The core appealing thing about the setting -- the Secrecy Statute, the veil they hide behind from Muggles -- is an atrocity Wiping Muggles' memories without their consent is an atrocity Withholding healing magic that could save millions of lives right now is an atrocity
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Replying to @arthur_affect @BootlegGirl
If the good guys seriously gave a shit about the values they professed -- that the lives of wizards and Muggles are equally valuable, that no one has the right to act better than someone else because they have powers -- then Harry should've torn the veil down by the epilogue
2 replies 7 retweets 87 likes -
Replying to @arthur_affect @BootlegGirl
But he didn't Even though that's the most obvious thing that needs to happen just from a storytelling POV, to signify the world changing It's just a dropped thread, same as how we never hear a single word about what happened with the house-elves
1 reply 5 retweets 70 likes -
Replying to @arthur_affect @BootlegGirl
There's SO MUCH of this shit -- What's the deal with using soul-sucking demons as prison guards? Hey, doesn't Griphook actually have a pretty good argument that the Sword of Gryffindor is stolen property from the Goblins? Why DON'T werewolves and vampires and giants have rights?
1 reply 6 retweets 89 likes -
Replying to @arthur_affect @BootlegGirl
And it's used as window dressing, like to be fair it sucks you in with this very atmospheric sense of apocalyptic doom Everything is fucked, the world is built on rotten foundations, the sins of the past call for a reckoning And then it all just... goes away
2 replies 4 retweets 63 likes -
Replying to @arthur_affect @BootlegGirl
Not only does the epilogue never mention how any of this gets resolved -- gotta give the fanfic writers something to write -- it doesn't even mention THAT it gets resolved No non-human students waiting at the platform to get into Hogwarts, no big changes to the status quo
2 replies 5 retweets 56 likes -
Replying to @arthur_affect @BootlegGirl
Like hey I'll give Rowling credit for this -- she stumbled on ideas that are extremely compelling, even revolutionary, for young minds But because she didn't know what she was doing she didn't follow through
1 reply 7 retweets 66 likes -
Replying to @arthur_affect @BootlegGirl
Take the Dementors The Dementors are an atrocity, impossible to justify, as close to pure evil as can physically exist If it's true that Azkaban cannot function without Dementors, then Azkaban must fall If the Ministry cannot function without Azkaban, the Ministry must fall
3 replies 14 retweets 96 likes -
Replying to @arthur_affect @BootlegGirl
That's an intensely powerful realization As is realizing the Dementors aren't a special kind of prison guard really They're barely even a metaphor They ARE PRISON They represent what a prison IS, the incalculable cruelty of deliberately destroying a human spirit
4 replies 9 retweets 98 likes -
Replying to @arthur_affect @BootlegGirl
Azkaban is an incredibly powerful symbolic argument for prison abolition, the moral urgency of it If you could look into a prison as it exists right now and see the dark hooded shapes gleefully, greedily sucking the joy and hope out of human souls, funded by our tax dollars
2 replies 16 retweets 90 likes
And yet, as powerful a metaphor as this is once you get it, a damningly high percentage of Harry Potter fans never did get it Because Rowling, herself, didn't get it She accidentally grabbed onto something and then just let it go again
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Replying to @arthur_affect @BootlegGirl
Yeah it's a big important moment when Dumbledore's prediction comes true and the Dementors turn on the Ministry and everyone realizes Azkaban was wrong etc etc But then... what happens next? We never find out
1 reply 3 retweets 71 likes -
Replying to @arthur_affect @BootlegGirl
Azkaban is this ancient institution in their world and we never hear about it being reformed or replaced or whatever The closest to a fan consensus on it -- since wizard cops still exist since Future Harry is one -- is that Azkaban still exists but is okay now
1 reply 3 retweets 61 likes - Show replies
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