← Critical Magic Theory: An Analytical Harry Potter Podcast
Critical Magic Theory: An Analytical Harry Potter Podcast
Harry Potter: The Boy who Survived, not Lived
01:20:08
Is Harry Potter a good person? A good friend? A victim? Extraordinary? We heard from over 600 listeners, and the results were more chaotic than you might expect. In this episode of Critical Magic Theory, Professor Julian Wamble digs into the survey...
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This is the story of the One. The one who keeps multiple buildings running smoothly day after day. Plumbing that flows, H Vac that hums. Cleaning supplies that keep surfaces sparkling. That's why she counts on Grainger. With easy reordering online and 24. 7 support, Grainger helps her keep the products she needs on hand so shelves stay stocked and buildings stay ready. Call 1-800-GRAINGER Click grainger.com or just stop by Grainger for the ones who get it done.
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- [01:01]
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this is the story of the One. The one who keeps multiple buildings running smoothly day after day. Plumbing that flows, H Vac that hums. Cleaning supplies that keep surfaces sparkling. That's why she counts on Grainger. With easy reordering online and 24. 7 support, Grainger helps her keep the products she needs on hand so shelves stay stocked and buildings stay ready. Call 1-800-GRAINGER clickgrainger.com or just stop by Granger for the ones who get it done.
- [01:34]
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Welcome to Critical Magic Theory, where we deconstruct the wizarding world of Harry Potter. Because loving something doesn't mean we can't be critical of it. I'm Professor Julian Womble and today, all my life, I pray for someone like, we're not gonna go any further than that because we're not gonna get to. But today is the day that we have been waiting for. Today is the day that we talk about the one, the only, the scar head himself. Our bespectal. What bespectacled hero? The one and only Harry James Potter. If I could do. What is it. Anyways? You get what I'm saying? That's also depressing because Cedric died Anyways. We're not talking about Cedric. We already had his episode. We are talking about Harry Potter today. And if you can't tell, I am extremely excited at the prospect of talking about this child, this young man boy of life who has put us through it more times than I personally care to count. And I have been pushing that survey and I have been really inviting you all and encouraging you all to make sure that you get your voices heard heard. We have had testimony about the power, the strength, the potency of having your thoughts read on this podcast and many of you rose to the occasion. I'm not gonna tell you how many people we had until we get to the arithmancy lesson because I know that that's how it goes. And you all like structure despite also enjoying chaos. It's organized chaos. Okay, chaos within a structure. But just know that you all showed up and showed out and I'm so excited because we got some really, really, really, really great open ended responses that are very much in conversation with one another and very much incendiary. Some of these takes took me out and I know that some of you are going to be so mad and I know that many of you, if you are listening to this and you are not by your computer, you need to start taking notes as you listen to the episode because when you get to certain points you are going to have some things to say and you're going to want to say it in the post episode chat and you need to be ready for that because hashtag bars. Because it's going to be that kind of episode. There's a reason why we had to split this into two because it's going to be crazy. As I was reading through some of the comments I thought to myself, good God, am I ready for this? Am I prepared for what we are embarking on? Am I? And the answer is no. And as I was selecting the different passages I thought people are going to be really mad and we have a little bit of wiggle room because we're only doing half of the questions. And so I'm pulling and reading more of your quotes and I made sure that I didn't do any repetition. And so we are going to hear from a lot of people in this episode and I for one am very, very excited. Have you ever wondered what effect growing up with the Dursleys had on Harry's outlook on life? Or what things would look like if Harry was allowed to just be a kid? Well, whether the most famous boy wizard in the world is actually all that extraordinary or just a boy in extraordinary circumstances. Y', all, we are literally getting into every single bit of it today. Harry offers us so much to unpack and so much to think about and so much of the way that we understand literally everything and everyone in the magical world is the lens of this child. And it is so funny because whenever I teach my class I really don't talk about Harry that much because it's interesting because he's the main character. He's also kind of behind the scenes because he's the one kind of telling us stuff. And so we experience so much of the world through his perspective that I think sometimes we lose sight of who he is and what he's experiencing. And you all really, really spent the time to bring those dynamics to bear. And so we are going to have a blast in this episode and the next three on Harry because it is rich. I'm talking Nicholas Flamel, Philosopher's Stone, Turn it into gold. I'm talking Sleekezy's Hair Potion. I inherited Sirius, the Noble House of Black and all the money therein. It's rich, y'. All. Malfoy Manor, White Peacock in the Garden. Even though the Dark Lord's inside. Rich. Like that's how rich this is gonna be. And I don't think you're ready, but you gotta get ready and you know the best way to get ready. Do you know the best way to get ready, friends? I'm gonna let you guess. We don't have time for guessing. It's the bop. So get ready for the bop because it's coming to you in three, in two, in one. Let's bop. We need to talk about Harry Pot. Sam, I hope you danced. Oh, I'm so excited for this episode. Welcome back, y'. All. Welcome back to our A1day ones who have been with us since the very beginning. Those of you who have been catching up, I know some of us are on a spot sprint to get yourselves caught up so that you could be here with us for this episode in real time. I appreciate your dedication and I hope that you didn't have to sacrifice too much in your lives to make that happen. If you are coming and you're not listening to this in real time, welcome, friends. Get ready for a ride because we're gonna be on one. Welcome to literally everyone. This is going to be a time. I know that life is hectic. I know that the world is doing what the world does. And I never take for granted that you all take however long this episode is going to be. I don't know. I don't know. I'm not going to stifle your genius, but I'm grateful that you all take however long this episode is to be in community with me and with each other. I don't take it for granted. And I am so, so happy that you all are here because we made it to Harry Potter. Who to Thunk. Honestly, when we started this podcast. I said maybe it'll die off, but it didn't. You all won't let it. And I'm grateful to you. I am also. Okay. All right, y'. All. Speaking of excited, speaking of grateful, speaking of things that you all need to prepare yourselves for, I had a meeting last week. I think I told you about it. I think I told you. We were meeting about the book behind the Cloak, btc and it turns out that as of this episode dropping, if you look down in this episode summary, you will find a pre order link and you'll probably find a couple, because I know that many of us have preferences about where we pre order our books from, and I want to make sure that you can pre order it from wherever you want. Okay? So you're gonna see Amazon, you're gonna see Barnes and Noble, you're gonna see bookshop.org it's all there for you. And I'm so excited because you can pre order behind the Cloak. Now. The book is officially dropping December 1st. I think I told you that I can't remember what trade secrets I was telling you and what I wasn't. I'm gonna drop the link on Patreon as well. For those of you who are interested, it's coming out right around the holiday season time. Perfect opportunity for you. We are in the midst of