• ohulancutash@feddit.uk
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    2
    ·
    1 year ago

    In the American version of the books, they changed kids hexing each other in the corridors for shooting each other instead, to make it more believable.

  • Ilovethebomb@sh.itjust.works
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    1
    ·
    1 year ago

    I’m a little bit surprised Rowling didn’t throw in something about some human technology not working in the wizarding world, like electronics and firearms. Surely this came up while the books were being written.

      • L3ft_F13ld!@lemmy.dbzer0.com
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        1
        ·
        edit-2
        1 year ago

        Pretty sure wizards are familiar with old technology like trains and cars. But like another comment said, muggles are advancing while wizards stagnate in their old ways and traditions and shit since they keep themselves so separated.

    • America@sh.itjust.works
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      0
      ·
      1 year ago

      She all but stated that humanity is advancing beyond the wizarding world. There’s really no explanation beyond “wizards are actually very stupid and stagnating within their intellectually, and very literally, incestuous society.”

      • Log in | Sign up@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        1
        ·
        edit-2
        1 year ago

        Mr Weasley is seen as a weird oddball for engaging in studying muggle technology. The wizarding world sees it all as a bunch of pointless nonsense that muggles have to go through just because they don’t have magic. Clever in its own way, but utterly futile.

        Why spend hundreds of people’s effort, lots of money and enormous amounts of time to design, make and use a vehicle to go somewhere when you can hop in a fireplace and think about where you want to go, or simply apparate there?

        Why carry a complicated muggle weapon around and spend time and effort learning how to use it well, when you can kill someone with two words you’ve known since you were a child?

        Voldemort isn’t just protected by being a powerful wizard, he’s also protected by the bully’s standard protections of surrounding themselves with sycophants who unquestioningly support them (by ruthlessly turning against people who question their authority or judgment), having no moral hesitancy whatsoever and avoiding like the plague fair fights wherever there’s a chance they’d not win.

        So because of Voldemort’s followers who will turn up in an instant and his horcruxes, you have to be prepared to sacrifice your life to have a chance of opposing him openly, which is of course what Lily Potter did.

        Strange that JKR, who clearly didn’t like bullies, would choose to bully trans people and use her money and influence against them. Admittedly she clearly had a bit of a problem with blonde people before she wrote book 1, so not exactly completely free from prejudice.

  • But_my_mom_says_im_cool@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    1
    ·
    1 year ago

    That’s why us Latinos aren’t represented in the series. Jose el Mago would have walked up to the guy and just shanked him a bunch of times and taken his shoes

  • Honytawk@lemmy.zip
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    1
    ·
    1 year ago

    As if they didn’t have some simple hex that can protect them from physical projectiles.

    They would have been killed a long time ago by arrows.

    • Destide@feddit.uk
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      1
      ·
      1 year ago

      Gotta say the words quicker than they can pull the trigger and they have mutliple sylable words try saying one of these before you can click your mouse. Yeah I know super skilled ones don’t need to but you still have to react.

      • Arresto Momentum
      • Protego
      • Protego Maxima
      • Expelliarmus
      • Accio
      • Stupefy
      • Rekorse@sh.itjust.works
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        1
        ·
        1 year ago

        Bummer jk Rowling never made sense out of dueling, or casting spells silently, or apparating sometimes is okay but mostly not. Even if she wasnt an asshole, trying to draw a logical line through the books is absurd.

        • exasperation@lemmy.dbzer0.com
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          1
          ·
          1 year ago

          Bummer jk Rowling never made sense

          I think the world building in the Harry Potter series is awful. The rules don’t make internally consistent sense, and the society that came up around those rules also don’t make sense within the motivations of how people behave in that society.

          • FATALRPG@sh.itjust.works
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            1
            ·
            1 year ago

            It’s so obvious that she was coming up with shit as she went along.

            The Deathly Hallows were a huge asspull. Trying to make an overarching story was a mistake, the story worked best when it was “monster of the week” standard children’s fare. That kind of format can tolerate the “I’m going to introduce something new that should have wider consequences and then forget about it immediately afterwards” problems (Time Turners, Legilimency, polyjuice potions, love potions…)

    • Auli@lemmy.ca
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      0
      ·
      1 year ago

      Guns are a lot faster then arrows. There wouldn’t be enough reaction time.

      • absentbird@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        0
        ·
        1 year ago

        In the books it explains that wizard robes have charms against physical attacks woven into the threads. They’re wearing full body bulletproof vests.

          • PuddleOfKittens@sh.itjust.works
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            0
            ·
            1 year ago

            There’s no reason wizard hats can’t shield the face from bullets. In fact, in the later books there might be a hat that does basically that IIRC.

