Last year Elden Ring was ranked as the most desired game on all of Steam and its success was overwhelming. Now, his replacement in that position in 2023 is Hogwarts Legacy and we can all get an idea of why the adaptation of the saga of J.K. Rowling Aim for the fat guys.
the universe of Harry Potter It is one of the most diverse and profitable that we can find in fantasy. Goblins, wizards, mandrakes, hippogriffs… all sorts of magical beings that populate a beautiful world to discover, although it hides a dark sea of past. The differences between those who handle magic have been constant, but their similarities with reality are more than evident.
The two sides of the coin
While we wait for the next February 11 to arrive, the breadcrumbs to feed the expectation are appearing. One of them is the one presented by eSportsMAPFRE, unveiling that we will experience a certain situation within the game; a rebellion of goblins in which our role will be to face those who seek “stop suffering discrimination from wizards and witches“.
That is to say, we will not defend the retaliated, but the objective will be to silence these protests for a more than fair treatment. The community turned against the post, questioning the value of such a task, forcing the tweet to disappear hours later. However, it is not the first time that Hogwarts Legacy It will put us in a tricky context.
Weeks ago we learned that there will be access to a chamber where we can execute some of the unforgivable curses. They are spells with an absolute damaging power, if not deadly, and they can be executed to torture other students. An outrage that will have to be seen in action and that serves as an excuse to take a look at the past of the magical world.
Who are the characters who complain about discriminatory treatment? The goblins, those beings that we have seen in all the corridors of the Gringotts bank, are the ones who believe that their rights are violated. Looking back in historyit seems that they have loaded with many reasons to affirm it.
Skilled in finance and goldsmithing, they are known for practically dominate the magical economy, which gives them an essential position in the machinery of wizards and witches. Always subservient to humans, they guard their most valuable possessions in the vaults, including all galleons, sickles, and knuts.
This hasn’t stopped them from being banished from using wands, but they themselves prove capable of performing magic without the tool. A first step in the resentment and creation of prejudices by the goblins towards the magicians. To all this we must add the difference in values, which triggers disagreements between species.
For a goblin, any item created by them becomes their property, even though they can sell it. Furthermore, if the buyer dies, the item must return to the goblin who made it. They believe that the payment is actually more related to the concept of rent than to the transfer of ownership. Therefore, the sale of the legendary sword of Godric Griffyndor created by King Ragnuk the First has been interpreted by the goblins as historical theft.
Even more must be added, since goblins are especially picky about paying debts. They hold an enormous resentment if they do not receive the amount that corresponds to them and persecute as a tailcoat collector anyone who avoids their economic responsibilities towards them. What does this have to do with the real world? Well, for comedian Jon Stewart, who is of Jewish origin, it’s an obvious relationship.
Not all that glitters is gold
“When I saw one of those things on the screen I was expecting the whole audience to be like, ‘Holy shit, she [Rowling] he did not create a magical world simply to put jews in control of a fucking underground bank‘. And everyone just said ‘wizards,'” points out in his podcast Stewart.
The link that is generated between the Jewish community and the idiosyncrasy that is drawn on the leprechauns is understandable. There are those who maintain that even most anti-semitic advertising of the nazi era served as inspiration for shaping magical creatures. What’s more, on the Gringotts tiles, during Harry potter and the Philosopher’s Stonewe can see what resembles a Star of David on the ground.
The scene Jon Stewart is referencing was shared by me in 2018, when Rowling was smearing the left as antisemites and only beginning to embrace her infamous anti trans views. Harry walks over a bank adorned with Jewish Stars, to greedy Goblins side locks.pic.twitter.com/fZHMHf85h7
— Rafael Shimunov (@rafaelshimunov) January 3, 2022
The scene Jon Stewart references was shared by me in 2018, when Rowling was smearing the left as anti-Semitic and was only beginning to embrace her infamous anti-trans views. Harry walks on a bench adorned with Jewish stars, towards the locks of the greedy goblins.
At the same time that we have reprisals, there are those who take reprisals. If in the case of goblins it is the magical community in general, much more cruel are the death eaters. You know, those who cannot allow a Filthy Mudblood as Hermione Granger roam free at Hogwarts. But,Where does this great animosity come from??
Before 1692, both magical and non-magical people coexisted perfectly with each other. The mix between them was total, although Muggles began to persecute wizards and witches in hunts like those in Salem. Due to this, the magical beings withdrew to live in secret, created the Ministry of Magic and remained in a perpetual state of emergency.
Here is a breeding ground conducive to generating prejudices between people, which penetrated deeply into part of society. Salazar Slytherin proclaimed before the year 1,000 that pure wizards were the only valid ones and that was a more than difficult task to accomplish. Only 28 families were designated with such an “honor”so the rest of the magical people were half-breeds.
That biological mantra turned into a political stance that was used to lash out at Muggles. Following their defeat in World War I, Nazi propaganda branded German Jews as traitors and responsible for their failure, while at the same time stigmatizing them for attributing responsibility for the country’s economic depression after the Great War ended.
One of the many reasons that history has directed its furious gaze towards the Jews is that they were pointed out as “the murderers of jesus christ“. This idea evolved in the 19th century towards racial and blood differences, which led to horrors such as those of the Holocaust. Nevertheless, Ron is clear in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets that “most wizards these days are half-bloods anyway. If we hadn’t married Muggles, we would have gone extinct.”
Professor Horace Slughorn, present in Potions during Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, showed how that idea had taken root in him when he considered Lily Potter as a “curiosity” of nature. Harry’s mother was Muggle-born, which grated on Slughorn’s mind, even though he considered her his brightest student.
Are there biological differences between muggles and wizards? Absolutely none and if the opposite is maintained it is due to a pure class positioning. The Weasleys, one of the 28 pure families, are reviled by the Malfoys for the sole reason that they don’t turn their backs on Muggles. The head of the family, Arthur Weasley, works in the Muggle-linked department of the Ministry of Magic, which doesn’t bode well for him. However, the Malfoys continue to rub shoulders with the elites of the wizarding world and with a Lucius possessing enough influence to remove Dumbledore from his post as Headmaster.
During Nazi Germany, the widespread thought was that the German people should remain pure, avoiding Jews, homosexuals, gypsies, the disabled and various groups. The decision-making for Hitler’s goal to be carried out was excruciating, with forced sterilizations and mass murders. During Voldemort’s brief reign, muggle records were instituted, they were compared to animals, they were stripped of wands, and they were fired from their positions at the Ministry. He Who Must Not Be Named did not create the doctrine he imparted, he simply appealed to a spark that remained almost extinguished within most of the wizarding world. In the novels at least Harry and company appeared to put a stop to it.
