What is your relationship to the Harry Potter franchise/universe/etc?

[Fizzzzle]

I feel like I was just as the right point in life to have it have maximum impact for me. When the first movie came out, I was the same age as Harry. When the last book came out, I was the same age as Harry. I feel like that led to it feeling like I kind of grew up with Harry Potter, in a way.

 

It's actually kind of wild if you think about it. A media franchise existed in which the central protagonists were always some kind of mirror of myself, and that lasted for almost a decade.

[CastlevaniaNut18]

I got into it when I was around 13. I read the first three books and I remember getting the fourth for Christmas the year it released. Loved the series, total Potterhead. I've  gone through it at least a dozen times. Enjoy the movies for the most part. I could tell you almost any random trivia about it. Own my original hardcovers, all of them on Kindle, a 20th edition paperback box set and the first four of the illustrated editions. Still have merch, like a bunch of tshirts and a coffee mug.

 

I still like the series, but JKR has tainted it for me in recent years. It's been maybe 3-4 years since I last read through the series, but I'll probably get in the mood to read it again eventually. I've largely given up buying new stuff in the Potter world, but I admit I'm probably gonna see some of it when we go to Universal in Osaka next month. I really wanna go to the Honeydukes.

[Bacon]

Movies are alright. Magic is a bit lame tho. I like magic to be a bit more impressive. The potions are probably the most impressive magic in the HP universe.

[Fizzzzle]

29 minutes ago, CastlevaniaNut18 said:

I got into it when I was around 13. I read the first three books and I remember getting the fourth for Christmas the year it released. Loved the series, total Potterhead. I've  gone through it at least a dozen times. Enjoy the movies for the most part. I could tell you almost any random trivia about it. Own my original hardcovers, all of them on Kindle, a 20th edition paperback box set and the first four of the illustrated editions. Still have merch, like a bunch of tshirts and a coffee mug.

 

I still like the series, but JKR has tainted it for me in recent years. It's been maybe 3-4 years since I last read through the series, but I'll probably get in the mood to read it again eventually. I've largely given up buying new stuff in the Potter world, but I admit I'm probably gonna see some of it when we go to Universal in Osaka next month. I really wanna go to the Honeydukes.

Alright keep bragging about your Japan trip.

 

I personally just don't give Rowling any agency over the franchise in my head. As corny and borderline parasocially stupid as it is, Harry Potter is something that grew with me. And I feel like that's such a lightning-in-a-bottle experience, to read/watch such a cultural icon that, like... is me.

 

Joanne can't ever fucking take that away from me.

[Keyser_Soze]

My mom read the books and then I read the books, I don't know if I read them all. And I saw the movies and they are fine. I don't really care one way or the other, it really had no impact on me.

[best3444]

I liked the new videogame but never seen the movies or read the books. 0 impact on me. 😌 

[TheLeon]

I’m roughly the same age as @Fizzzzle, and it sounds like we have a similar connection to HP. I loved plenty of franchises as a kid, but nothing was on the level of Harry Potter. It just hit at the exact right time, I was 9-10 when I read the first few books, 11 when the first movie came out, just about to turn 17 when the last book dropped. It was really easy for liking Harry Potter to be my entire personality for a lot of those years. 
 

These days I’m still a huge fan. I would love to visit the theme parks whenever I can justify it financially. I fall asleep listening to audiobooks as background noise, and it’s usually just the Harry Potter series on a loop. Those audiobooks specifically just comfort me in a way that nothing else can. 

[Biggie]

1 hour ago, best3444 said:

I liked the new videogame but never seen the movies or read the books. 0 impact on me. 😌 

This. 

[Derek]

I saw half of the Prisoner one, several years ago, and I kind of know what Quittich is, but that's about it. It never really grabbed me. My mom loved all the movies, though.

[Chris-]

I really liked them as a kid...My mom took me to Borders for the midnight release of Goblet of Fire and I read it all in a day, but I fell off after that and haven't read the rest (though I'd like to remedy that at some point- a few years ago I re-read the first two, and I intend to read the rest).

 

I think they are great at world building and have some interesting - though not particularly deep - thoughts for literature that's written for kids/YA. Shame Rowling is a ghoul.

[Commissar SFLUFAN]

I watched the first movie, was bored out of my goddamned mind, and never gave it a second thought.

[Bacon]

16 minutes ago, Commissar SFLUFAN said:

I watched the first movie, was bored out of my goddamned mind, and never gave it a second thought.

he'll save children but not the british children

[thewhyteboar]

I like the books. The new movies are just terrible. Replacing Colin Farrell with Johnnie Depp is like replacing Randy Johnson with Jarrod Washburn. And Eddie Redmayne is a garbage-tier actor. Really killed off any interest I had.

[Commissar SFLUFAN]

7 minutes ago, Bacon said:

he'll save children but not the british children

 

ESPECIALLY not the British children.

[Bacon]

21 minutes ago, Commissar SFLUFAN said:

 

ESPECIALLY not the British children.

Dare I say it?

I think I shall.

[gamer.tv]

I was in the same boat, I bought the books as and when growing up but from the 4th onward I bought them (and generally read them through) on release day. 
 

As a 33 year old now…a bit conflicted about some of the books but nostalgia is strong. 

[TwinIon]

I think I was just a bit older than the prime audience, so it was really my friends younger siblings that were really into it, which was enough reason to avoid the books while they were coming out. I never ended up reading any of the books, but I saw the movies. I think the films are really excellent in production design and music and with most of the casting, and those aspects really covered up some of their sins that might have otherwise weighed heavier. Alfonso Cuarón really showed how much more the right director could do, even in the middle of an established franchise, and it's a shame that we didn't get more exciting directors for the rest of them.

 

I feel like the films never quite had the level of success that I it seems like they should have, just given how much it seemed like they dominated media attention at the time. I'm pretty sure only the last one crossed $1B world wide and was the top grossing movie of its year.

 

If they do end up making an HBO series, I'd probably at least start watching it.

[best3444]

4 minutes ago, TwinIon said:

If they do end up making an HBO series, I'd probably at least start watching it.

 

Same. I was a bit too old for the movies but I understand they are very good. I'll never watch them but I'd be interested in the HBO series. 

[Fizzzzle]

the movies are all kind of trash in my opinion. Prisoner of Azkaban is the only one that's kind of good, and the first one as well if you view it as a kid's movie (it captures the wonder and charm of the world better than any other movie in the series)

[b_m_b_m_b_m]

I have enjoyed reading the first two books to my oldest daughter who is looking forward to turning 11 to go to Harry Potter world. Everything else is a mixed bag of good and bad. 
 

loved it when I was younger though

[Jason]

I was right about Harry's age in the first book when it came out, so that probably helped rope me in and keep me in since the tone she went for in the books changed at a pace that was in line with how a kid's worldview evolves around over that span of ages. 

[Fizzzzle]

(also I have a deathly hallows tattoo on my right wrist, me and a buddy got drunk with a tattoo gun one night)