Did Hogwarts Legacy Seriously Just Make The Anti-Semitic Goblins The Villains?
Conversations around Harry Potter, and therefore the upcoming open world adventure Hogwarts Legacy, tend to be dominated by transphobia, which is weird when you consider that transphobia is one of the few pieces of discrimination not included in the original novels. I understand there’s the obvious context of JK Rowling - and have written as much previously - but it’s easy to forget everything else in the novels that’s suspect.
There are very few people of colour in the books, and those who do exist are often relegated to the background and given ridiculously stereotypical names: for example Cho Chang, whose major qualities are being good at school and… oh that’s it. Even white characters aren’t spared this - just ask background characters Anthony Goldstein and Seamus Finnigan, the latter of whom is very stupid and likes to blow things up. A Black female wizard’s skin tone changes dramatically across the movies as she’s recast with very little regard for authenticity, and the weird views on gender are clear to see with the fact the magic stairs stop boys from going to the girls’ dorm but do not stop girls from going into the boys’. Good looks are frequently associated with beauty, while ugliness of evil characters is repeatedly overemphasised, several women (and zero men) are constantly negatively defined by their emotions, and then there’s the literal slaves in the form of house elves. Don’t worry though, they like being slaves.
Related: Let's Talk About Video Game Boycotts and Ethical Consumption
From what we’ve seen so far, it seems like Hogwarts Legacy has avoided these pitfalls. There’s still the somewhat Objectivist Sorting Hat, the house elves are still there, and we may well meet characters called Kim
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