My girlfriend is trans and grew up loving Harry Potter so it feels wrong to ask her to give up something she loves because the creator is a traitor to her fans.
Our compromise is to just buy Harry Potter stuff used so the profits don’t go back to JKR. I’ve been eyeing the Hogwarts Express train set for our son on eBay for that reason.
Oooo or The Sandman Series. Plenty of gay, trans, non-binary and in general just ambiguouslt gendered characters in that. Really just a completelt diverse ser of characters. Love it so much
The only graphic novel I read. I need to find the rest for my collection. I regret not getting them all when I could.
My favorite book of his is Neverwhere, though.
I fully expect his representation to get better as well. He seems to have done a lot of research to make sure to write the ace character well and realistically and has done a good job. Probably didn't have much prior contact with lgbtq+ peeps and wants to make sure he depicts his characters well.
Learning that he is a Mormon made me really torn on him but at least he is a queer ally.
Small gods is a good starting place. It’s an in universe self contained story that will give you an idea of the author, and probably the best satirical take on organized religion I’ve ever read.
And you don’t have to know anything about the world building going in, with is true for most disc world books except maybe “the light fantastic” only because it’s a direct sequel to the first book.
I want to second "Small Gods", but also add "Mort" and "Guards! Guards!" to the list of best books to start with. First in their sub-series meaning you don't have to know allot going in, and they have some of the most memorable and recognizable moments, quotes, and characters.
"Eric" is a nice light read too, that's how I got started with Terry Pratchett. I haven't gotten around to the "Tiffany Aching" books, but I hear allot of good about them.
Card didn't go off the rails he just said what he already believed out loud. Fuck him and all. But I was not the least bit surprised. He is a practicing mormon and direct descendent of Bringham Young. Hopefully Sanderson has broke away from some of the toxic LDS shit, but he does teach at BYU. I know not all LDS members are all in on the doctorine. But overall they are pretty harsh on any non-hetero "relations."
I thought I had bought a used copy of Ender's Game but it wasn't so I donated the same amount to a Trans charity that was recommended by Colin Mochrie (he has a Trans daughter).
You have to stop a goblin uprising. The goblins are the same as in the movies and are a caricature of Jewish people. It may not be transphobic like the books but it's fascist as hell.
Also p sure I’d read an article that one of the main writers or executives has a very problematic political history and had an incredible amount of input into the story…
That's a great way to go about it. I'll always love Harry Potter, it has a special place in my heart, but I dont want any of my money going to terf rowling anymore. We should still be able to enjoy Harry Potter and not let her ruin it for us
You can love a piece of media and still be critical of it and acknowledge the parts of it that you don't approve of. Like you can love the movie Breakfast at Tiffany's and still acknowledge and openly criticize the horrible racist stereotype of an east Asian person portrayed by a white person
Just a few tweaks and the elves thing would have been easier to show it as a satire/critique of workoholic culture. Especially with Winky who doesn't know what to do with her life when she gets fired. I've heard of retired people feeling restless because all they know is to work. But no, Joanne had to make it weird.
At least /r/linkedinlunatics is there to document the hustle and grind culture.
Yes, there were slaves via house-elves. What this shows is that societies have a lot of shit that is normalized, and sometimes no one sees the problem until someone points it out. Hermione was upset right away, and she started the rally to free the elves. And she came up against the very real issue of the oppressed sometimes being so used to it that the find some comfort in it. You got these other good guys genuinely thinking they’re doing good because of it, remaining blind to how they’re part of the problem, and struggling to accept their part in it when it’s pointed out. That doesn’t mean it’s not still a problem though, but it does show how, even today, when we think we’re so progressive, we may very well be participating in things normal to us that we will realize one day is a problem, and maybe, just maybe, we should be looking more critically at what we’re doing already.
Good guys can do bad things and still be good guys. Bad guys can do good things, or even have genuinely good intentions (Thanos is a huge one here), but still be bad guys. The world isn’t black and white.
This is what I do. Whatever it costs, that amount also goes to the Trevor Project. It also means that HP stuff is effectively twice the cost, so that's a good personal deterrent.
Honestly, it's amazing how much Harry Potter feels like a trans/gay allegory.
Kid grows up in an abusive home because they are different and the family is trying to force them to be something they are not. After kid finds out who they are they struggle with expectations forced on them by society.
For fuck sake, Harry literally grows up in a closet. Also, the more I think about it the more I relized how well/convincing Joanne writes male characters. That her female characters are very shallow as well kind of gives suggestions that she is a closeted, self hating, jellous trans man.
As famous as she is why is she still publishing under male pseudonyms?
I also like to think the more trans people take her work and make it their own might piss her off.
To be fair, it’s not very hard for women to write male characters well because we’re forced to see most stories from the male perspective our entire lives. I’m not sure the way she writes male characters means anything. But I still wouldn’t be surprised if she were a closeted self-loathing trans man.
Yeah, but her female characters are generally flat props than feel like real people. Cho being a big one that comes to mind.
Like, it's not overly sexual, but it has a lot of /r/menwritingwomrn energy.
I really think that, based on comments JKR herself has said, that the books were her own internal world come to life. We get a lot of repression and identity problems she likely didn't even realize she was having. But we also have all of her learned racism, antisemitism, transphobia, and homophobia. I don't accept it as an allegory as it was never intended that way, but I would consider it to be a prime example of the inner workings of a trans person who is unable to come to terms with their identity due to so much propaganda and indoctrination of colonialism and Christianity.
You could buy your son some other books about magical children for him to love instead. Terry Pratchett's Tiffany Aching series (The Wee Free Men, A Hat Full of Sky, etc) is a personal favourite.
Terry Pratchett, Neil Gaiman and Rick Riordan are all great that way.
My kids loved The Hobbit as well for what its worth, and while Tolkien no doubt had some issues, he told off a Nazi publisher for asking him if he had Jewish heritage rather than praise a self-identified theocratic fascist like Rowling did.
I LOVED the Lightning Thief series when I was in grade school, they're absolutely hilarious. Exciting, action-packed comedy, great characters and storyline, plus I learned a ton about Greek mythology along the way. Honestly I feel like it might be a super fun read even now as an adult.
I never personally read Lord of the Rings but my family watched the whole movie series every year around Thanksgiving and they really are great. I'm sure the books are even better.
He just turned 2 today so it’ll be a little while but my girlfriend is super into fantasy books. She’s on a Brandon Sanderson kick right now. She signs all of her books after she finishes them with a note for the next reader and I’m so excited for our son to read them.
okay so, this is a genuine question; if there are so many fantasy options on the table for when your son becomes of age to appreciate and/or read these things himself... why does TERFWizardLadySeries need a look in at all?
It’s up to him if he wants to read it, but I think it’s a good teaching moment if he does. My mom was a huge geek and helped prepare me for stuff like this and I think it helped me a lot in the long run. Plus, his other mom has Harry Potter stuff from her childhood so he’ll probably get curious.
The Young Wizards series by Diane Duane is another great one (look for the new millennium editions on her ebooks direct store!). This is an author who actually listened to people telling her that her portrayal of autism was lacking and she actually fixed it. And it is hands down my favorite concept of magic. Mixes magic and science, sci-fi and fantasy so well.
