Downvote me all you want, but I have to complain. Most bad things in the series would never happen— especially to Harry— if people just talked, explained, or defended themselves like human beings.
Downvote me all you want, but I have to complain. Most bad things in the series would never happen— especially to Harry— if people just talked, explained, or defended themselves like human beings.
And it really irks me a lot.
Update: Man, I have gotten tons of great responses here and a lot of activity. The comments section turned out way better than Reddit. Thank you all! <3
I thought it was all so far fetched that they just kept on allowing obviously evil people, people who were opposed to the very ideals of the school, continue with their plots unchallenged. Then 2020 rolled around and I was like "oh... Well this feels familiar".
This one bothered me pretty early. But I don't feel like the context given in the Harry Potter series would allow for anything like the corruption we see in real-life politics. For one, a couple people are professors of Hogwarts for power, but most are in it because they care about their jobs. There's no reason nobody stood up to Dolores— all students and professors hated her (except her new toady Filch, and maybe only a few Slytherin after she offered them power?) and Dolores was exerting power over the school that she simply didn't have. Any one of them could have just effed her up anytime for her literal, no joke Nazi rules and her torture. Let alone a full disgruntled school.
Examples? You can't go on a rant and then not give examples.
Sirius' death is a pretty obvious example
Hey look, there it is again in the one I’m at now. Hermoine to Potter: “What’s wrong with your hand?” Potter: “Nothing.” (This was the Dolores torture). Hermoine actually finds out, which is refreshing. "You've got to tell Dumbledore." Harry: "No. Dumbledore's got enough on his mind right now." Freaking stupid, Harry.
This “is anything happening?” “No, nothing.” exchange with Potter is constant in this series.
Dude the ball tops of my thigh bones were literally sliding off the bones (they failed to fuse for me) in middle school. I was limping and would have insane attacks if pain when they moved a fraction of a millimeter.
Parents, teachers, friends: what's wrong? Me: nothing
Kids hiding bad things is the most real part.
Dumbledore thought Harry was a Horcrux mate, he was avoiding him since the start of the year.
I couldn't finish book 6 because there was too much of harry whining in capslock for no appreciable reason, and I remember skipping over a lot of scenes with his uncle for the exact reasons OP highlights.
He had PTSD, he watched a kid get murdered and nearly got murdered!
I would like to highlight Harry's character development throughout the series. Although he made several questionable choices in GOF, OOF, and HBP, we should consider that he is a teenager throughout most of the series. Teenagers, umm, well, aren't great decision-makers. As a teenager, I mostly acted mainly on impulse instead of rational thinking.
And talking about individuals defending themselves, not all perspectives find a receptive audience. A perfect example is in OOF, when Dumbledore testifies before the Minister of Magic about Voldemort's return. His statements are met with scepticism and disbelief, mirroring a similar experience Harry had trying to convince others at Hogwarts.
If you want to share counter-examples, I'd be happy to hear them.
Nobody ever explained anything more than the likes of "Voldemort's back! You have to believe me!" If anyone actually gave account or explained anything at all, the good guys would have a lot more allies than they do. Hell, actually talking is how they convinced a bunch of people to let Harry teach them dark arts defense in Order of the Phoenix. It seems that actually talking is how every good event happens, and that not talking is how every bad event happens.
I call it "plot by stupid" but TV tropes calls it idiot plot. https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/IdiotPlot
Tbh, it's always kinda confused me why hp got such acclaim. They're decent books! I enjoyed reading them several times. However, I wouldn't call them hallmarks of fiction or anything.
Yep! It's basically a form of bad writing.
There's something called an idiot plot, where the plot only works because the characters are idiots. If they just did the obviously correct thing, the tension would resolve too quickly.
It's a much harder task to create drama and tension from believable, likable, sensible, consistent characters. If your characters just CAPSLOCK ANGST DRAMA in every situation, it's way easier to keep tension. Annoying, badly written tension.
As a Robin Hobb fan I am highly offended by this comment
I felt the same way by the end of the series.
What bothered me even more was the number of situations that could have been solved with a cell phone or computer.
Like the world-building is absolutely busted. They even have these big-ass libraries and put all this emphasis on learning, but they haven't even started to digitize.
Never once saw a middle-school or teenaged student in a standard math or science class. Weasley's dad was the only one that even thought "muggle stuff" was interesting, but he understood about as well as Ariel understood forks.
Bunch of illiterate magic-dependent isolationists that can't do math or use Google Search. Dumbledore would shit a brick if he found out Hogwarts was on Google Earth that whole time.
The books are set between 1980 and 1998.
I wonder how old Mr Poopy is? lol.
