← Critical Magic Theory: An Analytical Harry Potter Podcast
Critical Magic Theory: An Analytical Harry Potter Podcast
Luna Lovegood's Path to Authenticity, Courage, and Friendship
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Professor Julian Womble
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, Today, today, Today we are talking about one of the characters that has been the most requested. Okay. I would say that I was harangued, which is not a word I get to use often, and so I'm very pleased that I got to use it today. People were like, we have to do this. And honestly, we don't care what your vision for this podcast was. We don't care because, you know, we want to talk about Luna Lovegood. We want to talk about Luna Lovegood. And I said, what's a better time to throw the plan out of the window? Which I didn't actually do, but other than the holidays, and since this is going to be our last episode until the new Year, I thought to myself, happy holidays to everyone. Okay. And so we're going to be talking about Luna Lovegood, y'all. And honestly, I'm very excited because I could just feel your excitement in your survey responses, and it made me excited because I love Luna. I love so many things about Luna. I think that there are so many beautiful aspects to her personality, which many of you pinpointed in your discussion of her and the different facets of her character that we will get to discuss in this episode. And I think that there's something so absolutely stunning about the way that she just operates from this place of, like, this is who I am, and you are going to deal with it, and if you don't, that's not my business, and if you do, great, but I am who I am, no matter what. And I think that, you know, for her to be a young teenage girl and have this mentality is so incredible. And the thing that I'm really excited to talk about is kind of the benefits of that, the potential pitfalls of that, the way that we kind of are able to see ourselves in that, or maybe who we wanted to be when we were reading the books as children, maybe the things that we want to be when we're reading them as an adult. I think that Luna offers us a lot of lessons about how to live life as one's truest self. And I'm so ecstatic about the opportunity to be able to really dive into what that really means for her. Have you ever wondered what makes Loona such a lovable character or how we reconcile her eccentricities with her being in Ravenclaw House? Or whether Luna is actually a pureblood. We're gonna talk about all of it in this episode. And I couldn't be more excited because I think that even though we only spend the latter 4, 5, 6, 7. No 5, 6, 7, 3 books with Luna, she still offers us the ability to really think deeply about a lot of the things that we've been thinking about for the other characters. And also, I think we can juxtapose her to some of the other characters that we meet and really get a sense of, you know, what makes her so special. And so I just can't wait for us to do that. But first, you know, what we have to do. And I think, like, it's the season of bopping, right? Like, the holiday season is filled with a bop. It's filled with opportunities to kind of move the shoulders. I know that you were stretching. I know that many of us have been sitting at desks. I know that many of us might be driving. And it's just the moment. It's the time. Tis the season for us to bop along to the theme song. And if I had had the foresight, I would have had Mark make a holiday version of this song, but alas. So just, you know, get a candy cane or whatever your favorite holiday treat is and use that for a prop for today's holiday bop. Whoa. Bars. And that wasn't even intentional. That's how good I am, y'all. That's how good I am. Anyways, we're bopping in 3, 2, 1. We need to talk about Harry Potter. I hope you danced. It's the holidays, y'all. Like, you have to dance. It's required, I think, for this time of year, if for nothing else, for those of us in cold temperatures to keep warm. So I really hope that you moved your body just a little bit. Apparently, it's healthy. I don't know. Okay, I want to start off by welcoming any new listeners. I know that I had a video that, like, did pretty well on the Internet recently in our time between. And so if any of you are joining us from that video or have been catching up, welcome and or welcome back. I also want to thank those of you who joined in the post episode conversation on Cedric Diggory on Patreon, y'all, it got spicy because people were not pleased about the expectation that Harry and Cedric1 were friends or that Cedric should have given Harry any kind of hint about what was happening with the second task. And so people let me have it. They let the Internet have it. So if you're interested in that kind of drama. It's very. Kind of bravo adjacent. In some ways, very good points were made. So I definitely recommend that you go and check that out if that's your vibe. Speaking of Patreon, you know, we had our Chronic Overthinkers friends giving, which was great. We talked about the Gryffindor house, which was very, very interesting. And I think, you know, I wasn't sure, but I. This, These conversations that I've had with the Chronic Overthinkers has really solidified the need to, as part of our kind of discussion surrounding purebloods, talk about the founders and the houses that they founded and what that meant. So when we return, they are going to be on the list. I don't know when and I don't know how, but that's Little Mermaid for those of you who are too young to recognize it. And if that's the case, I don't want to hear about it. Okay. Speaking of Chronic Overthinkers, I want to thank our new ones who have signed on to this ship of chaos. Sarah, Saura and Lauren, thank you so much for joining and contributing to this community. I really, really appreciate it. And your thoughts and your contributions do go unnoticed. And so thank you so, so much also. Oh, my gosh, y'all. Oh, my gosh. Okay, I'm gonna preface this by giving a bit of a confession. So I know that we were. I said we were gonna do merch, and then I was, like, petitioning graphic designers, and then I admittedly got very overwhelmed. I did, because I couldn't figure out what I wanted. I couldn't figure out what it was gonna look like. I couldn't figure out a lot of logistical things. And I just was freaking out in my mind, which is part of the delay, because I just couldn't. I couldn't wrap my head around it. And so then I thought to myself, julian, why are you over complicating this? Like, you have a graphic, you have ideas. People have given you ideas for what they want. Why not let this first round of merch just be what we already have? And then that doesn't have to be it. We're growing, we're expanding. We can bring in other artists and other people at a later date. And I really wanted us to have merch for the holiday season just because it feels like an important thing. And also, we're coming up on a year. It'll be a year in January since this podcast began. And so I was like, it just feels important to me. And I'm over complicating things, because that's what I do. I'm working on it, y'all. Okay. All right. My therapist, who sometimes listens, so he might hear this, he and I are working on it, and I thought, let's just keep it simple. Let's just keep it with what we've got. So this first round of merch is what we have, and I couldn't be happier about it because it exists in the world. And the link is going to be posted on the episode summary. It is on the website criticalmagictheory.com if you go and you'll see merch and you click it, it should take you there. I'm going to post it in the Patreon. It has