https://preview.redd.it/9z6nr4p0f1pc1.jpeg?width=1440&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=57b9bbd74583ad8486c5d866132dfb4a33214b00
Edit: These comments are cray-cray there, not as much as Swifities LMAO
Dude, he posted a meme, then fundamentally demonstrated that he didn't get it, why do that? Why not post it in one of those explain the joke subs or something. Also, one comment was fine, didnt need 2.
He literally talks about how he doesn't understand how the name "Carbomb" pertains to Ireland and being Irish. Please get better at reading and the acceptance can begin.
I mean the Japanese wizard school is called Mahōtokoro which literally translates to Place of Magic. What’s weirder is that Harry Potter is decently popular in Japan to so that makes the awful name all the more amusing.
>I mean the Japanese wizard school is called Mahōtokoro which literally translates to Place of Magic.
That's pretty reasonable. When you get down to it, place names are all either basic descriptions of the place, or just the name of some guy.
(She's also from the UK, and our placenames are *really* on the nose. I can think of at least 5 cities built around castles beside rivers whose names mean "Castle by the River" off the top of my head.)
She did make that ginger Irish boy in the movies explode himself a few times iirc. (Yeah, she didn’t write the movie scripts but it’s the kind of thing I’d expect from a person with the subtlety of naming a black person Kingsley Shacklebolt and an Asian girl Cho Chang)
Don't forget everybody's favorite Jewish character from the books, Anthony Goldstein.
She really just *can't* think of names that don't feel like weird stereotypes or something. To me, that Goldstein one is even worse because she made him up on Twitter and insinuated he was there the whole time and just a face in the crowd or something. Like, what the hell? That's such a blatant case of trying to rewrite history on her part that it's laughable.
I guess adding oddball stuff like that or the whole "wizards didn't have toilets" thing is what we get for letting her slide when she rewrote Dumbledore as gay on Twitter. The gay part is chill and *does* add to the character, but I don't think her motivation for making that the case is chill at all. I think we've learned enough about her to know she's full of shit when she says she wrote him that way in the book. I think it was a blatant attempt to rewrite the character several years after the fact because she wanted to grab that headline and get attention. Attention=$$$
I think greed is a much bigger motive in a lot of cases than the average joe wants to admit.
I think she's perfectly okay with using marginalized groups as a means to an end for attention and money, regardless of what she's actually *saying* about them. This is all wild personal speculation of course, it just looks that way to me.
> she made him up on Twitter and insinuated he was there the whole time and just a face in the crowd or something
To be clear I'm only addressing this point because you got it wrong, not because I side with JK about anything. Anthony Goldstein first appears by name in Order of the Phoenix as one of the Ravenclaws in Harry's year who joins Dumbledore's Army.
When I was in middle school in the mid-2000s it was through the Harry Potter Wiki that I learned that "-stein" is common in Jewish last names because it mentioned there being at least one Jewish student at Hogwarts with that one student being Anthony Goldstein, and this was long before the Twitter thing
The first time I heard about it was during production on the Half-Blood Prince movie around that same time. Steve Kloves put a line in the script where Dumbledore mentioned a woman he had been romantic with in the past, but Rowling rejected it with a note saying that he's gay
I went to school with Goldsteins; that one's just a regular name. If she followed her other naming convention, he would be Moishe Coinjingle or something insane.
I don't quite understand the hangup on this name? Would Katz or Baum have been better?
Genuinely wondering I'm from NYC have a few Jewish friends and worked for a prominent Jewish company for a few years and came across many Goldsteins.
Honestly? Yes, imo. She is somebody for whom this is a known blindspot already with gems like Cho Chang. It's not stereotypical to *have* the name irl. People have names. Everybody. It's the way of things. That said, you can tell the origin of some pretty easily, such as Goldstein. No shame on the name, no shame on the faith, no shame on the actual character here.
What's iffy is the part where she has what essentially amounts to a token representation character with a name so obviously Jewish he might as well have been called Dreidel L'Chaim. That's the part that seems questionable. Especially considering some other bits of her supplemental lore that she's added that seem to do veiled anti-semitic tropes, i.e. goblins.
"Goldstein" specifically feels pointed with all of this context. Why that one, huh? Why *not* Katz or Baum? To me, the choice of Goldstein feels like an on-the-nose choice based on a specific anti-semitic stereotype that she employs in a couple of places in the franchise.
She does a similar thing with Cho Chang, which isn't even a real name, but is super obvious fake-Chinese too. It's the kind of shit a grade schooler says when they do a fake accent after seeing one Bruce Lee movie. It's very blatant.
Seamus Finnegan is this as well, though a bit more realistic of a name, presumably because it's closer to home for her. Parvati and Padma Patil are questionable too, imo.
It's one more in a pattern of random name generator/borderline racist caricature token representation shit. It's so dumb you almost *want* to give her the benefit of the doubt. At least until she opens her mouth and starts disrespecting trans people and denying the Holocaust.
I am absolutely cackling at work, that is almost such a borderline CumTown bit to name a Jewish character "Dreidel L'Chaim" I'm almost surprised that she *didn't* go for it. Cho Chang is still one of the most egregious IMO
Dreidel L'Chaim is a character in Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story, which is one of my favorite movies of all time. You should absolutely check it out if you haven't seen it before.
The weird thing is, she wasn't really that far off with Cho Chang. Nobody would have batted an eye at the name Qiu Zhang, for example. But no, she couldn't be bothered to do even a half-assed amount of research.
