fandomsecrets | [ SECRET POST #7042 ]

⌈ Secret Post #7042 ⌋

Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.

Content warning type secrets today!

01. [WARNING for discussion of JKR/transphobia]

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02. [WARNING for discussion of ableism]

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03. [WARNING for discussion of JKR/transphobia]

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04. [WARNING for discussion of dub/non-con]

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05. [WARNING for discussion of JKR/transphobia]

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06. [WARNING for discussion of pedophilia/CSA]

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Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

I think the other thing is, it combined several genres making it appealing to multiple groups of people (or possibly appealing to the same people on several levels).

It combines fantasy and a school story, and the books are also written as mysteries which is mentioned less often than the fantasy/school story combination, but I think is a big reason why they appealed to people so much. The mystery structure makes you want to find out what's really going on and probably helps hold the interest of people who aren't usually into fantasy and the whole 'kids fighting the Big Bad Guy' thing.

Plus the world is immersive and appealing even if it's not exactly great worldbuilding. I can find a lot of annoying plot holes, but there are things I wish existed in the real world (even as a kid, I really wanted the 'accio' spell, and that's one of the more mundane things in Harry Potter).

Another thing - they fit into a trope I've seen fairly often in YA fiction, though I don't know if it has a name: the unhappy/abused/bullied kid who finds out that they belong somewhere else, where they can fit in, have status, and often magical powers. And the things that may have been detrimental in the regular world are normal or advantageous.

Harry is abused by the Dursleys. He has no friends. He's small and thin, which makes him an easy bulling target for bigger kids. The Dursleys aren't poor, but they aren't spending any money on him so he may as well be. And weird stuff keeps happening that gets him in trouble.

Then he finds out he's a wizard and going to wizard school. All the weird things that happened around him were just proof of his magical abilities. He's taken away from his abusive family. He finds out he inherited a fortune in wizard money. He can make friends at Hogwarts (even if there are still bullies). And being small and thin is an advantage in the most important position in the most popular wizarding sport.

This one is also featured in Percy Jackson - regular poor, bullied, dyslexic kid finds out he's a half-God and gets to join other kids like him at camp. The dyslexia is a sign that he was meant to read Greek instead of English. He makes friends and goes on adventures.

The Princess Diaries was a milder version - ordinary, not too popular girl finds out she's actually the princess of a foreign country.

Yes, exactly. And before an anon inevitably comes along to remind us that it wasn't the ONLY or even the BEST wizarding school story by a British authoress...

It's the only one that came out in both book and movie format over a decade-plus, so the hype just grew and grew. It was a cultural phenomenon. It was everywhere.

The one thing I always see people recommending as an alternative to Harry Potter is A Wizard of Earthsea.

Which is good, but very different. People recommend it because it also involves a boy training to be a wizard. But Earthsea is high fantasy and that isn't everyone's thing.

I also see it compared to The Worst Witch. I read the Worst Witch when I was a kid obsessed with Harry Potter and had read the HP books that were out at that time too many times to just want to reread them again. The Worst Witch is good, but obviously written for a much younger audience. I wouldn't recommend it to teenagers.

Then there's Charlie Bone which has some appealing aspects, but also some frustrating ones. Unlike HP they aren't mysteries (only one thing is left unsolved for a while, and it's the identity of Charlie's father - which is extremely obvious to the reader if they're paying attention). And there are things I wished the author went into more depth about - what Henry was doing after being adopted by his little brother and living in the future, the living evil relatives who really don't get much time except for when one of them pretends to be a child. The other magical families in general. I really wanted to like it but the author could have done so much more with the things she came up with.

NAYRT - Wanted to comment on:

Which is good, but very different. People recommend it because it also involves a boy training to be a wizard. But Earthsea is high fantasy and that isn't everyone's thing.

That's my quibble with a lot of proposed alternatives. I think urban fantasies are better for former HP fans. Coming from an urban fantasy fan myself. We like the blend of our world and the fantasy. Which isn't to say you can't like both, I just think people miss one of the big appeals of Harry Potter.

The same I think when people name a "better" alternative for HP, they ignore or forget that is not a YA or urban fantasies LIKE Harry Potter, of course they might enjoy it or not.

I like high fantasy more than urban fantasy, but Earthsea was sooooo boring. And Harry Potter is only urban fantasy in the sense that it technically takes place in the "real world." It's a lot more like high fantasy in that the Wizarding world is so removed from everything that it often feels more like it's set in an actual separate fantasy world.

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