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redgoldsparks · 6 months

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I wrote a 12 page epilogue to my 2019 comic "Harry Potter and The Problematic Author" because I found, in 2023, that I had more to say. You can also find this comic on my website, and I have PDF copies available on etsy. I may sell print copies at some point in the future.

instagram / patreon / portfolio / etsy / my book / redbubble

Full transcript below the cut.

PAGE 1

Part one: Ruddy Owls!

I was in fourth grade when the first Harry Potter Book was released in the US.

Panel 1: Sometimes our teacher would read it aloud in class. “Mr and Mrs Dursley of number 4 Privat Drive were proud to say they were perfectly normal, thank you very much…”

Panel 2: I was 11 years old when Harry Potter finally broke through my dyslexia and turned me into a reader.

Panel 3: Every night in the summer before sixth grade I waited for the owl carrying my Hogwarts Letter. I cried when it didn’t come. “I have to go to Muggle school!”

PAGE 2

Part Two: Hats

I dedicated myself to being a fan.

Panel 1: I began collecting Harry Potter News article.

Panel 2: I asked my relatives to mail me ones from their local papers. I filled a thick binder with clippings.

Panel 3: I wrote my own trivia quiz

Panel 4: and participated in the one held annually at the county fair. “Next contestant!”

Panel 5: I usually got into one of. the top five spots. I won boxes of candy, posters, stationary, and once a baseball cap. (Hat reads: I survived the battle of Hogwarts).

Panel 6: In high school I sewed a black velvet cape and knitted many stripped scarves.

PAGE 3

Part Three: Double Trouble

Watching the last film in 2011 felt like the final note of my childhood.

Panel 1: I remember driving home from the midnight showing thinking about the end of 13 years of waiting; wondering what would define the next chapter of my life.

Panel 2: That same month I heard of something called Pottermore. “Okay, so there’s a sorting quiz… I already know my house! Patronus assignment? Mine’s a barn owl. Duh!"

Panel 3: You can read the books again but with GIFs? Why?

Panel 4: I lived in a place with very slow and limited internet at the time. Pottermore sounded inaccessible, but also boring. I never joined.

Panel 5: "I’ll just read the actual books again, thanks."

PAGE 4

Part Four: Sweets

In 2016, a series of short stories titled "History of Magic in North America” were released on Pottermore to pave the way for the first Fantastic Beasts Film. These stories display an extreme ignorance of American history, culture, and geography, but the worst parts are the casual misuse of indigenous beliefs and stories. Fans and critics immediately spoke up against this appropriation. Some of the most quoted voices included Nambe Pueblo scholar Dr. Debbie Reese who runs the site “American Indians In Children’s Literature”; Navajo writer Brian Young; Johnnie Jae (Otoe-Missouria and Choctaw), founder of A Tribe Called Geek; Dr Adrienne Keene (Cherokee Nation), a Professor at Brown University who runs the blog “Native Appropriations”, and writers N.K. Jemison and Paula Young Lee.

PAGE 5

Rowling is famous for responding to fans directly on twitter, yet she did not respond to anyone calling out the damaging aspects of “Magic in North America.” Her representatives refused to comment for March 9 2016 article in the Guardian. She has never apologized. All of this, plus the casting of Johnny Depp and the specific declarations of support by JKR, Warner Brothers, and director David Yates left a sour taste in my mouth.

For further thoughts on the new films read The Crimes of Grindelwald is a Mess by Alanna Bennett for Buzzfeed News, November 16, 2018.

PAGE 6

Excerpt from Colonialism in Wizarding American: JK Rowling’s History of Magic in North America Through an Indigenous Lens by Allison Mills, MFA, MAS/MLIS (Cree and Settler French Canadian)

Although Rowling is certainly not the first white author to misstep in her treatment of Indigenous cultures, she has an unprecedented level of visibility and fame, […] One of the most glaring problems with Rowling’s story is her treatment of the many Indigenous nations in North America as one monolithic group. […It] flattens out the diversity of languages, belief systems, and cultures that exist in Indigenous communities, allowing stereotyping to persist. […] It continues a long history of colonial texts which ignore that Indigenous peoples still exist. […] In the Wizarding world, as in the real world, Indigenous histories have been over-written and our cultures erased.

from The Looking Glass: New Perspectives in Children’s Literature Volumn 19, Issue 1

PAGE 7

Part 5: Music

Panel 1: Also in 2016 I discovered two podcasts which radically altered my experience of being an HP fan. The first was Witch Please created by two Canadian feminist literary scholars Hannah McGregor and Marcelle Kosman.

