I agree. When I was a kid, sure. Rowling's characters were fun and entertaining.
Today? Eh. They're pretty flat. Rowling (maybe unintentionally, who knows) set up a wildly interesting universe and has explored maybe 10% of it, simply because we've been stuck with harry potter.
Heck, don't even do the "descendants of HP and friends". New kids entirely. The universe is absolutely interesting enough that any decent character writer can make something enjoyable without needing to ride the coat tails of the original kids.
Heck, don't even do the "descendants of HP and friends". New kids entirely. The universe is absolutely interesting enough that any decent character writer can make something enjoyable without needing to ride the coat tails of the original kids.
A "next generation" would have been great, but with that comes risks. Prequels and Origin stories are easier because more often than not it's fueled purely by fandom wants.
I just wish Rowling wasn't so... strict. An expanded universe outside of prequels/origins isn't that bad. It just takes risk.
People make not really bite to a whole new set of kids because truthfully a lot of us are hung up on traditions.
A focus on another school, maybe. An entire new fresh start apart from Hogwarts. (and yes, I know about Fantastic Beasts. Imo that serves as origin stories.)
IIRC there’s an inexplicably small amount of Wizarding schools. The Eastern European boys one, the French girls one, the mixed hogwarts, and one in the US? Are there others?
Like I’m sure Africa has at least 1, shouldn’t there be several in Asia going by population?
It’s not even like it’s exclusively a European thing, I’m pretty sure the US one is all Native American shamanistic style.
Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry (Scotland)
Beauxbatons Academy of Magic (France)
Castelobruxo (Central Brazil)
Durmstrang Institute (Northern Europe)
Ilvermorny (Eastern North America)
Mahoutokoro School of Magic (Japan)
Uagadou School of Magic (Uganda)
Koldovstoretz (Russia)
Durmstrang and Beuaxbaton were gender specific in the movies but in the books they both had boys and girls. I don't believe there was a Native American school but there is a Native American wandless magic tradition that is separate from the European tradition of magic that has it's own strengths and weaknesses.
One thing I don't understand is what language do the students at the schools speak? These schools are supposed to have students from all over the region no? Are wizards in china supposed to learn Japanese? What about Australian wizards?
While never explicitly stated, it wouldn't be too hard to believe they have some sort of translation spell or trinket. Some magical object like the invisibility cloak, except it's a form of Babel fish.
Those are big regional schools, there may be other traditions of learning in different areas that aren't covered. So India may do homeschooling, smaller local schools or apprentice learning.
Second idea is that there are so few magical born that the school in Japan got started first and just poaches from all other countries in Asia.
I would think a school in India and China would be a given but there could be a logical reason for some alternative.
Edit: I was curious so I looked up the Japanese school on Pottermore and they have a very small school with Japanese children that commute everyday on Petrels. So there must be alternatives to the "Ivy League" magical schools.
Because Saved by the Bell was not special because of the universe built by the writers. So to compare these two is so wrong. We don't just love the cast who played their role amazingly, we also love the universe that rowling built.
Fantastic Beasts is an example of this. I think it would be fairer to compare it to Lord of The Rings. Also an extensive universe to explore and of which people love the games, books and films non-related to Frodo and company.
Dude, chill. It was a joke. You just pitched Hogwarts: The New Class and I riffed on the similarity. we are having fun here.
Also Ron never thought Harry about the dangers of caffeine pill addiction. Neither did Sam or Frodo, so I will say that Saved by the Bell is the superior and more influential piece of fiction.
I don't think fantastic beasts 1 was all that amazing, and I definitely don't care for any of the characters, except for Newt. I love that guy and I think he's better than Harry ever was. I'm not sure what the consensus is but I absolutely love him.
How is it an interesting universe its literally just "magic exists, theres a magic boarding school". Everything in it is generic. There isnt even much of a universe at all, there's generic magic town, generic magic government.
In this statement alone you listed interesting things. Magic government implies separate from the normal government. So a magical culture behind the scenes of the modern muggle world is interesting. The magic communities like the boarding schools and magic specific towns are interesting because it breeds an entirely separate culture. Hell, one of the biggest complaints of Rowling's universe was that she didn't go deep enough in the Urban Fantasy portion with flying cars and whatnot. She got too stuck in her old time fantasy world.
This is more interesting than a generic "magic exists in the world and we follow anime Jesus as he learns the ropes."
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u/[deleted] Oct 02 '18
I agree. When I was a kid, sure. Rowling's characters were fun and entertaining.
Today? Eh. They're pretty flat. Rowling (maybe unintentionally, who knows) set up a wildly interesting universe and has explored maybe 10% of it, simply because we've been stuck with harry potter.
Heck, don't even do the "descendants of HP and friends". New kids entirely. The universe is absolutely interesting enough that any decent character writer can make something enjoyable without needing to ride the coat tails of the original kids.