this post was submitted on 22 Feb 2025
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Love her or hate her (and my opinions are mixed), I must confess, JK Rowling was a huge influence on why I didn't become a regular author. No shade on people who get what they paid for, but the young reader crowd is just so gimmicky, and not in a good way, and you see that with a lot of works like Percy Jackson and Twilight (but also predominantly with Rowling's work). How do you compete in such a no-rules game?

So then let's talk about one of the cores of the issue. People often have an epiphany when divulging into Harry Potter, and they think "huh, what's the deal with this if that thing is how it is". While noting that conflicts in literary analysis don't always reflect something that doesn't add up and that it could be a hiccup in details/semantics, the questions themselves don't go away. And there's nothing that matches the amount of those having to do with Harry Potter. What example of which strikes you as the most overlooked?

If Rowling herself ever notices that I'm bringing this up, let it be known I do think of her work as a reskinned Brothers Grimm in the universe of The Worst Witch and that I'm collaborating with another author (Samantha Rinne) whose work I would argue deserves Rowling's prestige if Rowling's work deserves it. Thanks (and here is where I run for the hills).

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[–] [email protected] 1 points 4 minutes ago

Well this kind of got answered in the game of Hogwarts legacy.

I always was curious how they Imbued physical objects with magical properties.

Let's say, the evanescent cupboards

So these are created as a pair and connected to each other in the sense that whatever you put in one, shows up in the other

It's basically an actual functional teleporter.

Leaving aside the specific instructions for use, this thing is a massive hack.

So in the games they do sort of explain that you can add magical properties to your clothes by using magical beasts resources.

So maybe the evanescent cupboards are made of one of those beasts that teleport a short distance

Same as the paintings and such

[–] [email protected] 7 points 4 hours ago (2 children)

Why are there socioeconomic classes on a society that can literally create or at least multiply any resources at will?

[–] [email protected] 2 points 30 minutes ago

They clearly state in the books that they cannot create resources at will. The resources need to exist first

Clearly you have not been studying for your OWLS. Focus on Gamp's transfiguration laws

[–] [email protected] 1 points 44 minutes ago

Life, uhh, finds a way.

[–] [email protected] 15 points 7 hours ago* (last edited 7 hours ago) (1 children)

The spell system is wack, which opens up all sorts of plot holes. Want Harry's invisibility cloak? Accio invisibility cloak! Boom, Harry's visible and you've got his cloak. I doubt that Rowling ever played D&D.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 hours ago (1 children)

This one is kind of accounted for. It's implied there are protections that can be put in place to prevent it from being summoned with Accio.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 29 minutes ago

It is also explained that that particular cloak is immune to charms

[–] [email protected] 32 points 10 hours ago (5 children)

There's no fucking way that a kid raised from infancy like Harry was, in a abusive hateful household that treated him like dirt, would have enough strength of character to pull shit like the "Give it here, Malfoy" scene after having been out of the Dursley household for less than a couple weeks. Think about how the Dursleys would have reacted every time young Harry tried to stand up for himself. It would have been nonstop physical and mental abuse, all aimed at making him more subservient. It would take a miracle for a kid like that to be even vaguely functional as a person, and he certainly wouldn't have the ability to stand up for himself, let alone others.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 27 minutes ago

Wizards are just built different. In Harry's case, he comes from a line of wizards that basically stood up to the metaphorical concept of death itself

Shits wack yo

[–] [email protected] 4 points 4 hours ago

You’re not entirely wrong but I was a complete misfit and the black sheep of my family. I resisted their attempts to conform and homogenize me.

I think I took a lot of inspiration from the stories I had access to from books, tv, film, and video games.

Harry could read so I wonder if he also had access to books with inspiration characters. Also, what was his school life like?

[–] [email protected] 1 points 4 hours ago

I think having literal magic powers is the key difference. Though I do think he would just end up becoming the bully more realistically.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 7 hours ago

Harry's character is larger-than-life strong, but that's fictional heroes for you.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 8 hours ago (1 children)

This one can actually be known, since you're just talking about human nature. I do think it's possible to come out of the situation strong willed. He'd need other strong parental figures, such as teachers. It would also require a great amount of resilience, and would no doubt leave with a fair share of mental health issues. But you could totally be emboldened even after a traumatic upbringing like that.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 7 hours ago

Yeah it's actually a weak criticism. Such strength of character is rare but there are still many examples in real life. Oprah Winfrey and Drew Barrymore come to my mind right away.

[–] [email protected] 22 points 11 hours ago (1 children)

I always cringe with the 7th book, where the trio is hiding and searching for horkruxes, and for some weird reason they don't have enough food and are constantly hungry. From the reading perspective I understand, that the hunger is a device to generate conflict and make their time hard to endure, but it always baffles me.