Panel 2: “If it’s not in the text it doesn’t count!” “Close reading ONLY!”

Panel 3: They talk about Harry Potter at the level you’d expect in a college class with particular focus on gender, race, class, and the troubling fatphobia, fear of othered and queer coded bodies, violence against women, white feminism, gaslighting and failed pedagogy in the books. They bring up these issues not because they hate the series, but because they LOVE it.

PAGE 8

These passionate, joyful conversations went off like fireworks in my mind. I had never taken a feminist class before. I gained a whole new vocabulary to talk about the books- and the world.

PAGE 9

Panel 1: The second podcast I started that year was Harry Potter and the Sacred Text, created by two graduates of the Harvard Divinity School, Vanessa Zoltan and Casper Ter Kuile.

Panel 2: They read one chapter per episode through a theme such as love, control, curiosity, shame, responsibility, hospitality, destruction, or mystery. Like Witch Please, they are interested only in the information on the page, not thoughts from the author. The delights and failures of the text are examined in the context of the present day, and new meanings constantly arise.

PAGE 10

What does it mean to treat a text as sacred?

Trusting that the more time we give to it, the more blessings it has to give us.

Reading the text repeatedly with concentrated attention. Our effort is part of what makes it sacred. The text is not in and of itself sacred, but is made so by rigorously engaging in the ritual of reading.

Experiencing it in community.

“To me, the goal of treating the text as sacred is that we learn to treat each other as sacred.” -Vanessa Zoltan

PAGE 11

Part 6: Tooth and Claw

In October 2017, Rowling liked a tweet linking to an article arguing that trans women should be kept out of women’s bathrooms because of cisgender women’s fears. In March 2018, she liked a tweet about the problem of misogyny in the UK Labour Party which included the line “Men in dresses get brosocialist solidarity I never had.” The author of the tweet had previously posted many blatantly anti-trans statements.

Rowlings publicist claimed she had liked the posted by accident in a “clumsy and middle-aged moment.” Yet, in September 2018 she liked a link posted by Janice Turner to her column in the Times UK titled “Trans Rapists Are A Danger In Women’s Jails.”

Screencaps of these tweets can be found in the article “The Mysterious Case of JK Rowling and her Transphobic Twitter History”, January 10 2019 by Gwendolyn Smith (a trans journalist), LGBTQNation.com

PAGE 12

Excerpt from: Is JK Rowling Transphobic? A Trans Woman Investigates by Katelyn Burns

Ultimately, the answer is yes, she is transphobic […] I think it’s fair that she receives criticism from trans people, especially given her advocacy on behalf of queer people in general, but also because she has a huge platform. Many people look up to her for creating a singular piece of popular culture that holds deep meaning for fans from different walks of life, and she has a responsibility to handle that platform wisely. (Published on them.us March 28, 2018)

PAGE 13

Part 7: Home

At age 30, I’m still not over Harry Potter.

Panel 1: I’ve recently found a local bar that does HP trivia nights. “Poppy or Pomona?” “Poppy!”

Panel 2: I currently own an annual pass to Universal Studios so I can visit Hogsmeade.

Panel 3: I love talking to kids who are reading the books for the first time. “Who’s your favorite character?” “Ginny!”

Panel 4: And I’m planning a relisten to the audio books to next year to help me get through the election cycle. “Jim Dale, I’m going to need you more than ever…”

Spoiler from 2023: I did not do this. By mid-2020 JKR had posted her transphobic essay; we were in covid; I never visited Universal Studios again.

PAGE 14

But I do want to learn from her mistakes. I never want to repeat “Magic in North America.” As I write, I will do my research. I will consult experts and compensate them. If a reader from a different culture/background than me speaks up about my work, I will listen and apologize. I KNOW I WILL MAKE MISTAKES. But I will own up to them and I will do better.

