The wizarding world of Harry Potter, created by J.K. Rowling, has grown to be extremely popular. First the 'Harry Potter' books and the movie adaptations, then the 'Fantastic Beasts' films later on.
Of course, as much as I love the stories, I will admit there are a few flaws here and there. Today's post explores some of these issues. (Note that this post will contain a number of spoilers, so be warned.)
The Dursleys
After the death of Harry's parents, he's left in the care of his aunt and uncle. It's revealed later that he has a magical protection from when his mother sacrificed herself in an attempt to save him. Having Harry live with blood relatives of his mother keeps that protection on him. Besides that, Dumbledore figured that it would be best for Harry not to know he was famous in the wizarding world until later in his life, because growing up with that was liable to make him overly proud, or otherwise have a negative impact on him.
However, you'd think that someone would have made a larger effort to ensure Harry was well looked-after. The Dursleys treated Harry like dirt, an inferior being, vermin that they had no choice but to grudgingly put up with. Why didn't Dumbledore, or someone else, keep closer watch on them and crack down on the Dursleys when they were being cruel?
And even the Muggles around him seemed not to notice or care that Harry was obviously a neglected child and relentlessly bullied. I mean, he had no friends at all. You got the impression that the adults in school didn't do much, if anything, about the bullying. In public, people didn't seem to realize that one child was spoiled and the other largely ignored.
If you really look at the Dursleys' treatment of Harry, it's criminal. Literally. He was given very little, he was treated like a nobody, he was harshly punished. He received constant emotional abuse, was sometimes locked in his room... If the proper authorities witnessed Harry's living situation, the Dursleys would have been charged with child abuse.
Hogwarts Houses
In Hogwarts, the students were divided into four houses: Gryffindor, Ravenclaw, Hufflepuff, and Slytherin. However, it felt like the houses were somewhat stereotyped. Sure, kids were grouped by certain traits, so some of it makes sense. But in a way, it felt too formulaic. The people from Gryffindor were always the heroes, and the people from Slytherin were always evil.
Besides that, the focus was always on Slytherin and Gryffindor, and the strife between them, while the other two houses didn't get as much attention. There were a few exceptions, like Luna Lovegood from Ravenclaw, but oftentimes people from Ravenclaw or Hufflepuff were background characters.
Fair-Weather Fans
Harry Potter did a lot of brave and heroic things throughout the series. He saved people, he fought Death Eaters and Voldemort himself about a billion times. But despite all the evidence that he's a good guy, people are quick to change their tune.
When it's revealed that he can speak Parseltongue, everyone instantly assumes he's the one responsible for the attacks on students, and treats him like the Black Plague. When Voldemort returns, and the Ministry claims Harry to be a liar because they don't want to consider the possibility that he's telling the truth, most people believe the false propaganda and shun Harry again.
In reality, some people are quick to leap to conclusions, but it seems like this is taken to extremes just to create more tension and make the major characters' lives harder. Time after time, people turn on the good guys, with seemingly only a small minority that actually trust them. You'd think more people would be on Harry's side, and you just want to tear your hair out in frustration at everyone's behavior.
'The Cursed Child' Play
It exists. It feels like a badly-written fan-fiction. I refuse to accept it as canon.
There were honestly so many problems with that play. My mother and I looked forward to reading the new addition to the storyline, and were bitterly disappointed.
First of all, a lot of the characters behaved in ways that seemed contrary to who they were in the book series. I feel like Harry would have handled fatherhood differently, and a lot better than he did in that play.
Then there was the secret child of Bellatrix Lestrange and Voldemort, which seems implausible to me on multiple levels. I just don't see Voldemort letting anyone, even his followers, close to him. He also doesn't strike me as being interested in that sort of thing. He has more important things to do, like obliterating people and formulating evil plots.
They also explored alternate timelines, which had even more unlikely events and out-of-character behavior. One example is how Cedric Diggory turned into a Death Eater. Regardless of events, I just don't see him having such a dramatic personality change.
Basically, the entire story just... failed in so many ways. Many things didn't make sense or line up with the original book series.
This concludes this week's blog post. So what things, if any, bothered you about the series? Let me know in the comments.
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