petitioning. Well, not petitioning per se. We don't know if we have to do a petition yet. But I am hopeful that I get to record the audiobook for the book people. The higher ups, not at the press, but anyways, there's. They're wanting a potent potentially to have a professional person. And I'm like, y', all, listen up. It needs to be me. And so I submitted in a little audition thing. Fingers crossed. Here's hoping. Either way, we're gonna make it work because that's what we do. But the book is available and ready for pre order. Please pre order it. You're going to hear me talk about this until the book comes out and so prepare to be sick of me. But pre ordering makes a really big difference in terms of how the book is marketed, how many books are put into bookstores, opportunities to be a bestseller of any kind. It's all kind of contingent on pretty orders. And so I'm hopeful that you all are as excited about this book as I am. I'm going to try to promote it with you all as much as I possibly can in hopes that you all get more excited and buy it. This project is something that Honestly, we as a community built together and I've in it you will find so many of the lessons that you all taught me and hopefully lessons that I can teach you. And it's been one of the craziest things I've ever done and I'm so grateful for the opportunity to be able to do it. And so please pre order would be amazing and would mean a lot to me and I think you're gonna enjoy it. I know that many of us are in a variety of financial situations and spaces and places and so it may not be feasible for you right now. We got till December and The book is 1999, which again, I'm not gonna make a claim about what that means to you and your budget, but I hope that you have the opportunity or someone in your life who you can either blackmail. I mean, I'm not advocating for criminal activity. Okay. But that you can invite to get you the book. It's right around the holidays, y'. All. Anyways, let's not belabor the point. I've talked about this too long. The link is going to be in the summary. You're also going to be able to find it on Patreon, where you can also find our post Episode Chat. You can also join as an outstanding OWL and or a Deep Diver. And you can get Free Episodes or Chronic Overthinker, where you get free Episodes. You get ad Free not Free Episodes. You get ad Free Episodes. Ad Free Episodes. And you get early releases. And we do our monthly meetup. We do all the things as Chronic Overthinkers. It's a great time. Highly recommend. Obviously there is merch as well. My sister and I wore the crop tops when we went to Mexico and so we're doing a little bit of a revamp on the design. Just a little bit. It will be available for you soon. And if financial contributions is not your vibe at this current juncture in your moment in your life, that's totally cool. Please feel free to like rate, subscribe and do all the things that one does, y'. All, we're on this Harry Potter train for a minute and we're not getting off for a while. So no surveys, just vibes. And I dillied and dallied and delayed a little bit because I really want you all to get your heads in the right space. You gotta get, get, get your get your head in the game. Okay? If you don't know that that was from High School Musical, you need to know your history, but don't do it now. But you should know your history. Don't do it now, though, because we're getting into Harry Potter, so you need to get ready for that. Okay, I'm going to play a little music so you can get yourself together. All right. You're welcome.
- [15:25]
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This is the story of the One. The One who keeps multiple buildings running smoothly day after day. Plumbing that flows, H Vac that hums. Cleaning supplies that keep surfaces sparkling. That's why she counts on Grainger. With easy reordering online and 24. 7 support, Grainger helps her keep the products she needs on hand so shelves stay stocked and buildings stay ready. Call 1-800-GRAINGER Click grainger.com or just stop by Grainger for the ones who get it done. This is the story of the 1. As a maintenance engineer at a beverage manufacturing plant, he starts his day knowing every line is ready to run because Grainger delivers the industrial grade products he needs to keep mixers, conveyors, and packaging equipment moving. With Grainger's vast selection of bearings, belts and motors, he keeps operations running smoothly so nothing grinds to a halt. Call 1-800-GRAINGER Click grainger.com or just stop by Grainger for the ones who get it done. This is the story of the 1. As a maintenance engineer at a beverage manufacturing plant, he starts his day knowing every line is ready to run because Grainger delivers the industrial grade products he needs to keep mixers, conveyors, and packaging equipment moving. With Grainger's vast selection of bearings, belts and motors, he keeps operations running smoothly so nothing grinds to a halt. Call 1-800-GRAINGER Click grainger.com or just stop by Grainger for the ones who get it done.
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I'm not going to lie to you. One of the hardest things that I had to do for this episode was figure out my favorite Harry moment. And again, it's not. Not because I, like it was so many to choose from. I just couldn't think of one that, like, really did the work I wanted it to do. Because we all know and love Sassy Harry. And we all know and love, like, crazily reckless running through fire and burning teachers to a Chris Perry. Um, but I was like, there's. I want a moment that, like, really, I don't know, is evocative. And it took me a second and I really had to go, like, book by book in my mind and say, like, what happened? What do I love? And then I got to Prisoner of Azkaban and I realized one of my favorite chapters in the entirety of the series is Aunt Marge's big mistake, because I love when Harry blows her ass up. You know, I don't regularly curse, but she deserves it. I love that moment. And as I was thinking about it and really kind of outside of just my general pettiness and love when people have their comeuppance, which Aunt Marge gets and deserved. Because who do you think you are rolling up into this house talking crazy like that lady? No, you deserve to. To get inflated. No, that's your just desserts. You and your raggedy dog. Anyways, but it's also a moment, and I hadn't thought about this before, but it's a moment where Harry, who up until this moment has learned so little and knows so little about his family. And he has been slowly learning bit by bit, right, through discussions of his family. And he knows so little about his past that, you know, he actually has no idea what the truth is about. You know, any number of things, right? Like, we know that once he gets to order the Phoenix and finds out that his dad is a jerk, that he's kind of shook because he's like. But that's just not the image that I created in my mind. But in this moment when Marge is talking that talk and he's like, you are a liar. And he kind of loses himself a bit, right? And one of the things that came up a lot in your discussions of Harry was this idea of how hot headed he is and his temper. And this moment is one that really encapsulates that reality. But I also love it because he's defending a family that he has no recollection of, but he knows what is real and he knows what is true. And it's a moment that I think is really hysterical because he is like, you are a liar. You don't know what you're talking about. And I just love that in this moment we see kind of a precursor to who Harry will ultimately become in the final book. He is someone who's going to stand in front of the people that he loves and defend them, no matter the cost. And of course, he didn't mean to blow up Aunt Marge. The intention wasn't inflation. However, simultaneously, concurrently. And it happened, and it was amazing. And then you know what else I love the thing that I love about Harry, and maybe it's just because I also am one of these, but he's such a drama queen. Like, he blew her up and then was like, I'm blowing the lock off. I'm getting my stop, we're out of here. And then he's kind of like wandering the streets and as he comes down from this kind of fever pitched moment he's like wait, huh? Where am I gonna go? Can I break into Gringotts and get my gold before they like, I don't know, ransack it and lock my account? Which