r/mildyinteresting • u/waiha • May 01 '26

humankind hiccups šŸ˜… Well this aged like milk.

Post image

Stumbled upon this while clearing out the attic.

She visited my primary school in Edinburgh shortly after releasing TPS. The girl in front of me (my friend and train-to-school comrade) was Southeast Asian and has an incredibly elaborate sounding name. When Joanne screwed up her face when my friend gave her her name for the signature, I laughed. This is how she decided to sign my copy.

I was laughing at you, JK.

EDIT: Itā€™s on EBay.

59.9k Upvotes

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2.9k

u/gaticchi May 01 '26

meanwhile she names her only asian character Cho Chang lmao

1.1k

u/Echochamberking May 01 '26

Padma & Parvati Patil

1.1k

u/Comfortable-Pear-973 May 01 '26

Seamus Finnigan for an Irish character
Kingsley Shacklebolt for a black character

https://giphy.com/gifs/HP7mtfNa1E4CEqNbNL

406

u/marveloustoebeans May 01 '26

Tbf Irish people pretty much all have names like that lol.

Shacklebolt thoughā€¦ yeah, that oneā€™s fucking crazyšŸ˜‚

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u/Nazreg May 02 '26

Nah through some research on YouTube they appear to have names like call me Kevin and jack septic eye.

68

u/DomesticAlmonds May 02 '26

Call me Kevin is one of the funniest youtubers Ive ever watched. Guy has so much fun just fucking around in-game. It's truely how games like the Sims are meant to be played.

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u/Kermit-Batman May 02 '26

Legit a bit worried about the lad recently. He seems so flat. :(

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u/Far_Garbage_4052 May 02 '26

I've noticed that as well. I'm hoping it's just that he isn't putting on his "YouTuber facade" so to speak or just where he's editing less stuff out. That said I can't imagine that the vast free time he has being retired at like 30ish is helping. At the risk of sounding parasocial and arm chair psychologist, given what he's said about his mental health issues I imagine he struggles to find goals or aims at this point since he doesn't really NEED to work towards anything and that probably does a number mentally.

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u/Kirstenly May 02 '26

Last month he put out a video where he talked about how his house was basically on the verge of total collapse for the last several months, dudes been going through it. Hes got an action plan apparently, so i expect his on-screen mood will be less "im trying to not acknowledge the sound of my roof shifting in a bad way, and my floor moving under me as i breathe... and i dont have the energy to keep up the vibes under these circumstances" in due time.

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u/Banonkers May 02 '26

Is this his house in Portugal? Or did he move somewhere else?

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u/Kermit-Batman May 02 '26

All really good points, I hate the parasocial thing too, but real soft spot for Kevin (and a lot of the Irish YT people as well I guess!)

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u/scottishdrunkard May 02 '26

Apparently heā€™s on medication, for ADHD I believe. Which probably calmed him down.

5

u/NatseePunksFeckOff May 02 '26

He lost his spark as a YouTuber a long time ago. I stopped watching him when he moved to Spain, but before that he changed his schedules to upload less and less often, I knew then he started burning out as a youtuber and it showed in the content.

I don't hold it against him. He was uploading daily for the longest time, and I've heard multiple content creators say that daily uploads kill you inside. I still love the guy.

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u/AimShootMiss_ May 02 '26

I LOVE KEVIN HE IS JUST A FUNNY LAD HERE FOR A GIGGLE

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u/thisisnotabombx May 02 '26

thor ragnorok more like bore ragnorok *wheeze*

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u/CallMeChristopher May 02 '26

Hell, one of them is called ā€œRT Gameā€

And you know what he does? He plays video games!

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u/ThaGr1m May 02 '26

Pretty sure he abuses chat for a living( in a funny way)

3

u/an-alien- May 02 '26

jacksepticeyeā€™s actual name is sean mcloughlin. pretty irish

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u/General_Kenobi18752 May 02 '26 edited May 02 '26

Iā€™m aware of a Drift King

6

u/FroYoSwagens May 02 '26

Raniel Taniel Game

2

u/DZAUXtheBruno May 02 '26

Call me Kevin got me through some dark times. Dude is like human comfort food.

2

u/IsaSaien May 02 '26

Jack spedicy?

2

u/FroYoSwagens May 02 '26

Or drift king, that one's out there

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u/LargeCabbageThrower May 02 '26

Ok but to make the irish character have a really stereotypical name and love blowing things up is too much. She might as well have called him Paddy MacCarbomb

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u/MaisUmCaraAleatorio May 02 '26

Pretty sure the blowing thing comes from the movies.Ā 

4

u/ParamedicAgitated897 May 02 '26

To be fair the explosions weren't really a thing in the books, the movies added that.

3

u/DeansPigInAPoke May 02 '26

And she had approval over the films. šŸ¤·šŸ¼ā€ā™€ļø

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u/czar_the_bizarre May 02 '26

It's really true about Irish names. I'm running a dnd campaign and the party is in this feywild/material plane liminal space that is both and neither, and everything is very fantasy-Irish. I've introduced them to like, four or five key NPC's for this place so far, and with each one they've said some variation of "that's the most Irish sounding name I've ever heard." And it's like. Siobhan MacDonough and Rory Finnegan.