all the things that we discuss. There are stickers, there are T shirts, there are mugs, there are crew necks, there are hoodies. I try to keep it fairly simple. I'm really excited. And again, if you are a graphic artist who reached out to me, this is not. No, this is. Let me try to figure out what the heck I'm doing so that we can do this in a way that is both professional and beneficial for all parties involved. But in the meantime, between time, I'm really excited, and I hope you all like it. I am admittedly nervous just because, like, what if you all don't like it? I don't think you will dislike it, though, because I feel like it's good, and I'm pretty much a stickler for when it comes to these things. And I'm like, no, I would wear this. But I really am excited because I feel like merch just solidifies us as a community of people. It gets our stuff out there. For the clothing, apparel items, I tried my best to get things that could be put in colors of our houses. So for most things, there's green, there's red, there is black. Hufflepuff. The yellow I couldn't find. There was not a lot of things that came in yellow or gold, so I'm sorry for that, but I did my best. And so I gave you black, because I know that's also one of the colors. And then blue for Ravenclaws. So I tried to kind of keep it also festive, but also, like I said, y'all are not about to have Warner Brothers coming after me. And so it has all the things that I think we say a lot. My favorite thing that I designed was a mug that says Goblet of Chaos on it, which feels very apropos for the way that we operate on this podcast, you know, we love chaos. And so anyways, check it out. I will make sure that you have access to all the things, but please check it out and let me know what you think. I really am excited again, like some of these things really do take me out of my comfort zone. And so I'm just, I'm trying to roll with the punches and so this is me doing that. Speaking of Patreon, speaking of all the things, speaking of community, if you do not follow me on social media, please feel free to do so rofw on TikTok for however long. TikTok EX in the United States, who's to say rof jw on Instagram criticalmagictheory.com patreon.com criticalmagictheory if you are interested in joining us on Patreon as a paid subscriber, remember it's better for you and more financially beneficial for you to do it on your desktop than it is for you to do it on your phone especially. And I think particularly if you have an Apple phone. And finally, just another reminder that we will be going on break for the holidays and will not have a new episode posted until the new year, which is both sad but also important. I've been reading that rest is a thing that people need to take and I think we also have to leave room for those new individuals who will be joining us in the new year to catch up. But you will have homework in the meantime between time because we don't have a character to dive into for the next episode or even the kind of next arc. There are still some pure Bloods that we haven't yet discussed and some of us have given thoughts on Bill and Charlie the Gaunts, again, the founders. So I'm leaving it up to you. I'm going to post something on Patreon. If you haven't joined us on Patreon and you want to be part of the decision making process, that's the place to do it. And you all are going to tell me what you want. Just like you forced me to do this episode on Luna Lovegood. You see, I told you, sometimes this is a democracy and sometimes it's not. But this time it is. And so I'm excited for what you all bring to me and we will see what we've got. Okay? And so I'm excited to kind of experience the holidays and take some time, but also for us to be able to come back in the new year refreshed and ready to go and dive in with our critical analysis. And in the spirit of critical analysis, let's get into Luna Lovegood, y'all. When I thought about a moment that Luna was in that I loved, there were many ones that came up. I think that she offers us so much joy with her quirkiness and her eccentricities. But the other thing that I love about Luna is how to the point she is. She doesn't hold back, she doesn't pull punches. She says something, what she believes and what she thinks, but it never comes off in a way that feels rude or nasty, but just honest. And I think that there's something beautiful about the brutal honesty that she brings to bear. And this moment is a moment that happens. I believe in Half Blood Prince when she says discussing Ron. He says very funny things sometimes, doesn't he? Said Luna, as they set off down the corridor together. But he can be a bit unkind. I noticed that last year. And I think that, you know, there are lots of discussions to be had about Ron and the things that he says and why he is the way that he is. But I think that one thing's for certain and two things definitely for sure. Ron can be very rude to people. And I think he, you know, often doesn't necessarily mean it in a nasty or nefarious way, but he does it because it's just kind of how he's come to understand what comedy is. I think as a person myself who can sometimes say things that can be construed as bad or mean, I recognize that that's just kind of my humor and my friends who get it get it. And I know the friends who get it, and I know the friends who don't. And I don't know that Ron always, like, is that in tune with the people around him. That said, Luna clocked it. And Luna, in a way that I think is really right and also not necessarily done to be rude or mean in any capacity, is so adept at being able to call a spade a sp. And to say the quiet part out loud in a way that isn't made to make someone feel bad about themselves or who they are, but rather to potentially invite other people to see a truth that they've denied. And one thing that I've noticed, particularly in my kind of revisiting of the Harry Potter text, is that Harry and Hermione do a lot of work to just look past some of Ron's character failings, look past some of his flaws and. Or just ignore them for the sake of keeping peace amongst the golden trio. And I just love that someone like Luna, who doesn't spend as much time with Ron as Harry and Hermione do, is able to be like, okay, but also, yeah, he's funny, but he can also be really rude and mean. And I think that, you know, one of the things I was talking to a set of friends the other day, and we were talking about the Golden Trio. And one of the facets of the Golden Trio, I think that's particularly true, is just the sheer lack of accountability for. Particularly for Harry and Ron, right. That, like, they just kind of exist in a space where it's like, I believe that whatever you believe or do is right, and I'm not going to hold you accountable for it all the time. And Hermione, I think because she is a character who doesn't necessarily have that many friends outside of Harry and Ron, tries to keep the peace by also not necessarily holding either of them as accountable as we as readers probably believe they should be. And so I just love this moment because I love that Luna is like, you all may not want to call out what is true, but I will. And you know that it's true. You just ignore it for the sake of keeping the peace, because you don't like it when you all aren't friends with one another. And so you just ignore what is real and what is right in front of your face. But I, Luna Lovegood, will not do that. And I think that there's something so important and special about that reality because I think we need more of that in our world, because I think we spend a lot of our time protecting people. And I think it's particularly true, like, we spend a