like where'd you even get that idea from? We have no reason to believe that that's a thing. Secondly, you think you're on the run right now like a fugitive because the law, because they told you before that they were going to kick you out of school and you're just like whatever. And he's like maybe I'll become Haggard's apprentice. Baby, relax. Like obviously there are reasons to think that this is what's going to happen. But also dude, chill out. Take a beat. Take a moment. It's such a like 13 year old boy thing to do. Or not even 13 year old boy, just like a 13 year old child thing to do. Like it's a very teenager moment to just be like I've done this thing and now I have to plan out my entire life based on such limited information and hormones are high and I'm just like vibing out and being like, you know what, I'm gonna go and maybe I'll break in and get all of my money out maybe just so that I can live for a little while, maybe I won't. Maybe I'm gonna go to hog courts and I'm gonna become Hagrid's apprentice because he got kicked out of school and he still gets to stay in the magical world. But I know that I'm never going back to the Dursleys again. And fast forward, obviously he ends up back at the Dursleys but like it is such an amazing moment because I think that there's a beautiful kind of moment where he gets to do for his family and his parents what they did for him, which is still stand in the face of someone who obviously is no Voldiva but in the moment is evil and sullying their name and their memory and saying not today Satan. And then follow it up with this, which is a very adult thing. And then he follows that moment up with this like ridiculous like dramatic internal monologue about like what next steps are going to be only for it all to end up being okay because laws in the magical world are water at best. And I just love, I love Harry for that. I love that he can in the matter of like 15 minutes go from being intentional and brave and vengeful to dramatic and scared. And unsure. And we all are just along on the ride with him because we all feel those things. And for all intents and purposes, Harry is very much where your heart on your sleeves in a lot of ways. He doesn't know how to keep a lot of things close to the chest, like, especially in moments of high emotionality. And I love this moment with Marge, one, because she deserved it, and two, because I think it really does give us some insights into who Harry is and who he will become.
- [24:10]
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Granger knows. When you're a procurement manager for an office park, you're not managing one building, you're managing all of them. And to stay ahead, you need to see through walls and around corners. Lights about to fail, filters ready to clog H Vac on its last leg. If you wait until something breaks, you're already behind. Count on Grainger for quality products, easy reordering, and 24. 7 support. Call 1-800-GRAINGER, click grainger.com or just stop by Grainger for the ones who get it.
- [24:44]
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When asked what word best describes Harry, here are our top three. The first, by a very wide margin, is brave, then resilient, then impulsive. But you know what was tied with impulsive? Our last. You know what word it was? I don't even want to say it because I know it'll trigger some of us, but the word was loyal, which is our favorite word to use. And maybe we'll do an episode when all is said and done, and we'll just, like, get everybody who is loyal and we'll see who is the most loyal because we're using it for everyone. And you know what? Sometimes that's okay. Now, for Harry, the invocation of loyalty is something that some of us absolutely, unequivocally disagree with. And we're gonna get into that a little later. But brave feels spot on, right? Like, Harry is someone who navigates the world in such a way where he would much rather ask for forgiveness than ask for permission. And it's kind of conditioned very early on into engaging in behavior that requires bravery. But then there are also these quiet moments of bravery. Like, one of the moments in the first book that I absolutely love is when Dudley is talking about how they're gonna put. Once he goes to public school, how they're gonna put his face in the. Terry's face in the toilet. And he says something, and Harry has this, like, very snide remark, and he. And he says it, and then he, like, runs off before Dudley can really understand what was said. And it's so brilliant because he just has the streak in him that is so unfettered by fear. And I think that there's something to that that really matters. And I think it's the thing that kind of is his North Star for a lot. In a lot of ways, it allows for him to really never truly be that afraid. Like the moments where he goes into crazy situations and is afraid is normally moments where he's afraid for the people who have come with him. He's afraid for Ron and Hermione. He's afraid for Ron, Hermione, Neville, Ginny Luna. Right. But very rarely for himself, which is annoying. But go off the second word resilient. Absolutely. I love that. I love that. That is just a fact of Harry's life. Right. Like we're talking about a child who grew up in a very abusive, neglectful household and somehow manages to still be a person who believes in goodness and fights for it tooth and nail and sacrifices whatever he has to sacrifice for the purposes and for the sake of it. And so there's something to this idea of resilience. And what's more is that it's not just that he was raised in that space, but he had to return to it every single summer after all of these near death experiences and have to kind of live with these individuals, with these people, and also protect them at some moments from the stuff that was coming for him and fight them and reason with people who are unreasonable. And in the midst of all of that, he still maintains integrity and there's something to that that really matters. And then the impulsivity, my God, y' all know, as a Slytherin, I just. The impulsivity is a thing for me that I just simply, I can't abide by. It really irks me the way that Harry goes around and just like, does stuff. And sometimes it's necessary, sometimes he has to do it. Sometimes, though, sometimes though, he's just impatient. Sometimes he believes that he knows better. Sometimes he leans into the status that he has as the Chosen One and is simply just like, no one gets it but me and I'm gonna do it my way. And like, the impulsivity for me is just a no. I simply, I don't have it in me. And it always bothers me because there are moments where it's warranted and necessary and then there are moments where it's like, dude, you're just being lazy. Like when they go to the Ministry of Magic in Deathly Hallows and they're still planning and he's Just like, I think we should go tomorrow, sir. What? This is a grocery store. Like, you need to relax. Like, you are doing too much, too much. And he's just like, it doesn't matter. We'll figure it out. And then you get there and all hell broke loose. And part of it is because there were some details you probably could have ironed out before arriving, but you didn't because you didn't think it was necessary. And so here we are. Here we are. And again, because I know the Gryffindors are out there yelling at me, like, you have to do it. Sometimes you. It's true. Sometimes. Sometimes you do just have to do it. That wasn't one of those times, though. That wasn't one of those times. We could have probably planned a little bit better. But I digress. This isn't supposed to be a hot take moment. This is just supposed to be me running through the things. I also want to highlight a couple of other words that were in the data that got enough votes that I think are worthy of just being named. Traumatized, reckless, stubborn, tragic, manipulated, mediocre, lost, burdened, lucky. And it's interesting because there is this fascinating dichotomy that Harry embodies between being brave and being broken. And we kind of will see those two things existing within the same space as we explore the first four questions on the survey. And so let's keep that kind of brave, broken dichotomy in mind as we unpack the rest of these things, because I think in a lot of the responses that you all wrote, implicit in them is one of these two things. So let's get into the arithmetic lesson. Sam.
