Prof Responds: Harry Potter & the Unreachable Standard

Summary

Critical Magic Theory: “Prof Responds: Harry Potter & the Unreachable Standard”

Podcast Host: Prof. Julian Womble
Date: June 24, 2026

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Episode Overview

In this dynamic “Prof Responds” episode, Professor Julian Womble and the co-host of Critical Magic Theory tackle listeners’ responses to the previous critical episode on Harry Potter. The duo leans into the idea that criticism does not preclude affection, using Harry as a focal point to dissect expectations, standards, and the blend of extraordinary and ordinary within the character. By engaging directly with listener comments from the post-episode chat, Prof. Womble explores why Harry provokes such impassioned defense and backlash, ultimately suggesting that our approach to Harry reveals as much about ourselves as it does about the Boy Who Lived.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Listener Response & Fandom Dynamics (01:45–05:54)

• The episode opens with acknowledgment of the heated reactions from listeners following the last episode’s critical takes on Harry.
• Memorable Quote:
  “Your response isn’t my business. And to that I say: you’re chaos goblins.”
  — Co-host (02:22)
• Prof. Womble playfully dubs defensive Harry fans “Harry propaganda buyers” but underscores the value in hearing from different perspectives.
• The hosts justify giving Harry “only” two character-dedicated episodes, noting fatigue after lengthier arcs for Dumbledore and Snape (“By the end of the six episode arc... my brain noodle was mush.” — Prof. Womble, 05:28).
• Emphasis on the value of both critique and celebration within fandom.

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2. Theme 1: Harry’s Upbringing, Trauma, and Resilience (12:29–24:07)

• Prof. Womble reads and digests listener comments about how Harry’s early life shapes him.
  • Marshe (14:02): Points to Harry as “a deeply traumatized boy shaped by a brutal environment… But he chooses differently and most importantly, he stays fundamentally good. He doesn’t weaponize his trauma like Voldemort or Snape.”
  • MacKenzie & Charlie: Note the improbability of Harry remaining so well-adjusted given his trauma, and question if he’s too “emotionally well” for what he suffered.
    • “He chooses differently and most importantly, he stays fundamentally good.” (14:09)
  • LL Cool Jean: Pushes back on negative perceptions of Harry’s anger:
    “To have ‘bad’ emotions doesn’t make you a bad person. It makes you human.” (16:00)
• Prof. Womble explores the concept of “adultification” and how society’s “outrageously extraordinary” expectations for Harry parallel the way adult readers assess him—forgetting he is, most of the series, a traumatized boy with limited emotional tools.
  • “Harry, for all of the kind of outlandish things that he gets up to, is, yes, a child, but he is also a boy in a world where having the emotional range of a teaspoon is par for the course for most boys.” (18:41)
• The hosts draw parallels between fandom demands and those imposed by characters like Petunia and Snape, warning against projecting idealized standards onto a fictional child.

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3. Theme 2: The “Unreachable Standard” and Role Models (25:46–35:35)

• Discussion pivots to the impossibility of living up to the standards sometimes set for Harry by readers and by figures within the story (Dumbledore, Sirius, Molly, etc).
  • Kayla: “Harry Potter is not a good person because his thoughts towards some people are not the nicest is a crazy take. I don’t think anyone can be held to that standard.” (25:56)
  • Laurian: “Harry being a bad friend does not necessarily mean it’s his fault… that’s a separate question.” (26:54)
  • Kylie: Highlights how adults around Harry alternately treat him too young or old, but almost never just his age.
• Prof. Womble reflects on their own experiences of having standards unfairly raised and how that shapes personal expectations for Harry:
  “Having the bar raised and having it construed as, ‘Oh, you’re just pushing me,’… is unrealistic, unfair, and problematic.” (29:23)
• The hosts call out how measuring Harry against Hermione as a benchmark for friendship or intelligence sets up unfair comparisons and ignores their vastly different backgrounds.

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4. Theme 3: Actions, Morality, and Socialization (36:38–48:38)

• Listeners challenge Harry’s status as a “good” person by pointing to his (and the narrative’s) uncritical acceptance of fatphobia, wizard supremacy, and house-elf enslavement.
  • Sarah Marie (36:47): “The constant onslaught of fatphobia, wizard supremacy, misogyny, and never questioning enslavement has him squarely in the category of a privileged person who adheres to exceptionalism.”
  • Savannah: Calls out that after defeating Voldemort, Harry “just stops Voldy. The status quo remains.”
• Prof. Womble analyzes both missed opportunities for social critique and the everyday “goodness” Harry performs—in particular, his acts of mercy (sparing Pettigrew, saving Dudley from Dementors).
  • “One of Harry’s, I personally think, fatal flaws is that he’s too good. Like, baby, I’m gonna need you to pull out something other than Expelliarmus when the girls are coming after you.” (40:17)
• The hosts make clear that Harry’s reluctance to challenge the wizarding world’s injustices is reflective of his socialization and priorities—he is more invested in being “good” than being radical.
  • “The incentive structure that Harry has is one that operates in such a way where it’s like, I just brought down the Big Bad. Now you want me to change the entire structure of the world?” (46:04)
  • Noted: Many people don’t recognize their own privileges or societal ills until much older.

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5. Theme 4: Is Harry Potter Extraordinary or Ordinary? (48:56–55:57)

• Responding to their own previous doubts, Prof. Womble presents listeners’ arguments for Harry’s extraordinariness:
  • Jazz (49:22): “Harry is absolutely extraordinary and I will fight you on this. Producing a Corporeal Patronus at 13 is a hill I’m standing on.”
  • Eric: “Not to sound cheesy, but everyone is also extraordinary… Harry is an extraordinary athlete… He is extraordinarily brave, selfless and resilient as well.”
  • Baer & Nadia: Note that Harry’s “average student” status belies his adaptability, especially considering his external pressures. His Quidditch skills are “impressive even to Krum.”
• Prof. Womble reconciles these points, ultimately agreeing that Harry is extraordinary in his own contexts, particularly given what he overcomes:
  • “Maybe I do stand corrected. And maybe I just have to adjust my definition a little bit and meet Harry where he is, and I invite you to do the same.” (55:57)
• Acknowledges the problem with using Hermione or Dumbledore as the only benchmarks for extraordinariness.