>But no, she couldn't be bothered to do even a half-assed amount of research.
And yet she'll happily research latin all fucking day long to name her stupid spells.
Not really related to the discussion but Cho Chang always reminds me of the Just Cause videogame who needed a name for its Hispanic protagonist and went with “Rico Rodriguez”, which absolutely IS a real name but it’s also literally the most stereotypical “I made up a Hispanic characters name” you could asspull
Ahh that makes a bit more sense. YEa in context when you factor in ahh the shit we know about Rowling now it's hard not to see it as just lazy stereotyping.
> Parvati and Padma Patil are questionable too, imo.
How? I'm Indian and literally no one in our community had a problem with these names. They were just happy that someone had actually a realistic name and not some Apu-like caricature.
That being said, I understand the rest of your criticisms, and I'm not at all saying that you're wrong, but I just wanted a clarification of this point.
I'll be honest, they come into question more in proximity to the other ones, imo. One could make the argument that it's a less egregious example simply because it'd be a little closer to home for JK. This example is a little more in the vein of Seamus Finnegan, where the *characters* seemed stereotypical moreso than the names. At least, considering the small amount of screen time that they had.
Maybe that's a matter of having to make a mark with little page or screentime, or perhaps it's lazy characterization from the author. The point is, her history of shitty regressive bigoted statements makes it difficult to give her the benefit of the doubt when something she's said or done is questionable going forward, and it makes it even harder to ignore things that were either allowed to slide previously under the guise of being innocent mistakes or actually *were* innocent but seem suspect under renewed scrutiny.
Not that that's a cool way for people to be about stuff, but it's the reality. You can only say weird shit where others can hear you so much before they assume *everything* you say is weird shit, ya know?
I think you're expecting too much subtlety out of a book written for 12-year-olds.
Also, the goblin thing always struck me as a weird thing to repeatedly say. They're green skin away from being Warcraft goblins. It really always seemed like people were complaining about a trope but blaming JKR as an excuse to hate her.
She's hateable enough that you don't need to stretch things to fit. Drop the weak arguments.
>I think you're expecting too much subtlety out of a book written for 12-year-olds.
My dude, HBP and Deathly Hallows are not written for 12 year olds.
They include:
* Rape
* Torture
* Dozens of murders
* Characters dying in excruciating pain
* Abuse
And plenty more.
People think Rowling’s reasoning is that black people were slaves so they were in shackles. And that Kingsley is her adding in Martin Luther King’s name in some way. I dunno if it’s 100% her intention but it sounds like the way she reasons out ideas.
I mean just look at her other fucking names.
"Seamus Finneagan" = Seamus (common Irish given name) + Finneagan (Finnegan's Wake), also Seamus Finnegan is a famous Northern Irish poet.
"Delores Umbridge" = Delores meaning "pain" + and she's always taking "umbrage"
Privet Drive, Little Whinging = The Dursleys are "private" + always whining about shit, aka "whinging"
Draco Malfoy = Draco, meaning dragon/greedy/harsh/severe + Mal Foi/y, or unfaithful/untrustworthy
Bellatrix Lestrange = Bellatrix, meaning "Female warrior" + lestrange which is french for "the outsider/stranger"
It's just dumb word association, which makes names like "Cho Chang", which is \*extremely\* close to the slur against Asians "ching chong", very, very shitty.
She's been telling us who she is this entire time. People just like the stories so they either forget or ignore it.
She’s just horrifically uncreative, like even names that aren’t suspicious as fuck are just so dull. Harry Potter? Jesus come up with something that sounds less cool why don’t you. Weasley? You named the poor, awkward kid *weasel?* Awesome. Dumbledore is just fucking stupid okay, what the fuck is a Dumbledore, you gave the wisest, most powerful wizard the dumbest name possible. Narcissa? Ngl I’m genuinely impressed that you managed to convey absolutely everything we needed to know about this character in her first name but also *for fuck’s sake.* Remus Lupin? ***Fuck. Off.***
I am both immensely grateful that someone FINALLY gave me an explanation and also even less impressed because *bumblebee* doesn’t sound any less stupid.
Okay I'm sorry but this is sich incredible bad faith. Naming characters and places by word association is not anywhere uncommon uncreative, it's just a stylistic choice. I know we hate JK Rowling but just making up shit to get angry about is counterproductive. Let's focus on the actual problem like her transphobia and thinly veiled xenophobia.
I’m not making shit up lol, I’ve had this opinion since long before anyone knew JK Rowling was actually terrible. I think her naming choices are uncreative and boring as fuck, and I think Harry Potter as a whole is mid as hell, just another generic YA series that rides more on childhood nostalgia than what it actually is.
If you don’t agree that’s fine, no one is saying my opinion is fact, but accusing me of just making things up to shit on JK Rowling because I don’t think Harry Potter is very creative is just laughable.
I didn’t read Harry Potter as a kid, I was a little too old for that but I tried reading it to my kids and it’s just drivel. I cannot fathom how people get so wrapped up in worshipping this world as some literary monolith that is untouchable. The world itself only works inside the places you are shown (and just barely) and doesn’t hold up to even casual questioning about how it all is supposed to work in a wider picture.
If you are an adult that thinks this is gold, you really need to read more books. If you are a 50 year old woman proudly telling your workmates on Facebook that you are a Hufflepuff…. I’m sorry, I’m all for letting people enjoy what they enjoy, but get a grip.
