These movies take place shortly after the end of WW1. The second movie ends with Grindelwald, the big bad, holding an evil rally trying to convince the other wizards that they should reveal themselves and take over humanity, and he shows a vision of the future that will come if they don’t; Another war. He shows visions of tanks, of the Blitz, of Nazi victims in concentration camps, and finally a nuclear explosion, and says “we can prevent this.”
This could work if it took place in the modern day, or even if it took place after WW2 and he showed visions of nuclear Armageddon. But the villain of the movie showed visions of the second world war which we know does in fact happen and says “We should prevent this” and the audience is supposed to go “No that’s bad actually.” And yes, preventing WW2 is just a fig leaf for his actual goal of world domination, but ultimately it still means you wrote a story where the bad guy is the one going “we should stop WW2”
Rowling has a reccurring hangup with changing the past. In the late sequel screenplay thing that stars Harry's kid, the plot is that they want to go back in time to save Cedric Diggory's life, and succeed - but somehow this makes Cedric himself become a Death Eater and causes the bad guys to win the wizard war, so they end up having to make sure Cedric dies as originally planned.
It’s even more nonsensical, the character that attempted to prevent the holocaust (Grindelwald) is also implied to be roughly equivalent to wizard Hitler.
One of the side characters confronts some students who are vandalizing something with Grindelwald's insignia. It’s basically framed as a swastika until we learn its actually okay because its an ancient wizard symbol called the deathly hallows and Rowling starts putting them all over her merch.
Grindelwald was also defeated in 1945, which is definitely intentional considering how much of a hack Rowling is.
Not really, Wizard Hitler is just the most evil thing Jowling can imagine - that's why Voldemort was the same. I would not be surprised if the BBEG of Hogwarts Legacy was also Wizard Hitler.
Oh man if they thought the second movie was a mess I want to know what they thought of the third one because holy shit that was the worst and most confusing film I’ve ever seen
This isn’t the first time Rowling has fallen into a trap like this. As many have noticed, her goblins are big-nosed greedy bankers. (By the way, just contemplate the sheer brass neck of her accusing Corbyn and the Labour left of antisemitism when she repackaged and sold the hoary antisemitic stereotypes of old to a generation of kids…) But that aside, fewer people have noticed that the goblins are also communistic in their inability to comprehend ‘human’ notions such as private property. They believe – horror of horrors! – that a person owns a thing because they made it. They reject the idea that Gryffindor ‘owns’ the sword they made just because he paid for it. They reject as intuitively wrong the entire concept of the commodity. So they are not just an antisemitic stereotype; they’re specifically a Nazi antisemitic stereotype of the Jews as both capitalists and communists.
Spoilers not that anyone should give a fuck
These movies take place shortly after the end of WW1. The second movie ends with Grindelwald, the big bad, holding an evil rally trying to convince the other wizards that they should reveal themselves and take over humanity, and he shows a vision of the future that will come if they don’t; Another war. He shows visions of tanks, of the Blitz, of Nazi victims in concentration camps, and finally a nuclear explosion, and says “we can prevent this.”
This could work if it took place in the modern day, or even if it took place after WW2 and he showed visions of nuclear Armageddon. But the villain of the movie showed visions of the second world war which we know does in fact happen and says “We should prevent this” and the audience is supposed to go “No that’s bad actually.” And yes, preventing WW2 is just a fig leaf for his actual goal of world domination, but ultimately it still means you wrote a story where the bad guy is the one going “we should stop WW2”
The scene in question. CW: Johnny Depp
Rowling has a reccurring hangup with changing the past. In the late sequel screenplay thing that stars Harry's kid, the plot is that they want to go back in time to save Cedric Diggory's life, and succeed - but somehow this makes Cedric himself become a Death Eater and causes the bad guys to win the wizard war, so they end up having to make sure Cedric dies as originally planned.
It's "we live in the best possible reality".
It’s even more nonsensical, the character that attempted to prevent the holocaust (Grindelwald) is also implied to be roughly equivalent to wizard Hitler.
One of the side characters confronts some students who are vandalizing something with Grindelwald's insignia. It’s basically framed as a swastika until we learn its actually okay because its an ancient wizard symbol called the deathly hallows and Rowling starts putting them all over her merch.
Grindelwald was also defeated in 1945, which is definitely intentional considering how much of a hack Rowling is.
I spent way too much of my childhood on this shit.
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This is very true, forgot to specify that part. God what a stupid fucking series.
It’s such a bizarre thing to shoehorn into a children’s series, especially this clumsily.
Not really, Wizard Hitler is just the most evil thing Jowling can imagine - that's why Voldemort was the same. I would not be surprised if the BBEG of Hogwarts Legacy was also Wizard Hitler.
This sounds like a good excuse to link this article: Fascistic Beasts and Why You Shouldn’t Fight Them
Oh man if they thought the second movie was a mess I want to know what they thought of the third one because holy shit that was the worst and most confusing film I’ve ever seen
Good article, thanks for sharing