Not that long ago, the world was blessed with what has to be remembered in history as the best thing for the harry potter fandom, for better or for worse. I am of course talking about the announcement trailer for Hogwarts Legacy, for what feels like centuries, but the calendar insist is around two decades, the world has been reeling from the lack of a proper wizarding world related game. ever since that first harry potter book took the world by storm.
Goddam that Rowling woman and her magical words.
Speaking of her words, also not so long ago, Rowling decided that it would be a great idea to have a twitter, see this was her first mistake, many believe it was the tweets she made, but they forget that you need a twitter to tweet.
In all seriousness, I do not wish to make light of what Rowling is doing today, she has decided to use the power given to her by her creative works and its fans to spread misinformation and hate, although decided is a misnomer. See that implicitly assumes that the person spreading the hate believes it as such, I don't think she believes what she is doing to be hate, an thats worse, cause harm caused with bad intentions can be rectified easier than harm caused by good intentions, cause one requires a change of intention while the other a change in worldview
You decide which is harder.
While it arguably might not have been the case earlier, now, it seems neigh on impossible to make Rowling change her beliefs as such it is next to impossible to curb any harm she would or has already done with the power she has.
So... the solution seems simple enough? Take away that power. Boycott harry potter.
Well... I think you read the title, so you know its coming, so I'll say it, that's not how this works.
See any opinion with sufficient controversy splits a large enough listening population 3 ways, people who agree, people who disagree and those who don't give a shit.
This can be extended to a population of potential listeners in this case that will be the harry potter fanbase or those who consume content related to hp for other reasons. in thi case a fourth category will need to be added, those who haven't heard about the opinion, and hence haven't formed their opinion on it, for the reasons of simplicity, I shall involve this fourth category along with those who don't give a shit, for reasons I hope ae obvious. Although I understand if you take issue with this, but remember I am human.
Let's assign variables for ease of communication, A = agree, D = Disagree, S = Don't give a shit or haven't heard.
for reasons I once again hope are obvious, some in D and A constantly try to convert those in S to their side, including in rare cases trying to convert the opposite side, though that works only sparingly from my experience, unless you count in external factors, and again I am trying to keep this simple.
Now lets look at the HP fandom, Rowling's opinions and actions are hopefully known to you if you are reading this, now if you are in A, obviously you shall continue to support her, and if you are in D, you are most probably trying to boycott or justifying or otherwise turning a blind eye to the part of the fandom that you are in that you rightfully consider problematic, cause again, her opinions do spread transphobia, intentionally or otherwise.
Now let's say those in D, leave the fandom altogether, okay... only S and A remain, remember how I said A and D try to convert S? Okay think about S, on one hand they have people who hate something they like and are asking them to do the same for something they either have no clue about or don't care for(and such people exist, not acknowledging them or disliking them, wont make them go away) and on the other hand, they have those who like what they like and are asking them to agree with the creator, which side do you think they will go?
Congratulations you have successfully created a Radicalization Pipeline.
So what? Are we doomed? Well remember what I said about taking away the power? Well the wizarding world has since evolved, more people have contributed to it than just Rowling and sure she still owns the exclusive veto rights and earns from everything related to it, but... the power she alone has over the wizarding world fandom has been distributed to other parties.
The path ahead seems clear to me at least, support those things in the fandom that are made by people other than Rowling.
And that doesn't seem to be difficult as her recent contributions are fantastic beasts and the cursed child while those other than her have given us Hogwarts legacy
Look say what you will about those movies, the wizarding world has seen an deserves better, this is coming from someone who likes these movies. And the less I talk about the cursed child the better.
Because while the play was awesome on stage, the screen play along with the TROLLey witch monster can burn in Hell.
It is amazing to me that those supporting the boycott of Hogwarts Legacy also often happen to be those who are proponents of the collaborative nature of works as massive as harry potter. Because see... there is only one core idea that made hp succeed the idea of a structured magic society and a magic academy. That and the novels are fundamentally mystery novels. People come for the magic stay for the mystery and dive deeper into the magic. Take the magic academy away, and you have a bland protagonist, propped up by a prophecy, a generic dark lord villain, and characters that often fall into other archetypes. This is not to take away from the wizarding world far from it, it's simplicity allows readers to not have to break their heads to follow the story while they focus on the parts they really like.
Do you really think no one would have come up with this idea if Rowling didn't? Do you think she is the first to do so? Or is she the first to put it in a digestible form and successfully publish it, both very difficult tasks mind you, but again are they unique to her?
What's this screenshot from Elden Ring doing here
So yeah it baffles me that so many link everything wizarding world back to her and try to silence everything related to it by hate mongering online to those who enjoy the content. This not only doesn't have the intended effect but actually makes more people consume this content out of spite.
This does baffle me, but I do understand it, because saying that this approach has no reasonable thought behind it, is to take from this people their humanity, something both fans and haters of Rowling have done, placing her on a pedestal of love or hate.
But clearly, I have overlooked something haven't I? The Money! Every dime you pay for this game, a part of it will go to Rowling, and we know what she supports. So pirate the game maybe.... you can guess the answer can't you.
Firstly pirating will take away money from Rowling but as well the millions of people who have worked or invested in this, and of you don't feel bad for them, fine, but remember if they can't earn from you, eventually they will stop caring about you, and start pandering to the rest... you know why that's problematic.
Look here is the thing, it is an inevitability that Rowling remains exactly as rich as she is and continues to grow richer, if you are conflicted about this, my advice is choose your battles, don't try to fight the inevitable, win the way you can, enjoy what you can, and when I say choose your battles that includes your mental health, if hp is ruined beyond repair for you, then choose yourself, no one should be more important than you for yourself.
And my heart goes out to all those who have been harassed for playing this, goddammit there is a website where you can find which streamer has played "that wizard game" and if you think that will be used for anything but to harass random people, allow me to introduce you to the internet, you must have heard of it.
And if you are one of them who have harassed people for this, get out there, touch grass mate, and... if it matters to you, I wrote this because I had a break point, when I saw what I consider to be one of the most wholesome channels girlfriend reviews harassed to the point that the girlfriend cried, I am sorry, there isn't a world where you can convince me that is good, that and I love the game, think of that how you will.
Also this needs to be said, if you don't morally agree with this game still, or don't like it for some other reason and choose not to play it, I respect you, more people need to put their money where their mouth is and you have done it, but never never try to bully or Shame others into agreeing with you.
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