Hardly any other franchise has as many background stories and facts as the Harry Potter saga. The main reason for this is JK Rowling, who repeatedly publishes details about the characters she has developed and connects anecdotes from her own life with the events of the books. Although the author has made critical comments in recent years, one thing remains clear: many have found a home in the Harry Potter world that no other film series can replace.
There are many offers of identification for underprivileged groups in the Harry Potter series. For example, the Weasleys, who are ridiculed by the Malfoys for their financial situation, should be mentioned. Or those magicians who have so-called “Muggle” parents and therefore inherited a lot from the house of Slytherin. Characters who would conventionally be established as outsiders were cast extremely positively. Above all, Neville Longbottom and Luna Lovegood should be mentioned here.
The cold kiss of the Dementors
One of the scariest elements of the Harry Potter series is the Dementors. They are first seen in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. Alfonso Cuarón directed this part of the series, which was very dark for the first time, replacing Chris Columbus as director. In the transition from the still childlike first two parts to the third part, things change: we get to know creatures like werewolves better, learn more about Harry’s family history and are more confronted with the magical world outside Hogwarts. The dementors play a central role in this.
When it comes to the Dementor’s kiss, the person loses their inner emotional life. But even with such an attack, the mages are not completely helpless. Dementors can be defeated by casting the Expecto Patronum spell while thinking of something that will make you happy. The loss of all feelings of happiness evokes associations with the experiential accounts of depressed people. This is no coincidence! JK Rowling himself suffered from depression. They inspired her to create the dementors.
The South German newspaper reported how Rowling explained the connection between her depression and the dementors: “I know grief, it’s not a bad thing. To cry and feel But depression is the cold absence of feeling, a real emptiness. That also applies to the dementors.’ Before Rowling published the first Harry Potter book in 1997, setting the decisive milestone for her breakthrough, her life was anything but easy. As a single mother, Rowling has struggled financially, surviving a breakup and coming to terms with the death of her own mother. Writing helped her with that.