How do you feel about Harry Potter? - I mean the actual character

The books are good enough for young adults and younger kids with a high reading level. They’re harmless and kids enjoy them which is great.

Adults reading YA fiction is kinda weird, but whatever. Some adults can’t read at a higher level and it’s easy entertainment even if they can. The problem is when it becomes a personality.

Harry himself? He’s the trust fund kid of the wizarding world, proped up by all those around him. He’d have been dead if not for all the other characters.
 
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DJ Grelle said:
The character harry potter is spiritually feminine. He never acts, only reacts to what happens to him. He never takes the initiative.
The vast majority of HP fanfiction tackles that fundamental point: what if harry was not a passive dork?
After the 4th year he knows he is hunted by the worst dark wizard in living memory and what does he do? Mope.

A depressive episode might be good for characterbuilding but at some point a man takes the heft in his own hands and acts. Harry never does.
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So is he a Gary Stu or a Mary Sue?
 
In terms of the book series, I remember enjoying the first three books. After that, JK really needed to hire an editor. Seriously, I could beat someone to death with The Order of the Phoenix. I've never minded long books if they're packed with story, even as a kid, but so much of her later books could've been edited down with almost nothing plot-relevant lost.
 
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It's a thoroughly average character with impenetrable plot armor and cringy moments of impotent tard rage. His best moments are when he's being goofy or a dick to others. Rating based on the books, not watching the movies.
 
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Back in the day I used to like HP. Back then, there were only four books and the fanbase wasn't as autistic. I recall not being able to get into book five when it came out. In fact, one life lesson I've learned is "don't bother with series that haven't finished." Because for me what always happens is that in that gap between installments, I invariably move on and stop caring. So when people told me that Rosebud was the sled, I didn't even care.

These days its kinda weird to me how something I always assumed was gonna be a flash in the pan children's series is now this empire that just will not go the fuck away. It's sort of like Five Nights at Freddy's in that sense.

I can see some of the appeal, but even back then some things about HP bothered me. Like the names. Seriously, the school is called "Hogwarts." I also recall having issues with how magic is presented. When you have it be "they say a word and it makes X thing happen" then its basically a glorified technology.... except that sometimes HP flies right into anime territory and has certain magic being possible just from emotion or vagueness.

Also the magical world seems just kinda random and full of stuff that you would think would never sell, like "Every Flavor Beans" which can literally be any flavor, even gross ones. To be fair, I recall someone (Dumbledore?) even admitting in-story that he prefers Muggle candy for this very reason.

All in all, it was an interesting world to get a glimpse into, and I re-read the first book recently and had a fun time.. but I can't imagine being this devoted or putting this much value on it.
 
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The first three books were very fun children's mystery books. It turns into YA trash after that but its ok for a teen that is the same age as the characters.

As a franchise though, very annoying and one of those omnipresent things you just grow to dislike just from overexposure. The books don't hold up to that level of praise and the worldbuilding starts to fall apart under scrutiny. All the merchandising and consumering around it is eyerolling too. By that time the movies started coming out i was already into other fantasy authors and other types of literature so i didn't care much for any of it
 
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Potter suffers from creating a fantastic world and only showing 1/10 of it. Hermione clearly was intended to in Ravenclaw and Ron sorta borders on Gryffindor but clearly would've been a Hufflepuff. Every time I wanna binge the movies, I immediately go "Oh wait, I wanna see more of the world, not more of Harry".

Compared to Goku, Naruto and Luffy, Harry at least doesnt overnight turn into some magical Chosen One who can do no wrong, nor is he 1000% carried by a cooler cast of party members. Could be worse.
 
skykiii said:
one life lesson I've learned is "don't bother with series that haven't finished." Because for me what always happens is that in that gap between installments, I invariably move on and stop caring
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That's what happened with me and the wheel of time. I managed to struggle my way through the 11th book, I was pretty much sick of that shit by book 5 or 6 by that point. Then that asshole Robert Jordan went and died after not releasing the next book for years. By the time the series actually finished there was no way I was going back and rereading all that shit. That series actually killed any desire I had to read book series with more than 3 books in them.

As for Harry Potter, it's been so long since I've read them I actually don't really remember what Harry was like as a character. I just remember him kind of being there.
 
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Grub said:
That's what happened with me and the wheel of time. I managed to struggle my way through the 11th book,
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You made it way farther than I did, friend... I didn't even manage to finish the first book.

