J.K. Rowling needs to stop messing with Harry Potter - A general STFU J.K. Rowling MegaThread <3

Nahh, Book 5 was when Rowling began to actually put her more in the book to force this down our throats. The romance appeared out of nowhere in Book 6, maybe after a chapter or two of build up with very minor details. Either way, the books very clearly declined when she tried to write deeper than "Kid's story".
Shit it was 6, you’re right. I just remember it just materializing out of nowhere.
 
I just think it's hilarious that Hermione and Ron were realizing they hit puberty and were developing crushes around Goblet of Fire but Harry just stood around looking lost about the whole thing until Cho showed up. (Which, by the way, great job romancing a dead guy's girlfriend while she's still mourning him yet she's the one who came on to him in the first place, so lol.) He had more of a connection with Moaning Myrtle than Ginny and apparently he was flustered over her seeing him naked in the bath even though she's fucking dead (and she was totally okay with peeping in on guys or guys peeping in on her if I remember correctly).
 
I just think it's hilarious that Hermione and Ron were realizing they hit puberty and were developing crushes around Goblet of Fire but Harry just stood around looking lost about the whole thing until Cho showed up. (Which, by the way, great job romancing a dead guy's girlfriend while she's still mourning him yet she's the one who came on to him in the first place, so lol.) He had more of a connection with Moaning Myrtle than Ginny and apparently he was flustered over her seeing him naked in the bath even though she's fucking dead (and she was totally okay with peeping in on guys or guys peeping in on her if I remember correctly).
Dont forget that she asked about his death during a date. Now that was something.
 
I think the Ron and Hermione romance worked as a classic trope of rivals-turned-lovers and all that jazz. I have no issues there. Other than that, romance has never really been Rowling's forte and there's something so hollow about how it's written that it comes off as sterile and sexless as all hell, which is surprising since a recurring theme of the book is growing up.

The only character I feel is truly worthy of any praise is Snape and I hate how he's been twisted into a shitty Nice Guy trope over pining over Harry's mom. The guy was a dick but he wasn't a fedora tipper. Just a bitter, nasty, broken person that knew he made mistakes and wasn't sure how to correct them. If there was one positive thing I could say about Rowling was that she understood (at least at the time before lousy twitter politics made her worse) that often the nastiest people do what they do out of hurt or regret and can still be a hero even if they're not the best people.
 
Dont forget that she asked about his death during a date. Now that was something.

Oh shit, that's right. I forgot they actually did go on dates, I just thought they were having a thing in between the Dumbledore's Army classes, and so she was asking about his death just before they kissed under the mistletoe.
 
Oh shit, that's right. I forgot they actually did go on dates, I just thought they were having a thing in between the Dumbledore's Army classes, and so she was asking about his death just before they kissed under the mistletoe.
If I remember right she asked him “was he thinking about me before he died?” Or something similar. Kinda shitty.
 
I think the Ron and Hermione romance worked as a classic trope of rivals-turned-lovers and all that jazz. I have no issues there. Other than that, romance has never really been Rowling's forte and there's something so hollow about how it's written that it comes off as sterile and sexless as all hell, which is surprising since a recurring theme of the book is growing up.

The only character I feel is truly worthy of any praise is Snape and I hate how he's been twisted into a shitty Nice Guy trope over pining over Harry's mom. The guy was a dick but he wasn't a fedora tipper. Just a bitter, nasty, broken person that knew he made mistakes and wasn't sure how to correct them. If there was one positive thing I could say about Rowling was that she understood (at least at the time before lousy twitter politics made her worse) that often the nastiest people do what they do out of hurt or regret and can still be a hero even if they're not the best people.



Speaking of Snape, if you check Reddit and tumblr, a lot of fans seem to not understand that its okay to not like a character but admire their actions. So many fans just dont understand the term, grey character, and either think he's an asshole or a saint. Not ever an in between type of person.


They also think his relationship with Lily is actually bad, which I can agree with. He's either a nice guy or incel, or that "always" is soo romantic.
 
I don't think Snape was any kind of incel or anything like that. He was a negative influence on Lily but was, for better or for worse, a close friend that was in love with her but never told her or forced it onto her. He lashed out at the worst possible moment and didn't press it when she told him that she couldn't forgive him. He just sort of quietly stewed on his own but I don't think he ever once blamed her or insisted that SHE was the problem. He obv hated Harry's dad but more in a "this guy bullied the shit out of me" way than a "CHADS BE STEALING ALL THE WUHMEN" way. I think people misinterpret Snape's character a lot. He's a morally gray character that shows that you can feel compassion to people that might not deserve it and that even terrible people have the ability to do great things. Snape hated Harry for many reasons but he loved his mother enough to protect her son in spite of his hate. That's not an applause-worthy trait but it does say something about his ability to honor the memory of those he valued.

