1.

“Porn mags would have moving pictures.”

—u/scully__

“They would also talk back to you, god help you they might even critique you.”

—u/meltingdiamond

NewsBlur, an RSS news reading app for the web and mobile devices, recently had one of its databases deleted thanks to an insecure default setting that has dogged developers using Docker since 2014.

In a blog post this week, Samuel Clay, founder of NewsBlur, recounted how an unknown vandal deleted a database from his app’s dockerized MongoDB cluster using a “Docker footgun” – something setup in a way that promotes shooting oneself in the foot, so to speak.

The incident happened as Clay was in the process of moving NewsBlur, which relies on PostgreSQL, MongoDB, Redis, Elasticsearch databases currently, to Docker containers in preparation for a redesign. He switched the app’s MongoDB cluster over to the new servers and shut down the original server, intending to delete it after the new setup proved stable.

Clay explains that the Uncomplicated Firewall (uwf) he enabled on his internal servers didn’t work as expected on a new server because of an insecure Docker default.

“When I containerized MongoDB, Docker helpfully inserted an allow rule into iptables, opening up MongoDB to the world,” he explained. “So while my firewall was ‘active,’ doing a sudo iptables -L | grep 27017 showed that MongoDB was open to the world.”

The exposed database appears to have been spotted and deleted by an automated ransomware script after about three hours. Clay said he was alerted to the disaster when he received an error message from NewsBlur on his phone. It included “drop” in the error message, the SQL data definition language command for deleting databases.

Upon examining his MongoDB installation, he found a new empty database named “READ__ME_TO_RECOVER_YOUR_DATA” that included a demand for 0.03 BTC (~US$1,094).

Clay had no reason to pay the ransom, however, because he determined no data had actually been stolen and he had a backup of the erased database.

• NCSC chief: Ransomware is more of a threat to Britain than hostile nations’ spies
• Good news for pentesters and network admins: US issues ransomware guidance asking biz to skill up security teams
• Update Docker: Fun bug involving file paths and shared libraries turns out to be a security hole
• If you’re using Harbor as your container registry, bear in mind it can be hijacked with has_admin_role = True

Looking through his MongoDB access logs, he was able to spot two connections that occurred right before the deletion that came from a Tor exit node. While some site owners block IP addresses associated with Tor exit nodes, Clay said NewsBlur has not done so to allow people in internet-censored countries to bypass content restrictions and to promote free speech.

The Docker footgun – installing Docker on Ubuntu Linux that silently bypasses firewall rules – has been a matter of concern among developers for the past seven years. The problem is widely known enough that various online posts offer workaround advice.

Lack of secure defaults is also an issue for various databases. Last year, several thousand inadequately secured databases were deleted in what’s been referred to as a “Meow” attack.

The Register asked Docker why it hasn’t implemented a more secure default but we’ve not heard back. Docker’s documentation does warn that it manipulates iptables, the command line utility is used for IP packet filtering rule configuration.

We put the same question to Clay, who responded, “Your guess is as good as mine. It’s sort of like the trade off between convenience and security. Here convenience won out.” ®

Britain’s Helen McCrory, best known for her work in the “Harry Potter” movie series, the James Bond film “Skyfall” and the “Peaky Blinders” television series passed away on Friday after her “heroic battle” with cancer, her husband, Damian Lewis, announced in a tweet.

McCrory was 52 years old and has received several acting rewards for her work.

Her husband, with who she had two kids, said he was heartbroken.

“I’m heartbroken to announce that after a heroic battle with cancer, the beautiful and mighty woman that is Helen McCrory has died peacefully at home, surrounded by a wave of love from friends and family,” Lewis said.

• Rupert Grint told Variety that he has only seen the first three “Harry Potter Movies.”
• Grint said he saw the first three at premieres, “but after that I stopped watching them.”
• However, Grint said that he plans to watch the rest of the movies with his daughter.

Rupert Grint has said that he stopped watching the “Harry Potter” movies after the first three, and he only saw those at the premieres.