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u/SilentShrek May 02 '26

MacDonough

šŸ‡®šŸ‡ŖāŒļø

šŸ“󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁓ó æāœ…ļø

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u/Otherwho May 02 '26

ā€˜Macā€™ is Scottish, ā€˜Mcā€™ is Irish

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u/doctorbeepboop May 02 '26

This is a common myth, but is incorrect. Mac might be used more commonly in Scotland, but both Mac and Mc are used in both countries. As in, there are Irish families (including my wifeā€™s) with Mac surnames who have no Scottish ancestry whatsoever. Mc is literally just a shortened form of Macā€¦

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u/AngryBiker May 02 '26

Absolutely true, anyone can easily look at any Rugby lineup in Ireland to confirm.

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u/DeansPigInAPoke May 02 '26

Ah yes! Rugby lineups! The most authoritative source. Totally trumps things like historical records, census data, or etymology.

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u/polopolo05 May 02 '26

also shamus is a explosive expert... PS this takes place during the troubles.

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u/aj_ramone May 02 '26

Mate I thought it was like a Caribbean pirate heritage thing. Kingsley is a badass name too.

Turns out she was just a regular Scottish boomer šŸ˜‚

3

u/Fit-Switch-5795 May 02 '26

I thought it was because he was a cop - he locks dark wizards up.

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u/TheAlmightyBuddha May 02 '26

Besides the shacklebolt one, I don't see how any of the names are a problem lol. Most Asians have Asian names, most Indians have Indian names, most Irish have Irish names

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u/GroggyWeasel May 02 '26

Iā€™m Irish and I have no problem with his name. But when he tried to use a spell to make alcohol and it blew up in his face. An alcoholic joke and a bomb joke in one fell swoop.

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u/HustlinInTheHall May 02 '26

That only happens in the movies though. The movies are definitely more guilty of playing up the stereotypes.

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u/MoneyCock May 02 '26

Right? Even had him make a half and half.

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u/marveloustoebeans May 02 '26

Yeah Cho Chang is pretty ignorant because thatā€™s not how Korean/Chinese names work and Shacklebolt is justā€¦ yeah. But other than those, people are kinda reaching to retroactively find problematic content.

I think JKR is trash btw, not defending her. Just saying some people are kinda reaching.

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u/ProjectDv2 May 02 '26

People are "reaching" like they reach to pick their nose. That is to say, no effort is needed.

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u/Shinjischneider May 02 '26

"They are reaching to find something problematic about a book that defends slavery and is full of racisty antisemitic, ableiten, fatphobic and homophobic shit the moment you scratch the surface."

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u/pyrojackelope May 02 '26

Let's be real, with the character Cho Chang, she probably drunkenly threw darts at a board of "asian names".

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u/Linesey May 02 '26

iirc it actually translates to something.

like if you look for name meanings.

So if you say, looked for ā€œasain names that mean xā€ you could end up with Cho and with Chang.

Smash then together with complete ignorance and disregard of the culture, and BAM,

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u/Eggmodo May 02 '26 edited May 02 '26

Thats generous. She clearly just picked the first two ā€œsounds Asians generally makeā€ that came into her head.

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u/captbaka May 02 '26

Lolll just got a warning from the Redditor gods for hate speech when I wrote out what JK Rowling really wanted to name her, which is only slightly different from the real nameā€¦ šŸ˜… (I am Asian.)

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u/[deleted] May 02 '26

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u/Spiritual_Bid_2308 May 02 '26

Theres soooo much problematic content that doesn't have to be reached for.

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u/electric_bayou May 02 '26

Her other character names are wildly creative. It really stands out how little time/energy she spent on non-white characters in comparison.

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u/Coal_Morgan May 02 '26

Most of the kids have very normal names that are stereotypical though.

Ron, Harry, Neville, Ginny, Bill, Charlie, Fred, George, Dean, Parvati.

The oddest names are Hermione which is an old upper class English name I believe and Luna a name given to millions of cats and children born of hippies.

It's the adults that more often end up with Severus, Shacklebolt, Albus Dumbledore, Filius Flitwich, Aurora Sinistra and Pomona Sprout.

I believe the author was trying to ground the students for child readers and make the fixtures of the adulthood more otherworldly and harder to approach but I could be reading to much into a kids book.

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u/LaxBedroom May 02 '26

Most people don't have hyperbolically stereotypic names related to their ethnicity.

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u/Fun_Disaster3436 May 02 '26

Bro she was asked if there was a Jewish character at hogwarts and she said yeah

his last name is GOLDSTEIN

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u/HustlinInTheHall May 02 '26

He's a cop. It's a cop pun. I don't know why people think it's some racist thing when the other black characters have normal names.Ā 

Cho Chang is fucked up though.Ā 

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u/marveloustoebeans May 02 '26

It may have been unintentional but itā€™s a very unfortunate coincidence and the fact that it didnā€™t stand out to her the moment she thought it up let alone wrote it down multiple times is kinda wild.