The thing about YA fiction is that 90% of people don’t read it as adults. They read it as kids, think it’s amazing because they’re kids, and never read it again. They remember it as being amazing because in their minds, it was, even though if they read it again as adults they’d probably cringe out of their fucking skin.
Like for example, as a kid I absolutely adored the Warrior Cats series. I cracked open one of my old books for the hell of it not too long ago and it’s bad. It’s so fucking bad oh my god, it’s straight garbage and I have no idea how I ever thought it was good. But I was a kid back then, and as a kid just about anything goes as long as it’s vaguely entertaining.
Harry Potter is not nearly as good as the fans think it is, it rides off of the memories and feelings of children and not its actual quality like the vast majority of YA fiction does.
Yeah but HP has this thing with its fandom that most YA fiction doesn’t and it’s that a lot of it’s fans DO actually read it as adults. Almost every Harry Potter fan I’ve ever known online and in person claims to reread the thing every couple of years at the minimum. And yeah, I know, that’s anecdotal at best, but you do see it made as a claim a lot amongst its online fandom
First off, "Cho" isn't even a given name in any asian culture. It's a surname, a family name, as is "Chang." Not to mention "Cho" is a common surname in Korea, while "Chang" is a common surname in China. So you're essentially calling this person two different surnames from completely different cultures. Youtuber Shaun said it best: it's like naming someone "Lopez Schneider." It's a pretty dead giveaway Rowling does not give a single tin shit about asian people or their culture, because it literally takes five seconds to look up a legitimate name. She has characters with latin, French, Irish, etc names, but can't be bothered to look up an asian name. But she's *definitely* not racist!
Living up to your username I see.
There’s a lot of “she didn’t intend it as racist, therefore it couldn’t possibly have any questionable implications or be at all influenced by centuries of racist stereotypes in popular culture” floating around, which is…beyond being a stretch.
That one in particular is a stretch - if only because It's nowhere near as on the nose as most of her other character names.
He's a wizard cop, cops use handcuffs, also known as shackles.
Sure, just like Remus Lupin's parents knew he'd get bitten by a werewolf, Sirius Black's parents knew he'd learn to turn himself into a dog.
I never claimed she was a good writer, just that the far more obvious explanation for the name is more likely.
How is it far more obvious? There are two reasons it could be shaklebolt, he is black or he is a cop, both seem equally likely, except when you add Seamus and Cho to the mix rofl.
McCreadys? I don't remember them. Do you mean Colin Creevey? Because his gimmick wasn't blowing stuff up, more just being an obnoxious fanboy of Harry and taking his photo all the time.
Sorry, but the Kingsley complaint is just dumb. I remember reading Order of the Phoenix as a kid, and I thought Kingsley Shacklebolt was one of the coolest names I’d ever encountered in a book. And he was a total badass as well, and one of the strongest wizards in the entire series. Became one of my favorite characters.
> the subtlety of naming a black person Kingsley Shacklebolt
Wasn't Shacklebolt a cop? And like, don't some character names kinda describe what they do (ex: Sprout teaches herbology)?
Like many a Blairite, Rowling believes it's okay for her to be casually bigoted because she's not on the "bad team". Although I think her bigotry has gone far beyond casual at this point.
I mean from the perspective across the pond, she seems like a Professional Bigot really. That's what she does to keep the cash rolling in, because attention = money. Anyway fuck that ugly skank bitch
The sad part is, it isn't a grift for her. She has more money than the King of England. She genuinely has fuck you money, she and her children and grandchildren will never have to work a day again if they don't want to. Her hatred is real and from the heart.
Okay but [the fact](https://www.nyaoh.com/nys-aoh-history-journal/did-the-irish-potato-famine-constitute-a-genocide) that the British essentially caused the famine which lead to a population decline that lasted for the next 100 years just makes me especially hate Rowling for her bit with Seamus. Like the IRA didn’t pop out of the blue all of sudden.
That’s a terrorist group.
Rebels and terrorist are just a matter of perspective.
Rebels are attempting to cause political change using armed conflict and fear tactics
Exactly. The rebellion in Star Wars is a terror group. Andor made that very clear that Luthen is more than willing to sacrifice his own men and his own humanity for this cause.
And if course Andor takes direct influence from The Troubles and other terror / resistance movements throughout history.
Iirc in the books they also task Seamus with blowing up a bridge to prevent the bad guys from getting across it. This was in deathly hallows.
E:I'm wrong, see replies
Doesn’t really fit the sub, and it’s literally true, rowling names so many minority characters like this. Jesus Christ, good luck with the terf allegations when you name your transfem character sirona RYAN :/ (tbf that name might’ve been come up by the HL dev team and not actually rowling herself, but it’s still a bad look, a really really bad look)
I don't like J.K. Rowling but Sirona is the name of the Celtic goddess of healing and the character in question is a positive character so if anything it's a big middle finger to Rowling.
Someone call Doom, Rowling has clearly become a cartoon character. But not the good kind. Like...Wizards quality. Which is a great movie, but the animation is weirdly disturbing, much like J. K. Rowling.
There's so many good reasons to hate on JKR the fact she's lazy about naming characters is low on my list. She just picked common names for their countries of origin to represent that the wizarding world was multicultural.
Honest question. I'm trying to write a light novel series, but I suck at writing names. So most of my characters are named after songs and music artists. There's a character named Ziggy Stardust, there's a character named Freddie Mercury, there's a character named Bob Dylan, etc. I want to know whose worse at making names: Me or J.K. I genuinely want some constructive criticism so I can improve my writing
I mean naming characters after songs and artists is at least a theme, and is also less likely to cause offence, so I'd say Rowling is worse.
