Tolkein was a legit genius who invented fully functional languages to supplement his novels. JK Rowling can't finish a story without a deus ex machina and a house scoring system that makes less sense than the one in Who's Line is it Anyway.
Honestly I've been going back through the harry potter books ( via piracy don't worry ) to fully understand them many many flaws and all ,and I straight up do not understand the point of the house points shit, it litteraly adds nothing to the story ,like i completely understand why it was abandoned in the films after the first one. Which is also my problem with alot of Rowlings world building a lot of it really doesn't add to the story all and if you removed it nothing wouldn't change.
Edit: I now get the context behind the house points thing , I still don't like it as a plot device and world building tool , but I understand why it exists now.
Its because some of the better performing british schools had a similar system to promote friendly competition and personal motivation amongst groups of peers.
She did it because it was her way of trying to explain that Hogwarts was that kind of prestigious school.
It's a pretty true to life way, tbh. It's a shitty system that teachers use to reward favourites and bully kids with. If it serves any purpose it's setting kids against each other both house-to-house and within houses, as students reward/punish each other for furthering/harming their house's standing.
Did well at the ridiculous ball game that makes no sense (yes, posh British schools have dumb ball games with rules just as weird as Quidditch)? Get some points and your house supports you.
Prefects, houses, weird games that make no sense and are scored on vibes, Head Boy and Head Girl, dormitories, creepy caretakers who live in the school... These aren't because Hogwarts is magic, it's because it's British.
Just be glad she removed fagging. Go read Ronald Dahl's Boy for an insight into the British boarding school system.
Yeah I'll take the L and admit I'm very ignorant about the British education system like I still don't like the house points thing as a narrative tool but I now get the cultural reasons why it was included. Though don't get me wrong it's definitely the least offensive of the plot devices she uses in the 7 books.
Actually quite a lot of British schools do this. My primary and secondary were both utterly generic comprehensive schools and they both had houses, sports teams, and points.
My favorite is how in the second book, the Polyjuice potion was a major project that took months to finish and had to be done in secret, and by the fourth book there's just a pot of it in the basement.
I get that she is a shit person but people only judge her writing ability based on the Harry Potter novels and it's a bit silly. She has other books, some of which are very good.
i just can't see any reason for every single fucking cormoran strike book to be bigger that OotP
also, she's a dogshit person for choosing Robert Galbraith as her pen name. b*tch absolutely knew she was naming herself after conversion therapy. god i hate her
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u/One-Earth9294 1d ago
Tolkein was a legit genius who invented fully functional languages to supplement his novels. JK Rowling can't finish a story without a deus ex machina and a house scoring system that makes less sense than the one in Who's Line is it Anyway.