[GameRant]If Hogwarts Legacy 2 wants to avoid the same boycotts its predecessor faced, the sequel can't take the same approach that the original did.

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Hogwarts Legacy 2 Can’t Side-Step The Franchise’s Biggest Controversy

If Hogwarts Legacy 2 wants to avoid the same boycotts its predecessor faced, the sequel cannot take the same approach that the original did.
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For years, the Harry Potter franchise has dominated pop culture, with Hogwarts Legacy acting as the franchise's most popular video game adaptation. It's no wonder that controversy surrounding the franchise has sprung up at some point, as the first Harry Potter book was released almost thirty years ago. Nevertheless, it's disappointing that such a well-loved piece of pop culture has been sullied in the eyes of many Potterheads despite new content for the franchise, like Hogwarts Legacy, continuing to release.

Unfortunately, Hogwarts Legacy was unable to unmuddy the name of the Harry Potter franchise. While the game may have been met with a positive player and critic response, it was also the subject of boycotts upon release. Avalanche Software and Warner Bros. Games tried to placate fans within the game itself, but the developers' attempt was poorly received. It goes without saying that Avalanche Software and Warner Bros. Games cannot try to avoid controversy the same way Hogwarts Legacy did in the game's allegedly slated sequel.

J.K. Rowling Has Hurt Harry Potter and Hogwarts' Legacy

Creeping through the promotion and marketing for Hogwarts Legacy prior to release was the never ending controversy surrounding J.K. Rowling's transphobic comments. Rowling's comments on the trans community, in conjunction with the reexamination of portrayals of people of color in the Harry Potter books, have essentially reduced the legacy of Harry Potter from a juggernaut in young adult fiction to a nostalgic, but messy, memory. The large majority of Rowling's comments were posted on her X (formerly Twitter) account, with the catalyst of these views being publicly perceived when she liked a Tweet in 2018 that described transgender women as "men in dresses." Since then, she has constantly posted about the issue on X and has been publicly labeled a TERF – a trans-exclusionary radical feminist.

Knowing J.K. Rowling's controversial positions on the trans community specifically led Avalanche Software and Warner Bros. Games to include a minor transgender character in Hogwarts Legacy. Sirona Ryan is the main bartender at the Three Broomsticks in Hogsmeade. The game establishes that she is fiercely loyal to Hogwarts and its students, as she stands up to Victor Rookwood in a key scene. Though it's always great to see more representation in any kind of media, Sirona Ryan does not truly add much to Hogwarts Legacy's plot other than being a minor NPC. As such, some have viewed the character's addition as performative representation rather than a meaningful statement against Rowling.

J.K. Rowling's harmful statements toward the transgender community cannot be fixed by simply adding a transgender woman to her most popular work and main source of income. Candidly, there is nothing that Avalanche Software or Warner Bros. Games can do to avoid Rowling's controversial statements, as it's likely that she will never change her mind on the subject. But that doesn't mean the developer can't strive to improve the brand's trans representation with Hogwarts Legacy 2, likely with the intent of avoiding its predecessor's boycott that was due to Rowling's statements.

Hogwarts Legacy 2 Will Likely Take the Same Approach as its Predecessor

Transgender Potterheads still exist despite Rowling's statements, so the expansion of Sirona Ryan as a character could be one way that Avalanche Software and Warner Bros. Games attempt to prevent a hypothetical boycott of Hogwarts Legacy 2. This expansion would have to be rather large and genuinely impact the story rather than Sirona Ryan's role from the previous game maintained, proving the character is not performative representation but something more substantial.

Right away, a few ideas spring to mind. Sirona Ryan's role as the head proprietor of the Three Broomsticks could be beneficial to the plot if the bar serves as a key location in Hogwarts Legacy 2. Perhaps she could once again come to the defense of her patrons, like the main students in the hypothetical sequel. If the game takes the mystery route, Sirona Ryan could essentially act as the archetypal trustworthy adult or mentor that mysteries led by teenagers tend to have. She could be a major quest giver and ally on certain tasks, appearing regularly throughout the entire game. Another option would be to include a transgender student as one of the key protagonists or companions in Hogwarts Legacy 2.