lot of time protecting men from, like, the issues of patriarchy and masculinity. And so there's no room for development and change because we don't make men aware of the things that need to be developed and changed. And when we do, it tends to be like, the last straw. And so it comes off as just being someone yelling and screaming and being irrational. And I think that's another thing that I love about Luna is Luna's like, I'm not angry. I'm just telling you what is true, and you can do with that information what you want. But I've said my piece, and that I think is, like, so laudable and something that I find outrageously admirable about her. When you all were asked what word best describes Luna, the top three were unique, quirky and eccentric. I think that this really does sum up Luna in a really really succinct way, because all these words are very much related to one another. And I think it's also the thing that draws us to Luna because I think that, you know, especially as children, for one reason or another, we often find ourselves kind of maybe on the outs with other people. And, you know, there are lots of reasons why that may be the case. Many of us also see Luna and see, you know, some kind of potential neurodivergence that we have discovered in ourselves or in people in our lives that we love. And so that all of this kind of uniqueness and eccentricity holds a lot of meaning for us. And as children, I think we couldn't necessarily put our finger on the why. As adults, I think we are able to see a little bit more of kind of what it actually means to be someone like Luna and like her dad, who kind of step outside of the box in a lot of ways. And what I love about Luna is the fact that she invites other people into that space with her. One of the things that we really notice about her, particularly in Order of the Phoenix, is that she really does invite Harry to think about his circumstances, his grief, the life that he is living, the reality of what it means to be kind of someone who is being maligned by the government. And she invites him to kind of have to refocus himself a little bit and think about it in a different way. And I think that there are lots of people in the world who are eccentric and unique and quirky, and that's kind of the brand for them. But. But they don't necessarily invite people into that space as a form of liberation. And I think that there is something so liberating about one's ability to kind of see the path laid out for other people and say, I love that path for you. This is the path for me. And maybe you want to be on this path, too, and you don't have to stay on it with me. Luna never kind of demands that people follow the path that she is on. But I think what she's able to offer is the ability to show that there are different paths. And I think that so many people and so many characters in these books, and we've talked about some of them. I'm thinking about Molly. We haven't talked about Hermione or McGonagall, but I do think that those are characters who are very kind of specific in a lot of ways about the path forward and the way that we understand how things kind of work and operate. And I think the thing that really draws so many readers to Luna is the fact that she just gives another option. I mean, in a lot of ways, the same way that the Quibbler offers an option that is different than the Daily Prophet, Luna offers us a different path of thinking about, you know, the way that we go about life and the way that we think about ourselves and who we are as people. And I think that there is something so, like, incredibly beautiful about that. Because when you're so young and you spend such a considerable amount of time in the same space with the same people with the same teachers, I think that everything can feel very, very stagnated and very regimented and outlined and organized in a very particular way. I'm thinking particularly of the Hogwarts to Ministry pipeline. I'm thinking particularly of just the kinds of classes that you're supposed to take, like all of these things in the world of Hogwarts. And I think even in our own right, when you're a child, everything feels very, very specific. And you have to do this if you want to get a particular outcome. And what we can see from Luna is that she offers us a different option. And I think as a child, to kind of figure out a way to take control of your life in a way that feels unique and specific to you is so important. And we just don't necessarily see a lot of that in these books. And I think this is such a critical and crucial situation for Harry as he's learning how to mourn for the first time in an explicit way, right? Like, we know that he is mourning the loss of his parents often, but to have witnessed Cedric's death and then to have to come back to school only to then be called a liar by people who he trusted in a system that he had put his faith in, and then to find someone in Luna who's basically like, yeah, the system is trash and you have to find solace in other ways because you're not always going to be able to get it from the sources that you thought you might. And so I love the eccentricity and I love the uniqueness and I love the quirkiness because it's. It says to us, hey, like, there is another way to do this. And I can still be in the same space as you and we can still coexist, but there may be something else that you can offer yourself that you might not have thought of if you stay on this very particular regimented path. And I'm going to talk a little bit later about maybe the ills of that, but for right now, I think that there is something so special and beautiful about that. And I think Luna offers us a lot to think about in that way, in the same way that she invites Harry to think a lot about his own circumstances. For this episode's arithmancy Lesson, we had 360 responses. And for the first question, which is, is Luna Lovegood a good person? 99.4% of us said yes. And point six said don't know. Which leads me to believe that that point six is literally a singular person. There's always one, you know, there's always one person who just doesn't want it to be true. But this is decisive, this is undeniable. Someone wrote, I think Luna is a good person. She's kind in the face of unrelenting bullying. She seems like she's gentle and compassionate. Another person wrote, good person naturally. She's super kind and is always willing to lend an ear to anyone who needs it. For example, Hermione after a fight with Ron in Half Blood Prince. And I think the fact that even those who she is not particularly close to feel like they can open up to her speaks volumes about her character. One more person wrote, I feel that Luna Lovegood is a really good person. She befriends Harry when he's feeling detached and separated from Ron and Hermione and is on his side from the onset. She's one of the most ride or die characters in the series. Even though Hermione could be rude to her frequently, Luna still comforted her when Ron was bullying her during six sixth year. That makes her a good person. And I think that this is the thing that is undeniable about Luna. Her intentions are always, seemingly always on the right side, right? Like she is a person who has such a strong moral compass and despite the fact that she kind of sometimes doesn't know how to read the room, she always knows how to read the person. She always is there to offer what she can to the best of her ability. And I think that, you know, there's something to be said about that, right? Like there are some people who may withhold certain emotions for the sake of trying to kind of vibe with the space that they're in. And Luna, you know, is we often like, you