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?
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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 -
Replying to @arthur_affect @BootlegGirl
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
1 reply 9 retweets 77 likes -
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
They replaced the magical soul-sucking COs with regular human ones and that means it's all hunky-dory now Azkaban is no longer a metaphor, it's just a regular prison like real world prisons, which, JK Rowling assumes, must be fine
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Replying to @arthur_affect @BootlegGirl
The whole ending is like this, this is just one facet of it The good guys killed the one big bad guy Therefore, everything must be fine It's infuriating
2 replies 5 retweets 72 likes -
Replying to @arthur_affect @BootlegGirl
For most of us raised in our current system imagining a world where we have peace and safety without cops and jails is very difficult Whether in a realistic world or a fantasy one I don't expect a children's book to answer these questions
1 reply 4 retweets 66 likes - Show replies
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