeting an old childhood friend and realizing how much has changed.
Finished it all, in a single sitting, even though I should have been sleeping. Brilliant analysis. Just wanted to comment on one thing that I thought deserved a greater highlight. Harry almost killed a student. He would have killed a student if Snape didn't come in just in time. That goes way beyond just mutual bullying. He would have deserved being expelled for it, or worse, but he gets off with a slap on the wrists, a detention, because of who he is, basically. But instead of expressing any remorse for his actions, he is outraged that this detention interferes with Quidditch.
Oh my gosh yeah seriously. I was thinking of that too during the Harry Potter segment. And like I don't fully remember but does Draco ever even come close to hurting Harry like that? Like Draco does and says a lot of shitty things but I can't remember him ever genuinely putting Harry's life in danger
@@stellablake6200 Draco was a second away from using Crucio, which wouldn't have been the greatest thing ever (assuming he would have been successful in casting it - Harry hasn't been a year earlier, or later in this book), but it wouldn't have been nearly as life-threatening. And considering that Harry's signature spell is disarming charm, and that given the circumstances it would have been pretty effective at de-escalating the situation....
I think he didn't get in trouble bc Snape didn't want to admit he created that spell, and Harry didn't realize what it did. Which is stupid...to blindly use a spell like that. Reckless and dangerous.
@@xletragedyx I don't think its because of the spell creation? Snape wouldn't have had to admit it to anyone one way or another, and even if he had - everyone knows of his past. Rather, though, Voldy is quickly gaining power, everyone knows the conflict is inevitable sooner rather than later, tensions are escalating. And you have this one boy who you know can help fix everything. And you would, what, throw him out of the school, leave without education when every bit helps, leave him without the means to protect himself and everyone else? Snape doesn't like Harry, but I doubt even he would go that far. I do kind of wonder even if Harry did kill Draco if he would have suffered any more meaningful consequences.
Knew it was gonna be a wild ride when the big bad Voldemort was bottom of the terrible character list 😂 Not gonna lie though, I always loved Hagrid as a kid and it’s kind of heartbreaking to come to terms with the fact that he was just as disappointing of an adult character as all of the others, at the top of the list no less. Snape? Dumbledore? Been there, knew that. But the realization that Hagrid spent the entire series making the kids take care of his shit and getting drunk cut deep. I think Rowling was trying to make him a sympathetic gentle giant character, and it worked when I was young, but as an adult I can’t imagine knowingly letting literal children take the fall for my incompetencies and put themselves in danger
God, I never realized how much I’d internalized the idea that Ginny was the ideal girlfriend. Every time I cry, even when about pretty serious things, I feel like such a burden and apologize profusely to my boyfriend, which always seems to confuse him 😅
During the part about Umbridge, I was trying on my clothes and was literally putting a bow in my hair. I’m also wearing heart shaped sun glasses, which might be the most twee accessory. I guess she wouldn’t like me. I’m not sure why she’s so pressed about getting canceled for actually bigotry, but is fine admitting to instantly hating women because they might be bad people, secretly with no evidence. Bad characters in her mind can be redeemed by saying one word “always”, but people she knows in real life can be vilified just for wearing a hair clip. Im gonna guess that JK Rowling is actually the worst character in the whole series, because she’s all of them.
Your accessories sound awesome ^^ I can't wear sunglasses bc I wear regular glasses but I would totally also have heart shaped ones otherwise. I'm actually considering getting cat shaped glasses for my next pair!
As many have pointed out, and I say this with seething hatred for jkrowling, the 'abstinence' is referring to drinking, not $ex. She's hung over after too much eggnog over Christmas. Abstinence is rarely taught in European $exEd.
On Hermione being blamed for the article Rita Skeeter wrote, it's even more gross when you consider she was an adult woman, probably in her forties, writing these stories about three teenagers. It's also hilarious how we were supposed to see Hermione as in the wrong for letting the teachers know about the mysterious Firebolt that Harry received. When it was thought that Sirius was out to kill him. I mean, if they can't win without that potentially cursed broom, maybe the Gryffindors aren't as good at quidditch as they believe themselves to be. And maybe they take quidditch a bit too seriously if winning is more important than a player's safety.
Molly Weasley is a boy mom. Honestly though, I kind of feel Molly not wanting to go to the Quidditch World Cup. It sounds loud and boring. I’d much rather stay home, enjoying the quiet, and going to the bookstore. Especially since she doesn’t even have to lug the books around.
Honestly, that sounds more relaxing to me too. She probably rarely gets alone time out of the house. Anyway I thought most of her thoughts on Molly were unhinged and contradicted what she said during Arthur's section. Also in terms of hobbies, she disparaged one of Molly's hobbies which is keeping up with Wizard news and celebrities. She disparages the mocking of divination and its real world equivalent astrology girly, but then also knocks this stereotypical female hobby.
@@alexf225 yeah but she makes excuses for her sons, she doesn’t like her daughter-in-law (thought that could be more because she thinks Bill isn’t good enough, and she has definitely said “boys will be boys.”
@@propogandalf eh to my knowledge, she actually did not enjoy quiet time alone as she did shopping for schools on behalf of Harry and her kids. since I believe the world cup happened in just a day, she probably only had quiet time in the evening and that is just to unwind from the busy day she went shopping.
@@dodixaverius9176 I didn't say anything about quiet time. I said alone time out of the house. As a homemaker with 7 kids, she gets very little of that (at least as far as we've seen in the series). Even if she's doing back to school shopping, she would be out alone which would allow her to enjoy perusing whichever shops she likes for as long as she likes. Maybe find a new favorite writer that isn't Gilderoy. Talk to adults she's not related to about anything other than wizarding politics/war.
I was expecting all the vowels to virtually disappear & simply become "TH TP THRT WRST CHRCTRS N HRR PTTR SSSSSSSSS" because they were in a register beyond human perception. 😂🤣
The only teacher that treats Neville Longbottom like he isn't a complete waste of space is Professor Sprout. Weird how the only class Neville excells in is the one wherein his teacher actually teaches him.
seriously they're so tragic, but then winky is turned into a joke, and house elf enslavement is never reckoned with, and jk rowling later wrote on pottermore that freeing one slave is okay but freeing them all is wrong. :(
@@carolineeasomI believe that's the same article Shaun mentions in his Harry Potter video from a few years back; if I remember correctly it was called something like 'Hermione and the pitfalls of activism'. I'm pretty sure it was deleted off the formerly-pottermore site, yeah, but there might be an archived copy of it out there!
@@falsegod8792There must be an archive somewhere, since Shaun read the article aloud in bis video, and if I remember rightly it's basically the same kind of arguments racists used to argue against the abolition of slavery for black people, saying they'll just harm themselves or turn to drink
Of course Rowling has Molly Weasley continue to read Gilderoy Lockheart's book after he turns out to be bad. According to Rowling, you shouldn't ditch books just because the author turned out to be evil. I wonder if she saw her own downfall coming?
It doesn't just 'also' mean that, it's specifically mentioned in every major dictionary's primary definition (some of which don't mention sex at all, though many do). Even if we set that aside, I don't think it's really that inappropriate for an 8-10 year old kid to have a basic understanding of sex. There are many studies that show that kids with basic sex ed are less vulnerable to sexual abuse than those who are not.
@@Reverie42I think a couple people mentioned this elsewhere in the comments, but in the US it primarily means from sex, and in the UK it’s more colloquially meaning alchohol. So I think some wires just got crossed tbh
Fred and George are a perfect example of why regulations are important. You know, with all their highly dangerous products being marketed towards children.
I would like to add some things about myrtle. First of all i find it rather strange that jk rowling doesn't hesitate to make fun about how myrtle wants to k!ll herself when she can't bear with peeves anymore considering that reminded her strongly of her schoollife before she died. I mean we are talking about su!cidal thoughts thats not something you easily make fun of. Or how no one would care if myrtle -a literal child - would be killed which she was eventually. Myrtle is also portrait as a creep later in the books as she stalks harry because she gets a liking about him heaven knows why?! -he asked her about her death how flattering ig?? ( i believe it was the scene were she watched harry taking a bath in goblet of fire) same thing happens with draco in half blood prince. Correct me if im wrong but didnt she find it attractive that he is crying and in pain cause finally someone who is as "dramatic" and emotional as her, hell yeah. It just feels like that all parts of her "chrakter" are just constantly used against her and as an excuse to bully and make fun of her even though she is a fcking victim. Weird? weird jk rowling!
Just to add to Sirius as well - once he had revealed himself to Harry and Harry was contacting him in GoF as well as in OotP he was super immature and selfish, and tried to goad Harry into taking stupid risks and endangering himself because ‘that’s what James would have done’. He doesn’t see Harry as his own person even, just a reincarnation of his best friend.
Fleur is a talented, intelligent, loyal, strong, genuinely kind person. She is very much in love with Bill because of who he is and how he makes her feel. I find it interesting that Rowling has the other women ridicule and belittle her endlessly, especially Molly, when she's exactly the type of person you should want to fall in love with your son and vice versa. What little we see of Bill and Fleur's relationship is healthier by far than, for example Ron and Hermione's, or Remus and Tonks's.
Oh Caroline, bless your generous heart. It isn’t called S.P.E.W because Hermione is just spewing stuff. It’s worse. It’s called S.P.E.W because it’s supposed to be do-good cringe, and isn’t that just enough to make you want to throw up…
Not to defend Rowling, but she is from the UK and I don’t believe abstinence has the same connotation over there. Abstinence, just means to hold back from over indulgence and traditionally refers to alcohol. I think we’re actually the odd puritanical ones to make it about sex. So when you combine that with the fact that drinking is less taboo in general in Europe, I don’t think that aspect of the fat ladies story is really that inappropriate. I read the books before looking things up online was popular, so I definitely didn’t make that connection. I thought the joke was she clearly isn’t and maybe should be abstaining from drinking.
It's also worth remembering that wizards are canonically allowed to start visiting the pub at 13. This isn't about the books, either, it's just a British thing.
@@XxTaraneaxX I know Caroline mentions being from a southern state and since they wouldn't have changed the wording for American audiences it makes sense that connection was made
29:50 ok the association of divination with femininity gives me some serious dianic Wicca vibes, a notably transphobic sect of Wicca. Not surprising, but interesting lol
Yes I think people forget it isn’t just Abrahamic religions that have sexism or transphobia or homophobia within their beliefs even if it is just certain sects or groups. It’s actually really annoying when people act like certain spiritualities are incapable of being cruel.
It's wild that the Weasleys are always seen as "the poor family" when the dad has a job with the government and Bill apparently helps literally make the entire economic system possible at all
They have only 2 providing adults (3 if Charlie sends money from Romania) for 8 people (and then Harry). But they don’t have to provide for their children most of the year, only in summer. So they’re considered poor by the pure-blood standards since they don’t have generational wealth, but I guess they’re more middle class with low per-person income.
@scarletsabre8383 I think his department isn't well-regarded, though. I assume he gets paid less than other department heads, given how Lucius Malfoy addresses him
@@xletragedyx Even so, you'd think a department head would be paid enough to properly send his kids to school, or be given government-funded/subsidised materials... oh wait, I forgot who's writing this. No social safety nets allowed, just let Ron go to school with a broken wand that will actively hurt himself, others, and his education, because if he can't afford a new one, fuck 'em
Watching this I realized that my desire to be like Hermione (chill and cool) indirectly caused me to "edit" (do) my male-friend-who-openly-had-a-crush-on-me-even-though-I'm-an-out-lesbian 's homework in my freshman year of high school, just before JK revealed her evil-ness and I started to unpack the books.
the thing about buckbeak no like ever since i could like think critically about what i was reading and i thought back to this it bothered me highkey? especially when you actually think about how young the characters are?? when you are thirteen reading prisoner of azkaban the characters seem really grown up because YOU feel really grown up. you're a whole teenager now and all. but when i thought back on it as i got older i was like hm. these are toddlers. that blond bitch is a toddler to me. hagrid isn't qualified, he doesn't give these children even a single lecture before introducing them to very dangerous animals, and they're also literally thirteen. a student getting injured is 100% on him, even if the student "caused" the incident. they're very lucky that only one student was injured in that lesson!!! like even if he's a bully it's wild that draco malfoy, local thirteen year old, is written as having gotten what was coming to him when he was seriously injured, was just being dramatic about his injury, and was seen as a spineless coward with it out for the poor innocent teacher when he told his parents about his injury.
Just imagine the real world counter part of an 8th grade biology teacher showing the class a lion, letting one of the kids ride on its back for several minutes and then berate another child who got his arm mauled by this lion. J.K. Rowling just seems to forget that these characters are actually meant to be real people living in a real world in their universe.
yeah same thats in general also whats going through my mind. at 13 I felt so old and so mature and like I couldnt grow any more and now I'm like? 13 is literally only 1 year away from being 12 and thats just 2 away from being T E N. at 13 we aren't old we are literal tiny kids so yeah rereading that is horrible😭 like did draco not listen to hagrid? yeah he didn't. did he deserve to literally get physically hurt because of that? no???
@@lmaolini my point was...agreeing with you?... like you do when you come across someone saying something you agree with? are you the only one allowed to say something specific? 😂😂
2:11:49 What? The jerk who is supposed to be redeemed for turning out to be an incel who bullies the son of the dead woman he obsessed over? And he's only the 11th worts? Idk how JK managed this.
