Chapotraphouse

You can see when she became big enough to say no to her editor.
The first one is good, crimping Roald Dahls style, telling a cute little power-fantasy story.
By the Fifth book she's really far up her own ass.

edit: It's been much longer since I've read 2 and 3, but I remember them as being pretty decent. I've read the first one a bunch of times because I grew up with it, so it's good for when I wanna practice another language. I think I've read 2 and 3 2 or 3 times, because reading the first one has made me want to go on a nostalgia binge (this is like 8 or 9 years ago, be nice). I haven't read any of the other ones more than once, but I remember being very disappointed with the movie version of the fourth book because it didn't really dedicate a lot of time to the quidditch thing a good part of the book is about. Past that is a complete mismatch. I remember the bus scene from the fifth movie because it's a cool idea and I remember the sixth one having Snape in a book and the seventh one having Ron be worried he's going to get cucked or something.

Then Goblet of Fire came and the series started ~~taking itself too seriously.~~ to become tomes of middling quality.

i find it started really taking itself too seriously by the 5th or 6th book. i can excuse the goblet of fire for trying to appeal to an audience that grew up a little bit since the first three.

i think it could have worked if the writer was more competent as she transitioned it to a YA novel, but then again maybe i shouldn't have reread some of them as an adult and let it stay in nostalgia instead of reading too much into it.

HP fans usually don’t claim that the books are high quality literature, they just fell in love with the story as a kid and like to reminisce in it. The fact that it became so popular allowed people to share their love for the story with their peers and play pretend as magicians as kids. It’s not that deep.

I find that super fans of anything frequently have some form of trauma or emotional harm they are trying to heal through channeling the joy they felt when first getting in contact with the subject of their obsession. I think that’s fine, we all use different ways to cope. They might say that HP is high quality literature to explain to themselves why they like it so much.

The only person I know (mid 30s) who never really outgrew Harry Potter is also probably the most basic "normie" person I know. And the only person I know who could possibly watch this new HBO series.

Real superfans don't read anything else, just write endless (and sometimes better than the og) fanfiction. Harry Potter isn't special, per se, it is just the first vehicle for them to explore their own creativity, with a large enough community that can share in that larger universe.

It is much the same for Tolkien fans, but Tolkien's sins are a bit more forgivable, as he was literally helping generate an entire genre.

Harry Potter is great when you're seven and just starting to read longer novels. It helped grow my literacy immensely at that age. I haven't read them since the seventh book came out though, so I guess that doesn't make me a die hard fan like you're describing

The rags to riches story is also thst it just turned out he had a shitload of gold in a wizard bank the whole time.

The alleged reason is that she wanted to create an aspirational character for her sons while she was struggling with poverty as a waitress in the early 90s. Harry is special because he's mommy's special little boy who finds out mommy was rich all along. Everyone likes him except for the people who are bad. He lives out some predefined trajectory, created by mommy's love, where he doesn't really do anything but exist and be a special little boy. He worries briefly that he may be a bad guy due to being so special and famous but then is reassured by everyone that he can't be a bad guy because he's special and famous. Then he lives happily ever after after not doing anything (except being special) to kill the bad guy. Once the bad guys are gone then nobody dislikes him anymore and his fame can reign unchecked.

At best she was a deeply misguided striver who was trying to turn her kids into the same hollow strivers most "pick me" poors are. At worst she was actually writing a MKULTRA program to create the next great tyrant.

at least pirate it

also maybe get her to watch shaun's video about harry potter? it's only from the text, none of rowling's side projects or general shittiness.

The books were mid and you missed nothing, but very few scifi/fantasy series got a complete set of movies at that level of quality, and that's a pretty novel concept even today. So many competing books with arguably superior aspects get canceled after season 2 or end up feeling like filler slop.

Many of us grew up with LotR and HP wondering why there are so few tv shows and movie adaptations of similar quality.

Kid Wizard and the Tropes