Hogwarts vs. the School for Good and Evil
In the forest of primeval
A school for Good and Evil
Twin towers like two heads
One for the pure
And one for the wicked
Try to escape you’ll always fail,
The only way out is
Through a fairytale.”-Soman Chainani, The School for Good and Evil
If anyone is familiar with The School for Good and Evil trilogy by Soman Chainani, you might notice there are some strange similarities between Hogwarts and the School for Good and Evil itself: castles, eerie forests, the Triwizard Tournament and the Trial by Tale, magic, etc. Now, I don’t know about you, but as much as I loved reading The School for Good and Evil, I’d much rather live at Hogwarts. (Warning: Spoilers for The School for Good and Evil ahead for those who have not read the trilogy in full!)
Both Hogwarts and the School for Good and Evil have a variety of class subjects, but I’d rather study those at Hogwarts.
Hogwarts allows students to continually pick their classes, first after third year and then again after the OWL results, which gives the students a sense of autonomy, even if they still have to take a majority of their core classes. Ancient Runes, Transfiguration, and even Divination all sound fascinating in their own ways. At the School for Good and Evil, however—depending on if you are placed in the School for Good or the School for Evil—you get classes such as Beautification or Uglification, Princess Etiquette or Henchmen Training, and so on. While these classes are tailored to where the students are placed—much like the Sorted students of Hogwarts—these classes don’t have the same air of magic to them that Hogwarts does, in which everyone, no matter what House, learns the same things academically.
While the Blue Forest sounds cool, the Forbidden Forest is—well—forbidden. And thus more appealing.
The Blue Forest is quirky, versus the Forbidden Forest, which has a sense of certain foreboding in it. Plus, the most dangerous thing in the Blue Forest is definitely the students themselves, to each other, especially when they are in a trial despite the other challenges around them. The most dangerous thing in the Forbidden Forest varies from the Acromantulas to the supposed werewolves and more… however, when you think about the School for Good and Evil’s Endless Woods, which the Blue Forest is modeled after, it’s probably even more terrifying than the Forbidden Forest, with zombified fairy-tale villains and some strange, vulture-like birds. I mean what?
The Triwizard Tournament or the Trial by Tale?
The Trial by Tale appears to be modeled after a tamer version of the Hunger Games (it’s apparently okay for students to perish?) mixed with the challenges of the Triwizard Tournament. While the students form alliances much like the Triwizard champs, the tasks are more specific in the Triwizard Tournament—from retrieving the golden egg from the dragon to the underwater rescue to the final maze. Even when we look at the acts of evil—or Evil, as The School for Good and Evil capitalizes—done, Barty Crouch, Jr. is much sleeker and cleverer (in his approach to lure Harry to Voldemort by disguising himself as Mad-Eye Moody and gain his trust) than, say, the School Master or Evelyn Sader, who retains an air of disdain even more than deceit. This makes us understand Barty Crouch, Jr.’s methods more, even though they are crazy and even cruel.
The School for Good and Evil is a fantastic trilogy (I do recommend!). There are many similarities in plot that it shares with Harry Potter, but Hogwarts has my heart. Hogwarts will always be there to welcome me home, and nothing will change that.
