Harry Potter Theory Turns J.K. Rowling Into A Real-Life Voldemort

Many people have their takes on Joanne Kathleen Rowling — the author of the "Harry Potter" novels — and that includes legendary horror novelist Stephen King. (This is before they got in a Twitter spat over some of Rowling's beliefs and she blocked him, but more on those specific beliefs in a bit.) That said, the quote a lot of people attribute to King regarding Rowling is... probably incorrect, but let's discuss it anyway.

In many places online, including this Reddit thread, fans claim — whether it's accurate or not — that King once said, "J.K. Rowling created seven Horcruxes. She put a part of her soul in every book and now her books will live forever." If you're familiar with "Harry Potter" lore, this probably raised a couple of red flags for you; namely, that Horcruxes are made through murder, which means that Rowling would have had to kill several people in cold blood to create seven books. Other Redditors on the thread noticed this, with u/kayleighswift asking, "But who did she kill to split her soul?!" u/celest3alove clapped back right away with characters Rowling "killed" within the story: "Harry's parents, Dumbledore, Sirius, Lupin and Tonks, Fred. Just to name seven." Obviously, nobody is accusing Rowling of literal homicide, but this seemingly sweet quote is definitely disturbing if you think about it even a little bit ... and basically turns her into a real-life Voldemort.

Fans of "Harry Potter" are pretty familiar with Horcruxes — and know that they're some of the darkest, most dangerous magical artifacts in the entire universe. We only see ones created by Voldemort (played on-screen by Ralph Fiennes), and as was previously mentioned, they're created in one way only: by committing cold-blooded murder. At that point, you fracture your soul, and the severed piece of your soul that's a result of committing said murder gets lodged into some sort of object. Voldemort ultimately creates seven of them spread across various magical artifacts, including ones that once belonged to the founders of Hogwarts — like Helga Hufflepuff's cup, Rowena Ravenclaw's diadem, and Salazar Slytherin's locket. As Harry (Daniel Radcliffe) and Albus Dumbledore (Michael Gambon) investigate the Horcruxes, they realize just how many Voldemort has made ... and understand that in order to truly kill Voldemort, all seven Horcruxes must be destroyed.

The quest to destroy the Horcruxes takes Dumbledore's life and, ultimately, Harry's as well ... mostly because he's an unwitting Horcrux created when Voldemort tried to kill him as a baby. He's able to sacrifice himself willingly to destroy the Horcrux and return to defeat Voldemort once and for all, but there's no question that the journey to find and ruin the Horcruxes is the most taxing mission of Harry's life.

The unfortunate truth is that, at this point, Joanne Kathleen Rowling has become sort of a Voldemort to certain factions of her fans. (Yes, her name is usually stylized as J.K. Rowling, but she doesn't approve of people manipulating their gender presentation.) Throughout recent years, Rowling has begun expressing subtle and then explicit support for anti-transgender activism, which came to a head when she penned a massive missive on her own website regarding her concerns — which specifically focus on trans women. Rowling believes that trans women are somehow interfering with the lived experience of cisgender women (meaning women assigned the female gender at birth), and though she masks her protests under the guise of "protecting women," the truth is that her anti-trans vitriol is deeply harmful — especially when you consider what massive audience Rowling has.

Stars of the films, like Daniel Radcliffe, have spoken out against Rowling's views, and fans of the series have been largely disappointed in the author's alignment with a movement known as TERFs (which stands for "trans-exclusionary radical feminists"). Strangely, Rowling has even embraced this acronym in the process. Nobody is saying that Rowling is a killer — she's not, and Horcruxes aren't real. That doesn't change the fact that her views have, despite the intentions she's voiced, harmed some of her own fans.