J.K. Rowling opens up about why Harry named his son after Snape
jk rowling
how can rowling tweet these two things one after the other with complete seriousness and no self awareness lmfao
Because she’s reiterated over and over again in interviews that Snape is no hero, no role model and his only redeeming quality is his bravery, whilst Draco still generally gets a free pass from fandom despite being an odious racist?
oh ok right, no hero and no role model mmmmmh. ok ok kinda weird then how she had harry name his god damn son after some asshole then if thats what she really thought. and she wrote draco towards the end as if he was becoming a better person, he didnt rat out harry when asked by death eaters who were obviously a threat to his life, he didn’t raise his children with the same terrible beliefs as his parents.
why are we supposed to acknowledge snapes redemption arc, a grown ass man who joined a terrorist organization of his own free will and abused children AFTER he “”turned good”“ and not acknowledge dracos, a freaking CHILD who grew up in a terrible environment but obviously realized how terrible it was towards the end. dracos not a good person and im not excusing anything he did but people relating to someone who grew up in an abusive brainwashing environment and learned to grow out of it being demonized and then at the same time constantly praising an abuser for being ~brave~ doesnt make any god damn sense to me
I don’t want to defend either Snape or Draco – I hate both – but I do want to defend JKR, who’s still on record as saying “I don’t
really see him as a hero. He’s spiteful, he’s a bully, all these things
are still true of Snape at the end of this book’ and “he’s a deeply horrible person” and “You shouldn’t think [Snape is] too nice.” Plus from an slightly older interview, a similar line to the Draco tweet: “I hesitate to say that I love him. [Audience member: I do]. You do? This is a very worrying thing.”
Her valuing ‘bravery’ above apparently all else weirds me out, as does the Albus Severus thing*, but I don’t think it’s anywhere near as clear-cut as (the paraphrased fandom view) ‘she hates Draco but romanticises Snape (and by default his abusive behaviour)’. She is an abuse survivor herself, after all.
*I like to think it’s JKR’s (rather too late) attempt to ‘redeem’ Slytherin house in the text, but I don’t know.
how can rowling tweet these two things one after the other with complete seriousness and no self awareness lmfao
Because she’s reiterated over and over again in interviews that Snape is no hero, no role model and his only redeeming quality is his bravery, whilst Draco still generally gets a free pass from fandom despite being an odious racist?
#Harry Potter and the Representation I Didn’t Actually Bother to Write But Still Want Credit For
Can we please stop flipping the fuck out about this? She’s not “taking credit for” or announcing anything. She is literally answering a question on twitter. And for god’s sake we already knew he was Jewish. Anyone as good with etymology and name symbolism as she is wouldn’t just give a character the last name “Goldstein” by mistake.
Like, as a Jewish girl I am furious that all the SJ types on this website are pissed that JKR announced that Anthony happens to be Jewish, but y’all are more than happy to ignore actual problems with Jewish representation in the media, not to mention that fact that the progressive left is anti-Semitic and hostile to Jews as fuck. You want to be mad on my peoples’ behalf? I’ll make you a list. And JKR’s twitter won’t be fucking on it.
(Lauren this rant is not directed at you—this is just the first time it appeared on my dash in full form)
(He was in the first 40 students she created for the first book)
(a reason I consider reasonable as to why Wiccans were unlikely Hogwarts students)
Like for reals can we move past this?
GUYS THIS IS ACTUALLY BEYOND ADORABLE.\
I heard so much freaking hate about her saying there were no Wiccans and that she was taking credit for a Jewish student that had no representation and NOBODY GAVE ANY FUCKING CONTEXT.
This is absolutely adorable.
I do think JKR could have done a *lot* better when it came to representation in her stories, but (especially since homophobia and ableism are both part of the story in The Casual Vacancy) I think she’s learning.
The Casual Vacancy
I finally have it! And I read it! It was good, but so bleak and sad.
Very bleak and sad. I didn’t expect the ending, not at all- two children dead, and very little punishment dealt to the most awful characters in the book. Which, of course, probably reflects reality- but I wanted to see Simon at least suffer, and he didn’t.
Let’s go character-by-character:
Sukhvinder
I loved Sukhvinder, loved her. She was by far my favourite- I related to her most out of everyone. And she’s easily the most heroic character in the novel, risking her life without a second thought to try and save Krystal’s brother.
(Here’s an awful thought- would she have succeeded, if she hadn’t cut her foot on Simon’s discarded computer? Or was it too late for Robbie anyway?)
Before I read this book I heard there were complaints about the unflattering descriptions of her physical appearance. But I don’t think the people making the complaints had read the book at all, because all these comments come from Fats, an odious little bully making her life a misery. The insults about her size and facial hair come from him, definitely not from Rowling- Sukhvinder’s wonderful, and easily brave enough that she could have fitted right in to Harry Potter’s Gryffindor…
Simon and the Prices (Andrew, Paul and Ruth)
I hated Simon. SO MUCH. Obviously we’re meant to, because he’s a violent abuser, but…oh, it drove me insane that he never got his punishment. He lost his job, true, but he deserved prison. Or worse.
And Andrew decided to make him an ally! Oh, Andrew. And then there was Paul, who seemed to have it even worse…he barely says much through the whole novel, he’s just there to be verbally abused or hit.
And Ruth doesn’t leave her horrible, horrible husband and nothing gets better. What if Andrew or Paul grow up to be Simons? They still might and it’s awful, one of the bleakest things in the book…
Krystal and the Weedons (Terri and Robbie)
…the other one is Krystal’s story, it’s horrible. Especially since, everything she did she did for her brother, and he ended up dead because of it. With him gone she had nothing left to live for, and her last day on Earth was full of pain and panic and she died to the sound of her aunt calling her a bitch…her life was so wasted, it made me want to cry.
But you know what I haven’t seen anyone else mention in reviews, to my surprise? She saved Andrew’s life! When she was just a little girl, her cleverness and confidence saved him- he’s alive because of her. That bit broke my heart, that here was this girl who goes to her grave written off as a ‘soulless creature’, (while it was Fats, of course, who gave Andrew the peanut that nearly killed him) and yet she saved a child’s life and spent all her teenage years trying to save another. Some ‘soulless’…
Colin
My own OCD is very similar to Colin’s. Not as bad, but similar-
-reading the reviews for this book confirmed to me beyond all shadow of a doubt that people don’t get OCD. Because: Colin was not a paedophile, nor did he have paedophilic fantasies. He was just terrified that he might, or that he’d already done something awful, or that he was a rapist or murderer. Because that’s what OCD does to you, it gets inside your head. Colin had a serious illness, well explained by Rowling, and yet the reviews that talked about him being a potential paedophile were numerous. Well done, world, you’ll do me so much good…
Fats
I don’t know what to make of him. I think he may well have been a psychopath- he tried to kill another child in primary school, after all. He subjected Sukhvinder to vile, racist bullying for no reason, he was cruel and thoughtless and played a large part in the death of a child-
-but was that all his fault or did his start in life play a part? I don’t know.
I hated him, but I think he does have the potential to become a better person. Probably. Hopefully.
Everyone else
There were other people in the novel, obviously, but they didn’t really jump out at me as much as the above mentioned did.
I certainly admire JK’s ability to juggle so many characters at once, though- and to make me care so much about a lot of them. And you know what…even though it’s nothing to do with Harry Potter, I’d love to see a fanfic where Krystal Weedon recieves a Hogwarts letter. If no-one else has written it, I might write it myself.