History BrokenAesop / HarryPotter

** HIV/AIDS is only dangerous to someone if HIV-infected blood enters an uninfected person [[note]]For example, a blood transfusion that was contaminated with HIV is how [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ryan_White Ryan White]], (one of the people who's advocacy during his life and his posthumous legacy helped defeat the hysteria surrounding HIV/AIDS and the one who publically proved it wasn't a "homosexual" disease) got it in the first place[[/note]] or if sexual intercourse happens between someone who has HIV and someone who doesn't. While it's a horrible condition, it's rather tricky for someone who knows they have HIV to infect someone else by accident--which is much of the reason why anti-AIDS hysteria was bad. On the other hand, werewolves turn into uncontrollable cannibalistic monsters every month and they ''will'' attack any human who's unlucky to be near them at the time, meaning that it's very easy for a werewolf to accidentally infect people (if they don't end up killing them instead). In that case, [[StrawmanHasAPoint it's entirely reasonable for people to fear Lupin infecting others with his condition]], especially since lycanthropy can only be held at bay with a rare potion that Lupin could only regularly drink during the year he worked at Hogwarts. Even then, he still forgets to drink it in a pivotal moment in the third book, which nearly led to multiple other people being infected.
** The only other named werewolf, Fenrir Greyback, is a PsychoForHire who [[{{Plaguemaster}} delights in spreading the disease by deliberately planning his transformations near human populations]], has his attacks and urges [[DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything described in a rather sexual manner]], and [[PaedoHunt targets young children]] with the goal of [[RapeAndSwitch indoctrinating them into the werewolf community]]. Those familiar with anti-AIDS hysteria will probably recognize every single negative stereotype and unrealistic myth about people with HIV, all embodied in one character who seems to be far more typical of the demographic than Lupin. Given the longstanding association of HIV and homosexuality, this doesn't help the above issues with Dumbledore's sexuality--especially since Lupin, the "good" werewolf, is very explicitly straight, while Greyback, the "bad" one, [[AllGaysArePedophiles attacks male children]].

** HIV/AIDS is only dangerous to someone if HIV-infected blood enters an uninfected person [[note]]For example, a blood transfusion that was contaminated with HIV is how [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ryan_White Ryan White]], (one of the people who's advocacy during his life and his posthumous legacy helped defeat the hysteria surrounding HIV/AIDS and the one who publically proved it wasn't a "homosexual" disease) got it in the first place[[/note]] or if sexual intercourse happens between someone who has HIV and someone who doesn't. While it's a horrible condition, it's rather tricky for someone who knows they have HIV to infect someone else by accident--which is much of the reason why the anti-AIDS hysteria was bad. On the other hand, werewolves turn into uncontrollable cannibalistic monsters every month and they ''will'' attack any human who's unlucky to be near them at the time, meaning that it's very easy for someone to accidentally get infected with lycanthropy (if they don't end up getting killed by the attack). In that case, [[StrawmanHasAPoint it's entirely reasonable for people to fear Lupin infecting others with his condition]], especially since lycanthropy can only be held at bay with a rare potion that Lupin could only regularly drink during the year he worked at Hogwarts. Even then, he still forgets to drink it in a pivotal moment in the third book, which nearly led to multiple other people being infected.
** The only other named werewolf, Fenrir Greyback, is a PsychoForHire who [[{{Plaguemaster}} delights in spreading the disease by deliberately planning his transformations near human populations]], has his attacks and urges [[DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything described in a rather sexual manner]], and [[PaedoHunt targets young children]] with the goal of [[RapeAndSwitch indoctrinating them into the werewolf community]]. Those familiar with the anti-AIDS hysteria will probably recognize every single negative stereotype and unrealistic myth about people with HIV, all embodied in one character who seems to be far more typical of the demographic than Lupin. Given the longstanding association of HIV and homosexuality, this doesn't help the above issues with Dumbledore's sexuality--especially since Lupin, the "good" werewolf, is very explicitly straight, while Greyback, the "bad" one, [[AllGaysArePedophiles attacks male children]].