In an interview with Variety, Grint, who played Ron Weasley in all eight movies, said: “I’ve probably seen the first three at the premieres, but after that, I stopped watching them.”

After “The Prisoner of Azkaban,” then, Grint has somehow missed all of the other Potter movies. But that may change following the birth of his first child.

“But now that I have a daughter, I will probably have to watch them with her,” Grint said. Grint and his wife, actress Georgia Groome, welcomed their daughter Wednesday in May 2020. Grint shared a picture of Wednesday when he made his Instagram debut in November.

A post shared by Rupert Grint (@rupertgrint)

 

Grint isn’t the first “Potter” alumn who hasn’t been caught up with the movie series. Draco Malfoy actor Tom Felton recently rewatched the movies for the first time in 20 years. Felton called Malfoy a “little s—” during the live stream he filmed while watching them.

In the same interview with Variety, Grint said that he doesn’t expect to be part of the new Harry Potter TV series being developed by

HBO Max
, and said it would be “weird if it was a continuation kind of thing.” It’s unclear what the series will be about, but it seems he doesn’t want anyone else playing Ron.

“I weirdly feel quite protective of that character,” he said. “Even when I saw the stage shows, it was a very strange experience. If it’s like a different group of friends, I guess it would be interesting.”

If you are a fan of the Harry Potter franchise and a collector of BrickHeadz, you might be scratching your head at the one-sided line-up released so far, which includes the three heroes of the story, along with Dumbledore, Hagrid, Buckbeak, and Newt, but only one villain so far, Gellert Grindelwald. Well, that is about to change. With the upcoming release of a brand new batch of bad guys and girls. That’s right, the most feared villain in history, He Who Must Not Be Named himself, Lord Voldemort, is finally joining the ranks of BrickHeadz along with his snake Nagini and Bellatrix Lestrange. LEGO BrickHeadz Harry Potter 40496 Voldemort, Nagini, and Bellatrix includes 344 pieces and will be available starting June 1, 2021. LEGO has not released a price or parts count at the time of this review, but based on previous multi-character sets, I’m guessing it will be around $24.99 US.

The LEGO Group sent The Brothers Brick an early copy of this set for review. Providing TBB with products for review guarantees neither coverage nor positive reviews.

The box and contents

The extra-wide box features the entire line-up of Lord Voldemort (143), Nagini (144), and Bellatrix Lestrange(145), along with the Harry Potter and the Wizarding World branding. The side shows the 3 characters from the movie, while the back of the box shows the characters in a different line-up, along with photos of each character with their stands.

The set comes with 4 numbered bags (2 of bag 3), many containing additional bags for smaller parts, as well as 3 instruction booklets, one for each character.

There are a few printed parts as well: Voldemort’s creepy snake nostrils, his robe collar, Nagini’s scaly front, and Bellatrix’s gown front. The set also comes with 4 of the tall 1×1 bricks with 2 studs on one side and 4 of the newer tall 2×1 bricks with studs on three sides.

The build

While Lord Voldemort may be patient enough to spend years plotting his revenge on Harry, we don’t want to keep him waiting, so we’ll start with him. Right away, he breaks the mold by starting at the very bottom with the hem of his long robe trailing behind. From here on up, however, he follows the typical BrickHeadz process with a tall core of outwardly facing studs.

Aside from his snake nostrils, the rest of the build goes along without interest, and personally, I think that his bald head would have looked smoother if they had used tiles instead of plates, just this once.

Moving on to Bellatrix, right away, we see something unexpected. Not only with the upside-down cheese slopes used for Bellatrix’s bodice, attached with two technic axle bricks top-to-bottom, but two architectural bricks with a curved fleur, which fill the space above the inverted brick perfectly.

From there, the build takes a more traditional turn, with a tall stack of outward-facing studs. There is a bit of extra support for the upcoming pile of curly hair, which is substantial. So substantial, in fact, that Bellatrix becomes top-heavy and must be attached to her stand early to keep her from face-planting.