know, cast her as being spacey and being kind of all over the place. But the reality is, is that she always is aware when someone needs support and is always there to offer it to them, despite the fact that she can kind of be all over the place. And she is a Person who, like, doesn't necessarily require reciprocity, which I think is not necessarily always the healthiest thing. But I also think that when you grow up in a space where you feel like you don't receive it, it doesn't necessarily negate your ability to give what people need. And I think that I look at Luna and I say, girl, when you turn 20, you gotta stop that, because that's a recipe for disaster. But I love it for her in this moment because I think what she can also see is that some people just haven't developed the capacity, which isn't to say that they won't. But I think that even again, the quote at the very beginning, right, where she's like, ron can be very funny, but he can also be unkind. I think she has this ability to kind of see beyond facades and to see beyond, you know, what people are presenting to the world and see a truth. And I think she uses that truth as a way to be able to kind of assess what to give a person. Maybe it's why she can see Nargles, right? Like, she's looking past the veil, right? She's looking past what people are able to or what people try to present. And she says, no, no, no, no, no. I see you, right? Like, and there's something about that, right? Like, when we think about what it takes for people to be able to see thestrals, right? And to kind of see beyond the veil of life and death, to see these creatures. I think that Luna also has this kind of, like, for lack of a better term, this kind of third eye, to be able to really get down to the nitty gritty of who she believes people are. And I think Luna is a person who's like, you know, I believe what you show me, and then I take it a step further by, like, looking past what is being shown and really getting down to the nitty gritty. And I think that that's what makes people uncomfortable, right? Like, the truth of it is that Luna can see past what people are hiding. Hiding. But the thing that makes her such a good person is that she doesn't exploit that. She doesn't try to use it against someone. She doesn't use it as fodder for bullying or for trying to make people feel bad about themselves. She uses it as a means by which to be able to support these people. And again, even people who cannot give her the thing that she's offering, she still does it. And so I think that one of the things that makes her so special is her ability to really just. Just see people for who they are and not for who they want to be or who other people want them to be. She has such a knack at just being like, I see that you're struggling, Harry, and I'm going to be here for you. Even though you're trying to pass it off as strength, you're trying to pass it off as nonchalant, you're trying to pass it off as like, you know, just hyper individualism. I see you and I recognize that you need someone and I'm going to be that someone for you. And maybe right now in this moment, you can't be that someone for me, but I have a firm belief that you can be. And we find that he rises to the occasion in that way. And I think that there's something really, really amazing about the faith that she seemingly has in people, that she plants the seeds with her actions in hopes that it grows into them so that she can receive it back. But I don't think it's an expectation. And again, there are moments and places and spaces where, like, not having the reciprocity is not great. But I think Luna has faith that she'll get it at some point and that's what makes her such an amazing person. Is Luna Lovegood a good daughter? About 94% of us said yes and 6% of us said don't know. Someone wrote beyond a shadow of a doubt. This is clear from the first moment we meet her on the train. The moment that Ron says something negative about the Quibbler, she defends her father and his business. She also goes out of her way to spend time with him and him with her. Xenophilias so clearly treasures her beyond all reason too. And as someone who has a strong father child type bond with my dad, I saw a lot of me and my own father reflected at me through them. Someone else wrote, she is a good daughter who stands up for her father even in the face of ridicule, and clearly loves both her parents very much. She copes well with having lost her mother at a young age and I feel has taken taken on somewhat of a caregiver role towards her father. Someone else wrote, I love her relationship with Xeno, which I'm obsessed with as a nickname for Xenophilius, and the way that she unashamedly embraces his quirkiness. This, for me, is what I think makes Luna such a good daughter. It's like as a child, you're so inclined to want to create distance between you and Your parents, particularly when your parent is someone who is fairly well known because people know what the Quibbler is and they know that it's kind of some sort of, like, periodical that is not reputable. And she still, like, buys into the politic of the Quibbler and her dad. She still wants people to know who she is, and she is not afraid to be seen with him. We see her at the wedding of Fleur and Bill together. Like, she likes her father and she doesn't care what other people think about him or her. She doesn't care how it's reflected on her. She's very bought in. And I wonder, you know, if that is just the byproduct of being a child who lost a parent, so that, you know, her and Xenophilius are all each other have. And she's very invested in maintaining that relationship. And I think part of this kind of caregiver role that some of you pointed out in your survey responses, I think comes in the form of her being both, like, what he needs in a person, like, in a companion, in a friend. Right. And also still being someone who is dependent on him. Right. Like, we know that she. He is someone who obviously still needs a support, and we know that the relationship is one that, you know, Xenophilis cares a great deal for Luna. But I also think that Luna, you know, takes care of him and creates a level of kind of companionship. And it kind of reminds me a bit of, like, what Arthur Weasley would want from his kids. Right. Like we talked about in the Arthur Weasley episode, that he's what we would call a parent. P E E R E N T And I feel like that's the relationship that Luna and Xenophilius have, where it's both one of deep friendship and also parental. And I think it's traversed in ways that I feel are, like, healthy, but also really meaningful. And I just. I think that there's such an intentionality behind the way that Luna engages with her dad and the way that he engages with her. And their relationship strikes me as one that is so amicable and that it kind of transcends even the kind of traditionally understood relationship between a teenager and their parent in that Luna is not ashamed. She doesn't mind being seen with him, and she cares about him and, you know, wants people to know that they are associated with one another, even though people think he's crazy. And I think that that is, like, really beautiful and such a testament to the kind of child that she is. To him, is Luna Lovegood a good Ravenclaw? 