** There are no good werewolves ever even mentioned besides Lupin. Every mention we hear of a werewolf besides Lupin is either them horribly mauling people or considering joining Voldemort. As far as we can tell, werewolves are generally very dangerous, and Lupin is just [[MySpeciesDothProtestTooMuch "the good one."]]
** HIV/AIDS is only dangerous to someone if HIV-infected blood enters an uninfected person [[note]]For example, a blood transfusion that was contaminated with HIV is how [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ryan_White Ryan White]], (one of the people who's advocacy during his life and his posthumous legacy helped defeat the hysteria surrounding HIV/AIDS and the one who publically proved it wasn't a "homosexual" disease) got it in the first place[[/note]] or if sexual intercourse happens between someone who has HIV and someone who doesn't. While it's a horrible condition, it's rather tricky for someone who knows they have HIV to infect someone else by accident--which is the very reason why the anti-AIDS hysteria was bad. On the other hand, werewolves turn into uncontrollable cannibalistic monsters every month and they ''will'' attack any human who's unlucky to be near them at the time, meaning that it's very easy for someone to accidentally get infected with lycanthropy (if they don't end up getting killed by the attack). In that case, [[StrawmanHasAPoint it's entirely reasonable for people to fear Lupin infecting others with his condition]], especially since lycanthropy can only be held at bay with a rare potion that Lupin could only regularly drink during the year he worked at Hogwarts. Even then, he still forgets to drink it in a pivotal moment in the third book, which nearly led to multiple other people being infected.

** HIV/AIDS is only dangerous to someone if HIV-infected blood enters an uninfected person [[note]]For example, a blood transfusion that was contaminated with HIV is how [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ryan_White Ryan White]], (one of the people who's advocacy during his life and his posthumous legacy after his death helped defeat the hysteria surrounding HIV/AIDS and the one who publically proved it wasn't a "homosexual" disease) got it in the first place[[/note]] or if sexual intercourse happens between someone who has HIV and someone who doesn't. While it's a horrible condition, it's rather tricky for someone who knows they have HIV to infect someone else by accident--which is the very reason why the anti-AIDS hysteria was bad. On the other hand, werewolves turn into uncontrollable cannibalistic monsters every month and they ''will'' attack any human who's unlucky to be near them at the time, meaning that it's very easy for someone to accidentally get infected with lycanthropy (if they don't end up getting killed by the attack). In that case, [[StrawmanHasAPoint it's entirely reasonable for people to fear Lupin infecting others with his condition]], especially since lycanthropy can only be held at bay with a rare potion that Lupin could only regularly drink during the year he worked at Hogwarts. Even then, he still forgets to drink it in a pivotal moment in the third book, which nearly led to multiple other people being infected.

* Rowling claims that werewolves were meant to be [[TheDiseaseThatShallNotBeNamed an allegory for those infected with HIV/AIDS]]. The prejudice Lupin receives as a result of being one is meant to be analogous to the hysteria over AIDS and the stigma against HIV-positive people, with the intended idea being that "fearing AIDS was bad and hurt a lot of people because of how trumped-up the issue was." Except...
** There are no good werewolves ever even mentioned besides Lupin. Every mention we hear of a werewolf besides Lupin is them horribly mauling people or considering joining Voldemort. As far as we can tell, werewolves are generally very dangerous, and Lupin is just [[MySpeciesDothProtestTooMuch "the good one."]]
** HIV/AIDS is only dangerous to someone if infected blood enters an uninfected person or intercourse happens between someone who has HIV and someone who doesn't. While it's a horrible condition, it's rather tricky for someone who knows they have HIV to infect someone else by accident--which is the very reason why anti-AIDS hysteria was bad. On the other hand, Lupin turns into an uncontrollable cannibalistic monster every month. It is entirely reasonable for people to fear him infecting others, especially since the condition can only be held at bay with a rare potion that Lupin could only regularly drink if he worked at Hogwarts. Even then, he still forgets to drink it in a pivotal moment in the third book, which nearly led to multiple other people being infected.
** The only other named werewolf, Fenrir Greyback, is a PsychoForHire who [[{{Plaguemaster}} delights in spreading the disease]], has his attacks and urges [[DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything described in a rather sexual manner]], and [[PaedoHunt targets young children]] with the goal of [[RapeAndSwitch indoctrinating them into the werewolf community]]. Those familiar with the hysteria will probably recognize every single negative stereotype or unrealistic myth about people with HIV, all embodied in one character who seems to be far more typical of the demographic than Lupin. Given the longstanding association of HIV and homosexuality, this doesn't help the above issues with Dumbledore's sexuality--especially since Lupin, the "good" werewolf, is very explicitly straight, while Greyback, the "bad" one, [[AllGaysArePedophiles attacks male children]].

* Rowling claims that werewolves were meant to be [[TheDiseaseThatShallNotBeNamed an allegory for those infected with HIV/AIDS]]. The prejudice Lupin receives as a result of being one is meant to be analogous to the hysteria over AIDS and the stigma against HIV-positive people, with the intended idea being that "fearing AIDS was bad and hurt a lot of people because of how trumped-up the issue was." Except there are no good werewolves ever even mentioned besides Lupin, and even Lupin has endangered the lives of others more than once through his condition. HIV/AIDS is only dangerous to someone if infected blood enters an uninfected person or intercourse happens between someone who has HIV and someone who doesn't. Also, the only other named werewolf, Fenrir Greyback, is a pretty handy encapsulation of every negative stereotype about people with AIDS -- a PsychoForHire who [[{{Plaguemaster}} delights in spreading the disease]], has his attacks and urges [[DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything described in a rather sexual manner]], and [[PaedoHunt targets young children]] with the goal of [[RapeAndSwitch indoctrinating them into the werewolf community]]. Given the longstanding association of HIV and homosexuality, the bungling of this moral doesn't help the above issues with Dumbledore's sexuality -- especially since the aforesaid "good" werewolf is very explicitly straight, while the "bad" one [[AllGaysArePedophiles attacks male children]].