The next section gets complicated as we attempt to match the instructions placing dark brown round plate after plate. Fortunately, LEGO included red outlines for all of the new pieces in the instructions, or it would have taken me even longer to get everything right. The fact that there was an extra bag with just these parts for her hair should tell you something.

Finally, we come to what I would say is the absolute undisputed star of this set, Nagini. Starting with a small section that forms the upper neck of the serpent-turned-horcrux, including a nice slope with a printer scale pattern. Then we move on to the cutest snakehead ever.

The head uses those tall bricks with studs on three sides to provide the perfect offset to the tiles on either side.

From here, we build a set of coils that wrap around the back ending with her tail.

The finished model

The finished characters each get their own stands, and two of them get wands. Sorry, Nagini. Overall, they are well detailed and capture the look of their on-screen inspiration well, and while Nagini may come off a bit cutesy for a giant snake, I think that she steals the spotlight, hands-down. Voldemort felt a little simple to me, especially compared to Bellatrix, but there is really nothing else you could do with him besides maybe include some green blast effects or a death’s mark.

Conclusion and recommendations

We’ve waited a long time to see Voldemort join the rest of the Wizarding World of BrickHeadz, and with Nagini, the wait was worth it. I think that this set would make a great addition to any Harry Potter fan’s collection. If you are looking for a good parts pack, the amount of dark brown plates and slopes spilling out of Bellatrix’s tresses and the sand green curves are worth it, even if you have to take Nagini apart to get them.

The LEGO Group sent The Brothers Brick an early copy of this set for review. Providing TBB with products for review guarantees neither coverage nor positive reviews.

If you think you’ve seen “Harry Potter and the Cursed Child” — well, think again.

Having been dark since early 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the multi-award-winning play is returning to the stage — with considerable changes.

It will no longer be a two-part event, which fans could enjoy in marathon style on one single day or split up over two days. It’s now a newly-staged single performance show.

And it’s coming back to the Bay Area.

Following a world premiere theatrical event at Broadway’s Lyric Theatre in New York that begins Nov. 16, “Harry Potter and the Cursed Child” will open Jan. 11 at The Curran in San Francisco. That is the same venue that hosted the earlier “Potter” production, which was onstage when the coronavirus pandemic basically shut down live in-person theater in March 2020.

Tickets for The Curran shows go on sale July 21. Visit HarryPotterOnStage.com for more information, including details on how to sign up for presale opportunities.

“Harry Potter and the Cursed Child,” the first Harry Potter story to make it to the stage, is based on an original new story by J.K. Rowling, Jack Thorne and John Tiffany.

“Collaborating on Harry Potter and the Cursed Child has been one of the great joys of my professional life,” Rowling said. “While no one would wish for what has happened over the last year, it has given Jack, John and the first-class creatives who first breathed life into the production the opportunity to revisit the play, and to find a new way to frame our story — with amazing illusions and some exquisite new staging — all the while keeping our original story intact.”

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Helaina Alati, 25, was at a Sydney store on Monday when the 3m non-venomous snake slithered out.

The Fairview Community Theater is casting a spell on Fairview to give local students a magical night.

Ticket sales opened Friday for the Hogwarts acceptance letter delivery experience from 5 to 8 p.m. July 31. For $25 per household, families can have actors dressed in robes come to their doors and deliver the letters along with jelly beans and wands. Hagrid may even make an appearance.

“We want to make a magical experience. … They can tell their friends, ‘I got delivered my Hogwarts acceptance letter,’” Vice President Sarina Jeske said.

The theater began doing character visits at homes to stay involved in the community after the pandemic began. They started with princess visits and caroling, and have now expanded to the Harry Potter themed back-to-school event, which will be the most interactive character visit the theater has done.