James Potter’s and Lily Potter’s “love story” reminds me of too many pastors that I knew and worked with. They all loved to tell how they basically stalked and harassed their partners until they gave into dating and eventually marrying them. So romantic and definitely not worrisome at all
Misconception: Apart from James asking Lily to go out with him in SWM we have no indication he constantly harassed her. When Snape, in one of his DH flashbacks, tells Lily that James likes her, she’s surprised and doesn’t believe him, and this takes place in their fifth year. I don’t deny that James’s character was pretty terribly written even for someone who never really appears, but let’s not make him worse than he was
@@evyrys2725To be fair, it’s still a pretty reasonable assumption, considering the woman who wrote him is pretty bigoted just from how she wrote her own damn series 😂
@@evyrys2725 As you said, we don’t have much information to go off of, but i would still argue that his bully behavior and depicted entitlement are traits that are concerning especially when it comes to Lily, who is friends with object of his bullying (Snape). Who’s to say that Lily didn’t feel pressured to be with James because maybe she hoped to help him be a better person thus leaving her friend and others alone?
@soph1377 She stopped being friends with Snape 2 years before she and James got together. It was because Snape called her a mudblood. After that the whole Remus Snape attempted murder happened and after that they stopped bullying him. The war was also starting so they became more mature especially in year 7. Thats when Lily and James got together.
Fun thing about Hagrid referring to the centaurs as “mules”; mules are half-donkey half-horse hybrids. Hagrid is literally calling these people half-breeds while he is dealing with being persecuted for his half-giant status by umbridge. Why this specific word choice, J.K?
This is probably going to come across as utterly tragic (and it is I guess) but as someone who read Harry Potter as a fat kid, the way in which fatness was used to evil-code so many of the unpleasant characters did not even cross my mind because by then I had already so completely internalised the narrative that being fat was a moral failing that it just made sense lol
I was a bucktoothed young girl who read these books growing up and felt connected to Hermione and... yeah, I did feel pretty crummy when Hermione 'magicked' her teeth to being 'normal' and 'perfect'. And, I also felt incredibly sad I couldn't do the same. It's interesting to go through this video and remember how many things the movies left out that were in the books and how sometimes, it's a good thing it was left out.
RE:The entry on Dudley. I've been fat all my life and I was a huge Harry Potter fan as a kid. I can tell you for sure that seeing the way Dudley was described really laid the foundation for years of internalized fatphobia to build on. I was never bullied for my size, but seeing just how vitriolic fat people are treated in media was enough to give me low self-esteem and body image issues I am still unlearning to this day as an adult. The thing about the Dursleys being described in such a nasty hateful way, I thought that I must be one of the good ones because despite being fat, I wasn't anywhere near the size that Dudley was supposed to be. Another commenter mentioned that JKR uses "fat" to describe the bad fat characters and "plump" to describe the good fat characters, and they're 100% right. It just instilled in me at such a young age that being fat was bad and evil, but you could be plump or chubby and it was fine. So yeah JKR can get bent.
I grew up fat and read these books. I don't believe I even thought much of it at the time because making fun of fat people was so normalized that I just kinda expected it. I was not critical of media at all back then.
"Abstinence" just means to abstain from something. In this case, it meant to abstain from getting really, really, really drunk. As a kid who was told to abstain from drinking while I was in elementary school by every DARE officer they dragged in front of us, that never came across as slutshaming to me.
Can I just say we need justice for Grubbly-Plank. An incredibly qualified and competent Care of Magical Creatures professor who didn't get the job because Dumbledore hired someone with no education past age 14 (ish, I don't remember for sure) and is not allowed to have a wand and who absolutely is unqualified in every way to teach. And even though she was done dirty like that she still subs whenever it is needed.
Coming back to leave a second comment: the way Hagrid is depicted is really ableist? Too? Like kinda the subtext is that he’s mentally behind and that’s why he’s allowed to be friends with children and have children take care of him, but. As someone who *is* mentally disabled, being mentally not your age does *not* give you the right to interact with children like you’re peers. They 👏 are 👏 never 👏 your 👏 peers 👏. Other adults are. Regardless of the intended effect, it’s parentification at best, manipulative at the least, and straight up gr00ming behavior at worst. Being disabled doesn’t make it okay to act that way with children. And JK’s depiction of him as such just feeds into the pity party so many able bodied people throw for autistic people or other kinds of mentally disabled people who aren’t pre-equipped with the tools for successful social relationships.
Hi, person who grew up as a fat kid reading HP here. Since you asked: The sad thing of it is, fatphobia is so deeply internalized by certain parts of my family that I laughed right along with all the Dudley jokes despite them very much being the kinds of things that I heard about myself from school bullies. It was just another thing in my life that reinforced all that self-hatred I would then have to spend many, many years unlearning.
This one is probably gonna take me a while to watch xD I'll add comments to this one if I have more as I go. 1) I wanna add to Voldemort's analysis (because this has bothered me since I read the 6th book). The one thing that has always irked me about his character is that JK seems to suggest that kids born out of r*pe cannot know love or be loved.That because he wasn't born out of love, he was doomed to be loveless for his entire life. While your point was that he was evil from the get-go because of that (and I agree with everything you said on it!), the idea that a kid could read HP while also knowing they were the product of a r*pe and therefore take that message to heart bothered me so much, it's one of the biggest red flags I had about the series even back when I was still buying the books and active on fan forums. 2) I always took the abstinence comment about the fat lady to be about abstaining from drink. Not necessarily much better when in a children's book, but not really about s*x either. 3) Lavender Brown is one of the examples, to me, of how the wizarding world isn't fleshed out enough. Like you said, she shared a dorm room with Hermione for 6 years, they have no scenes (that I remember) of spending any time with each other and the emotional weight of her death(?) on Hermione was so impactful... I didn't even remember it was Hermione who got Greyback away from her. My point is mainly that Hermione's reaction felt like it didn't matter who was attacked, she would have reacted the same... which makes their relationship feel completely emotionally empty. Even Dudley showed more emotional reaction to realizing Harry was no longer going to be in his life. 4) Harry finding happiness in Draco as the ferret is one of those things that I wouldn't have a problem with if it was made more obvious it is a character flaw of Harry's. A kid enjoying seeing their bully put in place is realistic. Having the audience enjoy it without consideration to Draco's feelings is where it crosses the line to harmful. It teaches the audience that callously enjoying someone else's misery is justified if it's someone you don't like. 5) I really don't want to advocate for Molly Weasley's character, but I actually feel like the Howler could be warranted in very limited circumstances. Ron committed a crime by driving the car in a way that could expose their world to muggles. It's not just a little mistake of typical childhood shenanigans, but what could be considered an international incident (considering the wizarding world and muggle world each have their own governments). However, the fact that other students recognize exactly what a Howler is suggests to me that many parents use this as a form of punishment for things that are far less serious than Harry and Ron breaking the law. Also, the fact that Arthur had that car in his possession and in an unsecured way (such that his kids literally stole it twice in the same summer), and he didn't face far more severe punishment for his own actions that brought about the incident is, at the very least, eyebrow-raising worthy. Molly too, considering she knew about the car, and also knew about the previous driving to Privet Drive and didn't take actions to prevent her children from doing the same thing again makes her negligent at the very least.. 6) Peter Pettigrew is one of those characters that had every narrative reason to seem unattractive at first. He spent a year terrified for his life. He wasn't eating, he was balding from stress, he had lived years as a rat instead of the human he is. I just wish she had described him as having a youthful vibrancy when Harry saw Snape's memories. Back when he was a kid and carefree and he had hope and excitement for the future, he could've had a completely different look about him. Before Voldemort took that from him. There's also a very easy explanation to how he fell into Voldemort's hands that, unfortunately, JK didn't see a need to give him more of a character than 'will follow anyone with power'. And that is that Voldemort could've searched out the weakest link nearest the Potters the moment he decided to go after them. It wouldn't be surprising that Voldemort would see Peter, the more timid of their friend group, as easier to manipulate than headstrong Sirius or internally strong Lupin (insert here that I tried to think of anyone Lily was close with only to be assured by my memories, again, that mothers in HP don't seem to "require" friendship outside of their husband's friends). If Peter was targetted specifically though, JK would've had to admit that he was once a victim of Voldemort's too and that Peter was dead the moment Voldemort decided he was useful to him. 7) Yeah... Filch is one of those characters I feel like JK put in place to fill a role and depict a side of the magical world and then just casually used as either a plot device or a background character now and again. He's literally the neighbour from Home Alone (movie) who is vilified by the kids for no reason other than they don't understand him (but in Home Alone, at least the neighbour gets his own redemption. Filch is just... left as is - this 'scary' man in a position of [semi] power who treats the kids 'unfairly' because they're too young to look outside themselves yet.... only, they grow up through the series, but never realize they forgot to change their childish impression of the janitor and instead, JK reminds us Filch is worthy of hate for following orders from the Ministry [Dolores] or for not having a sharp mind [his stupidity is played up EVERY time he appears in the later movies]... because being uneducated is a crime I guess?). 8) Umbridge backstory(?).... Um.... wow. Just wow. I don't bother to read JK's info dumps on the Potter universe that weren't in the books, so I had certainly never read... *that*... I like plushies to this day. Guess I'm a b*goted r*cist because... cute things? 9) Dudley is exactly the image of blaming a child for the faults of the parents. If Dudley was, in fact, demanding sweets as a 1 year old, then the appropriate reaction isn't "What's wrong with that child?" but rather "Why aren't the parents parenting?" While there seems to be some awareness on JK's part that Dudley's parents spoiling him was detrimental to him (which is probably why she thinks he deserves to at least redeem himself enough to sit in the same room with Harry as adults while their kids play), she definitely uses tonnes of language throughout the books that puts the onus for Dudley's weight on him. Dudley is a weird character for me where I generally like him, but hate the way JK managed him for much of the series. Could he have been both spoiled and fat? Sure. Did she really need to lead with his fatness every time as the qualifier for why Harry should be allowed to dislike him? I think you know the answer. 10) About the Myrtle section... why does JK purport to know whether anyone cries in boys' bathrooms? I thought she had a thing against women entering the men's lavatory? XD 11) Honestly, I've never really thought much about Hedwig's death. Now I see it was by design. I had thought it was written for the same reason as you (that it's easier to kill her off than to figure out what to do with her), but that's where my thoughts on her ended. But it is absolutely true that there should have been a little more grieving on that loss. George getting a hole in his ear felt more grave by the end of that night and Harry has his 'recover Mad Eye's eye' moments during the infiltration of the MoM. But I don't even remember Hedwig even coming up much again after her death scene other than it being how they pinpointed real!Harry. And it really wouldn't have been hard to write her out of the story in the first place. Just have her stay with the Weasleys. If JK still wanted it to be the death of innocence that it was, she should've had Harry try to process the feelings of her loss at least a little more. Having said that, I now realize I don't have a single memory of what happened with Crookshanks. Huh. 12) ngl I thought Ron would be 1st, but 2nd is pretty close. Also, thanks for reminding me why I never warmed up to Ron's character. I think it was his threat on Mrs. Norris in the first book. As a person who always kept my black cat indoors on Hallowe'en because people can be cruel, Ron was exactly the type of person I was trying to keep her safe from. 13) I'm not really surprised at myself for forgetting Hagrid existed. I was trying to think of who could possibly be worse than Ron... well, Rubeus Hagrid is certainly a 'good' contender. After your first point about Hagrid giving Dudley the pig's tail, I now remember why I didn't remember him. I never liked his character. It was obvious JK wrote him to be a character you should like, but every time Harry thought of him as a friend, or about him warmly, I always had to sigh and just think, 'right, the weird guy Harry is friends with because he happened to be the person to introduce him to magic.' Let's not forget this grown man is friends with children... (ah, glad you mentioned it too.) 14) Hearing the recap about the detention in the woods looking for an injured unicorn, it occurred to me that the most appropriate detention for first years found wandering the school grounds at night (which probably happens regularly at a school full of teenagers), should have been.... writing lines after school (just not with blood as ink). Maybe some extra work if lines doesn't seem punishing enough. Also, the groundskeeper is not an educator and shouldn't be put in the position of watching 4 children.
I don't think I can continue to add to the other message anymore? So new message! :D 15) I didn't remember the scene in Azkaban of the trio taking care of drunk Hagrid, but more than just normalizing a kid taking care of an adult, teaching said child the right thing to do is to pour out their alcohol on the ground is probably one of the most negligent lessons. If a child tried that with an abusive drunk, the consequences could be absolutely horrendous. It's not something I picked up on as a child (because, gratefully, I didn't grow up in that kind of household), but as an adult, I know how delicate a situation with a chronic drinker when they're drunk can be. ...Aaaaand, that's it! Made it to the end of the video! Thanks for the insights, and the trip through my memories of these books. I appreciate how much effort you put into this! Thank you! :)
I cannot ever be convinced to like ron. I have hated him since day one..I remember finding out he and Hermione ending up together and FUMING at school for a week over it. He is insufferable.
One thing about Sirius is that yes, he was in prison so he couldn't have reached out for Harry like, any sort of way. But are you telling me that aftern 13 years in prison, the reason this man tries to leave is not his m*therfucking godson, who is known to be orphan, but.. vengeance? Like, the minute he sees Peter in that picture, he realizes "oh well i CAN escape prison" and its not maybe to be there for his godson whatsoever but to get vengeance.... Jesus. The man is crap
Not to defend Rowling nor Sirius, but he *is* not normal, he spent 12 years with dementors who makes mental issues much much worse. So in the beginning he just wanted to take vengeance, but after all these years he is literally obsessed with this idea. Of course this is fucked up, but I guess that's the point.
