Harry Potter Video Games

I think that's because Sirius - like Hagrid - essentially gets by on "well, Harry likes him" fiat.

What's wrong with Hagrid?

Also is that an example of protagonist centered morality?

Well, there's the whole "trying to turn a child into a pig because you're in conflict with his dad" thing in the first book.

Also his defense of slavery in the fourth one, which could be taken almost word for word from the arguments actual real life slave owners used to justify slavery.

Edited by DrunkenNordmann on Mar 26th 2022 at 11:45:16 AM

I've always thought that an interesting plot twist would be if the sorting of the houses by personality turned out to had become completely fake and the reason that one student goes to a house is because he actively chooses it over his personality traits, like how the sorting hat put Harry in Gryffindor because he wished to. So, over time, Slytherin would be infested by Voldemort-sympathizers because the reputation the house received due to its creator was how it was composed of racist pure-bloods, and so pure-blood families made their children want to go there, regardless of they being all mischievous and ambitious or not.

Well when you put it like that, yeah Hagrid kinda comes off as an ass.

Then again, the whole slavery defense bit also applies to everyone else in the wizarding world by default.

In Hagrid case it was because vermon insult dumbludore, the one who keep beliving in him after he was out in school, so is a sort of berserket button for hagrid.

I mean, that's still not a valid excuse for trying to turn a child into a pig.

"This guy insulted my benefactor, so I'm gonna disfigure his son" is not really the kinda logic you'd normally see from characters you're supposed to root for.

Edited by DrunkenNordmann on Mar 26th 2022 at 4:40:59 PM

I think most of us just sort of ignore it because it's Dudley.

But Hagrid doesn't know that.

Unless he somehow heard about how abusive the Dursley's are, it IS pretty unjustified, but it IS still the Dursleys.

I mean, arguably it's still unjustified even if he knew.

Dudley's a bully, but he's still a child. There's no implication Hagrid's trying to punish him for the bullying and the whole thing's treated more as another case for the narrative to make fun of Dudley's weight (Because the books also have some kind of problem with fat people).

Edited by DrunkenNordmann on Mar 26th 2022 at 5:05:38 PM

"bullying should happen to the bad people not to the good people" is very much a point in the books, revenge against the Simple People keeping you Down but by the end of the series the metaphores got mixed and suddenly destroying them all is bad.

Are we really going to be able to just fly all around Hogwarts.

That sounds logistically problematic.

The evil Dark Wizard in the trailer looks like Dhampierre from Soul Calibur.

Why do we have portraits of Dumbledore looking old when this takes place in the past, when Dumbledore was presumably still young-looking?

Edited by FOFD on Mar 26th 2022 at 3:23:14 PM

I mean, free flying around Hogwarts worked in the original PS 2 days. I would assume it operates on similar if higher fidelity design.

I think Hagrid tends to get a pass because the tone of the series at that point is a lot more whimsical and... for lack of a better descriptor, Dahl-esque?

Its ok if kid's get ironic but horrific fates if they're brats and deserve it.

Kids are constantly threatened with transfiguration or other things. Mc Gonagall offers to turn Harry and Ron into a map and pocketwatch offhandedly in the first film while then goes on to yell at Moody for turning Draco into a ferret and that its against school rules.

Hermione growing massive buck teeth or turning half cat just wouldn't happen in Book 5. They were different stories by then.

As for Peter, I think the idea that he's brave in purely self-preservation and selfish ways, but I dont think the series framed it that way or examined it as such. His cowardice is framed in spite of his house, not truth of it. So I dont really want to give the writing that much credit.

I too would have kinda liked the plot twist that the house personalities are all bullshit and everyone just saw the traits that they wanted to see in them and all other traits are in exception to that rather than contradictory.

I also kinda thought it was dumb how many adults cares about the houses and their politics. Everyone has fine happy memories of their houses and still associate in their boxes instead of just... not giving a shit anymore within a few years of graduation?

I take it as how some parents place a huge deal on the sororities and alma-matter they went too when they were kids and expect their children to take it up after them to continue the legacy.

Should be noted that the Sorting Hat takes the student's wishes into consideration. If a kid really wants to go to a certain House or doesn't want to go to a certain House, the Sorting Hat will respect that.

Remember that the Sorting Hat recommended Slytherin for Harry but decided on Gryffindor due to Harry begging it not to send him to Slytherin.