Starting today, audiences can purchase advance tickets for “Chaos at Hogwarts” and “Wizards Take Flight” at Harry Potter New York from www.harrypotterstore.com/tickets.  The VR adventures can only be experienced at Harry Potter New York with a timed reservation. Reservations are now available from July 15 to August 15 and pre-booking is highly recommended.  Guests will be able to choose from multiple Wizarding World-themed avatars allowing for customization of their Hogwarts house among other attributes, for the daring adventures that await inside the immersive and interactive virtual re-creation of the wizarding world. Guests who have purchased VR experience tickets will not need to register in the Harry Potter New York virtual queue and may proceed to the front of the line when they arrive.

Using state-of the-art wearable VR technology, including headsets, backpacks, hand and foot trackers, and peripheral wands that allow interaction with the virtual experiences, visitors will be able to roam freely through Hogwarts Castle, and fly through the skies of London, complete with wind in your face. The sensory effects and immersive virtual environment deliver a brand-new level of realism and adventure unlike anything fans will have experienced before.

• Starting with your arrival at King’s Cross for preboarding, “Chaos at Hogwarts” guests take a magical journey to Hogwarts Castle and become part of the adventure. Up to 6 guests can explore the stage in a social free roam adventure surrounded by various haptics and special effects, all synchronized with the story experience. Guests will have a virtual avatar and will be able to see their fellow adventurers. Guests will wear a VR headset, backpack, hand and foot trackers, and wield a physical wand.
• “Wizards Take Flight” prepares guests for a flight adventure as they fly on brooms with the thrills of a magical wand battle against Death Eaters over the skies of London and free fly around the enchanting grounds of Hogwarts Castle. Up to 6 guests are seated on their own physical broom, a first for fans of the Wizarding World, with their own station of haptics and special effects, all synchronized with the story experience. Guests will have a virtual avatar and will be able to see their fellow adventurers. Guests will wear a VR headset, hand trackers, and wield a physical wand.

Harry Potter New York houses the VR adventure pods in Harry Potter-themed staging areas, featuring an array of Wizarding World decorations and props. Harry Potter New York is the world’s only official Harry Potter flagship store in the heart of New York City’s Flatiron district offering an unforgettable experience for Wizarding World fans. Spanning three floors and over 21,000 sq. ft., Harry Potter New York houses the largest collection of Harry Potter and Fantastic Beasts products under one roof. Harry Potter New York is located at 935 Broadway, New York, NY 10010, with entrances on both Broadway and Fifth Avenue. The store is open from 10am-9pm Mon-Sat and 11am-7pm on Sundays. 

The “Chaos at Hogwarts” and Wizards Take Flight.” virtual reality experiences are each $34.00 per guest, and VR reservations include access to Harry Potter New York.  Pre-booking of VR tickets is highly recommended.

Customers visiting Harry Potter New York will be able to access ATT’s fast, reliable, and secure 5G. The power of 5G technology offers super-fast wireless speeds and lower latency, which helps increase the amount of data we can transmit and decrease the amount of time it takes to do so. In addition, ATT 5G is also used to power the virtual queuing system to help ensure customers’ health and safety while shopping. The system assists customers with check-in and tracks the number of people inside the store to make certain CDC guidelines are followed to help consumers have an ultimate retail and wireless experience.

WHAT TO KNOW:

Please visit www.harrypotterstore.com/tickets and www.harrypotterstore.com/faq for the most up-to-date information regarding ticket sales, arrival instructions, and health and safety protocols.