@@shio_juniper I agree. I think Rowling intended Sirius’ character to be a critique of the prison system that instead of correcting and rehabilitating felons causes even those unjustly convicted to become criminals. But then she, of course, ruins it all with her overarching theme that only good people don’t deserve such cruel treatment but bad people do, when Lucius Malfoy is put in Azkaban, and Harry decides that it would be fun to rub it into Draco’s face. You would think that our good protagonist would have some sympathy for Draco who lost his father to the same system that ruined his godfather’s life while also grieving him, but alas we’re asking for too much nuance from JKR here. Not to mention that there is zero conversation about abolishing Azkaban and creating a more suitable magical justice system in the whole series.
What are you talking about? Sirius realized that Peter was in striking distance of Harry, who Sirius assumed was safe under Dumbledore. That's what "he's at Hogwarts" was about. I am very critical of this series too, but you gotta think these things through. Once in a while, the writer did actually lay things out logically, and if we blindly criticize everything, the valuable criticism will be lessened.
this video made me look up joanne's childhood/adolescence/young adulthood on wikipedia and my gosh it's like reading a serial killer's backstory. she basically seems to think everyone around her at university was incapable of independent thought.
@@Hiolori from her Wikipedia entry: "Rowling always wanted to be a writer,[73] but chose to study French and the classics at the University of Exeter for practical reasons, influenced by her parents who thought job prospects would be better with evidence of bilingualism.[74] She later stated that Exeter was not initially what she expected **("to be among lots of similar people - thinking radical thoughts")** but that she enjoyed herself after she met more people like her.[53]" It's very "I'm better than all these people because I'm actually a free thinker and they're just sheep" feeling.
Yeah that's what most hard-nosed conservatives think about University. Not really surprising to hear this about her, but definitely illuminating to have it confirmed.
To add to one of your points: 10:18 Didn't Merge, Vernon's (ugly) mustached sister - the dog breeder - say something along those lines in the 3rd book. /If there is something wrong with the mother, her children will be bad/ (she was cruder about it). Never understood that was one of JK's theses of the human condition.
2:02:13 in the fantastic beasts movies it was established that he was not just FRENDS with but in love with wizard hitler. Which is… a choice that was made
35:05- in McGonagall’s defense what Draco said does sound like a lie a kid would say to try and get themselves out of trouble especially because she already knows Harry and Draco don’t get along. Harry on the other hand with Umbridge would have no reason to lie about what happened to Cedric because why would he lie about the man who is caused so much pain and suffering the last time he was at large was back?
Honestly… after watching this video- it’s kinda upsetting to see that JK’s books somehow got approved and weren’t banned. And yet books that talk about minorities perspectives even through fiction- get banned because of the exposure to the experience of a marginalized group.
Crazy to me that even after the ten hour video essay "A Brief Look at Harry Potter", Shaun's 3 hour breakdown of the series, many many hours of other criticisms I've watched, and your other two videos, theres still new discourse to throw in the mix. Exellent video as always, I enjoyed the character slander, especially those I hadn't considered, such as Fred and George and Hagrid.
With regards to Hagrid, as Shaun pointed out, he's just as bigoted as Vernon Dursley in many ways. He shows up in the first book, is quick to anger when Dumbledore is insulted, and so uses magic (which isn't legal for him to have) to disfigure a child, who didn't even make the insult, to the point it required surgery. And just like Vernon, he wants to keep the magic and non-magical worlds separate, and even tells Harry that people would be wanting magical solutions to all their problems, so they're better off being left alone... when wizards can cure all non-magical diseases, regrow bones in an afternoon, and infinitely duplicate food and liquids. They, and Rowling, are just lazy when it comes to helping regular people.
@@scarletsabre8383 yes, I knew Shaun's arguments when it comes to Hagrid's bigotry, but I never considered that he was putting a crazy emotional burden on a bunch of children that he's weirdly friends with. It was a new perspective for me that I never thought about
@@puffinatheart5565 You could even make the argument that because Hagrid was kicked out of school, and since this is Rowling's neoliberal world, there are no social safety nets, was basically thrown to the streets, he never really grew past his school years socially/emotionally, and feels a connection to the kids and is socially/emotionally stunted to be basically on their level, since he's been working as groundskeeper and only ever interacting with schoolchildren since he was one himself
@@scarletsabre8383 yeahhhh JKR is a neoliberal, she doesn't believe in social safety nets etc. She also is terrible at world building lmaooo Dumbledore has a habit of picking people up off the street and hiring them at his school. This is probably meant to show his benevolence etc. but it really does just seem like these people have nowhere else to go. Filch should be able to get a job somewhere that doesn't involve him doing stuff he hates, right? Maybe he can do paperwork or something, idk. Hagrid has a love of magical beasts, maybe he could work with Charlie or something. Hagrid isn't stupid when it comes to how magical creatures ought to be treated, just with the social aspect of explaining it. He could work at a magical zoo or do something like Newt did with his magical rehabilitation program, idk. It just shows such a lack of care for the world and a lack of respect for people who are put in bad positions. They just need a benevolent person like Dumbledore to help them. Idk I feel like there's a deeper message here about JKR and how she sees those less fortunate than her
Which is funny because as a kid who was 7 when the first book came out, this was fantastic. Now as an adult, I'm a bit like, who was the target audience? Most series keep the same voice throughout, even if the characters age.
@@sannetts As far as I know, the intent was for the target audience age to go up a little with each book, which is, IMO, one of the few good things about the series, because it allows the tone and themes to more-or-less match the age of the characters throughout.
10-year-olds very regularly read through the whole series. It's sold and marketed to adolescents. There's no question that the people in charge of printing and selling the book see it as a children's chapter book.
Voldemort is insinuated to be incapable of love because he was conceived via a love potion, however, this was revealed in the last couple of books. It's a TERRIBLE message for children either way, but i do think the later books were meant for 16+ range (growing with the audience and all that). I also think the love potion was metaphorical, but done in a way that could cause harm nonetheless. It is valid to say someone who has never experienced love might be unpracticed giving it, but with voldy he's incapable. Thats why he's Harry's foil in many ways but definitely a character that encourages deeper thought... which as a kid i assumed was intentional on the author's part, but now who knows! I also read Petunia's all-consuming jealousy as love-turned-to hate after loss. Like she loved magic and her sister as a kid, was excluded from the school, slowly lost the closeness to her sister because of magic/the school, and then literally experiences her sister getting murdered because of it. Denial and grief are crazy, and can definitely twist a person especially when the seeds are already there. But again, all of this intentionality and complexity that I was certain was intentionally and thoughtfully put there as a kid is all in question now
The hard thing about the Voldemort can’t love cause his conception came from loveless manipulation (which this is never explicitly stated) is that it leaves this idea of children who come from broken families with parents who don’t love each other won’t be able to feel love
"one of the most dangerous things in the books: that loving, trustworthy adults will sometimes ask them to keep secrets and break rules for them" i about got chills from that
Omg that's a straight up prefatory message!
same.
I finally got to the end and I was not expecting Hagrid to be the winner, but holy cow I had forgotten how much inappropriate stuff he got the kids into.
"Are you a HP fan? Are you a HP hater?"
Yes
I feel this so deeply
I definitely wouldn't feel so passionate about HP's plot holes, weird world building and problematic choices, if it never had such a big place in my heart.
Accurate. I grew up with the movies and was honestly very glad I waited til adulthood to read the books. Bought a British set used, and for the first time in my life was actually annoyed that I essentially got a signed copy lol
Seller didn't list that. Understandable these days lol
HP was there for me when I was a basically friendless child. It was heartbreaking when I found out about JK Rowling’s views, and when upon rereading the books/rewatching the movies after years I saw all those problematic things that as a kid I simply didn’t notice
@@silviaeaber you and me both.
i havent read the books but why is winky the house elf a tiktok tradwife
NAH YOURE SO RIGHT THO
CRYING SCREAMING THROWING UP YOU'RE SO RIGHT
None of these words are in the bible (affectionate)
lol 😂
There's a conversation to be had here about abuse victims coming to need direction from a controlling person to do anything, and after being "let go" they find themselves lost because they've lost that direction.
"fleur delacour is one of my favourite characters" agreed, and her actress did a really nice job making her endearing despite rowling's attempts to make us bristle at her
She was one of my first crushes as a kid, though I didn’t know it was a crush at the time.
Funny thing about the time turner... Hermione could, and presumably should, have been able to use it to get as much sleep as she wanted. She should have been the best rested student in her year, because she could just turn time back a few hours and have a nap at any time.
@@FuelDropforthewin FUCK YOU ARE SO RIGHT
Easily my least favourite part of the Time Turner mess.
Well, not exactly, because then there would have been two napping Hermiones in her bed a lot of the time, right? Other people waking up and noticing that is probably not a risk her character would ever take. And finding another location for those naps would have involved wandering through the school at night, so a lot of rule breaking.. again, not in character for her.
@@Anna-zk5zj hermoine breaks the rules all the time, when she thinks it’s warranted. If McGonagal had given her an ok, or some 24/7 magical hall pass, i think she would’ve been down
@@Anna-zk5zj These are things McGonnagal should have arranged for though. 60 Hermiones from different times could have easily napped together in the room of requirement (although of course Rowling doesn't come up with any ideas until the picosecond she needs them in a story, so the RoR deffo wasn't something she was thinking of
haven't finished video yet but wanted to add on Voldemort and the implication children born from SA are incapable of love/being loved (because to my memory he was conceived when his father was under the effect of a love potion) is just so gross to me too
Yes. Effed up.
I came here to comment this too. It's really sick from Rowling
I go over that when talking about his mom, who is number 26 on the list.
Jesus Christ that's horrible. What a sick thing to imply in a book written for children. People born of rape (who know) already struggle with it. Joanne has serious issues.
This is just a stupid generalization. Just because a person who has a traumatic past becomes a villain doesn't mean that anyone who ever faces those traumas will definitely be evil. This is such a stupid and immature mindset. If these kinds of things make you people think the author is sick then you shouldn't even touch asoif as its beauty would be lost on you.
My friends and I have a running conversation that Harry Potter is the single most incurious protagonist possible for an Urban Fantasy. The kid has no desire to learn or know more, outside of combat spells. History? Theory? Current Events? those have to be imprinted into his skull via blunt force trauma.
As a kid, I would've killed for Harry to ask any bloody questions about anything not directly related to him or the plot
he's so weirdly unlikable lol. intellectually curious? no, this child who grew up in our world finds the details of literal magic boring. empathetic? no, he's coldly callous to everyone who isn't part of his dumbledore-based little cult mindset. physically weak but mentally or morally strong? no, he's a famous jock. poor kid who fought his way up? no, he has literal mountains of money. we're supposed to like him because he's an orphan and because the books keep ripping any father figures he finds away from him (and because i guess he just isn't interested in viewing the weasleys that way) but like... hermione essentially orphans herself at the end lmao
@@supernova9361 The job of the "fish out of water" protagonist in an Urban Fantasy is to ask questions. To establish the rules of the setting, the magic system, all that. Percy Jackson, Valkyrie Cain, whoever your mortal protagonist who gets dragged into the supernatural is they are the audience surrogate. What we know about the world is what they know about the world.
I still can't get over Rowling just ignoring most of HP's world building by just describing the history lessons as way too boring to follow.
this is all so criticized for no damn reason. Harry is the protagonist, and the eyes of the story-eyes that are quiet and always absorbing-but he’s only one of THREE leaders. Hermione is the curious one-it’s sort of her duty as a character… she leads in her own way and balances out Harry and Ron. It’s why she rocks. Harry is boring because Harry is a stoic and a savior. Ron is a soft goofball because Ron is the heart and the family. Hermione is the intellectual because Hermione is the problem solver and holds wicked logic. They all need each other to fill out flaws, that is the POINT. I find that people are really quick to project dumb ideas onto things that have ALREADY BEEN WRITTEN instead of just taking the story for what it is. So what? Because someone doesn’t speak it makes them incurious? That’s so silly. I find that the most curious people are also often the most composed. How could the one character in the story who wants to save others the MOST be deemed un-empathetic? Get a grip ❤️
All of Rowling's descriptions are extremely judgemental, rather than evocative. They tell us how to feel, they don't show us how to feel. It feels like the author hates her characters (that are female).
not to mention the amount of female characters considered “unattractive” (or from an objective standpoint, stereotypically masculine) or described in a negative light vs the amount of male characters held by the same standard
Yup
@@miidnxghts love Jo for that
Oh she definitely doesn't like women - or specifically, she doesn't like any women who have slightly different desires, sensibilities, or appearances from her own.
This. I actually don't mind that the characters are flawed. I think it's good for kids to experience flawed characters and learn how to be better people from the mistakes the characters make and grow from. But that's kinda the thing with Harry Potter. I don't think Rowling intended for any of her main characters to be as flawed as the writing makes them out to be. We're supposed to support Ron, Harry, and Hermoine. Even when they permanently disfigure a child for having realistic fears. There is no learning moment to be had from that incident. Save 'snitches get stitches' which is just not a good concept to be teaching young children.
i saw a harry potter critical video by caroline and then i saw 4 and a half hours and oh my god. oh my god caroline you're a Gift
Did not notice it was four hours long until now
There should probably be timestamps on the video, so viewers can skip past the opening where she’s incredibly patronizing and condescending to her audience for several minutes.
Actually I’m… starting to think that attitude is going to last the whole video 💀
I wish it didn’t because her actual points are very good.
Oh my gosh Im 15 minutes in, did not realize the length. Heck yeah!!!