The statements made by J.K. Rowling over the last seven years regarding the transgender community have unfortunately damaged a piece of media that was once widely loved. Though it ultimately comes down to fans deciding if they are willing to separate the art from the artist, and Avalanche cannot clean up Rowling's mess, the developer behind Hogwarts Legacy can do more than insert a very minor trans character in its next game. Hopefully, characters like Sirona Ryan can be featured more heavily in Hogwarts Legacy 2, alongside transgender students, to bring a sense of comfort to trans Potterheads who decide to give the game a try.
 
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Labadal said:
The first game already had a tranny in it. There was nothing controversial about the first game. Only mentally ill people thought so.
Click to expand...
Sirona Ryan does not truly add much to Hogwarts Legacy's plot other than being a minor NPC. As such, some have viewed the character's addition as performative representation rather than a meaningful statement against Rowling.
Click to expand...
Give'em an inch they will take a lightyear.

Adding a trans ain't enough, you gotta wholeheartedly denounce Rowling.
 
Watch them include tons of forced trans and lgbt stuff in part 2 and not selling a single copy. It worked so great for dragon age, concord, duskborne and whatever.. When do devs and outlets like this learn that games are escapism and not a political agenda to force down peoples throats?
 
The boycott that achieved absolutely nowt and probably inadvertently boosted sales more than any pathetic attempt to dent them. Fuck off Game Rant, you're living in an alternate reality.
 
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Boycott? :pie_eyeroll: These mentally ill degenerates really live in a bubble don't they? Newsflash, nobody besides the degenerates on bluesky gave a fuck, most people are sane and agree with JK Rowling that men can't magically become women by wishing it.
 
Erm, the only result from doing this would be for the right to also boycott it. The far left nutters who were posting all over my wife's fb that if any of their friends played it they were no longer friends etc, will STILL boycott it regardless of what they do. But if they go all out to appease them, then those on the right will also boycott it en mass, and those in the center will see the rhetoric on both sides, see they are skewing the story to pander and assume that like with all games that do that, it's writing will simply be trash and avoid it. I seems a very good way to crater sales.

It sold like hot cakes, stirring the pot seems frankly insane.
 
There is nothing controversial or incorrect about Rowling's comments on mentally ill people.

There was no effective boycott, only tiny minority of mentally ill people screeching, with zero effect on real world.
 
Stop catering for those purple haired crazies, including these idiots at Gamerant.
They don't represent gamers, nor the public at large. They are just a loud minority that feel entitle to mandate what other people should like.
 
I have a feeling that Hogwarts 2 won't sell as well as the original, and if anything it will be because there's little momentum these days for the retarded politics that partly (and ironically) led to the success of the first one.
 
Whoever wrote that is either incredibly out of touch or just rage baiting.
Hogwarts Legacy was being "boycotted" by a very loud minority who were not gamers and never had any intention of buying the game either way. The game's stellar sales reflected that.
They can reach out and try to someway appease these activists and in the process alienate those who flocked to buy the first game.

Mainstream gaming journalists continue to be the biggest enemy of the gaming industry.
 
The article is rage bait but if for some reason it ends up being true then that's another woke game I won't be buying.

Imagine how dumb you have to be to cater to people who say this crazy shit:

Pride Lgbt GIF by BabylonBee


Instead of backing up the Author of the novels your videogame is based on and just sold 35 million

facepalm GIF
 
Damn. Like always they make up shit. Don't worry, that side will fill up there belly of that fake shit and believe it. All the places that did try boycotting it. I don't care for or even try looking into there stuff. We need like all the website that did try to make this more bigger then it was.
 
They are complete idiots.

JKR owns Harry Potter and the entire universe within it.
If you don't like her and want to boycott the games, it's your choice and you are free to do it.
 
Nothing about the game was bad, they just didn't like JK so it was targeted. "Now do a sequel a different way as defined by your alleged non-customers to show repentance for ignoring us and still selling 35m anyway. Your lost sales will help create equity in the situation...or something."
 
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