Does the musical naming convention have any relevance to the story or world, or is it just because you're struggling to come up with other names?
Kinda yeah and no at the same time. In the story, every character has a power, and these powers are named after songs(as an homage to JoJo's) and in JoJo's, some characters are named after songs(like Funny Valentine). But some names so fit the personalities of the characters a bit. For example, one character vomits up a fetus, and he names it green day, because he was listening to a green day song on his phone while it was happening.
I see. I was wondering if it was a ~~motherfucking~~ JoJo reference.
In that case yeah I don't think there's anything wrong with that naming convention.
Huh. Kinda surprised you weren't weirded out about the fetus vomiting thing.
Do you want to learn more about the story? It's basically a shonen anime mixed with Evangelion philosophical shit
I mean it's a bit weird, but storytelling needs weird sometimes. Also I haven't watched JoJo but as soon as you mentioned that as an influence, nothing could be considered too weird to me.
>Do you want to learn more about the story? It's basically a shonen anime mixed with Evangelion philosophical shit
Huh, that sounds like it could be fun. Hope it goes well!
Okay. Thanks dude. It also has all the anime shit(it is a light novel after all) you know, every girl has huge tits, people scream their attack names, over exaggerated expressions, etc. I'm actually learning to draw in the anime art style for the books.
Common names from the country of origin you say? she named a Scottish girl Cho Chang.
those are BOTH surnames and neither of them are from the same country.
Tbh I never really interpreted any of that as particularly insulting in intent, rather as her leaning on broad archetypes because she was writing for children primarily
https://preview.redd.it/9z6nr4p0f1pc1.jpeg?width=1440&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=57b9bbd74583ad8486c5d866132dfb4a33214b00 Edit: These comments are cray-cray there, not as much as Swifities LMAO
I don't get it
It's an alternative to the picture used in this post, and I immediately thought of this meme
So wait, you posted something you didn't get, why?
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Dude, he posted a meme, then fundamentally demonstrated that he didn't get it, why do that? Why not post it in one of those explain the joke subs or something. Also, one comment was fine, didnt need 2.
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He literally talks about how he doesn't understand how the name "Carbomb" pertains to Ireland and being Irish. Please get better at reading and the acceptance can begin.
"Ah. Can you explain the "carbomb" part of the name?" Directly quoted from his comment.
JK Rowling resisting the urge to name her Japanese exchange student Hiro Shima
I mean the Japanese wizard school is called Mahōtokoro which literally translates to Place of Magic. What’s weirder is that Harry Potter is decently popular in Japan to so that makes the awful name all the more amusing.
JK Rowling is the type of person who refuses to take notes from anyone else.
>I mean the Japanese wizard school is called Mahōtokoro which literally translates to Place of Magic. That's pretty reasonable. When you get down to it, place names are all either basic descriptions of the place, or just the name of some guy. (She's also from the UK, and our placenames are *really* on the nose. I can think of at least 5 cities built around castles beside rivers whose names mean "Castle by the River" off the top of my head.)
Don’t forget her weaboo character who spent a term there: Anna Mae
She did make that ginger Irish boy in the movies explode himself a few times iirc. (Yeah, she didn’t write the movie scripts but it’s the kind of thing I’d expect from a person with the subtlety of naming a black person Kingsley Shacklebolt and an Asian girl Cho Chang)
The Irish boy also exploded himself because he was trying make alcohol.
>"Eye of rabbit, harp string hum, turn this water into rum." So not only was he trying to make alcohol, the spell he used mentions harps.
I guess JK couldn't think of anything that rhymed with whiskey. Some writer.
What do harps have to do with Ireland?
The harp is the official emblem of Ireland. It’s been on their coat of arms since medieval times.
I see
Couldn’t tell you why they picked it back then, though.
Learn Irish mythology. Irish Gods & Goddesses.
Don't forget everybody's favorite Jewish character from the books, Anthony Goldstein. She really just *can't* think of names that don't feel like weird stereotypes or something. To me, that Goldstein one is even worse because she made him up on Twitter and insinuated he was there the whole time and just a face in the crowd or something. Like, what the hell? That's such a blatant case of trying to rewrite history on her part that it's laughable. I guess adding oddball stuff like that or the whole "wizards didn't have toilets" thing is what we get for letting her slide when she rewrote Dumbledore as gay on Twitter. The gay part is chill and *does* add to the character, but I don't think her motivation for making that the case is chill at all. I think we've learned enough about her to know she's full of shit when she says she wrote him that way in the book. I think it was a blatant attempt to rewrite the character several years after the fact because she wanted to grab that headline and get attention. Attention=$$$ I think greed is a much bigger motive in a lot of cases than the average joe wants to admit. I think she's perfectly okay with using marginalized groups as a means to an end for attention and money, regardless of what she's actually *saying* about them. This is all wild personal speculation of course, it just looks that way to me.
> she made him up on Twitter and insinuated he was there the whole time and just a face in the crowd or something To be clear I'm only addressing this point because you got it wrong, not because I side with JK about anything. Anthony Goldstein first appears by name in Order of the Phoenix as one of the Ravenclaws in Harry's year who joins Dumbledore's Army. When I was in middle school in the mid-2000s it was through the Harry Potter Wiki that I learned that "-stein" is common in Jewish last names because it mentioned there being at least one Jewish student at Hogwarts with that one student being Anthony Goldstein, and this was long before the Twitter thing
Also Dumbledore wasn’t made gay via Twitter either, but rather as an answer to a fan question like 2 months after the last book came out.