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On adultification and idealization:
  “In many ways... we’re kind of doing the thing that Petunia and Snape do in the inverse, right, where they expect the worst of him... and don’t actually take what he brings to bear as an indication of who he is.”
  — Prof. Julian Womble, 21:33

• On Harry’s morality:
  “There’s a way that killing someone never really occurs to Harry, right?... One of Harry’s... fatal flaws is that he’s too good.”
  — Prof. Julian Womble, 39:27 & 40:17

• On the challenge of being a good friend under pressure:
  “We all have things in our lives where priorities shift... Harry’s no different in that regard.”
  — Prof. Julian Womble, 43:05

• On systemic critique (or lack thereof):
  “The incentive structure that Harry has is one that operates in such a way where it’s like, I just brought down the Big Bad. Now you want me to change the entire structure of the world?”
  — Prof. Julian Womble, 46:04

• On comparing Harry to Hermione:
  “When Hermione Jean Granger is our benchmark, then, yeah, it’s going to be much harder for people to arrive at something that feels fair because we’re not meeting people where they are as who they are.”
  — Prof. Julian Womble, 31:35

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Thematic Timestamps

• 01:45 – 05:54 : Fandom firestorms & the messiness of critical love
• 12:29 – 24:07 : Harry’s traumatic upbringing, emotional range, and societal expectations
• 25:46 – 35:35 : Adultification, role model disparities, and unfair benchmarks
• 36:38 – 48:38 : Goodness, flawed systems, and the limits of heroism
• 48:56 – 55:57 : Harry’s extraordinariness—magical skill, character, and reader projection

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Final Thoughts

Prof. Womble closes by challenging both themselves and listeners to meet Harry—indeed, all characters—where they are, not where we wish them to be. The episode credits the role of fandom in keeping critique and affection interwoven, and invites further conversation in the Patreon post-episode chat.

“Maybe I do stand corrected. And maybe I just have to adjust my definition a little bit and meet Harry where he is, and I invite you to do the same.”
— Prof. Julian Womble, 55:57

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Next Episode:
Exploring whether Harry is a true hero and if he has free will.

Join the Conversation:
patreon.com/criticalmagictheory

Transcript

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[Professor Julian Womble]

Welcome to Critical Magic Theory, where we

[Co-host of Critical Magic Theory]

deconstruct the Wizarding World of Harry Potter.

[Professor Julian Womble]

Because loving something doesn't mean we can't be critical of it. I'm Professor Julian Womble and today is

[Co-host of Critical Magic Theory]

our first of two Croft response episodes, y'.

[Professor Julian Womble]

All. You know, I knew, I knew and

[Co-host of Critical Magic Theory]

you knew that some of the takes that were taken in the last episode were going to stoke some flames, get some people upset.

[Professor Julian Womble]

What I didn't expect and what I

[Co-host of Critical Magic Theory]

think is absolutely hilarious is that so many of our hairy detractors did not show up in the Prof. Response. I mean, in the post episode chat

[Professor Julian Womble]

many of us dropped all kinds of

[Co-host of Critical Magic Theory]

incendiary takes and said do it's at what you will. Your response isn't my business. And to that I say you're chaos goblins.

[Professor Julian Womble]

You are chaos goblins and

[Co-host of Critical Magic Theory]

there's something to be said about that. What that is, I don't know.

[Professor Julian Womble]

But I appreciate you stoking the flames

[Co-host of Critical Magic Theory]

because the post episode chat was alight

[Professor Julian Womble]

with Harry defenders coming in and really making their boy proud and saying how dare you? First of all.

[Co-host of Critical Magic Theory]

Secondly Prove it.

[Professor Julian Womble]

And so this episode is going to be a lot of hairy defense, which I'm kind of here for mostly because I know that there were some moments that people weren't pleased with me.

[Co-host of Critical Magic Theory]

And I'm excited that we get to

[Professor Julian Womble]

hear from more people who really do

[Co-host of Critical Magic Theory]

buy into the Harry propaganda. No, I'm joking, I'm joking. Friends, everyone relax. For those people who see Harry as a good friend, a good person, extraordinary,

[Professor Julian Womble]

I think that they're were a lot

[Co-host of Critical Magic Theory]

of really amazing points made.

[Professor Julian Womble]

I will say that for the detractors, if you're going to come with hot takes, you've got to be prepared to defend your take. So if you're going to do it, I want to see you in the post episode chat. Talking that talk, walking that walk.

[Co-host of Critical Magic Theory]

Because I like chaos coming to the end. I think we're done with Gemini season now. So the chaos of it all is ebbed. But I'm still a Gemini and so the chaos lives inside me. It lives in me. If you don't know that. Lion King 2, also Lion King on Broadway. But anyways, that's neither here nor there. Thank you all so much for your engagement with the last episode, with the comments on Spotify, with the comments in the post episode chat on Patreon. I'm excited for this episode. So excited that I actually decided to forego doing a formal reflection so that we could have an extra theme so that we could really get into the nitty and the gritty of it all. And so I am so grateful to those of you who took part in the post episode chat. To those of you who listened to the episode, I'm this has been so much fun and I'm so excited that we have another full episode and another Prof. Response episode to get into it all. But I also want to point out, okay, someone brought this to bear and brought this to my attention in the post episode chat about the fact that Harry only gets two episodes and Dumby D and Sevy Sev got three each. Here's the thing, by the end of the six episode arc that we did for Dumbledore and for Snape, we were tired. We were over it, we were finished. We were overcooked. The noodles were basically mush. It was bad.

[Professor Julian Womble]

And by noodle I mean my brain. And so I think the threes are done.

[Co-host of Critical Magic Theory]

Like I think that that's just too long.

[Professor Julian Womble]

I think people, I don't think our

[Co-host of Critical Magic Theory]

brains are hardwired to stick on one character that long. And so we're only doing two for Harry I know it might seem like an injustice, but you'll thank me on the back end, I promise. I promise you. And so that was a justification for that. And so here we are, and here we go.

[Professor Julian Womble]

You know how it goes.

[Co-host of Critical Magic Theory]

We don't dilly, we don't dally, but we do bop. And so that's what you need to be getting ready for because we're going to be bopping in three.

[Professor Julian Womble]

In two, in one. Let's bop. I hope you danced. You gotta dance.

[Co-host of Critical Magic Theory]

Y' all gotta keep the body moving, shake the stress away. That's what Rihanna said. Never forget. Words to live by. Welcome back, y'.

[American Express Cardholder]

All.

[Co-host of Critical Magic Theory]

Welcome to those of you who are joining us for the first time, those of you who have been with us since our first episode and those of

[Professor Julian Womble]

you who are catching up, welcome.

[Co-host of Critical Magic Theory]

We're so happy to have you here.

[Professor Julian Womble]

If this is your first time.

[Co-host of Critical Magic Theory]

What an introduction to the podcast. But here we are.

[Professor Julian Womble]

We're just gonna hit the ground running.

[Co-host of Critical Magic Theory]

I have to say first, lend me your ears.

[Professor Julian Womble]

Hearken, hearken to me. I wanna say thank you to those of you who have pre ordered behind the cloak.

[Co-host of Critical Magic Theory]

I am just blown away by you all's enthusiasm for it, your excitement for it. It makes me excited for it.

