Review: 76412 Hufflepuff House Banner

Okay, other than their use as Horcruxes, or destroyers of the same, is there any significance assigned to the four House items? Are they just random mementos that previously belonged to the House founders?

@PurpleDave
"Okay, other than their use as Horcruxes, or destroyers of the same, is there any significance assigned to the four House items? Are they just random mementos that previously belonged to the House founders?"

In the books the diadeem could be seen on a statue or a painting (forgot what) in the ravenclaw common room, backstory daughter stole and hid it.
The sword of gryfindor was special with a backstory.
All the other stuff were just old trinkets owned by the founders with only a collectors value.

Edit the ring contained the death stone but only a few in the wizard world knew the meaning of that.

@WemWem said:
"Ah yes, the "Everyone Else" house."

We found the Hufflepuff.

Brought this up in the last banner, still curious about a possible answer, but are those designs on the front of the book supposed to represent the animal mascot of the house? This one and Ravenclaws are kinda badger/eagle like, the Gryffindor one sorta forms a mane and muzzle, there’s something vaguely snakey about Slytherin’s. Not sure if this is just pareidolia kicking in or if that kind of abstract representation was the aim

@Brickalili said:
"Brought this up in the last banner, still curious about a possible answer, but are those designs on the front of the book supposed to represent the animal mascot of the house? This one and Ravenclaws are kinda badger/eagle like, the Gryffindor one sorta forms a mane and muzzle, there’s something vaguely snakey about Slytherin’s. Not sure if this is just pareidolia kicking in or if that kind of abstract representation was the aim
"

I’m confused, do you mean the animal picture that’s on the front of the banner when it’s closed? Or the black border that surrounds the picture?

@monkyby87 said:
" @Brickalili said:
"Brought this up in the last banner, still curious about a possible answer, but are those designs on the front of the book supposed to represent the animal mascot of the house? This one and Ravenclaws are kinda badger/eagle like, the Gryffindor one sorta forms a mane and muzzle, there’s something vaguely snakey about Slytherin’s. Not sure if this is just pareidolia kicking in or if that kind of abstract representation was the aim
"

I’m confused, do you mean the animal picture that’s on the front of the banner when it’s closed? Or the black border that surrounds the picture?"

The border around. Each banner has the central emblem with an actual animal but then you have the bordering design around that emblem which is different on each banner. Just wondering if me being able to see abstract representations of each house’s animal in that design is just me inventing patterns or if that was a deliberate move

What does a "common room" represent in the psyches of the aging Millennials that buy this product? The Potter setting is the British private boarding school model, which has been overlaid upon the author's appropriation of the Solomanta magical school story from Romanian folklore. The elitism inherent to real British private boarding schools, which serve as early pipelines to perpetuate the hierarchies of power for British society, is inherent to the appeal of Hogwarts. A public magical school in Eastern Europe is much less compelling. The cloistering of the students of Hogwarts from the world at large mirrors the separate worlds of the elite. Hogwarts represents a power fantasy: "if I were a rich British kid, I would have been educated properly, and the power held by real Britons educated at elite boarding schools is like magic."

“I can’t digest lactose - I’m a hufflepuff”

@WemWem said: "Ah yes, the "Everyone Else" house."

I passed this group of teenagers, some years ago, and they were having a very animated conversation. But as I walked past them, the only specific phrase I heard was a boy telling his friends, "... and that's how I got kicked out of Hufflepuff." And then I walked on, out of hearing range.

And I wished, with all my heart, that I'd heard the rest of that conversation. What on Earth did that kid do, to get kicked out of Hufflepuff? As you said, their mandate is literally, "all the rest".

@Brickalili: I'm pretty sure that's just you, as none of the borders suggest their House animal to me. Except maaaybe Ravenclaw's sort of looks like folded wings.

@Murdoch17: I'm pretty sure a Japanese school was also mentioned somewhere in one of the ancillary books.

@watcher21:
I did a little digging into it and got a partial answer. I had remembered that the diadem was magical, and obviously the sword is. The diadem granted wisdom to the wearer, and Rowena kept its theft secret until her deathbed (still unclear if she died keeping that secret, or waited until she was dying to tell anyone, since she sent the Bloody Baron to retrieve her daughter rather than the diadem). The diadem was also the last known surviving possession of Rowena Ravenclaw.

The cup was magical, but I’m not seeing an explanation for what it does. It was owned by Helga, and was passed down through the generations as an heirloom.

The locket may not have even been magical, before Riddle got his hands on it. It was also passed down as an heirloom until it was stolen, sold, and purchased by the same person who owned the cup (Riddle killed her to obtain both items).

And the sword was very magical, the ownership had been contested even during Godric’s lifetime, and the goblins and Hogwarts both claimed ownership at the time the books take place.

The ring, the diary, and the snake all have personal significance for Riddle, but I’m not finding any explanation for why he specifically chose those three House artifacts. Was it a way to lash out at the school? And why did he skip Gryffindor? Was that just unabashed favoritism on behalf of the author, or is there some legitimate reason he couldn’t find _anything_ to complete the set? The sword is obviously out of the question, since it seems unlikely to sit still long enough for him to even find someone to murder, much less complete the Horcruxing process.

@Brainslugged:
Based on what I've seen from the reviews, Ravenclaw's is the only one that appears to present the illusion of 3-dimensionality. The others all show movement 2D.

