Is Harry Potter Bad?

I feel like a majority of Harry Potter fans like the idea of it more than the actual story.

I'm sorry, but questioning why all evil people were former Slytherin students or why all bad children end up in Slytherin is valid criticism. It is essentially saying that once the sorting hat arbitrarily decides you're evil enough at the ripe age of 10, you'll be doomed to live a life of crime.

It occurred to me that ending each book with a Wizard OSHA agent coming in to berate Dumbledore would have been a hoot.

Dumbledore: You know Severus, sometimes I think we sort too early. Snape: Then shouldn't we change how this school is run? Dumbledore: nope lol

I never liked how the book made Cho out to be a whiny batch for mourning her DEAD BOYFRIEND! How is she supposed to react?

I didn't knew that the Dementors were fired for working with Voldemort. Now I'm imagining a wizard just walking into Azkaban and telling all Dementors that HR wants to see them. Now how will they eat? Imagine a Dementor on the sidewalk with a cardboard sign saying "Will work for happiness"

So i think the "bad faith" arguments are valid. Dumbledoor was fine until you find out hes manipulate harry to die, and he willingly gave harry to an abusive household. He isnt creepy bc hes close to harry hes creepy bc hes litterally the other side of the coin to voldy. And slytherin being evil children isnt just clicks at school, its a systemic issue of creating an echo chamber and shoving it in the basement.

One thing that's always bothered me is how Arthur Weasley's interest in muggles being presented as an intense interest is completely ridiculous considering his lack of knowledge. If he was genuinely interested in learning about how muggle things work he could have- at any point- just put on a bit of muggle clothing, however mismatched it was, and gone to a few bookstores in his nearest town. He had muggle money for the Quidditch World Cup (which he struggled with.... Can you really not tell the difference between a 5, 10 and 20 written on a piece of paper? You literal idiot?) so there's obviously a relatively easy way to exchange Wizarding currency to it. He could have had an entire home library and studied spark plugs, electricity, aeronautics, mechanics, engineering, muggle sociology, architecture, science, etc at his leisure. It makes him come across as a complete moron when he's stumbling over things a 5 year old muggle kid would know (again, when he professes that this stuff is meant to be an interest of his) or says that the thing he desires most is "to know how aeroplanes stay up" in book 6. Arthur, mate, READ. A. MUGGLE. BOOK. A kids book about aeroplanes. Just one. It's so annoying lol. It's really idiotic and takes away from him as a character. Especially when you consider that his job in the Ministry is related to muggle objects so this isn't just hobbyist stuff but is potentially career-relevant knowledge as well.

Someone made a joke on twitter saying that if we had a Latin character on harry potter they would be called Andale Arriba and it makes me laugh every time because Joanne absolutely would do that

The best criticism of the time turners in book 5 is still "Sorry guys, Neville knocked over time travel"

15:30 I once listened to a review which basically said that the Harry Potter universe doesn't have bad and good actions, it has bad and good people. What the reviewer ment with this was that actions seen as bad when done by a bad person would be framed as acceptable when done by a good person :)

Also aren't squibs just... Disabled? Because idk the way they're treated in the wizard society feels less like racism and more like ableism

I would have loved to have seen Harry grow up to be a Defense Against The Dark Arts teacher who works through his PTSD by making sure his students are prepared to fight evil. He's happy as a husband and a father, but that uneasy feeling of danger never quite leaves him, so he never really stops training Dumbledore's Army. A bittersweet ending to a bittersweet story.

Hearing "Harold Potter" low-key messed me up for a bit, ngl. I even vented to a friend about not realizing that his name would indeed be Harold. Being named Harold on top of being an orphan is too much to bear. Fortunately, they let me know that his name is actually Harry and not Harold. It was a wild ride, though.

when harry asks hagrid about why wizards and witches aren’t open about being magical, hagrid says “they’d(muggles) be asking us to solve all their problems for them.” which is such a demented reason why the witching world would be hidden. i wish hagrid said “unfortunately people aren’t always kind to folks they don’t understand.” or something which makes so much more sense and doesn’t make witches and wizards seem like selfish monsters. although JK Rowling also isn’t too kind to folks she doesn’t understand.

Not to mention that Seamus, the only Irish character at the school, has an tendency to inadvertently blow things up and create explosives. In the 90's.

I love how the Harry potter world has no magic schools in the entirety of central europe, west asia, central asia, south asia, southeast asia, and fucking china. This means that an enormous portion of the world has no magical abilities or great civilizations like China, India, and mesopotamia have never thought to build even one magic school

As an eastern european, I also disliked the portrayal of foreigners in the book series, especially that of eastern europeans. Krum is the only good eastern european because he prefers the West. Fleur is French, but she's always mocked for her accent and poor English. I could go on.

11:12 If anyone's interested, the folklore actually goes that they aren't innately benevolent at all - they stow away in your house overnight and steal your food, but their sense of morality leads them to also do some household chore for the victim out of guilt. This is why the brownie is so offended if they notice that you're inviting their 'theft' or try to actively 'pay' them in some way - once it becomes obvious you're trying to let them "steal" from you in exchange for household chores, knowingly exploiting its guilt when you aren't even actually upset about the food and trespass, they're understandably very upset and will never return to your house again or even wreak mischief against you.

The problem with Harry Potter is that it tries to be something it's not. It's supposed to be a silly book about wizards and magic, but the series became so famous that J.K. Rowling tried to turn the story into something more serious. However, the world-building doesn't have the necessary depth.