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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 am Professor Julian Womble and today I am responding to the post episode chat on the Pure Blood Showdown episode and y'all people are very, very, very upset with the results with some of my takes and you all know how that thrills me. And so I am beside myself with excitement to be able to break down some of what you all brought to bear in the conversation on Patreon. I'm so excited that we are going to be able to get a little bit deeper into some of these dynamics before we kind of completely jettison Pure Bloods away. And then in the spirit of transitioning us into our conversation surrounding Voldemort and being a Half Blood and other Half Bloods, I want to end the episode with a bit of a primer for us to kind of have to think about how we understand what it means to be a half blood. We have this conversation going on right now on Patreon about, you know, what it means to be a quote unquote good half blood. And we're divided. We're community divided. Okay? And so I want to get us into having this conversation now so that when we have the episodes on Voldemort and yes, there will be multiple, then we can at least be able to kind of be on a page together. Now, will it be the same page? Maybe not. We'll be in the same book. All right, and that book is Harry Potter. You all get it. You all understood that when you got on to the episode. All right, y'all, I cannot express to you how excited I am because of the chaos that I brought. And you know that that is what I'm all about. And you all, in your responses, did not hold back. And I love that I've created a space where you recognize that that is not a requirement for you. You don't need to hold back. You can go full tilt. And many of you did in conversation with me. Some of you called me out, some of you called me in, some of you pushed me out and said, we've had enough of whatever you're bringing, and I respect all of it. And I've been. I've been vamping right now because you know that no matter what the episode is, we have to bop along to the theme song. And so the time is coming. And so you all need to get ready. You all need to be prepared because it's coming for us in 3, 2, 1. Let's get her done. Hashtag bars. We need to talk about Harry Potter. You know, I really hope you danced because this conversation that we're about to have is going to be one that needs to have some levity to it. I mean, I'm going to bring it because I'm excited about what's happening here. But some of us may feel heavy and weary and laden down. I hope this episode brings a new energy for us. Okay, so I want to start. There are two things that I want to discuss from the kind of post episode chat on Patreon, and then we'll get into kind of our half blood kind of primer discussion. But the first thing that I want to talk about is this conversation surrounding the best and worst parent. Y'all were not pleased with the results, and all I can say is that I'm the messenger. Y'all did the voting, and that's what it is. Right? You know, some of us came and were really upset that Narcissa was the one who was rewarded or awarded best parent. And I think some of us really brought some really interesting things to bear. So I want to read a few things Ms. Bcrafty wrote. I just wanted to comment on Narcissa and let you know that I am shooketh that she ranks as the best mother. Okay. Yes, toward the end, she did a couple of good things to save her son. And yes, those things were a considerable risk to herself. But what about all the years that she was failing Draco as a parent? I think Most of us agree that Draco is the way he is, at least in part because of the way his parents raised him. How can a parent who did such a bad job raising her son be classed as a good parent? If Draco suffered at the hands of his parents, then either Narcissa is responsible or she, quote unquote, enabled Lucious and never did anything to protect her son from his abusive father. Unless, of course, she was a model parent and Draco became the way he was, all by his own pretty self. I'm seriously disappointed that this entitled, bigoted woman should take out the Best Mother Award over a mother who actually did the hard yards, parenting a whole family of kids and raising them to be mostly decent human beings. I think she's talking about Molly Weasley. Carolina wrote, when it comes to the Best Parent Award, I can totally understand why people say that the Malfoys. It is the Malfoys that are the better parents. But I also can see why people would say it's the Weasleys. Surprisingly enough, I feel that between the Malfoys and the Weasleys, if we didn't have Voldevee around, and even with him, it is the former that would end up being the most supportive towards their child no matter what. But it could also be interesting to consider if the Malfoys are okay with supporting Draco no matter what because they know that he won't change the pure blood belief system, whereas the Weasleys are more likely to allow their children to have their own beliefs, even if they don't fully and personally align