I'm pre-T, pre-op FtM. And I didn't "grow up" with Harry Potter; I wasn't introduced to the Wizarding world until 2016 when I was in middle school. I loved the books, watched the movies, and was a decently big Potterhead for years. Over time, I still enjoyed the series but wasn't as big into the series when I was first introduced to it. Then, in 2021, I learned about how transphobic JK Rowling is, and that killed off what enjoyment I had for the series. I nowadays find the Harry Potter books a guilty pleasure I only read when I'm bored/don't know what next to read and want to fill in that space with a book. I haven't bought anything Harry Potter in a little over a year (my last Harry Potter purchase was to buy another of Order of the Phoenix, as my old copy was now so worn down that I couldn't possibly read it).
Yeah just buy HP stuff from LGBTQ Etsy sellers for the double whammy of still enjoying the HP community of generally awesome people and not giving profits to she who must not be named. Lol
But seriously though I feel the same, so many millenials blossomed with the HP fandom and the community it gave so it's pretty shitty she's a conservative TERF. I feel like it's fine to take that world away from her and make it how it should be type of thing.
This is how I feel. I love HP stuff. But with being a trans woman and with the creator of that world hating my existence, really put a bad taste in my mouth.
Glad to see someone knowing that unpleasant self-denial is the *trade-off* effect of boycotting and not the *point* of doing it.
Sacrifice without gain is not really sacrifice. It's just hurting yourself.
Wait I'm sorry genuine question as I'm apparently out of the loop...
I know JKR is a terf... what's this about antisemitic stuff?
Neither is excusable of course but the antisemitism is new to me
Edit: disregard I read further into the comments and figured it out. Dang.
Yeah, they're seriously using Nazi blood libel as a plot point, that the goblins (read: Jews) are kidnapping and killing wizarding (read: Christian) children, because they used the goblins as a nasty analogue for Jewish people throughout the series (they even show a Star of David on the floor of Gringotts in the films).
From my understanding the star of david is a permanent feature of the filming location, but almost all other movie sets choose to cover it up so not to create unfortunate connotations or implications. You'd think a movie using specifically greedy goblins in a bank would do the same. The choice not to must have gone through several ppl tho so someone either fucked up or they left it on purpose.
I haven't been following it too closely but when the game was first announced I remember a lot of Jewish people being upset at the depiction of goblins. They use the typical antisemitic depiction and if I remember correctly one of the main plot points is these goblins trying to undermine the wizarding world. again this is just stuff I remember take it with a grain of salt
Which is a shame because in a more introspective story he’d be right to undermine the wizarding world. It’s a racist society that segregated their own world and then further subdivided that said world and placed themselves on top. Why would that someone be the villain trying to destroy that hierarchy?
I mean... She wrote the villain of Fantastic Beasts is trying to stop the holocaust from happening and the protagonists need to stop him.
It's pretty clear what kind of political stance she has when the people trying to destroy a segregated society are the villains.
To be fair, the blood libel they’re talking about is that the player character is a 15 y/o child that got kidnapped by the big bad. As far as I’m aware they aren’t sacrificing random kids for no reason, i.e. goblins aren’t committing blood libel in the traditional sense of stealing babies for ritual sacrifice (someone please let me know if they are).
From Wikipedia:
> Blood libel or ritual murder libel is an antisemitic canard which falsely accuses Jews of murdering Christian boys in order to use their blood in the performance of religious rituals.
In the trailers, they talk about kids (I think from the school but maybe also just the surrounding area) getting kidnapped and it's implied that they're getting killed to fuel the like "dark magic" that's being used by the goblins.
https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/5050/hogwarts-legacy-jk-rowling-wizarding-world-antisemitism-gamergate/
OH SHIT. Okay I was willing to maybe almost kind of nearly give them the benefit of the doubt before that, but not that I know that I cannot deny it. I mean wow. So, the goblins look like that over exaggerated “Jewish” look, they’re greedy shady and run the underground bank, are shitty people, they’re barely considered people at all, now THIS? What the hell do people have against us? More often then not we’re just normal people. Anything weird about us is almost always unrelated to being Jewish.
It was always pretty thin ice to depict the goblins as the only ones being in charge for the money but the loose lore and hints at least depicted this as not a free choice the goblins held. They seemed to be forced into it due to the raging racism of the wizarding world.
Than THIS game happened. They screwed up big time.
The lead designer is anti-social justice and pro-GamerGate as well, which was an alt-right hate movement who are against women, people of color, diversity and over all progressivism in the gaming industry.
I believe he was let go after public outcry, but worked for years on the project. They hired him knowing exactly who he was. In fact, I'd say his hateful views probably enamored him to JKR and her team, who micromanages these game products via their portkey games subsidiary.
Ok so it takes place during a goblin (who use a pretty rasist Jewish design) uprising where goblins didn't want to turned into house elfs and wanted the right to use wands.
Then the goblins started kidnapping kids and doing blood rituals because Joanne can't show how a unchecked system only wants to maintain the status quo at the expense of the minority that exist within it.
Some reasons beyond just JK Rowling being a TERF
The lead designer was [pro GamerGate.](https://www.fanbyte.com/games/news/lead-designer-of-hogwarts-legacy-used-to-be-an-anti-social-justice-youtuber/)
The plot also has issues. [Like antisemitic caricatures of the goblins, being the main villain](https://gamerant.com/hogwarts-legacy-goblin-rebellion-history-lore-explained/)
Some people pointed out there were problems in the gaming community, especially concerning minorities, a bunch of incels figured out a way to make the excuse "improper journalism" (one of the people that caused some early outrage was at one point together with a guy who reviewed her game a long time after their breakup).
This lead to a long crusade against anyone saying there were any problems, or even slightly disagreed with the core gamergate people, or who had any type of relation to such a person, the punishment for this often included being spammed constantly with death, rape, assault, etc threats, having hashtags related to your work or whatever spammed with furry porn, and being doxxed.
These gamergaters also made a mascot who was actually a rape joke in disguise as a anime girl with green and purple sweater, long story but it is a fucking rape joke.
Now gamergate has died down but the general movement and people behind it are still active under different names, many now probably muskrats or similar, shit still sucks.
Allegations of inappropriate conspiracy between game publishers and game reporting media. Could be true.
However... it turned into a hate-fest against women by gamers.
Pretty fucking toxic. It was deliberately used by right-wing political operators to radicalise young men and get them 'redpilled' into far-right politics.
I almost got caught in that trap myself but got snapped out of it after seeing a [insert group name] cringe compilation end with people chanting “Trump” over and over again (I was and still am heavily opposed to that guy).
I basically stayed at that “center” area until someone showed me a streamer named Destiny who‘s content related to the gamergate-type people brought me back to the left plus his good arguments for left-wing policies.
Go back far enough on /r/Games or /r/gaming and you’ll find out. Bottomless misdirected misogyny from sad little insecure “men”. Literally deleted an old Reddit account—that I made the front page with a few times—over how much harassment I received and largely stopped contributing to anything on Reddit involving games. Only in the last year or so I’ve felt comfortable again to dip a toe in.
All of it. I mean, he worked on this game for years and from the start, so its his game. He was only let go recently and via public outcry. They, of course, knew what he was when they hired him.
Lots of “I can excuse genocide, but I draw the line at piracy” in this thread.
I’m sure JK “It is dangerous to assert that any category of people deserves a blanket presumption of innocence” Rowling will 100% get the message that all these people giving her money and consuming her stories hate her. I’m sure JK “we are watching a new kind of conversion therapy for young gay people, who are being set on a lifelong path of medicalisation that may result in the loss of their fertility and/or full sexual function” Rowling won’t interpret a financial success as mass endorsement of her genocidal views and double.
