With the release of Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald today I thought now would be a good time to break down the magical wizarding world created by J. K. Rowling. So let’s delve in to one of the most successful fictional franchises of all time.
Core Concept: “The Importance of Tolerance and Friendship” In both the Harry Potter story and now the Fantastic Beasts movies the villains are those who advocate for racial purity and wish to amass a large amount of personal power. They are defeated by a band of heroes who are considered outcasts. People who are willing to sacrifice for one another and believe that the things that unite us are much more powerful than the things that divide us. The key to success often lies in being kind to someone who is unaccustomed to people being kind to them. Basically, the hard and fast rule of this universe is that in the end Love and Acceptance will always triumph over Hatred and Prejudice.
Essential Moments: This is a franchise littered with important moments. From major character deaths and resurrections to wizarding duels and fortuitous meetings, Rowling’s wizarding world is a finely tuned machine in which even the smallest events can have wide-reaching ramifications. But no singular event defines this franchise more than one that is never shown but only spoken of. That night at Godric’s Hollow when Voldemort gives Harry his scar sets in motion the events of the entire franchise. It is the defining event for Harry, Voldemort, and Snape who end up being the three most important characters in the franchise.
Rouges Gallery: Voldemort clearly serves as the primary antagonist for the series and he is as well developed and frightening a villain as we have seen in fiction. While often times Big Bads in his style seem one dimensional and their motivations unbelievable, Rowling does such a great job crafting Voldemort’s backstory and showing how broken he was from the start that he never feels like a one-note villain despite his rater hackneyed goal of simply being seen as the most powerful wizard ever. But Voldemort was not the only well-crafted villain in the series. The Malfoys, Peter Pettigrew, Dolores Umbridge are fantastic foes taken separately but taken together they show us the various forms evil can take. The bigotry and snobbery of those born to wealth and power, the schoolyard bully, the coward, and the authoritarian bureaucrat. In the new film series, we will still have to see what Grindewald has in store for us but I expect good things.
Best Stories: I think everyone has a personal preference here as every story in this franchise is filled with fantastic moments that have a different level of personal importance to different fans But for me the best entry out of the films is Prisoner of Azkaban while Deathly Hallows is my favorite book just because the stakes are so high and the payoffs for so many characters are so good.
NEVER DO IT THIS WAY AGAIN: There isn’t one really. The early books aren’t quite as well written as the later ones but they’re still better than most books out there and while I think Goblet of Fire has the roughest going out of the movies its still above average and was really just a victim of too much ground to cover from the books. Even the play Harry Potter and The Cursed Child, which I haven’t seen yet, has won a Tony award. I guess the biggest problem with this franchise is the video games, which do suck. I mean majorly suck. That one mobile game with the devil’s snare? I mean whoever did that should be banned from ever making games or Harry Potter content again.