@@Fantallanaa little harsh but I kinda agree. I feel like Li Speaks and Haley Whipjack are creators with similar styles that she could learn a lot from?
@@Fantallana I really like her tone in this. To me it counds condescending, but not to the audience - to Harry Potter and JKR, which I personally just see as really fun sarcasm, in a video that is a very extensive critique of how bad these characters are. So I think it's fun and fitting
I'm only just a lil bit in, and the "people can't really change" is so real because there were MULTIPLE instances where it looked like evil characters were going to switch sides and even team up with Harry (notably Draco and Dudley) but they just...didn't...and when I was a kid I never knew why but it's because Jkr really sees people as being born good or bad
Forreal!! Draco was perfectly set up for a TRUE redemption arc... But no. He just manages to survive & then grows up to have a family at a comfortable distance from the others he spent his school years terrorizing. What??
@@ZijnShayatanica after Harry saved Dudley from the dementor and the dursleys were accusing Harry of being at fault, it was so weird that Dudley just...didn't back him up. At all. I think Jkr THINKS people can change...but she BELIEVES that you are either born good or born bad. James is the other example. Born good, so him "changing" from being a bully to a good man is a foregone conclusion that doesn't need explanation.
@@powernade Forreal... Imagine going through such a traumatic experience, your parents don't believe you, a kid who you always thought was trash [largely because your parents indoctrinated you into hating him] still saves your life despite how poorly your treated him... And virtually no payoff.
@@ZijnShayatanica It was a perfect opportunity to show that EVERYONE even the precious golden child is harmed be abusive parents...but that doesn't fit in the black and white worldview. Oh well.
@@powernade At least a lot of us who grew up w/ the IP still managed to learn positive things about character growth, largely by being big enough nerds that we practiced media literacy before we even knew what it was. 😅
Small note: but "abstinence" technically only means to abstain from something. We typically only hear it reference to abstaining from sex, but I think it has a broader understanding over there. Not that it was appropriate to be talking about getting drunk (with the friars) in a kid's book either.
Also how are you so right that videos like this feel cathartic? She really broke us.
it does also seem like it was probably a leering pun to some degree, given that rowling loves wordplay when it allows her to be gross
@@Rayne_StormsI think it’s due to realizing how the books deeper messages did have affects that you can look back on and say “yeah that definitely made me internalize x y part of myself.”
Maybe that’s me though, I look back at manga I did that for as well 😂
@@thomasstone3480yeah, that sounds like her. I try to avoid fully interacting with her, but sadly she crawls out of her black mold infested cave to spew trans misogyny.
Opinion of one single British person: we almost exclusively use the word abstinence to refer to abstinence from alcohol, to the extent that this section about the fat lady was hard to understand. Slut shaming … what? When?? I’ve googled it and discovered that in North America it seems to usually refer to abstinence from sex. I would not even have listed ‘sex’ in my top five things one might abstain from. To a British child-audience the whole joke is that adults seem to want to drink a whole bunch of wine before Christmas and then none at all EVER AGAIN immediately afterwards, and this seems fair enough to me.
I want to clarify that I am not hating on your interpretation and I am finding this video a really interesting watch, well done and thank you for the huge effort you have put in, the work really shows.
It does not surprise me that Joanne is the type to not have any compassion for a woman crying in distress in a bathroom, to the point that she wrote an entire character making fun of them. She's so demented.
Twice. Her minor also spent a long time crying in the bathroom in Philosopher’s Stone…
@@asmrtpop2676three times because of Cho
Jk Rowling: Trans people can't use the bathroom that aligns with their gender! Think of all the vulnerable cis women in them!
Woman/girl: *is vulnerable in a bathroom *
Jk Rowling: _Disgosting_
The cruelty is staggering.
0:00 Intro
2:02 Scoring system
7:50 Voldemort (#30)
11:32 James Potter (#29)
14:13 Cho Chang (#28)
19:32 The Fat Lady (#27)
22:52 Petunia Dursley (#26)
25:44 Merope Gaunt, Voldemort’s mother (#25)
29:08 Lavender Brown (#24)
33:41 Minerva McGonagall (#23)
42:19 Vernon Dursley (#22)
46:13 Draco Malfoy (#21)
51:37 Winky the house elf (#20)
1:05:14 Molly Weasley (#19)
1:16:59 Peter Pettigrew (#18)
1:22:17 Sirius Black (#17)
1:26:34 Argus Filch (#16)
1:30:46 Arthur Weasley (#15)
1:34:50 Dolores Umbridge (#14)
1:41:03 Hermione Granger (#13)
1:52:10 Albus Dumbledore (#12)
2:11:45 Severus Snape (#11)
2:16:57 Remus Lupin (#10)
2:25:52 Bill Weasley (#9)
2:36:02 Ginny Weasley (#8)
2:42:54 Dudley Dursley (#7)
2:52:58 Moaning Myrtle (#6)
3:02:28 Dobby the house elf (#5)
3:12:21 Harry Potter (#4)
3:23:56 Fred and George Weasley (#3)
3:35:34 Ron Weasley (#2)
4:06:58 Rubeus Hagrid (#1)
You’re a legend!
Thank you for this!! :D
You're phenomenal. 💕
12 women/female characters when you include Winky that's rather telling when you think that generally speaking the women get less book time than males and quite a few are rather basic characters
Caroline, please pin this! 🎉
Having never watched the movies or read the books, I have obtained a lot of information on Harry Potter and JK Rowling from these recent videos
same lol
Me: wow my house sure is quiet and I’m running out of stuff to watch
Caroline: comin in clutch with 4 hours of content
Right? I just finished the 4th season of Evil and this deep dive came at such a good time.
The Umbridge thing is SO revealing. Like, "oh no you said all that out loud Joanne!" revealing. I feel like if she met that woman now she'd just be like "well that's a man".
As someone currently rereading the books as an adult with critical thinking skills, it's really insane just how unlikable most the characters are all the time. McGonagall in particular, their actors do a lot of heavy lifting in the movies !
At least she tried to keep Harry away from the Dursleys and give him a more loving family
And was the only one to suggest stitching up Harry’s scar as a baby
Rip Maggie Smith
@@tahraethestoryteller6079yeah I actually disagree with OP here since mcgonagal did surprisingly good on the series. she did have one drawback when she unfairly punished neville for Sirius break in. Neglecting that he only kept password list because Sir Cadogan constantly changed it.
i did not say that Neville did not deserve point taken / light detention, I just disagree with extreme measure she taken to make sure that he alone cannot know the password.
@@dodixaber8968It just reminds me of typical ableism displayed in the school and workplace. They don’t mind the way you accommodate yourself until somethin absolutely insane happens then they decide you broke a rule.
Mcgongall is one of the more mature...I don't see how she is unlikeable really.
Not only that about Voldemort's mother: it also kind of implies a bad message about being a baby who was born from a r*pe. It teaches the lesson that if it happened to one of your parents, you're likeky to turn out to be evil and trash beyong repair or Growth, just like Voldemort. Oh what a heartwarming message for children 😢
The A Nightmare On Elm Street series is also kind of guilty of this, but at least Freddy’s evil for OTHER reasons:
Bullying, abuse, bad parenting, and a deal with literal demons to have an outlet for twisted vengeance.
Edit: Part of the reason why Voldie became that way was because he was conceived as the product of a _love potion._
I just rechecked, and he’s a product of literal female rape, apparently.
The biological essentialism is so bad.
Harry is exactly like his parents even though he grew up in the exact same environment as Dudley.
Every single person with bad biological parents turns out to be bad themselves. On the other hand adoptive parents apparently have no influence on how you turn out to be. Harry would have been the same person, had he been raised in an orphanage, by other foster parents or his biological parents instead of the Dursleys.
It's inconceivable that someone with "good" parents becomes bad because of circumstances or character flaws.
Who you are and will become is predetermined as soon as you're born in this world view. Quite scary honestly. The emphasis this puts on genes gives me the ick.
They way the movies treated petunias character when saying goodbye to harry i appreciated more.
"I also lost a sister" she says
That moment gave her more depth as you hope humans can have. She was angry, sad, heartbroken, defensive and defeated. I took that moment as she was fighting with the fact that her relationship with lily will never be repaired. And maybe that Harry is the reason that lily is gone like a "youre the reason why my sister is gone so youneed punishment" even tho he was a baby and thats insane blaming a baby but that trauma reaponse being fueled into traumatizing others happens. And making her character nothing but a bitter woman sucks and is boring
Cannot stand JK Rowking, and Harry Potter is ruined for me. With all that said RIP Dame Maggie Smith. A wonderful actress and a big part of my childhood. 🌹
I can't believe I'm about to agree with JK Rowling on something but manicured lawns are actually terrible for local biodiversity and water usage
This is true. I also think there’s valid criticism of the middle class/suburbia, but I see it as a part of the wider criticism of capitalism, which Rowling wouldn’t ever do. Plus, it’s perhaps too complex and propagandistic for a children’s book anyway.
What bothers me too is the idea that conformity is bad and boring when the muggles do it, and Harry being different from them is an interesting and good thing from the book’s point of view. The Dursleys want Harry to be “normal,” and appearances being important is a bad thing. But then in the magic world, we still get judgment over physical appearances and “weird” characters (like Luna). It’s jarring to contrast that, which is fine bc it’s the magic world, and the criticism of the Dursleys
@@hydrogen3266In Joanne's world, you have to be exceptional, but you can't be weird
@@hydrogen3266 thank you and OP for pointing this out! i was just about to comment on this same thing, but you summarize it in a much more elegant and effective way than i could, which i very much appreciate as a suburbia resident and suburbia critic myself
It's broken clockposting on Joanne's part, but lawns are absolutely an ecological disaster.
Fun fact: lawnmowers kill more people in the US than foreign terrorism annually
Another thing about Ron's "Fraternising with the enemy" line:
He just tried to get a date with Fleur. Which would be exactly the same thing, if he hadn't failed.
The hypocracy is real.
I don't really think this has much to do with physical harm, but I've never really liked the way that Luna Lovegood is described. The character herself is delightful, but the fact that even the main characters call her weird and loony all the time and nobody seems to make much of an effort to connect with her on a human level. This is just kind of bothersome, because it implies that people like her, who read things that other people don't read and wear things that other people don't wear and believe in things that most don't, are weird and should have to be taken with a grain of salt by "the normal people". That's an odd message, especially since Luna is a way more interesting character than many of the people who call her weird.
it definitely contributed to my feelings of ostracization as kid, I was described as weird and off-putting and quirky (turns out it was just regular old autism lol) and I related very strongly to Luna, but none of the characters believing her or really wanting to be around her hurt, it added to the feeling that there was something wrong with me and if I could just be normal maybe I'd have more friends.
It was nice though, having a character like myself, someone I saw in myself and could relate to. So, mixed bag I guess
@@skeleletonboi4533it also turned out that Luna was generally right and the other characters should have listened to her, so there was a real opportunity for it to become a positive message about not judging or discounting people just for seeming different if only there was a little more self-reflection depicted on the part of the protags for their earlier behavior toward her.
@@skeleletonboi4533 I think it's something the movies did well with Luna, because she's the same character, but you don't really hear that many people saying that she's weird or anything. Even friends of hers like Ginny and Harry think she's weird and Hermione and Ron essentially discredit her support of Harry completely because she wears unique earrings. She's a great character, but she's treated kind of awkwardly by JK Rowling. I wouldn't really expect any sort of understanding from JK Rowling, though.
I was a goth kid I the nineties. In Ireland. I therefore remember a time when being different in any way was a huge social problem.To me, Luna’s treatment reflects a time before any nerds or weirdos were respected for being cool.
@@granthropologist3622 It does, absolutely.
Just the other day my little cousin, who I guess has started having Harry Potter read to him by his parents, absolutely shattered my ears yelling after I said my second favourite house was Slytherin. Totally could've just... given him an easy answer and avoided that, sure! But I hoped it'd plant a seed for him to later ask questions about the way Hogwarts works and how it isn't perfect. I remember getting Slytherin on Pottermore's quiz as a kid. I was devastated. I kept bawling until my babysitter sat me down and brought up that an entire house being labelled evil is pretty nasty and it's unfair those kids are equated with bigoted criminals from the moment they join the school, and that as a Slytherin, I should look critically at the house system and let it make me a more empathetic person and remind me to question authority when it's harmful.Silly as it sounds, it definitely impacted me and changed little-me's perspective.
While things like wizard school houses may seem trivial, the things they represent stick with kids, and I wish stuff like literally everything in this video was a bigger focus in discourse about whether kids should still be read HP. Even if you 'separate art from the artist', are these genuinely the kind of things you want children to internalise?
That’s personally why I think it’s hard to separate “art from artist” if the art is fundamentally harmful. Like there’s this webtoon I heard about that literally has the mc be a victim of grooming, and the creator glorifies it. It’s gross as hell- and in my opinion, you can’t separate the art from the artist who chose to depict an illegal and gross relationship.
@@Suited_Nat I absolutely agree. Art does not exist in a vacuum and art does reflect the views and feelings of its creator!! I begrudgingly acknowledge that many parents just won't give up Harry Potter on the basis of JK Rowlings behavior, unfortunately, but I can't understand why they won't engage with the media they give their kids on a deeper level than "It's just a fun fantasy". It's not fun when it's harmful! It's not fun when it comes back to bite in insidious ways in society! And webtoon has... so many cases of romanticized abuse
A better interpretation of the house system: They are not about who you already are but which traits you could improve on still. So Slytherins are not necessarily already ambitious, goal-driven and disciplined in the process but they might develop that skill in Slytherin.