No mystery how sales will come off to JK ["How do I sleep at night? I read my royalty cheque and the pain goes away"](https://i.redd.it/jk-rowling-response-to-how-she-sleeps-at-night-v0-5wqlraz9bqt91.jpg?auto=webp&s=7317e0ccfca5065a58014f622c6167e26a4d24d5) Rowling.
*beep boop*!
the linked website is: https://i.redd.it/jk-rowling-response-to-how-she-sleeps-at-night-v0-5wqlraz9bqt91.jpg?auto=webp&s=7317e0ccfca5065a58014f622c6167e26a4d24d5
Page is safe to access (Google Safe Browsing)
*****
###### I am a friendly bot. I show the URL of linked pages and check them so that mobile users know what they click on!
Imagine living in 2022 after millions dead in a pandemic, millions without jobs, millions of children suddenly without a parent, and income inequality at its highest and posting that. She's a monster.
b-but.... but Rowling. I don't *WANT* the fertility. I want the dick n balls gone that's the *POINT*
and I didn't want to have children many years before I found out I was trans anyway. in this beautiful world that you and your fellow disgusting liberals so desperately want to stay the same and never change.
Not *quite*. The House Elves are the slaves - the Goblins are a racial minority with a long history of fighting for equal rights and not getting them. But they're not *enslaved*, they're just second-class citizens under wizarding authority. You know, like Jewish people in [Name a city, name a year, good chance you'll get it right].
Not just slaves but Goblins that have a striking resemblance to Jewish stereotypes propagated by the Nazis. I was hoping that the developer would at least try and be inclusive to go against JKR's bigotry but NOPE!
Oppressing minorities IN THEIR REBELLION if I remember right. Is hard to be more shitty than they are being. Not to mention the lead designer until sometime last year was a gamer gate goon.
It's a shame that just the name alone will rake millions, I don't even expect it to be a fantastic game. The developers last title was Cars 3 the game, and they're now trying for an open world ,RPG , deep action game that looks like it's combat has very little actual depth. Like this game has so much going against it being a good game, yet it will still sell like hotcakes. Hoping for a miracle and it crashes.
Yep. Main character can get a house-elf working for them (aka relying on a slave), they're trying to put down a goblin rebellion (goblins are rebelling because wizards treat them like second-class citizens at best, and their concerns remain unaddressed by the time of Harry Potter), and said goblin rebellion is uncomfortably close to Nazi antisemitic propaganda (hook-nosed greedy banker minorities stealing children and undermining society).
Even IF you could overlook Rowling's transphobia (and that's a big if), the story of the game itself raises some red flags.
The one where the goblins ( antisemitc caricature btw ) are fed up with being oppressed and decide to demonstrate for their rights, and you play as a cop whose job it is to fight them to put them in their place ? Yeah, I don’t wanna play it
It's been really frustrating watching people try to do all these mental gymnastics about how buying the game somehow doesn't count as giving money to Rowling.
Like, guys, it's still her IP. She owns it. Every piece of official merchandise you buy, whether it's movies, games, or coffee cups, puts money in her pocket. Just because she didn't personally work on the game doesn't mean she won't get royalties.
ALSO having a combat-focused magical academy game is like the exact opposite of what I want.
Let me play a slice of life wizard school game with emergent, character-driven gameplay.
er..
a combat focused magical academy game is like *exactly* what I want.
It would just be cool if it wasn't made by a misogynist developer and set in a nazi universe created by a deranged TERF.
TBH, I would also love a game that had both great combat and more RPG elements that let you really get immersed in the world. Sort of like the Persona series manages!
I have multiple LGBT friends who eat there, straight friends who know that Chick-fil-A is homophobic but still eat there, and the person that runs my school's pride club eats there.
"But the [menu item] is so good!"
Yeah but I'm not trading my rights for a medium order of waffle fries, Kyle.
Bruh, same. As a gay guy, it baffles me how greatly my gay friends enjoy eating chick fil a and the lengths to which they'll go to excuse themselves for it
Yeah, I loved HP as a kid and it still has a special place in my heart but if you buy something Harry Potter related you ARE supporting JK Rowling.
We live in a capitalist society, what you choose to spend money on, what brands you choose to buy from, that is as and sometimes more powerful than who you vote for.
Also the plot of that game is so fucked up. Oppressing another race that wants to govern themselves? Its so bizarre its like literally being on the wrong side of history and acting like you're the hero.
Even before I found out J.K Rowling was a massive transphobe, the fact that all her characters of colour had insensitive names like "Cho Chang" and "Kingsley Shacklebolt" with racist stereotypes engraved into their writing said enough about her. The Harry Potter universe will always be racist, anti-Semitic, transphobic, and homophobic due to J.K Rowling's repulsive writing; there's nothing redeemable about her work.
Thank you. I'm so tired of fascist apologists in these comments and cis people using their trans friends and relatives as an excuse to fund her efforts to exterminate us.
Hogwarts Legacy is one of the few cases where I encourage everyone to just Torrent the game. Like I'm excited for it too, but I refuse to pay any royalties to that bitch.
I’d like to but I’m ass with computers and don’t really know how. Plus I don’t really have a computer that could handle this kind of game, only my PS5. As it stands I think im gonna have to resist the urge, maybe pick up a used copy down the line if I can.
CDkeys and G2A, but I HIGHLY reccomend CDkeys first because G2A has gotten me a few already used keys but ultimately the seller did fix those issues and i got my games - never had this problem with CDkeys
As a trans woman I am horrified at how LGBTQ+ many people still give both JK Rowling and RIOT Games money and excuse away the things they've done because they love Harry Potter and League/Arcane.
JK Rowling takes no explanation at this point, she's an enourmous transphobe and has actively betrayed feminism and demonized trans people.
Riot has unequivocally been charged with and settled with the ***LARGEST LAWSUIT CONCERNING SEXISM AGAINST WOMEN*** in the history of video games. They paid out 100million dollars to victims of their sexism and discrimination in their company.
Both are just UTTERLY unacceptable, I don't care how many trans flags or gay Dumbledores and Caitlyns there are in their media works, it's no go territory for me.
I will not support a company or creator who has a vicious history of discrimination towards women and LGBTQ people.
And I am heartbroken at how many people still find it totally ok to keep giving these kind of people money and further licenses to get away with abuse.
I skip over people on dating apps that have Harry Potter and league/arcane stuff now days.
And if you really haven't heard how deep in the shit JK is with transphobes, here you need to [watch this](https://youtu.be/Ou_xvXJJk7k).
And if you're still on the fence about Potterworks... [watch this afterwards.](https://youtu.be/-1iaJWSwUZs)
As a trans person, I beg of people PLEASE stop supporting people and companies who are known for vicious discrimination and abuse.
EDIT: I also want to bring up and remind people of the more recent issues with Blizzard and their issues with discrimination against women, bad enough that it lead to one woman committing suicide over it the issues, and yet next to nothing has been done about Blizzard's toxic work culture, and their LGBTQ inclusivity is not a change for the betterment of Blizzard's work culture, but rather to stay in good graces with Queer and Feminist gamers so they can get away with and not face consequences for their culture of discrimination and sexual harassment that permeates their company.
Please consider no longer paying for anything Blizzard offers.
Reading through this comments section has been... discouraging and infuriating.
I guess it's okay to bitch about Rowling's bigotry, but when push comes to shove: 'fuck it I want to consume this optional content I don't actually need!'
id rather just go to some sort of website that sells used stuff in good condition (such as ebay) or get it from a friend or realtive who just doesnt want it. I still dont support her. since a majority of her fans are lgtbq+, she dissapointed all.