I see the joke, but honestly I could only tell be rereading the third paragraph. The rest sounds authentic.
It's one way to increase engagement on Lemmy lol.
Harry Potter happened before Google even existed. Google Earth would probably just look like a mundane splotch and people would look at it and suddenly remember they left the oven on. They learn their basic studies before they turn 11 and go to Hogwarts.
You have to be joking, right?
I'm not a fan of the series, and I haven't even read or watched it.
I do remember some "flying car" scene, which I'm guessing was flying by magic. But the model looked like from the 1950's.
So if the series happened in that era, there was no "digitizing books" happening anywhere.
Edit: I just read your whole comment. Yeah, you're joking. Funny!
Ya' know, maybe voldemort would have maybe been able to take over at least one high school if he realised he could owl-mail a pipe bomb instead of all these cartoonish ritual shit.
EDIT: Or just portkey two subcritical halves of an enriched uranium weapon from two seperate places into destinations right next to each other so it forms one supercritical mass when they arrive. Where to get the uranium? Transfigure it of course.
You know what, just get ron's creepy manrat pet to transfigure the whole thing on site. For bonus kek don't tell him about the explosion that usually follows.
That issue is common in literature (my spouse and I call it "Shakespeare's Disease"), as it gives a simple excuse for plot to happen.
Happens in a lot of media unfortunately
Can you think of a series where this wasnt at least partially true?
There are a few gems here and there. Avatar: The last Airbender is one of those, Star Wars Andor is another.
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Yeah, there are a lot of movies and shows where people talk like human beings. Hell, as a writer, nobody in my novels holds the idiot ball nor fails to talk like a normal person, just because that would be convenient for the plot to move along.
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It wouldn't be a young adult story if everyone made wise, well thought out decisions.
I would also like to add that my counterpart post and comments on Reddit have a ton of downvotes, because the people there are freaking reactionary.
But also remember it is fiction and fiction for kids into teenagers. Don't take it too seriously.
That is a terrible argument every time it is brought up. OP clearly likes Harry Potter enough to wanting to immerse themselves into the story, but are stopped short by what they perceive as inconsistencies or contrivances.
We have media, even ones aimed at kids, that suffer less to not at all from those. We should not excuse bad writing. You can still like something badly written. I like Tron: Legacy, I will die on the hill that it is a great movie. But it is not a perfect movie. It still has flaws. I'm not making excuses that it is built on a movie with even worse plot holes. I accept that it is flawed, but I like it just the same.
Well-said, and I make this argument all the time.
Steven Universe is a show for kids (and everyone). Nobody in that entire show's running time fails to talk like a normal person would or "holds the idiot ball". Everyone is smart and communicative, and the show respects its audience a ton. Avatar: TLA is in the same boat, and that's for kids too (and also everyone).
It's only a children's card game!
I say this with as much respect as possible -- which is very little (if I am honest) -- but do you not understand how fiction works?
If characters in a story -- any story -- reacted how most people would it would be BORING AS FUCK.
The entire point of heroes, or protagonists, or whatever they are called, is that they don't react like normal people would.
If they did they wouldn't be heroes. And then we wouldn't have a story.
If Romeo and Juliet had behaved like sensible adults then no one would ever have heard of them because they would have waited until they were grown up and then run away together. But that wouldn't have made a good story.
If Luke Skywalker had any fucking sense he would have stayed home and not got involved. But then he wouldn't have been a hero. Also he'd have been killed by The Empire. But that's beside the point.
Anyway.
- You don't have any imagination
- Why the hell are you attributing your claim to heroes specifically? What does that have to do with anything?
- Man have you not seen a lot of fiction. People react realistically in a ton of them all the time, including kids shows like Avatar: TLA and Steven Universe
- My novel has people reacting realistically the entire way through, and it's a science fantasy
- Luke Skywalker acted realistically. He wanted to leave and join the fucking resistance like his friends. Just like a lot of real-life people would, especially the oppressed. Hell, how many people did 9/11 cause to join the military? Hell, how many people join the military without having suffered tragedy?
1 -- I have a surprising amount of imagination. More than I need, to be honest. 2 -- Because villains CLEARLY don't react to events with the reactions of "normal, sensible people". If villains reacted with common sense, then they wouldn't try to blow up the fucking world every two minutes. They would talk it through. They would sit down with the good guys, or go to therapy. 3 -- See 1, but substitute "fiction" for "imagination" 4 -- Good for you. I am sure your parents are very proud of you. Unless you're an orphan, then I apologise for bringing up your parents. 5 -- Luke wanted to join The Empire, not the resistance. What do you think "Transmit my application to the academy" meant? He was signing up to be a good little fascist just like all the other fascists.