But yeah, doesn't make JKR's work better, it only helps to better cope with the Harry Potter childhood 😅
If I remember correctly, in the American magic school, they sort students based on their magical skills, like a major, which makes way more sense to me than sorting by arbitrary personality traits.
One of my favorite HP tumblr threads is the one where they imagine how the books would’ve changed if the students got re-sorted every year. It was really compelling.
I think I remember it being said somewhere that JK based the Hogwarts house system on British school house systems? But as far as I know those real schools don’t assign morality to certain houses. But then again I’m not British so.
Abstinence isn’t a word typically used to refer to abstaining specifically from sex here in the UK - I feel like I typically hear it used to talk about not drinking rather than in the American sex ed/purity culture sense
Yeah, abstinence from drinking is usually part of an outpatient treatment for alcoholism.
Purity culture is not big in uk this 100% about drinking - abstaining from drink. But i see why you would think that in the US.
Loving all the other points you make though and I definitely would live to see the chart and ratings and all chatacters you went through fir this video 😂 my inner geek was thrilled 🤓💜
33:50 I think people remember a lot of these characters as being better written than they actually were because the actors in the movies gave great performances.
Seriously, I’m pretty sure a good chunk of the Snape apologists exist because Alan Rickman was such a talented actor and gave the character a lot more life than what we had on the page.
@@VoidNull9222yeah, the charisma of Alan Rickman saved sooo much of this mess. And I think Molly, Arthur and pretty much everyone was just... Less extreme 😅
This is seriously big with Ron specifically. Never read the books as a kid, only watched the movies. I liked him! Now that I'm reading it as an adult (my wife's copies) I absolutely HATE Ron.
This video is *entirely* for me, many thanks from a trans woman 336 days on HRT!
congratulations on the HRT!! Sincerely, a trans man trying very hard to get back on HRT himself
Congrats! So happy for you ❤ -a trans man (UK)
Really says a lot about Maggie Smith's acting chops that she is the reason why McGonagal was my favorite teacher for a while(we all know Lupin's the goat, though). Rest in peace.
Yeah, Lupin was definitely my fave - as someone who was struggling a lot [chronic illness, queer, lotsa trauma], I appreciated that he was still surrounded by people who loved & respected him, even if society was trash.
Also, RIP Maggie Smith. She was amazing. 💐
19:02 this is making me realize that Harry Potter turned out to be a bully, just like his father.
Oh shit
And a cop!
Yeah, when you think about it, Harry turned out to be a Nepo baby who grew up to be a cop and named his son after one of his abusers, who directly caused his parents to be killed
Hey Caroline, I jus wanna thank you and other ex potterheads for callin out the abhorrent story lines and plots. It has made me rethink my relationship with the Harry Potter franchise and make peace with my child self.
Did you see the one by Shaun?
@@xletragedyx ofc, funnily enough before I saw this comment I went back to that video and had that on the background as I was drawing
This entire video and your analysis made me question if my not-like-other-girls phase was heavily informed by these books I read as a child. I wasn't even that big of a fan, but definitely liked the series more than casually. Even if my anti-femininity mindset for a time was subconsciously influenced by the bigot that is JK Rowling (thankfully current me is actively and continuously working on reminding myself to reject said mindset daily), this is mind boggling and more than a little upsetting of a realization to come to. Thank you for the wonderful 4+ hours!
I think a lot of women had a 'not-like-other-girls' phase regardless of which generation they grew up with. It's just as present today as it was back on tumblr. A lot media portrays a standard view of women and put the women, usually the main character or love interest, who don't confirm to that on a pedestal. Ginny from HP, Bella from Twillight, Jess from New Girl, etc. It makes sense girls don't want to be like other girls when girls and women are portrayed as plain, incapable and anything but unique unless they're not like the stereotype. Most girls know they're more than that.
It doesn't help that a lot of main-stream area struggles conveying women well. When people write women it so often ends up either a prize with no depth for the male MC or a Mary Sue. Even the Harry Potter movies kinda went the Mary Sue way with Hermoine.
It seeps through in society as well, I was still called 'not like other girls' by men somewhat frequent in my late 20s for having 'masculine' hobbies, even though plenty of women share those hobbies. The other side of that is being told you don't belong in the space, so why not cling on to the positive of being 'special enough' to not be like other girls. (Not at my age, but as a kid, yes).
A lot of this is due to society and how women are viewed.
Like to some degree every girl goes through I not like other girls phase. Because of the patriarchy and generally hatred of femininity.
I still to this day have to deconstruct the internalized ideas that some more "girly" or "feminine" activities or interests are not as worthy and valuable as more masculine or gender neutral perceived interests.
E.g. reading a romance novel or doing my make up feels "shallow" and "frivolous" compared to other activities even though realistically watching a football game or playing video games is just as frivolous.
At least I'm aware of it but ohh, those attitudes are ingrained deeply and it sucks.
Not like other girls mentality is unavoidable in a misogynistic society, but I see what you mean, because I lived through the HP girls vs Twilight girls time and it was nasty and brutal. These books totally contribute to that mindset and validate girls hating other girls.
Between the Marietta Edgecombe stuff and how Rowling’s responded to the actors who have distanced themselves from her, it seems that Rowling takes “disloyalty” INCREDIBLY personally, no matter the circumstances behind it.
Honestly can’t say I’m surprised. It’s clear that most people wouldn’t want to be around such a hateful bigot.
"I am a tolerant woman, but the one thing I will not stand for is disloyalty." - Dolores Umbridge. Lmao
@@scaredaddy28she really HAS become umbridge hasnt she 😂
She seems narcissistic, honestly (not diagnosing, just saying she's extremely full of herself)
I love how salty Rowling is that Daniel took a stance against her and basically told her "I might have become famous thanks to your work, but that doesn't mean I owe you blind obedience." She really is the real-life equivalence of Dolores Umbridge😂
19:55
I'd also say that in context of hp "fat" kind of... Is a bad word. Because if a fat character is supposed to be unsympathetic they're fat, if they're supposed to be sympathetic (like Molly Weasley) they're "plump" or smth like that. So although normally "fat" is obviously not a bad word, but in context the association is pretty clear.
JK does not describe bodies neutrally, everything has a positive or negative intention.
@@asmrtpop2676 yeah, exactly what i meant. That's probably a part of what Ursula K Le Guin meant saying the books were mean-spirited.
I'm very early in the video but I just had the thought during the Cho Chang section that there could be a better version of the story where that's a bit of an arc of character growth. Imagine Harry reacts the same way initially, but is *presented as in the wrong-* the way he's learned to cope at this point is by pushing things down so he doesn't understand why she can't just do the same; maybe it reflects some *inner* frustration more than anything, about the fact that it is still a struggle for him, he can't always suppress his own emotions. Maybe he's been having an especially hard time with it lately, and he's worried that being around Cho's big emotions might make him break down, too. And ultimately, rather than the narrative making fun of her, he has something to *learn* from her, that letting yourself feel and talking about things *is* dealing with them and is important. And it wraps up in a scene where they both genuinely open up to one another and we learn more about her and her perspective while our main character also gets a chance to grow.
...Of course this is not a version of the story that was ever going to be written by JKR, but.
This is why being a better person makes you a better author
Also, He could recognize that he was upset because he wasn't ready to talk about Cedric yet. To Harry, it's had only been a few months since he witnessed a death, and up till that point, he never saw someone die. Quirrel was someone he wasn't attached to, and he never directly saw die. Tom Riddle was a ghost to Harry, and he didn't like him anyway given the attempted murder. Also, he knew about his parents being dead for years, so it's not like Harry really had to grieve over anyone before. Then Cho was asking him tons of questions, and what are the odds Harry knew them? Harry liked Cedric, but Cedric also died because of Harry's choice to tie them. It's a lot for anyone to deal with, not just a 15-year-old boy.
@@Avatarfan10000 Yeah that makes a lot of sense
Also, Harry grew up in abuse anyway. The dursleys weren't a safe place to express any emotions at all, whether negative or positive, so of course that would make him nervous. So your interpretation makes a lot more sense actually!
Yeah but these books teach emotional repression because a stiff upper lip is THE BRITISH WAY.
That description of the person who apparently inspired Umbridge made me so upset. It was so derisive and condescending despite the fact that she seemed to be acknowledging it was unjustified, and like... a hair bow like that sounds cute. I buy kids jewelry more often than stuff designed for adults because I just think it's so much more fun; my room is pink and full of toys and probably would be assumed to be a kid's room; my style is very childish and I guess twee, and I'm going to continue to have this style when I'm an older adult too. I don't care what J.K. Rowling thinks of me; I don't hold her opinion in any regard. But hearing stuff like that makes me self-conscious anyway, you know?
Honestly, when I heard that, all I could think about with Rowling is how upsetting it must be, to be pissed off at people for being happy. Or themselves. Then I thought about it and realized: it makes sense, considering she’s such a miserable bigot.
TDLR: as someone who is nonbinary, and is Afab; it’s literally so fine to love pink, and colorful jewelry. Like- I’ve personally never been fully into feminine things- specifically dresses cus of dysphoria, but have never understood hating on others for being feminine. I’m sure there was a time as a child that I was internally misogynistic, because my own father was misogynistic to me growing up.
What I’m trying to say is though: don’t let JK ruin your fun and style. Based on what you’ve said, you sound like a cool ass person :>
My best friend from school embraced her girly girl after graduation and is now all blond her, pink, rosegold and cream colours 😂 i think we look like Marceline and princess bubblegum and its so funny to me
Honestly dont change. Be an example to those that have internalized some shit and dont dare yet to be like themselves 😊
Joanne got so irrationally mad over a woman accessorizing
Don’t let JK make you feel self conscious. She is filled with hatred and is just constantly looking for someone to lash out at. There’s nothing wrong with the lady who inspired Umbridge. I bet she was super sweet and looked adorable.
I remembered that from interview even she clarified that the real teacher that become inspiration for Umbridge was not particularly mean or anything but she just felt her annoying for some reason that at the time was not that obvious to us now.
I think this video is a great argument against the whole ‘why can’t we all just act like someone nice wrote Harry Potter’ thing or the people taking the black mould joke seriously. JK Rowling’s biological essentialism and judgemental tendencies aren’t new phenomena, she’s been putting them in her work at every given opportunity. Pretending her transphobia is separate from the misogyny, racism, fatphobia, and antisemitism in her books is super disingenuous, because even the smallest bit of analysis of her character work shows the sheer hatred she holds towards anyone who doesn’t fit her standard for normalcy
She used to act like a liberal icon who’s on the side of anyone who doesn’t belong, but the open disgust, hatred, and fascist sympathies we’re seeing now has always been just slightly below the surface for her
Well put
Ahh, her "standard for normalcy" is exactly what we should examine! I've noticed it especially badly with the way she depicts women - if they are even SLIGHTLY different from her in appearance or lifestyle, they are to be hated.
@@Levacque literally, like she claims to be a feminist but she holds so much contempt towards young girls in particular. If a girl enjoys femininity in her works, she’s vapid and annoying or just plain evil, and masculine girls are ugly and also evil. To be a good person, girls have to be feminine enough that they could become conventionally pretty if they tried, but not so feminine that they actually care about their appearance. They constantly have to be pitted against each other, and they can never be friends with other girls unless they’re related because other girls are awful
It’s not surprising how much she hates trans women, because she doesn’t seem to believe you can have a positive relationship with womanhood. She seems to think only her experience with womanhood is valid, so trans women who absolutely love being women have to be faking to get off, and androgynous/masculine women who are comfortable in being women have to be lying. She seems so deeply insecure that I’d almost feel sorry for her if it hadn’t turned her into such a vicious bigot
"Wrong skin color? Straight to jail."
"Thinking people can be better? Also jail."
"Women existing? Surprisingly, also jail."
@@Levacque It makes total sense that she reacted to Imane Khelif the way she did
‘JK Rowlings villain origin story is.. suburbia’ iconic and only 46:00 in
Lets not forget that not only was Dumbledore friends with wizard Hitler, he was *gay* for wizard Hitler. JKR really looked at her creepy old man character who spied on prepubescent boys sneaking about the castle and had a close relationship with a bigot during his younger years and was like, yeah, that's the one I'll make the singular gay character in this whole franchise now that its over. jfc
I had that thought as well
Quick! How would JKR describe you?
Me: Julie was a plain, chubby spinstress, with fat fingers, no chin, and a mannish nose. She taught magical psychology - a silly subject for silly girls with silly feelings. Whenever a child got seriously hurt or punished on school grounds, Julie would complain at staff meetings - making her a proper nag.
Unrelated but ur username is AMAZING
I'm transmasc without any HRT or top surgery, so I don't want even start thinking how JKR would describe me 💔
But I enjoyed your description! I think you're a great person :)
Alright, let’s see how I can make or translate this into something more objective…
Julie, is an average looking, 5’7 human woman who’s not fat, but chubby, has a small chin, and prominent nose.
She teaches magical psychology, which also involves alternatives in psychological treatments that may or may not include magic spells.
She reports at school meetings about serious incidents where children get hurt.
What a fun game! Here's mine:
"She was a thin woman with big buckteeth, a strong jawline and sharp cheekbones. Her hair was dirty blonde and boyishly short, which made her facial features look even more masculine. She wore black all over: black jeans, a denim jacket with all sorts of embroidery patches sewn on the back and and a t-shirt that had a 70's rock band's logo on it and looked like she had picked it from her father's closet. Harry thought she would have looked quite cool actually had the embroidery patches on her jacket not included various political movement signs. Her overall aura gave a strong impression of a woman who never had been nor ever was going to find a man to live with."
