Power cable linking UK and Ireland now passes near Bronze Age human burial remains instead of fictional grave on Welsh beach.

This was the lead from a 10 August 2026 article by The Guardian entitled “Harry Potter fans force relocation of a £430m undersea cable to avoid Dobby’s ‘grave’.” Mikey isn’t exactly sure what this story says about society, but he does find that it has both troubling and promising aspects. We appear increasingly willing to accommodate fantasy while sometimes showing considerably less tolerance for people challenging consequential realities—and the Dobby episode is an absurd little window into that inversion.

This story reveals that there were enough people “up in arms” over the possible bespoiling of a fictional character’s grave, that they were able to persuade the planners behind Greenlink Interconnector to reroute an undersea cable connecting the electrical grids of Ireland and Great Britain. This is all a bit puzzling to say the least as this was no small-stakes effort. The cost of the reroute was never disclosed, but the entire project weighed in at a reported £430m—well over half a billion dollars. Was this a patronizing  and possibly encouraging pat on the collective head of a subset of civilization or was it a boxer taking a dive rather than facing a formidable opponent and a subsequent round or two of costly and painful dental work? Or maybe the motive was more benevolent? Perhaps one of the project’s movers and shakers was simply a Harry Potter fan—or had a child who was?

We appear increasingly willing to accommodate fantasy while sometimes showing considerably less tolerance for people challenging consequential realities.

Fantasy can serve as a delightful and useful distraction in life and can even inspire us toward a better future, but is allowing it to interfere with and materially impact reality in this manner not displaying some troubling vital—or perhaps mental—signs? We had dared to dream of The Jetsons, yet somehow, we’ve arrived at growing homeless encampments, enormous demographic upheavals, and a world in which an imaginary grave can alter a half-billion-dollar infrastructure project. The latter was successfully protested, but the encampments and upheavals seem to continue—and in many places escalate—despite years of argument, protest and political promises. One has to wonder if this is someone’s fantasy—and, if so, whose.

The story gets a bit more tangled indeed. The rerouting, while avoiding the fictional grave of Dobby, brought it very near some genuine Bronze Age remains—no protesting about this apparently. The project manager, Simon Ludlam, was quoted as saying: “we went quite close to some real Bronze Age remains, but we avoided Dobby’s grave.” Bravo to all the elves, furries, unicorns and fans of both cosplay and Harry Potter out there! But what message does this send, intended or otherwise, to people protesting decidedly real issues who aren’t always afforded the same kid-glove treatment? And how, exactly, do we respond to such a message?

Rather than take this as confirmation that we’re headed toward one of the dystopian worlds Orwell and Bradbury imagined as warnings, let’s look for the bright side. The silver lining of this cloudy incident is that hundreds of people cared. They communicated. They persisted. And as a result, the planners of a £430 million infrastructure project responded and their plans were changed. While those participating in the Occupy Wall Street protest in 2011 or the Anti-Lockdown Rallies in Canadian cities in 2020—to name but a few—might look at this a little differently, we must take this as a positive and perhaps apply it to more vital and real interests. We can save the rainforests and stop polluting the planet’s waterways. The only question is, do we really want to?

We can save the rainforests and stop polluting the planet’s waterways. The only question is, do we really want to?

For the record, Mikey does realize that he may not be the ideal personage to raise questions about the increasingly blurry line between reality and fiction. And while this story generates more questions than answers, we can take inspiration from it if we choose to look at it from that perspective.