• Ticketing – The “Chaos at Hogwarts” and “Wizards Take Flight” VR experiences can only be experienced at Harry Potter New York with a reserved time slot. Tickets may be purchased online at www.harrypotterstore.com/tickets. Pre-booking online is highly recommended to secure a ticket for your preferred time slot, and to ensure that you and your group can all experience Harry Potter VR together. We will announce whenever new tickets go live via our website and our Harry Potter social channels (#harrypottervr and #harrypotterny), so please continue to check back regularly for upcoming availabilities. Each experience is $34.00 per guest.
• Age Height – All guests must be at least 48 inches tall and 10+ years old. Guests under age 13 must be accompanied by an adult with a paid ticket.
• Accessibility – Wheelchair options are available upon request
• Arrival – VR guests should arrive 30 minutes before their scheduled time to check-in. There is no need to join Harry Potter New York’s virtual queueing system, simply head to the main entrance with your booking confirmation to check-in.
• Store Access – Once your VR reservation has been confirmed and you and your group have been admitted inside, you are free to shop and explore the store at your leisure both before and after your VR experience. Guests who have purchased VR experience tickets will not need to register in the Harry Potter New York virtual queue and may proceed to the front of the line when they arrive.
• Duration – Your full journey should take approximately 30 minutes from beginning to end including check-in, gear-up and gear-down.
• Gear – A show guide will help you gear up for your experience. Guests will wear a light backpack (approximately 10lbs), hand trackers, foot trackers, and a VR headset. Our headsets can accommodate most glasses. For “Wizards Take Flight,” only a VR headset and hand trackers are required. Headsets, foot and hand sensors, backpacks, wands and brooms are sanitized before every use.
• Health Safety – We are opening the Harry Potter VR experiences in compliance with state and local guidelines and following strict cleaning and sanitation protocols. To protect yourself and others all guests and Harry Potter New York are required to wear masks at all times.
• What to wear – Dress for adventure. Long skirts and flared pants may interfere with the sensors or get tangled. Wear comfortable shoes. High heels and flip flops are discouraged.
• Photography – Photos and videos are not allowed inside the experience, but we encourage you to snap all the content you want at Harry Potter New York, in the VR waiting areas and gear-up/gear-down rooms. Remember to share on social with #harrypottervr, #harrypotterny and tag @harrypotterny!

About Wizarding World

In the years since Harry Potter was whisked from King’s Cross Station onto Platform nine and three quarters, his incredible adventures have left a unique and lasting mark on popular culture based on the original stories by J.K. Rowling. Eight Blockbuster Harry Potter films have brought the magical stories to life and today, the Wizarding World is recognized as one of the world’s best-loved franchises.

Representing a vast interconnected universe, it also includes two epic Fantastic Beasts films, (the third releasing in 2022), Harry Potter The Cursed Child – the multi-award-winning stage-play, state-of-the-art video and mobile games from Portkey Games, innovative consumer products, thrilling live entertainment (including four theme park lands) and insightful exhibitions.

This expanding portfolio of Warner Bros. owned Wizarding World experiences also includes Harry Potter New York – a brand new flagship store, Warner Bros. Studio Tour London – The Making of Harry Potter, Warner Bros. Studio Tour Tokyo, and the Platform 9 3⁄4 retail shops.

The Wizarding World continues to evolve to provide Harry Potter fans with fresh and exciting ways to engage. For the worldwide fan community, and for generations to come, it welcomes everyone in to explore and discover the magic for themselves.

About Dreamscape Immersive

Dreamscape Immersive is a world-leading VR company which combines the emotional power of Hollywood storytelling, and the visceral excitement of great theme-park rides with a proprietary full-body tracking technology to create pioneering experiences for entertainment, education, and enterprise solutions.  Backed by some of the biggest names in entertainment and media –including WarnerMedia, Viacom, AMC, Steven Spielberg, and Hans Zimmer – Dreamscape VR provides for a level of user-engagement never before experienced in the industry.  

Dreamscape has now extended its state-of-the-art VR platform and immersive content capabilities to students, researchers, and educators via Dreamscape Learn, a new partnership with and investment from the nation’s leading innovator in education, Arizona State University.  

Dreamscape was founded in 2017 by an unlikely pairing: an extraordinary group of Swiss technologists with roots in medicine called Artanim and a mix of proven leaders in entertainment. These medical researchers, cinematic heavyweights, live events experts, and gaming veterans all came together under a collective mission: to leverage singular VR technology with Hollywood-certified storytelling to create unforgettable virtual reality experiences.  Dreamscape’s founders include its CEO, former producer, screenwriter and head of DreamWorks Motion Pictures Walter Parkes; Swiss computer scientists Caecilia Charbonnier and Sylvain Chagué; entrepreneur Ronald Menzel; former Chief Creative Officer of Disney Imagineering, Bruce Vaughn; global music events producer and serial entrepreneur Kevin Wall; and global live events producer, Aaron Grosky.  

