Why Some Harry Potter Fans Have Beef With Quidditch

The fictional sport of Quidditch plays a bizarre role in J.K. Rowling's sprawling "Harry Potter" book series and ensuing movie adaptations. Rowling created the sport for the fictional wizarding world when she first developed the series; according to the Telegraph, she knew she needed a sport to introduce to her fledgling fictional universe and found inspiration after an argument with her then boyfriend. Enter Quidditch, played as wizards fly through the air on enchanted broomsticks; the game doesn't end until a player on either team known as the Seeker catches the Golden Snitch, which also earns their team 150 points.

Quidditch provides a point of pride for students at Hogwarts (even adults in "Harry Potter" take sides in the school's yearly Quidditch Cup matches) and most importantly, helps give the series' protagonist a spotlight to shine in. As a newcomer to Hogwarts, Harry quickly discovers he has a natural talent as a Seeker from the start, helping establish him as a hero to Gryffindor at Hogwarts and an unusually gifted wizard for his age overall.

While Quidditch proved popular with fans and critics — the movie adaptations' Quidditch sequences received praise from critics like Roger Ebert, and a real-life version of the sport has developed a following over the years — Rowling has said the sport grew into "the bane of [her] life" while writing the books; she found it increasingly difficult to write Quidditch scenes and have something new happen each time (via MuggleNet). However, the author isn't the only one left frustrated by the confusing sport at times.

"Harry Potter" fans have noted over the years that some aspects of the series' signature sport simply don't make sense. Redditor u/crazed3raser took to the website's r/CharacterRant community to dish on everything that seems off about Quidditch, lamenting that wealthier characters in "Harry Potter" can openly afford faster brooms and that catching the Golden Snitch seemingly renders the entire rest of the game useless.

This user writes that every player should spend their time looking for the Snitch and alert their team's Seeker when someone does find it rather than try to score goals — the game can't even end until that happens. "They might as well because every other position is basically worthless how the game is now," writes u/crazed3raser. "Quidditch is a 1v1 game masquerading as a team game."

Surprisingly, J.K. Rowling herself might not argue the point that Quidditch doesn't make perfect sense. In fact, the author may have developed it that way on purpose; remember, she said she created the sport following an argument with her then boyfriend. "[Quidditch] infuriates men," Rowling wrote in an annotated version of "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone" per the Telegraph. "Which is quite satisfying given my state of mind when I invented it."

In 2018, Rowling argued in favor of Quidditch's scoring system on Twitter writing that the sport presents "glamour in chasing an elusive lucky break" and rewards teamwork and persistence, comparing Quidditch to "the human condition."