PAGE 15

Excerpt from Diversity Is Not Enough: Race, Power and Publishing by Daniel José Older

We can love a thing and still critique it. In fact, that’s the only way to really love a thing. Let’s be critical lovers and loving critics and open ourselves to the truth about where we are and where we’ve been. Instead of holding tight to the same old, failed patriarchies, let’s walk a new road, speak new languages. Today, let’s imagine a literature, a literary world, that carries this struggle for equity in its very essence, so that tomorrow it can cease to be necessary, and disappear. (Buzzfeed, April 14, 2017)

PAGE 16

Harry Potter is flawed, & JK Rowling is problematic. But the books helped me learn a lot:

*One of the greatest dangers facing the modern world is the rise of fascism

*The government cannot be trusted

*Read and think critically

*Question the news: who paid the journalist? Who owns the paper?

*Trust and support your friends through good times and bad

*Organize for resistance

*Educate and share resources with peers

*The revolution must be diverse and intersectional

* We are only as strong as we are united

*The weapon we have is love

MK 2019

PAGE 17

PART 8: EPILOGUE

In 2021 I removed a Harry Potter patch I sewed to my book bag over a decade ago. I took 15 pieces of Harry Potter fanart off my walls. I got rid of my paperback book set, 2 board games, and 8 t-shirt. [images: a Hogwarts a patch with loose threads, a pair of scissors and a seam ripper]

Panel 1: Maia holding up a shirt with the Deathly Hallows logo on it. Maia thinks: “Damn, this really used to be my entire personality.”

Panel 2: The t-shirt gets thrown into the Goodwill box.

PAGE 18

I wrote my zine wrestling with JKR’s legacy in 2019, after her dismissive and racist reaction to indigenous fans and critics of “Magic in North America” and after she had liked a couple transphobic tweets. Since then, she has gotten so much worse.

A Brief Timeline (mostly from this Vox article)

June 2020- JKR posts a 3600 word essay making her anti-trans position clear

August 2020- The Robert F Kennedy Human Rights Org issues a statement about her transphobia, JKR doubles down on her position and returns an award they gave her

December 2020- JKR claims 90% of HP fans secretly agree with her anti-trans views

December 2021- JKR mocks Scottish Police for recognizing transgender identities

March 2022- JKR criticizes gender-inclusive language and legislation

December 2022- JKR retweets trans youtuber Jessie Earl’s critical review of Hogwarts Legacy, starting an onslaught of transphobic harassment towards Earl

December 2022- JKR removes her support from an Edinburgh center for survivors of sexual violence with a trans-inclusive policy and funds her own center which explicitly excludes trans sexual assault survivors

January 2023- JKR tweets “Deeply amused by those telling me I’ve lost their admiration due to disrespect I show violent, duplicitous rapists.” It got nearly 300K likes

March 2023- One the podcast “The Witch Trials of JK Rowling”, hosted by a former Westboro Baptist Church Member, JKR compares the trans rights movement to Death Eaters.

PAGE 19

What are The Witch Trials of JK Rowling?

Panel 1: Maia speaking. “It’s a 7 episode documentary style podcast hosted by Megan Phelps-Roper. Nearly every episode contains interviews with JKR as well as critics, journalists, historians, protestors and fans.

Panel 2: Maia speaking. “In episode 1, JKR speaks more candidly than she has previously about being in an abusive marriage. Her ex-husband hit her, stalked her, broke into her house overlapping with the time she was writing the first three HP books.”

Panel 3: Maia speaking. “What she went through genuinely sounds horrific. I have a lot of sympathy for the kind of life-long traumas those experiences leave.”

PAGE 20

HOWEVER.

It is clear from reading the June 2020 essay on her blog and listening to the podcast, that JKR still to this day feels unsafe. Despite her wealth and privilege she moves through the world with the mindset of a victim. And the group of people she finds most threatening are trans women.

Or rather, she is afraid that allowing trans women in women’s spaces invites the possibility of male predators entering those spaces.

