The Most Annoying People Are People Who Don't Understand Storytelling. They Be Like "oooo How Convenient

Lol, good stuff.

So, there was a pretty big protest today, here was my contribution.

Quick reminder that it's always morally correct to punch nazis.

people are too comfortable bullying people online and then acting cool about it have you noticed that. i dislike it 👎 thumbs down 👎

Midnight Pals: Consequences

[at JK Rowling's Scottish castle] JK Rowling's agent: hey joanne it's me your agent Agent: Lydia Agent: i haven't appeared in a while so readers might not remember me Agent: i am a midnight pals totally original character, do not steal

Agent: so how you been doing? working on a new book? JK Rowling: actually i've been bussssy agent: oh yeah? with the transphobia? Rowling: with the transssphobia, yesss Rowling: itsss like a full time job

Rowling: i started an international tranvestigation into an Algerian boxer agent: agent: ah ok um agent: any particular reason why? Rowling: to get her killed agent: ok um agent: again, any particular reason why?

Rowling: anyway, since this Algerian boxer situation went down Rowling: I've been waiting here, right next to this cobweb-strewn telephone, for the Olympic committee to call me up with an apology Rowling: Rowling: Rowling: [checking watch] Rowling:

agent: so about this whole Algerian boxer situation agent: it turns out she's suing you Rowling: that can't be right Rowling: i'm JK Rowling Rowling: i sue PEOPLE Rowling: people don't sue me

agent: no no it turns out that the legal system works both ways Rowling: what? agent: yeah i know i was surprised too Rowling: i'm pretty sure that's not how it works Rowling: check it again agent: I've already checked it 3 times Rowling: CHECK IT AGAIN

Rowling: ssso she think she can sue me for cyberharrassment huh? Rowling: get my lawyer on the phone! the best lawyer money can buy! agent: do you mean Allison bailey again Rowling: NO i want to win this time

Rowling: don't worry i have a full proof plan to win in court! Rowling: i'm going to challenge the judge to point to a specific tweet where i called Imane Khelif a man

Rowling: if you look carefully, you'll notice i never once use the word man agent: what about that gigantic banner currently flying from the ramparts of your Scottish castle Rowling: that's a typo

eight episodes is not a full season of television

Dude I forgot to shoutout the Goldbergs they’re another chaotic family I love!

My fave chaotic fictional families:)

hold up why is the beatles’ music actually fire

"I know JK Rowing is a terrible person but her books are so good-"

You sure about that?

I mean, just for a start, have you taken a good look at her fantasy creatures lately? A whole bunch of them are straight-up based on malicious and dehumanizing stereotypes about actual people.

Remember the werewolves? And being a werewolf was made into a kind of metaphor for having AIDS?

And you know how AIDS was first associated with gay men? And how conservatives back in the day were claiming gay men were preying on children in order to convert them to gayness?

Remember how Fenrir Greyback preyed on children in particular? Yeah, she put that subtext in there. She was an adult in the 90's. She knew damn well what she was doing.

Remember the house elves? Remember how most of them loved to serve and needed to have a home and a master or else they just wouldn't know what to do with themselves?

Did you know that's literally what slavers in the American South said about the Black people they kept enslaved? Go look up the happy slave myth.

Do I even need to get into the goblins and the antisemitic tropes they're based on? No, folkloric goblins were not gold-hoarding bankers waiting for their chance to stab humanity in the back.

"But the characters are so good!"

Are you kidding me?

Most of her characters are pretty one-dimensional, including Harry. Her idea of making a morally complicated character is giving a tragic past to a bully. Numerous characters are little more than stereotypes. (Looking at Fleur right now.) Literally anybody, including you, can easily make dozens of characters just as good, if not better. (It doesn't exactly take a lot of character designing skill to go, "hey, actually, having a sad backstory doesn't make it okay to bully children" or "hey, maybe I should not base a character on the first stereotype that pops into my head.")

"But the rest of the worldbuilding!"

Sorry, but her worldbuilding is just as basic as her characters. Magical castles and secret passages are stock tropes. Magical people who keep their true nature secret from humanity is the premise of pretty much every White Wolf TTRPG. Most of her fantasy creatures are just common European fairy tale and folklore creatures with shitty stereotypes projected onto them.

I'm not saying "basic worldbuilding bad." I'm saying, you could do just as good, if not better, with minimal effort.

Also there's her magical bioessentialism, where only Harry's abusive blood relatives could provide him with supernatural protection from Voldemort. Rowling thus effectively declared that non-biological family isn't quite real family, and that abusive biofamily can give you some essential thing that a loving, supportive family that isn't related to you just can't.

The Hogwarts houses are one of the most insidious elements of her worldbuilding. The idea of being sorted gives you a little dopamine hit because wow now you have a li'l niche where you belong!

But the actual function of the houses and sorting system and the House Cup is teaching children to see each other as rivals, and ensure that the most toxic views of the upper class get passed on to every new batch of kids sorted into Slytherin.

Hogwarts effectively prepares children for a dystopia where magic serves to distract its citizens from how nightmarishly awful it is. Economic inequality is so bad that people like Arthur and Molly Weasley can barely afford to put their kids through school, casual sadism is just an accepted norm in everyday society, and non-humans are second class citizens. Rowling sorta acts like she thinks this is a bad thing with certain lines she gave to Dumbledore, but in the end, her special boy protagonist becomes an auror; IE, a defender of the status quo. So.

If you've never seen it, Lily Simpson's video goes into even more detail on how the worldbuilding of Harry Potter is actually incredibly fucked up, and how it betrays small-minded attitudes on Rowling's part. There's no separating the art from this artist, because Rowling's rotten values pour out of nearly every page.

Yes, there are many things in Harry Potter that evoke feelings and inspire people, but there's absolutely nothing in it that this series has a monopoly on. You can find those same experiences in much, much better media.

saw my first cybertruck in the wild today and immediately burst into laughter