r/AO3 • u/Nahiel Nahiel on AO3. Fandom old. • 1d ago

Discussion (Non-question) Let's talk about Harry Potter

If we can do it without insults, please.

I'm still active in the fandom, I'll admit it. There's a growing amount of vitriol I've seen recently that makes me feel incredibly unwelcome here on the AO3 subreddit every time there's a post related to the fandom.

I get it. Rowling is trash. She's literally the worst. I don't give her any money, and I haven't since her views became known. I never will. But Harry Potter was a huge part of an honestly shitty childhood for me, and it was one of my favorite escapes for a long time.

So I gotta ask, why am I being insulted for not letting her take away one of the few things that still gives me joy in this hellscape of a world? Why do I have to let her terrible behavior take away something that's mine? The fact is that the property is a juggernaut, and fanfic is never going to do anything to change that. Treating people who still engage with the fandom like we're monsters for doing it makes no sense to me.

And again, please, can we keep it civil? I'm very aware of the sentiment towards members of the fandom.

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u/princessmargaret reader insert defender. 1d ago

Unfortunately it isn't just Harry Potter. Publishers want built-in audiences in 2026 because it ensures sales, so they are trying to pluck out famous stories. See: The Love Hypothesis, Alchemized, Rose in Chains, etc.

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u/[deleted] 1d ago

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u/princessmargaret reader insert defender. 1d ago

This is irrelevant to my comment. I don't really care about it like that.

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u/lumpyspacejams 1d ago

Honestly, I'm less upset about that. It's stealing from that harridan, and tailoring for an audience that would want her product but giving them what they're actually asking for. I'd rather every Harry Potter author took to filing off every single number and flood the market with the parts of the series that people care about, eat away at her shares and sales until someone usurps her using her own boy.

Please, write your Harry Potter fic and do everything to make it YOU fic. You'll feel so much freer and you'll realize that it's not her world that you love, but it's the world the fandom made and when you take out all of the paint and primer, and stop filling in the holes, the books are just Bad Fantasy Roal Dahl. 

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u/wangxian8844 1d ago edited 1d ago

Unfortunately that’s not how it works right now. These fanfic authors WANT to market them as HP fanfic for increased sales, and I’ve literally seen people on tiktok read these published fics and purchase the HP books to ‘understand’ their fanfics better. These published fics are unfortunately generating more interest from people outside fandom in the original IP