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u/Ok-Inspector-5472 May 02 '26

Shacklebolt????

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u/Pugporg111 May 02 '26

Iā€™m shocked she didnā€™t just name him like Martin Luther slavery man to remove all nuance

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u/pchlster May 02 '26

"The new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher is joining us from the Americas. Everyone please welcome Cletus Colt Eaglescream!"

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u/casino_r0yale May 02 '26

Fuck off that would have been so awesome. šŸ¤ 

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u/AutoModSux May 02 '26

Hes from the American campus

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u/Morgen-stern May 02 '26

Canā€™t be, he isnā€™t strapped

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u/LunaLilithLoveswood May 02 '26

Why would she? He's a cop. He's called Shacklebolt cause he puts them shackles on the bad guys. It's like people read that slaves used to be shackled and go "that must be it" instead of realising that quite a lot of other people also used to be shackled.

She named a werewolf "Lupin" cause she's gonna call a cop basically "Handcuffs" it's really not that deep.

Yes, JKR has become a horrible person but the disingenuous reach of criticism is just utterly ridiculous.

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u/Thatll-Do May 02 '26

There are other explanations, obviously. But the drain we're circling here is that she didn't put in any consideration for things like connotations, implications, stereotypes, or just general thoughts past the surface level. It's how we get Cho Chang, the only asian student who's name is a mashup of two surnames from two entirely separate countries, or her unironically defending chattel slavery because as long as the slave owners are nice it isn't a problem. So when she has the only prominent black character be named Shacklebolt, it's sadly not outside the realm of her repeated pattern of lazy writing and editing that she inhabits to go off of a stereotypical image she has in her mind.

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u/Puzzleheaded-Wait785 May 02 '26

So her names are simultaneously too stereotypical, but also too atypical. Sounds like you just decided to be offended and worked backword.

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u/pyrojackelope May 02 '26

If she wrote the books today with her present mind after the money rotted it completely, she probably would have.

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u/Fun_Disaster3436 May 02 '26

Is it the money or the black mold?

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u/Alive-Recording-3400 May 01 '26

And Seamus, the only Irish one, has ā€œan affinity for pyrotechnicsā€

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u/[deleted] May 01 '26

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u/AnonOfTheSea May 02 '26

And alcohol. Pyrotechnics and alcohol.

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u/Rockshasha May 02 '26

magic alcohol ;)

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u/AnonOfTheSea May 02 '26

Fire whiskey? Nah. Kaboom whiskey!

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u/nostradumbass7544678 May 02 '26

I'm Irish, and I keep a bag of assorted fireworks on hand. Never know when you might need some, and the shops are closed...

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u/No_Taste1698 May 02 '26

Alcohol can be pyrotechnics

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u/House_Of_Thoth May 02 '26

You forgot balaclavas and republicanism, ha

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u/No_Rise942 May 02 '26

That's.... Troubling

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u/firestorm713 May 02 '26

hey at least she didn't make him always starving for potatoes

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u/SquidTheRidiculous May 02 '26 edited May 02 '26

And in the books he was brewing whiskey during one of his classes!

Whenever I point out the pun in his name I can physically feel the ghost of James Joyce suckerpunch me. Every time.

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u/royce32 May 02 '26

Lee Jordan is definitely black

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u/The_Limpet May 02 '26

Lee technically isn't described as black in the book, only having dreadlocks.

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u/scalareye May 02 '26

I don't get the irish seems normal to me

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u/Outofwlrds May 02 '26

That one's technically not bad, but it's so stereotypical that it's almost like naming him Irish McIrish.

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u/PuffDragon66 May 02 '26

Technically it would be Paddy McPaddy.

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u/tokentyke May 02 '26

I like Guinness McPaddy.

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u/Neos_Dad May 02 '26

Drunk McCarBomber

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u/DaddyBigBeard May 02 '26

Great band name

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u/MuckBulligan May 02 '26

I'm not googling that.

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u/sherminator19 May 02 '26

Or the totally real person Paddy McGuinness

(He's British, but still)

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u/Comfortable-Pear-973 May 02 '26

That was my gripe with it. Just ridiculously on the nose. Shacklebolt on the other hand isā€¦. a choice.

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u/Outofwlrds May 02 '26

That's the basis for my designation lol

Technically Not Bad: Seamus Finnigan (one step better than calling him Lucky the Leprechaun)

Wow That's Pretty Bad: Cho Chang (That's two different common last names from two different Asian countries, can't even get her a real name)

Holy Shit Dude: Kingsley Shacklebolt

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u/rysworld May 02 '26

Zhou Zhang (which is how you render that in modern pinyin, as opposed to wade-giles, which was the romanization scheme for chinese extant when the books were being written) is an incredibly common chinese name. Look it up, there are maybe literally a million Zhou Zhangs. It's another stereotypical name like Seamus Finnegan, tentamount to naming an american character something like "Jessica Smith", but not really beyond the pale.

I can offer no defense for Kingsley Shacklebolt.

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u/NothingPersonalKid00 May 02 '26

Holy Shit Dude: Kingsley Shacklebolt

Hes a wizard cop, I really dont get what the problem is.

