Chukzombi
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Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (2001)
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Caliane
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Witches existing in media, is not the same as the counter cultures that formed, during the 80's and 90s.
I mean, fuck, I think we'd be all ok with some Wiccans, if they were all trad wife hedgewitches.
Bewitched did have its impact though. Bewitched, Sabrina and Wendy the Good little witch, are DIRECTLY responsible for Magical girls in Japan.
While Sailor moon then did have a major impact on US women in the 90's/00's, I'm not sure how much effect, if any it had on the wiccan/pagan culture.
I mean, fuck, I think we'd be all ok with some Wiccans, if they were all trad wife hedgewitches.
Bewitched did have its impact though. Bewitched, Sabrina and Wendy the Good little witch, are DIRECTLY responsible for Magical girls in Japan.
While Sailor moon then did have a major impact on US women in the 90's/00's, I'm not sure how much effect, if any it had on the wiccan/pagan culture.
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Chukzombi
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finally finished the series once again. and once again i feel like the series began its decline by the end of Goblet of Fire. Rowling shouldnt have gone so dark. she completely changed the tone for the rest of the series. if she kept it lighthearted throughout it would have been much more enjoyable. i know people are gonna call me out for that. but its just how i feel. i didnt need to see everything that made the first half of the series "magical" be turned to shit by the end. thats a bad ending. there is upping the stakes and then there is just kicking everyone in the jimmy .
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Harshaw
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I like that the books got darker and more adult as you go through the series. I mean if you started reading Harry Potter when it first came out at like 8-10 years old. You are 18-20 when Deathly Hallows comes out? The books grew with the age of the audience. It's one of the reasons I stuck with the series when I finally got around to reading them. I would also say that the books got dark with Prisoner of Azkaban. With Harry learning about what really happened to his parents through the eyes of Sirius and Lupin.
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Chukzombi
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the tone of the first half the series made wizards out to be chill people with no real quarrels with anyone. Voldemort got a handful of assholes to follow him to stir shit up that nobody really wanted stirred. after Goblet of Fire, it all of a sudden becomes Voldemort was the inevitability and all who wont follow gets their shit pushed it. this is 17 years after Voldemort loses, people should have gotten over their differences and moved on. Voldemort should have had fewer followers this time around. there just isnt enough strife in the wizard world to create this kind of extreme hatred between them. the top stories in their newspapers are "does Harry have a girlfriend?", the weird side choosing doesnt belong in this kind of series unless it was established already. the dark wizards in the shitty part of Diagon Alley were portrayed as mostly losers while everywhere else seems cheerful and happy. even the slytherin kids didnt all seem like dickheads.
they also kinda make the notion of being poor or having money in the wizard world ludicrous. if you can use magic to rebuild your shitty house after it burns down, why not build a new house, a much nicer house? why does it have to be the same old shitty house? also why bother buying anything when you can just summon it out of thin air?
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Chukzombi
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it would be understandable if your house burns down and you cant rebuild/repair it because you dont have the magic skills or training for the task, but if you hire magicians that do have the skills, it makes no sense to have them build you the same piece of shit house all over again. at least get a more up to date or different type of shitty house. but anyway the idea of specialized magic like that kind of goes out the window when young students are taught the "repairo" spell which fixes all kinds of things.
Caliane
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theres something to say about this. its probably true. The shift from fun, quirky and magical, to dour, depressing, and oppressive is real. and does do a good job with growing up like that... however, it needed to return to that fun, and it didn't really do that. theres plenty of anime, particularly magical girl stuff. that does this. sure stakes raise, and things get bad, but they return to peace afterwards. a few characters may grow up, but some keep their innocence, and others just have a next generation. lotr's long drawn out ending.. was needed.
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Creating something brand new, and repairing something/restoring something that existed are two different things. I think this is a bad example.
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Harshaw
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To go along with that. I don't think you actually ever see them just create items out of thin air with magic.
Chukzombi
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there is a lot not shown that could only have been done with magic. the statues in the ministry were created with magic, the buildings themselves were all magically created. remember building homes is all considered muggle stuff. so they do a lot of creating or summoning with magic. just the concept they have of tents where they are these tiny things that are enormous inside like the Tardis. actually creating something so physics destroying like that means there is no limits to what magic can do.
Chris
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Yeah this was my experience.
I feel like the series is going to get less popular over time because nobody can experience that again, either people too old will read it and not enjoy the start, or people too young will read it and not enjoy the end.
However my mother did read the whole thing so there's some hope about it having cross generational appeal.
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Chukzombi
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i think parents wil have the problem. little timmy reads the first harry potter or watches the first movie which is more likely because kids dont read. if he starts really young, what as a parent do you do? let him read half the books/watch the movies and say that he's too young for the rest or do you let him do the entire series and deal with all the adult themes and carnage? I'm not a parent, but i probably wouldnt even let a young kid start the series at all until he/she was mature enough to handle it. so maybe 13-15? i was watching R rated films when i was 11, and it probably fucked me up a little. i wanted to grow up and didnt feel like waiting to grow up so i did a lot of dumb shit at a young age.
Chris
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I think have them read the first two at ~11 or younger and the rest at ~13.
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Muligan
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I always like and appreciated the direction of the books. I felt like the readers had an opportunity to "grow up" with the characters. They were dealing with issues that everyone deals with as they grow up in addition to the fact an incredible evil force was attempting to destroy everything they loved. I feel the dark tone gave a hint of uncertainty as the balance of power tipped in Voldemort's direction.
Hindsight... now is that if you're a kid coming into the series now you can watch every movie in a day so no one will ever get the opportunity to read and/or watch the series as you somewhat grow up with the series.
Goblet and Order are my two favorites. Even though Half Blood Prince is probably the climax and the tipping point for the characters, I felt like those two movies really captured both ends of the spectrum.
I think there's another series left in that franchise with the main characters but I also wouldn't want to diminish the originals.
Hindsight... now is that if you're a kid coming into the series now you can watch every movie in a day so no one will ever get the opportunity to read and/or watch the series as you somewhat grow up with the series.
Goblet and Order are my two favorites. Even though Half Blood Prince is probably the climax and the tipping point for the characters, I felt like those two movies really captured both ends of the spectrum.
I think there's another series left in that franchise with the main characters but I also wouldn't want to diminish the originals.
Sevens
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When my youngest son was wanting to start the series he was around 11...so as a good responsible parent I read the first book to make sure it was appropriate for him at his age level. Loved the first book (even if it is a bit "childish" so I continued to read the series. As an adult I enjoyed the whimsy of the first few books but I also really enjoyed the dark turn. Im actually glad they never returned to the happy fun times of the first book, these books were about a loss of innocence that once a child loses that they never truly get it back.
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Mahes
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When I was a kid, it was the Chronicles of Narnia. I know I would have loved reading the Harry Potter books as a kid just as much. The books and the movies are both very well done despite any criticism towards them. I would have no problems introducing them to my child at age 10+.
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