** If anything, the actions of the characters clearly show why Muggles and Wizards can't live happily together. To Wizards, things, like Confounding driving test instructors and magicking exploding toilets and [[LaserGuidedAmnesia memory wipes]], are harmless little pranks or day-to-day minutiae -- things that Muggles can't foresee or defend themselves from. And almost all of the Muggles that encounter magic in the series react to it with violence and hostility -- the Dursleys fear of magic makes them abuse Harry, it's implied Snape's father abused both his wife and son because they had magical powers, Tom Riddle's father abandoned his pregnant wife when he found out she was a witch [[spoiler: that had been drugging him with love potions and raping him until she believed that he really loved her back, at which point she stopped drugging him and he got the Hell away from his rapist]], [[spoiler: three Muggle boys witnessed Ariana Dumbledore practicing magic and [[NoodleIncident did something so vicious to her]] that her brain was permanently affected.]] Even in cases of genuine love, there don't seem to be many [[MuggleMageRomance Muggle-Wizard relationships]] that didn't end tragically, or have some level of drama or deceit as a result of their imbalance. Seamus's mother and [=McGonagall=] kept their magic secret from their spouses for years, Snape's parents did not have a good relationship from what we see of them, Queenie and Jacob involved her drugging him with love potion and joining Grindelwald, and the above relationship with Tom and Merope produced Voldemort. By this track record, the two races are dangerous to one another and peaceful mixing is the exception rather than the rule. Even in the epilogue, Harry and all his peers end up hooking up with other witches and wizards, with Muggle-wizard pairings being totally unmentioned - even in interviews that created new characters solely to pair them up with existing ones.

** The idea that one's choices matter also falls flat when the ''entire series'' revolves around everybody involved intentionally or not fulfilling a prophecy. The one person who actually tries to make his choices matter and ScrewDestiny ''is the villain'' and [[YouCantFightFate which he fails miserably at]] and [[ProphecyTwist even unintentionally ends up bringing it about.]]

* The series is largely centered around the message of unity and tolerance. Specifically, unity and tolerance between Pure-Blood, Half-Blood, and Muggleborn wizards. Discrimination and segregation between them are always depicted as wrong. It also has the bad guys seeking to kill or enslave non-wizard people (aka Muggles) as an analogue to Nazism. This would all be fine and dandy, if it weren't for the fact that wizards -- even the good ones -- are highly guilty of separatism and segregation by hiding themselves and their society from Muggles and rejecting their culture (the reason wizards are still stuck with medieval technology is that they're largely ignorant of modern technology and science due to their rejection of anything "Muggle"), and the books never portray this behavior as being wrong. Okay, being fair, many wizards believe in Muggles' rights, and some have an interest in Muggle culture, and they have a study called Muggle Studies dedicated to it. But in those cases, this is done in an incredibly condescending manner, almost as if dealing with an animal species, and it's never done with the objective of integration. In other words, being a promoter of Muggle rights practically makes you the wizard equivalent of a PETA activist. Consider how Ron's father's job is specifically to study Muggle culture but still has to ask Harry what the point of a rubber duck is and that the existence of wizards with fully Muggle parents means that they don't even need to leave their veil to get most of the info they could ever need to see how seriously they honestly take it.

** If anything, the actions of the characters clearly show why Muggles and Wizards can't live happily together. To Wizards, things like Confounding driving test instructors and magicking exploding toilets and [[LaserGuidedAmnesia memory wipes]] are harmless little pranks or day-to-day minutiae -- things that Muggles can't foresee or defend themselves from. And almost all of the Muggles that encounter magic in the series react to it with violence and hostility -- the Dursleys fear of magic makes them abuse Harry, it's implied Snape's father abused both his wife and son because they had magical powers, Tom Riddle's father abandoned his pregnant wife when he found out she was a witch [[spoiler: that had been drugging him with love potions and raping him until she believed that he really loved her back, at which point she stopped drugging him and he got the Hell away from his rapist]], [[spoiler: three Muggle boys witnessed Ariana Dumbledore practicing magic and [[NoodleIncident did something so vicious to her]] that her brain was permanently affected.]] Even in cases of genuine love, there don't seem to be many [[MuggleMageRomance Muggle-Wizard relationships]] that didn't end tragically, or have some level of drama or deceit as a result of their imbalance. Seamus's mother and [=McGonagall=] kept their magic secret from their spouses for years, Snape's parents did not have a good relationship from what we see of them, Queenie and Jacob involved her drugging him with love potion and joining Grindelwald, and the above relationship with Tom and Merope produced Voldemort. By this track record, the two races are dangerous to one another and peaceful mixing is the exception rather than the rule. Even in the epilogue, Harry and all his peers end up hooking up with other witches and wizards, with Muggle-wizard pairings being totally unmentioned - even in interviews that created new characters solely to pair them up with existing ones.