It gets even more tricky when I'm a trans girl who grew up with the books and of course at like 10yo, the flaws really haven't been evident till in the last few years.
I've been reading a pog fanfic which feels like canon in a good way, like, it has the magic the originals have, but without the flaws, and, it feels weird to use this name, but Harry isn't Harry, she's a trans girl called Ariadne, who gets adopted by the Grangers after child protective services get her out of the Dursleys. Oh and she's blind but can "see" magic.
The thing is... I dunno, I love the magic of the world, and I would love to immerse myself in this world I've grown to love truly independent of the author, who is just a terrible terrible human. But ofc the main issue is the antisemitism that seems evident in it. And where part of my money goes to. But see, the dilemma is that I really struggle to pirate games. I sure could, I acquire movies and shows all the time, but I just don't like doing it with games, indie games moreso but still, it just feels... wrong.
Between that, being trans but loving the world, albiet moreso thanks to this fanfic, Kaleidoscopic Grangers, and just everything, I've never felt more conflicted about buying something, literally ever.
Don’t feel conflicted about the community. She inspired the community to come together as an accepting place, and her bullshit solidified the community as an accepting place by ousting her. She’s not allowed back in because the community itself is a good place. Please feel free to enjoy what the community has created. She’s not getting a penny of those fanfics. She also gets nothing from secondhand things and fan-made items on etsy.
I do get your concern about pirating games though. There are devs and others who still deserve to be paid, but the way I see it is by not buying a game, they’re still getting nothing, but by pirating it, you can help show that the quality of what the devs made is good, and that can help them get jobs elsewhere.
Also trans, grew up reading the books and watching the films as well. I've even been to the Harry Potter theme park and bought a wand. It's worth just letting it go. Grieve all you need to, but find other writers to support. She will always benefit from it if you give a platform to her creations, even just the trademark. We need to stop giving money to a wealthy woman who wants us dead.
I was a die hard fan of HP, played quidditch in college even, and even now most of my friends are or were fans too. I held on as long as I could but...idk, I think it's finally dead to me. Which... Is really sad. I grew up with it, made friends because of it, saw good that kids could do against fascism/corruption, and saw potential for LGBT folks to thrive in the world. And yet, Jk started to overtly go against the ideals and morals she taught, so...I feel so much less now, than I did even a year ago. I would have loved the basic concept of the game too (other than the like... Quelling a goblin rebellion with anti semitic connotations, so really just the rpg style of it). It's kinda crushing.
That said, there's lots of other things to sink into, with authors that aren't problematic and writing that isn't shitty and full of problematic themes. Terry Pratchett's Discworld for instance, in particular the Tiffany Aching series. If I could describe a perfect book, it would be that one, I love it so very much. Leagues better writing than Harry Potter and I wish more people had grown up reading it instead.
Yes, but by buying it you're giving her money.
Edit: I can't believe this is a controversial statement on this subreddit of all places. Jesus fucking Christ.
I feel that we can separate the work from the artist here. That doesn't mean I'm gonna give her money for any Harry Potter content at all, but I'm a well versed sailor of the high seas
My partner enjoys watching me play more story based video games and was excited for this since she's a huge Harry Potter fan, but I told her nope, sorry. Not putting another penny in that woman's pockets, not supporting that gamergate peddling designer.
The older I get the more I hate the term ally, or at least how easily we throw it around.
An ally to me is someone who is willing to go to war to defend you. If someone attacks you, they fight too.
Someone who says nice things when it's convenient and then gets real quiet or disappoints you immediately when it's something offensive that they like isn't an ally. It's just virtue signaling.
My girlfriend is trans and grew up loving Harry Potter so it feels wrong to ask her to give up something she loves because the creator is a traitor to her fans. Our compromise is to just buy Harry Potter stuff used so the profits don’t go back to JKR. I’ve been eyeing the Hogwarts Express train set for our son on eBay for that reason.
It’s harder with video games but that’s how I dealt with Orson Scott Card going off the rails back in the day as well.
Coincidentally, same girlfriend is a huge fan of Ender’s Game. She can’t catch a break.
I know her pain. :/ At least there’s Terry Pratchett.
And Neil Gaiman.
I’m trying to get to get her to read American Gods with me. I only got through a couple of chapters the first time I tried to read it.
Oooo or The Sandman Series. Plenty of gay, trans, non-binary and in general just ambiguouslt gendered characters in that. Really just a completelt diverse ser of characters. Love it so much
The only graphic novel I read. I need to find the rest for my collection. I regret not getting them all when I could. My favorite book of his is Neverwhere, though.
Oh my god! I love Neverwhere! That and his short story Chivalry are my two favorite Neil Gaiman stories!
Best gateway to both Pratchett and Gaiman is *Good Omens*
The show on Amazon was really interesting but I haven’t been able to finish it. I’ll have to give it another shot. I love David Tennant.
The show is really well done, but the book should be read
American Gods, 10th anniversary full cast audio book was A+.
Bless his heart, that man is pretty much singelhandedly deadlifting my hope for humanity.
Brando sando is an ally imo too
Definitely a lot better of an ally than you'd expect a mormon to be (coming from a childhood mormon).
Healing via Investiture canonically helps trans people transition. It's even shown in the books themselves, as of *Dawnshard*.
Also representing with gay, bi, and ace characters as well, in both primary and secondary cast.
I fully expect his representation to get better as well. He seems to have done a lot of research to make sure to write the ace character well and realistically and has done a good job. Probably didn't have much prior contact with lgbtq+ peeps and wants to make sure he depicts his characters well. Learning that he is a Mormon made me really torn on him but at least he is a queer ally.
He's had a real redemption arc in terms of his personal growth. He was much closer to Mormon doctrine on that several years ago.
We’ve both been sleeping on Terry Pratchett and need to fix that.
That doesn't sound very comfortable
Small gods is a good starting place. It’s an in universe self contained story that will give you an idea of the author, and probably the best satirical take on organized religion I’ve ever read. And you don’t have to know anything about the world building going in, with is true for most disc world books except maybe “the light fantastic” only because it’s a direct sequel to the first book.
I want to second "Small Gods", but also add "Mort" and "Guards! Guards!" to the list of best books to start with. First in their sub-series meaning you don't have to know allot going in, and they have some of the most memorable and recognizable moments, quotes, and characters. "Eric" is a nice light read too, that's how I got started with Terry Pratchett. I haven't gotten around to the "Tiffany Aching" books, but I hear allot of good about them.
Enders Game and Kanye West were two of my favorite things in middle school it's a hard life
On the contrary, games are way easier. You can just navigate the ocean to get them, if you know what I mean.
Arrr matey 🏴☠️
Yar Harr Fiddly Dee ! 🏴☠️ ( I hope I got those words right)
Yo-ho-ho🏴☠️
Card didn't go off the rails he just said what he already believed out loud. Fuck him and all. But I was not the least bit surprised. He is a practicing mormon and direct descendent of Bringham Young. Hopefully Sanderson has broke away from some of the toxic LDS shit, but he does teach at BYU. I know not all LDS members are all in on the doctorine. But overall they are pretty harsh on any non-hetero "relations."
It's not hard at all with video games har har har, ya know what I mean
I thought I had bought a used copy of Ender's Game but it wasn't so I donated the same amount to a Trans charity that was recommended by Colin Mochrie (he has a Trans daughter).
