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Hogwarts Legacy - Mythbusting

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I've finished Hogwarts Legacy, and I want to address some rumors. Statement ANTISEMITISM The portrayal of the goblins in the Harry Potter series "The portrayal of the goblins in the Harry Potter series is of a piece with their portrayal in Western literature as a whole. "It is the product of centuries of association of Jews with grotesque and malevolent creatures in folklore, as well as money and finance. The mythological associations have become so ingrained in the Western mind that their provenance no longer registers with creators or consumers. "Those who continue to use such representations are often not thinking of Jews at all, but simply of how readers or viewers will imagine goblins to look, which is a testament more to centuries of Christendom's antisemitism than it is to malice by contemporary artists. So it is with JK Rowling, who has proven herself over recent years to be a tireless defender of the Jewish community in its fight against antisemitism, for which we are immensely grateful." PROSE ATE Campaign Against Antisemitism Myth: The shofar is a collectable item in the game Fact: Myth: This game involves crushing a slave rebellion. Fact: The goblins are not slaves, and the rebellion never happens. There is a minority faction of goblins with dreams of a violent revolution that will not only free them from wizards but subjugate all wizards to them, and of course put the individual goblins in the movement at the top of goblin society as well. They kill multiple goblins for not agreeing with them. They are not a social justice movement. They are a totalitarian minority group trying to overthrow one oppressive regime in order to create another. The vast majority of goblins do not support Ranrok's rebellion or want him in charge; not because they are okay with being oppressed by wizards, but because they realize that Ranrok isn't going to be any better and may even be worse, since he's a lot more violent toward dissenters. The only people who would interpret Ranrok's rebellion as a social justice movement are the braindread boycotters who think that telling Jews to kill ourselves and sending graphic r--- threats to trans men are social justice acts. Myth: You commit genocide against the goblins. Fact: No, you do not. You kill goblins under the exact same circumstances you kill wizards: they are part of an evil group that has inserted itself into your affairs and decided of its own accord that they wanted to hurt you. You were just trying to get to school when Ranrok first attacked you. At no point does anyone in this game have the goal of wiping out goblins, and there are numerous goblins that you help throughout the game. Additionally, most protagonists are pro-goblin rights. There is only one companion who is anti-goblin, and you defend goblins to him (the game does not even give you a choice; you defend the goblins) and he is completely invalidated by the narrative. Myth: The goblins kidnap wizard children and steal their blood. Fact: The only wizard "child" that Ranrok is after is the protagonist of the game. I'm pretty sure he needs that teenager alive, not for their blood but for their sight, because they can see ancient magic that most other wizards can't, and Ranrok needs someone who can do that in order to find the ancient artifact he's seeking. I feel like I'd remember a scene where he stole my blood, and I don't. I can't even imagine what his motivation for doing that would be, since at no point in the game was my blood needed to unlock or control anything; just my sight. (Even Salazar Slytherin didn't put a blood-key lock on the door that he explicitly only wanted his own descendants to be able to get through.) Myth: The only Jews in this game are goblins. Fact: This game doubled the number of Jews in the Harry Potter series with recognizable faces. That's not saying much, but still. Abraham Ronen and Ruth Singer are both extremely Jewish-coded names, and they're names that will actually register as Jewish-coded for a lot of gentiles. Personally, I find Officer Singer absolutely useless, but not in any way that I don't expect from an adult cop in a narrative with a teenage protagonist. If she were good at her job, what would we do? Abraham Ronen is extremely likable and a wonderful teacher, and I am very pleased to be able to say that Hogwarts has Jewish professors. Myth: One of the lead devs was a Nazi. Fact: Troy Leavitt, who left the project two years ago, was a head designer whose duties mostly included animating NPCs and designing the castle. He had a youtube accour which expressed pretty mainstream Republican views and some gamergate sympathies. I disagree with him about a lot, but I've seen no evidence so