this post was submitted on 31 Jan 2024
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No Stupid Questions

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He was abducted by Hagrid when he turned 11 so that would place him maybe around the fifth or sixth grade.

I don't know if canonically there are math classes at Hogwarts.


The thought came to while I was watching the anime Mashle. If you are into Harry Potter and One-Punch Man I'd recommend giving it a watch.


Someone mentioned this community below; I wanted to highlight it.

Small promotion for !harrypotter@literature.cafe

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[–] bjoern_tantau@swg-empire.de 151 points 9 months ago (5 children)

I mean, there must be a reason why wizards are constantly perplexed by muggle technology.

[–] AbouBenAdhem@lemmy.world 100 points 9 months ago

And why goblins have to do their accounting for them.

[–] AFC1886VCC@reddthat.com 38 points 9 months ago (1 children)

The series would have ended much sooner if Harry had brought an AK47 to hogwarts

[–] thorcik@lemmy.world 46 points 9 months ago (2 children)
[–] AFC1886VCC@reddthat.com 13 points 9 months ago
[–] denast@lemm.ee 3 points 9 months ago

Typical Koldovstoretz graduates

[–] T156@lemmy.world 14 points 9 months ago

Although that could also be them being perplexed by the fact that muggles did it with no magic at all.

Imagine us discovering a species that developed computers and tech just like ours, but using neither transistors nor electricity.

[–] Vilian@lemmy.ca 10 points 9 months ago (1 children)

could hogwarts defeng itself against modern weapons? like missils and shit?

[–] FuglyDuck@lemmy.world 21 points 9 months ago (2 children)

Yeah. Easily.

Reducto or any of a dozen other spells that make shit explode, magical barriers, simply transfiguring the weapons to something else… telekinesis. Simply not being there.

And before you add “what if they were surprised…” …. It’s possible, but remember how shocked Hagrid was about the lie the Dursley’s told Potter? “A car crash?! A Car CRASH?! Kill lily and James potter?!….”

[–] SatanicNotMessianic@lemmy.ml 23 points 9 months ago (4 children)

I don’t know. I’ve always thought a sniper could have taken out Voldemort. Far away, camouflaged, and the bullet gets there faster than the sound. It’s a reaction time thing.

[–] Azzu@lemm.ee 24 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

Obviously, JK Rowling was not a tactical mastermind.

However in the universe she created, any powerful wizard worth a damn would simply keep protective shields up all the time, especially against such simple things like "fast objects hitting them".

Protego seems to be doing a lot with barely any effort to cast. Fred&George even create permanently enchanted clothing with Protego on it.

[–] FuglyDuck@lemmy.world 22 points 9 months ago (1 children)

I would expect Voldemort to have protective spells keeping things like that from happening.

If it were that easy to kill a witch or wizzard... then there's lots of ways to go about that. He wouldn't have needed a special wand to fight Harry. he'd just fling a ginormous rock out of nowhere.

[–] SatanicNotMessianic@lemmy.ml 14 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Well, we know that wizards are vulnerable to physical attack and to surprise attacks. There’s the whomping willow, which they can’t just cast a force field against. There were the spiders and the centaurs in the forest. The big three headed dog. That devil’s something plant. And if I recall, Voldemort didn’t realize the caretaker had come into the house until he was in the hallway and Nagini saw him. Sorry, it’s been a hot minute since I read those.

Wizards, one would think, could go flinging cars around whenever they wanted to, but they use death spells, even on muggles. Maybe they think it’s gauche to do something so mundane as dropping a rock on someone’s head, I couldn’t say. Jedi use the Force to throw things, but not to just crush someone’s head or rip it from their body. That would take a lot less force (so to speak) than lifting an X-wing, but they still use lightsabers.

And for what it’s worth, I think a sniper could take out a Jedi, too.

[–] FuglyDuck@lemmy.world 8 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Well, we know that wizards are vulnerable to physical attack and to surprise attacks....

the killing curse is probably simply more efficient for the task at hand. It's also by and large, more discrete. In any case, all the things you listed were evaded by a couple of poorly taught kids. Like literally... children. Fluffy, the devil's vine thing, (along with all the other challenges from teachers)... one of those kids had exactly a year's worth of experience with magic. I could also kill an M1A1 Abrams with a rock if I stuffed it in the right place. (I'm thinking exhaust.). Doesn't mean i want to fight an Abrams with a rock. or... at all.

again for surprise ...[Hagrid's insistence a mere car crash woudln't kill the Potters[(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XoeSuboKeBk). They could probably literally just poof into smoke before a bullet ever fully breaks the skin.

