Throughout the course of it's seven-installment series, the Harry Potter book and movie franchise transformed from a series that seemed tailor made for young children into a mature and sometimes downright terrifying story that young adults would enjoy. And while that transition took place over every chapter of the series, it's hard to deny that with the return of Voldemort and the death of Cedric Diggory, Goblet of Fire felt like a big turning point.
However, some aspects of the story don't hold up as well today as they did when the book or movie was first released. What elements of Goblet of Fire wouldn't fly today?
Rita Skeeter's Libel
Tabloid "journalism" seems to be something that exists in all cultures, even within the wizarding world. However, it's more than a little sketchy that Rita Skeeter makes a killing off of libeling a minor when she starts making up all of these bizarre rumors and stories about Harry himself.
Obviously wizards and witches are entitled to a free press too, but shouldn't there be some laws against slandering children?
Hermione's Prison
Despite the fact that Harry is her main target, Hermione becomes one of Rita's favorite subjects as well, and the writer and student have a lot of animosity towards each other.
That animosity takes a bit of a dark turn, however, when Hermione discovers that Rita is an unregistered animagus, and instead of just outing her to the authorities, she traps and holds Rita in beetle form herself.
Happy House Elves
The whole house elf subplot from the books was pretty much dropped in the film adaptation of Goblet of Fire, and that may have been for the best, as house elves are basically enslaved creatures that are happy to be slaves.
This story was tone deaf even when the books originally came out, but time has not made the story of these sentient beings who live to serve humans any better.
Winky's Shame
Winky is a house elf character that was never introduced into the films, but she used to be the elf enslaved to the Crouch family.
However, after displeasing the family, Winky is set free, and she sinks into a deep depression as a result of that rejection. It's one thing to have a wizarding world full of happy slaves, but including a storyline about a slave that is devastated at no longer being enslaved is even worse.
Kid Hostages
In retrospect there is honestly very few things about the Triwizard Tournament that aren't sketchy, but one of the oddest elements is the task where loved ones of the contestants are taken hostage and need to be rescued.
The actual competitors in the tournament (with the exception of Harry) are at least of age, but using underage witches and wizards as unnecessary bait in a task is bizarre and inappropriate.
Dragon Fighting
In the same vein, although most of the competitors in the Triwizard Tournament are of age, is it necessary to have them going up against literal dragons as a part of their tasks?
And what about the dragons too? These are gigantic wild animals, is it at all appropriate to wrangle them, chain them down, and force them to participate in some weird game for wizard children?
Children Being Under Contract
One of the excuses for including Harry in the Triwizard Tournament is that throwing a name into the Goblet of Fire constitutes a binding magical contract. But why?
It's clear that Harry didn't even throw his name into the Goblet and he's underage. There are plenty of rules and regulations in the wizarding world that don't make sense, but some random person being able to basically force a child into a magical contract for a potentially deadly competition seems a little sketchy.
Hermione Dating An Adult Professional Athlete
In retrospect there are a lot of things that are weird and inappropriate about Hermione's relationship with Viktor Krum.
Yes, it doesn't seem to be a full fledged relationship in the adult sense, but Viktor actually is an adult. He's 18 years old and he's dating a 14 year old girl. And while he's still in school, he is also an incredibly famous professional athlete. Imagine if a world-famous adult were dating a 14 year old in the muggle world!
High Schoolers Being Professional Athletes
And on that note, the fact that Viktor Krum is basically the real world equivalent of a high schooler and he's one of the most famous pro-athletes in the wizarding world is quite weird.
Apparently there are no rules against being in school and being a professional Quidditch player, but it kind of seems like there should be.
Death Eaters Running Schools
Obviously there are a lot of supposedly reformed Death Eaters left in the wizarding world, but it's baffling that so many of them seem to occupy such important roles in the wizarding world today.
It's one thing for Dumbledore to employ a genuinely reformed Snape as one of his teachers, but the fact that a former wizard Nazi is the headmaster of Durmstrang is a little shocking and hard to understand, especially when there are likely so many viable and not dangerous candidates for the job.