Here’s a direct quote: The problem is male violence. All a predator wants is access and to open the doors of changing rooms, rape centers, domestic violence centers [...] to any male who says “I’m a woman and I have a right to be here” will constitute a risk to women and girls. - from The Witch Trials episode 4 as transcribed by therowlinglibrary.com, March 2023

Image: A stem of Belladonna with flowers and berries.

PAGE 21

Let me introduce here the term: TRANSMISOGYNY. The intersection of transphobia and misogyny, this term was coined by Julia Serano in 2007. Scout Tran, on tiktok as Queersneverdie said: “Transmisogyny occurs in people who have been previously hurt by traditional misogyny. Who have been driven to hate men or at the very least to be scared of men. They will sometimes take out that rage on trans women. (March 2023)

JKR claims to care for trans women and understand they are extremely vulnerable to assault and violence. In her 2020 Essay she wrote: “I want trans women to be safe. At the same time, I do not want to make natal girls and women less safe.”

So she cares about trans women… just less than cis women, and she’s willing to throw all trans women under the bus because of her unfounded, prejudice fears.

PAGE 22

Panel 1: Maia speaking. “JKR claims to have seen data that proves trans women have presented physical threats to other women in intimate spaces, but never cites sources. She also uses “producer of the large gametes” as a definition of “woman”.

What about transmen and nonbinary folks?

Panel 2: Maia leaning on a stack of all seven HP books, the first four Cormorant Strike books and The Casual Vacancy, gesturing to a series of quotes with a tired and disgusted expression.

I’m concerned about the huge explosion of young women wishing to transition and also about the increasing numbers who seem to be detransitioning. * [...] If I’d been born 30 years later, I too might have tried to transition. The allure of escaping womanhood would have been huge. -June 10 2020 essay

I don’t believe a 14 year old can truly understand what the loss of their fertility is.

-Witch Trials episode 4

I haven’t yet found a study that hasn’t found that the majority of young people experiencing gender dysphoria grow out of it*. -Witch Trials episode 7

*No sources cited

PAGE 23

It’s hard to over emphasize how fixated JKR has become on these topics. As of the date I’m writing this, 14 out of her 20 most recent tweets (70%) are in some way anti-trans. She tweets against Mermaids (a UK based trans youth charity), against trans athletes, against gender neutral bathrooms, and in support of LBG Alliance- a UK org that denies trans rights while upholding gay rights. Here are some gems from her archive:

“People who menstruate.” I’m sure there used to be a word for those people. Someone help me out. Wumben? Wimpund? Woomud? -June 2020

War is Peace. Freedom is Slavery. Ignorance is Strength. The Penised Individual Who Raped You Is a Woman. - December 2021

And in response to someone asking “How do you sleep at night knowing you lost a whole audience?”

I read my most recent royalty cheques and find the pain goes away pretty quickly. -October 2022

PAGE 24

Hashtag Ruthless Productions a queer nerd podcast company created a great guide on ethical engagement with HP. Image: the two hosts of Hashtag Ruthless productions, Jessie (They/she) and Lark (he/him).

Stop buying all official HP Products: books, movies, games, toys, etc, Universal Studios tickets, food, merch.* Boycott any new TV series or movies. Instead: buy the books and DVDs used. If you still want to wear HP merch, buy fan-made. Engage only with fan content: fic, podcasts, fanart, wizard rock, etc. Show transphobia is bad for business. None of this will change JKR’s mind. But the Fantastic Beast series was canceled and after record Pottermore sales in 2020, they fell in 2022 by 40%.

*She gets a portion of ALL tickets. In 2019, this was her largest income source. Read the full guide: hashtagruthless.com/resourceguide

PAGE 25

As late as 2019, I was still reading JKR’s murder mystery series. But by the fourth book my experience began to sour.

Panel 1: Maia holding a copy of Lethal White. “The only gay character in this book is a government official who gropes his staff?”

Panel 2: “The only genderqueer character is misgendered and portrayed as a whiny faker?”

Panel 3: “The only Muslim character is disowned by his family over gay rumors?”

Panel 4: “Even the women aren’t portrayed very well…”

Panel 5: “Why is the main female character defined by the rape in her past?”

Panel 6: “Wait, what happens in the rest of this series…?” Maia scrolls on eir phone.

Panel 7: “Is the series heading towards an employee/boss relationship?”

