If you will give my words a chance, I offer an alternative recommendation. The recommendation is of a children's book series with academic elements where the corrupt status quo is fought against. After that, I'll talk about my perspective (two small paragraphs, on the Harry Potter franchise/reboot and how I feel about its harm) and my other recommendations/requests.
This will be awkward (apologies) and I cannot polish the awkwardness away- but I hope the heart of my message will still make it across.
So, what I recommend, it's the book series the Dreamworks' Dragons series was loosely based on, and the first book is called How to Train Your Dragon. All 12 books are written and illustrated by Cressida Cowell, and David Tennant read the audiobooks.
If you're willing to read How to Train Your Dragon, you may request it from your library, buy it from a bookstore, or find it free online..
(And the Dreamworks Dragons series has its own multi-season tv series, too.)
Now I'll talk more about the books. It's a silly series but if you are willing to give it a chance, its depths have the messages you want to see again.
Hiccup's Misadventures is a series about a boy growing up while learning how to live as himself even though he naturally challenges the status quo. How he goes through darker and darker misadventures but how he perserveres with the help of his friends- including his dragon Toothless (who is toothless).
Also, there is a whole song/speech in the book with the leader of the tiny dragons about the power of the small and powerless. And in the same book, How to Speak Dragonese, Hiccup says this:
However small we are, we should always fight for what we believe to be right. And I don’t mean fight with the power of our fists or the power of our swords… I mean the power of our brains and our thoughts and our dreams.
And as small and quiet and unimportant as our fighting may look, perhaps we might all work together…and break out of the prisons of our own making. Perhaps we might be able to keep this fierce and beautiful world of ours as free for all of us as it seemed to be on that blue afternoon of my childhood.
This is from the epilogue of that third book- in the canon of the books, the prologues and epilogues are written by an old Hiccup reflecting on his youth (and he is the narrator, though he talks in third person because the events were so long ago.)
The series, though I won't spoil it- it really explores its themes and world, grows its characters, and stays its integrity to the end. Cressida Cowell's books are far from flawless, but they are heartfelt and poignant and sincere.
Beyond the Hiccup series- now I will for two small paragraphs talk about my perspective on the Harry Potter franchise.
I read most of the books/saw most of the films and played one of the games to cope as a child. I was betrayed when I discovered what was under the enchantment, and it's been hard to cope with that, hard to process the broken potential and the real bigotry that is there.
But real children, like the one I was- are being deprived of rest and a proper education on the set of the TV show, for the show. The original children who played Harry, Ron, and Hermione are all grown up and denouncing the franchise and the real harm that Rowling is purposefully causing with it. Rowling considers watching her reboot as an endorsement of all her evil views, and that reboot is depriving those child actors of their childhood. I can't watch the reboot knowing the truth.
My plea is- please move on to better. I'm tired, too- but the effort to move on is worth mustering the courage to, and whatever you choose to enjoy instead will probably be worth the effort.
And there's so much good out there.
I like watching films/series using the game Minecraft as a canvas/playground. Wifie's Searching For A World That Doesn't Exist, Evbo's Parkour Civilization series, the Hermits' Hermitcraft series...
Beyond the realm of fiction- there's so much that you can read about on how the world can and is being made better, including blogs dedicated solely to good news.
And please, if you haven't done so already- do take a look into into masterpost/masterlist/resource/DIY/life hack tags (in the main one or on various tumblrs') where you can search through to find simple ways to make your life and the lives of those around you better.
Or, though this may be harder- consider reading arguments for anti-capitalism.
Alright, that's all I have to say. Thanks for reading this all, if you did.
Image ID: A gif from a lego movie. Emmet, a brown-haired lego man in a construction uniform, is standing on a street. Emmet is holding up a big pixel art heart made of lego. He moves his other hand approximately over his heart then moves it over to point in the direction of the viewer. End Image ID.