- [32:19]
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Grainger knows when you're a procurement manager for an office park, you're not managing one building, you're managing all of them. And to stay ahead, you need to see through walls and around corners. Lights about to fail. Filters ready to clog. H Vac on its last leg. If you wait until something breaks, you're already behind. Count on Grainger for quality products, easy reordering, and 24. 7 support. Call 1-800-GRAINGER Click grainger.com or just stop by Granger for the ones who get it done.
- [32:59]
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For this episode's arithmancy lesson, we had 632 responses. Is Harry Potter a good person? About 90% of us said yes, about 4% of us said no, and about 6% of us said don't. No. Someone wrote, harry is not perfect. Harry can be oblivious, careless, and not always the best friend, especially to hermione. However, I love him. He is exceptionally funny, caring at times and determined. He never let his fame go to his head. He never took advantage of it. The loss and abuse he suffered so young could have made him horrible. Yet he came out of it a decent boy willing to try. We must give him that. In almost every case Harry was willing to try his best. Someone else wrote, I put Harry as not a good person and I don't think it's necessarily his fault because he was never given any examples or guidance. He's not kind, he's short tempered and reactionary and doesn't understand the value of a good apology. There are times when he's downright cruel to people, to the people who he calls his friends. And towards the later years he just expects people to obey him even though he is a reluctant leader. Someone else wrote, I don't know if Harry Potter is a good person. My first instinct is to say yes of course. But then I think of all the ways he is not. He is mean, hating on other characters, looks, personalities and worldviews. He is quick to anger and too headstrong to be objective. Do actions beat a mind that is so vicious? One more person wrote, harry is complicated. On the one hand he makes choices that do make him a good person. Having empathy towards Ron for having secondhand robes, choosing to fight Voldemort for everyone's sakes rather than becoming bitter toward Muggles or giving up. On the other hand, sometimes Harry is a really crappy person and a crappy friend and he makes foolish, impulsive choices. Bottom line, with the exception of the death of his parents and the abuse at the hands of the Dursleys, Harry pretty much created all of his own life problems. It's my turn. I can't help but chuckle because I know that there are people who are ready to revolt. And I think it's so fascinating because in listening to myself read these comments one of the things that really stood out to me, and it's really just one word and that word is human. Harry is a child who is for all intents and purposes figuring out how to be a person, just in general, right? And I think the point that was made about how he doesn't really have any good examples is a really important one because I think so much of Harry's understanding of good and bad is based on the things that he likes and doesn't like from the Dursleys and he just is using all of the experiences that he has outside of Privet drive to test those hypotheses which is what you do when you're 11 and 12 and 13 and 14, 15, 16, 17. That there is a way that. I think this is one of those moments where maybe we are holding him to the standard of the adult he was treated as, but was never right. Like there's a way that the adultification that Harry was placed under, I think makes us see him through a very different lens. I also think that because we are reading these books from his perspective, and we are, in many of us, I won't say all of us, but many of us are then seeing and experiencing this as if we are in Harry's position. Maybe not Harry. Right. But experiencing it as him. Or in his space in his stead, perhaps. I think that there's a way that some of us can be a little bit more critical of him, which doesn't mean he doesn't deserve some of the criticism, because there are definitely moments where he does. There are definitely moments where he does some really questionable things. But don't we all? And I think the thing that I'm gonna talk about a little bit later, but I'll give you a little bit of a precursor to it. I think the thing that Harry lacks in a lot of ways for one reason or another is accountability. And I think what's fascinating about this is despite the fact that Harry had 90% of us say that he was a good person, it's still a complicated narrative because of the hot temperedness and the meanness. And I think also just like the overlooking of Hermione, I think people, the question that we have to grapple with, and maybe we'll get into in the post episode chat is our willingness to. When we were talking about the heroes, we were talking about, like, are you a hero? Or you were doing a person doing heroic things? And I think that that line of questioning can be true, particularly for this question, are you a good or bad person or are you just a person doing good or bad things? And this is something that many of you have brought up in defense of certain characters. And I'm wondering about how we apply that logic here for Harry. And how do we reconcile the fact that he is a child, which is something that I'm constantly reminded of by the people on the Internet whenever I leverage or critique against Harry that he's a child. And what's more is he's also a boy. And for better or worse, we as a society tend to give boys a lot more leniency than we do girls when it comes to transgressing. And so I'm not upset with the people who are holding him to task because it's like, yeah, we need to do that. And I think I will say that I want us to keep that same energy when we get to Hermione, but this is not a Hermione Granger episode. I'm just. I'm just saying it now because I already know when the time comes and all the girlies and. And the peoples are running around on some. I support her rights and her wrongs. I'm going to ask, where was that energy for my boy? HJP question. That's what we need to think about. But I think fundamentally, for me personally, there's no way I could say that Harry is not a good person. I think he is. I think Harry is a person. He's a child learning to be a good person and making mistakes on the path. I think he is someone who fundamentally has the right inclinations. I think he is also someone who falls prey to his not so better nature, which is something, again, we all do. I think he is someone who navigates the world in a very specific way and doesn't have a lot of the tools to learn how to truly cope with the circumstances in which he finds himself. And in the words of Mariah Carey, like, he's doing the best he can with what he's got. And as a person who, like, does not really believe in adults at all, Harry's journey to adulthood is one that is fraught with many, many, many mistakes that some of us may or may not have made when we were growing up because we had role models, we knew what we were looking for. Harry doesn't have any of that. His formative years were defined by mistreatment and mayhem at the hands of Vernon and Petunia. Like, there is a world in which so much of his existence is, I don't know what I want to be or who I am, but I know what I don't want to be and who I'm not. And I think that that's 1 to 11, right? That that's the mentality. And then from 11 to 17, when we are with him and we are meeting him, we're watching him turn, figure out who he is and the bumps and the lumps and the foolishness that comes along with that. And so when it comes to whether he's a good person, I think we kind of have to extend a little bit of grace to him because I think there is something to be said about the inherent and innate goodness that he exhibits in a world where he shouldn't, and the fact that he is actively and truly figuring all of this out by himself and so that there is really no way to do that. Well, especially when you are being used as a tool by the adults in your life who should be teaching you these things. But they're not. I'm Jake Stauch, co founder and CEO of Serval. We built Serval to automate the IT work that slows companies down. Onboarding password resets, access