[Professor Julian Womble]

You know, when you're in the midst of something that you know should be

[Co-host of Critical Magic Theory]

exciting, but you're too in the weeds to really see it for what it is and you can't quite feel the excitement. That's where I'm at right now.

[Professor Julian Womble]

I've been editing that book for the

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past couple of weeks, almost a month now. And I just finished editing it and I'm getting excited.

[Professor Julian Womble]

But then I keep seeing all the

[Co-host of Critical Magic Theory]

work that I'm going to have to do to, you know, I don't sell it. And so I am.

[Professor Julian Womble]

I am really living and siphoning off

[Co-host of Critical Magic Theory]

your energy and your excitement for this book and making it mine and cosplaying as if it's my own. Because right now I'm too.

[Professor Julian Womble]

I'm too in it.

[Co-host of Critical Magic Theory]

I will be excited when it comes out and I don't have to do any work on it anymore. But right now, in this moment, I am living for the fact that you all are living. And so thank you all so much. If you have not pre ordered it, you can do so. The link is in the post episode chat for the last episode. I will put it in the post episode chat for this one. I will also put it in the episode summary for this one. I told you already that I'm going to be pushing the pre orders because apparently that is what makes books do well. And I would love for this book to do well and I think it has something to say. It's something that you, that you and I, that we all talk about all the time. Um, but I want to share what we talk about.

[Professor Julian Womble]

Although selfishly I'm kind of like, well you know,

[Co-host of Critical Magic Theory]

you know we love exclusivity here but we can't be that exclusive. We've got to share and share like we'll find something else to be exclusive on. So if you haven't pre ordered it, the links will be available.

[Professor Julian Womble]

I'm going to add a pre order

[Co-host of Critical Magic Theory]

section on my on the website for critical magic theory criticalmagictheory.com, so you can find it there hopefully sometime this week. I just got the JPEG of the

[Professor Julian Womble]

COVID also speaking of the COVID turns out Cormac McClachen not dead.

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Like a full on resurrection story. Cormac McQuacken lives. I don't know what you all did, I don't know what petitions you sent up to what divine sources, but Cormac McCwacken is still with us very much so I'll share the COVID with you all on Patreon as well. Maybe I'll do that and then I'll put the links there so that you can see Cormac McCwacken because he's there for all of us and he said

[Professor Julian Womble]

I'm not going anywhere.

[Co-host of Critical Magic Theory]

And for that we are grateful and we rejoice. As always, there is merch. As always. You can join on our Patreon patreon.com criticalmagictheory where you can join as a deep diver and outstanding owl and a chronic overthinker.

[Professor Julian Womble]

Or you can join for free and

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just be a part of the conversations in our post episode chats.

[Professor Julian Womble]

Either way, we would love to to hear from you. Thank you all so much again for

[Co-host of Critical Magic Theory]

your support of this project.

[Professor Julian Womble]

I'm. I'm just so grateful and I won't

[Co-host of Critical Magic Theory]

say any more than that because the music is playing now and that means we've got to get this show on the road. So let's delete and dally and delay.

[Professor Julian Womble]

No more.

[Co-host of Critical Magic Theory]

Let's get into it.

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[Professor Julian Womble]

the first

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theme that I want us to discuss that was based on conversations that were had in the post episode chat is

[Professor Julian Womble]

really asking us to think more intentionally about the fact that in many ways

[Co-host of Critical Magic Theory]

Harry has a lot of things stacked

[Professor Julian Womble]

against him and yet somehow he comes

[Co-host of Critical Magic Theory]

out of it all the way that he does.

[Professor Julian Womble]

And so as we work our way

[Co-host of Critical Magic Theory]

through this theme, I want us to

[Professor Julian Womble]

kind of just be mindful of a

[Co-host of Critical Magic Theory]

lot of the aspects of Harry's characterization

[Professor Julian Womble]

and socialization and the things that make him him. Marshe says he's a deeply traumatized oh

[Co-host of Critical Magic Theory]

wait, before I start reading, I should say this.

[Professor Julian Womble]

Many of us were very emphatic in

[Co-host of Critical Magic Theory]

the things that we wrote in the post episode chat and you know that I love that. However, I cannot read the entirety of the comments. And so if I read your comment it is very likely that I am pulling and piecing together aspects or pieces of the comments into one larger comment. So be not concerned if you want

[Professor Julian Womble]

to hear the whole thing. That's where you go to patreon.com criticalmagic

[Co-host of Critical Magic Theory]

theory and go to the post episode chat.

[Professor Julian Womble]

Am I a tease? Perhaps I am.

[Co-host of Critical Magic Theory]

I started the comment and I stopped

[Professor Julian Womble]

it and now I'm telling you I didn't even give you the full thing.

[Co-host of Critical Magic Theory]

Oh, I'm so sorry Y'. All.

[Professor Julian Womble]

But I am who I am and

[Co-host of Critical Magic Theory]

apparently you all like it. So here we are. Okay, back to the regularly scheduled program.

[Professor Julian Womble]

He's a deeply traumatized boy shaped by a brutal environment and defined by the choices he made. Anyway, Vernon's rage and Petunia's cold neglect gave Harry his quick temper, those flashes of selfishness and the stunted ability to always be the kindest person in the room. But here's where Harry shines. He chooses differently and most importantly, he stays fundamentally good. He doesn't weaponize his trauma like voldiva or Snape. MacKenzie wrote to call Harry Potter lucky. Extremely lucky.

[Co-host of Critical Magic Theory]

There are a lot of, I mean, question marks there, so I'm trying to give you that infustice.

[Professor Julian Womble]

He was the victim of a prophecy some lunatic dark lord took at face value and lost his parents and was handed over to an abusive extended family. His entire childhood is lost to either surviving the Dursleys or surviving VL dva. While I do think he, like anybody, should be held accountable for his temper, his aloofness and his obliviousness, he is a child weapon. He is doing so well considering the

[Co-host of Critical Magic Theory]

cards he was dealt.

[Professor Julian Womble]

Charlie wrote. I think the most unbelievable.

[Co-host of Critical Magic Theory]

No, no, no, no. I'm sorry.

[Professor Julian Womble]

I think the most unbelievable part of the story is that Harry was abused and neglected for 10 years and. And he didn't have many of the

[Co-host of Critical Magic Theory]

personality traits that abused people develop.

[Professor Julian Womble]

And yes, he's brave and he's a good person because he didn't let trauma affect him to the point where he became the trope of hurt people hurt people. He saw that Draco was like the Dursleys and decided to stay away from him instead of siding with him because he was familiar and that's what he was raised to expect. Also, he made friends way too easily

[Co-host of Critical Magic Theory]

for someone who has never had friends

[Professor Julian Womble]

before and had been treated as an outcast. LL Cool Jean wrote interesting quotes from those who said Harry wasn't a good

[Co-host of Critical Magic Theory]

person due to his anger and hot headedness.

