Current Events > If you could send a message to your younger self to not watch/read Harry Potter

(+) Yeah! (+)

Hmm? ;;;;o

Don't need to. I never thought wizard school was an interesting concept, regardless of how popular it was with my age group.

I've already never watched or read Harry Potter, so it wouldn't be necessary.

Its a series I got to enjoy with my mother so I wouldnt
just because we enjoyed it doesnt mean I support the queen of transphobes nor do I support it financially

No.

It would probably make me want to read them, when I wasn't interested in them before. Who can resist a forbidden book?

Nope, because I never read any of the books and never bought the movies.

Also that GameCube Qudditch game was too good to skip

Always hated reading books when I was a kid and Harry Potter never really interested me...
So I don't think much would change TBH

I would still watch it. The writer could become a serial killer or the next Hitler, I'm not going to let them rob me of something I know I enjoyed. I always separate the art from the artist, anyway.

I read the first 3 books as a kid then got bored, not worth the effort.

No, I'd tell myself winning lottery numbers

I still enjoy the books (despite their flaws) even if I don't enjoy their author and will no longer be supporting her. So no, I wouldn't do that.

No, I was more of a "Series of Unfortunate Events" kid anyways when I was still reading. Like I still read them, but I wasn't hyper-fixated on them some people were.

Not necessary for me.
I watched the first movie or two, played like one game, and that's as far as I got with the series.
It was interesting but never felt compelling.
And I hate the trope of "fun story eventually turns dark and bleak" so I never felt the need to catch up on it either.

Absolutely, the message would be "don't watch/read Harry Potter, buyalotofcryptowhenitcomesout"

i never did

I don't think I'd wanna risk it. It's pretty much tainted for me now, but growing up and even into adulthood, it was very near to my heart. Heck, there was a period in college where I would rewatch all the movies about once a month (as background noise while doing other things). I couldn't predict what would happen to me if I just removed that from my life, so probably better not to take the chance.

Besides, kid me would not even *begin* to understand "You're actually a girl and the author specifically hates people like you", so I'm not sure something like this would even work in the first place.

No, I never did. Still haven't seen or read anything HP related outside playing Hogwarts Legacy or whatever the game was from a few years ago.

No because that seems unnecessary

no need. never read those.

No but only because my younger self naturally chose not to. Sending a message back would just risk changing history so that they do choose to watch/read Harry Potter.

Young me: "what the hell is a TERF?"

Harry Potter was lame as fuck back then and everyone I know who enjoyed it grew up to be insufferably "Potterheads" or Funko Pop hoarders

My entire exposure to Harry Potter is reading like half the first book, and watching the sixth movie

CRON posted...

Harry Potter was lame as fuck back then and everyone I know who enjoyed it grew up to be insufferably "Potterheads" or Funko Pop hoarders

i loved HP as a kid and i never bought any funko pops, nor do i consider myself a potterhead, lol. people who have harsh opinions like this are truly self reporting though, i've come across a few of those in my life. while i was reading the last book, my sister's boyfriend at the time asked me a very spoilery question, and then i freaked out cause i had spent the last...8 years of my life reading these books? then at 18, this fucking doofus spoils it. he was then mocking me that people went to the movies dressed up like the character, which i never did, and he was VERY into star wars and before the spoiler bullshit happened he had shown me some pictures of him posing in a cape with a red light saber...at like 30 years old lmfao. what a fucking dork. i ended up beating the shit out of him a few years later when he was tormenting my sister

No. I like the stories a lot. She sucks, but I wont deny my love of the series.

I would instead convince myself to get a library card and read the books that way. Get the story without supporting her.

No. When I read the first 4K I was grounded and that was all I was allowed to do. I loved them.

Moreover, reading HP is why I started reading HP fan fiction around 2017-2018, and I like a lot of that more than the actual books.

No, I'd have infinitely more important information to send instead. "School work is actually easy just apply yourself and ignore the expectations of others, as long as you're making steady progress it matters not where you started" "Getting fit is easy, just start with ten split squats, ten knee pushups, and 10 situps a day and slowly increase over time by one rep every week, dividing into sets broken up by 30-90 second rests once passing 12 reps and taking each rep slower as strength increases." "Learn how to make stew for the ultimate food."

And, of course, "when you see and have the opportunity to buy whole bitcoins for $80 go all in and buy ten to twenty of them and hold until 2023."

Trying to explain to a teenager in the early 2000s why JK Rowling is a bad person requires overly long explanations that likely wouldn't actually work and would be dismissed as ravings of a madman. Good and targeted advice even if it's not believed to be from the future would be taken on board and kept in the back of my mind though.

I was in high school when the books rose in popularity and even though I was an avid reader and lover of fantasy I couldn't make it past the first chapter. Not a knock against others my age or older who enjoy the books buts it was painfully obvious they were written for children.

Don't need to.

Don't gotta

Suddenly everyone on CE never read or watched harry potter xD

Still have not read a word or seen a minute of the movies.

If anything id tell myself to read them sooner. Good series. Who the artist of any product is or what they do is irrelevant to me, only whether i like said product.

No, because I never did.

Vegy posted...

Suddenly everyone on CE never read or watched harry potter xD

I mean, isn't this the first topic that ever asked? Normally it's the other way around. Raise your hand if you HAVE read it.

I'd probably comment on the raise your hand if you've never seen Dragonball Z topic too.

No. Because I never watched or read it to begin with.

Vegy posted...

Suddenly everyone on CE never read or watched harry potter xD

You're not the first to call bullshit on me for that. I've left some TERFs in absolute disbelief. I was born in 1985, I've always been an excellent reader, and I've lived in the United Kingdom my entire life. I have to have read at least one Harry Potter book or seen one of the movies. Right? Wrong.

Don't know how I did it myself but I've consistently avoided the entire franchise.

i'd tell me not to read the books, not because i give a flying fuck about the writers personal beliefs but because the last several books were horse shit.

Didn't watch them, didn't finish the books. Rowling has always been a hack.

HP got me into reading. Not sure there were other books that would have hooked me the same way, and being an avid reader as A kid definitely have me a step up in school. Not changing that.

Vegy posted...

Suddenly everyone on CE never read or watched harry potter xD

Hehe, reminds me of all those people who said some variation of Kanye being a genius, but now theyre quick to say hes very overrated and they always knew.

Anyway, I did watch all the Harry Potter movies, but never read more than the first book. I wouldnt discourage my younger self from giving them a chance, and I might as well try to finish reading the series now.

I resisted at first but eventually watched and read from peer pressure. A message from future me wouldnt be enough to stop younger me. Now if my friends sent messages to their younger selves Id have a chance.

Never read the books or seen any of the movies anyway.

Harry Potter is what actually got me to really read at all so despite JKR's track record currently, the benefit definitely outweighs the very slight negative impact of reading the books at the height of their popularity.

Much as I don't care for Rowling and her bigoted views, the books really ignited my interest in reading.

Never cared for the movies though. I never felt like they captured the magic and storytelling of the books. I really feel like if I hadn't already read the books, I'd be a little lost cause the little details just aren't as fleshed out as they are in the books. Hazards of transferring mediums I guess.

Yeah I was already an adult of 20 years old when I started reading those just because my younger sister was reading them and had some laying around. They weren't, like, formative novels for me and they aren't even good. So why support in any way the queen of TERF Island?

No, I'm listening to it again, on book 3.

I couldn't do it, I was obsessed with those books back then. Funny how despite being such an avid reader of the books none of the rest of the Harry Potter mania took me by storm.