to applications. My laptop stopped working. While employees wait for help, their real work is put on hold. It desperately wants to automate this work and that's why they need Servil. You just tell Servil what you want to automate in plain English and it's built. No drag and drop workflows, no expensive consultants. Employees get unblocked and IT teams go from drowning in tickets to building what actually matters. With Cervel, it becomes the AI engine powering the entire company. This is a new way to run it. We guarantee you'll automate 50% of all tickets and we'll prove it to you in a free four week pilot. Go to cerval.com tickets that's S E-R-V-A-L.com tickets. Is Harry Potter a good friend? About 64% of us said yes, about 23% of us said no and about 13% of us said don't. No. Someone wrote, Harry is a good friend even if he sides with Ron too often. And while I can't say for certain whether he's a good person exactly, I can say this. Harry was kind to people when he didn't have to be. Dobby semi ruined his life in second year, but Harry never held it against him. There aren't many people in the series that considered House Elf's friends, not even Hermione. Harry made sure to tell Cedric about the dragons even when he was being actively bullied by Hufflepuff House. Someone else wrote, he can be so focused on his own emotions and needs that he is a selfish and inconsiderate friend. Even with Luna, he could do more if Ginny. Oh, it's no, not if Ginny. It's Ginny that stops people bullying her. Yes, there is tragedy and neglect, but he does have the arrogance that we are meant to read in James character and the female characters around him are meant to accommodate his emotions rather than him. Ever consider for a moment that he might be in the wrong? Another person wrote, I think it's totally possible for Harry to be A good friend and yet maybe not be a good friend. He certainly has the love part down. He feels very passionate about the care and well being of those he keeps close when they are in acute danger. But he has a really hard time demonstrating love and care in the mundane, everyday ways. It makes a lot of sense that someone who grew up with selfishness as a requirement for survival would have a hard time letting go of those long ingrained thought processes. Another person wrote a good friend. Absolutely not. While Ron, Hermione and company are constantly worried about Harry's feelings and trying to help him, he very rarely has any concerns for the troubles that plague his friends. He uses his fame as leverage to gain friends, but not by being a friend, rather allowing people access to his friendship. It's very much a one way street. Also a great meme about how Harry stops receiving communication from his friends. He sits there and sulks that they have abandoned him. And when Ron doesn't hear from him, when Ron doesn't hear from Harry, he steals a car to go find out what's wrong. It's my turn and I have some things to say. Say I think we're back to the idea of I, I, I, I. I'll lead with a question. How did you learn how to be a good friend? Was it simply by being one immediately? Was it by figuring out the kind of friend that you wanted? Was it by being the best person you thought you could be and then getting feedback and curating that? Was it how, how did you arrive at that idea? Because I think so much of relationship is matching energy and mirroring, mirroring things. And I think one of the things that connects the Golden Trio and I say this in behind the cloak, not a plug. How gauche. But I do say it in the book is that on Hogwarts Express, Ron, Harry and Hermione have anxiety in common. And I think the, the fear of being friendless is something that he and Ron certainly shared in that compartment together on that train. And so there's something to be said about, you know, how do we arrive at being good friends? What does that look like? How do we understand that? How do we reconcile our own friendships? I don't know about you all but for me, right, like I'm a person who, I'm a curator, like I curate the kind of friendships that I have with people based on what they have told me they need, what I am willing to give and how I understand the dynamics between those two things. I'm also in therapy and my therapist and I have had to do a lot of things right? Because there's no way to unpack. You can't be a good friend if you don't have good people in your life who exemplify certain aspects. Right? Many of us struggle with people pleasing. And so many of us navigate the world as people pleasers who are willing to do any and everything to try to make the people in our orbit happy. Does that always make you a good friend if you sacrifice accountability for the purposes of making people not be mad at you? Sometimes we have to leave our friends alone because they need a moment and some of us aren't good at that. And I think when we look at Harry and we look at his relationships with Ronnie, Hermione, I'm going to go on a limb and say, not a limb, but I'm going to go out and say I think he is a good friend. And the thing that I am using as my barometer and it's not the day to day, it's not all of that, it's the fact that whenever anything happens, Harry's first and chief concern, especially when Ron and Harry, Ron and Hermione are like, we're coming. Is them and their safety. He's always worried about it. Like, he's always concerned about them coming. And some of that comes from the idea that he believes he has to do all this by himself, which is foolish. And Hermione and Ron are both very much of the mind of like, dude, don't be stupid. But from the very beginning, from the very first moment where they go down into the trap door and Ron is like, you know, Or Harry's like, you know, you stay here. And he's like, oh. And they're like, we're going with you, dude. Don't be dumb. And they are good friends. But I think Harry's concern is very rarely like me, he's always worried for them. And even at the end of Half Blood Prince, he's like, I'll write to you and tell you where I'm going. And they're like, are you stupid? Like, and it's not. It is Harry's like quintessential saving people thing, but it's also his. He doesn't want anything to happen to them. Truly. I think he. And I don't think Harry has good examples of people who are out here in these streets, like being good friends. He doesn't know what a good healthy relationship in general looks like, let alone one that is happening in a platonic setting. So again, like being a good person, he is Making it up as he goes along. And, like, we all are. And I personally, like, I recognize that I'm a much better friend now than I was before than I have been in the past for one reason or another. And that there are people who would say I was a bad friend because I didn't do certain things right? And I think that this is the other thing that we have to allow for ourselves is that we are watching the way that Harry treats certain people. But they stick around, they keep coming back. He's doing something right. Neville was yelling and screaming and willing to die for this man. Ron and Hermione, like, forsook their lives, their parents, to go on this hunt with him, right? Like, yes, that means that they are good friends. But you don't do those things for people who you don't believe is a good friend. When Voldemort is taking over Harry's body, in order, the Phoenix, it is Ron and Hermione who he thinks about. It is them and what they mean to him and how much he loves them. That expels Voldiva from his mind. Like, Harry genuinely cares for them. And obviously, you know, in the immortal words of Tina Turner, what's love got to do with it, right? Like, you can have love and not necessarily have the manifestations of the behavior look a certain way, but Harry is the one who is afraid when, you know, Ron has to go and sacrifice himself on that chessboard. Harry is the one who's terrified about drinking those potions and that something's going to happen to Hermione. And, you know, Harry is the one. He and Ron are the ones who go and visit Hermione all the time when she's petrified and talk to her and tell her everything that's going on. You know, I think that there are just these little moments that may not register to us the same way. But, like, I think Harry's a good friend. I think Harry's a good friend. I love moments