There's A New Harry Potter Video Game Coming Out. Jkr Was Not Involved, But That Doesn't Mean We Should

there's a new harry potter video game coming out. jkr was not involved, but that doesn't mean we should stop criticising her, or that we should stop criticising the game. we do, however, need to be precise.

it is very important to me to criticise jkr, but also to be accurate about what she did and didn't do or say. for instance, she did not say hermione was black all along; she said she approved casting a black actor to play her. (this one is conjecture but) she didn't retcon dumbledore being gay; that was basically the first 'revelation' post-septalogy of something that hadn't been mentioned, literally years before she started obviously retconning stuff in to fill in the gaps or address fan questions or out of boredom or whatever. she didn't write about a race of big-nosed bankers; she wrote about a short, 'swarthy', oppressed-and-yet-also-unfairly-powerful, not-permitted-to-do-jobs-other-than-finance-but-then-resented-for-being-involved-in-finance, stereotypically 'bloodthirsty' race that speaks a 'guttural' language and is believed by prominent equality activists to not need allies because they're 'clever' enough to defend themselves and probably also align themselves with the fascists who hate them. (this stuff is a mixture of antisemitic conspiracy theories/stereotypes & actual legit things that have happened to jews, but a lot of people aren't informed enough about antisemitism to recognise that.) the filmmakers took all that in and went 'ah, yes, clearly this is the nose tribe™, let's put that in our character design.' she didn't randomly invent a single jewish character when confronted about the lack of jewish people; there is literally photographic evidence of anthony goldstein being a character from the very beginning, plus he is in the books, albeit not mentioned to be jewish. she didn't say there was a magen david on the floor of gringotts bank; the filmmakers chose to use a building that had that floor pattern as their set for gringotts, which is super fucked up. she didn't write one single irish character who wants to drink alcohol from a young age and blows things up all the time; that was a single joke that the filmmakers decided to turn into a years-long running gag.

she did create a world where you're supposed to be against bigotry, and yet the reasons behind the bigotry are actually objectively true. werewolves are objectively dangerous and lycanthropy is objectively harmful to the sufferer. trolls and giants are violent and fundamentally lack the mental capacity to understand why violence is bad. goblins do control the economy and hoard their literal and metaphorical wealth. house-elves want to remain enslaved despite the abuse they suffer. the list goes on.

i genuinely think this came primarily from ignorance. she had a bunch of unchecked prejudices, and like many self-proclaimed allies, did not pay enough attention to oppressed groups to understand what they actually need from allies. (for instance, based on things she's declared publicly, she honestly believes she is an ally to jews.) she naïvely believed herself to be progressive and open-minded, and when it was explained to her that this was not the case, it made her uncomfortable and she rejected the information instead of taking it in.

this is speculative, but i also don't think that she was secretly a massive transphobe all along. the progress of her transphobia is pretty clearly identifiable as a process of radicalisation as she doubled down and learned new rhetoric to justify her pre-existing prejudices. it is indeed disgusting, and she has actively contributed to the persecution of trans people both in the uk and in other countries.

people who defend her believe that people who criticise her are spreading misinformation. don't confirm that belief for them. the things she actually has said and done are bad enough.