I'm just gonna pirate the game lol
Yo ho yo ho...
Sailing the seven seas for video games is actually quite easy.
Tbh I usually hate them but uhh Grey markets cost the game dev money per purchase
Last year my little cousin (like not even double digits old) only wanted HP stuff for Xmas. Got her something cute from Etsy.
My GF and I grew up on Harry Potter, so we just decided we’ll pirate the new game if it looks good😬
You have to stop a goblin uprising. The goblins are the same as in the movies and are a caricature of Jewish people. It may not be transphobic like the books but it's fascist as hell.
Ah. I see. Yikes.
Also p sure I’d read an article that one of the main writers or executives has a very problematic political history and had an incredible amount of input into the story…
The lead developer, whom they fired but it appears not much else changed in terms of development, was part of Gamergate
Oh god. That's even worse than I imagined. And it's JKR so the bar was already in hell.
That's a great way to go about it. I'll always love Harry Potter, it has a special place in my heart, but I dont want any of my money going to terf rowling anymore. We should still be able to enjoy Harry Potter and not let her ruin it for us
The problem is that the art reflects the creator and the Harry Potter books has a lot of weird things, the whole slave and inferior especies and etc
You can love a piece of media and still be critical of it and acknowledge the parts of it that you don't approve of. Like you can love the movie Breakfast at Tiffany's and still acknowledge and openly criticize the horrible racist stereotype of an east Asian person portrayed by a white person
Just a few tweaks and the elves thing would have been easier to show it as a satire/critique of workoholic culture. Especially with Winky who doesn't know what to do with her life when she gets fired. I've heard of retired people feeling restless because all they know is to work. But no, Joanne had to make it weird. At least /r/linkedinlunatics is there to document the hustle and grind culture.
Yeah and the literal slaves who refused payment and being freed.
Yes, there were slaves via house-elves. What this shows is that societies have a lot of shit that is normalized, and sometimes no one sees the problem until someone points it out. Hermione was upset right away, and she started the rally to free the elves. And she came up against the very real issue of the oppressed sometimes being so used to it that the find some comfort in it. You got these other good guys genuinely thinking they’re doing good because of it, remaining blind to how they’re part of the problem, and struggling to accept their part in it when it’s pointed out. That doesn’t mean it’s not still a problem though, but it does show how, even today, when we think we’re so progressive, we may very well be participating in things normal to us that we will realize one day is a problem, and maybe, just maybe, we should be looking more critically at what we’re doing already. Good guys can do bad things and still be good guys. Bad guys can do good things, or even have genuinely good intentions (Thanos is a huge one here), but still be bad guys. The world isn’t black and white.
That's what I do. Any Harry Potter stuff comes from Etsy. Hell, I now know how to hand sew, so I may try and make my own Ravenclaw shirt.
Maybe buy it used and then donate the same value to a trans charity? Piracy works too, be gay, do crimes.
This is what I do. Whatever it costs, that amount also goes to the Trevor Project. It also means that HP stuff is effectively twice the cost, so that's a good personal deterrent.
Honestly, it's amazing how much Harry Potter feels like a trans/gay allegory. Kid grows up in an abusive home because they are different and the family is trying to force them to be something they are not. After kid finds out who they are they struggle with expectations forced on them by society. For fuck sake, Harry literally grows up in a closet. Also, the more I think about it the more I relized how well/convincing Joanne writes male characters. That her female characters are very shallow as well kind of gives suggestions that she is a closeted, self hating, jellous trans man. As famous as she is why is she still publishing under male pseudonyms? I also like to think the more trans people take her work and make it their own might piss her off.
My wife never uses public restrooms except when we go to the Capitol building for this same reason. Fuck Texas’s bathroom bills.
Uh, I think you meant to reply to. Something else...
The last line. Pissing off transphobes by engaging with their shit is fun.
To be fair, it’s not very hard for women to write male characters well because we’re forced to see most stories from the male perspective our entire lives. I’m not sure the way she writes male characters means anything. But I still wouldn’t be surprised if she were a closeted self-loathing trans man.
Yeah, but her female characters are generally flat props than feel like real people. Cho being a big one that comes to mind. Like, it's not overly sexual, but it has a lot of /r/menwritingwomrn energy.
Yeah that’s very true. Even Hermione felt two dimensional most of the time.
I really think that, based on comments JKR herself has said, that the books were her own internal world come to life. We get a lot of repression and identity problems she likely didn't even realize she was having. But we also have all of her learned racism, antisemitism, transphobia, and homophobia. I don't accept it as an allegory as it was never intended that way, but I would consider it to be a prime example of the inner workings of a trans person who is unable to come to terms with their identity due to so much propaganda and indoctrination of colonialism and Christianity.
You could buy your son some other books about magical children for him to love instead. Terry Pratchett's Tiffany Aching series (The Wee Free Men, A Hat Full of Sky, etc) is a personal favourite.
Terry Pratchett, Neil Gaiman and Rick Riordan are all great that way. My kids loved The Hobbit as well for what its worth, and while Tolkien no doubt had some issues, he told off a Nazi publisher for asking him if he had Jewish heritage rather than praise a self-identified theocratic fascist like Rowling did.
I LOVED the Lightning Thief series when I was in grade school, they're absolutely hilarious. Exciting, action-packed comedy, great characters and storyline, plus I learned a ton about Greek mythology along the way. Honestly I feel like it might be a super fun read even now as an adult. I never personally read Lord of the Rings but my family watched the whole movie series every year around Thanksgiving and they really are great. I'm sure the books are even better.
He just turned 2 today so it’ll be a little while but my girlfriend is super into fantasy books. She’s on a Brandon Sanderson kick right now. She signs all of her books after she finishes them with a note for the next reader and I’m so excited for our son to read them.
okay so, this is a genuine question; if there are so many fantasy options on the table for when your son becomes of age to appreciate and/or read these things himself... why does TERFWizardLadySeries need a look in at all?
> so many fantasy options Which are also better written.
It’s up to him if he wants to read it, but I think it’s a good teaching moment if he does. My mom was a huge geek and helped prepare me for stuff like this and I think it helped me a lot in the long run. Plus, his other mom has Harry Potter stuff from her childhood so he’ll probably get curious.
There's also Miss Peregrine's home for peculiar children!
The Young Wizards series by Diane Duane is another great one (look for the new millennium editions on her ebooks direct store!). This is an author who actually listened to people telling her that her portrayal of autism was lacking and she actually fixed it. And it is hands down my favorite concept of magic. Mixes magic and science, sci-fi and fantasy so well.
I'm pre-T, pre-op FtM. And I didn't "grow up" with Harry Potter; I wasn't introduced to the Wizarding world until 2016 when I was in middle school. I loved the books, watched the movies, and was a decently big Potterhead for years. Over time, I still enjoyed the series but wasn't as big into the series when I was first introduced to it. Then, in 2021, I learned about how transphobic JK Rowling is, and that killed off what enjoyment I had for the series. I nowadays find the Harry Potter books a guilty pleasure I only read when I'm bored/don't know what next to read and want to fill in that space with a book. I haven't bought anything Harry Potter in a little over a year (my last Harry Potter purchase was to buy another of Order of the Phoenix, as my old copy was now so worn down that I couldn't possibly read it).
Thanks for making me feel old. 2016 middle school, gosh. Going back to my grandma cave. lol.