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u/LunaLilithLoveswood May 02 '26

Shacklebolt cause he's a cop. He shackles people. Nothing to do with slavery other people have been shackled before and after.

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u/one_reddit_wonder May 02 '26

Now I see what's the big deal about the surname šŸ˜….

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u/anthrohands May 02 '26

Itā€™s meant to be stereotypical? The whole point is that a child reader, or anyone, can immediately tell he is Irish. This is what literary tropes and things like that are used for.

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u/Any-Minute6151 May 02 '26

This is the first intelligent comment Iā€™ve read about this particular criticism. šŸ

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u/BrockStar92 May 02 '26

Honestly, youā€™d swear this people would rather he be called Jesus Rodriguez yet still be Irish or something. Seamus Finnegan is an Irish name, itā€™s not absurdly stereotypical - if she were going to go ā€œhaha letā€™s stereotype himā€ the only option she could choose would be Paddy ā€˜O something.

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u/Galaxy661 May 02 '26

But she is a bad person, so to redditors that means everything she has ever done was also bad, because nuance does not exist

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u/FantasticTraining982 May 02 '26

For real itā€™s like these people forget the target audience was like 10-12 year olds

Iā€™m listening to the new audible full cast versions (very good btw) and looking back itā€™s amazing how obviously theyā€™re written for juveniles

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u/Consistent-Lock4928 May 02 '26

That one's technically not bad

You're just fishing for any little thing that can be considered bad about Harry Potter lol. I don't think they're pivotal literature, but they were good books to grow up with and it's ridiculous how much everyone tries to hate them now.

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u/inadequatepockets May 02 '26

That's Irish O'Irish to you sir!

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u/EduinBrutus May 02 '26

Mc/Mac would be Scots, the Irish "son of" identifier is "O'"

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u/kaylaisawesome May 02 '26

I had a friend named Liam Patrick Oreilly

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u/petabomb May 02 '26

They all seem normal to me. Like woah, you mean to tell me the magical school that finds young wizards all over the world wouldnā€™t have names from all over the world?

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u/Boring_Intern_6394 May 02 '26

Hogwarts student body is just from the UK and possibly Ireland.

Other places have their own wizarding schools like Beauxbatons in France, Durmstrang in Northern Europe/Scandinavia (known to accept pupils from Germany and Bulgaria), Koldovstoretz in Russia and Ilvermony in America

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u/puddlebearmom May 02 '26

People from other countries can choose to go. Malloy almost went to durmatrang. You dont have to go to the school thats closest but most kids do

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u/Muddyuser May 02 '26

Wonder if any other popular entertainment has sterotypes?

https://giphy.com/gifs/xT5LMtcLQXcNiY2H6M

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u/mightylordredbeard May 02 '26

It is normal. People just trying to make up things to be mad about like there isnā€™t a shit ton of legitimate things already. Itā€™s like they need to pretend to be outraged about something or else they feel empty inside.

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u/Prince_of_Pirates May 02 '26

That's what gets me. There is a ton of shit stuff to focus on that shows she is a shitty person. There's no need for faux outrage over names.

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u/Warvillage May 02 '26

Kingsley Shacklebolt for the british police officer.
Basically "Royal Handcuff".

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u/4n0m4nd May 02 '26

Ironically Seamus Finnegan is a perfectly fine Irish name, but no Irish person would spell it Finnigan

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u/Over-Inside-7254 May 02 '26

Right, the Irish character should have been named Domingo Adebayo to pay homage to the native Belizean-Nigerian ethnic makeup of County Tipperary.Ā 

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u/Lilfozzy May 02 '26

Honestly, I was never the biggest fan of the Percy Jackson books but in retrospective of how non-offensive and friendly they were imma give that author a lot of browny points for making books that donā€™t use werewolves predating on little boys as a metaphor for gay people and aids.

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u/[deleted] May 02 '26

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u/Lilfozzy May 02 '26

Now for the real fridge horror of JKā€™s inner mindā€¦ Tonks was a self insert of her younger selfā€¦

Really ramps it up to ā€œfucking yikesā€ on the Oof scale.

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u/h0m1c1d3_8unn13 May 02 '26

shacklebolt is fucking wild

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u/LunaLilithLoveswood May 02 '26

Shacklebolt cause he's a cop. He shackles people. Nothing to do with slavery other people have been shackled before and after.

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u/Thrownaway5000506 May 02 '26

There's nothing wrong with either of those

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u/LunaLilithLoveswood May 02 '26

Shacklebolt cause he's a cop. He shackles people. Nothing to do with slavery other people have been shackled before and after.

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u/unholy_plesiosaur May 02 '26

And she named an English Character Harry Potter!

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u/MedicalDisscharge May 01 '26

Where is padma? Is she safe? Is she alright?

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u/Ok-Inspector-5472 May 02 '26

Its seems that in your transphobia, you killed her

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u/mattbrain89 May 02 '26

Iā€¦I couldnā€™t haveā€¦there are only two genders! I tweeted it, there are only two genders!