[Professor Julian Womble]

Anger gets a bad rap for being a bad emotion, but anger can have its place, signifying that you're in a situation that you deserve to be angry about. People make fun of Emil Harry in book five, but think about how he literally witnessed Voldiva rising again and Cedric's death. To only be treated like an egotistical pariah by the government and the public. To have quote unquote bad emotions doesn't make you a bad person. It makes you human. It's my turn. I. I want to Return back to what I said in the episode, which is I think that sometimes we have really, really, really unrealistic expectations for Harry. And I think that a lot of

[Co-host of Critical Magic Theory]

that ste the crazy amount of adultification that he endures, which we will talk about.

[Professor Julian Womble]

But I also do think that we grow so accustomed to Harry kind of letting things roll off his back in

[Co-host of Critical Magic Theory]

the first few years.

[Professor Julian Womble]

And then about third year, we see that he starts to kind of emote more. And I think the other thing that feels important to call out is that, like, I don't know if y' all

[Co-host of Critical Magic Theory]

knew this, but Harry is a boy.

[Professor Julian Womble]

And as a society, we tend to teach our boys that the only emotion worth having is anger. And there are so many moments in these books where Harry doesn't really know where to go emotionally. He's not really given a lot of the tools. One because of how he's socialized, but also, like, socialize at the Dursleys. But also many young boys, I mean, and I would say particularly at that time, but I would also say that

[Co-host of Critical Magic Theory]

this is kind of still true, are

[Professor Julian Womble]

still very much kind of invited to be angry for anything that inconveniences them, right? They're like, we are not necessarily given a bevy of emotional tools, right? Like, there's a whole movement about, like, letting boys cry. And in these books, we see how emotionally stunted Harry is in this regard, Right? Because he talks a lot about, like, feeling tears or hiding his face or, you know, how kind it is that Dumbledore turned his back so that he could wipe the tears away. And I think that there's a way that, you know, Harry, for all of the kind of outlandish things that he gets up to, is, yes, a child, but he is also a boy in a world where having the emotional range of a teaspoon is par for the

[Co-host of Critical Magic Theory]

course for most boys.

[Professor Julian Womble]

Right? And we see the same thing with Ron. We see the same thing with Draco. I mean, we get Draco crying in a bathroom because he's afraid.

[Co-host of Critical Magic Theory]

Yes.

[Professor Julian Womble]

But anger and aggression are the ways that we tend to see boys emote. Men emote even, right? Like, some of this does not just

[Co-host of Critical Magic Theory]

stop once you kind of mature.

[Professor Julian Womble]

Some of it stays with you. And I think that to leverage Harry's anger as a justification for why we

[Co-host of Critical Magic Theory]

think, you know, he's not necessarily a good person or a good friend, I

[Professor Julian Womble]

think really does undermine our understanding of, like, what his upbringing did to him, but also how boys understand their emotional selves. And this is a conversation that I think we have all the time on this podcast because we tend to operate from two different spaces. There's an idealized version of a thing that we have in our mind that we've kind of crafted and curated in our continued exploration of these books as

[Co-host of Critical Magic Theory]

adults or as people who are no

[Professor Julian Womble]

longer of the age for the, like,

[Co-host of Critical Magic Theory]

intended reader of these books, right?

[Professor Julian Womble]

And then there's the reality of it, right?

[Co-host of Critical Magic Theory]

Like we've seen that with our discussions of heroism. We've seen that with our discussions of,

[Professor Julian Womble]

you know, all of the houses, right? Like there's the idealized version of a thing and then there is the reality of the thing. And I think because Harry is the chosen one and he is the person who, you know, all of this depends. We look at him and we are expecting something outrageously extraordinary. And there are moments where we get it right to the points that were made from some of the people in the post episode chat. The fact that Harry is mildly well adjusted, some would even say outrageously well adjusted, given the abuse that he endured for 10 years. He lived underneath a staircase and was like befriending spiders. Like he was deprived food. Like, so much of the way that he operates, I think makes us believe that he should be immune to all of the negative things and not just the ones that he seemingly is immune to. And again, I'm not convinced that he's immune.

[Co-host of Critical Magic Theory]

I'm.

[Professor Julian Womble]

I'm more convinced that he is repressed. And so in many ways, I think our expectations are informed by the idealized version of Harry that doesn't exist. And in many ways, and some of

[Co-host of Critical Magic Theory]

us may not like this point, but it just came to me and I

[Professor Julian Womble]

feel like it's worth saying we're kind of doing the thing that Petunia and Snape do in the inverse, right, where they expect the worst of him because

[Co-host of Critical Magic Theory]

he's magical, because he looks like James

[Professor Julian Womble]

and don't actually take what he brings to bear as an indication of who he is.

[Co-host of Critical Magic Theory]

Like, right.

[Professor Julian Womble]

Like his actions, we're looking at what we want him to do, what we wish he had done, what would have been an idealized version of what he would have done.

[Co-host of Critical Magic Theory]

Right?

[Professor Julian Womble]

In the same way that they're looking at him in terms of constantly looking

[Co-host of Critical Magic Theory]

at his actions as a sign of

[Professor Julian Womble]

villainy or, you know, bullying or, you know, up to no goodness.

[Co-host of Critical Magic Theory]

That's a technical term.

[Professor Julian Womble]

And I think that that's what happens when you, you're looking at a child in particular for what you want them to be and not who they are. And I think that when we look at other characters in these books like

[Co-host of Critical Magic Theory]

say a Severus Snape and we look

[Professor Julian Womble]

at the fact that he's a grown

[Co-host of Critical Magic Theory]

man who is also has dealt with a lot of trauma, also repressed, also anger is his go to right?

[Professor Julian Womble]

Like we can see in a lot of ways what Harry could become if not for the decisions that he actually did make. In terms of saying, I don't like Draco because he reminds me of Dudley and that's not what I want, I am going to be very intentional. But again, there are some things that you cannot shake and then there are also things that you are invited to embrace. And so that when we think about Harry as a good person and we think, I think we have to consider not only the context in which he grew up, but also the context in which he lives in general and what boys are invited to do. Hermione's line about the emotional range of a teaspoon could also apply to Harry in no uncertain terms. And it's like, right, because that is, boys are not taught or socialized to have the same kind of emotional awareness that girls are. And so in that way, right, like Harry is par for the course. And I think that what bothers many of us is the fact that we want him to be better. And sometimes we just have to accept people as they are and not as what we want them to be, especially when they're kids. And Harry's no different in that regard.

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[Professor Julian Womble]

The second theme continues this kind of

[Co-host of Critical Magic Theory]

question of what standards are we holding Harry to?