* Throughout the series, a few characters (especially the Sorting Hat) express an interest in reconciliation between the four Hogwarts houses, urging camaraderie and friendship, rather than preserving the status quo of Slytherin == Bad Guys and The Other Three Houses == Good Guys. But when Voldemort attacks Hogwarts, instead of the four houses putting aside their differences and defending the school together, we have the entire Slytherin house petulantly refusing to fight. It's even worse in the film, where the other three houses actually cheer as the Slytherins are led away. Yes, it's commendable that Slughorn stays and fights, but he was never a villain, anyway. The story tries to make up for it in the epilogue by having Harry name one of his sons after Snape, but that act would have been more meaningful if Slytherin house had chosen the right side when it mattered.[[note]]It's at least slightly unbroken by Pottermore, which claims that Slytherin went to Hogwarts to gather reinforcements from Hogsmeade and hit Voldemort from behind with their fresh fighters during the second stage of the battle.[[/note]]
** The camaraderie and friendship aesop is also broken with the house system in the first place. Houses are assigned based on aptitude and personality and then the point system encourages them to compete. This means for example, a Ravenclaw would likely tutor younger Ravenclaws for their own house as opposed to a Hufflepuff. The problem is that this means major student qualities are encouraged to stick to themselves which leads to overspecialization, Slytherin being the worst case. In normal schools, Houses are assigned randomly which means you can maintain house loyalty and competition while still getting a well rounded student body.

** The idea that Slytherin prizes a wicked lust for power is further put to rest by the character of its former Head of House, Horace Slughorn. He's ambitious, yes, but both for himself and his prized students, the idea being that he will recognize and nurture talent, and they will in turn remember him when they become successful. Furthermore Slughorn, despite being a Slytherin, wants nothing to do with their bigotry (he considers Hermione and Lily Evans among his prized students despite being Muggle-borns) and is [[MyGodWhatHaveIDone absolutely horrified]] [[MyGreatestFailure by his part in Voldemort's rise to power]] [[spoiler: by telling another promising young student, Tom Riddle, about Horcruxes.]]
* Rowling claims that werewolves were meant to be [[TheDiseaseThatShallNotBeNamed an allegory for those infected with HIV]]. The prejudice Lupin receives as a result of being one is meant to be analogous to the hysteria over AIDS and the stigma against HIV-positive people, with the intended idea being that "fearing AIDS was bad, trumped up, and hurt a lot of people." Except there are no good werewolves even mentioned besides Lupin, and even Lupin has endangered the lives of others more than once through his condition. Also, the only other named werewolf, Fenrir Greyback, is a pretty handy encapsulation of every negative stereotype about people with AIDS -- a PsychoForHire who [[{{Plaguemaster}} delights in spreading the disease]], has his attacks and urges [[DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything described in a rather sexual manner]], and [[PaedoHunt targets young children]] with the goal of [[RapeAndSwitch indoctrinating them into the werewolf community]]. Given the longstanding association of HIV and homosexuality, the bungling of this moral doesn't help the above issues with Dumbledore's sexuality -- especially since the aforesaid "good" werewolf is very explicitly straight, while the "bad" one [[AllGaysArePedophiles attacks male children]].

** If anything, the actions of the characters clearly show why Muggles and Wizards can't live happily together. To Wizards, things like Confounding driving test instructors and magicking exploding toilets and [[LaserGuidedAmnesia memory wipes]] are harmless little pranks or day-to-day minutiae -- things that Muggles can't foresee or defend themselves from. And almost all of the Muggles that encounter magic in the series react to it with violence and hostility -- the Dursleys fear of magic makes them abuse Harry, it's implied Snape's father abused both his wife and son because they had magical powers, Tom Riddle's father abandoned his pregnant wife when he found out she was a witch [[spoiler: that had been drugging him with love potions and raping him until she believed that he really loved her back, at which point she stopped drugging him and he got the Hell away from his rapist]], [[spoiler: three Muggle boys witnessed Ariana Dumbledore practicing magic and beat her up so viciously that her brain was permanently affected.]] Even in cases of genuine love, there don't seem to be many [[MuggleMageRomance Muggle-Wizard relationships]] that didn't end tragically, or have some level of drama or deceit as a result of their imbalance. Seamus's mother and [=McGonagall=] kept their magic secret from their spouses for years, Snape's parents did not have a good relationship from what we see of them, Queenie and Jacob involved her drugging him with love potion and joining Grindelwald, and the above relationship with Tom and Merope produced Voldemort. By this track record, the two races are dangerous to one another and peaceful mixing is the exception rather than the rule. Even in the epilogue, Harry and all his peers end up hooking up with other witches and wizards, with Muggle-wizard pairings being totally unmentioned - even in interviews that created new characters solely to pair them up with existing ones.