far that he's a Nazi or that he has any ill intentions toward Jews. If someone can show me evidence to the contrary, I will amend my views accordingly. This is the horn in the game: These are shofars: Cgoogle.com/search/q-shofarfsarf-AJ0quWWMS2EvdRua_CL_jVUwQJ£2_w:167 Google Shofer-Wa Encyclopedia Channel com: XChannada Upload video: XPhone X Tumblr Bay 3XL Veteran (29 goblins 27 Partly cloudy magusanopping news more e clipart blowing Amazon.com in stock O My Jerusalem. In stock 444 Ve Amazon.com-In stock vom kippur & graves Shofer Yet Ham (19-23 inch) by World of Jud. Instock & = transparent 87&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved-ZahUKEwice XaKISAHVGQ|HalSCpQ_AUoAXECAEQAw&biw=1920&bih=872&dpr=1 O Chosen People Ministries in stock Wipedia Shofer blowing-Wipedia Judaicaeb.In stockay In stock and they call it annoying. FO Jon Stewart X Campaign Acx genocide de XR Hogwarts Endinely Rain shofar - Goc; X 13 Painted Rays Ho O Yem Pohor What is a Shot? My Jewish Leaming Amazon.com-stock Mural(Yemen Sho O vector ramshorn ⒸJ Team stock My Jersen stock HETUM Profe CAMPAIGA O AGAINST SMALL Kudu Kar Yet Shofer O MOTE OF FORCE RHShoferown by Stock Star Rams Homtock Bustration G I don't think there's a strong resemblance, personally. I don't even think the horn in the game is ram's horn. Granted, not all shofars are or have to be ram's horn, but I think it's hard to make the argument that that is "clearly a shofar" when it's not shaped like shofar and probably isn't made out of the same material. Bone horns were used around the world, on every continent, for centuries. Not all bone horns are Jewish. Also, the average gentile does not know what a shofar is. I'm telling you, I have asked multiple different gentiles of various educational backgrounds, and not a single one knew what a shofar was or connected the image from the game to Jews at all. Using shofars to signify that Jews are evil and bad when the average gentile cannot identify them or connect them to Jews is some pretty inept propaganda writing. Myth: 1612 is a reference to a Jewish rebellion that ended with a pogrom in 1614. Fact: First of all, it's weird to use the date 1612 to signify a pogrom that took place in 1614. Second of all, the date 1612 is from a list of goblin rebellions that was included in the original series. I'm pretty sure JK Rowling was not slipping secret messages to kill Jews into her books and then going on twitter and denouncing antisemitism in UK politics. JK Rowling has gone out of her way to be an ally to Jews on multiple occasions. Not a perfect one; I stand by my criticisms of antisemitism in the Fantastic Beasts series. But in the absence of literally any other evidence that she secretly wants Jews dead, I think-and I know this is an extremely unpopular thing to say right now-I think JK Rowling deserves the benefit of the doubt about this. Especially since there is so much doubt. If 1612 is an obvious message to kill Jews, why was no one talking about it when it first appeared in the original Harry Potter series? Myth: The boycotters are just politely stating their opinion. Fact: The boycotters are telling people to kill themselves, doxing people and threatening them, and sending them graphic r--- threats. I've received several myself. I know numerous other people who have received death and r--- threats from boycotters. It's why I do not wish to associate with anyone who is still openly supporting this boycott. If you think playing a video game is violence, but sending real people death and r--- threats isn't, there is something deeply wrong with your moral compass. You can deny that it's happening all you want, but that's not going to change how bad supporting this makes you look to everyone who knows what's been happening. (Which is... really the entire internet outside of your echo chamber. Your movement came out on Day 1 strongly in favor of r--- and murder for everyone who disagree with you, and everyone knows. Denying it doesn't change that.)

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Top Comments

DeadSpark

Mar 09, 2023 at 08:40AM EST

Good fact-checking, but the last paragraph rubs me the wrong way.

Being in favor of the boycott and harrassing people who don't boycott aren't inseparable from one another. This Venn diagram isn't the circle OP thinks it is. The harrassers are indeed a problem but they definitely don't speak for the entirety of the boycotters.

In fact, I find it ironic that OP states the goblin rebellion is not a social justice movement, but an extreme group that most goblins don't agree with, even if they're not okay with wizard oppression… and then doesn't see the same logic when it comes to the extreme group that most people don't agree with, even if they're not okay with the game.

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