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PaperclipPerfector  2d ago (text post)   7918 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of October 26, 2026

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The US Department of Education just posted Malfoid slop:
"There's Magic in Learning"

https://x.com/usedgov/status/2115069815505203483

Or rather, there is Magic in Yearning, Make Romance Great Again, am I right? …

Two weeks ago @KingOfTheBailey had an excellent post about the trend:

https://www.themotte.org/post/3960/culture-war-roundup-for-the-week/486219

The result has been a lot of chaotic glee that Harry Potter is up for recapture and reinterpretation. … The chuds are rediscovering fanfiction from first principles, using it to poke sticks in eyes or roll back some of the idiocy of the past few years, and they're doing a lot of it with AI. … It is extremely interesting to me that there seems to be very little goonbait in the Malfoid stuff I've seen,

I want to note three things two weeks later:

  1. The lack of explicit sex seems to hold
  2. I don't see explicitly an agenda pushed (the US government co-opting the meme and make it unpalatable for leftist demographics could change that), instead I see a collaborative goal to change as few things in the canon as possible and the pieces just kind of fall neatly into place. It is a male-brained analysis of a system (the HP canon) and what little screw to exchange in a running motor; for example if the plot point is still happening that Harry Potter is badly hurting Dracina with the Sectumsempra curse (plus the question if she keeps scars from that) is argued about emotional impact and character motivation, but not from making a larger point in the gender war.

Original:
https://youtube.com/watch?v=L5g-17uLO90

AI Anime versions:
Kind of sloppy but neat:
https://youtube.com/watch?v=g6jjXAASi_Q
Better animated, but very Korean:
https://youtube.com/watch?v=4mkZ8jEYySo

  1. It is very visual. My stereotype is that teenage nerd girls write/read tons of fanfiction (literature), but teenage nerd boys watch lots of anime, so that makes sense? Beside written scenes there is a pipeline of (Asian) illustrations -> (Asian/Western) AI cinematics

For example this illustration of Dracina casting a peacock as patronum is striking:

https://x.com/CaboVT/status/2106491934818853274

And was then canonized in this AI Battle of Hogwarts scene:

https://youtube.com/watch?v=Y6tAajsc9PY

And then discussed how a (male) peacock can sort of make sense as a representation of Harry for Dracina.

Then there was first an illustration of Harry/Dracina fighting Voldemort together with the same wand:

https://x.com/Aurondarklord/status/2106975585507418609

My favorite thing about Malfoid is watching the internet collectively decide on, and then stick to, the canon of her alternate universe. Like at this point EVERYONE agrees that this "both of them holding one wand" visual is how they kill Voldemort. EVERY version of the final battle in her timeline uses it. It's a genuinely heartwarming exercise in organic, viral cooperation.

Which sparked this AI scene:

https://youtube.com/watch?v=VgfNf79t3oo

I don't care it's AI, this shit is like finding diamonds in a coal mine.

What I love about this trend is that regardless of which path the story takes, the fandom unilaterally agrees that the final battle ends with Potter and Malfoid holding the wand together.

I don't care how cheesy or juvenile or klischee it is; narratively it just makes sense: Draco is the rightful owner of the Elder Wand, we have the redemption arc of Slytherin and Voldemort is defeated (again) by the power of love. Could this not be done with a male Draco? Why not a good old fashioned friendship? One argument I read was that women often see rivalry as sexual dominance (e.g. the gay romance in Heated Rivalry) and so Rowling couldn't work out an honorable defeat/submission of Draco to Harry. So a Harrys + Dracos male friendship would actually need a more extensive rewrite than a female tsundere Dracina being in love.

Anyway, now that the US government involved (Hello fellow kids!), doesn't that mean the ship is sailed and the trend run its course into being old and uncool?

Not necessary, I want to officially register my prediction that with the start of the HBO series (December 25, 2026 (Christmas Day)) AI is good enough (or will be good enough in coming years) to replace Draco scenes with reimagined Dracina scenes. There will be alternative Malfoid-episodes which can be torrented.

So Rowling is hated by the Left, but herself hates Trump & the Right. I will laugh if she declares that she's not approving of "Trans Malfoy" and then everyone burns themselves down trying to figure out which side they need to be on.

so like Richard Hanania

Hanania-chan is a tsundere for rightwing attention. Whatever else one thinks of Rowling, she isn't tsundere about her interests.

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