** It is also diminished by the fact that the wizard society has a very tight and rigid social structure. Up until very recently if you were a Muggle-born you could ''forget'' reaching the top no matter how hard you tried.

* One of the main themes of the series is ThePowerOfLove, and how Lily [[HeroicSacrifice sacrificed herself]] to let Harry survive Voldemort's attack and protect him against any future attacks from the Dark Lord and the Death Eaters during his childhood before Hogwarts. However, this is diminished by how the blood charm required Harry to be sent to live with [[AbusiveParents the Dursleys]] for the protections to actually work. The Dursleys do not love Harry in the slightest, and for most of his life, at best begrudged his existence, yet they're allowed to count under a spell forged by love solely because they're his blood relatives. On the other hand, if Harry was sent to live with an ''actual'' loving family like the Weasleys, then he would no longer be protected from Voldemort and the Death Eaters. So once again, the random circumstances of birth and blood outweigh actual choices and loving relationships, and the reader is left with the impression that only familial bonds count as "true love," even when there's no love to be had and the actual relationship is abusive. It's not hard to peg that this was really less a powerful statement and more a plot convenience to keep Harry with the Dursleys as long as possible.

* One of the main themes of the series is ThePowerOfLove, and how Lily sacrificed herself to let Harry survive Voldemort's attack. However, this is diminished by how the blood charm required Harry to be sent to live with [[AbusiveParents the Dursleys]]. The Dursleys do not love Harry in the slightest, and for most of his life, at best begrudged his existence, yet they're allowed to count under a spell forged by love solely because they're his relatives. On the other hand, if Harry was sent to live with an ''actual'' loving family like the Weasleys, then he would no longer be protected. So once again, the random circumstances of birth and blood outweigh actual choices and loving relationships, and the reader is left with the impression that only familial bonds count as "true love," even when there's no love to be had and the actual relationship is abusive. It's not hard to peg that this was really less a powerful statement and more a plot convenience to keep Harry with the Dursleys as long as possible.

* One of the main themes of the series is ThePowerOfLove, and how Lily sacrificed herself to let Harry survive Voldemort's attack. However, this is diminished by how the blood charm required Harry to be sent to live with [[AbusiveParents the Dursleys]]. The Dursleys do not love Harry in the slightest, and for most of his life, at best begrudged his existence, yet they're allowed to count under a spell forged by love solely because they're his relatives. On the other hand, if Harry was sent to live with an ''actual'' loving family like the Weasleys, then he would no longer be protected. So once again, the random circumstances of birth and blood outweigh actual choices and loving relationships, and the reader is left with the impression that only familial bonds count as "true love," even when there's no love to be had. It's not hard to peg that this was really less a powerful statement and more a plot convenience to keep Harry with the Dursleys as long as possible.

* One of the main themes of the series is ThePowerOfLove, and how Lily sacrificed herself to let Harry survive Voldemort's attack. However, this is diminished by how the blood charm required Harry to be sent to live with [[AbusiveParents the Dursleys]]. The Dursleys do not love Harry in the slightest, and for most of his life, at best begrudged his existence, yet they're allowed to count under a spell forged by love solely because they're his relatives. On the other hand, if Harry was sent to live with an ''actual'' loving family, then he would no longer be protected. So once again, the random circumstances of birth and blood outweigh actual choices and loving relationships, and the reader is left with the impression that only familial bonds count as "true love," even when there's no love to be had. It's not hard to peg that this was really less a powerful statement and more a plot convenience to keep Harry with the Dursleys as long as possible.

* Next, Rowling [[WordOfGod claimed]] that she intended Dumbledore to be gay, and it was supposed to "teach children tolerance". However, nearly all heterosexual romances in the series (even Snape's unrequited love for Lily Evans) played a positive role, and Dumbledore's allegedly homosexual feelings for Grindelwald were decidedly calamitous, resulting in the rise of the magical variant of fascism, many deaths (including the death of Ariana), and, to some extent, possibly even [=WW2=]. Some homophobic people even praised this plot point, seeing it as confirmation for their idea that "homosexuality is evil". The fact that it's the ''[[TokenMinority only]]'' gay relationship in the series just makes it even more problematic. There's also absolutely zero indication that he's actually gay; he seems to be more or less celibate in the books, and in ''Film/FantasticBeastsTheCrimesOfGrindelwald'', where his relationship with Grindelwald is briefly shown, [[AmbiguouslyGay it's never made explicit]] that the two were anything more than very close friends. There's certainly implications, but no more than many other relationships depicted as merely HeterosexualLifePartners (Lupin and Sirius, for example).

