like I get it, slavery bad and all, and house elves really should be treated better

however

it's all so profoundly just like

white savior, hush house elves your better is saving you

the vast majority of Hermione's efforts offend and alienate basically every house elf we see except dobby, to the point where dobby's workload is greatly increased as a direct result

thus literally materially harming the creatures she is trying to champion

like hey hermione, did you ever once consider talking to the house elves and getting their opinions on things, maybe

ITS ALWAYS REALLY RUBBED ME THE WRONG WAY

it's like the modern trend of trying to out-woke everyone and as a result drowning out at best and actively shaming at worst the actual opinions and experiences of whatever group is being championed

i mean i feel like that was the intent to some degree. it's just that "there's a race of sapient beings who like to be slaves" is literally the most insane way jkr could've done it

FUCKING SAME

and jkr IS making fun of her

similar vibes to sjws on Twitter or tumblr getting mad at tourists taking pics in kimonos when the kimono industry is on life support and wants and needs more people willing to buy in

like everybody tells her she's a dumbass for thinking slavery is bad.

The face wasn’t to you btw

lol figured

she's a joke for it.

RandomProphet see, I'd buy that read a lot more if she were not ultimately vindicated by the narrative

ron having this big ~turning moment~ when he starts supporting SPEW and all

i mean the narrative's stance is "be nice to your slaves" and not "why are we supposed to be okay with the wizarding world owning slaves. what the fuck."

i think it would've been a fine plotline if like, the house elves were not actual fucking slaves.

no, I dont think she ever calms down about it, really. admittedly it's been a while since I read 7

the last line of the pre-epilogue is harry being like "i'm going to have my slave make me a sandwich"

it's honestly the slavery thing that makes it bad.

if the house elves could just do whatever but hermione was sure they were being exploited it'd be one thing

but the concept is inherently turbofucked

eh, I'm not gonna get into trying to fix it all here

i mean i don't really think you can uncouple it from the slavery thing, which is why everyone thinks it's fucking insane

but the fact that Hermione is always held up as this like, moral beacon for /checks notes ignoring the thoughts, wishes, and opinions of the group that she spends a solid half of the series championing is just

it has always super bothered me

like i can't discuss this without getting into fixes. because you need to fix the slavery thing first

in the book where it's most relevant she's like, a subject of constant mockery and i really don't think jkr is honest about meticulously planning everything out, i think she was intended to be an activist strawman and when people pointed out that hey it's fucked up that you were making fun of a teenage girl for being mad about actual slavery

jkr threw those people a bone by making her less of a joke at the end.

eh, maybe

and it became a white savior narrative instead.

like i feel like "hermione engineers a situation where centaurs take out a bigot and the centaurs are understandably pissed at her" from book 5 is a similar concept that has more legs to it (see because centaurs)

i think it's undercut by the way jkr actually portrays the centaurs but like,

i also feel like with the way ron's characterization ends up by the end of the series ron pledging his support for spew just as easily reads as "look at ron, going along with the old ball and chain's craaaazy ideas! /laugh track"

Yes that's literally it

?

It was written to be a white savior complex activism is wrong and superiority complex from Britain thinking they know best for all other cultures instead of what makes people happy, but also -- yeah it's literally kind of an insane premise to be like "elves need to be slaves" because yes like working dogs are healthier and happier, but JKR wrote this from a

Backwards premise rather than starting from a sensible base about working dogs and expounding on it.

yyyyeah

honestly from what I've seen jkr identifies a younger her with Hermione pretty heavily and does not seem to be the sort to make herself the butt of the joke so it's always seemed to me that she was in earnest

but truly it lowkey is just bad either way

And I definitely think JKR changed her mind re: house elves because of backlash and "slavery is literally inexcusable, working dogs should not be confused for SLAVES" after the fact because I read 7 when it was leaked on line like 5+ years before publication and it was definitely changed by time of print.

that said "slavery bad" is pretty universally accepted at this point, while "white savior bad" isn't

so idk I just have always hated this whole thing

Yes. 200% she even admits Hermuone/Ron is her high school sweetheart and that's why she thinks they would have a billion kinds of problems and need counseling and I am just.... pull the fuck back and let your work be separate from yourself it is not healthy like this.

Also why after the movies she wanted Hermione/Harry and I am just please stop

honestly as someone who never shipped hermione/ron I felt very vindicated by her coming out and saying "in retrospect it was a mistake"

I mean there really isn't much to love \:|/ it's not well thought out

I did ship hermione/harry back in the day and I do feel it has the most possibility for actually being, ya know, even moderately healthy

and is better than the trainwreck that is hermione/mom and probably would be a lot healthier than harry marrying the closest he could find to a clone of his mother

but the truest Hermione ship is fully slept on

because it is krum

*hermione/ron

anyway #justice for viktor krum, you were a real one

(also I do like Ginny and all but truly it is very odd that harry, who looks almost exactly like his dad, marries a girl who looks almost exactly like his mom)

Lol fair

It’s supposed to be about dogs??????

MAYBE MAKE THEM DOG CREATURES INSTEAD OF TINY WEIRD LOOKING HUMAN CREATURES THEN????

It’d still have the uncomfortable implications but I think it would feel less abjectly insane as a metaphor

No, it's definitely about non-British cultures, but I was saying working dogs like to work. It's kind of like labour part commentary and socialism irritates ppl buuuuut the whole thing is a mess from how she goes about it.

Like there's nothing wrong with liking work. And butlers/maids are not afaict "suffering" and needing/wanting rescue.

But the more she added to the magic elements of brownies/fairies / house elves, the darker it got. I think she wrote herself into a corner with it. Not the first or only instance

yeah I think it would have been fine if cases like dobby’s enslavement were the result of dark magic while other elves had non-binding voluntary agreements where they could leave for another job if they didn’t like the conditions they were working under

(though I’ll admit your dog metaphor also made me think “okay what if wizards kept breeding a type of dog to be able to accomplish increasingly complex tasks and they accidentally became sapient beings who still had dog brain”)

Legit. Someone write this

there's a race of dog people that have a brownie vibe in ff14 but they're more fey in that they love to serve humans but they expect very specific payment for their services rather than just doing it for giggles

legit and also frankly unsurprising that they would be more culturally sensitive and not obtuse like UK sns