Remembering PS1 Hagrid: A Character So Bad He Was Great
Most of us remember Rubeus Hagrid from the hit film franchise “Harry Potter.” He was one of the most beloved characters in JK Rowling’s book series turned into films. He was the bigger than life half-giant and half-human hybrid who served as the Keeper of the Grounds and the Keys at Hogwarts. Since the release of the “Harry Potter” films, he has become one of the most popular subjects for memes and parodies. Hagrid appeared as a character in the Play Station 1 release of the video game “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone.” The character that they developed was so bad that he was great.
A bastardization of the original character
According to Know Your Meme, Hagrid appeared as a character in the EA Games release of a video game inspired by the franchise. The character Hagrid received a nickname that players dubbed him in a perversion of his real name based on his unique dialect. He became known as Haggord for most. The character of Hagrid was not well defined and he was presented in an unflattering rendering that spawned a wave of nettling and memes. The game was first released in November of 2001 for PS1, Windows, Mac OS X, Game Boy Advance, and Game Boy Color. Hagrid became the groundkeeper of the Hogwarts Shcool of Witchcraft and Wizardry. In the game, he is one of the characters that sends Harry Potter out on quests.
An infamous image
It wasn’t until 2012 that the images of PS1 Hagrid began to receive a lot of attention. Memes began to circulate that included the unflattering image from the game with tragically misspelled headings that were phonetically accurate with his manner of speech. Soon the images and comments began to appear on forums by users who wanted to share their funny iterations of the meme. Soon Haggord memes became a popular joke to share on forums. Some even photoshopped the character from the PS1 game with creative additions and edits to the character. This is how one of the worst character portrayals came to be so famous. Players would use the reference to describe themselves when they felt like they were monstrous or out of sorts, comparing themselves to PS1 Hagrid.
Players look back over time
PS1 Hagrid has not faded into the memories of those who had such a good time at his expense. Social media is still abuzz with memories of PS1 Hagrid, with players still talking about how the character was awesome when the game was first released. Upon retrospect, many now see how creepy he really looks. While some still poke fun at the PS1 Hagrid, others are fast to defend the character because they see him as a great addition to the game that made it more awesome to play. One post suggests that if you’ve never seen PS1 Hagrid, you’ve not yet experienced life to the fullest.
A much-maligned character is actually beloved
Although there have been thousands of memes made through the inspiration of the PS1 Hagrid, it’s not because people hated the character in the game, it’s more because human nature guided them to poke fun at the ridiculous appearance the developers cursed him with. There’s a big difference between merely looking at an image and interacting with it in a game. You come to develop a relationship with a character and some of the most disturbing aspects of its appearance can even become endearing features. For those who enjoyed the books or the films, this is even more likely to be the case because after all, Hagrid was one of the good guys and he became one of the most beloved characters in the “Harry Potter” franchise. The social media post that we reviewed were made in the section titled “Play Station Memories” and it set off a chain of 639 comments on the topic of PS1 Hagrid. This gives us a strong indication that he may have looked like one of the most awful characters, but he really wasn’t seen as being that bad at all, at least not by most players.
The PS1 Hagrid is a famous character
The PS1 Hagrid is an image that is still fondly remembered by players who enjoyed sharing memes of the image nearly twenty years ago. Game Rant (https://gamerant.com/ps1-hagrid-game-characters-bad-good-meme/) highlights the character in a dedicated piece on Classic characters that were so bad that they were exceptional. He is depicted as one of the most frightening characters in the game. He comes across this way because of how the developers created his image. They gave him a long space between the eyes and made his appearance comical yet tragic and fearful to behold. You kind of get the sense of the real-life image of the character as portrayed by Robbie Coltrane. But it’s off by just enough to take you back at first glance. It’s widely assumed that the comical rendering was made on purpose to make the game more interesting.
Final thoughts
PS1 Hagrid, or Haggord, has become one of the most iconic characters released by EA Games. Although it’s been about twenty years since the terrible image was first released, there are still people talking about it. While newcomers may not like what they see, things were different when the “Harry Potter” books and movies were at their apex. Even an off rendering of the beloved character was embraced by his true fans. In the game, Hagrid wasn’t as evil as the image portrayed and most players were able to look past that. PS1 Hagrid is likely to be a character that is not soon forgotten, as long as there are people who still enjoy playing the old video game, new memories will be created and talked about for the next two decades. We can truly say that PS1 Hagrid was a character that was so bad he was great!