I dunno. Snape obviously isn't this dashing romantic Mr. Darcy nor is he a whining Nice Guy. He's one of the few characters in the entire story with a subtle arc that's meant to humanize him even after we, the audience, made judgments about him.
 
That was true and acceptable for the beginning of the series, but I think it clearly moved beyond that (or attempted to) further down the track where Harry's personal situation, choices and prejudices etc. became plot drivers. Especially with the whole prophecy malarkey which was meant to cast the whole story as a heroic epic, or some kind of parable or something.
This is true. I lost interest in the series by then so I guess I wasn't paying as much attention. Harry does develop more of a personality, but even by then he doesn't have a lot going on because he's been built up from not a lot. She did improve his character though, I'll give you that.

Bit amazing that these books have survived the gaze of the critical theorists... considering the Wizards are a master race with slaves...
Aren't most critical theorists university professors with grievance studies degrees? The same people who worshiped Harry Potter? They're not going to shit on one of their protected properties. People are starting to turn against it now, but it'll still slip under the radar of the real hard hitters. Besides, Harry Potter was written by a woman, not a dead white guy, so you can't just critical theorize it.
 
I don't think Harry's character improved through the series ... He started out as a basically decent kid, then developed a really aggressive streak in Book 5, and by the end was casting Unforgiveable curses and Sectumsempras with no repercussions (it's only bad when Slytherins do it seems to be the moral of the story). He wasn't great in the final battle either. Neville was the one who was actually commanding the resistance, while Harry fulfilled his destiny, offed the villain then left everyone else to clean up from the aftermath of a horrific, violent battle while he went and took a nap. I found Snape and Malfoy more likeable at the end, because they started off as jerks but eventually had to come to grips with the bad things they did, unlike Harry.

I remember reading this article back in the day, which has an interesting bit about Harry as an "invisible man" hero, meaning one who's deemed heroic by the author precisely because he's so bland and devoid of motives.
https://web.archive.org/web/20190208100656/http://ferretbrain.com/articles/article-149
 
Even as a kid i always thought Harry’s interest in Gunny came out of nowhere. She was always “Ron’s little sister” to Harry then book 5 came around and BAM Harry is infatuated with her. There’s zero buildup.
I'm not so sure; it was explained by her forgetting about Harry and dating other boys, so to her he went from being "Ron's friend I have a crush on and can't speak around" to "Ron's friend, and part of the family by this point". As for infatuation coming from nowhere ... do you remember being 15? In that same story he was having (a middle-aged woman's understanding of) teenage moodswings, so I guess it makes sense for the two things to happen at once.
 
Y'know how people sometimes abandon their old facebooks for a fresh start, and they still have the profile pic from when they were about 20/21, and they were good looking and their posts were funny and intelligent ... now you're both 26, and you find their new profile. They've completely lost their looks prematurely, and only post retarded SJW stuff, and you wonder how that bangable funny person turned into that wreck?

That's what reading the HP books versus JK's revisions is like.

yeah i recently came across an old crush's new profile,sowhat
 
This is true. I lost interest in the series by then so I guess I wasn't paying as much attention. Harry does develop more of a personality, but even by then he doesn't have a lot going on because he's been built up from not a lot. She did improve his character though, I'll give you that.

Glad to know I am not the only one that thinks Harry has no personality. I thought I was going crazy.

I mean maybe it has been common knowledge in the Potter fandom for years? I don't know. In my circles at least I have never heard of it being a complaint. I don't think there is anything about Harry, not related to magic, being that memorable.

Simply put, if you could drink a coffee and talk with anyone, that is important, in the Harry Potter-verse, he would be by far the most boring pick, personality wise.
 
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What is wrong with this woman!? Seriously why are people giving this clear afterthought the time of day?
 
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What is wrong with this woman!? Seriously why are people giving this clear afterthought the time of day?
Really JK? Because everything else seems to point to the contrary.

Seriously though, I can accept Dumbledore being gay despite the fact that nothing in the actual series implied that he was on the grounds that it just wasn't plot relevant and that a person's sexual identity isn't supposed to define their entire character. Unfortunately, JK seems to have forgotten that.

Also, literally no one wanted to know about Dumbledore's sex life. No one.
 
According to the article she brought it up in the Blu-Ray special features of the new Fantastic Beasts movie. It would've virtually gone unnoticed had some stupid blog site not brought it to attention and therefore thrown more fuel on the dumpster fire.

But it's just more proof Rowling literally can't remember her own canon. How fucking sad.
 
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