with it. See Percy and the ministry. Cassie wrote. Love that the Best Parent Award is causing so much discourse, so I'm down to bring more chaos. My queen. Narcissa is the best mom. And honestly, I'm shocked that Lucious is so far down the list. And I think he should actually go above Molly and Arthur. Now. Cassie, not this. There, I said it. That's what she wrote. Barty Crouch Sr. Can take that bottom spot like the vermin he is. I 1,000% agree. And it is. I will caveat this. It is my fault that Barty Crouch Sr. Did not have a question about him being a good parent. It's my B. I didn't put it in and I should have. So anyways, back to Cassie. Now. Are the Malfoys good people? Meh, not really. Are they raising an entitled prick of a son? Yeah. But are they bringing him up to be confident, competent and operate smoothly in a world built around pure blood ideations? Also, yes. Are they there for him? Validate his feelings and support his dreams and ambitions? Ambitions. 100%, yes. Do the Weasleys really do any of that? Not really. Especially as you go further down the line of their kids. Okay, I have one more quote and then we'll get into this. Katie wrote, I believe the best parent conclusion is upsetting for some people because the definition of what a good parent is of. Because of the definition of what a good parent is. Yes, their parenting was definitely far from perfect. But the Weasleys wanted to raise decent, contributing humans. The Malfoys were certainly more protective and obsessive over their child's safety, but they also had no qualms about bringing a selfless, narcissistic taker into the world. We are also comparing a family with seven children to a family with one child. Parenting dynamics as well as only child versus multiple. Multiple. I'm not editing that out. Versus a multitude of siblings should be considered. This is a really, really, really good point. Oh, wait, I lied. I want one more. One more quote. Okay. And this is from Will. Narcissa and Lucius are not good parents. Draco is an arrogant bully, a Pure Blood supremacist who wants Muggle Borns dead and eventually a Death Eater. He got that way because of the way his parents raised him. Not just one parent, both. Draco also ends up in danger because his parents chose to associate with Voldemort. Sure, Narcissa wants to help Draco get out of danger, but who put him there in the first place? His parents. At every turn, they made bad decisions, focused more on maintaining their Pure Blood status than raising their son properly. Y'all, I told you there was chaos. I told you there was madness afoot. I told you that things were wild and the ride was going to be crazy. And as you can see from the discourse about these results, I wasn't lying. I didn't tell a white lie. But I think what's so fascinating about this, and I think that everyone brings up really good points, right? We get to see Narcissa make this massive, meaningful and important sacrifice a couple of times, right? We see her in Spinner's End when she tries to get Snape to take on the burden of Draco's task. And then we see it again when she lies to Voldemort. And like I said in the episode, we don't see Molly make that kind of sacrifice. What we do see Molly do is parent her kids in a way that feels familiar to some of us, maybe. And one of the things that I have realized is that for this fandom, it is a lot easier to be a bad person who does a good thing versus a good person who does things that are slightly problematic or questionable. Right. It is a lot easier for us to forgive Narcissa for a lot of what she does or doesn't do when she does one thing or two things that really, seemingly have a massive effect on the way that we view her character. Right. Like, it's a lot easier for us to absolve her than it is to forgive Molly Weasley for being hard on Fred and George because she wants them to succeed the way that she wants them to succeed. Right. And I think that what I've also learned is that the more realistic characters suffer a penalty in the fandom. Right? We are much harder on characters that were like, I recognize you from people in my life. I know who you are, and it bothers me because I'm taking out my frustrations on you. Right? Like, we talked about that in Ron's episode. We've talked about that in Molly's episode. Right? Like, these characters that are much closer to the way that we see people. Right. I think we will have this conversation in a meaningful way in the Umbridge episode. And Narcissa offers us the ability to kind of, like, not have that level of realism. And it also taps into kind of this desire that many people have, both inside and outside the fandom, to find ways to redeem bad people. I think there's this kind of human desire. I don't know that I have it, but a lot of people do, to want to. To make people better. And whenever I've kind of critiqued characters like Draco and been like, I don't know why we as a fandom are so kind of thirsty and hungry to forgive him and absolve him of all of the madness. Many people have said, if we can't forgive him and we can't redeem him, or if he's not redeemable, or if indeed, like, broadly