Harry Potter treatment
I watched the Harry Potter movies as a kid and they were really good. I couldn’t wait for the next one to release, and even while binge watching I could easily watch one movie after the other. The story was that gripping.
It had been a while since I got back into the Harry Potter universe, but on a random flight I was feeling bored, looked up movies to watch, and Harry Potter came up. I realized I don’t recall much of it, so I started watching from the first movie. I completed two movies on the plane, and the storyline was so engaging once again that once I was back at my destination, I caught up on the entire timeline over the weekends.
This time my experience was a little different. I noticed things I had not noticed before, which happens with every good song or movie - there is still something it has to offer on the nth watch. But beyond that, I had a unique takeaway. I realized that we are living the experience through Harry Potter, and we are all getting the “Harry Potter treatment” in this movie. Maybe that is why we like it so much. Let me explain.
If you look at these movies from the beginning till the end, they follow the standard underdog storyline, or rather the storyline of a victim of luck and circumstance. Harry has gone through a lot: his parents died, the family that takes care of him does not really treat him as a person, and he deals with it all silently. He cannot rebel even when he knows they are treating him wrong. That appeals to your feeling of being hurt by the world. Then there is the classic storyline of an underdog who unlocks a certain skill or power and gains a place where he feels he belongs. In Harry’s case it was Hogwarts and the friends he made on the journey - close friends, distant friends, a life, a place he would belong, and people who would look up to him when he came back after the summer vacations. This all seems very normal, but if you look at it, this is all we look for: a place of belonging, a sense of purpose, and people who care about you. These are the things that center you and give you a good life.
One thing I noticed this time, which I had not noticed earlier, is that Harry was not really someone special. Look at animes like Naruto or Death Note. Naruto is very resilient and has a lot of passion and purpose. He has a motto he sticks to no matter what: he will never leave his friends behind. In Death Note, the guy is smart and wants to be taken seriously - very sharp, very intellectual. But the main character arc kicks in when he gets the additional power of the notebook, just like Naruto had the additional power of the tailed beast. Similarly, Harry Potter had the additional power of magic. All these stories share a very common underlying theme.
But in these other storylines we usually get a character arc. Naruto worked very hard on his skills - you could see him go to the point of exhaustion, training that almost took him to his death. Even in Death Note you see that the guy had skills, that he thought through steps way ahead, though the part where you see an underdog grinding on his skills is missing there too. But particularly in Harry Potter, you never see Harry Potter work hard. You never see him practice a spell multiple times. You never see him putting effort into the skill that he later becomes good at. As the movies progress he gets better at his spells. “Alohomora”, the basic spell to unlock doors, is something he didn’t know and learned from Hermione. Later in the movies he casts advanced spells, attack spells and defense spells, and “Alohomora” keeps showing up as a reminder that Harry has gotten better with time. But it is a very wishful, rather unbelievable kind of growth. You just see him doing things, without ever seeing the effort behind it.
Sure, some people are gifted. I have had the luck of witnessing some of my friends in college who were really gifted. But that is not the norm. The vast majority of people are not gifted. It feels nice to be one of the chosen ones, to just be able to do things. But most people have to identify and work hard at the skills they can get better at. And it makes sense that this is a children’s movie, because most children are like that. It is very childlike to think that you are just very good at something and others cannot do it because you are special, because you deserve it.
It was also evident this time - and it was not evident when I was a child watching the movie - that the entire cast is just there to save Harry Potter. At some point after Prisoner of Azkaban, the people around him become central to the story, and the entire crew ends up shielding him from Voldemort’s attacks. People die just to save him. In those moments you see the grief in his eyes, you see him repent, the music is great, and you feel the pain. I have no complaints with the storyline. But I do have a complaint with Harry Potter. Even in those moments, he never practices his craft. You see him getting angry, you see him casting spells, but you never see him deliberately putting effort into getting better. He is still that lost guy who is just angry and passionate when he sees Voldemort. He is very helpless, to be honest. He puts up a fight when the moment arrives, without ever learning how to fight, because he is the chosen one. And because he is unprepared, he always reaches the brink of death.
Going through all the fights in the saga, the top three instances where Harry took on a fight he was not ready for and was almost dead or severely hurt, before someone saved him:
| Movie | The fight he wasn’t ready for | Who saved him |
|---|---|---|
| Philosopher’s Stone (2001) | Alone in the dungeon with Quirrell, whose body hosts Voldemort | Dumbledore. The Mirror of Erised gives the stone only to one who wants to find it, not use it, and Dumbledore arrives in time to pull Quirrell off him. |
| Chamber of Secrets (2002) | The basilisk in the Chamber | Fawkes, Dumbledore’s phoenix. Heals the poisoned bite with his tears. |
| Prisoner of Azkaban (2004) | A swarm of dementors at the lake, his soul about to be sucked out | A Patronus cast by his own future self, made possible by Hermione’s Time-Turner. |
So there is an army of people whose job is to save him - many times Dumbledore, many times Snape, many times Hermione. Which is very childlike again, because that is how children are protected. You never see Harry Potter grow. Although to be fair, we only see his teenage arc, not his adult arc - maybe that is where he would have actually practiced and grown into a full-fledged wizard who realized his potential through dedicated effort. But the movies were mostly about his innate talent, and that is what makes them childlike. You can call the early part of your life, till around eighteen, childhood. After that it becomes a game of dedicated effort and dedicated decisions, which I could see in other animes and other storylines, but it was missing in Harry Potter. And somehow this was the first time I was seeing this angle, on maybe my third or fourth full watch of the series, which started on that flight.
So although I was enjoying it, and the storyline was so gripping that I had to watch all the way till the last movie and could not quit midway, this feeling that came in around thirty to forty percent into the series stuck with me till the end.
Coming back to the “Harry Potter treatment”. The reason everyone loves this movie is maybe that it takes care of everyone’s inner child, which wants to be protected, wants to be cared for, wants a place of belonging, a sense of purpose, and people who love them. That need is completely met in Harry Potter. Anyone who is a hero is good to Harry, anyone who is a villain is bad to Harry. The entire story revolves around him, and you live through it vicariously. You love the movie because you are getting the “Harry Potter treatment” through him - perhaps the best treatment one can ever expect.
And I realized that if you treat people with the same amount of affection and warmth, you basically give people the “Harry Potter treatment”. I don’t think any soul can stay distant. People will eventually want to be friends with you, because it is just great to get that treatment. The movie teaches us a great way to embrace people: give them the “Harry Potter treatment”. Anyone who gives it is going to go far in life.
The second lesson is the flip side of the same observation: only in a children’s fantasy movie can you rely on your inbuilt talent. In the real world you need a little bit of planning and effort - intentional, directional effort.
I have nothing against the movie. It is just that I see it very differently now compared to how I saw it years back. Same movie, everything is the same, but my context has changed, and the outcome I get from the movies is very different from what I got earlier. It was a very fun movie and I would watch it anytime again. I am a huge Harry Potter fan, to be honest. Maybe if I watch it ten years later I will have a very different perspective, and I will again see things I did not see earlier. I am kind of looking forward to that.