I loved the books but there's so many plot holes that I just can't get over when I think about what actually happens.
Because magic people are ridiculously hard to kill in such ridiculous ways? I think Neville's uncle threw him out the window to see if he had magic, Hagrid thought it was absurd that Harry's parents could die in a car crash, and their most popular sport involves cannonballs trying to smack them off flying brooms at high speeds. Why bother getting the beds tied down? That's half the fun.
I never really thought all that much of it. It was worth the read at the time but I'd already seen much better magic systems in novels. And no, no it wasn't. Mercedes Lackey's Bedlam's Bard series started 7 years earlier, and I know there are other examples though I won't search up the exact dates and names. It's been a long time.
I still like the story but because it was pretty much all told through Harry there is still a lot that could be told, which is why it is probably the only thing I know of that I would actually read fan fiction of. The magic was never really explored because to get through the year a lot of info was focused on the yearly plot. The spells were fine but there didn't seem to be any real rules, I mean when spells go from changing a tea pot into a tortoise to summoning an object to instant death you start to wonder how exactly they got to that point. And to reiterate since it was from Harry's view the only spells we actually learned the effects of were the 3 unforgivables and the defense against the dark arts spells. I actually wouldn't change anything about the books though because I have always thought that just enough was written that anymore would have ruined it.
The magic in HP universe is meant to have a more mysterious and whimsical feel to it. So they never really define how exactly it works or what its limitations are. Instead the max output is controlled by the witch or wizard using it, magic can do anything in the HP universe, but a wizard can only cast spells he has the ability to. I watched a video the other day that called it a soft magic system, with the opposite being hard magic which would be something like Fullmetal Alchemist.
the world could have been worked more buuut that would probably ruined it. so I think that is fine just like that.
I thought Harry Potter was good to read. But it was a kiddy kind of book. Now when I read The Dresden Files I thoughts that’s a wizard!
I tried re-reading it and I realised quite how horrendous some aspects of the world building are. Also, her editors should never have given her as much leeway as they did in Goblet of Fire and the later books.
They are some really good kid and young adult novels. The issues I have with them though are the last 2 novels were not that good at all. Additionally, Harry Potter actually sucked at magic. Like wtf dude! You can do magic and you're going to laze around and only learn a handful of spells.
There are several problems with it but I never understood why the death curse was forbidden but blowing someone up with a fire ball was ok when both would make you just as dead. I also never understood why they ignored tech and shunned muggles when a combo of tech and magic for example the flying motorcycle was way more efficient than a broom.
You can't really compare Harry Potter and most of western YA fantasy fiction (or even with most published novels for that matter) with the chinese or even japanese webnovels. They are too different, from the writing style, the length, the structure, etc. Most western fantasy fiction will not explain how their world works, they only explain what's necessary to move the plot, because the fantasy elements are secondary to character development in most cases. They don't even have a concept of power levels like most cultivation novels does. I do love HP and think it's one of the best YA western fantasy novels out there, still better compared to what has been published after it (tho I honestly don't read as much books nowadays). If HP was written like a chinese webnovel then he would have ended up as the Wizard lord of his time or even become the Magic God of some sort, which would totally deviate from what JK Rowling is going for.
I liked the world-building, but not so much the plot. The earlier works beat the later, and the movies best the books. Pretty sure the firebolt is faster. The flying car was only about as fast as a train, and finicky as heck. Actually, that car is one of my favorite characters. As for the fireball, the nurse could probably cure the burns from a fireball. Meanwhile, Avada Kedavra is instant death. Personally, I never understood why Lucius wasn't arrested in the Chamber of Secrets after half-chanting it.
More like his entire generation kind of sucked at magic. Granger is hyped up as being super smart but compared to Snape's generation it's nothing special. That being said most Wizards can't even cast a proper shield so Harry is far above average. Kind of like the average IQ being 100. If you murder someone with a fireball it's still illegal. Unforgivables are just especially bad to use on people. If Sakura can be paired up with him then naturally Ino wouldn't be any worse. At least she doesn't have pink hair and doesn't seem as delusional.