Wizards, one would think, could go flinging cars around whenever they wanted to, but they use death spells, even on muggles. Maybe they think it’s gauche to do something so mundane as dropping a rock on someone’s head, I couldn’t say. Jedi use the Force to throw things, but not to just crush someone’s head or rip it from their body. That would take a lot less force (so to speak) than lifting an X-wing, but they still use lightsabers.

Jedi use the lightsaber specifically because they're taught the Force isn't for killing. They just love running around in bathrobes waving their glowbats around. (stop giggling. no seriously. stop giggling. Okay fine. giggle. a little. mace's has a vibrating lenses.)

The Sith have used the force to mow down entire armies, though. for example Maul running amok on a venator. still, the Sith use lightsabers as a symbol- invoking fear and terror, which further powers their dark-side natures. They also use lightsabers when it's more efficient. (hurling rocks is... taxing, yes?)

[–] SatanicNotMessianic@lemmy.ml 3 points 9 months ago (2 children)

I think we can agree to disagree on the sneak attack/sniper from a half a kilometer away.

I did not know that about the Jedi, though. I really was going to write “Sith” but said fuck it because I figured someone with the wherewithal to cut a bad guy in half wouldn’t have a moral system that would prevent them from crushing a head. Plus, it was a callback to a long forgotten skit (I think it was on SNL, but it could have been any of those sketch shows) where the character would look at a person standing far away through his thumb and forefinger and make it look to him like he was crushing their heads.

The Jedi do use their force power to kill droids, though, and droids in the franchise certainly possess self-awareness, and are conscious beings who demonstrate every human behavior, so I have to wonder how that’s handled. I think I remember someone getting offended because he was called “just a droid.”

I kind of lost interest in the franchise after the first prequel, and so I’m obviously forgetting a lot. Plus, I skipped most of the recent movies (although I’m told the new series is really good, and I did enjoy the first season of Mando.

Anyway, thanks for teaching me something!

Plus, killing an Abrams with a rock is pretty funny. It reminds me of the Beverly Hill Cop scene where Eddie Murphy puts a banana in the guy’s tailpipe.

[–] FuglyDuck@lemmy.world 6 points 9 months ago

The jedi are pretty warped in their sense of morality... ethics and philosophy.

It's improper to grow connections, yet the force is a mystical energy field that connects all things...
It's improper to (force) choke a guy out, but it's totally fine to chop off his arm. Or leg. or hand. Or hands, legs and arms.
Slavery is illegal, yet infants are taken by the order and brainwashed into servitude. anyone who washes out of being a jedi joins the auxilary service corps; mopping decks, unloading cargo, and generally doing stuff most binary droids are capable of...

but in any case, back to the topic at hand; the point I'm trying to make is that, while yes... it's possible, it's fairly unlikely. sure, an Abrams could be taken out with a single rock chucked at it. but you don't see anyone stocking up on anti-tank rocks. Even with the centaurs and the giant spiders... eventually everyone gets away from them. Umbridge was little more than irritated. and that, more at Potter than at the centaurs.

that's kind of the problem with magic that's overpowering. Rowling solved the problem by basically excluding muggles from the story altogether- they're only vaguely aware of things happening at all- they see people disappearing, they see the 'accidents' happening. But they don't know there's witches, and that a war is on, they don't know that the bridge collapsed because of terrorism... just that the bridge collapsed.

Star wars handled it by making lesser jedi vulnerable to those things. (like the battle in ep 2, where most of the jedi karked it to the overwhelming numbers of battle droids.) while people like Ahsoka murder them by the battalion... as a preteen.

(PS, if you liked Mando.... try Andor. No jedi stuff. my favorite guy is the dude with the anvil.)

[–] vinceman@lemmy.blahaj.zone 2 points 9 months ago

Kids in the Hall is the I'm crushing your head skit.

[–] nintendiator@feddit.cl 8 points 9 months ago

Sure but anyone can win any fight if they have position and prep time that the other party doesn't: under the same logic Voldy can easily kill any sniper so long as he knows there's one (and in a war, there is one). Reminder, at least in the movies he doesn't actually need to aim for Crucio, and he can manually and literally laser crush a castle-wide energy barrier .

[–] joyjoy@lemm.ee 3 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Reaction time isn't really relevant when you are good at divination and ultra sensory perception.

