sagasofsundry:

I feel like now that a lot of the initial nostalgia accompanying the idea of new potter material has worn off a lot of it just seems like nonsense to me, and in a way it also kind of feels grossly exploitative? like the casual vacancy never got much traction (it wasn’t a very good book imo) and I think jk and her publicist both know that there are millions of people who will do pretty much anything for potter, they’ll join poorly-designed websites and spend hundreds of dollars visiting theme parks and they’ll go see a terrible play (or they’ll buy a copy of the script) just because it has the name harry potter attached to it, so to rebound from a flop the move is to then go back to the franchise that built her. like jk and her publicist both know that nostalgia is such a powerful motivator (so many of us will do so much for the things and the people who made us) that we will forgive pretty much anything if it means we get a little more magic, and so she can get away with terrible ideas and inconsistent characterization and blatant but poor fanservice (and, I mean, the fact that cursed child exists is fanservice; fantastic beasts is entirely fanservice– the actual book fantastic beasts and where to find them, that exists in real life, is 42 pages (I’m looking at my copy right now) and literally all it does is list and describe some of the animals in the harry potter universe, with funny “handwritten” notes from harry and ron in the margins, and yet they’re turning it into a huge blockbuster series because you know it won’t just be one film you know they’ll be cranking out sequels til the end of time starring one of hollywood’s biggest new names for the simple reason that they know people will go see it). maybe she thinks we’re so starved for potter content that it honestly doesn’t matter what she does (and in a way she’s right, it’s worked out for her thus far), so long as she says one thing one time that’ll make her seem progressive and with-it (supporting the semi-popular fan theory that hermione isn’t white, deciding after the fact that dumbledore is gay, etc)– but we’re not starved for potter content; there are currently 99,713 fanworks under the harry potter tag on ao3, and that’s only one site, and that’s not including the movieverse, and on and on and on. but it’s ~different~, because it’s jk, so it’s canon… but honestly? the stories are over. at this point, she’s writing fanfiction just like the rest of us. only she’s doing it worse, and she’s raking in millions of dollars for it.