I really think due to being a slim tomboy on the other hand JKR would label me as a cool not-like-other-girls, on the other she def would put me in the same box with Luna and/or Hermione with SPEW: a haha funny weird bullied woke sjw who will never get a man.
The best plot twist? I'm non-binary.
I like you already.
Harry Potter is a boy who grew up in the muggle world just like Hermione. He’s our POV character. And we’re supposed to NOT be horrified when he’s just… okay with slavery? Despite having been raised in modern muggle society? He’s one of the first people to roll his eyes at S.P.E.W. We’re supposed to like this kid?
He literally inherits a slave at one point and his only complaint is that that particular slave sucks…. Even as a CHILD this bothered me. Dobby is his “black friend” but he’s still a racist.
@@raingilkes3502Harry initially hates Kreacher because he views him as responsible for Sirius' death. He also has no desire to own a house elf. It's not like he was like oh man, I wish I inherited a different one.
@@propogandalf That doesn’t negate the fact that he has no problem with the concept of slavery, or the idea of inheriting a slave, regardless of his personal feelings for him. He’s still pro-slavery and it’s never addressed as a negative trait. At no point is he bothered by the concept of slavery the way he should be. Your argument is weak.
Maybe the Dursleys are okay with slavery? Not that that *justifies* Harry being okay with it, but it might *explain* it.
@@adamdavis1648 It might explain it but considering it’s never brought up as an in universe explanation, it’s just behavior Harry performs/believes in, and we’re not supposed to question it. Which means one can only logically come to the conclusion that the author endorses these behaviors and beliefs. If at any point Harry had stopped and gone WOW MY AUNT AND UNCLE WERE WRONG you might have a point, but he doesn’t.
gotta say, very clever to keep deadnaming pottermore
I'm at my 2-hour break, we're talking about Dumbledore, and it occurs to me that the other problem with JK Rowling's character development is that her desire to make it known who is good and who is bad is so strong that it loses an opportunity. Think about how different the series would be if it turned out that Dumbledore saw himself as training Harry Potter for one purpose: to die, to fight and die. Literally almost no plot needs to be changed, but this character becomes complicated and tragic, and driven to great evil by his desire to stop Voldemort.
i think this is one reason why harry potter fanfic is so popular. there are so many obvious changes that would make the story and characters more compelling
Am I missing something? The Pensieve scenes at the end of book 7 are all about Dumbledore doing precisely that. If anything, you've highlighted one of the only parts of the series that actually examined right and wrong.
Ender’s Game did it better :p
@@Levacque Yes, but those scenes feel very retcon to me. The real problem is that JK Rowling could not have made Hogwarts, a military academy to teach young children how to participate in the wizard battles and civil war, appear to be what it really is, because no child would want to go there, and the entire point of Harry Potter is that every child wants to be Harry Potter. She could have written a better story, but it may not have been a commercial success.
@@DannyDevitowashere I know right!? But let's not get started on the problematic politics and discourse of OSC, or the bizarre neoplatonist direction the entire series went.
The weird thing is that I started out as a casual HP fan and yet I still have all the books because the books and movies were still part of my childhood all the way up until high school/college when I went to see a midnight premiere of Deathly Hallows Part 2.
This feels a lot like meeting an old childhood friend and realizing how much has changed.
And it's not even the childhood friend who s changed, it’s just you
Mother is FEEDING us tonight!!!!!!
Finished it all, in a single sitting, even though I should have been sleeping. Brilliant analysis. Just wanted to comment on one thing that I thought deserved a greater highlight. Harry almost killed a student. He would have killed a student if Snape didn't come in just in time. That goes way beyond just mutual bullying. He would have deserved being expelled for it, or worse, but he gets off with a slap on the wrists, a detention, because of who he is, basically. But instead of expressing any remorse for his actions, he is outraged that this detention interferes with Quidditch.
Oh my gosh yeah seriously. I was thinking of that too during the Harry Potter segment. And like I don't fully remember but does Draco ever even come close to hurting Harry like that? Like Draco does and says a lot of shitty things but I can't remember him ever genuinely putting Harry's life in danger
@@stellablake6200 Draco was a second away from using Crucio, which wouldn't have been the greatest thing ever (assuming he would have been successful in casting it - Harry hasn't been a year earlier, or later in this book), but it wouldn't have been nearly as life-threatening. And considering that Harry's signature spell is disarming charm, and that given the circumstances it would have been pretty effective at de-escalating the situation....
I think he didn't get in trouble bc Snape didn't want to admit he created that spell, and Harry didn't realize what it did. Which is stupid...to blindly use a spell like that. Reckless and dangerous.
@@xletragedyx I don't think its because of the spell creation? Snape wouldn't have had to admit it to anyone one way or another, and even if he had - everyone knows of his past.
Rather, though, Voldy is quickly gaining power, everyone knows the conflict is inevitable sooner rather than later, tensions are escalating. And you have this one boy who you know can help fix everything. And you would, what, throw him out of the school, leave without education when every bit helps, leave him without the means to protect himself and everyone else? Snape doesn't like Harry, but I doubt even he would go that far. I do kind of wonder even if Harry did kill Draco if he would have suffered any more meaningful consequences.
Knew it was gonna be a wild ride when the big bad Voldemort was bottom of the terrible character list 😂
Not gonna lie though, I always loved Hagrid as a kid and it’s kind of heartbreaking to come to terms with the fact that he was just as disappointing of an adult character as all of the others, at the top of the list no less. Snape? Dumbledore? Been there, knew that. But the realization that Hagrid spent the entire series making the kids take care of his shit and getting drunk cut deep. I think Rowling was trying to make him a sympathetic gentle giant character, and it worked when I was young, but as an adult I can’t imagine knowingly letting literal children take the fall for my incompetencies and put themselves in danger
God, I never realized how much I’d internalized the idea that Ginny was the ideal girlfriend. Every time I cry, even when about pretty serious things, I feel like such a burden and apologize profusely to my boyfriend, which always seems to confuse him 😅
During the part about Umbridge, I was trying on my clothes and was literally putting a bow in my hair. I’m also wearing heart shaped sun glasses, which might be the most twee accessory. I guess she wouldn’t like me.
I’m not sure why she’s so pressed about getting canceled for actually bigotry, but is fine admitting to instantly hating women because they might be bad people, secretly with no evidence. Bad characters in her mind can be redeemed by saying one word “always”, but people she knows in real life can be vilified just for wearing a hair clip.
Im gonna guess that JK Rowling is actually the worst character in the whole series, because she’s all of them.
Your accessories sound awesome ^^ I can't wear sunglasses bc I wear regular glasses but I would totally also have heart shaped ones otherwise. I'm actually considering getting cat shaped glasses for my next pair!
As many have pointed out, and I say this with seething hatred for jkrowling, the 'abstinence' is referring to drinking, not $ex. She's hung over after too much eggnog over Christmas. Abstinence is rarely taught in European $exEd.
Finally, something short and quickly digestible ❤
On Hermione being blamed for the article Rita Skeeter wrote, it's even more gross when you consider she was an adult woman, probably in her forties, writing these stories about three teenagers. It's also hilarious how we were supposed to see Hermione as in the wrong for letting the teachers know about the mysterious Firebolt that Harry received. When it was thought that Sirius was out to kill him. I mean, if they can't win without that potentially cursed broom, maybe the Gryffindors aren't as good at quidditch as they believe themselves to be. And maybe they take quidditch a bit too seriously if winning is more important than a player's safety.
Molly Weasley is a boy mom.
Honestly though, I kind of feel Molly not wanting to go to the Quidditch World Cup. It sounds loud and boring. I’d much rather stay home, enjoying the quiet, and going to the bookstore. Especially since she doesn’t even have to lug the books around.
Is she a boy mom? She always wanted a daughter and Ron seems to be her least favourite child.
Honestly, that sounds more relaxing to me too. She probably rarely gets alone time out of the house. Anyway I thought most of her thoughts on Molly were unhinged and contradicted what she said during Arthur's section. Also in terms of hobbies, she disparaged one of Molly's hobbies which is keeping up with Wizard news and celebrities. She disparages the mocking of divination and its real world equivalent astrology girly, but then also knocks this stereotypical female hobby.
@@alexf225 yeah but she makes excuses for her sons, she doesn’t like her daughter-in-law (thought that could be more because she thinks Bill isn’t good enough, and she has definitely said “boys will be boys.”
@@propogandalf eh to my knowledge, she actually did not enjoy quiet time alone as she did shopping for schools on behalf of Harry and her kids. since I believe the world cup happened in just a day, she probably only had quiet time in the evening and that is just to unwind from the busy day she went shopping.
@@dodixaverius9176 I didn't say anything about quiet time. I said alone time out of the house. As a homemaker with 7 kids, she gets very little of that (at least as far as we've seen in the series). Even if she's doing back to school shopping, she would be out alone which would allow her to enjoy perusing whichever shops she likes for as long as she likes. Maybe find a new favorite writer that isn't Gilderoy. Talk to adults she's not related to about anything other than wizarding politics/war.
It's the enunciation of "Top 30 Worst Characters" getting more unhinged every time for me 😂
I was expecting all the vowels to virtually disappear & simply become "TH TP THRT WRST CHRCTRS N HRR PTTR SSSSSSSSS" because they were in a register beyond human perception. 😂🤣
Couldnt care about harry potter less, instantly committed to watching this whole video
The only teacher that treats Neville Longbottom like he isn't a complete waste of space is Professor Sprout. Weird how the only class Neville excells in is the one wherein his teacher actually teaches him.
It kind of makes sense. Plants need patience and nurturing, like children/students. I still think Snape was way worse to him than McGonagall
The Winky scenes make me want to cry.
seriously they're so tragic, but then winky is turned into a joke, and house elf enslavement is never reckoned with, and jk rowling later wrote on pottermore that freeing one slave is okay but freeing them all is wrong. :(
@@gleann_cuilinnI couldn’t find anything on the website formerly known as pottermore! I wonder if she deleted it?
@@carolineeasomI believe that's the same article Shaun mentions in his Harry Potter video from a few years back; if I remember correctly it was called something like 'Hermione and the pitfalls of activism'. I'm pretty sure it was deleted off the formerly-pottermore site, yeah, but there might be an archived copy of it out there!
Seriously! Even as a younger teenager reading these, everything about her felt so awkward and uncomfortable, and not done well at all.
@@falsegod8792There must be an archive somewhere, since Shaun read the article aloud in bis video, and if I remember rightly it's basically the same kind of arguments racists used to argue against the abolition of slavery for black people, saying they'll just harm themselves or turn to drink
Of course Rowling has Molly Weasley continue to read Gilderoy Lockheart's book after he turns out to be bad. According to Rowling, you shouldn't ditch books just because the author turned out to be evil.
I wonder if she saw her own downfall coming?
Abstinence can also mean to not drink😂
I know, and she was pressed about it too
It doesn't just 'also' mean that, it's specifically mentioned in every major dictionary's primary definition (some of which don't mention sex at all, though many do).
Even if we set that aside, I don't think it's really that inappropriate for an 8-10 year old kid to have a basic understanding of sex. There are many studies that show that kids with basic sex ed are less vulnerable to sexual abuse than those who are not.
@@Reverie42I think a couple people mentioned this elsewhere in the comments, but in the US it primarily means from sex, and in the UK it’s more colloquially meaning alchohol. So I think some wires just got crossed tbh
To be fair the only sex education my American high school gave us was abstinence only so most Americans associate it with sex
@@sunshineeee well you learn something new every day
Fred and George are a perfect example of why regulations are important. You know, with all their highly dangerous products being marketed towards children.
I would like to add some things about myrtle. First of all i find it rather strange that jk rowling doesn't hesitate to make fun about how myrtle wants to k!ll herself when she can't bear with peeves anymore considering that reminded her strongly of her schoollife before she died. I mean we are talking about su!cidal thoughts thats not something you easily make fun of. Or how no one would care if myrtle -a literal child - would be killed which she was eventually. Myrtle is also portrait as a creep later in the books as she stalks harry because she gets a liking about him heaven knows why?! -he asked her about her death how flattering ig?? ( i believe it was the scene were she watched harry taking a bath in goblet of fire) same thing happens with draco in half blood prince. Correct me if im wrong but didnt she find it attractive that he is crying and in pain cause finally someone who is as "dramatic" and emotional as her, hell yeah. It just feels like that all parts of her "chrakter" are just constantly used against her and as an excuse to bully and make fun of her even though she is a fcking victim. Weird? weird jk rowling!
Just to add to Sirius as well - once he had revealed himself to Harry and Harry was contacting him in GoF as well as in OotP he was super immature and selfish, and tried to goad Harry into taking stupid risks and endangering himself because ‘that’s what James would have done’. He doesn’t see Harry as his own person even, just a reincarnation of his best friend.
Fleur is a talented, intelligent, loyal, strong, genuinely kind person. She is very much in love with Bill because of who he is and how he makes her feel. I find it interesting that Rowling has the other women ridicule and belittle her endlessly, especially Molly, when she's exactly the type of person you should want to fall in love with your son and vice versa. What little we see of Bill and Fleur's relationship is healthier by far than, for example Ron and Hermione's, or Remus and Tonks's.
It's almost as if Joanne is... jealous of other women
Agreed. That poor girl really deserved better than what that self-hating misogynist put her through.
