'Wizarding caste system': The Sorting Hat gets roasted on Reddit for being more villainous than Voldemort, tribal conflict develops in the comment section

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Jesse Kessenheimer • Writer and Editor
Jul 4, 2023 11:30 AM EDT

Imagine being told that you're doomed to be a wicked, bad-guy wizard just because some Hat told you that you're too ambitious. Or maybe you're going to be a boring witch because you're too smart. Or you're destined for pretty much nothing because you're a Hufflepuff. Don't lie, every child watching the Harry Potter movies for the first time had stars in their eyes over becoming a Gryffindor, but was that solely because that wrinkled old Hat told us to hate every other house?

Muggles and wizards alike love the Harry Potter universe and have been finding their place in the wizarding world through aptitude tests, determining your Hogwarts house affiliation. Like our own cyber-version of Sorting Hat guilt, everyone is always dismayed when they're sorted into anything other than Gryffindor, wondering if they could have changed their answers to seem like the bravest version of themselves. 

Well, the reason that every Harry Potter fan is desperate for Gryffindor house is simple: because the Sorting Hat told us so. The Hat is the one character who fakes niceties with children who are choosing their paths in life, talking smack on every other house apart from Gryffindor. So god-forbid you get placed in any other LAME house when you could have been brave and loyal with the other cool kids. Imagine being told that you belong in the "evil house" when you're an 11-year-old… If that doesn't set you up to be the bad guy, I don't know what would. 

