Harry Potter was a global phenomenon, but the epilogue had some issues that the movies couldn’t quite gloss over. Between 1997 and 2007, British author J. K. Rowling released the Harry Potter books that changed the world and became the wildly popular Warner Bros. movies. Although excellent and original in many ways, the books aren’t perfect, exhibiting racial stereotyping, missed opportunities to develop key characters, and failures to dive deeper into some of the story’s most exciting prospects. The epilogue is one of the books’ biggest issues, and this is translated to the screen.

The epilogue of the Harry Potter movies, as per the books, is set 19 years after the main events of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. In this scene, Harry Potter (Daniel Radcliffe), Ronald Weasley (Rupert Grint), and Hermione Granger (Emma Watson) are seen saying goodbye to their children on Platform 9 3/4 as they depart for Hogwarts. They have aged bizarrely, but this is actually the least jarring thing about the scene. It was completely iconic, and it gave many viewers a sense of relief to see their favorite characters appear happy. But in many ways, it makes little sense.

Harry & His Friends Ending Up With Their High School Sweethearts Is Too Convenient

The Golden Trio Appeared Suspiciously Normal In The Harry Potter Epilogue

Harry Potter largely focuses on children, who are only technically reaching adulthood as the series ends. But unlike in real life, many of them end up marrying who they dated in high school. Ron and Hermione end up together, as well as Harry and Ginny. While it is not explicitly mentioned in the epilogue, Ron’s brother Fred actually married old Gryffindor chaser Angelina Johnson. And in the next generation, Teddy Lupin is apparently in a serious relationship with Victoire Weasely. It’s all a nice ending since these are the characters and romances we know, but a little unrealistic and convenient.

The Harry Potter main characters all endured major trauma in their childhoods and teenage years, so tying their stories off so neatly in the Harry Potter epilogue feels insufficient. One might have thought that their trauma would have been written all over their lives by the time they got to their 30s and that at least one of them might have followed a less conventional path than marrying their childhood sweetheart. Plus, for these couples to have stayed together so long it must have brought up so many issues in their romances that weren’t acknowledged in the epilogue.

Harry’s Choices For His Kids’ Names Seem Selfish

Harry Potter Seemed To Have Named All His Children

Although Harry and Ginny both suffered losses during the Second Wizarding War and both had strong personalities, only Harry seems reflected in their children’s names. James Sirius is named after Harry’s father and godfather, Albus Severus is named after two famous Hogwarts professors of special significance to Harry, and Lily Luna is named after Harry’s mother and friend. Dumbledore and Luna were special to Ginny too, but she could have named one of her children after her deceased brother, Fred. Else, Rowling could have picked names that reflected Ginny more.

The Post-Voldermort World Seems Too Tidy To Feel Real

Harry Potter’s Epilogue Suffers From An Oversimplification

Harry Potter’s epilogue shows a happily functioning world, which is fair enough, as the only scene it contains is set in Kings Cross train station, but it seems a bit too tidy. Dumbledore’s Army saved the muggle world from Voldemort, so his impact didn’t have to be felt by muggles the world over. In a sense, the normality of the muggle train station in the epilogue reflects this nicely. But it is also true that there are many things about the epilogue that are too cookie-cutter to feel credible as the end of the first series of the Potterverse movies.

It is not just the oddly oversimplified reality of Harry staying with Ginny and naming all their children after his heroes, or Ron ending up with Hermione that is odd. The epilogue contains no allusion to the chaos of the Wizarding War or Voldemort’s use of the Deathly Hallows in any way. The movies could have added in some signs of the scars that Voldemort left on people and the world somehow. The Harry Potter characters, their surroundings, or their choices may have been more believable if they were more damaged in the epilogue.