One of my favorite parts of the Harry Potter books were the Quidditch matches. There's something so relatable and simple about the fact that on that Quidditch pitch, Harry was just a normal kid. Sure, he was a jock and a sports prodigy, being the first first year to join the Quidditch team, but it was uniquely special watching him thrive in something. Harry wasn't a star student like Hermione and didn't have a great wizard family life like Ron. Quidditch is one of those things that he could suc…

I have never been a big fan of the Fantastic Beasts And Where To Find Them series. I'm happy that more movies are being made about the wizarding world, but I wish that these were different movies. JK Rowling is clearly surrounded by yes men who let her write the screenplay for all of these movies, despite her not having any skills as a screenwriter. Her author brain wanted to insert ten million characters into Fantastic Beasts that nobody cared about. She wanted to flesh out all of their backst…

Thank you, Chamber of Secrets.

If you ask a random Harry Potter fan off the street what they think of Severus Snape , chances are you will get a strong opinion. Get 100 Potterheads in a room, and there's a chance none of them will share the exact same take on Snape. Over the years, fan opinions have slowly but surely turned against Snape. While some still view him as a hero, it's a lot more common for people to see him as no more than a common villain who was needlessly cruel to an abused child because he still has a crush o…

I'm sure everybody, no matter what Hogwarts house they're in, wishes they could spend their hours of study and leisure in the Gryffindor Common Room . None of the other common rooms could compare to where Harry, Ron, and Hermione spend their Hogwarts days inbetween classes. The Slytherin Common room would make you feel like you're surrounded by concrete, with the AC always turned up way too high. There's probably a lot of fluorescent lighting that would do a number on the complexion. Look at ho…

Do any minorities in the wizarding world have normal names?

If there's one Harry Potter character whose hype I never really understood, it's Draco Malfoy . So many Draco fangirls see him as a misunderstood boy with secret depth and hidden pain. I don't think that the text of the books or the movies really supports that, but I believe they get this idea from the aesthetics of Harry Potter itself. Draco is in the dark Hogwarts house. He lives in the dark dungeons of the school and doesn't really have any other friends besides his lackeys. He is raised in…

To say that we are not fans of JK Rowling would be an understatement, but even if she stopped being a TERF, there's plenty to admonish her for. Today, we learned of another reason. While people have been discussing the subject of JK Rowling's sorta kinda racist map of the Wizarding schools for some time, the controversy (and later, hilarity) came to our attention via the @TerribleMaps Twitter account. The @TerribleMaps post features a fan's geographic depiction of Rowling's schools (the origina…

There are some Harry Potter takes that have been beaten to the ground. Everybody wonders why the Weasley twins didn't see Peter Pettigrew on the Marauders Map in the same room as Ron. Everybody has questions about how Gilderoy Lockhart was able to get hired at Hogwarts in the first place. My favorite Harry Potter plot hole pertains to everybody's favorite game: Quidditch. I really question the viability of Quidditch as a game. I know that in the Quidditch World Cup , the golden snitch is less c…

Gilderoy Lockhart is one of the funniest characters in the entire Wizarding World. He's one of those goofy, incompetent, largely unimportant fake-out villains that could've only come out of the first couple of books. It is such a wonder how this man even got hired at this school. Professor Quirrell, I get it. He's a socially awkward guy who happens to have Voldemort on the back of his head, but at least he knows the basic tenants of magic! Lockhart is worse at magic than 12-year-old kids who ha…

Bri-ish

Is Harry Potter and the Sorcerers Stone a Christmas movie? Scholars remain divided, but it's a well know fact among Potterheads that the Harry Potter movies are often a favorite to watch during the holidays. The scene with Ron and Harry celebrating Christmas together is too pure for words, and who among us hasn't wished we could spend the holiday within the walls of Hogwarts? I feel like every Harry Potter film gives me different seasonal vibes. Obviously, Sorcerers Stone and Chamber of Secrets…

I'm sure everybody, no matter what Hogwarts house they're in, wishes they could spend their hours of study and leisure in the Gryffindor Common Room . None of the other common rooms could compare to where Harry, Ron, and Hermione spend their Hogwarts days between classes. The Slytherin Common room would feel like you're surrounded by concrete, with the AC always turned up way too high. There's probably a lot of fluorescent lighting that would do a number on the complexion. The Hufflepuff common…

Because how can you possibly enjoy a festive feast without knowing which Hogwarts house you're in?

My first exposure to Harry Potter was through a meme. Call it a meme, call it one of the most influential viral videos of the late 2000s, call it whatever you please. No Harry Potter parody media will ever top Potter Puppet Pal's rendition of The Mysterious Ticking Noise. What could be more fun and simple than Harry Potter characters repeating their names to the catchy rhythm of a metronome? “Snape, Snape, Severus Snape DUMBLEDORE” is still stuck in my head after all these years. The fact that…

The future of Harry Potter movies is unclear, as the Wizarding World's biggest spinoff series has been nixed. This week, it was reported that the rest of the Fantastic Beasts series is being quietly canceled due to the lackluster financial performance of the last film and Ezra Miller and J.K. Rowling's respective scandals. In all honesty, I'm not that mad about this. Fantastic Beasts was a weird series, and I somehow got through it without caring about a single one of the characters. I feel lik…