20 Facts About Wizarding And Harry Potter
The new Fantastic Beasts move comes out this weekend, and while it might not be any good, it's making us look back at the whole wizarding series. Harry Potter had good parts, and parts that made no sense, plenty of celeb fans, and of course plenty of other fans who were nuts.
We of course can't forget about creator J.K. Rowling, even if many people want to. And there are plenty of other wizarding books to look to, and movies, as well as real wizards from history, and real magic wands ... sort of.
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Here's a look back at the facts we learned this week. The links all lead to full articles with much more info, so click every one that interests you, because we inserted one piece of our soul into each.
1. J.K. Rowling gave her dad a Harry Potter first edition, and he promptly sold it.
This was highly irresponsible of him, both from both a parental angle and a financial one, as her books rose in value a lot in the years that followed.
2. The Marauders' Map identifying everyone in Hogwarts has some strange implications.
The Weasley twins knew someone named Peter was sleeping with Ron every night but decided never to tease him about it, which seems a bit out of character.
3. The Salem Witch Trials also targeted wizards.
They put one farmer to death by piling rocks on him, and the brave guy just kept shouting at them, "More rocks!"
4. The first Harry Potter book's chess puzzle makes no darn sense.
The teachers "protect" their magic stone by assigning series of challenges ... and providing a simple solution for each challenge right next to it.
5. Harry Potter had a prequel, which was stolen.
We don't mean plagiarized, we mean stolen—a burglar broke in and took it, and police never recovered it.
6. Ancient art used to depict Jesus wielding a magic wand.
He was a skilled wizard, people figured.
7. In the Witcher books, Ciri gets romantic with a woman.
8. Fantastic Beasts Forgot To Do The Thing That Made Harry Potter Succeed
They removed all the wonder and whimsy from the series, and also inexplicably chose to include no children.
9. The series is also failing the exact same way The Hobbit did.
A 100-page textbook is not a good basis for a trilogy.
10. 50 Cent bet $750k that Floyd Mayweather couldn't read one page of a Harry Potter book.
It appears that Floyd Mayweather can't read, or at least can't read very well.
11. Aleister Crowley was the sex wizard who Mussolini kicked out of Italy.
His interest in the occult led him to the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, a secret society focused on exploring the supernatural, founded by three Freemasons.
12. Gringotts Bank is actually London’s oldest diplomatic mission.
They shot those scenes in a building called Australia House, which also appeared in 2017’s Wonder Woman and Muppets Most Wanted.
13. Harry Potter fans nearly ruined a real-life cemetery.
Tourists keep treating the grave of one "Tom Riddell" like it's Voldemort's.
14. The Harry Potter books were surprisingly good detective stories.
At least until halfway through the series, when they abruptly dropped the mystery format.
15. Suspected wizard William II de Soule died a death worthy of a Terminator.
16. Sam Neil played Merlin the Wizard in a '90s miniseries smash hit.
If you saw it, you know what we're talking about, but if not, you'll be shocked by just how huge this thing was.
17. Harry's a millionaire, and the story keeps ignoring this.
If he's gonna keep turning down opportunities to splurge, there was really no need to make him a millionaire at all.
18. Fantastic Beasts continues China's trend of censoring gay characters.
Warner Bros. agreed to remove two lines of dialogue referencing Dumbledore's homosexuality there, at the request of the Chinese government.
19. Intel filed a patent for a magic wand.
You could use the wand to control your devices, or to fight duels, and yet they never quite put the product into production.
20. Turns out a lot of creators have personal sides you may not care for.
But it's possible to come to terms with it after working through the stages of grief.