Oh Caroline, bless your generous heart. It isn’t called S.P.E.W because Hermione is just spewing stuff. It’s worse. It’s called S.P.E.W because it’s supposed to be do-good cringe, and isn’t that just enough to make you want to throw up…
JK seems like someone who accuses people of "virtue signaling" and calls them "SJWs" a lot
Not to defend Rowling, but she is from the UK and I don’t believe abstinence has the same connotation over there. Abstinence, just means to hold back from over indulgence and traditionally refers to alcohol. I think we’re actually the odd puritanical ones to make it about sex. So when you combine that with the fact that drinking is less taboo in general in Europe, I don’t think that aspect of the fat ladies story is really that inappropriate. I read the books before looking things up online was popular, so I definitely didn’t make that connection. I thought the joke was she clearly isn’t and maybe should be abstaining from drinking.
It's also worth remembering that wizards are canonically allowed to start visiting the pub at 13. This isn't about the books, either, it's just a British thing.
Thank you. I was *so* confused where the sex-shaming comment was suddenly coming from
@@XxTaraneaxX I know Caroline mentions being from a southern state and since they wouldn't have changed the wording for American audiences it makes sense that connection was made
29:50 ok the association of divination with femininity gives me some serious dianic Wicca vibes, a notably transphobic sect of Wicca. Not surprising, but interesting lol
Yes I think people forget it isn’t just Abrahamic religions that have sexism or transphobia or homophobia within their beliefs even if it is just certain sects or groups. It’s actually really annoying when people act like certain spiritualities are incapable of being cruel.
As a middle school teacher, the “explaining the rubric again but slower” was both relatable and appreciated.
It's wild that the Weasleys are always seen as "the poor family" when the dad has a job with the government and Bill apparently helps literally make the entire economic system possible at all
They have only 2 providing adults (3 if Charlie sends money from Romania) for 8 people (and then Harry). But they don’t have to provide for their children most of the year, only in summer. So they’re considered poor by the pure-blood standards since they don’t have generational wealth, but I guess they’re more middle class with low per-person income.
@@chirkunovanatasha it's very much the vibe of "we were upper middle class but HAD to shop at JC Penney and have hand-me-downs, the horror"
Not just that, Arthur is the HEAD of an entire governmental department, and yet is apparently being paid a pittance
@scarletsabre8383 I think his department isn't well-regarded, though. I assume he gets paid less than other department heads, given how Lucius Malfoy addresses him
@@xletragedyx Even so, you'd think a department head would be paid enough to properly send his kids to school, or be given government-funded/subsidised materials... oh wait, I forgot who's writing this. No social safety nets allowed, just let Ron go to school with a broken wand that will actively hurt himself, others, and his education, because if he can't afford a new one, fuck 'em
Watching this I realized that my desire to be like Hermione (chill and cool) indirectly caused me to "edit" (do) my male-friend-who-openly-had-a-crush-on-me-even-though-I'm-an-out-lesbian 's homework in my freshman year of high school, just before JK revealed her evil-ness and I started to unpack the books.
the thing about buckbeak no like ever since i could like think critically about what i was reading and i thought back to this it bothered me highkey? especially when you actually think about how young the characters are?? when you are thirteen reading prisoner of azkaban the characters seem really grown up because YOU feel really grown up. you're a whole teenager now and all. but when i thought back on it as i got older i was like hm. these are toddlers. that blond bitch is a toddler to me. hagrid isn't qualified, he doesn't give these children even a single lecture before introducing them to very dangerous animals, and they're also literally thirteen. a student getting injured is 100% on him, even if the student "caused" the incident. they're very lucky that only one student was injured in that lesson!!!
like even if he's a bully it's wild that draco malfoy, local thirteen year old, is written as having gotten what was coming to him when he was seriously injured, was just being dramatic about his injury, and was seen as a spineless coward with it out for the poor innocent teacher when he told his parents about his injury.
Just imagine the real world counter part of an 8th grade biology teacher showing the class a lion, letting one of the kids ride on its back for several minutes and then berate another child who got his arm mauled by this lion. J.K. Rowling just seems to forget that these characters are actually meant to be real people living in a real world in their universe.
yeah same thats in general also whats going through my mind. at 13 I felt so old and so mature and like I couldnt grow any more and now I'm like? 13 is literally only 1 year away from being 12 and thats just 2 away from being T E N.
at 13 we aren't old we are literal tiny kids so yeah rereading that is horrible😭 like did draco not listen to hagrid? yeah he didn't. did he deserve to literally get physically hurt because of that? no???
@@lmaoliniwhen did a 13 year old ever listen to anything, we'd all be dead by hp logic 😂 except for the protagonists ofc
@@xLiLlyx98 whats your point here?😭 like yeah but what does this add that I didn't already say
@@lmaolini my point was...agreeing with you?... like you do when you come across someone saying something you agree with? are you the only one allowed to say something specific? 😂😂
Can you talk about the comparisons between the movies
Which parts/characters are better/worse, less problematic, more problematic etc.
2:11:49 What? The jerk who is supposed to be redeemed for turning out to be an incel who bullies the son of the dead woman he obsessed over? And he's only the 11th worts? Idk how JK managed this.
James Potter’s and Lily Potter’s “love story” reminds me of too many pastors that I knew and worked with. They all loved to tell how they basically stalked and harassed their partners until they gave into dating and eventually marrying them. So romantic and definitely not worrisome at all
Misconception: Apart from James asking Lily to go out with him in SWM we have no indication he constantly harassed her. When Snape, in one of his DH flashbacks, tells Lily that James likes her, she’s surprised and doesn’t believe him, and this takes place in their fifth year. I don’t deny that James’s character was pretty terribly written even for someone who never really appears, but let’s not make him worse than he was
@@evyrys2725To be fair, it’s still a pretty reasonable assumption, considering the woman who wrote him is pretty bigoted just from how she wrote her own damn series 😂
@@evyrys2725 As you said, we don’t have much information to go off of, but i would still argue that his bully behavior and depicted entitlement are traits that are concerning especially when it comes to Lily, who is friends with object of his bullying (Snape). Who’s to say that Lily didn’t feel pressured to be with James because maybe she hoped to help him be a better person thus leaving her friend and others alone?
@soph1377 She stopped being friends with Snape 2 years before she and James got together. It was because Snape called her a mudblood. After that the whole Remus Snape attempted murder happened and after that they stopped bullying him. The war was also starting so they became more mature especially in year 7. Thats when Lily and James got together.
@@evyrys2725 What’s "SWM"?
Fun thing about Hagrid referring to the centaurs as “mules”; mules are half-donkey half-horse hybrids. Hagrid is literally calling these people half-breeds while he is dealing with being persecuted for his half-giant status by umbridge. Why this specific word choice, J.K?
Clicked to watch while I work on a commission, without even noticing the timestamp. Guess I'll be finishing more than I thought :)
This is probably going to come across as utterly tragic (and it is I guess) but as someone who read Harry Potter as a fat kid, the way in which fatness was used to evil-code so many of the unpleasant characters did not even cross my mind because by then I had already so completely internalised the narrative that being fat was a moral failing that it just made sense lol
I was a bucktoothed young girl who read these books growing up and felt connected to Hermione and... yeah, I did feel pretty crummy when Hermione 'magicked' her teeth to being 'normal' and 'perfect'. And, I also felt incredibly sad I couldn't do the same. It's interesting to go through this video and remember how many things the movies left out that were in the books and how sometimes, it's a good thing it was left out.
RE:The entry on Dudley. I've been fat all my life and I was a huge Harry Potter fan as a kid. I can tell you for sure that seeing the way Dudley was described really laid the foundation for years of internalized fatphobia to build on. I was never bullied for my size, but seeing just how vitriolic fat people are treated in media was enough to give me low self-esteem and body image issues I am still unlearning to this day as an adult. The thing about the Dursleys being described in such a nasty hateful way, I thought that I must be one of the good ones because despite being fat, I wasn't anywhere near the size that Dudley was supposed to be. Another commenter mentioned that JKR uses "fat" to describe the bad fat characters and "plump" to describe the good fat characters, and they're 100% right. It just instilled in me at such a young age that being fat was bad and evil, but you could be plump or chubby and it was fine.
So yeah JKR can get bent.
I grew up fat and read these books. I don't believe I even thought much of it at the time because making fun of fat people was so normalized that I just kinda expected it.
I was not critical of media at all back then.
"Abstinence" just means to abstain from something. In this case, it meant to abstain from getting really, really, really drunk. As a kid who was told to abstain from drinking while I was in elementary school by every DARE officer they dragged in front of us, that never came across as slutshaming to me.
Abstinence, or going cold turkey, is also used in some treatments of substance use disorders and behavioral addictions.
Can I just say we need justice for Grubbly-Plank. An incredibly qualified and competent Care of Magical Creatures professor who didn't get the job because Dumbledore hired someone with no education past age 14 (ish, I don't remember for sure) and is not allowed to have a wand and who absolutely is unqualified in every way to teach. And even though she was done dirty like that she still subs whenever it is needed.
The treatment of Luna is worth analizing too, specially if we see her as the only (i think?) neurodivergent character.
Coming back to leave a second comment: the way Hagrid is depicted is really ableist? Too? Like kinda the subtext is that he’s mentally behind and that’s why he’s allowed to be friends with children and have children take care of him, but. As someone who *is* mentally disabled, being mentally not your age does *not* give you the right to interact with children like you’re peers. They 👏 are 👏 never 👏 your 👏 peers 👏. Other adults are. Regardless of the intended effect, it’s parentification at best, manipulative at the least, and straight up gr00ming behavior at worst. Being disabled doesn’t make it okay to act that way with children. And JK’s depiction of him as such just feeds into the pity party so many able bodied people throw for autistic people or other kinds of mentally disabled people who aren’t pre-equipped with the tools for successful social relationships.
I do get the impression that he's implied to be "not that smart" on account of being half giant. The vibes are fantasy-racist
@@larissabrglum3856yeah I wholeheartedly agree
Hi, person who grew up as a fat kid reading HP here. Since you asked:
The sad thing of it is, fatphobia is so deeply internalized by certain parts of my family that I laughed right along with all the Dudley jokes despite them very much being the kinds of things that I heard about myself from school bullies. It was just another thing in my life that reinforced all that self-hatred I would then have to spend many, many years unlearning.
This one is probably gonna take me a while to watch xD I'll add comments to this one if I have more as I go.
1) I wanna add to Voldemort's analysis (because this has bothered me since I read the 6th book). The one thing that has always irked me about his character is that JK seems to suggest that kids born out of r*pe cannot know love or be loved.That because he wasn't born out of love, he was doomed to be loveless for his entire life. While your point was that he was evil from the get-go because of that (and I agree with everything you said on it!), the idea that a kid could read HP while also knowing they were the product of a r*pe and therefore take that message to heart bothered me so much, it's one of the biggest red flags I had about the series even back when I was still buying the books and active on fan forums.
2) I always took the abstinence comment about the fat lady to be about abstaining from drink. Not necessarily much better when in a children's book, but not really about s*x either.
3) Lavender Brown is one of the examples, to me, of how the wizarding world isn't fleshed out enough. Like you said, she shared a dorm room with Hermione for 6 years, they have no scenes (that I remember) of spending any time with each other and the emotional weight of her death(?) on Hermione was so impactful... I didn't even remember it was Hermione who got Greyback away from her. My point is mainly that Hermione's reaction felt like it didn't matter who was attacked, she would have reacted the same... which makes their relationship feel completely emotionally empty. Even Dudley showed more emotional reaction to realizing Harry was no longer going to be in his life.
4) Harry finding happiness in Draco as the ferret is one of those things that I wouldn't have a problem with if it was made more obvious it is a character flaw of Harry's. A kid enjoying seeing their bully put in place is realistic. Having the audience enjoy it without consideration to Draco's feelings is where it crosses the line to harmful. It teaches the audience that callously enjoying someone else's misery is justified if it's someone you don't like.
5) I really don't want to advocate for Molly Weasley's character, but I actually feel like the Howler could be warranted in very limited circumstances. Ron committed a crime by driving the car in a way that could expose their world to muggles. It's not just a little mistake of typical childhood shenanigans, but what could be considered an international incident (considering the wizarding world and muggle world each have their own governments). However, the fact that other students recognize exactly what a Howler is suggests to me that many parents use this as a form of punishment for things that are far less serious than Harry and Ron breaking the law. Also, the fact that Arthur had that car in his possession and in an unsecured way (such that his kids literally stole it twice in the same summer), and he didn't face far more severe punishment for his own actions that brought about the incident is, at the very least, eyebrow-raising worthy. Molly too, considering she knew about the car, and also knew about the previous driving to Privet Drive and didn't take actions to prevent her children from doing the same thing again makes her negligent at the very least..
6) Peter Pettigrew is one of those characters that had every narrative reason to seem unattractive at first. He spent a year terrified for his life. He wasn't eating, he was balding from stress, he had lived years as a rat instead of the human he is. I just wish she had described him as having a youthful vibrancy when Harry saw Snape's memories. Back when he was a kid and carefree and he had hope and excitement for the future, he could've had a completely different look about him. Before Voldemort took that from him. There's also a very easy explanation to how he fell into Voldemort's hands that, unfortunately, JK didn't see a need to give him more of a character than 'will follow anyone with power'. And that is that Voldemort could've searched out the weakest link nearest the Potters the moment he decided to go after them. It wouldn't be surprising that Voldemort would see Peter, the more timid of their friend group, as easier to manipulate than headstrong Sirius or internally strong Lupin (insert here that I tried to think of anyone Lily was close with only to be assured by my memories, again, that mothers in HP don't seem to "require" friendship outside of their husband's friends). If Peter was targetted specifically though, JK would've had to admit that he was once a victim of Voldemort's too and that Peter was dead the moment Voldemort decided he was useful to him.