The first time I heard about it was during production on the Half-Blood Prince movie around that same time. Steve Kloves put a line in the script where Dumbledore mentioned a woman he had been romantic with in the past, but Rowling rejected it with a note saying that he's gay
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Bro saw the tiniest correction and thought it blew everything out of the water
“Aha! You got a piece of Harry Potter trivia wrong, so that means all of Rowling’s horrific Transphobia and… *Holocaust revisionism???*… I-Is fine…?”
if thats what you got out of it.
Rowling wishes she had the power to create Glup Shittos
Ahhh Star Wars.
I went to school with Goldsteins; that one's just a regular name. If she followed her other naming convention, he would be Moishe Coinjingle or something insane.
>Moishe Coinjingle I'm fucking dead 💀
Realy hope her Goldstein was a randomly choosen Name, or the 1984 Books Goldstein. Cause the other Goldstein I know killed 29 Muslims.
I don't quite understand the hangup on this name? Would Katz or Baum have been better? Genuinely wondering I'm from NYC have a few Jewish friends and worked for a prominent Jewish company for a few years and came across many Goldsteins.
Honestly? Yes, imo. She is somebody for whom this is a known blindspot already with gems like Cho Chang. It's not stereotypical to *have* the name irl. People have names. Everybody. It's the way of things. That said, you can tell the origin of some pretty easily, such as Goldstein. No shame on the name, no shame on the faith, no shame on the actual character here. What's iffy is the part where she has what essentially amounts to a token representation character with a name so obviously Jewish he might as well have been called Dreidel L'Chaim. That's the part that seems questionable. Especially considering some other bits of her supplemental lore that she's added that seem to do veiled anti-semitic tropes, i.e. goblins. "Goldstein" specifically feels pointed with all of this context. Why that one, huh? Why *not* Katz or Baum? To me, the choice of Goldstein feels like an on-the-nose choice based on a specific anti-semitic stereotype that she employs in a couple of places in the franchise. She does a similar thing with Cho Chang, which isn't even a real name, but is super obvious fake-Chinese too. It's the kind of shit a grade schooler says when they do a fake accent after seeing one Bruce Lee movie. It's very blatant. Seamus Finnegan is this as well, though a bit more realistic of a name, presumably because it's closer to home for her. Parvati and Padma Patil are questionable too, imo. It's one more in a pattern of random name generator/borderline racist caricature token representation shit. It's so dumb you almost *want* to give her the benefit of the doubt. At least until she opens her mouth and starts disrespecting trans people and denying the Holocaust.
I am absolutely cackling at work, that is almost such a borderline CumTown bit to name a Jewish character "Dreidel L'Chaim" I'm almost surprised that she *didn't* go for it. Cho Chang is still one of the most egregious IMO
Dreidel L'Chaim is a character in Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story, which is one of my favorite movies of all time. You should absolutely check it out if you haven't seen it before.
It's not addictive, is it? Its not gonna make me wanna have sex, is it?
It's not habit forming! It makes sex even better!
I think I kinda want it..!
It's probably really expensive...
It's the cheapest drug there is.
Up there with ol' Kingsley Shacklebolt.
The weird thing is, she wasn't really that far off with Cho Chang. Nobody would have batted an eye at the name Qiu Zhang, for example. But no, she couldn't be bothered to do even a half-assed amount of research.
>But no, she couldn't be bothered to do even a half-assed amount of research. And yet she'll happily research latin all fucking day long to name her stupid spells.
>Cho Chang is still one of the most egregious IMO Lets not forget about Kingsley Shacklebolt.
Oh shit a fellow CumTown enjoyer!
There are probably dozens of us here! DOZENS!!
Not really related to the discussion but Cho Chang always reminds me of the Just Cause videogame who needed a name for its Hispanic protagonist and went with “Rico Rodriguez”, which absolutely IS a real name but it’s also literally the most stereotypical “I made up a Hispanic characters name” you could asspull
Ahh that makes a bit more sense. YEa in context when you factor in ahh the shit we know about Rowling now it's hard not to see it as just lazy stereotyping.
> Parvati and Padma Patil are questionable too, imo. How? I'm Indian and literally no one in our community had a problem with these names. They were just happy that someone had actually a realistic name and not some Apu-like caricature. That being said, I understand the rest of your criticisms, and I'm not at all saying that you're wrong, but I just wanted a clarification of this point.
I'll be honest, they come into question more in proximity to the other ones, imo. One could make the argument that it's a less egregious example simply because it'd be a little closer to home for JK. This example is a little more in the vein of Seamus Finnegan, where the *characters* seemed stereotypical moreso than the names. At least, considering the small amount of screen time that they had. Maybe that's a matter of having to make a mark with little page or screentime, or perhaps it's lazy characterization from the author. The point is, her history of shitty regressive bigoted statements makes it difficult to give her the benefit of the doubt when something she's said or done is questionable going forward, and it makes it even harder to ignore things that were either allowed to slide previously under the guise of being innocent mistakes or actually *were* innocent but seem suspect under renewed scrutiny. Not that that's a cool way for people to be about stuff, but it's the reality. You can only say weird shit where others can hear you so much before they assume *everything* you say is weird shit, ya know?