Yeah just buy HP stuff from LGBTQ Etsy sellers for the double whammy of still enjoying the HP community of generally awesome people and not giving profits to she who must not be named. Lol But seriously though I feel the same, so many millenials blossomed with the HP fandom and the community it gave so it's pretty shitty she's a conservative TERF. I feel like it's fine to take that world away from her and make it how it should be type of thing.
This is how I feel. I love HP stuff. But with being a trans woman and with the creator of that world hating my existence, really put a bad taste in my mouth.
Glad to see someone knowing that unpleasant self-denial is the *trade-off* effect of boycotting and not the *point* of doing it. Sacrifice without gain is not really sacrifice. It's just hurting yourself.
Pirating the game doesn't sound so bad, either.
I wouldn't even do that, not with the rabid antisemitic content. I care more about my Jewish friends than to do that.
Wait I'm sorry genuine question as I'm apparently out of the loop... I know JKR is a terf... what's this about antisemitic stuff? Neither is excusable of course but the antisemitism is new to me Edit: disregard I read further into the comments and figured it out. Dang.
Yeah, they're seriously using Nazi blood libel as a plot point, that the goblins (read: Jews) are kidnapping and killing wizarding (read: Christian) children, because they used the goblins as a nasty analogue for Jewish people throughout the series (they even show a Star of David on the floor of Gringotts in the films).
From my understanding the star of david is a permanent feature of the filming location, but almost all other movie sets choose to cover it up so not to create unfortunate connotations or implications. You'd think a movie using specifically greedy goblins in a bank would do the same. The choice not to must have gone through several ppl tho so someone either fucked up or they left it on purpose.
Quite. I have altered the sentence, I realise I wasn't clear about that.
Sorry, I don’t know much about it. Could someone tell me what’s wrong with the game? Is it because of JKR’s TERFism (which sucks)?
I haven't been following it too closely but when the game was first announced I remember a lot of Jewish people being upset at the depiction of goblins. They use the typical antisemitic depiction and if I remember correctly one of the main plot points is these goblins trying to undermine the wizarding world. again this is just stuff I remember take it with a grain of salt
Which is a shame because in a more introspective story he’d be right to undermine the wizarding world. It’s a racist society that segregated their own world and then further subdivided that said world and placed themselves on top. Why would that someone be the villain trying to destroy that hierarchy?
I mean... She wrote the villain of Fantastic Beasts is trying to stop the holocaust from happening and the protagonists need to stop him. It's pretty clear what kind of political stance she has when the people trying to destroy a segregated society are the villains.
It’s a game about putting down a slave revolt and/or worker’s rights movement (can’t remember which one)
Thanks!
Also, the “enemy” in the game are the goblins, who are a caricature of Jewish people.
It's also been added as a part of the game lore that the goblins perform blood libel
Wait, really? That is F\*CKING WILD. Like, damn. I didn't think it could get any more wack.
To be fair, the blood libel they’re talking about is that the player character is a 15 y/o child that got kidnapped by the big bad. As far as I’m aware they aren’t sacrificing random kids for no reason, i.e. goblins aren’t committing blood libel in the traditional sense of stealing babies for ritual sacrifice (someone please let me know if they are).
Can you explain this a bit more? I haven't been paying close attention to this game. Do you have a source for this that I can look into some more?
https://uppercutcrit.com/hogwarts-legacy-of-antisemitism/
Thanks I'll look into this!
Yep, it's like, "the goblins are an antisemitic stereotype ripped out of Protocols of the Elders of Zion . . . let's double down!"
What’s this now? I’m kinda outta the loop, all I know is what J.K. Is notorious for
From Wikipedia: > Blood libel or ritual murder libel is an antisemitic canard which falsely accuses Jews of murdering Christian boys in order to use their blood in the performance of religious rituals. In the trailers, they talk about kids (I think from the school but maybe also just the surrounding area) getting kidnapped and it's implied that they're getting killed to fuel the like "dark magic" that's being used by the goblins. https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/5050/hogwarts-legacy-jk-rowling-wizarding-world-antisemitism-gamergate/
OH SHIT. Okay I was willing to maybe almost kind of nearly give them the benefit of the doubt before that, but not that I know that I cannot deny it. I mean wow. So, the goblins look like that over exaggerated “Jewish” look, they’re greedy shady and run the underground bank, are shitty people, they’re barely considered people at all, now THIS? What the hell do people have against us? More often then not we’re just normal people. Anything weird about us is almost always unrelated to being Jewish.
It was always pretty thin ice to depict the goblins as the only ones being in charge for the money but the loose lore and hints at least depicted this as not a free choice the goblins held. They seemed to be forced into it due to the raging racism of the wizarding world. Than THIS game happened. They screwed up big time.
Jesus Christ, she just can't help herself can she? It's like she needs to make racist or transphobic caricatures in her media or she'll shit herself
The lead designer is anti-social justice and pro-GamerGate as well, which was an alt-right hate movement who are against women, people of color, diversity and over all progressivism in the gaming industry.
If you mean Troy Leavitt, iirc he quit.
I believe he was let go after public outcry, but worked for years on the project. They hired him knowing exactly who he was. In fact, I'd say his hateful views probably enamored him to JKR and her team, who micromanages these game products via their portkey games subsidiary.
From what I have read, he left the team in the first quarter of 2021.
Ok so it takes place during a goblin (who use a pretty rasist Jewish design) uprising where goblins didn't want to turned into house elfs and wanted the right to use wands. Then the goblins started kidnapping kids and doing blood rituals because Joanne can't show how a unchecked system only wants to maintain the status quo at the expense of the minority that exist within it.
Pay for the game and you’re paying J.K. Simple as.
r/piracy has entered the chat
Some reasons beyond just JK Rowling being a TERF The lead designer was [pro GamerGate.](https://www.fanbyte.com/games/news/lead-designer-of-hogwarts-legacy-used-to-be-an-anti-social-justice-youtuber/) The plot also has issues. [Like antisemitic caricatures of the goblins, being the main villain](https://gamerant.com/hogwarts-legacy-goblin-rebellion-history-lore-explained/)
Red flags up and down.
What the fuck even is gamergate though? I honestly forgot
Some people pointed out there were problems in the gaming community, especially concerning minorities, a bunch of incels figured out a way to make the excuse "improper journalism" (one of the people that caused some early outrage was at one point together with a guy who reviewed her game a long time after their breakup). This lead to a long crusade against anyone saying there were any problems, or even slightly disagreed with the core gamergate people, or who had any type of relation to such a person, the punishment for this often included being spammed constantly with death, rape, assault, etc threats, having hashtags related to your work or whatever spammed with furry porn, and being doxxed. These gamergaters also made a mascot who was actually a rape joke in disguise as a anime girl with green and purple sweater, long story but it is a fucking rape joke. Now gamergate has died down but the general movement and people behind it are still active under different names, many now probably muskrats or similar, shit still sucks.
Allegations of inappropriate conspiracy between game publishers and game reporting media. Could be true. However... it turned into a hate-fest against women by gamers. Pretty fucking toxic. It was deliberately used by right-wing political operators to radicalise young men and get them 'redpilled' into far-right politics.
I almost got caught in that trap myself but got snapped out of it after seeing a [insert group name] cringe compilation end with people chanting “Trump” over and over again (I was and still am heavily opposed to that guy). I basically stayed at that “center” area until someone showed me a streamer named Destiny who‘s content related to the gamergate-type people brought me back to the left plus his good arguments for left-wing policies.