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u/Ok-Inspector-5472 May 02 '26

Noooooooooooooo

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u/RoomOk1730 May 02 '26

You were the chosen one

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u/gringito09 May 02 '26

Soooo these are all common names, like saying John or Harry or Ben. And last name like saying Smith or saying Patel or Singh in India

This is like being mad she would name a Latina Maria Gonzalez

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u/Moonveil May 03 '26

It's always funny to me when white people (especially the ones who don't actually know Chinese) go around claiming Cho Chang is some racist name when 1) Chang is a super common last name especially if you're from Taiwan, I knew like 3 Changs growing up, and Cho seems to be some sort of romanization of Ch'iu/Qiu (ē§‹), which is also a normal character to appear for a first name, in fact it's quite pretty and means autumn.

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u/VillageLess4163 May 02 '26

Cho is a common name?

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u/freezedriedcrocodile May 02 '26 edited May 02 '26

Yes, my aunt has Cho in her name! I read Harry Potter in Chinese when I was there (immigrated here in middle school), honestly nobody though Cho Chang is weird. It would be Qiu in Mandarin, just sounds generic. Cho/qiu means autumn.

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u/CosmereAddict May 02 '26

Completely agree. But Kingsley Shacklebolt absolutely adds some context to other names. The name is cool af, tho, so it only makes my eyebrow raise a lil bit.

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u/DownforceOfDoom May 02 '26

To be fair, among white characters, she has Remus Lupin who is secretly a werewolf, and a Herbology professor called Pomona Sprout.

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u/captainfarthing May 02 '26

Kingsley Shacklebolt = royal handcuffs locked-door

In Britain the police and justice system get their authority from the king/queen. The agency that prosecutes criminals is called the Crown Prosecution Service and there's crown symbology all over the place, most notably on police badges. The character's name has a meaning in British culture that obviously doesn't translate the same to other English-speaking audiences.

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u/Fearless-Edge-3881 May 02 '26

Yeah and an American would be Smith, and a Mexican would be a Hernandez or Gomez or something

She (like countless authors, writers etc have done before) use common names of different cultures. They often choose names that are:

Easy for their target audience to recognize and pronounce

signal a characterā€™s background without long explanation

Culturally ā€œsafeā€ or widely known

I cant imagine being as miserable as so many of you are

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u/kfkots May 02 '26

And she was writing children's books ffs. It's not like fucking William Faulkner or Gabriel Garcƭa MƔrquez. It's honestly not that deep.

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u/RSQFree May 02 '26

Shacklebolt?

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u/Moist-Pickle-2736 May 02 '26

Yeah, the head of the evil wizard catcher department who locks bad people up in wizard jail?

In line with Lupin the werewolf, Sprout the herbalist, Snape the head of the snake houseā€¦ lots of characters whose names align with their jobs/personas.

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u/Demostravius4 May 03 '26

Americans trying not to associate Black people with slavery.

Mission Impossible.

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u/GodlessLittleMonster May 02 '26

You see, it signals at his background without a long explanation. Why are you so miserable? /s

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u/breathplayer1 May 02 '26 edited May 02 '26

They're Indian. You wanna name them Stephanie and Tiffany Smith? It's a book. All she has are words. You want diversity in books? She gave diversity in books. This is beyond insanity.

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u/art-is-t May 02 '26

Why's that bad. They were twins

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u/The_Limpet May 02 '26

They're not saying their names are bad, they're pointing out that the guy trying to make a point about racism convieniently forgot that the twins were asian.

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u/kaylaisawesome May 02 '26

Isnā€™t it good that we knew there were Indian students? Should they have been named Mary and Sandy!? Whatā€™s the problem?

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u/Sad_Hominem__ May 02 '26

Eh. My Chinese wife aggressively insists that Cho Chang is a genuine Chinese name and girls in China love the character. Who am I to argue

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u/[deleted] May 02 '26

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u/dorian_gayy May 02 '26

She has an actual Chinese name in the Chinese translation -- Zhang Qiu.

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u/anders91 May 04 '26

My Taiwanese wife is also always very confused why people get so upset over Cho Changā€¦

The transliteration is ambiguous and we donā€™t know from what language her names might stem from etc.

Rowlings names are really bad overall (Kingsley Shackleboltā€¦) but I donā€™t get the drama over Cho Chang.

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u/Irish618 May 02 '26

Didn't someone do a write up on Reddit about how, while it would definitely be a very uncommon name, its still a (potential? reasonable? Unsure of how to word it) Chinese name.

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u/atrde May 02 '26

There are people actually named that. She just combined two Asian names that she knew in real life and didnt realize how awkward it was.

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u/kristavocado May 02 '26

Lowkey my BFā€™s brotherā€™s name is Cho Chang (well, the mandarin romanization Zhuo Zhang)ā€¦

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u/rara8122 May 02 '26 edited May 02 '26

TBH it doesnā€™t matter much to me if an Asian-American or asian immigrated to another English speaking country character has a realistic Chinese name mostly bc a vast majority of Chinese Americans Iā€™ve met have English names. Itā€™s not exactly Rowlingā€™s fault but it kind of takes me out of the story. Even if Chinese Americans exist in real life with Chinese names. This is a me issue but Iā€™ve always had trouble hearing someone with a Chinese name but an English accent.