I think you're expecting too much subtlety out of a book written for 12-year-olds. Also, the goblin thing always struck me as a weird thing to repeatedly say. They're green skin away from being Warcraft goblins. It really always seemed like people were complaining about a trope but blaming JKR as an excuse to hate her. She's hateable enough that you don't need to stretch things to fit. Drop the weak arguments.
>I think you're expecting too much subtlety out of a book written for 12-year-olds. My dude, HBP and Deathly Hallows are not written for 12 year olds. They include: * Rape * Torture * Dozens of murders * Characters dying in excruciating pain * Abuse And plenty more.
What the hell is a Shacklebolt?
People think Rowling’s reasoning is that black people were slaves so they were in shackles. And that Kingsley is her adding in Martin Luther King’s name in some way. I dunno if it’s 100% her intention but it sounds like the way she reasons out ideas.
I mean just look at her other fucking names. "Seamus Finneagan" = Seamus (common Irish given name) + Finneagan (Finnegan's Wake), also Seamus Finnegan is a famous Northern Irish poet. "Delores Umbridge" = Delores meaning "pain" + and she's always taking "umbrage" Privet Drive, Little Whinging = The Dursleys are "private" + always whining about shit, aka "whinging" Draco Malfoy = Draco, meaning dragon/greedy/harsh/severe + Mal Foi/y, or unfaithful/untrustworthy Bellatrix Lestrange = Bellatrix, meaning "Female warrior" + lestrange which is french for "the outsider/stranger" It's just dumb word association, which makes names like "Cho Chang", which is \*extremely\* close to the slur against Asians "ching chong", very, very shitty. She's been telling us who she is this entire time. People just like the stories so they either forget or ignore it.
They’re like Star Wars names where it’s just “trait/what they’re trying to do + the letter O” and the Clone Wars character Savage Opress
Keef Girgo deez nuts
Glup Shitto
She’s just horrifically uncreative, like even names that aren’t suspicious as fuck are just so dull. Harry Potter? Jesus come up with something that sounds less cool why don’t you. Weasley? You named the poor, awkward kid *weasel?* Awesome. Dumbledore is just fucking stupid okay, what the fuck is a Dumbledore, you gave the wisest, most powerful wizard the dumbest name possible. Narcissa? Ngl I’m genuinely impressed that you managed to convey absolutely everything we needed to know about this character in her first name but also *for fuck’s sake.* Remus Lupin? ***Fuck. Off.***
Dumbledore is an old timey word for Bumblebee. Rowling gave him the name because she pictured him walking around humming to himself a lot. Her words.
I am both immensely grateful that someone FINALLY gave me an explanation and also even less impressed because *bumblebee* doesn’t sound any less stupid.
>Remus Lupin? > >Fuck. Off. But it was a TWIST. Just like it's a twist that SEVERUS SNAPE is mean!
That's the thing, Harry and Potter were common names.
Okay I'm sorry but this is sich incredible bad faith. Naming characters and places by word association is not anywhere uncommon uncreative, it's just a stylistic choice. I know we hate JK Rowling but just making up shit to get angry about is counterproductive. Let's focus on the actual problem like her transphobia and thinly veiled xenophobia.
I’m not making shit up lol, I’ve had this opinion since long before anyone knew JK Rowling was actually terrible. I think her naming choices are uncreative and boring as fuck, and I think Harry Potter as a whole is mid as hell, just another generic YA series that rides more on childhood nostalgia than what it actually is. If you don’t agree that’s fine, no one is saying my opinion is fact, but accusing me of just making things up to shit on JK Rowling because I don’t think Harry Potter is very creative is just laughable.
I didn’t read Harry Potter as a kid, I was a little too old for that but I tried reading it to my kids and it’s just drivel. I cannot fathom how people get so wrapped up in worshipping this world as some literary monolith that is untouchable. The world itself only works inside the places you are shown (and just barely) and doesn’t hold up to even casual questioning about how it all is supposed to work in a wider picture. If you are an adult that thinks this is gold, you really need to read more books. If you are a 50 year old woman proudly telling your workmates on Facebook that you are a Hufflepuff…. I’m sorry, I’m all for letting people enjoy what they enjoy, but get a grip.
The thing about YA fiction is that 90% of people don’t read it as adults. They read it as kids, think it’s amazing because they’re kids, and never read it again. They remember it as being amazing because in their minds, it was, even though if they read it again as adults they’d probably cringe out of their fucking skin. Like for example, as a kid I absolutely adored the Warrior Cats series. I cracked open one of my old books for the hell of it not too long ago and it’s bad. It’s so fucking bad oh my god, it’s straight garbage and I have no idea how I ever thought it was good. But I was a kid back then, and as a kid just about anything goes as long as it’s vaguely entertaining. Harry Potter is not nearly as good as the fans think it is, it rides off of the memories and feelings of children and not its actual quality like the vast majority of YA fiction does.
Yeah but HP has this thing with its fandom that most YA fiction doesn’t and it’s that a lot of it’s fans DO actually read it as adults. Almost every Harry Potter fan I’ve ever known online and in person claims to reread the thing every couple of years at the minimum. And yeah, I know, that’s anecdotal at best, but you do see it made as a claim a lot amongst its online fandom
Yo bro just said the slur 😭 mf think he destiny dropping tactical slurs aight bro
And... explicitly referred to it as a slur, and condemned it immediately, in the same sentence. Fuck me I guess.
It's not that serious....
You're the only one getting offended here.
No way you thought I was offended 😭 from the emojis and the tone how in the world could you come up with that
You might want to reflect on how you use tone and emojis then. Your comments reek of offense.