So it's entirely possible the Sorting Hat recommended a different House for Peter but let him go to Gryffindor instead. As to why Gryffindor...Peter likely latched onto the other future Marauders during the train ride to Hogwarts and wanted to be in the same House as them.

The Sorting Hat doesn't force any student to go to a House they don't want. It simply gives them suggestions on which House would suit them best based on its reading of their mindset thanks to its Legilimency.

Edited by M84 on Mar 26th 2022 at 11:14:30 PM

... makes you wonder how Harry's son ended up in Slytherin then, considering he wasn't a big fan of being sorted into that house.

Blame Harry. He was the one who reassured him that Slytherin was not so bad.

It's pretty bad that Albus is bullied for picking Slytherin even by his own cousin.

And again, this system is kept.

There's a lot of things from CC that I would love to forget (and still try to). Still though, he did get a best friend in Scorpio, who is everything that isn't Malfoy or Slytherin.

Unironically, I think Albus's and Scorpio's friendship is the only good thing in the play.

Probably helped that Draco pretty much tried to keep his son away from the whole pureblood bullshit he himself grew up with.

The whole pureblood thing reminds me of a wizard story idea I had where the idea of bloodline wizard families is generally discouraged.

Cause who gains magic is completely random. Quite literally anyone is randomly capable of magic and there is no guarantee that their children will have magic themselves. More often than not an entire family line can only be capable of producing one single mage over the course of a thousand years.

And the wizards who are able to pass down their magic are actively declining or stagnating in power. Meanwhile muggle-born wizards, most of which only gain their magic in adulthood are hyper-adapting prodigies each one individually stronger than an entire old blood family.

I've been reading Shades of Magic over the past week, and unless there's going to be a reveal later on, that first half is how magic works in the series.

It's not tied to bloodline at all, but the skill/power someone has is random.

TBH, that's kinda the reveal I was hoping would occur. It would be the next step beyond "Sorting Hat takes your wishes into consideration" to then go "The Sorting Hat literally only follows a reflection of your own wishes rather than some inate immutable quality and that the traits attributed to the houses are entirely socially perceived".

Thus, Ravenclaws aren't actually smart so much as people expect and find intelligence somewhere within them when they expect to find such. People will find bravery in Gryffindor because the traits expected precede the actual people being examined.

Because that kinda became a thing as the series went on; Slytherins are Evil and never to be trusted, Ravenclaws are smart, Gryffindors are heroes. And that's constantly used for short-hand. People cheer when Slytherins are locked in the dungeon and that's framed as punishment for... what exactly? How are they as a social group any more culpable for the current state of Hogwarts than any of the other social groups aged 11-18?

It also starts to feel... vaguely eugenics-esque if just with different traits labeled. Different houses get associated with family lines which are then expected to stay within those house lines and prejudice forms from that social segregation. So, what if the traits were perceived as like... "dumb" or some negative trait? "People from x house are inherently stupid and should never make smart people choices. They are predisposed to being dumb".

And I don't think it's bad to actually have that in a story; those kinds of social divides exist and create works like Idiocracy and people create those internalized prejudice, but I just wish the work criticized or engaged with it more.

With something where we can actively choose which house to be in and experience the story from that angle, I'm curious what they'll do with it. Will the houses really be little more than "Which color do you like best?" Will certain characters view us differently based on our houses? Will they view us differently because of our later actions and choices? Will the game track my choices against my house; i.e. Will it acknowledge if I play a *really* stupid Ravenclaw?

I think there's a lot of interesting potential there, but I don't know if the game will engage with it. The Hogwarts Mystery game didn't far as I remember.

Edited by InkDagger on Mar 27th 2022 at 3:20:01 AM

We do not talk about Hogwarts Mystery.

I can literally think of more negative archetypes associated with the "good" houses off the top of my head.

• Gryffindor (bravery): The Blood Knight; the glory-obsessed idiot.
• Hufflepuff (justice and loyalty): The sort of person who is so devoted to the letter of the law that they continually violate the spirit; the utter sycophant who is blindly loyal to a detrimental cause (I've occasionally wondered if Hufflepuff produced any Death Eaters, tbh).
• Ravenclaw (rationalism and intelligence): ...well, take your pick.

Edited by HamburgerTime on Mar 27th 2022 at 6:00:06 AM