J.K. Rowling Is Slowly Destroying The Magic Of Harry Potter
With every new tweet, play, or movie, she manages to taint a perfectly good series.
I am one of many people who can say that "Harry Potter" is my favorite thing in the whole world. I've done it all. I have dressed as many of the characters at events, been to conventions, done trivia, went to the theme park, you name it. Everything about the series feels truly magically.
Well, everything excluding all the outrageous things J.K. Rowling has been saying lately.
When I was 11, the last "Harry Potter" movie came out. I thought it would be the last time I would ever see "Harry Potter" or anything like it again. While it was a sad moment, I knew everything good must come to an end and I was grateful it was a strong ending. Or so I thought.
In 2016, "Harry Potter and the Cursed Child" premiered, which serves as a sequel to all the events that happened in "Harry Potter." Ok. I wouldn't mind seeing a sequel that focused solely on the children of the original "Harry Potter" characters, but that is not what this play does.
I have yet to see it because tickets for said show are hard to come by, but from what I've read, it looks as if "Cursed Child" takes everything that was established in the original series and throws it in the garbage. The whole thing reads as crazy fanfiction, not an extension of one of the greatest series ever written.
And don't even get me started on the "Fantastic Beasts" series.
When I first heard they were making a film based on "Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them" by Newt Scamander, I was genuinely excited. While I was pretty satisfied with how "Harry Potter" ended, there was still so much to learn about the wizarding world in other parts of the world besides England.
The first movie, while a little flawed, was pretty cute and I enjoyed learning about new magical creatures. However, the second movie took a nosedive when it decided to include characters from "Harry Potter." I'm sorry, but I have no clue what catching Grindelwald has to do with Fantastic Beasts?
The movie was just an opportunity for J.K. Rowling to contradict everything she has said in the past. She often loves to serve fans with random tidbits of information about characters from the original series. One of these tidbits was when she revealed that Dumbledore was gay and in love with Grindelwald.
Now, knowing that, I was quite interested when I heard Grindelwald was going to be in the new series. I was excited to see how they would handle his romantic relationship with Dumbledore. But I came to find out they aren't going to address it at all. Another stab in the gut was when she added in the character of Nagini and that she is a Maledictus. Huh?
I was perfectly fine not knowing that.
These are not the only instances of J.K. Rowling dropping bombshells about established "Harry Potter" characters. She constantly takes to Twitter to drop some unknown fact about random characters that we never asked for. A lot of these revelations typically come about whenever someone calls her out for the lack of diversity in "Harry Potter," to which J.K.'s response is almost always to name some insignificant character and claim they were a minority.
It is no secret that there is a serious lack of diversity in the "Harry Potter" books. But they are in the past. There is nothing she can do to fix that now. Author of "Percy Jackson and the Olympians," Rick Riordan, was in the same boat as her when it came to not having a diverse cast of characters in his books. However, instead of making up something about some character to save face, he just acknowledged the lack of diversity in his previous books and decided to make a constant effort to include minorities in his future books. Take notes, Rowling.
While "Harry Potter" will forever remain one of my favorite things of all time, my love for it begins with "The Sorcerer's Stone" and ends with "The Deathly Hallows." While I used to admire J.K. Rowling for taking nothing and turning it into something, the way she has been conducting herself and her characters is unsettling. Just learn to leave well enough alone.