Panel 8: “And has a man wearing women’s clothes to commit assault?”

Panel 9: “Yeah, I’m done. I’m never reading a new JKR book ever again.”

PAGE 26

And as for JKR herself?

As tempting as it might be to tweet your frustrations at her, I don’t recommend it. In 2021, she tweeted, “Hundreds of trans activists have threatened to beat, rape, assassinate and bomb me.” Getting hate online feeds her sense of victimhood and she waves it as proof of her moral high ground. Instead I suggest you block her on twitter, then delete twitter, go to the library and try to find a new book that feels magical.

Stack of books: In Other Lands by Sarah Rees Brennan, The Scorpio Races by Maggie Stiefvater, Gifts by Ursula K Le Guin, Deep Wizardry by Diane Duane, A Deadly Education by Naomi Novik and Gideon the Ninth by Tamsin Muir.

PAGE 27

In “Emergent Strategy” adrienne maree brown writes: You do not have the right to traumatize abusive people, to attack them, personally or publicly, or to sabotage anyone else’s health. The behaviors of abuse are also survival-based, learned behaviors rooted in pain. If you can look through the lens of compassion, you will find hurt and trauma there. If you are the abused party, healing that hurt is not your responsibility and exacerbating that pain is not your justified right.

PAGE 28

Seeing anyone over age 12 wearing HP merch now makes me uncomfortable. Are they ignorant or actively a TERF? I hate wondering how much money JKR has probably poured into anti-trans legislation… This zine is a culmination of my slow breakup with a story that once brought me joy. Now it just makes me angry, tired and sad.

Image: Candle in a fancy holder burned down to less than an inch.

Maia Kobabe, 2023

#harry potter #harry potter and the problematic author #jk rowling #transphobia #jk rowling transphobic

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sofoulandfairaday · 2 years

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Fantastic Beasts - The Secrets of Dumbledore semi-rant

I saw this movie yesterday and I have to say I'm very disappointed. It wasn't as bad as Crimes of Grindelwald, but it wasn't good either. Already the fact that I saw it only yesterday and not in theatres should be a bad sign. There was a time when I would have gone to the ends of the earth to see a movie set in the Harry Potter universe at the cinema. This time, I tried, found out they weren't showing it that night and said "oh, alright then, I'll do something else".

Also, I'm already forgetting half of what happened. It wasn't boring, but it wasn't gripping either. I paused it twice (TWICE! A HP movie!) to do other stuff. I'm reblogging and reposting the most visually pleasing parts of the film (which is a marvel to see, but that's probably its best quality), and that's it. Usually, I'm obsessed with the movies I've just watched, I look up theories, reviews, posts, reblogs, etc. For months if they're set in the harry potter universe.

There will be spoilers ahead.

Let's start with the good things:

the beasts. they are so beautiful and well done. cgi is mostly good, the way newt interacts with the animals he cares for is, as always, one of the best parts of the movie.

jacob's lines, which are always a delight

grindelwald - probably the best thing about the whole movie. i liked johnny depp, but i loved mads mikkelsen in the role. he and jude law have incredible chemistry.

on this note, grindeldore. oh, it was so good, and FINALLY warner brothers had the balls to call them for what they were. gay men in love. of course, it's too little too late, but at least it's a win.

the fighting scenes. there were many, and all wonderfully choreographed. too bad they were confusing af. what is that double, mirror dimension of sorts? no clue, it was never explained, it was a cheap attempt at making sure that the fights hurt no muggles or wizards and i hated it. it was never explained in harry potter, i think (maybe i'm wrong, but i'm pretty sure) and while it looks great, i dislike it.

the parallel between the duel that killed ariana and when gellert tries to kill credence.

grindelwald as a seer.

the final scene.

that's basically it.

oh, everything and anything visual was great. except for maybe costumes but i'll talk about that later.