@Brickalili:
The line borders that frame the animal icons are all unique, with perhaps hints of the animal mascots. If this was intentional, it's clearly not a smashing success, and was perhaps hindered by the need to work those double-concave tiles into the design.

@CopperTablet:
@Murdoch17:
Not only is there Durmstrang (which feels like it's located in Eastern Europe, but is apparently supposed to be in northern Scandinavia?), but within the original story itself we also saw Beauxbatons in France (yeah, I know, they didn't do much and are easy to forget). Outside of the original book series, Ilvermorney is in the US per the Fantastic Beasts movies, and other schools that have been mentioned include Castelobruxo (Brazil), Uagadou (Africa...somewhere), and Mahoutokoro (Japan). There is also comfirmation that there are other schools in Africa which have not been named, but that may just have been handwavery after people threw a fit when it appeared that Africa was being equated with a single nation.

If I was at Hogwarts I’d probably make fun of the Hufflepuffs tbh

@CopperTablet said:
"What does a "common room" represent in the psyches of the aging Millennials that buy this product?"

You clearly have a bone to pick with HP.

@CopperTablet said:
"....has been overlaid upon the author's appropriation of the Solomanta magical school story from Romanian folklore."

Almost all fantasy work draws on myth and folklore.

@CopperTablet said:
"Hogwarts represents a power fantasy: "if I were a rich British kid, I would have been educated properly, and the power held by real Britons educated at elite boarding schools is like magic.""

It's absolutely a power fantasy, about escaping a life in which you have no agency and discovering one in which you do.

@TheOtherMike said:
" @Brickalili: I'm pretty sure that's just you, as none of the borders suggest their House animal to me. Except maaaybe Ravenclaw's sort of looks like folded wings."

See Ravenclaw’s looks like it ends in a beaky point, with the four pieces on top being feathery tufts like you get on some eagles. The mesh of pieces at the bottom of Gryffindor’s looks like a muzzle, with the various outward curls over the rest suggesting a mane. Hufflepuff’s looks like a badger’s tapering snout then a couple of ears at the top. Slytherin has the rounded shape of a snake’s head, with the tiles at the bottom suggesting a flicking tongue.

Like I said, possible I’m just seeing heads where there are none and those shapes are just supposed to be emblematic of any heraldic shield. But I know Lego designers like coming up with little details like that to put in their work, so it’s a thought that stays stuck in my head

@Brickalili: I didn't realize you meant just the heads, I thought you meant the tiling looked like the while animals. With that in mind, I see it more now,

@StyleCounselor said:
" @Ridgeheart said:
"Are power-fantasies a bad thing now? Because dang, dude - we're going to have to start burning a lot more books, shows, movies and video-games.

I don't have time for that, I have a universe to master in 'Final Star Trekker XIV: The Fellowship of the X-Wing: Endgame'."

I'm waiting for: 'Final Star Trekker XIV: The Fellowship of the X-Wing: Endgame 2... the Search for Mo' Money!'"

Nah, I'm saving my cash for 'Star Predator Alien vs. John Wick Chapter 9 Rides Again XXII: Enough Already!'.

While none of these have really been able to pique my fancy, the lenticular feature looks kind of cool, honestly. The pigtails hairpiece is weird, though (yeah, I know this isn’t the first appearance of it).

@YanVanLan said:
"ok, you asked for it..."

I certainly did. Twice, that I can recall. The previous instance was really late in the Slytherin review comments. Clearly it pays to get questions in early.

I haven’t read the books, so noted a few similarities, but not that the parallels went that deep. In terms of Hogwarts being Riddle’s “happy place”, he also first came into real power there. The memory where he first meets Dumbledore shows that he was unable to control his magic, and therefore stuck on defense. At Hogwarts, he managed to get Hagrid kicked out for something Riddle did, which had to be an intoxicating feeling for such as him.

The diary and ring were the only items he enchanted during his time at Hogwarts, but he obtained the location of the diadem shortly before graduating. He didn’t learn the whereabouts of the cup and locket until he was working at Borgin & Burkes following his return from turning the diadem into a Horcrux. And he turned all three of those items into Horcruxes before being rejected a second time in his application for the DADA position. So, now I’m thinking it may have been more about establishing mastery over all four Houses, since his ultimate goal was to eventually seek the position of Headmaster and use that position to recruit his army.

By the time of the Battle of Hogwarts, he’d already twice recruited his army, so had perhaps moved past any perceived need to use the school for his advancement, but don’t forget that he had already inflicted punishment on the school by way of forcing a change in leadership that heavily favored Slytherin House.

Now, if Slytherin’s locket does have a Parseltongue lock, that means all four artifacts are magical in nature. What I’m still left wondering, though, is if we consider these to be the House artifacts because of the Horcruxes, or if they were already perceived as such prior to Riddle’s graduation.

@YanVanLan said:
"Anyway, it might seem odd, but his time at Hogwarts was probably the happiest time in Riddle’s life: he was quite popular and had gathered a lot of friends around him (or perhaps followers is a better term, since I’m not sure he fully grasps the concept of friendship)."

He should have learned that Friendship is Magic! Wait, wrong franchise...

@TheOtherMike:
Well, they’ve got a hippogriff, some thestrals and centaurs, GitD deer, and most of a unicorn (slightly deceased). You could make a really screwed up parody, I suppose.

Looks great. I'll never buy any of the banners though.