Hogwarts Legacy mocked over tone-deaf character names: ‘Introducing Homie McSexual’
A custom character from the video game Hogwarts Legacy. (Warner Bros)
The Harry Potter universe, and new game Hogwarts Legacy, is being ridiculed (once again) for its “unbelievable” naming conventions for minority characters.
And LGBTQ+ people have been sharing their own potential Harry Potter names for queer characters online.
The conversation regarding several the names of several characters – which have been criticised as “offensive” – was sparked once again following the introduction of Hogwarts Legacy trans witch Sirona Ryan.
Introducing a trans character into a video game which will help fund JK Rowling – who many have condemned for her views on trans rights – created its own set of questions but LGBTQ+ activists also criticised the character’s name.
While she appears to be named after the Celtic goddess of healing, several people took issue with the honorific “sir” being used in a trans character’s first name, while her surname is simply the boy’s name, Ryan.
The naming convention brought up similarly criticised characters such as the Black wizard Kingsley Shacklebolt and the Asian character Cho Chang.
Both names have been accused of upholding racial stereotypes and being offensive to nonwhite people and minorities, especially considering the often elaborate names of Rowling’s white wizards and witches.
As a result, queer people have started theorising fake names for a hypothetical queer wizard in Hogwarts Legacy as a jab at Ryan’s name.
Names such as “Homie McSexual” and “Leslie ‘Lez’ Bien” have been making the rounds on Twitter, with people having to think twice about whether they’re even genuine.
“Nah, that’s not nearly offensive enough, it’d be more like Dixon Leatherfruit,” one user commented.
“There’s also going to be an asexual/aromantic character names Ace Ekshual,” Another joked.
Other names were theorised for non-British or non-white wizards, which aimed to be as bizarre as their actual Harry Potter counterparts.
It’s not just character names that raised concerns looking back at the Harry Potter source material.
There has previously been criticism of JK Rowling’s world map for all of the wizarding schools currently in existence, which has been noted for its lack of consideration for language or cultural differences.
In it, both South America and Africa shared just one wizarding school each, while China and India shared just one between them.
A controversy in 2016 also arose when JK Rowling compared the fictional werewolf condition lycanthropy in her novels to HIV.
This gained criticism since comparing a group of societally shunned individuals who aggressively try to infect others with their affliction isn’t exactly an accurate or fair metaphor for people living with HIV, especially considering the stigma that already surrounds it.
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