How has Harry Potter Stuck Around

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The Wizarding World of Harry Potter Hogwarts Castle

Anna Vogtmann, Staff writer

July 2 is a date to remember.

In a few months, the 20th anniversary of the critically acclaimed book and movie series “Harry Potter” will be celebrated. This series may have simply put a spell on its impressively loyal fans — how has “Harry Potter” out-bested even the best? From “The Twilight Saga” to even the “Hunger Games,” “Harry Potter” has surpassed them both.

Forbes.com posted an article that compares the three novels.

“Social media sentiment for all three films is and was overwhelmingly positive, but “Twilight” engendered the most negative talk, at 7 percent of all conversation. The Hunger Games comes in at 3 percent, while just 1 percent of conversation surrounding Harry Potter was negative.”

Various articles surround the subject of why “Twilight” had failed to keep its strong fan base. Gina Barreca from “Psychology Today” describes the weak points of the saga as well as the many aspects and angles of the book didn’t makes sense. “…after 119 years, shouldn’t he be out of high school already? Give the boy a Kaplan program. Let him crack 1000 in his SATs by the 47th time and get the kid into a community college somewhere.”

“The Hunger Games”, on the other hand, was not a failure. The first book came out on September 14, 2008, one year after the last release of “Harry Potter.” “The Hunger Games” originally didn’t catch on until 2012 and 2013, therefore, it hasn’t had enough time to build as big of a fan base as “Harry Potter”, but that’s not the only reason the “Hunger Games” is still still shy of Harry Potter’s blockbuster numbers. …Rowling is a more accomplished, better writer, and her universe is far more intrinsically developed, [In my humble opinion],” said Helga F. Riedel, comparing “The Hunger Games” and “Harry Potter” in her blog article. 

Michael Dias, a freshman at Vista Del Lago, has some opinions about the Potter series. “Harry Potter is just a really intriguing and well developed, fantastic world,” said Dias, and later said that the writing style is “extremely detailed” which is why he thinks this book series is from others.

“Harry Potter attracts more of an audience and applies to both genders pretty evenly. The idea of magic gave the book more freedom to become what it wanted to,” Dias said regarding the differences between “The Hunger Games” and “Twilight”. “The plot and how the story theme developed was spectacular. Plot holes were easily answered later on, and once you read the entire series, the earlier books were obviously foreshadowing the later ones…The well thought out series turned into an entire world that didn’t just stop growing as each book went on, and each book was another year and a new plot twist or theme.”

The four “houses” at Hogwarts for the students are Gryffindor for the brave, Slytherin for the cunning, Ravenclaw for the smart, and Hufflepuff for the kind. Dias ultimately ended his statements with saying he would probably be in the Ravenclaw house. 

At the end of the day, “Harry Potter” still seems to rise above them all. This book series is popular, even two decades later. Considering how long it has lasted, it will still probably be one of the most world-renowned name for years to come.