90.6% of us said yes, 4% said no, and 6% said don't know. Someone wrote, luna is a good Ravenclaw. She's not like a lot of the other members of our house that we meet, but she's clearly intelligent. And I think, more importantly, she's very curious. No idea is too strange not to be seriously investigated. I think that is really at the heart of being a good Ravenclaw. Someone else wrote, I think she thinks about things from a standpoint of intellectual curiosity and with an open mind. She also isn't afraid to fight for her beliefs, thus good. And one more person wrote, I'm not sure if she's a good Ravenclaw because we haven't really discussed what a good Ravenclaw is. Someone who values knowledge over everything, someone who thinks outside of the box, someone who uses wisdom for good. I lean towards saying she is a good Ravenclaw because I do think she thinks outside of the box, which is the main thing most scholars are known for. Now, this is interesting, right, because we haven't really spent a considerable amount of time with Ravenclaw. Someone brought to my attention the fact that Barty Crouch Jr. Was a Ravenclaw, but we didn't really talk about that. We didn't talk about, you know, his Ravenclaw nest. We talked about his intelligence and what that meant for kind of being a good child, but we didn't talk about his connection to our understanding of intelligence and Ravenclaw house. And so this is the first time that we're really diving into what it means to be a good Ravenclaw. And it strikes me that, you know, there are lots of ways for us to think about curiosity and think about intelligence and the relationship between the two of those things. And I brought this up in a post that, that I made on Instagram once about kind of the way that we understand intellect tends to be very specific and factually based. And many people push back on this idea, which I appreciate, because chaos. And also because I think it's true, right, that there is a spectrum of understanding about what it means to be intellectually minded and what it means to be someone who is smart. And we have a lot of examples of that in these books, right? And I think the person who, you know, tends to be the poster child for what I think people on average would consider to be Ravenclaw is Hermione, ironically, right, in that she's outrageously intelligent. She is so curious. She's Always reading books. But we also see this level of closed mindedness that comes from her when it comes to things that kind of operate outside of the space that she has created that she believes defines what is right, what is factual. And that's a space where we then see her and Luna kind of butt heads with one another, right? Because Luna is, you know, the world is her oyster. And so I think that that might lead some, many of us to think that she and Hermione are kind of very different from one another in this regard. And I think there's truth to that. But one thing about Luna that I think often gives me a bit of pause and I might get in trouble for this. So if you're not really open to this, this kind of conversation where I, I offer just a little bit of a critique of Luna, then skip ahead. I think the thing about Hermione, right, is that she doesn't, she's very clear about what is true and what is not. And I think so is Luna just on the other end of the spectrum, right? And the thing about that, that gives me pause about Luna is that I think, you know, her beliefs while quirky and eccentric trick, she's not very open to kind of updating them with facts. If she believes it's true, then she believes that that is it. And I think it gives me pause because I think that that can be easily corrupted. I think we live in a world right now where kind of, you know, fake news is a thing. And I think as I consider a lot of the things that she believes, like some of them are fairly innocuous but we can also imagine a world where like a Luna is led astray. And I think particularly of a moment that doesn't involve Luna specifically, but it does involve Xenophilius. And it makes me kind of think about what the implications are for Luna. And that's the moment in Deathly Hallows when Hermione is telling Xenophilius that he has an, a rumpent horn in his house and that it's a very, very dangerous thing. And he's like that's not what that is. And she's like vehemently saying no, it is an arumpit horn and you need to kind of be careful around that. And it ultimately turns out to be an arumpit horn. And she uses, uses it to kind of cause this mayhem and distraction so that she ran and Hermione can get away from Xenophilius's house when the Death Eaters come to call. And I think that there is something to be said about being intellectually curious and something to be said about recognizing a spectrum or a plethora of facts and information. But I also think that there is a danger in being so anti establishment, perhaps maybe that's not the right word, but anti conventional wisdom that it leads you down a path that could potentially be dangerous. Dangerous for you, dangerous for the people that you care about. It could take you down a path that is so kind of unfounded that you don't really realize what is true and what is not. And it's difficult to get yourself out of it. And maybe this is just the moment that we're in, in and the fact that we're just surrounded by so much information that is permeating facts and undermining facts that it just makes me. And makes my mind go to places that are, like, negative. And I'm not saying that imagination isn't important. I think that it is. And I'm not saying that, you know, Luna is someone who is dangerous, but I am saying that there are moments where she's presented with truth and she rejects it under the auspices that, like, that's just not what she believes. And I think that there's something to be said about holding truth, holding fast to your truth, but, like, you can also see how that can lead us to a place where it's dangerous and it is potentially problematic on a number of dimensions. And so I think, as I think about, you know, what it means to be a good Ravenclaw, I think my sense of Luna is there is a space that she occupies that is outrageously large and is. Is filled with imagination and whimsy. But then there's also this, like, dark corner that I think is, like, has the potential to be problematic. And I think that that is also true for the other person on the other end of the spectrum who also holds very fast to her beliefs in Hermione and that, you know, when we get to the point in Deathly Hallows where she's presented with the Deathly Hallows, the construct, she rejects it immediately under the auspices that, like, it's not real and that. That she just rejects it without even entertaining the idea that there is a potential that these things could be true. And even though in History of Magic she learned about the Elder Wand, she still was the very one to be like, I don't care. It doesn't matter. And so we can see on both ends of the spectrum, whether it be one that lives in a world of completely concretized fact or another One that lives in a world of whimsy and nargles, right? That there is this dark side to intelligence that can lead you down a path where even the smartest people can be led astray. And to me, Luna kind of complicates the notion of what it is to be a good Ravenclaw, not only because she comes at things differently and kind of thinks outside of the box, but because sometimes she rejects truth and she rejects actual fact. And to me, you know, intelligence and curiosity is all in pursuit of information. And sometimes that information isn't factual, but you have to know what the facts are before you can kind of move into a world that is imagined. And it just gives me pause sometimes because I'm like, girl, like, you know, what about all the armpit horns in your life where you are just rejecting them, and yet you are in a very precarious situation and you aren't recognizing things for what they are because you simply don't want it to. You don't want to believe that it is because you believe it's something else. And