Even some of my family in China have English names. Itā€™s just so common to have English names that the Chinese name feels weird. And (though this only happened once) seeing HP fans call English name swap suggestions (donā€™t remember which names bc it was a while ago and I canā€™t find the post but I like Chloe) more racist rubbed salt in the wound.

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u/phrostillicus May 02 '26

I saw a comment where someone mentioned that the Mandarin translator chose the character ē§‹ for the name Cho, which they thought was beautiful in both appearance and meaning, since it also means "autumn". I think the most uncommon thing about it is that her given name is only one syllable, whereas most Mandarin names you'll see will have two syllables.

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u/[deleted] May 02 '26

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u/Diligent-Step-7253 May 02 '26

Some people want to convince themselves so bad that HP was an industry plant and that JKR is a bad author lmao

The script was rejected countless times before it eventually was accepted

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u/traveler_ May 02 '26

ā€œOur servants are biologically predisposed to that lifestyle and mostly donā€™t want to be freed. We treat them very well which shows weā€™re the good ones.ā€

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u/cviss4444 May 02 '26 edited May 02 '26

First off not defending JK Rowling. But the house elf complaint is so off base.

Theyā€™re just a creature from English folklore, itā€™s not supposed to be an analogy about how servitude is morally acceptable, it is completely the the opposite.

Look at the second book when they are introduced - from the get go the book is highlighting the heinous treatment of Dobby by the malfoys as a way to make them even more hateable, and our hero literally sets him free from his servitude as the big hoorah moment of the bookā€¦

no significant protagonist ever has a house elf, the only other character I can think off the top of my head is Barty crouch sr. whose house elf is also almost exclusively used as a means of demonstrating his wickedness.

or for an entirely different avenue:

Dumbledore is always right in Harry Potter, thatā€™s basically the most consistent and straightforward trope in the series.

Hereā€™s a quote of his from order of the phoenix after Siriusā€™s mistreatment of kreacher the house elf leading to his betrayal and Siriusā€™s death -

ā€œWe wizards have mistreated and abused our fellows for too long, and we are now reaping our reward.ā€

This is also highlighted by the ministry, who is shown to be incredibly corrupt and evil, having a central statue with house elves and other magical beings looking up to a wizard in admiration. That is used explicitly in the book as a symbol of their narcissism and mistreatment of other magical races. (this theme is also shown in umbridgeā€™s treatment of hagrid and the centaurs during this book).

Or when he explains that Voldemort's arrogance prevents him from appreciating magic that will ultimately be his downfall, stating: ā€œThat which Voldemort does not value, he takes no trouble to comprehend. Of house-elves and childrenā€™s tales, of love, loyalty, and innocence, Voldemort knows and understands nothing.ā€œ

He also pays Dobby as much wage as he will accept + PTO.

Arguably the next most consistently moral character Hermione spends that entire book trying to free the house elves.

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u/Independent-Part-718 May 02 '26

This is a disingenuous read. Dumbledore only argued that they should treat their slaves with more respect, not that the practice of slavery should be ended. And Hermione was the butt of the joke with her support of House Elves. Harry and everyone else treat her as an annoyance who doesn't understand the complexities of this particular master/slave dynamic, and the reader is supposed to share that sentiment.

No, no major character has a House Elf. Aside from Harry Potter himself šŸ˜‚ and the only reason Ron and the rest of the Weasleys didn't have one is because they didn't have the status or funds to acquire one.

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u/cviss4444 May 02 '26

All fair points, idk if I fully agree on the Weasley one. Iā€™d like to think they are just not about it, but your explanation is also reasonable.

we also donā€™t know that dumbledore is really advocating for the status quo to continue eitherā€¦ he does try to ā€œbargainā€ with Dobby to take more money anyways, so I would counter itā€™s more disingenuous of you to assume he wants them to be subjugated given he never implies that anywhere.

Ron and Harry treat hermione as a nuisance about it but they also do that about everything such as studying, not getting Sirius killed, practicing occlumency, etc. throughout that book and hermione is right every single time.

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u/Nakatsukasa May 02 '26

Alt universe where Hermione becomes British John Brown and liberates the elves and abolish the ministry of magic

Fuck the institution

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u/Independent-Part-718 May 02 '26 edited May 02 '26

Ron and his brothers are all in agreement with the system, and with all the cleaning in the house and sheer amount of people I fully believe they would take one on if they could. I wasn't speaking literally in the sense that Ron ever says "boy I wish I had a House Elf" lol.

What does it matter if Dumbledore never advocated for the continuation? My statement was about what he DID do, which is tell Harry that servants need to be treated better. He never said "there shouldn't be any servants" or launched any sort of campaign to free them. His never advocating FOR their servitude doesn't change his inarguable complacency. And in the realm of civil rights, complacency IS advocacy. But, even if I concede to your technicality, I was ONLY talking about what he definitively says about House Elves, which is only that they should be treated with respect.