* One of the main themes of the series is ThePowerOfLove, and how Lily sacrificed herself to let Harry survive Voldemort's attack. However, this is diminished by how the blood charm to keep this sacrifice going and protect himself from the Death Eaters; sending Harry with [[AbusiveParents the Dursleys]]. While Petunia did take Harry him, she and her family were nothing but abusive assholes to Harry, meaning he has never considered 4 Privet Drive home. Many fans consider the blood charm to be a cheap way for the story to explain away why Harry had to live with his abusive muggle relatives, even though a lot of wizard families would have loved to take him in and treat him like their son.

* Next, the series has House Elves, a race that is treated as slave servants of wizards. Their enslavement is never depicted as wrong, and the one person who is against it, Hermione, is treated as an annoying tree-hugging hippy. The closest the series goes to decrying the treatment of House Elves is saying that [[FamilyUnfriendlyAesop it's wrong to enslave them if you're an abusive master, not that it's wrong to enslave them]]. It also makes an argument that Elves [[HappinessInSlavery enjoy serving wizards and abhor the attempts to free them]], ignoring the fact that they're also conditioned to severely and bodily punish themselves for failing a task, [[MoreThanMindControl which clearly indicates that they are not in control of their own minds]], and strongly implies that their "enjoyment" of servitude is just as forced. According to Rowling, the idea behind house-elves and Hermione's quest to free them was apparently to satirize well-meaning liberals [[WhiteMansBurden so determined to help others that they ignore what the people they're trying to help actually want]], but the whole thing is [[CluelessAesop handled so clumsily]] that it reads more as "owning slaves is okay, as long as they say they're happy." And even that clumsy message loses what little water it held, when in ''Deathly Hallows'' it's revealed that even a loving and well-meaning master can ''accidentally'' lock an elf in an [[LogicBomb infinite loop of failure and self-punishment]] by uncautiously giving them an impossible order.

* There's also the recurrent message that [[ScrewDestiny "It is our choices, far more than our abilities, that show who we really are."]] In other words, ''you'' are responsible for your destiny, and ''you'' determine the breadth of your achievements through your choices. Which would be a perfectly valid message, if not for the fact that, y'know...the entire series takes place in a prestigious School of Magic that you can '''only''' get into by being born with natural Magical abilities, and all of Wizarding society is built upon Magical abilities that can only be acquired by virtue of birth. From what we see in-series, they're an entirely random genetic mutation that the children of Muggles often develop at birth without regards to choice of any kind.

** Many fans consider the blood charm to be a cheap way for the story to explain away why Harry had to live with his abusive muggle relatives, even though a lot of wizard families would have loved to take him in and treat him like their son.

* Speaking of Voldemort's backstory, it seems to be making a statement about assault under influence: Tom Riddle was fed a love potion and enchanted into a relationship, which conceived Voldemort. It is emphasized as a loveless relationship and produced the biggest evil in the wizarding world. Harry even claims that it's practically a form of dark magic. Unfortunately, this gets overturned by seemingly every other instance of love potion in the series being treated as a harmless bit of fun; in particular, Fred and George openly sell the stuff to teenagers.

* Talking of Voldemort's backstory, it seems to be making a statement about assault under influence: Tom Riddle was fed a love potion and enchanted into a relationship, which conceived Voldemort. It is emphasized as a loveless relationship and produced the biggest evil in the wizarding world. Harry even claims that it's practically a form of dark magic. Unfortunately, this gets overturned by seemingly every other instance of love potion in the series being treated as a harmless bit of fun; in particular, Fred and George openly sell the stuff to teenagers.

* Next, the series has House Elves, a race that is treated as slave servants of wizards. Their enslavement is never depicted as wrong, and the one person who is against it, Hermione, is treated as an annoying tree-hugging hippy. The closest the series goes to decrying the treatment of House Elves is saying that [[FamilyUnfriendlyAesop it's wrong to enslave them if you're an abusive master, not that it's wrong to enslave them]]. It also makes an argument that Elves [[HappinessInSlavery enjoy serving wizards and abhor the attempts to free them]], ignoring the fact that they're also conditioned to severely and bodily punish themselves for failing a task, [[MoreThanMindControl which clearly indicates that they are not in control of their own minds]], and strongly implies that their "enjoyment" of servitude is just as forced. According to Rowling, the idea behind house-elves and Hermione's quest to free them was apparently to satirize well-meaning liberals [[WhiteMansBurden so determined to help others that they ignore what the people they're trying to help actually want]], but the whole thing is [[CluelessAesop handled so clumsily]] that it reads more as "owning slaves is okay, as long as they say they're happy." And even that clumsy message loses what little water it held, when in ''Deathly Hallows'' it's revealed that even a loving and well-meaning master can ''accidentally'' lock an elf in an infinite loop of failure and self-punishment by uncautiously giving them an impossible order.