[Professor Julian Womble]

Kayla writes, Harry Potter is not a good person because his thoughts towards some

[Co-host of Critical Magic Theory]

people are not the nicest is a crazy take.

[Professor Julian Womble]

I don't think anyone can be held to that standard. Also, the question about being a good friend I've always been of the mind that there are seasons in your life where you need a lot of help from your friends and where you don't have enough mental capacity to give back

[Co-host of Critical Magic Theory]

the same at the at that moment.

[Professor Julian Womble]

That doesn't mean that you never give back energy in the future. I think expecting Harry, who's going through so much trauma and so much pressure to always be thinking about his friends and what they need is not possible, erica wrote. So we have to be a good person at all times to be considered a good person. We have seven books of material that prove Harry's actions are overwhelmingly good. Cherry picking some low moments that typically

[Co-host of Critical Magic Theory]

have a backdrop of immense stress and

[Professor Julian Womble]

pressure is very unfair, laurian wrote. I'd like to return our gaze to the question. Good person aside, the question is not about whether something is innate to Harry's character. It's simply yes or no to good or bad X. You can both say he's a bad friend and also explain why because he never had any role models, no judgment should be inferred from the answer to the actual question. Harry being a bad friend does not necessarily mean it's his fault he's a bad friend. That's a separate question, Kylie wrote. Calling in holding Harry to an adult standard that many adults in the book tried to hold him to is so important. He's either got people like Molly treating him like a child younger than he is, or Sirius and Dumbledore treating him like an adult he's so eager to be. He isn't ever just a kid his age. The fourth year should have been that for him and Faux Moody comes in and ruins it. It's my turn. I think we do hold him to an unrealistic standard and I think the other thing that that is important here

[Shopify Business Owner]

is,

[Co-host of Critical Magic Theory]

okay, you might not like this, you might not like this, friends and I apologize in Advance. But how many of us were held to unrealistic standards?

[Professor Julian Womble]

Like, in retrospect, I remember when I was in college and I was in this class on Chinese politics and. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. I'm. I'm not telling the truth. I was in a class on the Vietnam War and I took an exam. I did not do well on the exam. And I went to meet with the professor and I said to him, you know, I really don't understand.

[Co-host of Critical Magic Theory]

I think I got a D on the exam.

[Professor Julian Womble]

And like, I wasn't. I wasn't out here on my Hermione,

[Co-host of Critical Magic Theory]

but I certainly wasn't getting D's on the regular.

[Professor Julian Womble]

So I was confused about how this, how this happened. And my professor, and I'll never forget

[Co-host of Critical Magic Theory]

this, because now that I'm a professor, I'm like, this is terrible pedagogy.

[Professor Julian Womble]

But he said to me, no, I gave you a D because I wanted to push you because I know that

[Co-host of Critical Magic Theory]

you can do better than this.

[Professor Julian Womble]

And I was like, huh? So to be clear, I did better than the grade you gave me, but because you have already moved the bar for me because you believe that I

[Co-host of Critical Magic Theory]

can do better than this, you have lowered my grade.

[Professor Julian Womble]

And I remember going to my interim advisor and I told her about this

[Co-host of Critical Magic Theory]

because I was livid.

[Professor Julian Womble]

And she said, oh, I do the same thing because I think that you deserve a push. Because sometimes you phone it in, which, like, go off queen. That is true. I do phone it in. However, simultaneously, concurrently. And there is a world in which you raising the bar for me and making it harder for me to meet the bar and not telling me that that's what's happening, just in just thinking that this is going to be the thing you is unrealistic, unfair, and problematic. And so I wonder how many of us experienced having the bar raised and having it construed as, oh, you're just pushing me, and. And are now applying that similar logic to a Harry because. And again, I wonder, right? Like, I don't think Harry's intention was

[Co-host of Critical Magic Theory]

just to try to make it. He was just trying to survive.

[Professor Julian Womble]

And I wonder if our unrealistic expectations

[Co-host of Critical Magic Theory]

are the byproduct of us holding ourselves

[Professor Julian Womble]

maybe to higher standards as adults, wanting more from Harry, because there are moments where he does shine and we're like, okay, so you are capable of this. Or having a best friend like Hermione Granger, who for one reason or another, seems to just have all of her

[Co-host of Critical Magic Theory]

life together, for the most part, outside

[Professor Julian Womble]

of the war crimes she commits on the regular, right?

[Co-host of Critical Magic Theory]

This is not a Hermione episode.

[Professor Julian Womble]

I don't want to hear about her

[Co-host of Critical Magic Theory]

in the post episode chat. Just an example, friends, we'll get to her, I promise.

[Professor Julian Womble]

But I wonder about where these expectations come from because I do think that Harry, and again, he's a titular character,

[Co-host of Critical Magic Theory]

so I understand the idea of the

[Professor Julian Womble]

why, but I do think that there are ways that we hold him higher. I also do think that many of

[Co-host of Critical Magic Theory]

us, and I'm going to call it

[Professor Julian Womble]

out right now, I think many of us look at Hermione and we say,

[Co-host of Critical Magic Theory]

right, a couple things. One, Hermione would have solved this much faster.

[Professor Julian Womble]

Two, Hermione was a better friend to both Ron and Harry than either of them. And so like when we compare everyone to her, when Hermione Jean Granger is our benchmark, then, yeah, it's going to be much harder for people to arrive at something that feels fair because we're not meeting people where they are as who they are.

[Co-host of Critical Magic Theory]

We're using ourselves as a benchmark. We're using characters that we see ourselves

[Professor Julian Womble]

in Hermione and saying, well, why aren't you like that? If it had been Hermione. And to that I say, yeah, y', all, but it's not. And again, if we go back to what we talked about in the first theme, Hermione and Harry experience very different childhoods, very different socializations, very different upbringings, very different understandings of their space within

[Co-host of Critical Magic Theory]

the wizarding and within the magical world.

[Professor Julian Womble]

And so what they're bringing to bear and their ability to show up for each other and for Ron is drastically different for a number of reasons. And so I'm not saying that many of you are doing that, but if you happen to be, or maybe implicitly you are, I think context matters here. On top of that, Harry is a child. And this is something you all remind me of all the time. When I come too hard on some

[Co-host of Critical Magic Theory]

of your faves, you all are like,

[Professor Julian Womble]

and you all will remind me of this when I come for Hermione.

[Co-host of Critical Magic Theory]

You all will have things to say.

[Professor Julian Womble]

And so I, I do think that sometimes our expectations are unrealistic because we want Harry to be better than what he is. And again, it's like sometimes you gotta meet him where he is. And one thing that I will give Harry, when it comes to the standard that the, that he has to meet in text, he always meets it, right? But that standard is literally like staying alive. Like the thing that I think is also really important and I think this was brought up, is that, like, again, to Lorian's point, some of the reason why he doesn't have the tools is not his fault. But then, also, speaking to Erica and Kayla, Harry has a lot going on.

