J K Rowling back on her bullshit

[Admiral X]

Great comeback - a lot of substance there.

[ChiggyvonRichthofen]

Harry Potter might be overrated, in the sense that it's not the best series ever, but it's pretty darn enjoyable. A lot of people, secretly or openly, crave schoolyard drama, a little bit of soap opera, and so on. The setting of a wizard academy and some of the other basic premises of the books are instant sells. Unlike some of her imitators, Rowling writes with enjoyable prose and understands how to intertwine theme, subtext, and plot in a generally consistent and intelligent way. It's been a while since I read them, but I felt like most of the twists in plot and characterization paid off without feeling cheap or forced.

With that said, I don't really understand why writers, including Rowling, seem to feel the need constantly add crap and answer every question that nobody ever asked. As influential as Tolkien might be, it's unfortunate that more people didn't take lessons from his world-building. Modern sci-fi and fantasy series are thousands of pages longer than The Lord of the Rings but don't have nearly the same feel of depth and richness. Explaining stuff can be fine, or even good, but almost everything I've heard Rowling say post-Deathly Hallows feels like it detracts from the richness of the Harry Potter universe rather than expanding its mythology.

[Yukaphile]

Animorphs, the other hot nineties YA fiction that was overshadowed by Harry Potter, barring Goosebumps, blows it out of the water in terms of quality. For me, though, I think the Harry Potter books are the best closer to the beginning. After Voldemort comes back, that's when things start slowly going downhill, and fast. I thought Harry Potter and the Cursed Child was utter trash, in that it feels like fanfiction where nothing makes sense and the characters are not really true to the canon portrayal. Take Voldemort fathering a child. The idea of him linking himself to a woman or child would be repulsive to him. He wanted to be separate, stand out. Just having a similarity to a barman that shared a name with him was too much. There's no way Voldemort would do that. He understands physical attraction, but he would never stoop to such a low himself. Hell, it's one of the few things I found about the god-awful Half-Blood Prince that was legitimately interesting, the backstory into Voldemort, how he came to power, and his quest for immortality. I agree with others in this thread, Deathly Hallows was just garbage. If they'd had Muggle technology, the so-called Battle of Hogwarts would have been over in five minutes. The very Muggle technology they patronizingly look down on as our handicap for being "magic-less." Yeah, the Wizarding world is very much a backward and primitive society hidden under bright colors and a seemingly friendly veneer, as others have also pointed out.

[Deledrius]

I thought Harry Potter and the Cursed Child was utter trash, in that it feels like fanfiction where nothing makes sense and the characters are not really true to the canon portrayal. Take Voldemort fathering a child. The idea of him linking himself to a woman or child would be repulsive to him. He wanted to be separate, stand out. Just having a similarity to a barman that shared a name with him was too much. There's no way Voldemort would do that. He understands physical attraction, but he would never stoop to such a low himself.

It's pretty awful, and you can tell that JKR had no hand in writing it. The character voices are completely wrong. There's a reason why a huge section of HP fans consider it fanfic trash. The people who like it seem to mostly be people who saw the production in person, because apparently the impressive stage effects and acting are enough to plaster over how terrible every aspect of the plot is. The heroes, the villains, the magic, it's all inconsistent with the novels.

[Yukaphile]

Time travel. They use a Time-Turner to go back in time. I was under the impression those could only handle a few hours, a day at most. And Cedric resents Harry for losing the Triwizard Tournament. What the hell? He was ready to throw it to Harry to do the right thing! I know Harry Potter had its flaws, but... damn. That's bad.