construed people aren't redeemable, then what's the point? And I think that many of us carry this weight of recognizing that there are people who are problematic and we want them to be better. But here's the thing, y'all, and I think that this is really fascinating, and it's something that I've had to learn, is like, we can't want more for people than we want. Than they want for themselves. And I honestly do not believe that Narcissa. I don't think she cares about being. I mean, she wants Draco alive, but I don't think that she cares about being seen as a good parent to other people. She's like, I just want my kid alive. And that's reasonable, but that's no different than Molly. Molly wants her kids alive, but you know what she does that Narcissa's not willing to do. And I've said this both in the bonus episode I did on Patreon for Mother's Day last year, and I said it in the last episode as well. She lets her kids fight in the battle. She tries to stop Jenny and realizes that she can't. She literally sacrifices her children for the sake of the greater good in a way that Narcissa would never and does not. Right. Like, Narcissa is trying to get her kids. Get her kids, her kid, her child. Her singular child, and leave. And I said that in Draco's episode. You know, they're not fighting against, you know, the powers that be to try to change the system. They just want to go home. They just want to be out. And I think that that's really important for us to consider and really important for us to remember. And, like, I think what we have in this moment is the reality that a lot of us in the fandom have to grapple with, which is we really, really, really want our bad people to be good. And all we need is a glimmer of shining light, and we're like, oh, yeah, that's right. Right. And I don't know what that is. Right. Like, I don't know the psychology behind that particular desire. But I think that what the outcome is is that our good characters, who are flawed and human in ways that are relatable, suffer a penalty, a big one, in a way that your Narcissa's don't, in a way that your Dracos don't. And I find it fascinating, right, because when you look at the parallels of Narcissa, you have Molly and the parallel to Draco as Ron, and those are two of the characters that we talked about in our pureblood deep dives that really suffered a penalty in a lot of ways. And so it's fascinating to me because I think that it just drives home the point of how hard it is to be a good character who is not infallible. Unless you're Hermione, in which case we don't care about your flaws because you're our queen and you can get away with everything. And that's not me. That's y'all who said that? Okay, that's y'all who said that. But I do think that what this opens up for us is this reality of what it means to be a good person, a good character who is flawed, who makes mistakes, who may not be the kind of parent who you want them to be to your favorite characters or to the character that you don't even like that much, but is literally bringing the best that they have. And when we don't even get to see Narcissa be a mom, we only have these few moments we hold onto them so tight and we punish Molly. And I don't know how fair that is, but what I do know is that it is a very unfair comparison to be able to lead them to. And it also just highlights this particular reality about what it means to be a good character in this fandom. The next big snafu that came up in our post episode chat conversation is brought to us by Nadia, who wrote professor, what does Barty Crouch Jr have to do to have you acknowledge that he was not a good son? The question does not ask whether his actions were justified or not. And I feel that your completely justified hatred of Barty Crouch Sr. Is clouding your judgment of Barty Crouch Jr. He went to the band at 19, I believe. Even before he had been exposed to dementors and the Imperious Curse, he joined the Death Eater cult and joined in the torture of the Longbottoms. Emma wrote, Barty Crouch Jr. Getting worse son feels so unfair. Is it possible to be a good son to Barty Crouch Sr. Barty got 12 owls and it still wasn't enough to make his dad care about him. I'm just going to say that he deserved to kill his dad. Senior deserved Worst Parent Award. How bad do you have to be where having Voldy as a father figure is better to know Tom Riddle Jr. Is only in it for himself. So, like, if a few kind words are enough to make a kid fold and follow a death cult, whose fault is it really? I'm not trying to take his agency away from him. I'm saying there's another reason he got there and that blame should be laid right on the doorstep of his father. Okay, all right. So it's interesting because both of these discourses are about people, parents and children. And I think what's interesting here, right, is that when we look at Draco and we think and ask ourselves questions about how he ended up, where he ended up, we look to Narcissa and we look to Lucius and We say, as people pointed out before, how is it that you end up with a child like this and you could still be considered a good parent? So