[Co-host of Critical Magic Theory]

I don't know if you all know that.

[Professor Julian Womble]

And yes, obviously Ron and Hermione are there with him for a lot of it, but their journey is different. What they have to endure is different. Like, they make choices, which isn't to diminish what they bring to bear. But Harry, we'll talk about this in

[Co-host of Critical Magic Theory]

the next episode, doesn't really have that

[Professor Julian Womble]

much of a choice in them in this. And so we can't just look at him and compare him to everyone else and say, he should have done, or if it had been, or if I was. Because the circumstances that he's living in, drastically different. Not the same. Not even close. On top of the fact that he is a kid. And so I think that there is a way that we're expecting. You know, like, if I had a noseless fiend after me, I don't know how I would show it for my friends other than telling them to stay safe, which is what Harry does. If I had a noseless fiend coming after me after killing my parents, I don't know how I'm gonna show up when you get mad at me or when you take away the one thing that I love, which is a broom or. I don't know how I would manage that because I'm too busy trying to, like, live as normal a life as I can with a scar on my head and a noseless fiend at my back.

[Co-host of Critical Magic Theory]

Context matters, y'.

[Professor Julian Womble]

All. And again, he's a kid.

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[Professor Julian Womble]

The next theme asks the question of action.

[Co-host of Critical Magic Theory]

How do we understand certain acts as good, bad, or otherwise?

[Professor Julian Womble]

Sarah Marie writes, harry Potter is not a good person. For me, the constant onslaught of fatphobia, wizard supremacy, misogyny, and never questioning enslavement has him squarely in the category of a privileged person who adheres to exceptionalism. With regard to marginalized people, for me, I based much of this off an epilogue where he had an enslaved creature

[Co-host of Critical Magic Theory]

make him a sandwich.

[Professor Julian Womble]

Tbh.

[Co-host of Critical Magic Theory]

He's not featured as someone fighting against the obliviation of non magical individuals, but instead is a cop.

[Professor Julian Womble]

Matt wrote, Harry not being a good friend. I think to prof's point, we as adults miss the little moments and the little things that Harry does that mark him as a good friend. We take it for granted because we do it all the time without thought or question. It's just natural for us. So we don't think about it or analyze it. It's just assumed to do that behavior. Savannah wrote, since Harry upholds and does not do anything to dismantle the wizarding world or the Ministry of Magic, he just stops Voldy. The status quo remains and at the end of the day it is questionable writing from the author and the characters,

[Co-host of Critical Magic Theory]

life's paths not reflecting their personalities. Rachel wrote, what do we expect from a good person?

[Professor Julian Womble]

Perfection. We'd all fall woefully short. We see his goodness when he spares Pettigrew and we really see it when he saves Dudley from the dementor he could have left. It's my turn.

[Co-host of Critical Magic Theory]

I think when I consider this, I

[Professor Julian Womble]

think that there is a world where, yeah, some of the actions that Harry's take, that Harry takes feel like a

[Co-host of Critical Magic Theory]

foregone conclusion, like something that's not necessarily worth celebrating. And I'm gonna push back on that because I do think that as many

[Professor Julian Womble]

of you pointed out, there are lots of reasons why these wouldn't necessarily be things he would inherently be doing if his socialization worked the way that it did and. Or if his socialization had taken root

[Co-host of Critical Magic Theory]

the way that it does for many people is a better way of saying that.

[Professor Julian Womble]

I think that to undermine and not understand kind of how exceptional it is that he kind of jettisoned some of the things that should be second nature to him, right? Like Peter Pettigrew betrayed his parents and not once, but twice he. Well, he saved his life one time, right?

[Co-host of Critical Magic Theory]

Like they want to kill him and he doesn't.

[Professor Julian Womble]

And then even in Malfoy Manor, right? Like he's pleading with Peter like he is, like, I saved your life. Like I like what are you doing? Right? There's a way that killing someone never really occurs to Harry, right? Like this is also the same person who didn't want to curse Stan Shunpike, who was like hurling curses at him while they were in the sky because he didn't want to Be like the Death Eaters, right? Like, one of the things that is so interesting to me, right, is that we are so hung up on so many of the, like the minutia of Harry. But at the end of the day, right, one of Harry's, I personally think, fatal flaws is that he's too good. Like, baby, I'm gonna need you to pull out something other than Expelliarmus when

[Co-host of Critical Magic Theory]

the girls are coming after you.

[Professor Julian Womble]

And that's what Lupin basically says to him, right? Like the time for disarming is over. And Harry says to him, dead in the face, I'm not gonna do that because I'm not gonna be like a Death Eater, right? Like, Harry's very, very, very kind of naive understanding of good versus evil, the

[Co-host of Critical Magic Theory]

kind of monochromaticism that he operates with

[Professor Julian Womble]

when it comes to morality is so stark. Like he is so good in certain domains, right? Like, he is so intentional. And I think one of the things that I also feel is true for Harry is that he spends so much time trying to not be the thing that would make people dislike him, right? Like he. When he finds out that, like, when people think he is the heir of

[Co-host of Critical Magic Theory]

Slytherin, he's like, what can I do to prove that that's not the case?

[Professor Julian Womble]

Like when he becomes the Triwizard champion, he's trying so hard to get people to like, believe that he didn't do this, right? I think that when you're. There's such a fervency in wanting to maintain a certain image for the sake

[Co-host of Critical Magic Theory]

of your own, like, self esteem and

[Professor Julian Womble]

also just because, like, you're so used to not being like that the idea of not being like begins to pull plague you, right?

[Co-host of Critical Magic Theory]

Like, which obviously would be the byproduct of someone who has known abuse and has been neglected, right?

[Professor Julian Womble]

Like, he works so hard. Harry's a big time people pleaser, but it's the people that he tries to please that I think matter here, right? I think that there is a way that, you know, he's trying to appease the memory of his parents, right? You know, the reason why he doesn't want Pettigrew killed is he's like, I don't think my dad would have wanted that. And it's like, dude, you don't even know your father. You just met his two friends and they're both trying to kill him. And you think that that's the case. But there's something about, in Harry's mind of like, I just want my parents to be proud of me. And so this is the decision that

[Co-host of Critical Magic Theory]

I'm going to make.

[Professor Julian Womble]

And when you think that far ahead and you're thinking in that big of a, like a purview, the things closest to you fall by the wayside. Ron Hermione, right, Like, though his treatment of them is kind of caught up in his ultimate goal in a lot of ways. And I think it's another thing of, like, yeah, I think that there are moments where he does take them for granted. I think that there are moments where they take him for granted. I think we've all been in moments where we take our friends for granted. Or there's a belief that, like, oh, I can't deal with my best friend

[Co-host of Critical Magic Theory]

right now because I have this other

[Professor Julian Womble]

big thing that I have to do for work.

