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Notes -
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
I want to note three things two weeks later:
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
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
Which sparked this AI scene:
https://youtube.com/watch?v=VgfNf79t3oo
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.
I am amused that Malfoid is arguably the first western pop-culture cross-media hit that is almost purely AI generated in its cross-media forms. It might not have started that way, it and wasn't only that way, but fanart turned into concepts and videos solely because of AI, and people are accepting it.
I don't think I've ever said it because I find most AI talk boring, but part of my view of AI in culture is that the 'shun the AI enjoyers' position of the anti-AI-slop cohort was going to collapse when more people found themselves enjoying AI. In the same way it's harder to hold gender class hatred when you fraternize with the other side, or to hate a sin you relish enjoying, once you find something to enjoy from AI you are increasingly complicit. First it starts as an exception, then maybe the good ones, and then a passive acceptance.
For Malfoid itself, I do agree with the general 'beating Voldey with the power of love' line of 'it just makes sense!' I think you could have done it with other forms of love, but I think Harry Potter would have had to be a drastically different sort of story to be that. I think there was an AAQC nom from yesteryear about how Neville was the real boy-who-lived and Harry was a decoy protagonist, and that had a certain sort of fraternal love. Maybe if Draco and Harry were secret siblings stolen apart by the death eaters, they could have had a fraternal love-rivalry. But turning Malfoy into Malfoid doesnn't lose much, given Malfoy was a deliberately unlikable piece of shite who none the less gave us the Draco in Leather Pants trope, and I will never forgive the yaoi fangirls for that.
So tsundere Malfoid works, and yaoi Malfoy with leather pants is tainted by the human element, and ain't that a kick for AI?
It’s a divisive issue, like any other divisive culture war issue. Some people are fine with AI content and some aren’t. It’s somewhat falling along existing culture war lines. Many people in leftish spaces, or spaces that you would expect to attract a lot of lefty people, proudly adorn their creations with “No AI Used” tags, or they’ll leave random unsolicited “so glad this shit isn’t AI” comments even on posts/works that have nothing to do with AI at all, and I don’t think that’s going to change any time soon.
I strongly doubt that Malfoid has converted anyone to the pro-AI side who wasn’t already inclined that way in the first place, especially because the meme seems to have a rightist valence to the extent that it has any political valence at all, and it’s largely the right who’s already the most in favor of AI art.
I don't think it has or will cause anyone to fully cross the fence. The most rabid anti-AI people are already anti JK Rowling for her position on trans, so can double hate this. But I think it has a broad normie appeal. The people who aren't terminally online, who aren't far left/right brained, who aren't paying much attention are just having fun and enjoying something wholesome. The next time someone starts going on about how AI data centers are going to cause a drought and steal jobs from artists people will be like "eh, I dunno, they make some good memes, seems like artists can still use them to make art". Or especially if they got inspired to dabble themselves and had fun with it. It's basically a vaccine that primes casual people to lean towards AI instead of against it. A small subtle effect, multiplied by millions and millions of people.
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