when Ron gets to shine and Harry is kind of rooting for him despite the fact that Ron is out here just telling lies at a certain point, just hyping things up for the sake of being the star. But Harry is there with a full understanding. And like, yes, obviously Harry can be selfish. If you tell me you can't be selfish. I got questions. And we're not the chosen ones. Well, maybe some of you are, but I'm certainly not. I'll speak for my own myself. I think he's a good friend, y'. All. I think he's a good friend. Is Harry Potter a victim? About 92% of us said yes, about 5% of us said no and about 3% of us said don't. No. Someone wrote, Harry is 100% a victim. He's not done anything to deserve the treatment by the Dursleys, Voldemort, or to a lesser extent, Dumbledore. What makes this especially tragic is that Dumbledore became a father figure to Harry. Harry trusted him, admired him, and looked to him for guidance. But Dumbledore used that trust. He shaped Harry into a child soldier without Harry fully understanding what was happening. Another person wrote, he is not a victim. He is a survivor. A Voldiva, Dumbledore, the Dursleys, Umbridge, etc. Victimhood is a mindset, not a set of conditions. After a lot of reflection, I know that the terrible things that happened don't define who you are as a person. And Harry doesn't let these events define him. His love for his friends, his desire to find a home once all the dust has settled and Voldy is defeated, he doesn't take the Elder Wand and say, I deserve this. He wants to rebuild. Someone else wrote, I said I don't know to whether Harry is a victim, because in asking that, we also have to ask, what's he a victim of? There is no doubt that his aunt and uncle mistreated him and neglected him and were abusive. But as he gets older and spends less time with him, he's always focusing on how hard things are for him and seems to forget that everyone else's lives are just as hard, if not harder. Another person wrote, harry is a victim of multiple crimes, but he does not consistently, chronically have a victim mentality, which is why he is able to accomplish so much. He isn't defined by what happened to him. He is defined by what he does about it. He could have walked away, he could have gone into hiding, he could have done a lot of things, but he chose his own path, even if it was forged by others. It's my turn. This question was one that I obviously put in for the purposes of chaos because I love it. But your comments really got me thinking because I love this kind of invitation to think about victimhood as something that happens to you, but not necessarily something or not who you are, right? And we see this kind of conversation within recent times about slavery, right? And you'll hear some people call it enslavement as a condition that was placed upon people. And you'll hear individuals called enslaved as opposed to Slaves. Because slavery was a condition and they are enslaved and not slaves like themselves. Right? Like they were enslaved. Right. And it was placed on them. And so you'll hear people kind of use this language and I hear you all inviting us to think about this in a very similar way, right? Where what happened to Harry happened to him, but it is not who he is. And I love this. And I think it's a really important thing for us to think about because I think it invites us to have to kind of reorient the way that we understand who Harry is. But I also find myself asking a question which is in order to not have a victimhood mindset, right? Or I should say, like, this is it that he has figured out a way to navigate his victimhood or that he doesn't recognize himself as one. Right? Like, Harry gives voice to the realities of, you know, the Dursleys and the struggles that he had. But very rarely do we hear him call it abuse. Very rarely do we recognize how terrible the Dursleys are to him, but he very rarely dwells on it. The moment he crosses over into the magical world, it's as if it didn't happen. And the thing that I wonder if you all are imbuing him with that is not actually there, it's not on the page, is his reconciliation of his experience. And so perhaps the lack of a victimhood mindset doesn't come from the navigation of that, the reflection and the working through it, but rather the idea that, like, he just isn't doing any of that work and maybe it all comes out later in life. Maybe his life is so hectic because, I don't know, he's being hunted by Volzadi, that he doesn't really have the time, energy, or desire to really deal with the internal things. Right? Like things in the magical world often feel so separated, so segregated, that we can also imagine a world where he's just like, out of sight, out of mind, right? Like, I don't have to worry about that. And so we're actually witnessing more repression than we are someone who is. Has actively done the work to not be defined by what they experienced. Right. And. And. Or someone who is also like, the relative comparison of what the Dursleys did pales relative to the fact that there is this fiend who killed my parents and is constantly and consistently trying to kill me, that I don't have time to try and navigate what happened in my past. Because when I think of Harry, I don't see a healed person. I Don't see someone who has come to the real realizations that some of you gave voice to in your open ended responses about this question. I see someone who has enough distractions in his life that he doesn't have to think about these things. And the victimhood that he experienced is nothing compared to, I don't know, Cedra Diggory getting dropped in a graveyard and watching his arch nemesis take his blood and the dust of the bones of his father and rise from the dead. Like having to eat a fourth of a grapefruit that's smaller than Dudley's pales in comparison to that. Right. And so the idea that it's very possible that this, the fact that Harry doesn't have a victimhood mentality is because he's very good at compartmentalizing it. He's very good at not having to do the emotional work to truly be over what he experienced with the Dursleys. And he just has enough distractions in his life to be able to not navigate that. So when I think about whether or not he's a victim, yes, of course, I'm with the rest of us in saying yes. I do think though that the fact that he doesn't display a victim mentality, I'm less convinced by the idea that this is a sign that he's not defined by it. I don't think he has the opportunity to be. Cause he's got other things going on. And I'm not convinced that that's healthier. I just think that that's a distraction. And I think that there's also a world where he is able to, because of the way that the magical world operates and the separation therein, he's able to compartmentalize that aspect of his life as a blip on, on the radar. Right. Like he recognizes the terribleness of the Dursleys. I don't think he recognizes how much it's affected him. I don't think he recognizes the fact that he was set up by Dumbledore in a lot of ways. I don't think he like holds any of these people in his orbit accountable for what they put him through. I think he, I think that that's something that happens way later in his life when all is said and done and when all of this is over, that's when we get that kind of reflection out of him and not a second before because I just, I can't understand. There's no way, there's simply just no way that he is able to effectively navigate all of that. Internal trauma, he doesn't have the tools. There's no way he would just arrive at that. Especially not in the midst of being on the run the way he is from Voldemort and literally everything else is happening. Is Harry Potter extraordinary chaos. About 35% of us said yes, about 58% of us said no. And about 7% of us said don't. No, someone wrote. I said yes. For Harry being extraordinary because he has so much kindness and compassion despite never being shown any of it from his aunt and uncle, that is extraordinary. Yes, he was talented with magic, but facing evil the way he did as a person, I think that's the extraordinary part. Another person wrote, on the question of is Harry extraordinary? I answered no. I say that as a compliment. For me, Harry's strength and appeal as a character derives from the fact that he is an ordinary boy with average to above average