Link to post: https://www.reddit.com/r/HarryPotteronHBO/comments/1s5exuz/anyone_else_feeling_a_kind_of_intense_sadness_in/
Pictured: Millennials talking about the silly wizard power fantasy like it’s Shakespeare. Harry Potter truly is to Generation Y as Star Wars was to Generation X. It reminds them of a “better time” when they could remain ignorant of all the horrible things happening in the world (paid for by their tax money).
That’s the thing though, The Simpsons was not made for children, but it is so well-written that there are gags that everyone can get but at the same time have incredibly deep cuts that I only appreciate now that i’m older
Like, it was only a few months ago that I learned that the scene where Homer drives his plow over a rickety bridge is a direct reference to the 1977 film Sorcerer, which just makes it even funnier now that I’ve gone and seen it
Harry Potter on the other hand, is very basic, almost contemptuously so. Every character falls into very clear categories, there is no deeper meaning to any of their actions. Hell, Harry wins against Voldemort because his mom loved him. Not because he was talented or practiced at doing magic, but just because he was assigned to be the hero
I don’t behoove anyone for ever liking it, because I liked shallow things when I was young. But, as someone who enjoys reading and writing, someone who wants to make things that explore the gamut of the human experience, it’s infuriating to see people being incurious, but even more infuriating is knowing that the main reason Kid Wizard and the Tropes gets sold so hard is because it’s simple and easy to sell to children, it’s mainlining sewage to children to kill their love of fiction and hook them on The Product™️
Even fucking Looney Tunes had more passion and love put into it and it drives me fuckin’ batty
I think this is the issue. HP is slop and it is ok to enjoy slop sometimes, but these people who have never read anything else in their lives act like it is the highest of high art and there would be no point reading anything else because they’ve already read the best.
That’s true and you’re correct, especially because Harry Potter is trash for a number of reasons. But I still find the whole idea ‘thing for adult only and thing for kid only’ confusing and frustraiting because there is plenty of media marketed as adult media that I find shallow and vapid, and there is plenty of media that appears childish that has more to it than on the surface. It sounds like marketing demographic jargon simililar to “This is for men, this is for women”. There seems to be mostly arbitrary rules involved that change with whatever social norms deem appropriate at the time. Maybe I’m just dumb or immature and will never get it, I don’t know.
I think when I use the terms, I am going with more of a matter of complexity rather than subject matter
The difference between a picture book and a novel, as an easy shorthand
I am complicated sometimes
That makes a lot of sense. Thanks for taking the time to deal with my bullshit.
And it’s cool to be complicated. Continue being rad as fuck 👍
No worries, you continue being amazing too!
In conclusion, flakesbongler is a land of contrasts
the best kids’ stuff is the kind like animaniacs, freakazoid, or the 90s batman where they’re clever enough to make jokes and references that the kids don’t even notice, but are hilarious to adults.
You don’t get Adam West to do bit parts in batman media for the kids who have never seen the 1960s show.
gender segregation is mostly about marketing, there was a Young Justice cartoon a few (10?) years ago that was really popular and critically acclaimed but the action figures didn’t do the numbers the suits wanted and the show was cancelled because they had made good television instead of a boys-only toy commercial.
Agreed, I think a more modernish (I say ‘ish’ because it’s like over a decade old now) equivalent would be something like Gravity Falls which I hardly ever admit to liking because it’s Disney, but it’s a genuinely funny and well written show, same goes for Owl House, which got cancelled for being too gay.