I feel avenged with every "HP is bad" wave. Because I have no respect for JK's writing in the later books and it boiled my blood to see how fanfiction added layers to her characters that never were hinted at in the original material. She literally had people writing for her. For free - ThreadSky | a Reddit-style client for Bluesky

rickleone.bsky.social • 32 days ago

I feel avenged with every "HP is bad" wave. Because I have no respect for JK's writing in the later books and it boiled my blood to see how fanfiction added layers to her characters that never were hinted at in the original material.
She literally had people writing for her. For free

Comments

ttlyovrit.bsky.social•31 days ago

My God, she desperately needed a competent editor in those later books. What absolutely turgid tripe! Whoever edited The Philosophers Stone deserves a medal. And all the credit/money. AND they're probably a FAR nicer person!

teawithsoy.bsky.social•31 days ago

She’s a bad writer. If she was a decent person I might think she was a female Dan Brown and harmless but serious… her books are so badly written! Why do I feel alone in noticing this? The empress has no clothes!

rickleone.bsky.social•31 days ago

I imagine there's a "let's trace family trees" chapter in the first draft.

lousie147.bsky.social•31 days ago

I mean they literally do that in one of the later books

rickleone.bsky.social•31 days ago

And in the Fantastic Beasts movies. She couldn't help herself to explain magic with eugenics like she was Anne Rice or Marion Zimmer-Bradley

teawithsoy.bsky.social•31 days ago

Excellent point. Never read HP let alone HP fan fiction but I do think ppl would be better to find some decent writing to start with

rickleone.bsky.social•31 days ago

It came at the right time. The early books could stay in the children's section of libraries but the narrator doesn't talk down the reader, right CS Lewis often does, or doesn't get into a genre identity crisis like Philip Pullman does.

rickleone.bsky.social•32 days ago

Bad writing as "Snape was a good guy even if he bullied his students for years and his contribution to the defeat of Voldemort is opinable at best", and "let's make Harry win thanks to ANOTHER catch in the wand magic system", and "we need to go camp and treasure hunt in the middle of a civil war."

animatewithdermot.bsky.social•32 days ago

Christ, that interminable shite in the tent. How long did that go on for? It was like 'Waiting for Godot', but even more meaningless.

rickleone.bsky.social•31 days ago

She should have just set even the last book at the school. She didn't have the skills to completely change the formula so late in the game

cobaltcerberus.bsky.social•32 days ago

I reminder watching a video essay about how Harry potter was bought and sold by schoolastic, not for it's story and writing, but for it's marketability. How from the start, it was pushed as the next big thing with its selection of merchandise

rickleone.bsky.social•32 days ago

Yeah, it used an aesthetic (the magical British boarding school) much more socially acceptable than full sci-fi or high fantasy. Also the first four books (the 4rth is a giant plothole but still charming) were actually good children's books BC Rowling still listened to her editor.

teeklin.bsky.social•32 days ago

And because at that point there was still a satisfying resolution to the story possible

She lays out a fucked up society of slave owning fascists and plops a normal kid with a good heart in there and you think, "oh he's going to point out these flaws and overthrow this crappy system!"

thejefty.bsky.social•32 days ago

Lots of problems with the books, but I really don't think the average kid reading HP back in the day thought it was going to be about overthrowing the system.

natusm.bsky.social•31 days ago

Should have been.

manufacturedtulpa.bsky.social•31 days ago

i only saw some of the first harry potter movies but even then i was extremely put off by the shameless capitalist vibe the whole thing had. the characters all fawning over in-universe consumer products with modern marketing all ready to go for selling irl to children. disgusting

rickleone.bsky.social•31 days ago

Yeah, I was mostly put off by how dumb most of the wizard merch was (sentient chocolate, woo-hoo) and I was yelling "get to the damn plot!", while reading, then realized with that YT video how it was a ploy for selling that crap in the real world.

dissembly.bsky.social•31 days ago

Was that the Verily Bitchie video? Thats was good, it made such a clear case. I remember the whole "its making kids interested in books!" fuss that was made and it didnt occur to me until seeing that video that this was a marketing strategy

raisoue.bsky.social•31 days ago

Wouldn't have to be @verilybitchie.bsky.social's vid, would it?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UBftW7FzOVI

raisoue.bsky.social•31 days ago

Hermione becomes president, and slavery still stays a thing.

rickleone.bsky.social•31 days ago

The author doesn't bother to solve that huge issue even off-screen

raisoue.bsky.social•31 days ago

I'm not convinced the author knows why slavery is bad, just that it's a thing people that are not her are upset about.

stormwooten.bsky.social•31 days ago

I'm down to read any fanfic where Harry is a badass and doesn't win from sheer dumb luck.

rickleone.bsky.social•31 days ago

"I shoved Malfoy very hard and now the cursed wand thinks I'm its master."

stormwooten.bsky.social•31 days ago

Ugh. So unsatisfying.

profjabbott.bsky.social•31 days ago

I always felt she needed an editor who would have cut over a 1/3 of the length

rickleone.bsky.social•31 days ago

And leave ourselves without the "Ron wants to play the most broken sport ever because I don't know what else to do with this dead weight character" subplot? You Pharisee.

listendana.bsky.social•31 days ago

Even before the reveal of JKR's nature there was such a wave of people that compared each and every real life event to something in HP. The "Read another book" movement was in full force, and even back then I agreed.

listendana.bsky.social•31 days ago

If your magic system is mostly component-free except for potions, why do you even *need* a school? Make a spreadsheet.

rickleone.bsky.social•31 days ago

I bet that there are plenty of forum posts out there explaining in excruciating detail how the magic system in HP is actually more difficult than just yelling one of two words in Latin until you get the accent right.