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  • 01
    Product - SirVyval The jocks, the bullies, the nerds and the kids who eat glue. The_Gutgrinder How can you make a decision of such importance based on an 11-year old's character traits? when I was 11 I didn't have any character traits.
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  • 02
    Smile - Posted by u/SeaWeasil 1 day ago The Sorting Hat is a malicious bastard, placing kids in Houses based on character traits and sewing the seeds of tribal conflict within Hogwarts.
    via SeaWeasil
  • 03
    Font - Dark KnightUK 1 day ago edited 1 day ago "Here they will be sorted into one of four houses; Brave, Studious, Fair and ... Evil" "Can we ... can we not have a house dedicated to evil children? I feel that sends the wrong message" "Hmmmm. How about we say Ambitious?" "That's ... that's a bit better, but can't studious children also be ambitious?" '.... No"
    via DarkKnightUK
  • 04
    Human body - Joe PM2804 1 day ago More accurate would be the main characters, the nerds, the losers and evil.
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  • 05
    Font - OttoVonWong 1 day ago The wizarding doot 829 caste system Reply Share DANKB019001 - 23 hr. ago And then muggles n mudbloods.
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  • 06
    Font - The_Gutgrinder 16 hr. ago Exactly. How can you make a decision of such importance based on a fucking 11-year old's character traits? Bi.ch when I was 11 I didn't have any character traits. I hardly knew what character was. I liked Playstation and James Bond movies. They would've put my sorry as in Hufflepuff because my immaturity would've barred me from any other house.
    via The_Gutgrinder
  • 07
    Human body - SirVyval 1 day ago The jocks, the bullies, the nerds and the kids who eat glue.
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  • 08
    Font - Mountainbranch. 1 day ago Huff Huff Hufflepuff puff pass.
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  • 09
    Font - alyssasaccount - 23 hr. ago The brains, the athletes, the basket cases, the princesses, and the criminals. Wait, that's five somehow.
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  • 10
    Font - Bman10119 23 hr. ago You counted griffindor twice
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  • 11
    Font - SamohtGnir 1 day ago How dare you suggest people can have more than one defining character trait! I want my characters to be flat and predictable! /s
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  • 12
    Hair - LurkerOrHydralisk - 1 day ago Well good, cause that's all Rowling offers.
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  • 13
    Font - PM_ME_UR_POKIES_GIRL. 1 day ago Hey Cho Chang had a lot of depth. Like... You could tell from her name that she was ethnically Chinese. and ... She liked Harry for a bit.
    via PM_ME_UR_POKIES_GIRL
  • 14
    Font - always_open_mouth · 1 day ago Regarding the name, to be fair, they're books aimed at children/young adults. Which is something I think way too many people forget about when critiquing them
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  • 15
    Font - Fenrisvitnir 23 hr. ago You're forgetting Voldemort. He named himself after his own fate, bizarrely enough. "Vol de Mort" in French is literally "Flight Of/From Death". Basically self- describing his method of surviving death, but "Nooooooo he's not coming back, Harry, you're crazy".
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  • 16
    Rectangle - nerdguy1138 18 hr. ago In Voldy's defense he came up with that name when he was 12.
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  • 17
    Rectangle - Koirafani 14 hr. ago Let's not forget the other schools in the triwizard tournament - Ooh Là Là Ladies College and Rammstein Institute For Men
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  • 18
    Rectangle - Too Late- 1 day ago Lol, yet Snape ended up showing immense loyalty, Dumbledore also showed vain ambition, Peter Pettigrew showed cowardice, and so forth. There were many that broke out of flat predictable stereo types as the stories progressed.
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  • 19
    Font - Umbra RS 1 day ago . edited 1 day ago The houses aren't actually about which of the traits you possess, you can have all four traits. You're sorted based on which you value and ultimately want to portray.
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  • 20
    Font - Take Hermione: • Extremely intelligent, studying harder than most of her house combined. • Very ambitious with grades etc. We know she has an extremely successful career after Hogwarts, the most of the three. • Fiercely loyal, probably more than Ron. • Shows bravery by assisting a marked man throughout the books, but also struggles from time to time with courage. She freezes a few times in desperate situations, like when being attacked by dementors in book 3.
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  • 21
    Rectangle - vercertorix 1 day ago Well, the Hat told Harry he picked his path too, so some people pick one thing, but turns out they fit the other one better. If the Hat was separating every one out who was going to be evil, the Slytherin dormitory would just be a chute to Hagrid's carniverous pets.
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  • 22
    Human body - -WickedJester- 23 hr. ago You're Slytherin! That's too bad...I mean congratulations!
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  • 23
    Human body - Distorted Reflector 1 day ago There is no good or evil. There is only power, and those too weak to seek it.
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  • 24
    Font - imgrandojjo 1 day ago "Here they will be sorted into one of four houses; Brave, Studious, Fair and ... Evil" Slytherins are not necessarily evil. It's a house fueled by ambition, and ambition mixed with other dark emotions creates evil. But ambition on its own is not evil
    via imgrandojjo
  • 25
    Font - Wallname_Liability 1 day ago Slughorn was Slytherin and look at him. His ambition was simply to facilitate the rise of what he saw as his best students.
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  • 26
    Font - Sines314 20 hr. ago That's actually a really good point. As is noted in the very first book, you can choose which house you go to, to some extent. And in a Voldemort-era world, the houses reputation would have STRONGLY influenced who went there.
    via Sines314
  • 27
    Font - Fenrisvitnir 23 hr. ago Divergent is similar: the Factions are Dauntless (the brave), Amity (the kind), Erudite (the intelligent), Abnegation (the selfless), and Candor (the honest). Of course you can't be intelligent and kind, that's DIVERGENT!
    via Fenrisvitnir
  • 28
    Font - Asgaroth22 1 day ago It honestly would suck to get separated from your years-long friends and thrown in with people that have been your rivals for a long time. But maybe it would be healthy for the kids and inter-house tensions, idk
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  • 29
    Font - Asgaroth22 1 day ago For sure a way to switch houses would be welcome, not sure if a mandatory switch is the way to go :D Sorting hat could stay just as a ceremony honouring a tradition and as a way to assign the undecided kids. Want to change houses? Here's a form, here's a prefect to show you the way to your new dormitory, your things are already inside.
    via Asgaroth22
  • 30
    Font - vercertorix 1 day ago Like some people, totally a Slytherin at 11, then they mellow out and become a Hufflepuff at 17.
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  • 31
    Font - kitsunevremya 13 hr. ago I kind of like it, tbh. Not how it's presented in the books - "Hufflepuff, for all the rest" is pretty blatant framing, lol - but if you think your house reflects your priorities and values, I like the idea of Hufflepuffs being "above" the idea of being characterised at 11 or even prioritising one single trait entirely. Like, hell yeah I like to be studious sometimes, brave sometimes, and ambitious sometimes, but none of those single things define me and I'd rathe
    via kitsunevremya

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bad guy hogwarts-house Harry Potter hufflepuff villains shower thoughts wizard slytherin wizards sorting hat ravenclaw Good Guy Greg The Sorting Hat reddit thread Reddit wizarding world of harry potter houses gryffindor funny Hogwarts
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