Oof. New Pottermore Part 2: The Bad

Ok... so we're on to the bad. Well, this ain't gonna be good. Let's delve in to the easy part.
Just the removal of all that was old. And the navigation system. And the obvious movie shilling. And the bit about Lavender. And the design.

Ok Ok, maybe I'm going a bit too fast here. Well... This is the equivalent of Pottermore attempting, sincerely, suicide, in the hopes that whatever comes out of the ashes will be far better and more beautiful than could be imagined.  I mean, it seems that the symbol of New Pottermore is a Phoenix after all. So, how did Fawkes look when he came out of his ashes?

Ooooh.... yah..... He was butt-ugly. So with that, part of me feels it's unfair to harp on the bad here, buuuut I'm here to entertain as well as inform, and I'm a grumpy soul and won't be holding back my punches. That being said, I do hope that for this entry, you realize I'm trying to be a bit more funny, rather than truely call out the worst parts of this change. That comes later. 

So, first, we have the big change. Dueling, Potions, collecting, friends, log in, sorting, wand picking, all gone. Now, logging in, sorting, and the wand selection are bound to return, but the rest we aren't sure. If pottermore is intelligent, I wouldn't be surprised to have a good part of it return in one way or another, but I have rarely accused Pottermore of intelligence. Part of what makes this fairly insulting is the way that accounts and sorting have been handled. Pottermore should have held off till this was done, and well, it will come in the coming months, but that's already good will lost. I'm sure a lot of us will still be Potterheads, but you know there's at least a handful that have been ruined by this. 

Now we have the navigation and... it's bad. The main search works by just typing in two letters and getting a list, and there are a few other breakdowns. Now the thing that could help Pottermore is indexing. Something wikis have down already. So let's say you type in xenophilius lovegood. Nothing will pop up. Go ahead and try it now. Try typing in his full name. Nothing happens. Try for griphook. Nada. Now I'm sure these characters are mentioned elsewhere... and that's sort of what gets me. The character is elsewhere. Tag your things. We should be able to go through family trees and contacts and enemies. 

Now this wouldn't be as bad if they were not somewhat unclear about canon, which they say they are all about. this brings me to the notorious case of Lavender Brown. She is both alive and dead, or rather pottermore presumes her dead, while the book leaves it open for life, and the movie shows her dead. This leads to the great question: is she alive and how? But this sort of goes to the downside of Pottermore content being written by people that are not Rowling. They now go through the books and the films to create a sort of hierarchal canon. And may we remark at how bizarre THIS is to have a canonical conflict about.  There is so much more that could put canon at risk. But hey, old wounds. Though I suppose, if there's anything to be appreciated here, it's how this is possibly the first information put on pottermore that creates a bit of a debate, instead of just flat out answering the question. 

And this leads to the last problem. Shilling the films. To be honest, this is less my thing, but one I noticed people are upset about. So, this is being put out because of how relatively poorly this worked compared to the original purpose, and the incongruency it has caused. Basically, everything the films touch, turns to money. Films are good. The themeparks are great. The books, while we love them, don't necessarily have the same track record. 

Ok, OK! Let me explain. The Books are amazing, and the source of the magic, but the films are a more accessible point of reference to the casual fan. And that's not good for the hardcore fan. Yes, this will result in a product that most will be ok with, and really, Pottermore orienting itself to the average fan is probably their best decision. There's a lot more goodwill towards the films than towards Pottermore, and I think it shows. What probably makes it worse for Pottermore, is that the fandom is perhaps the most skeptical and hard to tame group than any other. We saw the fall of The Ministry, and saw how people fail. We see the similarities, whether it is deserved or not, and what is worse, we question the people feeding us. Harry taught us to question authority, and to see the problems with our idols and leaders. So perhaps Pottermore always would have a problem with shilling, and why it is something that has played fairly poorly. To the diehard fans that like their own headcanons it's frustrating. To the observant frustrated user, it is blatantly transparent to the point of being insulting.

Sooo you going to put away the torches and pitchforks? Or maybe, hold on... because next up we have the Ugly, aka, what really pushed my own buttons, and what I think deserves the real anger.