A subreddit dedicated to discussions and news about Hogwarts Legacy is cracking down on J.K. Rowling discourse.
The once-celebrated author has become a divisive figure in recent years, after her toxic and transphobic views came to light. Her status as a TERF gives many former Harry Potter fans pause, when it comes to enjoying fresh Wizarding World releases, as they work to avoid supporting Rowling’s continued campaign against trans people — and trans women, in particular.
As such, any conversation around Rowling tends to be starkly contentious. The majority of the fandom has left Rowling, and most of her creations, in the rear-view, turning their attention to less problematic properties instead. Some fans are having a far harder time of this than others, given the deep love they’ve held for Harry Potter since childhood, but they’ve chosen to support the trans community anyway. There is also a subset of fans who don’t care about the optics of a Hogwarts Legacy purchase, and are simply excited to experience an open-world Hogwarts.
Then there are the buyers who are eyeing Hogwarts Legacy as a victory for anti-trans viewpoints. These purchasers are planning to buy a copy just to spite the trans community and their allies, and are overall disinterested in the game behind the controversy. These fans have become an increasingly frustrating problem in many circles, as they turn the conversation away from helpful discourse and into sheer toxicity and anti-LGBTQIA+ sentiments.
This appears to be the issue faced by the official Hogwarts Legacy subreddit, which recently reinstated an embargo on all topics related to J.K. Rowling. The subreddit’s mods explained the decision in a Feb. 2 post, which explained that lifting the embargo opened the door for a wave of bigoted users to flood threads with their harmful talking points.
The post explains that conversations about Rowling will be limited for the foreseeable future, due to several factors. Apparently, any and all conversations about Rowling quickly spiral “into bigoted language towards LGBTQ+ individuals,” which pushed the mods to disallow all Rowling-related topics. There is also the issue of keeping to the intended conversation, which tirades about Rowling often avoid. The post notes that “users who rally behind JKR under the guise of ‘keeping things about the game’ are still taking conversations off topic from the actual game.”
The final note laid out by the mods broadly discourages trolling, and notes that many of those who lash out at “woketivists” are merely feeding “into this dynamic which they claim to hate.”
Users who remain undecided on Hogwarts Legacy, and desire a space to discuss Rowling’s behavior and the ethics of making a purchase, will still have a space to do so. The sub’s Boycott + Ethics megathread provides a space for “users who genuinely feel conflicted about buying the game and would like to talk that through in good faith.”
The subreddit no longer allows any conversation about Rowling, good or bad, and instead aims to realign itself with its original purpose: discussing Hogwarts Legacy and the impressive work from Avalanche Studios, the developer behind the upcoming title. A final note on the post notes that “the mod team firmly believes LGBTQ+ individuals are deserving of dignity, respect, and inclusion. Any users who cannot behave in the same way should find a different place to discuss Hogwarts Legacy.”
Hogwarts Legacy is set to hit shelves on Feb. 10, and many Harry Potter fans are awaiting its release with bated breath. Whether they’re interested in a purchase or part of the group boycotting the title, how Hogwarts Legacy fares, upon release, will be telling.
Published: Feb 3, 2023 12:11 pm