The Most Outrageous Harry Potter Canon Changes Made By J.K. Rowling

Harry Potter has been over for 12 years now for the books and eight years for the films. Yet, a lot of us still find it hard to move on. After all, it seems no other fantasy universe has been so universally liked by people of all ages. You know who else can’t move on? J.K. Rowling, apparently as she keeps introducing new tidbits of fan-fiction Harry Potter canon changes which shatter our perception of the whole Wizarding World.

This actually started way back then even before the era of social media. However, with the advent of Twitter, Rowling seems to have found her new addiction or pastime what have you. The Harry Potter author periodically tweets these Harry Potter canon changes. Some of them make sense and are acceptable while others are worse than knowing Avengers: Endgame spoilers before even seeing the film– it ruins the whole thing.

To make matters arguably worse, some of these Harry Potter canon changes seem to be politically charged by real-world politics nonetheless. By no means is that bad, of course… if done in a new intellectual property and not an old and established one. People even went as far as accuse Rowling of tokenism with the way she seemingly shoehorned political correctness and social justice notions in the Wizarding World.

As for the said Harry Potter canon changes, there’s actually quite a lot. Here are the most outrageous of all of them.

Trump was worse than Voldemort

Photo by Bullshit.IST

This might be something a lot of us can actually agree with Rowling on, but that would discredit all of Harry’s hard work. Here’s Rowling’s tweet about US President Donald Trump being worse than Voldemort.

It came after BBC published a news article comparing Trump to Voldemort. Before anyone could suggest destroying Trump’s wig as it might be one of his Horcruxes, Rowling shut down the comparison. Seems fair enough, Voldemort at least wasn’t a creepy old man despite obsessing over a boy.

Fluffy was repatriated to Greece

Photo by WB

We all know Fluffy, right? He’s essentially a Cerberus dog and is one of Hagrid’s monster trophies/pets. Turns out, Fluffy was rendered useless once the Sorcerer’s Stone was destroyed by Nicholas Flamel and Albus Dumbledore.

So, instead of letting loose a three-headed dog in the Dark Forest, Dumbledore sent Fluffy back to Greece. Rowling, however, never stated how Hagrid reacted to such a departure. We’re also not sure how Dumbledore fares as an animal rights promoter, though; he did condone the fight with imported dragons in the Triwizard Tournament.

Uncle Vernon is pro-Brexit and loves Top Gear

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Uncle Vernon is a hate magnet from the get-go and to make him more unlikable, Rowling made him pro-Brexit. Of course, it seems all the evil or dislikable characters in Harry Potter would probably have voted in favor of Brexit, as Rowling herself implied.

Apart from loving Brexit which is about the U.K. leaving the European Union, the Dursley daddy apparently also loves to watch Top Gear. The usual sentiment for Top Gear (the original one) is that it’s racist, homophobic, and sexist or at least promotes such ideas. Blimey, uncle Vernon.

Hogwarts originally had no toilets

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It makes sense for Hogwarts to not have any toilets or plumbing. Those were invented by muggles, after all. However, J.K. Rowling’s explanations for how the students and teachers relieved themselves was… you be the judge:

She never went into detail whether there could have been an actual spell named “excretus deletus” which went obsolete when Hogwarts adopted the toilet and plumbing. Also, what happened then to first years or muggle-borns who never knew any spells? Not to mention that the entire girls’ lavatory was built on top of the Chamber of Secrets. Oh well, let’s chalk it up to the plumber/building contractor being a Slytherin.

Nagini was a human woman

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No Rowling tweet for this one. Still, it’s one of the most controversial “revelations” which Rowling herself authored. Those who watched Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald will surely have noticed Nagini being retconned as an Asian woman. She was a Maledictus who permanently became a snake due to her curse. The biggest surprise was that she’s not evil there.

That changes quite a lot since Nagini did not agree with Grindlewald’s plans, which is pretty much the same as Voldemort’s. So how come she ended up in Voldemort’s hands and as a Horcrux nonetheless? Even worse is the fact that people are actually accusing Rowling of aiming for the “representation points” by picking an Asian woman to play Nagini. We all know the snake to be evil in the Harry Potter books and films.

The Cursed Child is canon

Photo by Harry Potter and The Cursed Child

Despite being written by Jack Thorne based on an original story by J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Cursed Child is canon. At least, that’s what J.K. Rowling wants it to be. So you can put those “is the Cursed Child canon?” questions to rest.

It’s also not a prequel, of course, and takes place 19 years later from the events of Deathly Hallows. Hence, you can rest assured or roll in bed thinking that The Cursed Child stage play you watched is canon. With that said…

Hermione wasn’t exactly white

Photo by WB

Rowling said that in a tweet about Hermoine not being specifically of Caucasian descent. Apparently, she was prompted to make that statement due to the backlash over the casting of Hermione as a black actress (Noma Dumezweni) in The Cursed Child. While there is no dispute that Dumezweni was an excellent Hermione Granger, that didn’t stop people from pointing out an inconsistency in Rowling’s writing.

In fact, people who have read Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince were quick to indicate that Hermione’s complexion was actually depicted there as being pale or at the very least, light-skinned and has a habit of turning pink when blushing. Other than that, some of the earliest illustrations for Harry Potter picked by Rowling herself have shown a Hermione closer to Emma Watson’s appearance.

Ron and Hermione had a bad marriage

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This one was a straight-up gut punch to the fans. A lot of people did ship Ron and Hermione’s polar opposite relationship and pairing. However, it seems Rowling had other things in mind for the two when she revealed that their marriage was a troubled one.

Worse still, Rowling now thinks that Hermione would have ended up happier with Harry instead. Rowling revealed this in an interview with Wonderland magazine, claiming that, “Maybe she and Ron will be alright with a bit of counseling, you know. I wonder what happens at wizard marriage counseling? They’ll probably be fine. He needs to work on his self-esteem issues and she needs to work on being a little less critical.”

We’ll give you a moment to pick up those shattered hopes and dreams on the floor.

Dumbledore’s “intense sexual relationship” with Grindelwald

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Perhaps one of the most controversial statements from J.K. Rowling and one that spawned countless parodies and fake Rowling tweet memes. Dumbledore’s sexual orientation or chosen gender was never really specified in the Harry Potter books. Along comes Rowling who not only revealed that Dumbledore was a homosexual; he also *ahem* got it on with Gellert Grindelwald.

They didn’t call Dumbledore the “Headmaster” for nothing. Jokes aside, it was one of the most blindsiding Harry Potter canon change or retcon that nobody asked for. For many, it felt like Rowling was simply scoring some LGBT representation points and Dumbledore was available for the agenda.

All racists go to Slytherin

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As if Slytherin wasn’t demonized enough already. One would think that Hogwarts would have shut down Slytherin long ago. After all, they are the breeding ground for a lot of scum in the Wizarding World. Just so you don’t despise Slytherins enough, here’s J.K. Rowling slithering in some bad Slytherin qualities:

Putting all the racists in Slytherin doesn’t exactly bode well for the diversity that Rowling wants to promote in her canon changes, does it? Especially since Dumbledore was put in Gryffindor even though he thought wizards were superior to others back when he was young. Rowling basically implied that Slytherin was a trash bin where all the bad eggs go to become even bigger racists… so why was Hogwarts called a school again?

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