[Co-host of Critical Magic Theory]

And so, like, they'll understand, I'll get back to them. Or like, oh, I haven't texted my best friend in three months. And like, but they shouldn't be mad at me.

[Professor Julian Womble]

Or like, we all have things in our lives where priorities shift and we prioritize certain things that are further away and create a little bit more distant from us and the things that are closest to us fall by the wayside. Harry's no different in that regard. But I do think that his actions indicate to me at least, that he is so hell bent on, on making sure that he is liked and that he is seen as good in no uncertain terms. And I think that some of that comes from the fear that, you know, there's a part of Voldemort inside of him, right? Like he learns at least a part of that in his second year. And so then there seems to be this kind of implicit internal desire to make sure that the distance between Voldemort and him are so stark so that no one even begins to believe that he could even be bad. And so I think ultimately so many of the actions that Harry takes for

[Co-host of Critical Magic Theory]

other people point to his goodness.

[Professor Julian Womble]

And I think his treatment of his friends, obviously, you know, sometimes can undermine that. But we've all been in positions either on the receiving end or the one doling it out, where we have not treated our friends as good as we could because we were so focused on something else under the auspices that they would still be our friend when we were, when we got over it. And I think that that is what we're seeing here from Harry. And I think we underestimate how much it matters to him that people in the wizarding world care and like him. He can't go back to the Non magical world. And so what does that mean? It means that, yeah, he's going to get up to some shady mess because the wizarding world is shady and messy. So, yes, it means that he isn't going to be the bastion of change. Right. Like, I'm like, you all Sandwichgate, like,

[Co-host of Critical Magic Theory]

at the end of the series, and

[Professor Julian Womble]

he's thinking about asking his enslaved house

[Co-host of Critical Magic Theory]

off to show back.

[Professor Julian Womble]

Like, that is a problem. It is also the mark of someone who has been well socialized in a society that is a disaster. In order for you to want to implement change, you have to recognize that something needs to be changed. In Harry's juxtaposition of his life at Privet Drive and his life in the magical world, the magical world is infinitely better. And does he recognize the ills? Kind of, but not enough to believe that they need to be changed or. And what's more that he needs to be the one to do the changing. He's like, I'm taking on Voldemort. What are the rest of y' all up to? And so, yes, I don't want to absolve him from that, but I also think that we can't. The incentive structure that Harry has is one that operates in such a way where it's like, I just brought down the Big Bad. Now you want me to change the entire structure of the world. Like, what more can I do?

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[Professor Julian Womble]

I just Voldiva dropped Death Drop.

[Co-host of Critical Magic Theory]

It's pride in America.

[Professor Julian Womble]

Like, he's down. Diva down. I did that. And yes, like, obviously, in a perfect world, we would want Harry to not have a slave. We would want Harry to not join the very structure that treated him negatively and then treated him positively and kind of tugged him around. Like, we would want that. But it takes a level of understanding about the problematic nature of the world. And there are many ways in which the system still benefits Harry. And so, yes, I think that, like, he is privileged in this regard. And it is really hard for a privileged person to recognize the privileges that they have, why they have them, and to try and change it. Because why would you, if you're the beneficiary of it? Which doesn't mean you don't try, but, like, think about our own journeys. Like, I didn't start really thinking about my own privileges until I was much

[Co-host of Critical Magic Theory]

older than Harry was.

[Professor Julian Womble]

And it was because I had to be around, like, the ills of a society long enough to realize, like, oh,

[Co-host of Critical Magic Theory]

there's some really, really shady stuff going on here.

[Professor Julian Womble]

And one of the things that one

[Co-host of Critical Magic Theory]

of My students said to me once that I. That sticks with me is she's like,

[Professor Julian Womble]

we don't actually know.

[Co-host of Critical Magic Theory]

Right.

[Professor Julian Womble]

Like the. It seems to us, right. And if we.

[Co-host of Critical Magic Theory]

I know that many of us will not want to do this, but if we take First Child is canon, or

[Professor Julian Womble]

at least as part of the broader story, we see Harry kind of stay the same. And maybe he does. And there would be lots of reasons for him too. He's rich, he's powerful, he's famous. Like, the thing about dismantling anything is that you have to dismantle your own internal understanding of a thing and give up a lot. And for a child who had very little, next to nothing, a staircase, smallest bedroom, barely any food, what it would take for him to one see the ills of the magical world relative to that of the non magical world, and also take the sacrifice that it would be to undo all of this for a world that you already see as good because the world that you left was so awful. That's a high bar, y'. All. And again, I ask, right, like, the

[Co-host of Critical Magic Theory]

theme for this episode is like, is

[Professor Julian Womble]

it realistic for us to ask that

[Co-host of Critical Magic Theory]

of a person who is a child for most of the series?

[Professor Julian Womble]

The final theme that I want us

[Co-host of Critical Magic Theory]

to talk about is addressing the question of whether Harry is extraordinary.

[Professor Julian Womble]

Now, this was my fault.

[Co-host of Critical Magic Theory]

I. I asked the question.

[Professor Julian Womble]

I am the one who was like, I don't really think so. I think Harry's pretty mediocre and people

[Co-host of Critical Magic Theory]

had a lot of thoughts and it felt like it needed its own moment to really unpack.

[Professor Julian Womble]

Jazz wrote, is Harry Potter extraordinary?

[Co-host of Critical Magic Theory]

Yes. I'm genuinely raging about what was said for this one.

[Professor Julian Womble]

Harry is absolutely extraordinary and I will

[Co-host of Critical Magic Theory]

fight you on this. Okay, all right, everyone, let's not resort to violence, please.

[Professor Julian Womble]

Producing a Corporeal Patronus at 13 is

[Co-host of Critical Magic Theory]

a hill that I am standing on for proof that he's extraordinary.

[Professor Julian Womble]

Not many grown wizards can do one,

[Co-host of Critical Magic Theory]

according to the canon.

[Professor Julian Womble]

And Harry did it not just in

[Co-host of Critical Magic Theory]

a safe classroom with a bogger, but

[Professor Julian Womble]

in the presence of 100 plus real Dementors, when lives and souls were genuinely at stake. At 13, Eric wrote, sure, Harry is mediocre in the way everyone is mediocre.

[Co-host of Critical Magic Theory]

Not to sound cheesy, but everyone is also extraordinary.

[Professor Julian Womble]

Harry is an extraordinary athlete. Even Crumb, the best Quidditch player in

[Co-host of Critical Magic Theory]

the world, says he flies very well.

[Professor Julian Womble]

He is extraordinarily brave, selfless and resilient as well. Finally, he has this exceptional thing I

[Co-host of Critical Magic Theory]

think of as battle sense.