The company is headquartered in Los Angeles, with a facility in Geneva. Its location-based VR venues began rolling out across the US and Middle East in December 2018, with additional domestic and international locations coming soon. Dreamscape Learn is set to rollout in 2021. To learn more about Dreamscape, please follow @visitdreamscape or visit our site at: dreamscapeimmersive.com.

About Keylight

Keylight was founded in 2019 by Hollywood-based producer, Chris deFaria, whose credits span some of the most successful and technologically innovative films of the past decade including Ready Player One, Mad Max: Fury Road, Gravity, and 300 along with animated films, How To Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World, The LEGO Movie and Happy Feet.

Working with the world’s leading creative digital studios, Keylight produces theatrical films, original series, and XR and transmedia projects with a focus on innovation and the creative application of emerging technologies.

About Wevr

Wevr is a leading interactive software company producing best-in-class virtual worlds.  Wevr’s immersive titles include TheBlu, Gnomes Goblins, and now Harry Potter in collaboration with WarnerMedia.

Wevr has produced innovative interactive experiences with creatives including Reggie Watts, Run the Jewels and Jon Favreau, and has earned partnerships with WarnerMedia, Samsung, Time, NYT, Vulcan, Google and others.  Wevr is now developing a cloud software platform, Wevr Virtual Studio, enabling 3D artists to easily make and share 3D projects.  Wevr’s world class leadership team is comprised of repeat successful software entrepreneurs and Academy Award-winning digital entertainment pioneers.

The company is headquartered in Los Angeles, CA.  To learn more about Wevr, please follow @onwevr or visit our site at wevr.com.

Publicity Contacts

Mandy Rodgers/Ashley Tecson
[email protected]

Stuart Herriott
[email protected]

Michael Foell
[email protected]

For any press enquiries for Harry Potter New York, please contact: [email protected]. Sign up to receive more information at HarryPotterStore.com.

#HarryPotterVR

SOURCE WarnerMedia

Related Links

http://www.warnerbros.com

A school of witchcraft and wizardry was the exact escape needed for any kid trying to run away from their childhood problems and not a single franchise ever existed that made me want magical powers more than Harry Potter. At 10 I wanted nothing more than to receive a Hogwarts letter in the mail and get shipped off to God knows where to perfect my non-existent skills; and even spent that whole year mentally preparing myself for the movie series finale, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows — Part 2. After Warner Bros. confirmed a two-part split for the last movie in 2008, a collective sigh of relief spread throughout the fandom as there was finally a split coming that allows the full plot from the books to be fleshed out, unlike the rest of the movie series that had to sacrifice subplots and filler for the sake of time. With Deathly Hallows — Part 2 being the highest-grossing film of 2011, it’s safe to say that director David Yates knew what he was doing. The day we got that movie on dvd I snuggled up in my Gryffindor robe with the rest of my family (even though I was the only fan), rewatched the first part of the two-part Deathly Hallows finale, properly preparing for the epic battle to wrap up a ten-year story in the making. Now revisiting this movie at 21, I can’t help but appreciate its legacy while still side-eyeing the recent actions of series author J.K. Rowling.

This finale set us up for a series of full circle moments that tied certain elements of the 10 year world building with a beautiful bow. Throughout the last film we finally see the significance of snake symbolism that emerged within the first film being emphasized with a physical snake being tied to the very last piece of Voldemort’s soul, the final horcrux. This element adds another layer to Harry’s ability to speak parseltongue outside of his soul tie to Voldemort; it’s an anchor depicting that the requirement of the serpents death for the death of the source of evil shows a deeper reasoning that those deaths are simultaneously required for the death of the iconic “demonic” and “evil’’ universal symbol of serpents overall. My favorite full circle moment had to be Severus Snapes’ weird and apparently evil obsession with Harry being explained as an even weirder tough love mixed with protection treatment? We gain a whole story within one scene that shows Snape vowing to protect Harry for the sake of the love Snape held for Harry’s mother but also the hatred Snape held for Harry’s father permeated and showed itself in the beratement Harry endured from the Defense of the Dark Arts Teacher turned Headmaster. This last film was the final chapter for so many characters whether shown in storyline importance or rather in death, but blended with the seemingly budding future for others (the “main trio” of the series) gave for mourning mixed with rejoicing in being able to see the trio’s kids embark on their Hogwarts journey in the final moments of the film.