            Besides which, wizard hats have wide brims. And they have scarves.

            • Harbinger01173430@lemmy.worldBanned
              link
              fedilink
              arrow-up
              0
              ·
              1 year ago

              In the face. Where there is no cloth. Also, just shoot them with a shotgun. That’s gonna hurt like hell and bruise the shit out of them if the threads manage to stop the bullets.

              Just keep shooting at it until it dies. Doom advice.

              • PuddleOfKittens@sh.itjust.works
                link
                fedilink
                English
                arrow-up
                1
                ·
                10 months ago

                Shooting in the face where there isn’t cloth won’t necessarily help - if the hat just stop bullets aimed for the head (like a magical forcefield) then it’s pointless.

                Also, it’s not gonna hurt like hell and bruise the shit out of them - you’re citing Newtonian mechanics when it’s fucking magic. Hell, maybe the forcefield just deletes the bullet instead of deflecting or blocking it.

                “Shoot at it until it dies” is great advice generally, but if you shoot a water pistol at a fish then you’ll be there til you run out of ammo.

                • Harbinger01173430@lemmy.worldBanned
                  link
                  fedilink
                  arrow-up
                  1
                  ·
                  edit-2
                  10 months ago

                  Then use magic bullets.

                  My god, how much skill issue…

                  Also, if you shoot the water pistol inside of the fish, it can either bloat and explode or drown.

                  See? The wizard problem has solutions. They must be erased one way or another.

    • rumschlumpel@feddit.org
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      0
      ·
      edit-2
      1 year ago

      Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality.

      I just downloaded the pdf. Only 2005 pages! I genuinely love it when fanfiction projects get into insane wordcounts. Let’s see if the prose is something I actually want to read for 2005 pages …

      Update: It’s lit.

      Update 2: Holy shit, 10yo hpmor-Harry has the same sleep condition I have!

  • VerilyFemme@lemmy.blahaj.zone
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    0
    ·
    1 year ago

    Ok, this has been driving me crazy for seven movies now, and I know you’re going to roll your eyes, but hear me out: Harry Potter should have carried a 1911.

    Here’s why:

    Think about how quickly the entire WWWIII (Wizarding-World War III) would have ended if all of the good guys had simply armed up with good ol’ American hot lead.

    Basilisk? Let’s see how tough it is when you shoot it with a .470 Nitro Express. Worried about its Medusa-gaze? Wear night vision goggles. The image is light-amplified and re-transmitted to your eyes. You aren’t looking at it–you’re looking at a picture of it.

    Imagine how epic the first movie would be if Harry had put a breeching charge on the bathroom wall, flash-banged the hole, and then went in wearing NVGs and a Kevlar-weave stab-vest, carrying a SPAS-12.

    And have you noticed that only Europe seems to a problem with Deatheaters? Maybe it’s because Americans have spent the last 200 years shooting deer, playing GTA: Vice City, and keeping an eye out for black helicopters over their compounds. Meanwhile, Brits have been cutting their steaks with spoons. Remember: gun-control means that Voldemort wins. God made wizards and God made muggles, but Samuel Colt made them equal.

    Now I know what you’re going to say: “But a wizard could just disarm someone with a gun!” Yeah, well they can also disarm someone with a wand (as they do many times throughout the books/movies). But which is faster: saying a spell or pulling a trigger?

    Avada Kedavra, meet Avtomat Kalashnikova.

    Imagine Harry out in the woods, wearing his invisibility cloak, carrying a .50bmg Barrett, turning Deatheaters into pink mist, scratching a lightning bolt into his rifle stock for each kill. I don’t think Madam Pomfrey has any spells that can scrape your brains off of the trees and put you back together after something like that. Voldemort’s wand may be 13.5 inches with a Phoenix-feather core, but Harry’s would be 0.50 inches with a tungsten core. Let’s see Voldy wave his at 3,000 feet per second. Better hope you have some Essence of Dittany for that sucking chest wound.

    I can see it now.…Voldemort roaring with evil laughter and boasting to Harry that he can’t be killed, since he is protected by seven Horcruxes, only to have Harry give a crooked grin, flick his cigarette butt away, and deliver what would easily be the best one-liner in the entire series:

    “Well then I guess it’s a good thing my 1911 holds 7+1.”

    And that is why Harry Potter should have carried a 1911.

    • Pringles@sopuli.xyz
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      1
      ·
      1 year ago

      God made wizards and God made muggles, but Samuel Colt made them equal.

      This had me in stitches