that is the one thing that gives me pause about Luna sometimes, is because I think that sometimes it is okay to believe the conventional wisdom. It's okay to question it, to. To try and get more information about it, but to sometimes outright rejecting things that are, you know, vehemently and kind of undeniably true can be more dangerous than it is good and be more foolish than it is intellectual. Is Luna Lovegood a good pure blood? About 39% of us said yes. About 30% of us said no, and 31% of us said don't. No. Now, I have to preface this by saying that when I originally wrote the question, I wrote, based on everything we've discussed thus far, would you say that Luna is a. Luna Lovegood is a pure blood? Also, that question's written terribly. Would you say that is Luna? Oh, my God. That's part of the problem. When they. When you learn. When you learn about survey methodology, you're supposed to, like, really edit your questions, and I didn't. And so it's my fault. It's also my fault that for the entirety of. Of this podcast, all 22 episodes that precede this one, I've asked a very specific question, and that's what you all know. And so you all ask the question, is she a good pure blood? And not is she a pureblood? Which was the question that I meant to ask. And that's my fault as well, because I didn't do a good enough job prefacing the question. But that's okay because we're still gonna get into that particular question when I do my reflection. But to answer this question, which you all did and like in tandem, right, like you all said, this is a typo. We know what meant and that is my bad. And so I appreciate it. You all are such great students. 100 points to all your respective houses. Someone wrote, like is she a quote unquote good pure blood in the sense that she is fighting for her friends and thus fighting for people with less societal power than her. I think of her in the same group as Neville and Ginny in going to the ministry and leading the resistance in her sixth year when Hogwarts was being run by Death East Eaters. Someone else wrote she doesn't uphold the pureblood supremacy ideals. I say she is not a good pureblood. She actively tries to dismantle the system in small ways with her father and the Quibbler before Harry is even in the picture. And someone else wrote I actually changed my answer as I started writing this. I don't think Luna is a good Pureblood and I'll say what changed for me? Pureblood hierarchy of oppression looks sort of like a pyramid to me. Me. Luna's sense of curiosity and want to gain knowledge and share it I think prevents her from being a good pureblood in a lot of ways. A good Pureblood seeks only to uplift other Purebloods and Luna prizes her relationship with both her non pureblood friends and with magical creatures of the world too much for me to consider her to be a quote unquote good pureblood. I think that this feels right to me. If we think about, if we accept the premise that Luna is a pureblood, then it is so clear to me that she is certainly one who is not bought into the structure of pure blood supremacy as we get to see it exhibited by certain people like the Malfoys, like Bellatrix Lestrange, like, you know, Regulus Black and his family save Sirius, like that. There are all of these instances where Luna is seemingly standing against the grain and that both she and Xenophilius are operating from a space of we are not like the rest of you people and we believe in, you know, the sanctity of known bites and we believe in all of these things that may seem silly to you but hold meaning for us and also require us in a lot of ways to dispel with very, very strict and apparent supremacist ideology because there's no way that you operate from this space of being supremacist and hold some of the views that she holds and believe some of the things that she and her father believe. And so I think that it is fair for us to say that Luna is not a good pure blood supremacist and that in that way, I think she operates from a very unique space that we don't really see any of these other pure bloods operating from. And I think part of that is because of the kind of quirkiness, the uniqueness that she and Xenophilius have, that they just don't have the same kind of political beliefs as really anyone in the magical world. They just are operating with their own kind of political and social paradigm at work in their space. And that does not include supremacy. And so I agree with the assessment that she is not a good pureblood and that she's not upholding the hierarchy. And again, we'll get to the idea of whether or not she's actually a pureblood. And if there's any evidence in the books themselves that might point us in the direction of whether she is or not. Because remember, we don't know. We have no idea. But there are always signs. What does Dumbledore say? He's like, you know, magic always leaves traces. And so we're going to get into that because I do think that it's an interesting question for us to think about as we consider, you know, what does it mean to be a pureblood in this society? And kind of, how do you know one if they don't tell you, you. And so we're going to get into that, but not right now. Suffice it to say, Luna is not a good pure blood by my estimation. If you said she was, I love that for you. Remember, I'm not interested in trying to convince you. By my estimation, she's not a good one. Is Luna Lovegood a hero? About 83% of us said yes, 8% of us said no, and about 9% of us said don't know. Someone wrote she took beatings and torture and she represented what everyday heroism could look like, standing out and being loony for thinking and looking different. Luna is goals. Someone else wrote hero. Yep. She puts herself in harm's way with no personal stakes in the matter in order of the Phoenix. And like Neville, I'm pretty certain she is unaware of Sirius and innocence. And then I'll add the kind of post parenthetical and still goes and tries to be there and help Harry. Someone else wrote, I would say yes, Luna is a hero, even after being held in captivity for months by Death Eaters, she still returned to Hogwarts for the final battle. With the amount of trauma that she'd been through, it would have been understandable if she wanted to sit it out. But instead, she chose to be incredibly brave and do what she could to help until the end. Here's the thing. If Luna did nothing else other than go with Harry to the Department of Mysteries, she would have been a hero. What she did there was nothing short of heroic. And I think, honestly, like, even just navigating her everyday life as someone who is on the outside of what is conventionally accepted feels heroic to me. And maybe not on the same scale as, you know, fighting Voldemort or. But like, it is really, really brave to be oneself in a space where oneself is not accepted. So I'm going to start there. Some of us were drawing on actual acts of bravery and heroism in terms of fighting evil, like she did in the Department of Mysteries, like she did fighting in the Final battle, simply going back to Hogwarts after being held captive. I think that it feels undeniable to me that Luna is a hero. I think that she is one of the main heroes in this text because of what she does in those moments, right? What she does in the Department of Mysteries and standing up against grown wizard people. The fact that she, again, like, was pointed out in the comment that I read, is willing to be at Hogwarts and fight with Neville and Ginny against the Carrows and all the other Death Eater teachers and then. Then gets captured and then goes back and is willing to kind of still put her life on the line. It is remarkable to me because