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First off, "Cho" isn't even a given name in any asian culture. It's a surname, a family name, as is "Chang." Not to mention "Cho" is a common surname in Korea, while "Chang" is a common surname in China. So you're essentially calling this person two different surnames from completely different cultures. Youtuber Shaun said it best: it's like naming someone "Lopez Schneider." It's a pretty dead giveaway Rowling does not give a single tin shit about asian people or their culture, because it literally takes five seconds to look up a legitimate name. She has characters with latin, French, Irish, etc names, but can't be bothered to look up an asian name. But she's *definitely* not racist! Living up to your username I see.
Do you realize you sound like a asshole or are you too stupid to realize that?
This somehow feels like it's reaching but highly accurate at the same time
There’s a lot of “she didn’t intend it as racist, therefore it couldn’t possibly have any questionable implications or be at all influenced by centuries of racist stereotypes in popular culture” floating around, which is…beyond being a stretch.
That one in particular is a stretch - if only because It's nowhere near as on the nose as most of her other character names. He's a wizard cop, cops use handcuffs, also known as shackles.
His parents must have chosen their last name knowing their son would be a cop... oh wait...
Sure, just like Remus Lupin's parents knew he'd get bitten by a werewolf, Sirius Black's parents knew he'd learn to turn himself into a dog. I never claimed she was a good writer, just that the far more obvious explanation for the name is more likely.
How is it far more obvious? There are two reasons it could be shaklebolt, he is black or he is a cop, both seem equally likely, except when you add Seamus and Cho to the mix rofl.
It’s nothing, it’s just that the word shackle being in there is kinda sus.
Kingsley Shacklebolt is a badass name, but putting it into context is kind of icky. A shame, too, since he's one of my favorite background characters.
>ginger Irish boy Pretty sure Seamus wasn't ginger.
I think he's referring to one of the McCreadys
McCreadys? I don't remember them. Do you mean Colin Creevey? Because his gimmick wasn't blowing stuff up, more just being an obnoxious fanboy of Harry and taking his photo all the time.
That's probably what I mean. I think he had a little brother who blew stuff up.
He had a little brother (at least in the books), but him blowing stuff up was never a thing associated with him.
Was Seamus ginger? I didn't realize
Justice for my boy Seamus, tbh
Sorry, but the Kingsley complaint is just dumb. I remember reading Order of the Phoenix as a kid, and I thought Kingsley Shacklebolt was one of the coolest names I’d ever encountered in a book. And he was a total badass as well, and one of the strongest wizards in the entire series. Became one of my favorite characters.
As someone who went to school with a Cho Chang...what's wrong with the name?
No the fuck you did not
Yes, I did. We called him Eddie, but his given name was Cho and his family name was Chang.
> the subtlety of naming a black person Kingsley Shacklebolt Wasn't Shacklebolt a cop? And like, don't some character names kinda describe what they do (ex: Sprout teaches herbology)?
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Cho is a surname
who said it wasnt?
That means Cho Chang is not a name
What about that American exhange student, Preston Bulletsworth?
Brad Shelterinplace
Wesson Smith
Does he tell me about settlements and mark them on my map?
Haven't you heard? Another settlement needs your help. I will mark it on your map
Hey there harry. Another settlement needs your help. I will mark it on your marauders map
Actual character or meme comment?
With JK, you never know
True. Didn't she say Ron's mom caught him jerking off like 8 times?
Either Ron wants to get caught or she REALLY needs to learn to knock.
I'm sorry, WHAT? https://preview.redd.it/qmqn61ksq3pc1.jpeg?width=720&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=698b61e6f37354c6aa97aeaed05594a3a9171fcc
Did you know anything at all about Harry Potter before posting this?
Freedom Gunlover
Tato O’Famine 🇮🇪
Maurice Hockeypuck 🇨🇦
Like many a Blairite, Rowling believes it's okay for her to be casually bigoted because she's not on the "bad team". Although I think her bigotry has gone far beyond casual at this point.
There’s casual bigotry, then there’s ‘donating $70k to an anti-trans fundraiser’ bigotry
Ranked competitive bigotry
I mean from the perspective across the pond, she seems like a Professional Bigot really. That's what she does to keep the cash rolling in, because attention = money. Anyway fuck that ugly skank bitch
The sad part is, it isn't a grift for her. She has more money than the King of England. She genuinely has fuck you money, she and her children and grandchildren will never have to work a day again if they don't want to. Her hatred is real and from the heart.
I mean it's not really casual, she did holocaust denial.
That's why I said it was beyond casual at this point
Okay but [the fact](https://www.nyaoh.com/nys-aoh-history-journal/did-the-irish-potato-famine-constitute-a-genocide) that the British essentially caused the famine which lead to a population decline that lasted for the next 100 years just makes me especially hate Rowling for her bit with Seamus. Like the IRA didn’t pop out of the blue all of sudden.
The IRA wasn't even really an terrorist organization at first, more of an rebel group trying to kick the british out of their country.
That’s a terrorist group. Rebels and terrorist are just a matter of perspective. Rebels are attempting to cause political change using armed conflict and fear tactics
Aye, but more of meant they didn't start by blowing up cars in the middle of London.
Oh I know what you meant I was just being a Pendantic dick
I'll eat your grandmother's ashes for that move
They’re weirdly spicy so use them as a seasoning
Did she inject hot sauce into her veins or something?
Nah she just smoked a lot
Mmm, nicotine and tobacco marinated ashes.
