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Ivan K @ivankander.bsky.social · 04/12/2025

New newsletter: #Hogwartslegacy is now on Game Pass so I tried to play it. It made me feel weird. #videogames

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You Cant Go Home Again: "Hogwarts Legacy" and the Impossible Task of Separating the Artist from their Art

I tried to play the open-world Harry Potter game. It made me feel weird.

Ivan K @ivankander.bsky.social · 04/12/2025

All this to say, how can we separate the art from the artist? This basic debate has come up often in the world of movies—where problematic filmmakers are finally being called out for disgusting and often illegal behavior. But, does that mean folks shouldn’t watch Annie Hall in a film studies class? Does Rosemary’s Baby get stricken from the record? Is it possible to enjoy the art without somehow supporting the artist? I’d argue that the two are inexorably linked; bifurcation is impossible.

In the case of Hogwarts Legacy, it gets even more complicated: a team of literally hundreds of people—developers, artists, writers, animators—brought this game to life, and I’d imagine the majority of them disagree or are actively opposed to Rowling’s views. But, yet, by building such an elaborate piece of Harry Potter lore, they too are feeding the machine, both with financial and cultural capital. By preserving the legacy of the property, they too preserve the legacy of its creator. There is no unraveling that thread.