I think personally I could understand her being like y'all, especially aft post capture. I already know what the dark side of this looks like and I'm uninterested in trying to figure this thing out. Like, I don't want it, I don't need it. I already did my due. It's why I got captured in the first place. But she doesn't make that choice. Choice. She decides that she's going to stand firm in what she believes and stand aside alongside her friends. And that to me speaks volumes about who she is as a person. And the fact that, like, her quirkiness and her eccentricities and all her uniqueness don't stand in the face of that. Right? Like it all exists in the same space. And that she is able to kind of reconcile the fact that she is defending people who bully her, she is defending children who maligned her, who stole her clothes and her shoes and hid them. And she still is the person who is willing to go out there and fight for them. And this goes back to what I was talking about at the beginning, right? About Luna being someone who doesn't require reciprocity to do good. She doesn't require the promise that you would do the same thing for her to do it for you. And I think that there's something outlandishly heroic about that because it's not transactional. It is this kind of like firm belief in the people who you surround yourself with or who you are around that, like, when the time comes to do what is right, they will do it. And even if they don't, you will. And that kind of moral compass and that kind of moral fortitude is, if nothing else, in a world that is being torn asunder by all kinds of things, things that incentivize not being that way, that is heroic to me on top of all of the other physical acts of heroism that she engages in throughout these books. That particular belief and that particular desire to do good, even not only when you don't have to, but when you don't know what the outcome is going to be for you, speaks volumes about who she is as a person. And so, yeah, yeah, Luna is giving. It's giving hera all day long. Is Luna Lovegood a good friend? 98.6% of us said yes, 0.8 said no, and 0.6% said don't know. Someone wrote. I think Luna is one of the truly good characters we have in this series. She stands up for what is right and her friends without question. Which, given most people that we meet not being true friends to her until much later in the series, this was truly nice of her. When people bully or pick on her, she just shrugs it off and moves forward. Couldn't be me. Same. Which leads me into how she is such a good friend. When the trio sees the mural she painted I could cry. She loves so hard even if it's not obvious obvious in her personality or social cues. She helps at every turn. She does not judge and she is always understanding. She sees past their flaws. What more could one want from a friend? Someone else wrote, Luna is so much like Neville and that they are both so completely good people. She understands being excluded and having people look down on her for being odd, which makes her welcoming and such a good friend when it could have gone the other way way someone else wrote. I believe Luna represents the kind of friend everyone wants to be and perhaps Thinks they are, on their best day, unrelentingly positive, accepting, creative and emotionally constant to those she loves. Likely to strangers too, y'all. I think the thing about Luna is that again, she doesn't really require people to evidence there the way they feel about her, right? So like we see in Deathly Hallows when they go to Luna and Zenith and Lisa's house that she's made this mural and she's got the word friends written out. And the only person who I think really shows her true friendship, particularly from the Golden Trio, is Harry. Ron and Hermione are not great friends to her, if we would call them friends at all. I think that she, that they, you know, both kind of see Luna as someone that they know, maybe an acquaintance. But Harry is the only person who actively makes a point to like, include her in things like the Slughorn party, Christmas party. And I think that, you know, again, Luna doesn't, she doesn't require any evidence from Ronna, Hermione. She's like, these are my friends. And I don't know if it's because she's not used to having very many friends because she's so used to being bullied, which in and of itself is like, sad. But I also do think that even if that's the case, the fact that she is able to again, have faith that these people will be her friend and ultimately they do come and they do save her. And I think she's just like, I don't have to figure out how I feel about you. You have to figure out how you feel about me. And I've arrived at where I'm at. We are friends and I'm going to be your friend. I'm going to be there for you, Hermione, when Ron is making fun of you. And I'm going to be the one to support you. I'm going to be the one, Ron, who's going to call you out on your BS because you can be mean sometimes. I'm going to be that person and I don't necessarily need you to be that for me. And I think we see Harry really making a point to be like, hey, you know, we are friends. And it's partially because of the way that she treats him. Even when he has done nothing to deserve her friendship. In Order of the Phoenix, she's still a friend to him and becomes even more so as the books develop, develop. And I think, you know, I like this line of like, you know, Luna is the kind of friend that everyone wants to be or thinks they are on their best day. Because I think the other thing about Luna is that she doesn't miss. She's always present. She's always there. She's always willing to be, like, there for a friend. And, you know, I don't know about y'all, but there are days where I just. I don't have that. I don't have the bandwidth to be able to be that kind of friend every single day. And we know that Ron and Harry and Hermione can't be those people for each other, right? Like, they all miss the mark in one way or another throughout the series. And I think that, you know, it's so nice to have this kind of solidity that is Luna Lovegood and also a picture of what it looks like and what the recipe is. Like, what's the formula to get us to a place where we can be, like, a Luna Lovegood and be present for people when they need. Need it without, you know, any kind of baggage of our own? Because that's the other thing. Like, Luna doesn't really bring a lot of her own stuff with her when it comes to being her people's friends. She comes as she is, and it seems like she seems like she's dealt with it or she's dealing with in a way that doesn't require her to either kind of rely on other people. And maybe that's just the isolation that comes along with being bullied, and she's been able to take those feelings and kind of funnel them into something positive. But whatever it is, Luna has figured out a way to be present and to be there for her friends in ways that they absolutely cannot be there for her. And they all have to rise to the occasion and rise to meet her where she is. And there is something so incredible about that, because honestly, y'all, they don't deserve it. They do not deserve it. And yet they still get it, because that's the kind of person that Luna is. And I think, going back to that comment, may we all be the kind of friend that Loona is to people so that we can attract the Loonas into our own life. Now is the time in the episode where I reflect on Loona. As I said earlier in the episode, we don't know whether or not Luna is a pureblood. We can make assumptions, but we actually don't know. And that was kind of the thing that was giving me pause when many people were like, we need to do