[Professor Julian Womble]

He just has a feel for combat and Dangerous situations that feels almost supernatural. Baer wrote, Harry is not an extraordinary student compared to his peers. He really only excels in one course

[Co-host of Critical Magic Theory]

where he received extra tutelage, Defense against the Dark Arts.

[Professor Julian Womble]

But overall, Harry is actually quite an adept student. And while he's not the model student like Hermione, and he's one that most professors would like having in their course, the fact that Harry pulled his owl scores off with Volzadi screaming in his face should impress the pants off any reader. Even if Snape flounces around the castle lamenting how mediocre Harry is. Nadia wrote, he also managed to get an egg from a dragon with his mediocre flying skills. A Hungarian horntail, no less. But no biggie. His broom did the heavy lifting. And Crumb, an internationally famous professional seeker,

[Co-host of Critical Magic Theory]

was impressed by Harry's flying.

[Professor Julian Womble]

It's my turn.

[Co-host of Critical Magic Theory]

That was nice. I'm at this, like, Music and Arts Week thing in North Carolina right now,

[Professor Julian Womble]

and so I'm just. The music is flowing through me. Okay, y'. All. Okay. All right. I. I won't say that it's staying corrected, per se. I'm not gonna relent that much, but I do see the.

[Co-host of Critical Magic Theory]

I do see what we're saying.

[Professor Julian Womble]

I do see that there are moments where Harry is exceptional. And I say that because I think. And it's. It's my fault for asking the question, right?

[Co-host of Critical Magic Theory]

Like.

[Professor Julian Womble]

And it comes back to the thing

[Co-host of Critical Magic Theory]

we often talk about, right?

[Professor Julian Womble]

Which is, you know, is a person a good person or a person who

[Co-host of Critical Magic Theory]

just does good things?

[Professor Julian Womble]

And in that way, it's like, is the person mediocre, or are they extraordinary? Or are they just someone who does extraordinary things now? And I don't know how we arrive at the answer for that, right? Like, is extraordinary.

[Co-host of Critical Magic Theory]

The culmination of all the extraordinary things

[Professor Julian Womble]

that you can do is mediocrity. Like, if there are more mediocre mediocrity things. If there are more mediocre things that

[Co-host of Critical Magic Theory]

you do versus exceptional things, like, does that.

[Professor Julian Womble]

I don't know. I don't make the rules.

[Co-host of Critical Magic Theory]

I'm not even gonna try, because you know how weak it. And you know that we are not very good at defining things. See, the two hero episodes, however, simultaneously, concurrently.

[Professor Julian Womble]

And there is no denying that Harry

[Co-host of Critical Magic Theory]

is exceptional at certain things.

[Professor Julian Womble]

I think when I invoke his mediocrity, I think particularly of him as someone who relies very, very heavily on Hermione for schoolwork. But I think he's an average student, and I think that that's not an inherently Bad thing, I think. And some people brought this up as well, that, like, the fact that he is average is what makes him so extraordinary.

[Co-host of Critical Magic Theory]

Right. That he's just like a run of the mill kid who's like, kind of

[Professor Julian Womble]

thrust into this world and forced to do these things. And I think there's definitely something to that. I think the patronus, the corporeal patronus, we know that that's extraordinary because when he does it during his owl examination,

[Co-host of Critical Magic Theory]

the proctor is shook because he's like, wow, that's crazy.

[Professor Julian Womble]

And he ultimately does get an O in Defense against the Dark Arts. Right? And so obviously there are things that he's. I also think that Harry is exceptionally good at deduction.

[Co-host of Critical Magic Theory]

Right.

[Professor Julian Womble]

Like he believes in what he believes and he will not be torn asunder. The whole thing with Draco in Half Blood, Prince Harry knew. And I love that. Um, I do think. And obviously. Right. Like, he can't have it all or

[Co-host of Critical Magic Theory]

else that would be boring. Yes.

[Professor Julian Womble]

He is a good flyer. And to him, that's the only thing he's good at. Which I think is, I think also then speaks to how he views himself and the way that he kind of performs him.

[Co-host of Critical Magic Theory]

Performs his identity.

[Professor Julian Womble]

Right? Like he. And again, I wonder, right, like. And this isn't to undermine the corporeal patronus, but it's like, what does exceptional look like? Like, I think we could all agree

[Co-host of Critical Magic Theory]

that Hermione is exceptional and she is

[Professor Julian Womble]

extraordinary and Dumbledore obviously is as well.

[Co-host of Critical Magic Theory]

Snape Volzadi.

[Professor Julian Womble]

Right, like that. And so that I think maybe what it is.

[Co-host of Critical Magic Theory]

And I'm doing the very. I'm doing the very thing that I told y' all not to do a couple things ago, right?

[Professor Julian Womble]

Which is like comparing him to those people. And I need to take my own advice, right? Like, we have to meet Harry where he is, and there are things that he is absolutely extraordinary at and not relative to other people. And I think when I look at

[Co-host of Critical Magic Theory]

Harry and I engage with the question of his mediocrity in my mind, I think part of what I'm doing is comparing him to Hermione.

[Professor Julian Womble]

Wow. This wasn't supposed to be a therapy session for me. Look what you all made me do. But I think that that's what it is. And I think I have to take

[Co-host of Critical Magic Theory]

my own advice again and say, like,

[Professor Julian Womble]

no, no, like, by his own merit, he is exceptional at a lot of things. He does do things extraordinarily well. And there is no denying that. So maybe I do stand corrected. And maybe I just have to adjust

[Co-host of Critical Magic Theory]

my definition a little bit and meet Harry where he is and I invite

[Professor Julian Womble]

you to do the same. This has been another episode of Critical Magic Theory. I'm Professor Julian Muhamble and if you like 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', all, behind the cloak race identity and Harry

[Co-host of Critical Magic Theory]

Potter is available for pre order.

[Professor Julian Womble]

If you can't find the link you can go to Amazon.com you can go to Barnes and Noble, you can go to bookshop.org and you can search for the book and you will be able to find it also. I hope to see you in the

[Co-host of Critical Magic Theory]

post episode chat patreon.com criticalmagictheory where we

[Professor Julian Womble]

can continue this conversation. I also would love for you to

[Co-host of Critical Magic Theory]

follow me on social media if you

[Professor Julian Womble]

do not already profw. On TikTok Prof. JW on Instagram, y'.

[Carvana Customer]

All.

[Professor Julian Womble]

We have two more Harry Potter episodes. We're getting into the latter part of the survey, which means we're getting into

[Co-host of Critical Magic Theory]

questions of whether he's a hero, whether

[Professor Julian Womble]

or not he has free will. We're getting into all of it and I cannot wait until then.

[Co-host of Critical Magic Theory]

Be critical and stay magical my friends.

[Professor Julian Womble]

Bye.