You know, doing the work of the author.

listendana.bsky.social•31 days ago

And how if you're really good (No, we won't explain how) you don't even need to do that much.

mrjess.bsky.social•31 days ago

absolutely king

hanabikun.bsky.social•32 days ago

I think it was the last book for me that I got really mad. During the random camping trip it was like 6 chapters of Harry or ron (cant remember) whining about stupid shit

rickleone.bsky.social•31 days ago

About him being a dead weight to the group bc he's not competent, nor relevant, nor emotionally supportive and he hasn't been for the past five books bc Rowling isn't that good of a writer

gnocchidokey.bsky.social•31 days ago

that greentext post changed my life fr

harlanquinzel.bsky.social•32 days ago

The epilog to Deathly Hallows was so comically bad

animatewithdermot.bsky.social•32 days ago

You didn't like the bit where Harry grows up to be Keir Starmer? 😁

rickleone.bsky.social•31 days ago

My son, you carry the name of a teacher that bullied me in high school because my dad bullied him and NEVER GOT OVER THAT. He might have had a part in me killing Voldemort for real but the off screen plot is so convoluted that we just trust that he did.

harlanquinzel.bsky.social•31 days ago

When everyone married their elementary school sweethearts and named their kids after other characters I was just like... did a fanfic author win a contest or something?

rickleone.bsky.social•31 days ago

And that's why you don't end your teen drama with a flashforward. It's a lose lose situation. Will they marry the people they dated in tenth grade or some guy they meet much later in life like normal people do but the readers don't know?

uploadingvirus.bsky.social•31 days ago

I liked The Wonder Years ending with Kevin mentioning he married someone else and didn’t see Winnie again until like their high school reunion.

harlanquinzel.bsky.social•31 days ago

!!!

wscotgrey.bsky.social•31 days ago

Don’t look into James Patterson.

rickleone.bsky.social•31 days ago

And don't think about pink elephants.

jakelandau.ca•31 days ago

I'm Jewish, and I remember growing up and realizing what the goblins are stereotyping, and I felt rage. Then I just immediately took notice of shit like everyone telling Hermione she's wrong to oppose slavery, and then crazy things like blatantly racist names of racialized characters.

tathaiora.bsky.social•32 days ago

The rules of the Quidditch made no sense either... You could win the game by catching the Golden Snitch (or whatever)..

roxconn.bsky.social•31 days ago

I mean, with that one the game making no sense was meant to be the joke. The problem was the joke flew over the audience’s head and everyone went “Wow, cool wizard sport!”

rickleone.bsky.social•31 days ago

I dunno, Harry took the tournament pretty seriously, and there was a big fanfare about him being a natural with the most relevant role, until even Rowling couldn't bother with this broken game and wrote it away every single book.

monstrousrick.bsky.social•32 days ago

I never could finish Order of the Phoenix, she started writing sleeping pills instead of books after a certain point

rickleone.bsky.social•32 days ago

Yeah, I tried to read them again as I reread the first four, and I went to McGonagall NOT explaining to Harry the deal with the new teacher and I said, "Oh, THIS SHIT", and dropped the book in disgust.

waylonirvine.bsky.social•31 days ago

that was turning point for me as well

i recall buying and reading the last book when it came out as fast as possible, not because i was enjoying it, but because i just wanted to be done with it

luisin2025.bsky.social•32 days ago

The amount of people wishing/writing Malfoy getting a redemption arc are in for a rude awakening when they go back and realize he's nowhere near relevant enough to warrant one to begin with. Zuko he isn't.

rickleone.bsky.social•31 days ago

Holy shit you said it! He just discovered that working for magical Hitler wasn't as funny as spewing fictional slurs.
Congrats you're almost a normal person!

luisin2025.bsky.social•31 days ago

That one YT video that said Malfoy's dad was more of a rival to Harry than Malfoy really highlighted one of the many, many, MANY reasons HP is boneless as shit. The fuckin terf couldn't even make a good recurring opp.

roxconn.bsky.social•31 days ago

And while we’re at it, Draco and Hermione never made any goddamn sense as a ship. There was no kindling of chemistry in their relationship. They just hated each other

rickleone.bsky.social•31 days ago

The fan writers had extremely slim picks and they had to make up stuff out of nothing and JK got the credit. "What an interesting character Malfoy!", no he isn't. You just read a lot of fanfiction about him but book Malfoy is flat as a cardboard

thepuppetforge.bsky.social•32 days ago

Star Wars? Same deal.

orangeraspberry.bsky.social•31 days ago

I have never liked jk or her works and I'm just so proud of younger me catching those bad vibes and avoiding that shit entirely lmao