** Not to mention the Hogwarts tradition of categorizing students by their best characteristics at age 11, and even as adults very few characters deviated from their house's values (especially when it comes to the Slytherins who are treated as AlwaysChaoticEvil with only a couple of exceptions).

** The reason why Voldemort became a villain is the circumstances of his birth, namely that he could not feel love as he was born under the influence of a love potion, not real love. First of all, that has the [[UnfortunateImplication disturbing implication]] that children born as a result of rape should also be inherently evil because they weren't conceived out of "love" either. Secondly, it implies that Voldemort never even had the chance to be a good person and lacked a fundamental human characteristic from the very beginning.

* "You fail to recognize that it matters not what someone is born, but what they grow to be!" Dumbledore said this to Voldemort. However, the reason that Voldemort became a villain is the circumstances of his birth, namely that he could not feel love as he was born under the influence of a love potion, not real love. First of all, that has the disturbing implication that children born as a result of rape should also be inherently evil because they weren't conceived out of "love" either. Secondly, it implies that Voldemort never even had the chance to be a good person and lacked a fundamental human characteristic from the very beginning. Then there's also the fact that the only thing that made Harry important, especially to Dumbledore, was a prophecy that decided what he would be even before he was born. Not to mention the tradition of categorizing students by their best characteristics at age 11, and even as adults very few characters deviated from their house's values. Especially because all Slytherins are evil.

* Rowling claims that werewolves were meant to be [[TheDiseaseThatShallNotBeNamed an allegory for those infected with HIV]]. The prejudice Lupin receives as a result of being one is meant to be analogous to the hysteria over AIDS and the stigma against HIV-positive people, with the intended idea being that "fearing AIDS was bad, trumped up, and hurt a lot of people." Except there are no good werewolves even mentioned besides Lupin, and even Lupin has endangered the lives of others more than once through his condition. Also, the only other named werewolf, Fenrir Greyback, is a pretty handy encapsulation of every negative stereotype about people with AIDS -- a PsychoForHire who [[{{Plaguemaster}} delights in spreading the disease]], has his attacks and urges [[DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything described in a rather sexual manner]], and [[PaedoHunt targets young children]] with the goal of [[RapeAndSwitch indoctrinating them into the werewolf community]]. Given the longstanding association of HIV and homosexuality, the bungling of this moral doesn't help the above issues with Dumbledore's sexuality -- especially since the aforesaid "good" werewolf is very explicitly straight, while the "bad" one [[AllGaysArePedophiles attacks male children]].

** Throughout the books, the message of friendship and putting aside differences is hammered pretty hard; Malfoy is portrayed as a self-righteous {{Jerkass}} for warning Harry about befriending "the wrong sort," and the series' PowerTrio is made up of three students from radically different backgrounds. The aesop is shattered to pieces, however, by the way Slytherins are treated: Dumbledore reverses their victory, giving the House Cup to their bitter rivals in full view of the entire school; when Harry, disguised as a Slytherin student, asks another student for directions, she flat refuses, primly claiming "''I'm'' a Ravenclaw" before walking off with her nose in the air; Gryffindors "hate Slytherins on principle"; and so on. And all of this loathing is portrayed as 100 percent justified (and even commendable) in-universe, and every halfway decent Slytherin has a DarkAndTroubledPast that they never quite managed to rise above. So, a more accurate aesop might be: "Make friends with people who are different from you.... [[IronicEcho so long as they're not the wrong sort]]."

* Next, Rowling [[WordOfGod claimed]] that she intended Dumbledore to be gay, and it was supposed to "teach children tolerance". However, nearly all heterosexual romances in the series (even Snape's unrequited love for Lily Evans) played a positive role, and Dumbledore's allegedly homosexual feelings for Grindelwald were decidedly calamitous, resulting in the rise of the magical variant of fascism, many deaths (including the death of Ariana), and, to some extent, possibly even [=WW2=]. Some homophobic people even praised this plot point, seeing it as confirmation for their idea that "homosexuality is evil". The fact that it's the ''[[TokenMinority only]]'' gay relationship in the series just makes it even more problematic, as does the fact that there is absolutely zero indication that he's actually gay--even his '''informed''' love of Grindelwald could very easily be seen, until ''Film/FantasticBeastsTheCrimesOfGrindelwald'', as nothing but them having been just close friends.