[–] Corkyskog@sh.itjust.works 3 points 9 months ago (1 children)

He came from muggle land, so he is probably aware of guns. He could probably easily made his skin bullet proof with some spell. It's not like wizards can't invent new spells and magic. They just almost always seem to choose not to. I think the vast majority of wizards are lazy hacks.

[–] fkn@lemmy.world 4 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (1 children)

I also think it's just supposed to be hard to make new magic and the spells that are common were built to be common.

For example, it is possible for anyone to write a new program for their phone. How many people actually can or do? How many people, with some training, can use most of not all of the programs that others have built to be productive.

[–] Corkyskog@sh.itjust.works 3 points 9 months ago (1 children)

How hard can it be? The Weasleys are all adept at it. The mother showcases spells and items never seen before or again in the story. The father turns muggle objects into working magical objects, the most famous being the car that can fly. The twins create three stories worth of magical objects for their store.

Maybe your right and the Weasleys, Snape and Voldemort are some of the most intelligent wizards.

[–] fkn@lemmy.world 4 points 9 months ago

I mean... According to the story... Yes?

The entire Weasley clan is shown to have a depth and breadth of magical understanding that the average wizard doesn't. They are critical players in the organization that defeats Voldemort and they rub elbows with the most famous and politically powerful wizards on a regular basis.

[–] originalfrozenbanana@lemm.ee 2 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Ok but you’d have to have pretty fast reaction times to transfigure a bullet just sayin

[–] FuglyDuck@lemmy.world 2 points 9 months ago

pretty fast reaction time to not die in a car crash, too. and your forgetting the part about wards and protection spells just stopping things cold.

[–] someguy3@lemmy.world 9 points 9 months ago (4 children)

I'm not familiar with the series, what's muggle technology?

[–] reddig33@lemmy.world 38 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

Muggles is wizard slang for non-magical human beings. Like Darren on Bewitched would be a muggle. He cooks his food using an oven instead of magic. The oven is muggle tech.

[–] state_electrician@discuss.tchncs.de 21 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Muggle is a racial slur used by magic-able people to refer to magic disabled people.

[–] EndlessApollo@lemmy.world 17 points 9 months ago (2 children)

Not a slur, you're thinking of mudblood

[–] HerbalGamer@sh.itjust.works 10 points 9 months ago (2 children)

There can be more than one slur. Muggle is debatable I believe.

[–] EndlessApollo@lemmy.world 17 points 9 months ago (2 children)

Idk I can't remember anyone in Harry Potter using it as a straight up slur, the worst I can think of is some people use it in a rude way like "The Blacks" or "The Gays". I haven't read them in a long time tho, I just remember mudblood being a slur and muggle being the accepted term, even by muggleborn magic users

[–] HerbalGamer@sh.itjust.works 16 points 9 months ago

That's because Mudblood is a magic user born from a Muggle family. A different term from Muggle itself. Pretty sure Muggle is an accepted term in the overall society (it's used in the Ministry's Department name for example), except from a few 'activists' you might hear of.

I believe there's someone like that in Hogwarts Legacy as well.

[–] Thorny_Insight@lemm.ee 4 points 9 months ago (1 children)

What's wrong about saying the blacks or the gays? That's just refering to a specific group of people. Only thing I can see as problematic is the generalization that follows but that's always the case when talking about groups.

[–] Bgugi@lemmy.world 9 points 9 months ago

People take offense to using adjectives describing a group of people as a noun. For example "the black community" or "people who are gay" describe a subset (describe a portion of the overall community,) whereas "the blacks" or "the gays" describe a distinct set (and imply that group as an "other")

[–] brygphilomena@lemmy.world 9 points 9 months ago

Muggle isnt a slur, just as wizard isnt a slur. It's not a derogatory term. It's just their word for non-magic people while non-magic people use the word wizard or witch.

[–] rwhitisissle@lemmy.world 4 points 9 months ago

The preferred term is NaMP - Not a Magical Person/Non-Magical Person. You could also say "Person of Non-Magic," but it's hard to pronounce "ponm."

[–] shalafi@lemmy.world 15 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Non magical people living in the real world. It's you. You're a muggle.

[–] DrQuint@lemmy.world 6 points 9 months ago (1 children)
[–] fkn@lemmy.world 3 points 9 months ago

I do know it, via magic. You can't prove I don't know, because you're a muggle.

[–] MajorMajormajormajor@lemmy.ca 7 points 9 months ago

Non-magical people's tech. Aka our technology.