I enjoyed the hell out this weekend’s memeification of JK Rowling. Last week, Rowling’s comments about the two of the Wizarding World’s beloved characters went viral. Rowling has a penchant for telling fans, after the fact, that there was some kind of political, sexual or racial subtext in her writing, both with the books and screenplays. Many of her revelations are worthy of eyerolls (remember this?), but is it actually a little bit offensive that JK insists that she actually tried to make inclusion the subtext without actually, you know, making a gay character have a sexual or romantic relationship? JK Rowling’s comments last week were about Dumbledore and Grindelwald (played by Jude Law and Johnny Depp in the Fantastic Beasts films) and how their relationship was totally intense… except you couldn’t see it on-screen.
It’s never been featured in books or movies about the Wizarding World, but J.K. Rowling promises that there was “a sexual dimension” to Albus Dumbledore and Gellert Grindelwald’s relationship. Translation for the non-Harry Potter set: Dumbledore and Grindelwald are both wizards introduced in the original Rowling books; Rowling revealed after publishing her series that Dumbledore was gay, and very much in love with Grindelwald. When the prequel film Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald came out, many hoped that there would be at least one scene highlighting the romantic side of their relationship. Those dreams were quickly dashed. Yet in the commentary track included on the Blu-ray and DVD release of the film, Rowling assures fans that their “relationship was incredibly intense.”
“It was passionate, and it was a love relationship,” she said of the characters (played on-screen by Jude Law and Johnny Depp). “But as happens in any relationship, gay or straight or whatever label we want to put on it, one never knows really what the other person is feeling. You can’t know, you can believe you know.”
She added that she personally was “less interested in the sexual side, though I believe there is a sexual dimension to this relationship, than I am in the sense of the emotions they felt for each other, which ultimately is the most fascinating thing about all human relationships.”
I understand the choices JK made for the Harry Potter series about not revealing Dumbledore’s sexuality in general. But to not do anything with the relationship in the Fantastic Beasts world seems like an odd and somewhat offensive choice, especially since she’s repeatedly insisting on this idea that these two characters had a torrid love affair. It’s 2019 – people can handle a gay love story or storylines involving out, visible gay characters in a PG-13 film.
Anyway, most of the memes are NSFW (and hilarious) but here are some SFW ones.
me:
jk rowling:
me:
jk rowling:
me: i —
jk rowling: arthur weasley likes to watch
— David Mack (@davidmackau) March 18, 2019
No one:
JK Rowling: Grindrwald
— Maddie Whittle 🤷♀️ (@maddiewhittle) March 17, 2019
Clerk: “Alright, that’ll be $2.95…”
JK Rowling: “DOBBY HAD HERPES”
— Brandon Calvillo (@BJCalvillo) March 17, 2019
no one:
literally not a damn person:
EVERYTHING IS SILENT:
jk rowling: voldemort was half lesbian
— jess loves beomgyu (@homotwice) March 17, 2019
Photos courtesy of WENN.
Semi unrelated, but I watched the new fantastic beasts movie yesterday and it was one of the worst movies I have ever seen. Perhaps she needs to step away and breathe from her characters.
The Fantastic Beasts movies have been a dull, pointless moneygrab. (Thankfully I saw them without paying). Just awful…pretty costumes I guess. Eddie Redmayne is a terrible leading man, they fridge a woman of colour for manpain, and add in…what’s left of Johnny Depp. Ugh, stop this trash series please.
If you need more Harry Potter go to the theme park in Orlando, it’s wonderful.
The only thing I like about the first move is Dan Fogler. I loved the little love story and he is just a really underrated actor, IMO. Haven’t seen the second, but assuming he makes a comeback
Yeah he makes a (very contrived) comeback. Which is fine, he was the best part of the first.
“ I loved the little love story”
Oh. Uhhhhhhhhhhhh. Maybe…don’t…see the second one? 😬
I thought the sexual tension did show onscreen from JL’s part. But I might have been seeing things that weren’t there because I was aware of Dumbo and Grindy being an item from before.
“Whatever label you want to put on it”
The label is gay. The label is f*cking gay. Or bisexual. Or pan. The terms exist. It’s not some nebulous concept you can throw at the wall for characterization points. People have literally died for publicly declaring their intention to love contrary to what society says it the norm. Try showing some goddamn respect to their legacy.
Sorry to be a crotchety old lady about it, but I’m increasingly fed up with the way LGBT+ is becoming commodified by straights. it’s not a trend you can buy into. These are people’s lives and rights you’re talking about.
If it isn’t in the book, it isn’t canon. Interviews and websites will be forgotten and fall by the wayside, but what’s in the story is what people take away from it.
Ugh. I love Harry Potter so much (I was 11 when the first book came out, and it holds a special place because I literally grew up with Harry/the books) but had to cancel JK Rowling years ago.
Yep. I grew up on them as well and was pretty bitter I didn’t get a letter tbh. But she’s such a dick of a human being that I can’t with her. She really seems to have let everything go to her head over the years.
The entire Fantastic Beasts franchise is a mistake IMO. Screenplays are the wrong medium for JK Rowling and the story arc and characters don’t seem to have made much of an impression on fans. The next film has been pushed back until 2021, then there’s two more films to go after that… the last one got panned… the point is, what is the point? Does anyone really care about this story? Are WB just throwing money away because it’s too late and too embarrassing to back out?
Grrrrrrr the revisionism is so frustrating! And so peformatively woke.
Kids kissing wasn’t superfluous to the emotional dimension of the story of the relationships but adults showing affection is?
Enjoyed the first, not so much the second, though Jude Law tried very hard to save it with his nicely fitted trousers.
The reveal at the end threw me for a loop. I have no idea how she’s going to talk her way out of that one when nothing in HP remotely hinted at this plotline. Yikes.