It's not just Ron and Harry who make fun of Hermione. They ALL do. No one thinks S.P.E.W. is a good idea and no one sees any reason to change the way things are beyond being kinder to the Elves. Even Remus Lupin, who is one of the most thoroughly reasonable people, gives Hermione a pity-thee sort of smirk and tells her "it's a noble idea but you've got it all wrong, they like being slaves".

Please also pair all this with the hard knowledge we have, that J.K. Rowling made Hermione the butt of this joke in a spiteful response towards the criticism the idea of House Elves as she wrote them received. She was annoyed that anyone questioned the kind of system which resulted in a creature as ill-treated as Dobby, that people (kids, mind) wanted some kind of resolution or explanation about what happened to the other elves. So she created an Elf who sank into alcoholic depression when freed (mostly played for laughs) and a know-it-all who was too dense to see she was only annoying or amusing them with her calls for freedom.

Edit - I was either blocked or there's a glitch because I can't respond to the reply directly, so here

Hermione wasn't idealised. Rowling knew she was annoying and hard to love. She says this herself, which is why she was so pleased when people called her their favourite. Compared to Ron, who was always the favourite because he was easier to love.

If I had to theory-craft for Dumbledore, no, I don't think he was advocating for House Elves, I think he was complacent. Because his many accomplishments and endeavours are always thoroughly scoured by the canon, I can assume that he'd have actually SAID something about it when discussing the matter with Harry. There was no better time for Dumbledore to take a stance and say one way or the other. And, he did. "Treat them better" never "free them". That IS my head canon, I thought that was clear. Maybe it's pessimistic but like, I don't think that about everyone. I don't think Lupin would have an elf. But I DO think if he supported freeing them he'd have said "actually yeah, they should be free, and the system does need to change, but you're going about it the wrong way". But he doesn't say that, he says it's fine. Not that it's "unrealistic the status quo can be changed" but that's it's okay the way it is. JK Rowling is not known for subtlety. She's going to say what she means in her writing. The most complex characters we have are Snape and Dumbledore. The rest are pretty straightforward. AND I don't believe Dumbledore would advocate because he's shown himself to be the sort of character who never QUITE learns. I mean, how many times does he lament having kept information from Harry, but he continues to do so? I think Dumbledore is actually still similar to his younger self, only now he recognises the importance of compassion, not necessarily systemic change. That's demonstrated time and time again through the books. Compassion and kindness, but never systemic change. The books just weren't meaty enough for that. Which is fine, in itself, but when introducing a concept like slavery, there's GOT to be something more or the canon is going to be interpreted in ways the author may never have intended.

Read the winky scenes again. She's a weepy hiccoughing mess and every time the other House Elves are near her they shudder and sidle away in a manner that is decidedly "amusing" in tone. Lots of "poor winky", of course, but only insofar as to show the perils of freeing House Elves. The other Elves also shun Dobby, and consider him a freak, also played for laughs.

Once Dobby was brought into the story was when kids and other readers wanted to know more about the system which created him. What about the other House Elves? Were they slaves, too? I wrote to someone else about this, Rowling was roasted for this sort of thing from the gate. Like when people pointed out they literally had the power of time travel which poked a million holes into the plot, Rowling wrote a scene where they were all destroyed at once by someone tripping into them. People like to pretend her writing was never questioned before the TERF stuff but that's just not true. People have been seeing this stuff since the beginning. Cho Chang's name was contentious, the Goblins were contentious. Her unnecessary ad-libs about how witches and wizards and yore just shit where they liked in the castle and Vanished it afterwards was universally eye-rolled. It's not like this stuff is as new as you think it is.

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u/BrockStar92 May 02 '26

It's not just Ron and Harry who make fun of Hermione. They ALL do. No one thinks S.P.E.W. is a good idea and no one sees any reason to change the way things are beyond being kinder to the Elves.

Actually itā€™s specifically noted that there are those who seem interested in what Hermione had to say about elves but are put off entirely by her crazy eyes and forceful attempts to campaign. Likewise itā€™s also noted that people paid up to make her go away rather than just outright thought it was a bad idea.

Even Remus Lupin, who is one of the most thoroughly reasonable people, gives Hermione a pity-thee sort of smirk and tells her "it's a noble idea but you've got it all wrong, they like being slaves".

Exactly when does this happen? Remus isnā€™t even in the book when she starts SPEW and I donā€™t remember him discussing house elves with her later, except possibly Kreacher but that would be in the context of his connection to Sirius where there is a lot of emotional baggage. Remus also is not the sort to smirk, basically ever.

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u/Independent-Part-718 May 02 '26

Sorry it's so long but you made fair points as well, and I wanted to give you the respect of addressing them.

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u/TheTragedyMachine May 02 '26

In English folklore they actually get paid. I mean, you pay them with bread and honey and milk but thatā€™s still paying them.

Sometimes they donā€™t take care of the house. Sometimes they cause mischief instead.

Tge most similar thing regarding brownies or any other type of fae creature that live in human dwellings is that theyā€™ll leave if you thank them.

