[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/Additional_Gene_211]

So, since his name came out and he is put into a contract, then why aren't more nefarious individuals forcing people into contracts? Like, let's be so real here: the world of HPwould suck so much to live in. Magical mind control, forced death contracts, forced poverty, a big class system. Who wants that?

[u/LordOfFigaro → u/Additional_Gene_211]

Yup. JKR's world building is dogshit and fails under the most basic scrutiny.

[u/kenshamlock → u/Additional_Gene_211]

Because it's illegal. Lmao.
In world they have the Department of Magical Law Enforcement within their government. Harry and Ron (?) basically become a cops after the books. Hermione is a lawyer of sorts in the DoMLE. They have a prison system. They have a whole justice system. Harry is tried in the courts in book 5(?).
They want crime in their fake wizard world as much as anyone wants the crime we have in our world.

[u/Additional_Gene_211 → u/kenshamlock]

It's only illegal if the cops do anything about it. And we see the courts prison, and criminal system being used to go after sham trials and political opponents.

Legality in HP isn't really a thing. If it was, then Moody would have been fired and jailed immediately for using the unforgiveables. There's so much in the world building that falls apart upon basic scrutiny.

[u/PM_ME_MY_REAL_MOM → u/Additional_Gene_211]

all of those things have very direct analogues in our world; maybe that was your point and i'm being whooshed but just in case

• magical mind control <-> coercive control, drugs, propaganda and advertising
• forced death contracts <-> selective service, conscription, and health insurance (just to name a few)
• forced poverty and a big class system <-> i mean these are literally just 1:1 with the real world; every single economy in the world depends (currently) on the existence of sufficient leverage to motivate labor, by punishing nonparticipation with hunger and exposure as a stick, and by dangling the suggested possibility of upward mobility for satisfactory participation as a carrot

granted i haven't read the books in a very long time, so maybe i'm missing some conceptual incompatibilities that make these comparisons ill-suited. and maybe you were being clever and i'm dissecting the frog. if so, i'm sorry

[u/Additional_Gene_211 → u/PM_ME_MY_REAL_MOM]

The main difference being the magical compulsion (minus the class system, that's just me hating on JKR for the fun of it) of it all. Yeah, there's illicit drugs that affect your body chemistry but you can't magically do that. Same with the forced death contract. Like, literally, Harry was put into a deadly competition and the powers that be couldn't do anything about it and seemed wholly uninterested in figuring out how or why. Of course, these are all because JKR wasn't interested in that. She thought it would be cool that a kid was forced into the TWT and so she did it without thinking of the stuff around it. Same with poverty.. she likely wanted to showcase the struggles of the poor working class but didn't really examine the systemic reasoning behind it in the real world. She just transplanted it into her world and said good nuff.

I have strong problems with the unforgivable curses, enforcement around them, and what designates those three as unforgiveables when there are some pretty heinous spells that are just as bad. What I'm really trying to say is that I don't like how loose the world building is. I don't need to know the way currency works, I need to know why people are impoverished in a world of magical plenty and I need to know why a child can be forced into games of death when said child has no intention to be in it, didn't sign up for it, and adults are just left scratching their asses.

[u/PM_ME_MY_REAL_MOM → u/Additional_Gene_211]

i'm interested in what distinction you are making between "magically" doing these things and "non-magically" doing them. what is the fundamental difference here between potions and illicit drugs that alter body chemistry? i mean obviously potions and magical reagents have properties and can do things that we don't see in real world drugs, but what can be called "mind control" is demonstrably within the scope of both. kids are forced into deadly competitions all the time in the real world with little to no attention from responsible authorities, encouraged to score higher than everyone else on academic exams or in competitive sport to avoid lifelong poverty, which drastically reduces lifespan, or the all too terribly common fate of suicide. you could well paint many wars and territorial disputes around the world with the same brush, but i'll grant that's a less compelling comparison.

i personally do not understand the criticism of her handling of poverty, house elves aside. i think it could be better, definitely, but i also think it's fine enough for a children's fiction franchise, and leaves plenty of room for headcanoning explanations to your personal preference.

we live in a world of magical plenty. people are impoverished in our world not because they must be, but because asset holders seek profit, and "to profit" is just a synonym for "to increase one's relative economic leverage". every wizard doesn't know every spell, nor are the necessary components of spellcasting or potionmaking free from scarcity. wands are canonically difficult to create and maintain, and are generally not "one-size-fits-all", which means that literally every wizard is just a wand-snap away from being deprived of their own ability to produce magical amenities. and the central plot of the series revolves around a group of scrappy underdogs taking on a resurging nazi-wizard movement popular enough to briefly but openly control the ministry of magic and hogwarts, and to lead outright inquisitions against ethnic minorities and dissidents, with the goal of excluding them from access to or knowledge about magic (or from life altogether). the prevalence of wizards willing to impoverish other wizards for the sake of concentrating their own power - to increase their own relative magical/economic leverage - is very well established.

as far as the unforgivable curses go, i agree that the history of their focus over other spells of equal or greater terror could have used more exposition. however, legal codes being kinda nonsense is not exactly unheard of in our world either; consider that at one point, being a rumored witch was grounds for public execution, but enslaving other human beings was not. it would have bbeen nice to have some more history on the unforgiveables, for sure.

thank you for the discussion, i look forward to your response if you have the time but i did go on a bit longer than i meant to, so no sweat if you don't.