ArcticFire

Why did the Malfoid phenomenon catch fire? I think it speaks to what people yearn for, and how modern entertainment failed so badly to meet them. Harry Potter was one of the pillars of the monoculture era. Up until the early 2000s, just about everyone could be counted on to consume the same media—Harry Potter being among them. That means there was already a huge pre-made audience for the coming of Malfoid. Malfoid rested on a deceptively simple premise: what if Draco Malfoy were female? That single change had profound ripple effects across the narrative. It unlocked countless story opportunities. It highlighted and deepened the themes of the series. It reignited discussions of the original work. In addition, being a social media phenomenon, it gave fans the feeling of participating in the act of creation. Beyond that, the implications spoke to the true, the good and the beautiful. Draco Malfoy was just the guy who happened to get in Harry Potter's way sometimes. Malfoid carried the spark of romance, and from romance came mythopoeia. The Chosen One and the Noble. The Boy Who Lived and the Death Eater's Daughter. The redemption of Houses Malfoy and Slytherin, and the union with Houses Potter and Gryffindor. The triumph of love over evil, at the beginning of the story and at its end. Stories like these speak to every soul. And in Malfoid, with social media and AI, these stories can come to life, at the hands of those who have loved the IP, and have come to love it again. Now think about what modern entertainment does. These days you see endless reboots, sequels and spin-offs of popular media. There was a huge pre-existing audience, and Big Entertainment works tirelessly to recapture them. Then they made their changes. DIE. Censorship. Culture war nonsense. These changes served no purpose but politics. Instead of deepening the original and building upon it, they sawed off the branches upon which they sat. They sacrificed the greatness of the original works on the altar of Current Year, and offered to the capricious gods of woke a hollow skinsuit. Then they expect you to swallow it and smile. HP fans loved their world. From this love they created the canon of Malfoid, to redeem again their world with love. Big Entertainment hates the works they have inherited. They will shove that hate down your throat and demand that you bend the knee for this privilege. What have we learned from this? People want the familiar. They also want the novel, framed against the familiar. In the novelty they seek the sacred, that which is timeless and universal, that which refreshes and enlarges the spirit. Nostalgia for its own sake will not ignite a hundred hearts, nor busk a thousand ships to war. You who would rejuvenate the culture, you who would call yourself an artist, learn well!