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

humankind hiccups šŸ˜… Well this aged like milk.

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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.

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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

[deleted]

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u/pruneforce17 May 02 '26

which she surely had some creative control over no? like the one trans video game character being named Sirona Ryan?

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u/LunaLilithLoveswood May 02 '26

I feel like the understandable and well deserved hatred of JKR has unfortunately clouded some people's judgement to the point where they are now incapable of rational thought regarding anything involving Harry Potter.

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u/Particular-Ad1523 May 02 '26

I mean seriously. This is why I hate Reddit. I have no problem with them disliking JKR (I do too), but this revisionist history against the books is so dishonest and bad-faithed. It's so annoying as a HP fan. I'm convinced a good chunk of them haven't even read the books themselves and are only jumping on the HP hate bandwagon and copying these stupid arguments.

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u/LunaLilithLoveswood May 02 '26

Especially since there is good criticism to be done in regards to the message of the books. Like how Snape gets redeemed after abusing children for 6 Books and generally how much child abuse is downplayed and therefore normalized in these books. Or the fact that love potions are just date rape drugs.

But do you read discussions about that? No it's always mimimi Cho Chang and Kinglsey Shacklebolt, House Elves and Goblins. All the Stuff that suddenly became problematic when Rowling went TERF but didn't bother people before.

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u/racalavaca May 02 '26

Oh it's bothered people forever... You don't need to rank issues, mate, just because you have a problem with certain things doesn't make other problems less valid. And there are more than just those as well

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u/LunaLilithLoveswood May 02 '26

Some of those issues just aren't issues. Like comparing House Elves to real life Slavery. A fair point when you believe Song of the South with it's happy slaves to be an accurate depiction of slavery otherwise those a disingenuous argument about a fictional race that does really love working and serving more than anything.

The Goblins are treated as if JKR invented them, she didn't Goblins existed in fiction before. And most importantly, Goblins are not Jews but rather well... Goblins

Cho Chang is not a real female Asian name in that combination. That's ignorant but not racist.

And Kingsley is called Shacklebolt cause he's a cop. That's nominative determinism and lazy writing but also not racist.

And I've never heard anybody complain about any of those famous four of disingenuous HP criticisms before she turned out to be a TERF.

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u/racalavaca May 02 '26

a fictional race that does really love working and serving more than anything.

Oh come off it, mate... That's just not how it works and you know it. You can't just completely divest your work of fiction from any collective cultural beliefs or events in real life without any effort to explain or investigate why and expect people to just take it at face value! It's horrendous writing at the very least.

Cho Chang is not a real female Asian name in that combination. That's ignorant but not racist.

You're splitting hairs, what is ignorance about a race if not racism? šŸ˜‚

I've never heard anybody complain about any of those famous four of disingenuous HP criticisms before she turned out to be a TERF.

Oh, well if you never heard it then it must certainly not have happened, I apologise.

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u/LunaLilithLoveswood May 02 '26

Maybe it's horrendous writing but it has nothing to do with real life slavery. Of course there are parallels and of course we can discuss how this magical slavery is presented and stuff. Problem is it's always presented as if she is defending real life slavery with the inclusion of this fictional race which is a disingenuous take.

And intent matters. It's not a big deal if she gave her that name out of ignorance it would be if she did it because of racism. Lang Lang exists and that's certainly a name I'd think was racist if I didn't know better. So it makes sense for Cho Chang to be the opposite. A name that sounds like a normal Asian girl name unless you know better.

The problem is that JKRs Heel turn is retroactively pressed into the HP Books whether it fits or not, just to make out she's always been like this even though, unfortunately, people change.

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u/[deleted] May 02 '26

[deleted]

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u/racalavaca May 02 '26

I definitely think the sirona thing is far fetched, but to be fair she is pretty close to an evil villain at this point with how entrenched she is and just how much she does about it

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u/Boring_Intern_6394 May 02 '26

She had them only use British and Irish actors in the film series as part of the contract. She didnā€™t have any creative control over the plot adaptations of the films

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u/mightylordredbeard May 02 '26

She had zero creative control or involvement in the video game and the devs decided to put a trans character in to show their support of trans people and that their views arenā€™t aligned with hers. Itā€™s like you people are fishing super hard for something to be mad about and trying to create new issues lol

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u/Thrownaway5000506 May 02 '26

What a reach lol

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u/Flat-Echidna191 May 02 '26

I doubt she was involved in the development of Hogwarts Legacy.

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u/hamburgergerald May 02 '26

Rowling had nothing to do with the video game.

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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/petabomb May 02 '26

Sir, respectfully, have you ever been to Ireland?

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u/No_Rise942 May 02 '26

That's.... Troubling

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u/ncc74656m May 02 '26

It's outright incendiary.

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u/gnomeinahome May 02 '26

And so inflammatory, I swear

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u/spookyhardt May 02 '26

This is quite a hot topic but Iā€™m afraid I am burnt out

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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/Particular-Ad1523 May 02 '26

That was NOT in the books. That was in the MOVIES (and even then it's not a big deal). Enough of this revisionist history.

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u/SquidTheRidiculous May 02 '26

Woe, James Joyce suckerpunching be upon ye.

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u/Dangerous_Bed2566 May 02 '26

That is a film invention

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u/Alive-Recording-3400 May 03 '26

It is a film only point but considering the amount of control JKR had over the characters in the movies, regardless if that was an idea of her own, wouldnā€™t that have been brought up to her before the finalization and filming? Would she have been able to see that in the script and have the power to be able to call it out and ask them to cut it? Iā€™ve tried to look into it and Iā€™ve found articles talking about how she had a heavy hand in making sure her characters were exactly how she meant them, but the sources Iā€™m reading are really only mentioning harry, Ron and hermione and the other mains. I canā€™t find anything about Seamusā€™ character specifically. If you know where I can read more please let me know, im really interested!!