Luna. We need to do Luna. Because I'm like, well, we don't really Know, the text doesn't really give us any explicit mention of her or her father's blood status. You know, there's a lot of conjecture in the fandom about, you know, who she's related to and all of these things, but we actually have no idea. There's nothing in the text. And if you go and look at any of the wikis, we don't know. If you go and look at the Wizarding World website, they don't explain anything to us either. So we actually have no idea where Luna sits within the Wizarding hierarchy. But I do think that there are, like, little crumbs that might be able to help us really understand the fact that Luna is a pureblood. I think the chief thing is that you don't get to be someone who has the eccentricities and uniqueness and quirkiness that she and her father have, have, and to be able to exist in a world without much concern or care, without having an immense amount of privilege. And I say that not to say that she doesn't, you know, get bullied and things of that nature, but, you know, the fact that the Quibbler gets to be something that the Ministry of Magic hasn't just shut down for its propaganda. I'm not convinced that the magical world has freedom of press. I don't believe that they have freedom of expression. I think that, you know, we see Cornelius Fudge take the Daily Prophet and use. Use it and wield it in very specific ways to both kind of operate in a space to defame Harry at certain points. We see that when Voldemort takes over the Daily Prop, it begins to kind of peddle all kinds of propaganda as well. So it's very clear that the government plays a very large role in the way that the media works. And so the fact that the Quibbler exists the way that it does and is kind of running roughshod over all of the facts and truths that are out in the world tells us a very specific kind of story about who they are. And the fact that they feel so comfortable, they have no fear, they have no concern about being seen a very particular way in a society that operates with a level of rigidity also suggests to me that there is a privileged understanding of who they are and what they are able to get away with. And the things that they can and cannot, or not even can and cannot, but do and do not need to worry about. And there's a certain kind of privilege that comes along with that, particularly when you're at the top of that Hierarchy, Right. Like we know that Arthur Weasley has this very kind of quirky obsession fetish with Muggle things, right? And everybody knows it. And he was punished by Cornelius Fudge for it, but that punishment just meant that he was working at a kind of not so powerful portion of the Ministry of Magic, right? He still gets the benefits of being seen as an acceptable person within wizarding society. He gets to go out. He's maligned by pure blood supremacists, yes, but he's still a pure blood person who gets to reap the benefits. And I think that the Lovegoods operate in a very specific and similar space as the Weasleys in this regard. And so it strikes me that kind of Luna's relatively like laissez faire notion and understanding of herself comes from the idea of, like, being socialized in a space where she has nothing to prove, she has nothing to worry about. Her father gets to allow her to be that person and that to be able to have that particular outlook and go to a place like Hogwarts and experience the bullying that she, that she experiences is very much about her own fortitude as a person. But it also speaks to us about the fact that, like, her lack of concern about, like, being normal or being seen as someone like that, that tells us that, like, she was socialized in a space where it was like, baby girl, you don't have to worry about any of that. And that's privilege. And I think when we think about who's privileged in the magical society, it's pure bloods. And so that, to me, points to the likelihood that she probably is a pureblood. And then I also think that what we see from her when she's at Hogwarts or even when she's at Hogwarts, and then when she's captured, right? The fact that she's in league with two other pure blood people who recognize that their blood status keeps them safe tells us a story about whether or not she's pure blood. And then when she's captured, she's not killed. She may have been tortured, she may have been beat up, she may have been bloodied, but she's not killed. And I think that that also tells us a story about who she is and where she sits in the hierarchy that they had taken her just to stop Xenophilis Lovegood from publishing what he was publishing in the Quibbler, and the punishment for him wasn't even going to be death, right? And there is again, they're operating from this space and we know that at that particular time in the series, the people who are the safest are Purebloods. And those are the ones who are. Who feel comfortable leveraging their privilege to be able to get the word out about who is running things at the Ministry. The fact that Voldemort is back, the fact that Death Eaters are out here, you know, doing anything and everything. And so that I think, more than anything, I think that what we are able to see is that, you know, Xenophilius and Luna recognize, you know, the privileges that they have to be where they are in the societal hierarchy. And they use it, and they make good use of it when it matters. And I think that, you know, when you're in a hierarchy like the one that exists in the magical world wherein, you know, Muggle borns are really just trying so hard to fit in and so are Half Bloods. When we look at Voldemort, when we look at Snape, when we look at Harry, we can see that there is such a desire to be a part of this world, even though you have a magical parent, that we can assume that because, like, Luna and Xenophilius are so uninterested in even trying to blend in in any capacity that there is a very clear understanding of who they are and what that means in terms of where they sit in the social hierarchy. And to me, that means that they are most likely Pure Bloods. Like, I am, like, 99.9999-9999-997% positive that they're Pure Bloods based on the evidence presented. But I'm very interested in hearing what you all think, because we don't know. And so I think that you all were right and we should have included her. And so I'm glad that we did. And now I'm interested in hearing your thoughts on whether or not you think she's a Pure Blood and why you think she's Pure Blood, y'all. We did it. We had our Luna Lovegood episode. And I think this episode just really made me fall even more in love with Luna because of who she is and the way that she operates. And I think that even with some of the critique that I leverage, like, there's just no denying what an incredible character she is. And I just love that she gives a voice to people who don't necessarily always feel accepted and seen. And so thank you all so much for the push. I appreciate it. This is why democracy is always not. Is a good thing. Okay? And I really appreciate you all for giving me the push to make this thing happen. 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, do all the things that one does where pods are cast. Like I said, we're going on a break into the new year. Okay, but remember, we have merch now, so it's your, your job to go and get that merch. Okay, hold on, we gotta bop a little bit. One, two. We're bopping. It's a holiday. Please feel free to join us for our post episode chat on patreon@patreon.com criticalmagictheory. It's gonna be a good time. I expect everyone have a wonderful holiday and a very happy new year. Until then, be critical and stay magical, my friends. Bye.