my thing when it comes to Barty Crouch Jr. Is that yes, he killed his father and yes, that is terrible. But. And yes, he went to the band and yes, he played a part in the torturing of the Longbottoms. He is not a good person. And I don't want anyone to be confused about my stance on that particular reality. Barty Crouch Jr. Is not a good person. Right. He is simply not one. But I also do think that we aren't made to believe that he is a good person. And here's the other thing. We, many of us, many of us literally said that Narcissa was a good mom when we know that she sat there next to Lucius the whole time and was allowing Draco. Cause here's the thing, she didn't care what Draco was going to do. She didn't care that it was Dumbledore. She just didn't want it to be Draco. She said, snape, come here and do this right. She's not a good person. But you all will say that she's a good mom. She is a terrible person. She's a pure blood supremacist through and through from a family of pure blood supremacists through and through. The moments that she did these things do not take away from that particular reality. She's a bad person. Huh? And in that same way I'm like, yeah, Barty Crouch Jr. Is a bad person. He is not a good person. What he did and what he was involved in was terrible. But do those things make him a bad son? In this long thread that we had on the post episode chat, Nadia brought up a really interesting and important point. She writes, by the time he turned his dad into a bone and buried him in the forbidden forest, there is justification for his hatred. And he is a fully fledged psychopath who has reasoned to be deranged. But before the ban, I can't see any argument that he is not responsible for his actions and those actions are reprehensible. He was in control of his faculties and he knew that he would be disowned by his family, but did not care. And I admit my love for Neville probably affects my feelings for Barty Crouch Jr. His life could have been so different. I think all of this can be true and none of that has anything to do with him being a good son to Barty Crouch Sr. Again, that's all him being a bad person. But it has nothing to do with his relationship with his father. It might have affected his father's reputation. It might have affected the way that his father was viewed by the public. But the reality is, and so in that way, maybe he would have been a bad son. But the reality is, as well as he could have been seen as a bad son if he didn't get 12 owls, right? Like, we know that that's something that Barty Crouch Sr. Cared about because when he and his mind are addled we hear him bragging to other people about his son getting those owl. So we know that this is a thing that he cared about. We know that the externalities matter to him. So in reality, anything that wasn't perfection would have served as something that might have embarrassed his father. So if that's the bar that we're using then what he did to the Longbottoms and what he participated in with the Death Eaters is like a crazy high bar because really, it wouldn't have required all of that. What he did with them is hurt. Horrific. I'm going to keep saying it because I don't want anyone to mix up my words but that has very little to do with his relationship with his dad. In the same way that we have been able to somehow divorce what Narcissa is a part of with her being a mother to Draco. Like, those two things are different. And then some of us may say, well, Narcissa, you know, decided not to tell Voldemort the truth. Well, in truth, Barty Crouch Jr. Taught Harry how to fight the Imperious Curse which then helped him defeat Voldemort in the graveyard later on that year. Right? Like, we can go tit for tat if we wanted to. And so I think that part of the journey here for Barty Crouch Jr. And where I'm at is that I have a very clear understanding that he is a bad person. But my understanding of that does not affect the way that I see him and his relationship with his father and everything that he does to his dad is, as Nadia points to in response to the fact that his mind has been addled from years and years and years in Azkaban and then the subsequent decade that he was put under an imperious curse where his mind and his body were not his own. And to me, it's like, how can you be a good son in those conditions? How could you have been a good son before that? Right. It's so hard to even imagine a context in which that would be true. Not me defending Barty Crouch Jr. With my whole chest, but I just feel very strongly about the, like, I want there to be consistency. I'm, you know, I'm very big on keep that same energy. Anyways, I want us to have a conversation about half bloods and a bit of a primer before we really get into our conversation about Voldemort next week. I want us to be very clear on a couple of things, right? So one of the big things that has come up as we have been filling out the ongoing conversation about what it means to be a good half blood is this desire for good half bloods to be able to kind of be a meaningful bridge between the Muggle world and the magical world. And while