This review contains spoilers

Spoiler review so I can dig into why exactly the plot is antisemitic and why you can't "just ignore" it.

The TLDR is that the game's about stopping a goblin rebellion, which we already knew from the trailers. The trailers also included a scene where the main villain goblin and dark wizard talk about kidnapping the player, calling on the antisemitic trope of blood libel.
Well we now have the full context, and it gets so much worse:

The dark wizard Rookwood (no subtleties here as that's the name of one of the Death Eaters in the original series, guess the whole families evil) cursed Anne, the companion characters sister, and framed the goblins for it. This out of context truth is most likely what people will use to say "see the games not antisemitic, the goblins were framed" but this is just backstory for one character and the rest of the game still exist.
While not completely new to the series (offhandedly mentioned like 2 times in the books) this game is the first time anyone learns what exactly "ancient magic" is. Ancient magic is apparently a substance that can be extracted from the body, and apparently extracting it is believed to be a form of "pain relief". Not dissimilar from medieval "therapies" of bloodletting and leeching. The antisemitic blood libel doesn't end with the goblins: In the game's backstory a former Hogwarts professor Isidora Morganach discovered how to tap into "ancient magic" by extracting it from her students. Isidora became addicted to "ancient magic" and made many magic repositories which you can find throughout the game. In the present the player character is someone who has "ancient magic", this is why the goblins and dark wizards want to kidnap you.
The goblins who teamed up with Rookwood are rebelling because the wizards don't give them equal rights, like wand use. As I said in my previous review this along with wizards trying to enslave goblins as "house elves" is already a part of the series' lore for their many rebellions. The game also adds little details like goblin artifacts that are eerily similar to Jewish cultural items, and past rebellions lining up perfectly with real world antisemitic genocides. And of course the final boss of the game is the "evil leader" of the goblin Ronrok who uses all the "ancient magic" to transform into a dragon, as if evil bankers wasn't enough. A better writer would maybe have Rookwood be the final boss after revealing he was just using Ronrok and the goblins plight to his own ends, to marginally make the story better (but not by much). But that wouldn't be in the spirit of the franchise now would it? And like I said in my other review, it's a prequel, they can't actually make any meaningful change to the status of the non-human sapient magical beings without breaking continuity with the original series.
Sure if only one of these were true (and the context of the books and creator didn't exist) it would most likely be an unfortunate (gross) coincidence. But that's not the case.

With Harry Potter you can argue the antisemitism is not a huge part of the books (but still a major issue) but with this game the antisemitism is at the core of its identity. The devs didn't have to quadruple down and add all this, but not surprising that the lead dev was a gamer gater before being booted.
You can't remove this game from its antisemitism and you can't remove this franchise from its creators' bigotry and political views.

Go read "Trans Wizard Harriet Porber And The Bad Boy Parasaurolophus" by Chuck Tingle

Reviewed on Feb 10, 2023


8 Comments


1 year ago

i dont really have a horse in this race and i dont give a shit about harry potter books or movies but i just want to point out that the only asian chick in the series is named cho chang and i think that's fucking hilarious

1 year ago

think I saw you in the ign comments lol

1 year ago

@nekomanscer I only went to to the IGN review when it first released cause people were memeing about it. Tbh I don't think I even have an account (if I do I made it a long time ago and forgot about it lol)

1 year ago

geez i wish i was as well-written as you. thank you so much for typing this up, it'll be useful in case i have to show someone <3 though im shocked your other post isnt being harassed, i got dogpiled on by 2 people today just for commenting on a review

1 year ago

@moschidae I'm honestly surprised as well since it was one of the first ones posted.

1 year ago

The lead dev's youtube account is a very telling rendition of the games behind the scenes influences past JK Rowling lol.

https://www.youtube.com/@TroyLeavitt

1 year ago

The blood liable shit was about Jews killing (specifically Christian) children both because of their irrational hatred towards said children and to be used for, among some other things, cooking matza. How does ancient magic work as an allegory for that? Is Christian Boy Blood usually scattered in magical ruins? Does it give you strenght? Did this lie started from a non-jew doing the Christian Boy Killings and then alligning with persecuted Jews to fight for rights but do it unethically?

I'm sorry but this is a stupid reach. This game isn't some Nazi shit, it's liberal, shortsighted, and slavishly devoted to a canon that is both of these things. The goblins as a whole aren't even presented negatively, in fact it's kinda comical how nice everyone outside of Ranrock and his possy. Even the bankers are extremely nice and polite. JKR is not a secret Nazi, she's an avert transphobe that thinks that this bigotry somehow fits into her generally liberal framework. And I'm not saying that JKR is truly liberal, I'm saying her ideology is incoherent and that she doesn't think of trans people as deserving the same rights and respect as anyone else. So her work is incoherent as well. She's fine with inventing a whole species of people who like being slaves, and she's fine thinking that "bigotry is the biggest wise". It's not secretly about how racism is cool and Jews are evil, it's just dumb. Those are different things

1 year ago

It is not a reach at all lmao, the games plot is literally as close to blood libel you can get without outright stating those words. Or maybe I should say QAnon adrenochrome, which is just a modern version of the same conspiracy theory. I already explained how ancient magic works as an allegory for that, it's literally the life force inside special children who were kidnapped/murdered so the Jewish-coded villains could consume it and grow more powerful. Ultimately ending with the Jewish-coded goblin using it to turn into a dragon.
The source books are already extremely racist and antisemitic, and this game sticks close to that as well as the lead dev being a gamer gater, it's not a coincidence. "JKR Isn't a secret nazi", yep that's totally why she has no problem working with them and using their rhetoric.