supersquirrel comments on JK Rowling reacts to Harry Potter trailer after 'millennial slop' allegations

I've described The Will of the Many (a book by Australian author James Islington) as "Harry Potter in the Spartacus setting," and that's accurate (as they do have magic, but it's a unique system of magic involving ceded Will), but I've recently learned that there's an entire genre just called academia (e.g. "historical academia" or "fantasy academia"). So TWOTM is alt history magical academia, and Potter is British fantasy magical academia. (The name invokes memory of an anime series that uses the name in its title — My Hero Academia, which is superhero academia.) I imagine Earthsea is also fantasy magical academia. I've heard of it, but never looked too closely at it.

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[–] cerebralhawks@lemmy.dbzer0.com 0 points 7 months ago (11 children)

Harry Potter is fine. Please keep in mind that the only reason this show exists is because the actors in the Harry Potter movies don't agree with J.K. Rowling's transphobia, she's taken it personally, so now she's commissioning this new series, hoping to get a cast of kids who agree with her bigotry. Though I think it may specifically be Emma Watson (Hermione) since J.K. Rowling has said that she sees herself in the character. (Not Draco Malfoy? I don't think even Tom Felton agrees with her shit. Tom Felton is a stand-up guy by all accounts, but he plays a bigot like Rowling in the movies. Ironic, then, that she made Malfoy out to be a bad guy. Coming back years later and watching Philosopher's Stone realising Malfoy was an indoctrinated child made me sympathise with him a lot more, as opposed to just hating him. The real villain there being his father, Lucius. The true stand-in character for J.K. Rowling.)

I will always be a Potterhead (though, I'm not in love with the term — Hermione is my favourite of the main characters), but I think J.K. Rowling has shown herself to be a shit person. I liked how with the recent game, they sidestepped most of Rowling's contributions and made a game (Hogwarts Legacy) that only uses the setting. It takes place some 100 years before Voldemort. There's even a trans character, but some people thought her inclusion was pandering. Either way, she's a giant middle finger to Rowling. I'm not even a huge fan of the character (she's a bartender, I don't drink, and the kids in Harry Potter don't either, so I avoided the tavern).

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[–] supersquirrel@sopuli.xyz 2 points 7 months ago* (10 children)

Every fanbase is a culmination of all the humans involved, so yes JK Rowling can't single handedly ruin Harry Potter... I guess..

....but no if we want to keep Harry Potter there needs to be a public, explicit reckoning where JK Rowling is literally removed from the copyright and at least some queer writers are directly empowered near the top of the franchise to run it.

Anything less is unacceptable and unfortunately I do not think we will ever get anything near that.

The only other options are to create a culture of "aggressive" fanfiction that fans begin overwriting the "official" transphobic canon with as a form of mass copyright infringement (A sort of "Martin Luther" approach if you will) somehow or to cut our losses and begin pouring love into a new fantasy wizard world that isn't owned by Queen Transphobe herself.

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[–] turdburglar@piefed.social 2 points 7 months ago (5 children)

i mean yeah, she’s a cottonheaded ninnymuggins, but she did create the world and characters.

you can’t take that away any more than you can take beat it from michael jackson or louie from louis c.k.

i’m torn on the whole separating art from artist thing, but you can’t just remove their authorship.

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[–] supersquirrel@sopuli.xyz 1 point 7 months ago (4 children)

Why not?

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[–] turdburglar@piefed.social 0 points 7 months ago (3 children)

well, because when a person invents something, they are credited for making it up. we all have to make our way in this world, and removing someone’s ownership of their creation because we don’t like what they say (as we both clearly do not) is a pretty dangerous way to operate.

that knife cuts going in just as well as it cuts coming out. what are they going to take from me or you because they don’t like what we say?

how about we just stick to making memes and making fun of her? also telling people that she only loves her fellow humans if they fit her narrow criteria, making her a pretty awful person.

or, just don’t watch the fuken show.

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[–] supersquirrel@sopuli.xyz 1 point 7 months ago (2 children)

what are they going to take from me

Nothing fool, you are a random normal person, become a fabulously rich prominent person and it is a different conversation.

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[–] turdburglar@piefed.social 0 points 7 months ago (1 child)

you don’t know me.
you’re a bit insufferable.

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[–] supersquirrel@sopuli.xyz 1 point 7 months ago

Good I am glad I ruffle your feathers, they clearly need to be ruffled and you clearly need to do some introspection.

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[–] cerebralhawks@lemmy.dbzer0.com -1 points 7 months ago (3 children)

Harry Potter is not itself transphobic, and I've heard there is fan fiction where transgendered witches and wizards just use magic to change their birth assigned sex and it's not a problem. Like polyjuice potion is literally canon to the series. The trans-friendly game I mentioned, Hogwarts Legacy, does add some stipulations to the effects of the potion. But at one point in the game, you have to pose as the headmaster (and you can demand that the Great Hall be decorated with your House's colours while doing so), and you can do so if you're playing a witch.