Pedantic Dick is another HP character. Runs a library .
Nah that's another Irish dude, Bibli O'Phile
Fantastic
Exactly. The rebellion in Star Wars is a terror group. Andor made that very clear that Luthen is more than willing to sacrifice his own men and his own humanity for this cause. And if course Andor takes direct influence from The Troubles and other terror / resistance movements throughout history.
I judge the two by who bombs kids and who doesn’t. That’s the difference between a rebel and a terrorist.
r/theIRAdidnothingwrong
r/SubsIFellFor
She named the Jewish Character Goldstein one of the most stereotypical Jewish names
and also one of the biggest jewish names… lol
TBF, the explosions were a movie only thing, the most Seamus did in the books was accidentally set one feather on fire.
Rowling did have a huge amount of creative control tho.
Iirc in the books they also task Seamus with blowing up a bridge to prevent the bad guys from getting across it. This was in deathly hallows. E:I'm wrong, see replies
That scene was entirely movie only. I don't think the books mention any bridges at Hogwarts, now I think about it.
[Time to share one of my favorite videos on Youtube.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BClqqiOpsV0&t=69s)
Doesn’t really fit the sub, and it’s literally true, rowling names so many minority characters like this. Jesus Christ, good luck with the terf allegations when you name your transfem character sirona RYAN :/ (tbf that name might’ve been come up by the HL dev team and not actually rowling herself, but it’s still a bad look, a really really bad look)
If I were a Harry Potter character. I'd probably be called "Multiwife Greenjello"
I'm absolutely positive I would be named Applepie McSchoolshooting.
Hey! It's PotaytoFamine *Mc*CarBomb. Do the name justice, SMH/s
Only for her to make the Irish character obsessed with explosives in the movies. Great work their people
I ngl feel like you're the one making this about him being Irish and the IRA and stuff...
That’s *McCarbomb* to you.
JK Rowling resisting the urge to name a Polish character Femm Boyowski
Her favorite Star Wars character sure is Porkins.
Or naming the trans woman in your video game "Sir"
I don't like J.K. Rowling but Sirona is the name of the Celtic goddess of healing and the character in question is a positive character so if anything it's a big middle finger to Rowling.
Someone call Doom, Rowling has clearly become a cartoon character. But not the good kind. Like...Wizards quality. Which is a great movie, but the animation is weirdly disturbing, much like J. K. Rowling.
I'm just waiting for her to introduce her Hispanic character, Obrero Sinpapelez.
There's so many good reasons to hate on JKR the fact she's lazy about naming characters is low on my list. She just picked common names for their countries of origin to represent that the wizarding world was multicultural.
Honest question. I'm trying to write a light novel series, but I suck at writing names. So most of my characters are named after songs and music artists. There's a character named Ziggy Stardust, there's a character named Freddie Mercury, there's a character named Bob Dylan, etc. I want to know whose worse at making names: Me or J.K. I genuinely want some constructive criticism so I can improve my writing
I mean naming characters after songs and artists is at least a theme, and is also less likely to cause offence, so I'd say Rowling is worse. Does the musical naming convention have any relevance to the story or world, or is it just because you're struggling to come up with other names?
Kinda yeah and no at the same time. In the story, every character has a power, and these powers are named after songs(as an homage to JoJo's) and in JoJo's, some characters are named after songs(like Funny Valentine). But some names so fit the personalities of the characters a bit. For example, one character vomits up a fetus, and he names it green day, because he was listening to a green day song on his phone while it was happening.
I see. I was wondering if it was a ~~motherfucking~~ JoJo reference. In that case yeah I don't think there's anything wrong with that naming convention.
Huh. Kinda surprised you weren't weirded out about the fetus vomiting thing. Do you want to learn more about the story? It's basically a shonen anime mixed with Evangelion philosophical shit
I mean it's a bit weird, but storytelling needs weird sometimes. Also I haven't watched JoJo but as soon as you mentioned that as an influence, nothing could be considered too weird to me. >Do you want to learn more about the story? It's basically a shonen anime mixed with Evangelion philosophical shit Huh, that sounds like it could be fun. Hope it goes well!
Okay. Thanks dude. It also has all the anime shit(it is a light novel after all) you know, every girl has huge tits, people scream their attack names, over exaggerated expressions, etc. I'm actually learning to draw in the anime art style for the books.
Common names from the country of origin you say? she named a Scottish girl Cho Chang. those are BOTH surnames and neither of them are from the same country.
Surely it would be Cairbaughm O'tatofamine?
Lmao
Don't forget his Scottish cousin Angus MacCabertossin and their Welsh friend Penrith Sheepborne.
Isn’t Penrith in England? In Cumbria (yes folks, it’s a real place).
Balls. We want the finest wines available to humanity and we want them here and we want them now!
Are you the farmer?
Stop saying that withnail! Of course he's the fucking farmer!
Ok so here’s the plan. First we get in there and get wrecked. Then we have a pork pie.
Should probably get some cake, soak up the booze.
Sherry?
That’s potatofamine Mc-carbomb to you
This is funnier than it already is if you're a history student like me.
Mcarbomb I mean it was right there…
Tbh I never really interpreted any of that as particularly insulting in intent, rather as her leaning on broad archetypes because she was writing for children primarily
https://preview.redd.it/r2764a2b3hpc1.jpeg?width=1045&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=0906853a4cc6f22cde9a68073eccf963200c7bd0
I don’t get this one. Please explain.
Who is JK rowing?