Go back far enough on /r/Games or /r/gaming and you’ll find out. Bottomless misdirected misogyny from sad little insecure “men”. Literally deleted an old Reddit account—that I made the front page with a few times—over how much harassment I received and largely stopped contributing to anything on Reddit involving games. Only in the last year or so I’ve felt comfortable again to dip a toe in.
Is the lead designer still with the project?
No, he isn’t.
The real question is how much of his design are they keeping?
All of it. I mean, he worked on this game for years and from the start, so its his game. He was only let go recently and via public outcry. They, of course, knew what he was when they hired him.
Lots of “I can excuse genocide, but I draw the line at piracy” in this thread. I’m sure JK “It is dangerous to assert that any category of people deserves a blanket presumption of innocence” Rowling will 100% get the message that all these people giving her money and consuming her stories hate her. I’m sure JK “we are watching a new kind of conversion therapy for young gay people, who are being set on a lifelong path of medicalisation that may result in the loss of their fertility and/or full sexual function” Rowling won’t interpret a financial success as mass endorsement of her genocidal views and double.
No mystery how sales will come off to JK ["How do I sleep at night? I read my royalty cheque and the pain goes away"](https://i.redd.it/jk-rowling-response-to-how-she-sleeps-at-night-v0-5wqlraz9bqt91.jpg?auto=webp&s=7317e0ccfca5065a58014f622c6167e26a4d24d5) Rowling.
*beep boop*! the linked website is: https://i.redd.it/jk-rowling-response-to-how-she-sleeps-at-night-v0-5wqlraz9bqt91.jpg?auto=webp&s=7317e0ccfca5065a58014f622c6167e26a4d24d5 Page is safe to access (Google Safe Browsing) ***** ###### I am a friendly bot. I show the URL of linked pages and check them so that mobile users know what they click on!
Imagine living in 2022 after millions dead in a pandemic, millions without jobs, millions of children suddenly without a parent, and income inequality at its highest and posting that. She's a monster.
b-but.... but Rowling. I don't *WANT* the fertility. I want the dick n balls gone that's the *POINT* and I didn't want to have children many years before I found out I was trans anyway. in this beautiful world that you and your fellow disgusting liberals so desperately want to stay the same and never change.
Huh, this thread is making me think that Rowling might be a little bit of a jerk /s
isn't that game meant to be about literally oppressing slaves?
Not *quite*. The House Elves are the slaves - the Goblins are a racial minority with a long history of fighting for equal rights and not getting them. But they're not *enslaved*, they're just second-class citizens under wizarding authority. You know, like Jewish people in [Name a city, name a year, good chance you'll get it right].
>[Name a city, name a year, good chance you'll get it right]. Kyoto, 1293 AD
Not just slaves but Goblins that have a striking resemblance to Jewish stereotypes propagated by the Nazis. I was hoping that the developer would at least try and be inclusive to go against JKR's bigotry but NOPE!
Hard to expect much from a pro GamerGate dude.
The developer?
Yup.
gross :(
yeah right, it's hard to expect on it
He left in March 2021 thankfully
Don't you know that pointing out obviously racist stereotypes actually makes *you* the racist? SMH /s
Ewww that's real gross of them
Very much how I felt. I wanted to be excited for this but I just can’t be with that impossibly fucked up and problematic plot.
Oppressing minorities IN THEIR REBELLION if I remember right. Is hard to be more shitty than they are being. Not to mention the lead designer until sometime last year was a gamer gate goon. It's a shame that just the name alone will rake millions, I don't even expect it to be a fantastic game. The developers last title was Cars 3 the game, and they're now trying for an open world ,RPG , deep action game that looks like it's combat has very little actual depth. Like this game has so much going against it being a good game, yet it will still sell like hotcakes. Hoping for a miracle and it crashes.
Taking the side of the status quo against an oppressed minority is exactly the type of Neoliberal magic I expect from Harry Potter.
Yes
Yep. Main character can get a house-elf working for them (aka relying on a slave), they're trying to put down a goblin rebellion (goblins are rebelling because wizards treat them like second-class citizens at best, and their concerns remain unaddressed by the time of Harry Potter), and said goblin rebellion is uncomfortably close to Nazi antisemitic propaganda (hook-nosed greedy banker minorities stealing children and undermining society). Even IF you could overlook Rowling's transphobia (and that's a big if), the story of the game itself raises some red flags.
No, but if you pre-order you can own your own slave!
Yes
The one where the goblins ( antisemitc caricature btw ) are fed up with being oppressed and decide to demonstrate for their rights, and you play as a cop whose job it is to fight them to put them in their place ? Yeah, I don’t wanna play it
Holy crap! That's the plot?
And people are saying "but there's queer rep! And the creators distanced themselves from JK!!"
It's been really frustrating watching people try to do all these mental gymnastics about how buying the game somehow doesn't count as giving money to Rowling. Like, guys, it's still her IP. She owns it. Every piece of official merchandise you buy, whether it's movies, games, or coffee cups, puts money in her pocket. Just because she didn't personally work on the game doesn't mean she won't get royalties.
NEW merch. Second-and things, she gets nothing. Pirated, she gets nothing.
pirated she still gets people talking about the game and keeping the IP alive through word of mouth. it's not worth it
ALSO having a combat-focused magical academy game is like the exact opposite of what I want. Let me play a slice of life wizard school game with emergent, character-driven gameplay.
er.. a combat focused magical academy game is like *exactly* what I want. It would just be cool if it wasn't made by a misogynist developer and set in a nazi universe created by a deranged TERF.
TBH, I would also love a game that had both great combat and more RPG elements that let you really get immersed in the world. Sort of like the Persona series manages!
You should try Witchbrook! *if only it was out...*
I only have two games wishlisted on steam, and only one has a release date And its not Witchbrook 😭
They have a Story mode for that! It has no combat
Same with people eating at chick-fil-a
I have multiple LGBT friends who eat there, straight friends who know that Chick-fil-A is homophobic but still eat there, and the person that runs my school's pride club eats there. "But the [menu item] is so good!" Yeah but I'm not trading my rights for a medium order of waffle fries, Kyle.
Bruh, same. As a gay guy, it baffles me how greatly my gay friends enjoy eating chick fil a and the lengths to which they'll go to excuse themselves for it
i just got a job at chickfila LOL they about to help me pay for queer stuff tho
Yeah, I loved HP as a kid and it still has a special place in my heart but if you buy something Harry Potter related you ARE supporting JK Rowling. We live in a capitalist society, what you choose to spend money on, what brands you choose to buy from, that is as and sometimes more powerful than who you vote for. Also the plot of that game is so fucked up. Oppressing another race that wants to govern themselves? Its so bizarre its like literally being on the wrong side of history and acting like you're the hero.
Even before I found out J.K Rowling was a massive transphobe, the fact that all her characters of colour had insensitive names like "Cho Chang" and "Kingsley Shacklebolt" with racist stereotypes engraved into their writing said enough about her. The Harry Potter universe will always be racist, anti-Semitic, transphobic, and homophobic due to J.K Rowling's repulsive writing; there's nothing redeemable about her work.
Thank you. I'm so tired of fascist apologists in these comments and cis people using their trans friends and relatives as an excuse to fund her efforts to exterminate us.
At least to avoid giving her money, we can join the birates and sail the seven seas 🏴☠️ fuck jk rowling
And fuck the devs at WB who supported her transphobia
They shouldve done it like Microsoft did with minecraft just throw her out ...