As fans of such an iconic brand we knew that there was no way that this could fully be the end, and we were right. The following year after the movie finale, the online world of Pottermore (now known as Wizarding World) was launched, giving fans the opportunity to get sorted into a house, learn spells and originally go through their own story mode as a Hogwarts student. The site has since been revamped to include more news, features, and original writing by author J.K. Rowling explaining certain details of the franchise like the choice of the platform number, ghosts, and wand cores. As tacky as spin-offs can be, we also received Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them in 2016 and its sequel Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald in 2018, both serving as prequels to the Potter series and include many references to the series, including the references to the Deathly Hallows themselves. We continue to receive physical blessings well into this year with the first official Potter flagship opening in Manhattan on June 3, 2021 offering a three-floor abundance of merch from both the Potter and Fantastic Beasts franchises. 

Now sitting at the 10-year anniversary of the final Harry Potter movie, we once again celebrate the ending of an era, however, the celebration holds more of a bitter taste this time around thanks to J.K. Rowling. After publicly defending a woman on Twitter who was fired for transphobic tweets in late 2019, Rowling began to receive critical heat and was under the watchful eye of fans, critics, and the world of social media alike. She then continued on her problematic reign in June of 2020 by quote tweeting an opinion article titled “Creating a more equal post-COVID-19 world for people who menstruate,” to which the Potter author stated, “‘People who menstruate.’ I’m sure there used to be a word for those people. Someone help me out. Wumben? Wimpund? Woomud?” The iconic Harry Potter himself Danielle Radcliffe spoke out, standing alongside trans rights through The Trevor Project and for the fans. “To all the people who now feel that their experience of the books has been tarnished or diminished,” Radcliffe said, “I am deeply sorry for the pain these comments have caused you. I really hope that you don’t entirely lose what was valuable in these stories to you.” That’s the whole issue. That is why the celebration is bittersweet in nature because although the actions of Rowling could never take away from the literary masterpiece or the magical cinematic world and character building of the series, it makes everything that much more complicated to enjoy. Who wants to stan a problematic creator?

On a regular basis, we read about creators old and new tarnishing their legacies, and it begs the question: Is this anything new to us? Within the last couple of years we have witnessed the downfall of relatively newer creatives like Chrissy Teigen for bullying allegations and Chris Pratt for his political beliefs as well as his anti-LGBTQ church affiliation. We also experienced the criminal trials of once-beloved creatives like Bill Cosby and R. Kelly. Both exist on a fanatic battlefield that is split between those who separate artists from artistry and those who straight up canceled them with no question. They exist on this same wavelength of Rowling because of their cultural longevity and impact on such large scales—their problematic words and actions have made it difficult, for fans, to wager their love for the art against their moral code of support. All three of these major legacies hit home for many because of the essence of nostalgia, as a bookworm kid who knew nothing about sexual identity that grew into a proud queer adult, Rowling ripped a very personal heartstring. I may never watch a Cosby Show episode again, listen to any iconic cookout track by R. Kelly, or pick up a 400+ page Harry Potter book again—but I don’t know if my nostalgia could let me release my physical attraction and admiration for a movie series that changed my life.

For an author like Rowling specifically, it’s unfortunate and essentially ironic that words were the catalyst for fame and legacy…and also the very essence of her downfall. In the words of the late great Albus Dumbledore, “Words are, in my not so humble opinion, our most inexhaustible source of magic, capable of both inflicting injury and remedying it,” but maybe Rowling needs that reminder.