magical abilities who tackles extreme circumstances head on. The Chosen One label is simply a matter of circumstance. Voldemort made a choice that directly implicated Harry. Harry is a hero. Anyone who says otherwise is kidding themselves. But extraordinary? No, another person wrote, I debated this one a lot. Is Harry extraordinary or does Harry put himself and find himself in extraordinary circumstances that luck, fate and a smidgen of natural ability allow him to get out of making him seem extraordinary. I'm landing on the side of the ladder. He's an average student, a semi decent flyer aided by some of the best brooms on the market. And when he's going up against Voldy, his blood protection and his wand's twin core do a good chunk of the heavy lifting. He's a mediocre teenager marked for a great destiny, but that doesn't make him great. Another person wrote, is Harry Potter extraordinary? Yes, but I do not mean in terms of magical talent. Is he extraordinarily lucky? Absolutely, yes. A boy who survives Voldemort again and again using only one spell, that's a lucky boy. But I also feel that he's extraordinary because he has no choice not to be. Just because he doesn't ask to be a hero doesn't make him less of one. Yes, a lot of his success was conditional, but it was still success. And of course, he's overrated. But how could he not be? He's Harry freaking Potter. It's my turn. Now. I will be the first to say that I am very entrenched in the Harry Potter is mediocre to the nth degree camp. I think, yes, there are things that he has had to figure out. I know that people will say he can create a full on corporeal Patronus and that's very advanced magic. And that's why he got the O on his owl. And I will grant you that. Sure do. I think. And I will grant you that because I know that that is really intense magic. The gag and the reality of the situation is, is one he only really did. I don't want to qualify it, but I'm like, time travel was involved. He thought it was his dad, it wasn't his dad. Like there was an entire mental exercise there that happened that like, a lot of people are gonna be hard pressed to be able to get and like, experience the way that he did. And so, like, yes, I won't take away the Patronus. It matters. It does a lot of work. And I think especially for someone like Harry, who has so many whores in his life who like, really fights to try to figure out, you know, what's the happiest memory I can come up with. Like, the fact that he's able to do it and do it fairly consistently is pretty amazing. So I will grant that that is great. Other than that, I think he's just regular and I don't think that there's anything wrong with that. I think that what makes Harry Harry is the fact that he is like all the Chosen One tropes, like, thrust into this world in a way that he has no control over and as a result deals with this in a way that I think, like, being extraordinary would make it boring. It. You know, I think I love Hermione and I know that many of us joke about, like, how much the series would be, you know, great if she was the one, you know, dealing with it, but it would be short because she'd have figured out a way to kill Voldemort way, way, way before this or some way to, like, thwart him. And it would have, like. I think that the mediocrity that Harry operates with is great. I also do think though, and many, it's interesting that you all didn't bring it up. But like, Snape does. Like, he has more talented friends. Like, he needs the extraordinary in his life for the purposes of achieving extraordinary ends. And I think that that's true for so many of us. Like, I think obviously some of us are immensely talented and amazing and can just do everything ourselves and do it well. But I think that we. The beauty of Community is that you don't need to be extraordinary to do extraordinary things. And I think that that's Harry's story, Right. I think that he is just a boy who was chosen without, you know, doing anything and figured out a way in the midst of his normalness to be able to do what needed to be done for his own survival. Now, what I will say, and the space where I do believe that Harry is actually extraordinary is his deduction. Like, his ability to, like, put two and two together and get four solidly and, like, way before other people get it. Because I think what Harry. What is true for Harry is that he doesn't need it to be logical. He's not looking for sensicalness, sensicality, you know what I'm saying? Sensibility. I don't even know if that's the right word I'm looking for. He's not looking for it to make sense. And that's Hermione's downfall, right? Like, she. Even within a world where magic exists, she needs it to make sense. She needs it to be logical. And Harry doesn't need that. So when he sees her Draco running off, he's like, oh, he's about to be a Death Eater. When he, like, is watching, like, he does not need a lot of very strong evidence. Now, does that come back to bite him in the butt? Absolutely, because that's how we end up with Sirius, right? And him running off to the Department of Mysteries, right? Because he's putting two together, sure. But more often than not, it does more good than harm. And I love that. That is like a skill set that he has that he's able to just put some things together very quickly. The. I mean, yeah, I think that the novelty and the beauty of Harry is that he is just a regular Degular dude. I think that there's a world where that is amazing. And, and I think that in some ways that's how it's written, right? Like the fact that the power that the Dark Lord knows not is not the Dark Lord, that the Dark Lord knows not is love. I mean, like. And I, and I also agree with the kind of characterization of the fact that this boy has found a way to have love be a thing for him that he can experience and, and, and give and put out into the world in his own way is actually extraordinary given what he's been through and, and, and been through and not necessarily reflected on. So maybe I'm an, I don't know camp because I think there's. It depends on how. It depends on the thing that we are looking for to be extraordinary, right? Like, if it's magical acumen, absolutely. Not if it's resilience, certainly, because when you juxtapose him to some of the other characters in the books who are navigating circumstances that aren't nearly as fraught as his, he really does manage very, very, very well. And I think that we can't not give him credit for that. We've now reached the point in the episode where I am going to reflect. As I was reading through some of our comments and thinking about what I was going to do, this reflection on, I thought a lot about the moments of my life where I experienced the most personal growth. And for me it was when I left home to go to college and to go to graduate school. And you really do begin to kind of notice because certain things about yourself, because you're juxtaposing it to new people and new people who are recognizing things about yourself, it's also a moment where you may be feeling like you can give yourself permission to reinvent yourself or do some work. And so I learned a lot and I grew in very meaningful ways. But I think I probably recognized the most when I moved back home during the pandemic. And I live with my parents now, and the more I'm home and the more I get to spend time with my parents, which I think is an exceptional gift and you know, for me, but simultaneously, concurrently, and I also see things in my parents and I'm like, oh no, no, I do that. Is that where I got that from? Is that a thing that happened to me that like, I didn't even recognize? Like, that I've been walking around in the world and doing all of this work and blah, blah, blah, blah, but that there are just some things that you can't escape because you don't recognize them. Right? And I didn't recognize them until I saw the behavior in my parents as an adult now who has become more self aware. And then you're like, oh, is that where that behavior comes from? And when we think about that, right. That takes self awareness, it takes space, it takes time, it takes accountability. And even with all of those things, it's very difficult to recognize the generational curses for in some ways, right. In some contexts, right. That we have that we carry with us. And, and you know, there are lots