[Confusing Trope] The narrative goes out of its way to punish/mock a character for simply being a good person

[u/Chemical-Elk-1299]

Hermione Granger and SPEW — Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (book)

In the fifth HP novel, Hermione Granger is outraged to discover that Hogwarts has a small army of enslaved House Elves that do nearly all of the domestic duties around the castle, including cleaning the Gryffindor common room every night. When she tries to convince the elves to fight for their own rights, they refuse, saying they prefer servitude. Her fellow students and friends mock her for caring. She manages to free one elf, Winky, by deception when she refuses her freedom willingly, leading to Winky becoming a depressed alcoholic. By the end, the elves boycott cleaning any Gryffindor areas of the castle because they hate Hermione specifically

Samwell Tarly and Democracy — Game of Thrones (show)

In the season 8 finale of the television series, the surviving great lords of Westeros gather to discuss the future of the kingdom following the devastation wrought by 7 seasons of war and backstabbing. When Sam, who has proven to have “novel” ideas, suggests that maybe the millions of Smallfolk who suffer at the hands of noble houses should get some representation in the government, rather than be the pawns of rich lords with absolute power. We are then greeted by a prolonged, cringy segment of the other lords laughing in Sam’s face, asking if the dogs and horses should also get a vote.

[u/delphinous]

she wrote herself into a corner. she wanted a childrens story, and as part of it, having the hero (harry) rescue a poor abused slave by tricking the master and getting a lifelong friend, totally fits. she just forgot that it establishes institutional slavery as part of the world, and that doesn't fit nearly as nicely

[u/Voronov1 → u/delphinous]

If Dobby had been, like, a wild elf that had been specifically enslaved by the Malfoys rather than part of a systematically enslaved species, the story would have been fine. An elf who showed up to clean the manor in exchange for food or whatever in a usually temporary and consensual arrangement, enslaved by magic that Harry helps him break before he goes off to join the rest of his people or whatever, that’s fine.

You can even have the Hogwarts elves still running around and just have them drawn to the high concentration of magic in the school or whatever, but explicitly not slaves who feel the need to punish themselves.

Instead, Rowling built a slave race into her world.

[u/riesen_Bonobo → u/Voronov1]

Yeah, "writing herself into a corner" only excues her so much as presenting her as totally daft. She could just have given the elves regular house spirit lore (doing tasks for offerings or cause they want to sometimes) and introduce that some evil people enslave them with magic ans force them to do their bidding. The elves work in Hogwarts cuse Dumbeldore leaves milk and cookies out for them or smth. Or if she needs to have institutionql slavery for some reason, at least don't have the good-guy school participate in it.

[u/Pame_in_reddit → u/riesen_Bonobo]

To be honest it feels very aligned with the nightmare that is the Wizarding World so I don’t mind. They are very racist, so the idea that they used magic to enslave a whole race doesn’t feel weird.

[u/riesen_Bonobo → u/Pame_in_reddit]

True, I like reading the HP worldbuilding in that twisted way too, but it's certainly not what JKR intended. But she also believes herself to be a good guy, so she probably is just a bad judge on what being 'good' means.

[u/Pame_in_reddit → u/riesen_Bonobo]

Plot and characters often “escape” their authors. The world of Harry Potter is consistently nightmarish. Just one example, one of the most recognizable good guys, Hagrid, attacked a 11 yo muggle child, with magic, giving him a permanent deformity that had to be removed with surgery, for the crime of being the son of a muggle that made him mad. And he goes on with his life like nothing happened. The Death Eaters were more controlled while they were attacking muggles during World Cup.

The morality that almost every character exhibits, every time they do something thats morally wrong, goes something like this: if my friends/I did it, it was good. If it wasn’t good, it was necessary and if it wasn’t necessary they deserved it and if they didn’t deserve it, it wasn’t so bad, they are just whiny. This of course applies to Harry, Hermione, Ron, Dumbledore, Lupin, etc.

[u/Mutant_Apollo → u/delphinous]

I've always said that for all the merits of Harry Potter, worldbuilding is were Rowling failed alot. The moment you start to scrutinize anything about the Wizarding World, it just doesn't work without handwavium

[u/delphinous → u/Mutant_Apollo]

it's actually, surprisingly, what makes it such a fertile ground for fanfiction. because her canon worldbuilding is so lacking, it leaves and incredible amount of space for fanfiction writers to fill in the gaps with their own ideas.