Wheel of Time taught me that any fantasy novel where each individual installment is more than 600-700 pages is probably not worth reading. And also that fantasy fans will like just any garbage.

I used to know a guy who looked down on the fantasy genre because it had low standards. People kept thinking he was just a snob, but nowadays... I tend to see where he's coming from. Pretty much, any fantasist who isn't Tolkien is just kinda bleh. Even a lot of the classic fantasy authors like Robert E. Howard or Andre Norton have very much a "just hacking out any old shit" quality to them.... though I do kinda-sorta like Howard's work. (Andre Norton, the only book of hers I recall liking much was Quag Keep, which ironically tends to be considered one of her lesser works. Part of me just kinda likes the conceit of a world where everything inexplicably runs on actual tabletop RPG mechanics and the characters just have to accept it as fact).
 
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The Harry Potter books are late 20th century/21st century disposable entertainment and nothing more. I enjoyed them when I read them as a teen and I'm thinking about reading them again. And I'm not even one of those people that dislikes genre fiction or thinks that only realist novels are real literature.
 
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The first films came out at exactly the right age for me and I was hooked. The Prisoner of Askaban which I got as a birthday present was probably the first quasi adult book I ever read too.

The character himself was always a bit hard to get a read on but I always gave him the benefit of the doubt with his flaws due to personal tragedy and crappy childhood at the Dursley’s. He was entitled to be angry at the world and woe is me at times.

I find the swing in public opinion for JK Rowling to be hilarious, especially from the left, once just a typical feminist, now the devil.
 
I’m sure I’ve already posted my thoughts on this before but:
I think it’s an excellent series for children and teens. In most other YA books, the characters speak obnoxiously, the themes are nonsensical at best/actively malevolent at worst, and they’re just plain shite overall. Not a very good introduction to reading.

By comparison, Harry Potter promotes positive themes like loyalty, friendship, courage, inquisitiveness, and self sacrifice. The characters typically don’t speak with the obnoxious attitude that pops up so often in other YA lit. Rowling’s worldbuilding obviously doesn’t hold a candle to more serious works like LotR, but it’s just about perfect for a kid’s series — her world inspires imagination. Above all, kids absolutely love the books. Parts that we might shrug off as adult readers will make kids laugh out loud. It’s a great way to promote a love of reading in young children.

The adult fanbase and the adult haters are ultimately irrelevant. The books perform their intended function very well.
 
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timewave0 said:
I’m sure I’ve already posted my thoughts on this before but:
I think it’s an excellent series for children and teens. In most other YA books, the characters speak obnoxiously, the themes are nonsensical at best/actively malevolent at worst, and they’re just plain shite overall. Not a very good introduction to reading.

By comparison, Harry Potter promotes positive themes like loyalty, friendship, courage, inquisitiveness, and self sacrifice. The characters typically don’t speak with the obnoxious attitude that pops up so often in other YA lit. Rowling’s worldbuilding obviously doesn’t hold a candle to more serious works like LotR, but it’s just about perfect for a kid’s series — her world inspires imagination. Above all, kids absolutely love the books. Parts that we might shrug off as adult readers will make kids laugh out loud. It’s a great way to promote a love of reading in young children.

The adult fanbase and the adult haters are ultimately irrelevant. The books perform their intended function very well.
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A Series of Unfortunate Events is better because it's written by a man.
 
DankSmoker said:
A Series of Unfortunate Events is better because it's written by a man.
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I liked those as a kid, but the ending was such a gigantic letdown that it nullified all the positive aspects of the series imo. It felt like Snickett wrote himself into a corner and had no clue how to make it all make sense.
 
timewave0 said:
I liked those as a kid, but the ending was such a gigantic letdown that it nullified all the positive aspects of the series imo. It felt like Snickett wrote himself into a corner and had no clue how to make it all make sense.
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Fair enough, I guess I had stopped reading them at that point.
 
As a kid I loved the books, didn't much like Harry himself though. Hermoine was the character I like because somehow she was the only not retarded one.

I began rereading the books today and it is abundantly clear they were made for kids, moreso today in my age.

Secretly I'd like to see a fanfiction of an all-out war between muggers and wizards, that would be cool. Avada Kedavra vs a Minuteman III ICBM warhead. I think it'd be realistic given that muggles have been essentially living under the thumb of this secret society, and the wizards give no attention to the spread of technology in the books.
 
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