7) Yeah... Filch is one of those characters I feel like JK put in place to fill a role and depict a side of the magical world and then just casually used as either a plot device or a background character now and again. He's literally the neighbour from Home Alone (movie) who is vilified by the kids for no reason other than they don't understand him (but in Home Alone, at least the neighbour gets his own redemption. Filch is just... left as is - this 'scary' man in a position of [semi] power who treats the kids 'unfairly' because they're too young to look outside themselves yet.... only, they grow up through the series, but never realize they forgot to change their childish impression of the janitor and instead, JK reminds us Filch is worthy of hate for following orders from the Ministry [Dolores] or for not having a sharp mind [his stupidity is played up EVERY time he appears in the later movies]... because being uneducated is a crime I guess?).
8) Umbridge backstory(?).... Um.... wow. Just wow. I don't bother to read JK's info dumps on the Potter universe that weren't in the books, so I had certainly never read... *that*... I like plushies to this day. Guess I'm a b*goted r*cist because... cute things?
9) Dudley is exactly the image of blaming a child for the faults of the parents. If Dudley was, in fact, demanding sweets as a 1 year old, then the appropriate reaction isn't "What's wrong with that child?" but rather "Why aren't the parents parenting?" While there seems to be some awareness on JK's part that Dudley's parents spoiling him was detrimental to him (which is probably why she thinks he deserves to at least redeem himself enough to sit in the same room with Harry as adults while their kids play), she definitely uses tonnes of language throughout the books that puts the onus for Dudley's weight on him. Dudley is a weird character for me where I generally like him, but hate the way JK managed him for much of the series. Could he have been both spoiled and fat? Sure. Did she really need to lead with his fatness every time as the qualifier for why Harry should be allowed to dislike him? I think you know the answer.
10) About the Myrtle section... why does JK purport to know whether anyone cries in boys' bathrooms? I thought she had a thing against women entering the men's lavatory? XD
11) Honestly, I've never really thought much about Hedwig's death. Now I see it was by design. I had thought it was written for the same reason as you (that it's easier to kill her off than to figure out what to do with her), but that's where my thoughts on her ended. But it is absolutely true that there should have been a little more grieving on that loss. George getting a hole in his ear felt more grave by the end of that night and Harry has his 'recover Mad Eye's eye' moments during the infiltration of the MoM. But I don't even remember Hedwig even coming up much again after her death scene other than it being how they pinpointed real!Harry. And it really wouldn't have been hard to write her out of the story in the first place. Just have her stay with the Weasleys. If JK still wanted it to be the death of innocence that it was, she should've had Harry try to process the feelings of her loss at least a little more. Having said that, I now realize I don't have a single memory of what happened with Crookshanks. Huh.
12) ngl I thought Ron would be 1st, but 2nd is pretty close. Also, thanks for reminding me why I never warmed up to Ron's character. I think it was his threat on Mrs. Norris in the first book. As a person who always kept my black cat indoors on Hallowe'en because people can be cruel, Ron was exactly the type of person I was trying to keep her safe from.
13) I'm not really surprised at myself for forgetting Hagrid existed. I was trying to think of who could possibly be worse than Ron... well, Rubeus Hagrid is certainly a 'good' contender. After your first point about Hagrid giving Dudley the pig's tail, I now remember why I didn't remember him. I never liked his character. It was obvious JK wrote him to be a character you should like, but every time Harry thought of him as a friend, or about him warmly, I always had to sigh and just think, 'right, the weird guy Harry is friends with because he happened to be the person to introduce him to magic.' Let's not forget this grown man is friends with children... (ah, glad you mentioned it too.)
14) Hearing the recap about the detention in the woods looking for an injured unicorn, it occurred to me that the most appropriate detention for first years found wandering the school grounds at night (which probably happens regularly at a school full of teenagers), should have been.... writing lines after school (just not with blood as ink). Maybe some extra work if lines doesn't seem punishing enough. Also, the groundskeeper is not an educator and shouldn't be put in the position of watching 4 children.
I don't think I can continue to add to the other message anymore? So new message! :D
15) I didn't remember the scene in Azkaban of the trio taking care of drunk Hagrid, but more than just normalizing a kid taking care of an adult, teaching said child the right thing to do is to pour out their alcohol on the ground is probably one of the most negligent lessons. If a child tried that with an abusive drunk, the consequences could be absolutely horrendous. It's not something I picked up on as a child (because, gratefully, I didn't grow up in that kind of household), but as an adult, I know how delicate a situation with a chronic drinker when they're drunk can be.
...Aaaaand, that's it! Made it to the end of the video! Thanks for the insights, and the trip through my memories of these books. I appreciate how much effort you put into this! Thank you! :)
I cannot ever be convinced to like ron. I have hated him since day one..I remember finding out he and Hermione ending up together and FUMING at school for a week over it. He is insufferable.
I have never read Harry Potter or watched the movies but I am SAT for this
I’m about to!!! I’m SO EXCITED!
same
Yes 😂!
Hope you enjoyed but keep in mind she misinterprets a lot of things by misunderstanding British English.
@@propogandalf she definitely didn’t misinterpret that JK Rowling is a huge transphobe
One thing about Sirius is that yes, he was in prison so he couldn't have reached out for Harry like, any sort of way. But are you telling me that aftern 13 years in prison, the reason this man tries to leave is not his m*therfucking godson, who is known to be orphan, but.. vengeance? Like, the minute he sees Peter in that picture, he realizes "oh well i CAN escape prison" and its not maybe to be there for his godson whatsoever but to get vengeance.... Jesus. The man is crap
Not to defend Rowling nor Sirius, but he *is* not normal, he spent 12 years with dementors who makes mental issues much much worse. So in the beginning he just wanted to take vengeance, but after all these years he is literally obsessed with this idea.
Of course this is fucked up, but I guess that's the point.
@@shio_juniper I agree. I think Rowling intended Sirius’ character to be a critique of the prison system that instead of correcting and rehabilitating felons causes even those unjustly convicted to become criminals. But then she, of course, ruins it all with her overarching theme that only good people don’t deserve such cruel treatment but bad people do, when Lucius Malfoy is put in Azkaban, and Harry decides that it would be fun to rub it into Draco’s face. You would think that our good protagonist would have some sympathy for Draco who lost his father to the same system that ruined his godfather’s life while also grieving him, but alas we’re asking for too much nuance from JKR here. Not to mention that there is zero conversation about abolishing Azkaban and creating a more suitable magical justice system in the whole series.
What are you talking about? Sirius realized that Peter was in striking distance of Harry, who Sirius assumed was safe under Dumbledore. That's what "he's at Hogwarts" was about. I am very critical of this series too, but you gotta think these things through. Once in a while, the writer did actually lay things out logically, and if we blindly criticize everything, the valuable criticism will be lessened.
this video made me look up joanne's childhood/adolescence/young adulthood on wikipedia and my gosh it's like reading a serial killer's backstory. she basically seems to think everyone around her at university was incapable of independent thought.
Can you share where you found this?
@@Hiolori from her Wikipedia entry:
"Rowling always wanted to be a writer,[73] but chose to study French and the classics at the University of Exeter for practical reasons, influenced by her parents who thought job prospects would be better with evidence of bilingualism.[74] She later stated that Exeter was not initially what she expected **("to be among lots of similar people - thinking radical thoughts")** but that she enjoyed herself after she met more people like her.[53]"
It's very "I'm better than all these people because I'm actually a free thinker and they're just sheep" feeling.
Yeah that's what most hard-nosed conservatives think about University. Not really surprising to hear this about her, but definitely illuminating to have it confirmed.
To add to one of your points:
10:18
Didn't Merge, Vernon's (ugly) mustached sister - the dog breeder - say something along those lines in the 3rd book. /If there is something wrong with the mother, her children will be bad/ (she was cruder about it). Never understood that was one of JK's theses of the human condition.
Not Winky just being Uncle Ruckus ... God this book is so fucked and I'm only an Hour in.
2:02:13 in the fantastic beasts movies it was established that he was not just FRENDS with but in love with wizard hitler. Which is… a choice that was made
35:05- in McGonagall’s defense what Draco said does sound like a lie a kid would say to try and get themselves out of trouble especially because she already knows Harry and Draco don’t get along.
Harry on the other hand with Umbridge would have no reason to lie about what happened to Cedric because why would he lie about the man who is caused so much pain and suffering the last time he was at large was back?
Ok, first thing I'm doing with a time turner is more sleep.
Honestly… after watching this video- it’s kinda upsetting to see that JK’s books somehow got approved and weren’t banned. And yet books that talk about minorities perspectives even through fiction- get banned because of the exposure to the experience of a marginalized group.
The books were banned in some places but never because of any of the real issues… they were banned because “witchcraft is satanic”
Oh they tried to ban it…but for sorcery lol
Crazy to me that even after the ten hour video essay "A Brief Look at Harry Potter", Shaun's 3 hour breakdown of the series, many many hours of other criticisms I've watched, and your other two videos, theres still new discourse to throw in the mix.
Exellent video as always, I enjoyed the character slander, especially those I hadn't considered, such as Fred and George and Hagrid.
With regards to Hagrid, as Shaun pointed out, he's just as bigoted as Vernon Dursley in many ways. He shows up in the first book, is quick to anger when Dumbledore is insulted, and so uses magic (which isn't legal for him to have) to disfigure a child, who didn't even make the insult, to the point it required surgery. And just like Vernon, he wants to keep the magic and non-magical worlds separate, and even tells Harry that people would be wanting magical solutions to all their problems, so they're better off being left alone... when wizards can cure all non-magical diseases, regrow bones in an afternoon, and infinitely duplicate food and liquids. They, and Rowling, are just lazy when it comes to helping regular people.
@@scarletsabre8383 yes, I knew Shaun's arguments when it comes to Hagrid's bigotry, but I never considered that he was putting a crazy emotional burden on a bunch of children that he's weirdly friends with. It was a new perspective for me that I never thought about
@@puffinatheart5565 You could even make the argument that because Hagrid was kicked out of school, and since this is Rowling's neoliberal world, there are no social safety nets, was basically thrown to the streets, he never really grew past his school years socially/emotionally, and feels a connection to the kids and is socially/emotionally stunted to be basically on their level, since he's been working as groundskeeper and only ever interacting with schoolchildren since he was one himself
@@scarletsabre8383 yeahhhh JKR is a neoliberal, she doesn't believe in social safety nets etc. She also is terrible at world building lmaooo
Dumbledore has a habit of picking people up off the street and hiring them at his school. This is probably meant to show his benevolence etc. but it really does just seem like these people have nowhere else to go. Filch should be able to get a job somewhere that doesn't involve him doing stuff he hates, right? Maybe he can do paperwork or something, idk. Hagrid has a love of magical beasts, maybe he could work with Charlie or something. Hagrid isn't stupid when it comes to how magical creatures ought to be treated, just with the social aspect of explaining it. He could work at a magical zoo or do something like Newt did with his magical rehabilitation program, idk. It just shows such a lack of care for the world and a lack of respect for people who are put in bad positions. They just need a benevolent person like Dumbledore to help them. Idk I feel like there's a deeper message here about JKR and how she sees those less fortunate than her
I just got to Winky and SHE’S AT 20? I need to go to bed soon but oh god
so happy to see james potter rightfully on a worst character list!!! that guy genuinely sucks so much!!
Really enjoyed this, but I don’t necessarily think the second half of the series is a children’s book, it’s definitely targeted more like YA and teens
Which is funny because as a kid who was 7 when the first book came out, this was fantastic.
Now as an adult, I'm a bit like, who was the target audience? Most series keep the same voice throughout, even if the characters age.
@@sannetts As far as I know, the intent was for the target audience age to go up a little with each book, which is, IMO, one of the few good things about the series, because it allows the tone and themes to more-or-less match the age of the characters throughout.
10-year-olds very regularly read through the whole series. It's sold and marketed to adolescents. There's no question that the people in charge of printing and selling the book see it as a children's chapter book.
Ma'am, I literally just found you and binged your other two HP videos last night and now you give me this?! 😂😂😂
Make in my day, I knew her as an asmr and comedy creator 😂😂
Fr though, I’m happy you found her! Love her channel too :>
Voldemort is insinuated to be incapable of love because he was conceived via a love potion, however, this was revealed in the last couple of books. It's a TERRIBLE message for children either way, but i do think the later books were meant for 16+ range (growing with the audience and all that). I also think the love potion was metaphorical, but done in a way that could cause harm nonetheless. It is valid to say someone who has never experienced love might be unpracticed giving it, but with voldy he's incapable. Thats why he's Harry's foil in many ways but definitely a character that encourages deeper thought... which as a kid i assumed was intentional on the author's part, but now who knows!
I also read Petunia's all-consuming jealousy as love-turned-to hate after loss. Like she loved magic and her sister as a kid, was excluded from the school, slowly lost the closeness to her sister because of magic/the school, and then literally experiences her sister getting murdered because of it. Denial and grief are crazy, and can definitely twist a person especially when the seeds are already there. But again, all of this intentionality and complexity that I was certain was intentionally and thoughtfully put there as a kid is all in question now
The hard thing about the Voldemort can’t love cause his conception came from loveless manipulation (which this is never explicitly stated) is that it leaves this idea of children who come from broken families with parents who don’t love each other won’t be able to feel love