And now the bad stuff:

the writing. which is probably the worst thing ever to get wrong. the acting is good (except for eddie mumbling every single one of his lines which becomes annoying after a while), even great at times. but the writing is so bad.

i mean, jkr and steve kloves were the writers. and i know jkr has questionable views but she was never a bad writer. or better, she was never a bad novelist. i'm starting to think she sucks at screenplays.

the whole first part of the movie is useless. it's even explicitly stated inside the movie. well, that's bad writing my friends. if it was all for nothing, and no lessons/additional information that couldn't be read in a newspaper (i.e., grindelwald being allowed to run), then it's bad writing. it wasn't for the characters. it wasn't for the plot. so WHY DID YOU SHOW IT TO ME? when you could have saved time for more important things?

the movie is two hours and a half. after thirty minutes the wheels of the plot aren't even in motion. you would think that if the movie took its time it was to include meaningful dialogue and character development. but NOPE. it's for shenanigans like bunty and the trunks.

and i get their struggle, i do: fans want good duels and fighting scenes (and those are very good, especially the ones with Lalie and Gellert v. Albus). but fans also want the magical creatures. they want the beasts to have their space, and they need to show new ones. but then they also want grindeldore. alright, okay. let's show it. but what about good dialogues and high stakes? what about complex bidimensional characters? NOPE. no time for those.

this happens, of course, because there are TOO. MANY. USELESS. CHARACTERS. so many that, since they all need screen time, none of them gets explored in the right way. except maybe gellert.

nagini is gone. they don't even mention her. not even credence. not even when he talks with queenie, who can READ MINDS, so there was the perfect excuse to bring her up even if credence doesn't want to.

queenie is useless. i still don't understand why she joined grindelwald since she knows he hates muggles. while in his service she does NOTHING. she's not a double agent, she's not useful to either grindelwald or dumbledore. she's just there. of course i know they did this because they had to wrap things up in the end since there probably won't be a fourth movie, but couldn't they do it a little better?

maybe give her yusuf's screen time. since he's the worst character in terms of how he's written and he has no weight on the plot whatsoever. he doesn't have a mission, only has two scenes, isn't useful for the whole luggage subplot ... why is he even in this movie?

but at least, AT LEAST, they show him grieving for his sister (even though he just accepts to have his memories of her erased?? why was this done?? to show that gellert is bad? i mean, i think it's pretty obvious from the scene where he kills bambi...)

THESEUS you dick. why is he so happy? why is he not incoherent with grief? why does he not seethe with rage at the thought of leta, who he was going to marry? and not in the "ohi, you're under arrest "way. nono, in the blowing avada kedavras at vinda and grindelwald like a madman way. why doesn't he look sad and sombre?

they killed my leta FOR WHAT exactly? she was hands down the most complex character aside from grindeldore (which coincidentally are the only two whose story is actually told in the original saga). and maybe the single best performance on screen in all three movies. i don't get it. i hate it when female characters are killed off just to give male characters an origin story, but at least it gives them purpose. leta died just because. her death adds nothing to the story.

her replacement is lalie. now, i know that in this day and age god forbid you have a cast that is too white (you know, made up of witches and wizards from 1930 britain) and you need the token diversity character. it's irritating, but i get why they do it. i can forgive it. what i cannot forgive is how useless to the plot she is.

she was probably my favourite character of the whole movie, i enjoyed her sassiness and the way she used magic, but she is so. useless. why is she, or theseus, or yusuf, or jacob even, required for this mission? don't they all have jobs?? dumbledore needs to find a substitute teacher for his classes, porpentina is busy with work (AND SHE HAS THE SAME JOB TITLE AS THESEUS) so why are they all strolling about? i get newt and bounty, and maybe jacob since his bakery is in ruins, but what about the others?

more than that, what compels them to fight grindelwald? "Oh, it's the right thing to do!" NO YOU FOOLS, that's not enough. It's not compelling, it's BORING. especially when some of them have good reasons, in theory. theseus (and yusuf) lost leta. jacob lost queenie.

no idea why an american schoolteacher feels so touched by a german despot, but okay. i guess. she's nice but so bi-dimensional.

why do they need these people in particular? give me an "ocean's eleven" type of segment where you explain why these people and not 5 trained aurors.

dumbledore needs to send his own men because the ministry takes no stance like fudge did years later? because grindelwald has supporters in the british ministry that don't want this to happen? give me a scene where vinda goes to talk with her british cousins and gets them to support gellert and we see baby druella every reason is fine but there must be one.

