Rules: explain why
Ready player one.
That has to be one of the cringiest movies I’ve seen, is tries so hard, too hard with it’s “WE LOVE YOU NERD, YOU’RE SO COOL FOR PLAYING GAMES AND GETTING THIS 80S REFERENCE” message and the whole “corporation bad, the people good” narrative seems written for toddlers… The fan service feels cheap and adds nothing to the story.
Finally, they trying to make the people believe that very attractive girl with a barely visible red tint spot on her face is “ugly”… Like wtf?
Yet it received decent reviews plus being one of the most successful movies of that year.
Harry Potter.
Before JK went mask off, I had dropped the books about half way though for being increasing annoyed with how they ended. Never any change to the status quo except Harry actually regressing in character development. I watched the first movie, but that was around when I dropped the books and never looked back.
I was able to just quietly keep my opinions to myself, but with with JK becoming increasing unhinged with both her tweets and books, I haven’t felt the need to be polite with the “separate the art from the artists” types. Especially when they just assume that you’re a fan if you don’t correct them.
I’m just gonna hop on to say that there is zero world building in Harry Potter. I know that’s because it was written for a youngish audience, but like the only things that are ever built on are used directly for the story in that book, then mostly left alone.
No one comes back years later with a Time Turner and wrecks havoc, for instance.
The few comparisons to Tolkien I’ve heard of her works are so unbelievably unfounded and off base.
Not to mention she’s a TERF
I’m just gonna leave Shaun’s review here.
Harry Potter unintentionally made a whole subgenre of fiction that could be called “Harry Potter, but fixed”. Little Witch Academia’s workers union episode was great and Reign of the Seven Spellblades is a mid, but still fun anime that seemingly takes aim at opposing Harry Potter and JK(specifically, her anti-trans shit) at every turn. I haven’t read it, but Shaun seems to think that The Hog Father is a direct reaction to the house elf shit in HP.
Hogfather as in the Discworld novel? I could have sworn that was older than Harry Potter.
Edit: it is, but surprisingly only one year older than the first Harry Potter book.
I’ll have to relisten to the review.
Sanderson’s third law of magic: Expand what you already have before you add something new.
I haven’t read the books, but liked the movies. This is more of a expression of what I liked than anything else… But while JK turned into a mess, the movies generally were good even though
The first two are okay but the third one in particular is a favorite of mine. It’s less because of Harry Potter and more about just how well it stands as a well made movie. It is darker in the literal sense and movies a lot more away from the magic wonder feeling the former movies had. In particular by adding a horror like element that adds so much more tension then the older ones. When I was a kid it was terrifying how unsettling and discomforting things were made to be.
And despite it being the movie which used the never-seen-after completely world breaking time turners, it does an amazing job actually using them.There are all these things that go wrong, but just in the right way that the time loop works out without actually changing the first iteration we saw. The books probably do it the same way, but as a visual adaptation it’s right on the mark, down to the sense of time running out when the time travel shenanigans happen.
Then again, I’m weak for “good feelings” making a difference and similar, so the protection spell that chases the Dementors away at the crucial moments sure makes me giddy. So it’s a thematic bullseye for me, despite how much emotional discomfort the movie played with to get there.
JK Rowling holds a very common position amongst older feminists and really doesn’t deserve the constant rape threats for funding women’s refuges. I’m pushing back on the party line here, and no, I don’t believe trans people deserve to be killed, or any bullshit like that. I promise to hide them in my non-existent attic if it comes to that.
Edit: the books did get progressively worse after the third or possibly fourth one, though, and the films aren’t very good.
Her or her friends are running those charities. It’s a way to hide money from tax collectors.
Looking back with adult eyes, her books push a very pro-Class based society. That’s why nothing ever changes.
Edit: The books got progressively worse because JK wrangled more and more control away from her editor.
I’m not sure about the ownership of foundations, charitable funds and the like; some degree of corruption wouldn’t surprise me unfortunately.
I will say that she won’t have been deliberately pushing class-stratification given her socioeconomic background, however the whole setting is heavily influenced by Victorian-era children’s novels about boarding school adventures which were absolutely saturated with classism.
They surely needed a team of editors towards the end.
JK was never poor. Her “homelessness” was couch surfing between friend’s houses in Edinburgh.
If she didn’t approve of the class system, then why was the sorting hat never wrong? Having kids switch houses between school years would have been an easy to to signal character development for a younger audience. Her class system is depicted as shitty, but something you just have to accept as true and deal with to become stronger. Look at how they treat the one character to oppose slavery. Even our MC, who’s an outsider to the wizard world thinks it’s weird to be opposed to slavery.
Well, you’ve clearly made your mind up.
Right back at you.
I just did a poo.
How old were you when you started reading them?