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u/Parking_Dog8930 May 02 '26

fucking THANK YOU. I do not think the books are perfect and JK has revealed herself to be awful, but the house elf complaints are so lazy!

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u/alaska1415 May 02 '26

I think it wouldā€™ve quieted down by now if not for Rowlingā€™s reaction to it which was to make Hermione seem like an over eager busy body for having a very human reaction to seeing a subservient slave race.

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u/[deleted] May 02 '26

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u/Independent-Part-718 May 02 '26

Yes literally every character with whom she interacted.

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u/NeonFraction May 02 '26

Itā€™s the opposite. Hermione is portrayed as a white savior who thinks she knows better than the people sheā€™s ā€˜freeing.ā€™

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u/Thrownaway5000506 May 02 '26

None of the families that own house elves treat them well. Black, Malfoy, Crouch, they are all old evil aristocratic pieces of shit. The only place they are treated well is Hogwarts because Hufflepuff wanted it to be a haven for them.Ā 

It isn't glorified.Ā 

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u/Xentonian May 02 '26 edited May 02 '26

For what it's worth, most of her characters have "stereotypical" names - but for most people, a stereotypical name is just... A typical name.

It's not stereotypical to presume "Judith" or "Brian" are older characters, because those names tend to be somewhat dated and were common baby names 80 and 60 years ago, respectively.

Taken in isolation, the name thing isn't THAT weird.

It's just... That when you know everything else about Rowling (pin) you start to raise an eyebrow at otherwise innocuous things.

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u/KristySueWho May 02 '26

Wait, Brian is an old person name?? I never knew an old person named Brian, but I did go to school with plenty of Brians in the 90s/2000s.

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u/CrispyJalepeno May 02 '26

Brian is old person name

I did go to school with plenty of Brians in the 90s/2000s

I'm sorry you have to find out this way....

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u/SunsetHippo May 02 '26

well in 40 or so years, Brian WILL be an old person name

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u/CanweCanweCleanIt May 02 '26

Yeah and sometimes white people are name Joe Smith.

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u/DuckOnQuak May 02 '26 edited May 04 '26

The problem is Cho is Korean and Chang is Chinese. Itā€™d be like naming a white character Jacques McDonald, which isnā€™t impossible but is still silly.

Edit: can yall please chill? Iā€™m not trying to frame this as an indictment, Iā€™m just trying to contextualize what people are complaining about. I personally donā€™t give a shit one way or the other.

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u/hipnosister May 02 '26

Plenty of people named Jacques MacDonald in Canada

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u/AdamMc66 May 03 '26

Sounds like a Quebec hockey player that appears in Shoresy.

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u/Wonderful_Discount59 May 02 '26

What's wrong with having a forename and surname from different cultures?

I've got a forename and surname from different cultures.

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u/SlickNick17 May 02 '26

Both are last names

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u/Frediey May 02 '26

That also happens fairly often? And two first names lol

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u/lazy_tranquil May 02 '26

Chang is a pretty common Korean last name too (source: am korean)

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u/rabouilethefirst May 02 '26

The white dude above says thatā€™s silly, so now itā€™s silly apparently. Iā€™m sure he knows best.

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u/Fickle_Goose_4451 May 02 '26

What gets me with that is she couldn't even look up a single chinese name. Instead she was like "well, its better than Bing Bong so im gonna go with that."

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u/BondFan211 May 02 '26

Sheā€™s as stupid as Marvel, who named their Asian character ā€œShang Chiā€.

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u/Kind-Realist May 02 '26

Came here for this. šŸ˜…

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u/kinkyonthe_loki69 May 02 '26

Isnt that all chinese names ? Jk rolling

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u/ThePokemonAbsol May 02 '26

I feel like people who complain about this donā€™t live in area with a lot of Asian people

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u/BatPixi May 02 '26

Do you also consider Harry potter to be a stereotypical name?Ā 

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u/Spiritual-Sort7013 May 02 '26

Cho isnā€™t the only Asian character. Padma & Parvati Patil are also Asian characters. I think youā€™re actually being racist by excluding them.

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u/mightylordredbeard May 02 '26

Thatā€™s because their only source of information about it is from other comments on Reddit from other people just repeating BS they read in other comments and accepting it as fact.

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u/[deleted] May 02 '26

[removed] ā€” view removed comment

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u/Throwaway74829947 May 02 '26

If you asked your average American which broad racial category Indians and Pakistanis fall under (most easily typified by the US census categories: white, black, American Indian/Alaska native, Asian, native Hawaiian/Pacific islander, and multiracial), I can almost guarantee they'd say "Asian". The reason Americans default to East Asians is because East and Southeast Asians make up 70% (38% and 32%, respectively) of Asian Americans, whereas South Asians make up 25%. Not to mention that historically South Asians were an even smaller share of the Asian American population, with immigration from the region only becoming particularly significant in around the 1980s, accelerating beginning in the 2000s. 70% of Indian Americans were born outside of the US vs 42% of Japanese Americans, for example.

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u/grumpsaboy May 02 '26

Because for some reason online, being Asian means that you must actually be from East Asia

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