of things that we get from our parents that we just don't even recognize. And I think that when we think about Harry, and this is something I thought about when I was reading our thoughts on whether he was a good person or a good friend, and even for some of the later Questions that we'll talk about in a couple of weeks. I think that we forget. We talk a lot about what was done to Harry, right? The abuse. We don't talk about the fact that that's what raised him. Like, that's what socialized him. Like. There are so many things that happened at Ford Privet Drive that Harry internalized and understood as normal, that he never had the opportunity to unpack. And when we talk about his anger, his lack of emotional availability, his inability to ask for help. Right. One of the things that I have thought a lot about, particularly when I think about Harry and masculinity, is that, like the man in his life, father figure or not, but the man in his life was Vernon Dursley. Like he learned what it is to function as a person at the knees of Vernon Dursley. And there are things in our lives that we can be very intentional about unlearning and undoing. But then there are also things that we don't even pay attention to because we don't even recognize it in ourselves until much later in life once we've amassed a much higher level of accountability, a much higher level of self awareness. But kids are not self aware, not to the extent that they would need to be to be, to unlearn. Like part of socializing and part of child rearing is the idea of helping children see the world in a very particular way and understand who they are and their role in that space. And that requires you having to ask questions of yourself, figure out who you want to be. And again, like I said before, I think that there is a world in which Harry left privet drive at 11 years old to go to Hogwarts knowing who he didn't want to be. Right. He recognized in Draco all the things that were similar to Dudley, but he doesn't recognize the similarities in circumstances between he and Draco. Right. Like he doesn't recognize that his quickness to anger looks very similar to Vernon Dursley's. That the difficulty in terms of, like, you know, what his relationships look like are similar and derived from his time at Privet Drive. That some of his ambition that the Sorting Hat comes to recognize is not just the byproduct of having Voldiva's soul in him, but also because he grew up with a man who, who is constantly striving to be better. Right. Like, Harry's very good at knowing the things about the Dursley that he doesn't like. But there are also some things that he can't shake and I think that part of this is then the reality of like Harry is so shaped by everyone else. Like most children, for better or for worse. So. But like he's so reliant on that. Like I think one of the biggest differences between Harry and Tom Riddle is that Tom Riddle didn't have the kind of he took everything matters into his own hands, right? Like he didn't have a Hagrid coming and take him to Diagon Alley like Harry did. He said he didn't need it. Tom Riddle was much more self assured and had a level of self awareness. Tom Riddle knew he was beautiful and he knew he could leverage that. He knew the effect that he had on people. Harry really struggles with that, which is not a bad thing. But it does highlight a very particular reality because that means that he's much more malleable than Tom Riddle was. So that when Dumbledore dies, Harry really doesn't know who he is because so much of who he is is defined by Dumbledore upon entering into the magical world. And so what's really important to me as we think about who Harry is, what he does, and is he a good person, is he a good friend? Is that I think one of the things we talk a lot about is the abuse. And I completely believe that that's important. One of the things that we overlook though is that while the abuse happened to him, it also raised him. And the abusers, the Dursleys also played a very formative part in how Harry understands who he is as a person, as a boy moving into becoming a man. How he understands the role of women and girls in his orbit and in his life. Like all of those things happened and Harry has no say in how he understands those things because he is a child and so the world that he is coming from, right? Like we see this with Ron too, right? Like when Ron calls Hermione or he says, you know, they're gonna think you're a scarlet woman. And Hermione laughs. And it's like scarlet. And he's like, that's what my mom calls them. Like we are all the products of how we are raised. And for many of us it is not until much later in life that we, unless we have interventions and care provided to us from people who could help us navigate some of these things, it is not until we were much older. And Harry does not have that, right? Like Harry doesn't have that because Harry doesn't have the time to have that. If Harry had that, that would undermine some of the sacrifices that Harry would ultimately end up having to make. And so there is a world in which, like, he kind of is the byproduct of the world that he comes from, for better or for worse. And so that when we think, and I don't say this to remove accountability from Harry for his actions, but I do think that we tend to look at Harry and pretend as if all of that came out of nowhere, as if the anger doesn't come from anywhere. But the reality is that Uncle Vernon is a very ang. He barred Harry's windows and added extra locks to the door. Vernon Dursley was a vindictive man and he raised Harry. Harry is hard pressed to walk away from that dynamic and unscathed, untouched. Which is why the fact that even in the midst of all of that, he still is this child who can love and be supportive and deal with all of the like, that is extraordinary because outside of experiencing the abuse that he experienced, what he watched and how he learns to move and operate in the world is not only just a person who has been victimized by, but also who was raised by a bully and navigates the world and understands how to navigate to deal with problems and emotional issues in the same way. Because you can't always control it and you don't always recognize it because we're not invited to recognize it until way later, way later, when we have to, when we are being held accountable. When Aluna Lovegood is like, hey, maybe we figure some things out. When she's like, I'm going to tell you about yourself a little bit and maybe that'll open you up to see what we see. Harry was raised by a narcissist. Two people who felt like they have been slighted in some way, shape and or form, whether by Harry's presence or the world, who knows? And so, yeah, he centers himself, but then he also doesn't. And so that when I think about Harry and I think about him as a character, I'm very willing to extend a lot of grace because so much of what happens in his life is so far beyond his control. And we spend a lot of time talking about the fact that these people are children. And I think for Harry that's especially pertinent and something that we have to remember. And I do think that it makes who he is so much more incredible because of who raised him and the harm that was done to him, both explicitly and more importantly, implicitly. This. This has been another episode of Critical Magic Theory. I'm Professor Julian Womble, and if you liked today's episode. First of all thank you. Please feel free to like rate, subscribe and do all the things that one does where pods are cast y'.
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- [84:17]
B
This is the first of four Harry Potter episodes and we came in hot and I know the post episode chat is going to be just as incendiary if not more so. If you are not with us on Patreon please feel free to join us@patreon.com Criticalmagic theory if you want to follow me on social media please feel free to do so at Prof. W on TikTok Prof. JW on Instagram behind the Cloak pre orders are open for you. I'm going to put the link in the Patreon. There's a link in the summary. Please if you are able pre order it y'. All. I can't wait to hear what you will have to say in the post episode chat. Join me there. Until then be critical and stay magical my friends.
- [85:00]
A
Bye.
- [85:04]
B
I don't know when I started singing it but here we are.