the minerva mcgonagal cameo is useless. also, they didn't retcon what is clearly a mistake so... i hate it :)

vinda rosier gets 5 lines and no characterization whatsoever apart from being "pretty and evil". if she was less striking we probably wouldn't care about her as much. this woman has no motivations of her own, apparently. we don't even know what her relationship with grindelwald actually is.

and do not get me started on the other useless henchmen.

why do they force jacob to come along? why do they insist on putting a muggle in danger? albus is no seer but COME ON. we already saw grindelwald use people as scapegoats in the last movie, and it's clear he would do the same with jacob. "oh but he's a good man with courage" WHO CARES? are there no good men in 1930 england? where are all the brave gryffindors ffs?

it does NOT work. you know what would? JACOB wanting to go. JACOB demanding to go, because he hasn't given up on queenie and he wants to "save" her.

was it to confuse grindelwald? it doesn't work, because there isn't one (1) scene where he looks shocked, or even perplexed at the sight of a muggle with a wand.

and what about the whole thing with the tie? how could dumbledore know that theseus was going to get captured? even if he could predict that, you seriously want me to believe he was basing his rescue plan off the niffler??

also, we never see newt activate the portkey in that moment and that is not how portkeys work.

the whole subplot with bunty and the luggage was stupid. we know that there's a spell that literally duplicates objects by creating perfect copies, so it's a useless waste of time. also, why doesn't she use the switch that sets it to "muggle mode"? we've seen newt do it before.

the two candidates for supreme mugwump are absolutely the same. they have no personality and are just namesakes.

the german minister of magic contradicts himself more than once in the film. i watched his scenes twice and i still don't understand his motives. there must be a cut scene or something because one minute he implies that he doesn't like grindelwald and the next he's chilling with him and his men. he openly says that he thinks GG will lose just as he sees him arriving by means of crowd-surfing. it's not like he turns a blind eye and that is why gellert wins. no, the man actively enables him and helps him. WHY?! have vinda or even yusuf put him under the imperius curse ffs!

how do credence and aberforth have communicating mirrors? no idea. it's never explained.

why is the phoenix dying because credence is dying? phoenixes have their own independent cycle of life and rebirth. we see this with fawkes. otherwise, why isn't fawkes dying when dumbledore is in book 6? it's never explained.

This all comes down to the main problem of the movie: this movie has no dialogues. seriously, all they do is duel and say vague things like "the plan is no plan". fuck off. they don't even state clearly why the plan is no plan, they say vague stuff, the characters acknowledge it's confusing and then they laugh about it.

SPOILER: even if you acknowledge your mistakes in the story itself ("oh, we don't know what to do against grindelwald" or "oh, we're back where we started ahaha") it DOESN'T MAKE IT GOOD. actually, it makes it worse. it's just lazy writing.

Nothing is explained to the audience because the movie uses "show not tell" to the extreme. fine, don't tell, but please at least give a name to what we're seeing. good stories are character-driven. this one is not.

seriously, none of them has one good dialogue, that isn't full of clichés.

finally, one last thing that really bothered me. why why why are they all dressed like muggles? the costumes look amazing - my personal favourite was eulalie's gold evening gown - but WHY are they all dressed like muggles? yes, there is a little outfit change for eulalie when she goes to pick up jacob that maybe should underline the differences between wizard and muggle clothing - there are none.

albus dumbledore and gellert grindelwald should all be donning the most campy over-the-top wizard robes. why would grindelwald ever be dressed like a muggle? it doesn't make sense, especially since albus is described more than once as being ignorant of muggle clothing rules. alright, he's younger here, but how is it that he and gellert don't look even a little out of place at the beginning of the movie?

don't get me wrong, i think the costumes are absolutely beautiful and i would kill to have them in any other film BUT THIS ONE. because they don't fit the characters at all. all of these wizards dressed like muggles, i don't get it.

the worst offender of all, imo is pureblood dark witch vinda rosier who dresses in a suit to a fancy wizard party. her outfit is amazing and high fashion and exactly my style... i adore it. i, a muggle, would definitely wear it. the question is- why would she?

This is what I strive to look like at social gatherings. I want this to be me and my future husband. I just don't think it's the right look for them.

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