* Next, Rowling [[WordOfGod claimed]] that she intended Dumbledore to be gay, and it was supposed to "teach children tolerance". However, nearly all heterosexual romances in the series (even Snape's unrequited love for Lily Evans) played a positive role, and Dumbledore's allegedly homosexual feelings for Grindelwald were decidedly calamitous, resulting in the rise of the magical variant of fascism, many deaths (including the death of Ariana), and, to some extent, possibly even [=WW2=]. Some homophobic people even praised this plot point, seeing it as confirmation for their idea that "homosexuality is evil". The fact that it's the ''[[TokenMinority only]]'' gay relationship in the series just makes it even more problematic.

** Related to that is how the sacrificial protection magic works. Your choices in life do not matter. How good a person or how good a friend of Lily you were also doesn't matter (Remus or those many friends that were so kind to send photos to Hagrid). Only if you were her blood relative does the protection extend to you. That explanation comes from the person who is the icon of the struggle against Pureblood supremacy.

* Next, the series has House Elves, a race that is treated as slave servants of wizards. Their enslavement is never depicted as wrong, and the one person who is against it, Hermione, is treated as an annoying tree-hugging hippy. The closest the series goes to decrying the treatment of House Elves is saying that [[FamilyUnfriendlyAesop it's wrong to enslave them if you're an abusive master, not that it's wrong to enslave them]]. It also makes an argument that Elves [[HappinessInSlavery enjoy serving wizards and abhor the attempts to free them]], ignoring the fact that they're also conditioned to severely and bodily punish themselves for failing a task, [[MoreThanMindControl which clearly indicates that they are not in control of their own minds]], and strongly implies that their "enjoyment" of servitude is just as forced. According to Rowling, the idea behind house-elves and Hermione's quest to free them was apparently to satirize well-meaning liberals [[WhiteMansBurden so determined to help others that they ignore what the people they're trying to help actually want]], but the whole thing is [[CluelessAesop handled so clumsily]] that it reads more as "owning slaves is okay, as long as they say they're happy." And even that clumsy message loses what little water it held, when in the "Deathly Hallows" it's revealed that even a loving and well-meaning master can ''accidentally'' lock an elf in an infinite loop of failure and self-punishment by uncautiously giving them an impossible order.

* Next, the series has House Elves, a race that is treated as slave servants of wizards. Their enslavement is never depicted as wrong, and the one person who is against it, Hermione, is treated as an annoying tree-hugging hippy. The closest the series goes to decrying the treatment of House Elves is saying that [[FamilyUnfriendlyAesop it's wrong to enslave them if you're an abusive master, not that it's wrong to enslave them]]. It also makes an argument that Elves [[HappinessInSlavery enjoy serving wizards and abhor the attempts to free them]], ignoring the fact that they're also conditioned to severely and bodily punish themselves for failing a task, [[MoreThanMindControl which clearly indicates that they are not in control of their own minds]], and strongly implies that their "enjoyment" of servitude is just as forced. According to Rowling, the idea behind house-elves and Hermione's quest to free them was apparently to satirize well-meaning liberals [[WhiteMansBurden so determined to help others that they ignore what the people they're trying to help actually want]], but the whole thing is [[CluelessAesop handled so clumsily]] that it reads more as "owning slaves is okay, as long as they say they're happy." And even that clunsy message loses what little water it held, when in the "Deathly Hallows" it's revealed that even a loving and well-meaning master can ''accidentally'' lock an elf in an infinite loop of failure and self-punishment by uncautiously giving them an impossible order.

* Next, the series has House Elves, a race that is treated as slave servants of wizards. Their enslavement is never depicted as wrong, and the one person who is against it, Hermione, is treated as an annoying tree-hugging hippy. The closest the series goes to decrying the treatment of House Elves is saying that [[FamilyUnfriendlyAesop it's wrong to enslave them if you're an abusive master, not that it's wrong to enslave them]]. It also makes an argument that Elves [[HappinessInSlavery enjoy serving wizards and abhor the attempts to free them]], ignoring the fact that they're also conditioned to severely and bodily punish themselves for failing a task, [[MoreThanMindControl which clearly indicates that they are not in control of their own minds]], and strongly implies that their "enjoyment" of servitude is just as forced. According to Rowling, the idea behind house-elves and Hermione's quest to free them was apparently to satirize well-meaning liberals [[WhiteMansBurden so determined to help others that they ignore what the people they're trying to help actually want]], but the whole thing is [[CluelessAesop handled so clumsily]] that it reads more as "owning slaves is okay, as long as they say they're happy."