I understand this particular intuition, I think it's important for us to realize that there are half bloods that have never stepped foot in the Muggle world, right? Because to be a half blood is pretty much a catch all identity. You don't actually have to be, you have to have Muggle blood in you. But like it's like a one drop rule, right? So like during enslavement in the United States, one of the big things that was true was that there was an entire categorization for basically how not white you were. And so what happened was, is like if you had one drop of black blood, you were seen as black. And that is something that is true here in the magical world, right? And so when you are a half blood, if your parents are not both pure bloods or your parents are not both Muggles, you are a half blood. So there are like, I think like nine or ten combinations of parent kind of magical connection that exists that makes a person a half blood. So if both your parents are half blood, you're a half blood. If you have a pureblood parent and a Muggle born parent, you're half blood. If you have a parent who is a half blood and a Muggle born, then you like, you see how all of those gradations make it possible for a person to not be like Harry, right? Where they've not been in a space where they know the Muggle world, right? So it is very possible that a lot of the half bloods that we've talked about are people who have never even had any interactions with the non magical world. So as we think about what it means to be a good half blood, it's, I think it's important for us to remember this particular reality because there's a lot of nuance and a lot of Moving pieces in how we understand who is identified as Half Blood. I once had a student who tried to correct me in class to say that Harry was pureblood because both his parents were magical. And I was like, no, no, no. Because the currency here is not magic. The currency is heritage, right? It's parentage. And so that's what makes being Half Blood. That's why so many of our favorite characters are Half Bloods, because they're not. Many of them are not that far removed and are probably socialized very similarly to Pure Blood people. But some of them are Muggle raised, right? So they may not be Muggle born, but they're Muggle raised. But some of them are not, right? Like, even if having a parent who is in who is, you know, who may be a Muggle, that's a different characterization, right? So Seamus's parentage and understanding is very different than, say, someone else whose mom was not a Muggle and who was a magical person. Who's Muggle born, right? Who is magical and whose dad is a Half Blood, right? Those are two people who are from the magical world, but because of the kind of strictures of the hierarchical system, they. They are not seen as anything but Half Blood. So this is important, right? And someone brought this up as a way to kind of think about characterizing the characters, but that was too hard because it's like, we don't always have all of the background information for some of these characters that we're gonna be talking about in this kind of unit of Half Bloods. But this is an important context for us to have as we think about how it is that people arrive in the magical world and what their relationship is with it. All right, y'all, that's all I have for you today. Namely, because most of the comments in the post episode chat were the rants and raves of people who were shaking their fists at the sky because Narcissa got Best Parent. And I'm totally willing to continue that conversation in this post episode chat because I think it's worthwhile. I also wanted to have a little bit of a conversation about Half Bloods because I want us to kind of try to go in a bit on the same page. So if you have any more questions for clarification on that, like, let's have that conversation because I think it's worth having. And yeah, y'all, this is gonna be a good time as we dive into these Half Bloods. Voldemort is a chaotic choice to begin with. It's gonna be two episodes if you haven't taken the survey, it will be linked in the in the episode summary and it's a moment people are writing essays. I've gotten a friend of mine who is a clinical psychologist to help us really define how we're meant to understand where Tom Riddle and Voldemort are at mentally. So we are getting context, we are getting all of the things and it's going to be such a good time. Thank you all so much for listening to this. Prof. Responds Episode 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, follow, do all the things that one does where pods are cast. If you have any questions, please feel free to reach out to me@criticalmagictheorymail.com if you're interested in getting some merch or you want to kind of get a jump start on some of the other surveys. They're normally posted a little bit earlier. Don't tell anyone on our website@criticalmagictheory.com y'all. I cannot wait for us to begin this half blood journey. It is going to be a time I will see. Well, I won't see you, but you'll hear from me next week. Until then, be critical and stay magical, my friends. Bye.