Well, here’s my most pointless post of the day.
So I’m sitting here doing some CAD drafting with the TV on as background noise. It seems that SYFY and the USA networks are going to be showing the Harry Potter movies, and they’ve been running commercials for this “event” nonstop. Honestly…meh. There’s this thing called “DVD,” so I’m not seeing why it’s such a big deal. Anyway, the commercials feature not only snippets from the movies, but also snippets of cosplayers talking about why they love the Harry Potter series. Sure, fine, great.
But several of them say some things that merit spit-takes:
“Harry Potter gives a great message… Doesn’t matter what you are, who you are, you matter.”
“The Harry Potter books promote equality.”
Ummm… WTF.
Look, the Potter books and movies are fine entertainment. But if you believe that they promote “equality” or the belief that “everybody matters,” I have but one word for you: “muggles.”
Even if there is some “hey, maybe keeping slaves is bad, m’kay?” the books end up with the magic users still thinking they are better than non-magic users. I don’t recall if this is even seriously questioned. The main character, Harry, is fundamentally uninteresting… devoid of much real personality, not really “good,” per se, he’s only really there because he is a standard literary Chosen One. He gets stuff done not because he’s smarter or harder working; no, it’s because according to Fate, he’s simply more important than other folk.
The books and movies make it clear that screwing with the brains of “muggles” is a perfectly cromulent thing to do. Go ahead and stir around their synapses, freeze them in motion, erase their memories, steal their stuff, drive them mad, *kill* *them,* if that’s what it takes to make life more convenient for the magic users. Because Muggles Don’t Matter.
So, come on, Potter fans. I can suspend disbelief for magic and elves and ghosts and such. But believing that the Potterverse books promote equality? I can’t suspect disbelief *that* much.