this post was submitted on 14 Sep 2023
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Harry Potter

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And it really irks me a lot.

Update: Man, I have gotten tons of great responses here and a lot of activity. The comments section turned out way better than Reddit. Thank you all! <3

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[–] [email protected] 26 points 1 year ago (4 children)

Examples? You can't go on a rant and then not give examples.

[–] xkforce 19 points 1 year ago

Sirius' death is a pretty obvious example

[–] orphiebaby 7 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (2 children)

Hey look, there it is again in the one I’m at now. Hermoine to Potter: “What’s wrong with your hand?” Potter: “Nothing.” (This was the Dolores torture). Hermoine actually finds out, which is refreshing. "You've got to tell Dumbledore." Harry: "No. Dumbledore's got enough on his mind right now." Freaking stupid, Harry.

This “is anything happening?” “No, nothing.” exchange with Potter is constant in this series.

[–] milan616 13 points 1 year ago (5 children)

Dude the ball tops of my thigh bones were literally sliding off the bones (they failed to fuse for me) in middle school. I was limping and would have insane attacks if pain when they moved a fraction of a millimeter.

Parents, teachers, friends: what's wrong? Me: nothing

Kids hiding bad things is the most real part.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 year ago

People hide important things for dumb reasons in the real world, but it's unsatisfying, lazy and overused in fiction. Especially in HP.

[–] elbarto777 6 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

Oh no no.... I was the opposite. I was a whiny little bitch. Broke a finger nail? "Moooooooooom!!!!"

[–] rambaroo 4 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

Most kids don't hide blatant injuries or health problems people are just trying to cope with bad writing.

Hate this fucking site it's full of contrarian bullshit just like reddit

[–] atrielienz 1 points 1 year ago

Most healthy kids. Kids who grow up in supportive homes. But abused kids? They hide injuries all the time. In fact, they'll hide anything that has a chance of putting them in the spotlight of adults they think even might potentially abuse them, let alone the adults who actually do.

I think people forget that Harry was physically at times and definitely emotionally/verbally abused for the first 11 years of his life. He has a lot of responses that are conditioned into kids who grow up with abuse. He doesn't want to be a bother because he's psychologically predisposed to believe that doing so will make them care less about him and that's the last thing he wants. It's a lot of the reason Hermione and Ron both have such a decent relationship and friendship with him. They both in their own way go out of their way to show to Harry that they do care. And that they aren't going anywhere (despite some growing pains during the GoF, and the bit in the Deathly Hallows where Ron storms off and gets caught by the snatchers. Despite the few times they don't see eye to eye and argue they do show that they value each other.

But when you're conditioned to think you aren't valuable you go out of your way to protect the people who see value in you, even in misguided ways like saying nothing is wrong when everything is.

[–] orphiebaby 4 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I cannot overstate how much not only does Harry do it every movie, but all the other characters as well.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

"Kids hiding bad things is the most real part".

You're watching a story set from the kids point of view. We (the audience) aren't privvy to what the adults/teachers are doing, just like the kids.

And from Harry's perspective, he's got a lot going on, and this is just "another removed teacher". Keep in mind this is a Brit story - ask a Brit what their schooling was like (had some insightful discussions 20 years ago with my older Brit coworkers).

JK was what, 30-40 when she wrote this? So went to school in the 70's.

Lol, I love the "removed" bot. It almost makes things taste better!

[–] rambaroo 1 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

Give me a break man. I was sick for most of my childhood. You know what I did? I told my parents when I was getting sick. I guess that must be a shock to the morons in this thread trying to pretend that kids are utter dumbasses so they don't have to criticize a story.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Who said kids are dumbasses? Project much?

My experience, as a kid, was that asking adults about things, or trying to tell them anything, was pointless. They were a bunch of thickheaded idiots. This was my experience with practically every teacher too, through college (which was 30+ years ago for me).

We're all flawed, imperfect. Effective ommunication is hard.

Can't say it any better than Marcus Aurelius:

"The substance of [life] is ever flowing, the sense obscure; and the whole composition of the body tending to corruption.

[...] To be brief, as a stream, so are all things belonging to the body..

Our life is a warfare, and a mere pilgrimage."

His point is that everyone contends with the apparatus of a quite imperfect, continually breaking down physical being, on top of anything going on in our heads, making everything that much more difficult.

Kids don't grok this yet, so can't comprehend what being old like Dumbledore (or hell, even 45) is like.

[–] Anders429 2 points 1 year ago

Plus, Harry would naturally have a distrust of authority figures due to his upbringing. I'm sure he got used to hiding stuff from the Dursleys.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

Dumbledore thought Harry was a Horcrux mate, he was avoiding him since the start of the year.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I couldn't finish book 6 because there was too much of harry whining in capslock for no appreciable reason, and I remember skipping over a lot of scenes with his uncle for the exact reasons OP highlights.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

He had PTSD, he watched a kid get murdered and nearly got murdered!

[–] orphiebaby 1 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

Fair point. But I can't remember it all at once. I didn't exactly stop and take notes every few seconds throughout the movies like a proper reviewer xD

[–] alehc 7 points 1 year ago (1 children)

But if you say that "most of bad things" I would imagine it wouldn't be too hard to name a few

[–] orphiebaby 3 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

I'm autistic. Big hard drive, small RAM. And that RAM is being used right now to absorb this next Harry Potter movie while I also try to manage funds with my housemates in a crisis and prevent homelessness

I'd basically have to go and rewind right now, or go back to the movies I watched in the last week, and... blegh, I don't want to stop in the middle of the first third of Order of the Phoenix. It's already way better than Goblet of Fire (movies, not books. People say the GoF book is great, and I tend to believe them)

Edit: Hey look, there it is again in the one I’m at now. Hermoine to Potter: “What’s wrong with your hand?” Potter: “Nothing.” (This was the Dolores torture). Hermoine actually finds out, which is refreshing. "You've got to tell Dumbledore." Harry: "No. Dumbledore's got enough on his mind right now." Freaking stupid, Harry.

This “is anything happening?” “No, nothing.” exchange with Potter is constant in this series.