Yeah it sucks she turned out to be such a shit person. But she is, and I'm not going to consume products that help enrich her anymore.
Hogwarts Legacy is one of the few cases where I encourage everyone to just Torrent the game. Like I'm excited for it too, but I refuse to pay any royalties to that bitch.
I’d like to but I’m ass with computers and don’t really know how. Plus I don’t really have a computer that could handle this kind of game, only my PS5. As it stands I think im gonna have to resist the urge, maybe pick up a used copy down the line if I can.
Or buy keys. Then you’re double-fucking her, she indirectly has to pay out of pocket.
Wait, why does buying keys result in her paying out of pocket?
How does this cost JK money, and where can I buy keys?
CDkeys and G2A, but I HIGHLY reccomend CDkeys first because G2A has gotten me a few already used keys but ultimately the seller did fix those issues and i got my games - never had this problem with CDkeys
But how exactly is this harmful? Because in the case of the game and JKR it's something we all(who want to play) could do ...
As a trans woman I am horrified at how LGBTQ+ many people still give both JK Rowling and RIOT Games money and excuse away the things they've done because they love Harry Potter and League/Arcane. JK Rowling takes no explanation at this point, she's an enourmous transphobe and has actively betrayed feminism and demonized trans people. Riot has unequivocally been charged with and settled with the ***LARGEST LAWSUIT CONCERNING SEXISM AGAINST WOMEN*** in the history of video games. They paid out 100million dollars to victims of their sexism and discrimination in their company. Both are just UTTERLY unacceptable, I don't care how many trans flags or gay Dumbledores and Caitlyns there are in their media works, it's no go territory for me. I will not support a company or creator who has a vicious history of discrimination towards women and LGBTQ people. And I am heartbroken at how many people still find it totally ok to keep giving these kind of people money and further licenses to get away with abuse. I skip over people on dating apps that have Harry Potter and league/arcane stuff now days. And if you really haven't heard how deep in the shit JK is with transphobes, here you need to [watch this](https://youtu.be/Ou_xvXJJk7k). And if you're still on the fence about Potterworks... [watch this afterwards.](https://youtu.be/-1iaJWSwUZs) As a trans person, I beg of people PLEASE stop supporting people and companies who are known for vicious discrimination and abuse. EDIT: I also want to bring up and remind people of the more recent issues with Blizzard and their issues with discrimination against women, bad enough that it lead to one woman committing suicide over it the issues, and yet next to nothing has been done about Blizzard's toxic work culture, and their LGBTQ inclusivity is not a change for the betterment of Blizzard's work culture, but rather to stay in good graces with Queer and Feminist gamers so they can get away with and not face consequences for their culture of discrimination and sexual harassment that permeates their company. Please consider no longer paying for anything Blizzard offers.
Reading through this comments section has been... discouraging and infuriating. I guess it's okay to bitch about Rowling's bigotry, but when push comes to shove: 'fuck it I want to consume this optional content I don't actually need!'
Ego over ethics, almost every time. It's the capitalist propaganda machine at work before our very eyes.
Yep. And I'm a bad person for pointing this out.
Bliz hasn't made any good games in ages anyway.
id rather just go to some sort of website that sells used stuff in good condition (such as ebay) or get it from a friend or realtive who just doesnt want it. I still dont support her. since a majority of her fans are lgtbq+, she dissapointed all.
[удалено]
It gets even more tricky when I'm a trans girl who grew up with the books and of course at like 10yo, the flaws really haven't been evident till in the last few years. I've been reading a pog fanfic which feels like canon in a good way, like, it has the magic the originals have, but without the flaws, and, it feels weird to use this name, but Harry isn't Harry, she's a trans girl called Ariadne, who gets adopted by the Grangers after child protective services get her out of the Dursleys. Oh and she's blind but can "see" magic. The thing is... I dunno, I love the magic of the world, and I would love to immerse myself in this world I've grown to love truly independent of the author, who is just a terrible terrible human. But ofc the main issue is the antisemitism that seems evident in it. And where part of my money goes to. But see, the dilemma is that I really struggle to pirate games. I sure could, I acquire movies and shows all the time, but I just don't like doing it with games, indie games moreso but still, it just feels... wrong. Between that, being trans but loving the world, albiet moreso thanks to this fanfic, Kaleidoscopic Grangers, and just everything, I've never felt more conflicted about buying something, literally ever.
Don’t feel conflicted about the community. She inspired the community to come together as an accepting place, and her bullshit solidified the community as an accepting place by ousting her. She’s not allowed back in because the community itself is a good place. Please feel free to enjoy what the community has created. She’s not getting a penny of those fanfics. She also gets nothing from secondhand things and fan-made items on etsy. I do get your concern about pirating games though. There are devs and others who still deserve to be paid, but the way I see it is by not buying a game, they’re still getting nothing, but by pirating it, you can help show that the quality of what the devs made is good, and that can help them get jobs elsewhere.
Also trans, grew up reading the books and watching the films as well. I've even been to the Harry Potter theme park and bought a wand. It's worth just letting it go. Grieve all you need to, but find other writers to support. She will always benefit from it if you give a platform to her creations, even just the trademark. We need to stop giving money to a wealthy woman who wants us dead.
Can't lie, I'm very excited about it. Can't wait to fully pirate this game and flip off JK.
I was a die hard fan of HP, played quidditch in college even, and even now most of my friends are or were fans too. I held on as long as I could but...idk, I think it's finally dead to me. Which... Is really sad. I grew up with it, made friends because of it, saw good that kids could do against fascism/corruption, and saw potential for LGBT folks to thrive in the world. And yet, Jk started to overtly go against the ideals and morals she taught, so...I feel so much less now, than I did even a year ago. I would have loved the basic concept of the game too (other than the like... Quelling a goblin rebellion with anti semitic connotations, so really just the rpg style of it). It's kinda crushing. That said, there's lots of other things to sink into, with authors that aren't problematic and writing that isn't shitty and full of problematic themes. Terry Pratchett's Discworld for instance, in particular the Tiffany Aching series. If I could describe a perfect book, it would be that one, I love it so very much. Leagues better writing than Harry Potter and I wish more people had grown up reading it instead.
I'ma pirate it just so I can mod it to shit.
What is wrong with piracy?
Pirating videogames is possible
Is it okay to still like Harry Potter but to dislike JKR?
Yes, but by buying it you're giving her money. Edit: I can't believe this is a controversial statement on this subreddit of all places. Jesus fucking Christ.
What I don't get is how there are friends of mine who are Lesbians...and they make r*wling out like some holier than thou creature...
Are... Are they TERFs?
Read Books of Magic by Neil Gaiman instead
Wizard School is a fun but very challenging offshoot if folks are into board games that don't support shitty authors.
I downvoted this one too because all publicity is good publicity (for them)
I feel that we can separate the work from the artist here. That doesn't mean I'm gonna give her money for any Harry Potter content at all, but I'm a well versed sailor of the high seas
Sadly, the art is still pretty problematic itself. Either way, it's a pirate's life for me!
My partner enjoys watching me play more story based video games and was excited for this since she's a huge Harry Potter fan, but I told her nope, sorry. Not putting another penny in that woman's pockets, not supporting that gamergate peddling designer.
The older I get the more I hate the term ally, or at least how easily we throw it around. An ally to me is someone who is willing to go to war to defend you. If someone attacks you, they fight too. Someone who says nice things when it's convenient and then gets real quiet or disappoints you immediately when it's something offensive that they like isn't an ally. It's just virtue signaling.