(Oh, I forgot to mention, you can be trans yourself. You can set everything as male as you want in character creation, then select "witch" and everyone will address you as she/her, you're in the girls' dorm, the whole nine yards. Anyone can wear any outfit, too. The reverse is also true — make the girliest girl and select "wizard" for he/him pronouns and the boys' dorm. I'm not making fun of trans — I'm saying you can take that ball and run with it as far as you want in either direction. It's wide open.)

The fandom will be what the fandom will be, and the Harry Potter canon is not transphobic. Only J.K. Rowling is, and we only found out after all the books came out. If you remember, she also retroactively made Dumbledore gay and said Hermione should probably not be white. Even before she came out as transphobic, I thought J.K. Rowling was batshit crazy and I stopped caring what she said a long time ago. So when she revealed herself to be transphobic, I thought "that tracks, what next".

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[–] supersquirrel@sopuli.xyz 0 points 7 months ago (2 children)

So when she revealed herself to be transphobic, I thought "that tracks, what next".

Easy for you to say when you aren't trans

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[–] cerebralhawks@lemmy.dbzer0.com 0 points 7 months ago (1 child)

You might wanna re-read that. Because it sounds like you're saying because I'm not trans, I can't dislike J.K. Rowling.

No, I'm not trans. And no, I don't like her. I didn't like what she did before and when she came out as anti-trans, I thought that was right on-brand for all the dumb shit she did before.

You're attacking an ally for agreeing with you. Not sure what you're trying to accomplish here.

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[–] supersquirrel@sopuli.xyz 4 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago)

Ok I will clarify, what I mean is that it is easy for you to brush off news that JK Rowling is Transphobic as "meh, THAT doesn't surprise me" when you aren't Trans because it really doesn't matter other than as a cynical "told you so!" moment for you.

For a Trans person it is a destabilization, it is part of a broader threat and it is part of a shrieking voice of hate trying to convince Trans people they aren't worthy of love. What an insult to all of the Trans and Queer fans of Harry Potter for the writer to turn on them so!!? What right does JK Rowling have to do that having been given such a special gift of so many fans? This is JK Rowling choosing to make the world a darker place and I will not tolerate it just because I am not directly impeded by it myself.

I am sure most Trans people who had been paying attention weren't super surprised by JK Rowling's behavior when she become more prominently toxic, so what? That doesn't mean the hurt isn't real and that we shouldn't take it seriously even if we saw it coming from kilometers away.

Also I really don't think most Trans and Queer people really expected JK Rowling to be perfect, I think even if she had problematic views if she showed she had empathy and could actually listen and evolve it wouldn't be ANYWHERE near as big of a deal. It is her insistence to define herself and thus Harry Potter through her toxic politics that has soured things, not annoying nitpicky people like me who always have to criticize everything making this into an issue when it isn't.

I believe in Death Of The Author in the analysis of art right up until The Author is an extravagantly rich, transphobic rightwing troll who uses her massive platform to encourage people to hate people for just trying to live their lives according to what feels right to their body.

slams Next Fantasy Series button

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[+] realcaseyrollins@narwhal.city [S] -9 points 7 months ago (6 children)

I'm not sure what the problem is then, go watch something else. If you like fantasy, I'm hearing good things about both A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms and House of the Dragon.

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[–] supersquirrel@sopuli.xyz 5 points 7 months ago (5 children)

The problem is JK Rowling is a lame ass Transphobe.

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[+] realcaseyrollins@narwhal.city [S] -6 points 7 months ago (4 children)

And what exactly is having a sour attitude because you don't like a famous person's opinions supposed to do, exactly?

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[–] supersquirrel@sopuli.xyz 12 points 7 months ago (3 children)

It isn't that I don't like her opinions, it is that she espouses an ideology that results in material harm to humans and uses her position of fame and fortune to accelerate bigotry.

Not the same as having an opinion I just "don't like".

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[–] MelodiousFunk@slrpnk.net 5 points 7 months ago (1 child)

Don't engage the conservative troll.

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[–] supersquirrel@sopuli.xyz 5 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago)

Thank you for the reminder to disengage, I just wanted to state publicly why the troll was wrong in case anybody else here is confused by me having such a strong reaction.

I don't go around hating on movie and tv show threads just because I don't like the opinions of the creators, that framing trivializes the very real harm being caused by JK Rowling and her pathetic transphobia.

JK Rowling is an immensely, stupendously powerful person and what does she choose to do with that power?

She uses it to pick on vulnerable young adults who are already stigmatized by their society, how pathetic and weird is that?

This is not something we can tolerate powerful people doing, yes it sucks that so many people loved Harry Potter but the reality is the reality, JK Rowling needs to be cast out of cultural relevance. Real trans people under real threat are more important than our nostalgic attachment to a fake wizard school.

Example of a Real British Wizard who we failed to protect as they protected us because of our daily intimacy with casual bigotry.

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[+] realcaseyrollins@narwhal.city [S] -9 points 7 months ago

It's exactly the same, but you're probably too tolerant to see that.

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