  • It is mentioned, that Hermione pulled out all her muggle savings, so why didn't she think about going to a supermarket and buying all the conserved food (cans and such) she can before they got on the run? She even mentions, that food can be multiplicated, just not created out of nothing.
  • When they are hiding they sometimes get to a store or supermarket. But that only brings food for like a few days max. Why not more?
  • And when there where too many dementors in an area to get more food, why not going really far away. We know Hermione was at least one time in France with her parents. Why not going there? Probably the war-like situation was not spread over the complete world that seriously. At least we are not hearing any of that in the books (JKR probably didn't even thing much about international things when writing this)
[–] [email protected] 13 points 11 hours ago (1 children)

Doesn't Hermione also have a basically infinite bag of holding? It really doesn't make sense

[–] [email protected] 6 points 4 hours ago

She does! She could have emptied multiple supermarkets, but nah, who needs food if you have books to read. Everytime I really doubt, that Hermione wouldn't think of stocking food in her bag. So much conflict, so easily preventible...

[–] [email protected] 22 points 13 hours ago

Irrational soft magic system - anything can happen for any reason, so the story doesn't matter at all.

[–] [email protected] 30 points 14 hours ago (4 children)

I don't know if it's a plot hole per se, but when do they learn maths and science? If they' at Hogwarts for 7 years, and they only learn magic, when exactly do they learn the usual subjects? Are they just stupid because they don't learn them?

[–] [email protected] 5 points 5 hours ago

They don't. That's all considered Muggle stuff that they don't need to know because they can just magic their way through life.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 7 hours ago (1 children)

While I think that can be explained away with the idea that the magic is so OP they don't actually need to know science. To use the Rowlings own tidbit as an example, why bother with toilets when you can simply magic away your shit.

And that also leads to what IMO is the biggest plot point nobody really thinks about. That there's a secret society of magic users who almost exclusively use magic, and the "muggle" society has no idea of its existence.

Think about all the things we've discovered. Electromagnetism is pretty much magic, we figured that out. Atoms are pretty much magic, not only did we figure out atoms we figured out what atoms consist of. Einstein predicted black holes, something so out there that even Einstein doubted his prediction, we later discovered and modeled it. We can literally come up with absolutely insane ideas and then come up with ways to prove or disprove those ideas. There's no chance we wouldn't figure out the existence of magic and a secret society if we saw glimpses of something that makes us go "hmm, that's interesting".

You could argue that they use magic to hide magic from us, but they'd have to know about what we are doing to make sure we don't accidentally stumble into discovering magic. But Arthur Weasley makes it pretty clear wizards don't understand how our world works. They don't know what we're doing so their secret society is literally at the mercy of us not just noticing it.

So the secret of society pretty much exists on the premise that we're too stupid to figure out Magic, but smart enough to create the society we have.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 4 hours ago

Not defending anything in particular. But at least in the books themselves it is explicit that magic is not a thing to figure out. You're either born capable of accessing magic or you aren't. A muggle can't reason their way into acquiring magic. The book's entire universe is based on the divide between those forced to exist within the confines of natural laws (muggles) and those capable of bending and breaking said rules to basically achieve whatever (wizards).

[–] [email protected] 19 points 13 hours ago

I think like the vast majority of them are just dumb and some are like savants. Everyone other than like a couple people in the book are just copying magic routinely. Only Snape and a few other characters are cooking up any new magic theory.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 14 hours ago

That would explain a lot of the nonsense in their society

[–] [email protected] 20 points 15 hours ago

Not really a plot hole, but a missed opportunity. Dumbledore's Phoenix could have shown up to help Snape - putting Harry in a mindfuck state as he would know both that Snape killed him and that Snape was loyal to him.

[–] [email protected] 35 points 17 hours ago (7 children)

The plot has already being discussed at length. I want to talk about quidditch.

Quick recap, in quidditch, scoring goals scores 10 or 20 points, catching the snitch scores 150 points, and ends the game. This effectively means that the only way a team can catch the snitch and lose is if they are over 150 points behind.

As a result of this, logically the seaker should not attempt to catch the snitch if the score is this unfavourable, meaning the game is always decided by the seaker, and nothing anyone else is doing remotely matters. Remember also we see the audience is rarely able to see what the seeker is doing from the stands.

Now you may say "what about the world cup in book 4, Krumm catches the snitch and still loses". This can only be attributed to Krumm got mad at his team, or maybe bored, otherwise he should just wait and see if his team can score a goal or two. If the other team's seaker catches the snitch you lose anyway, so why even try until it's going to win you the game? Maybe he was showing off to Hermione.

We also know for certain that this happens very rarely, as the odds given to the twins by Ludo Bagman are very high, leading to a big payout. Therefore quidditch is entirely decided by something that happens well out of sight of the audience, and would be terrible to watch or play.

As an aside, the rules around catching the snitch leading to a draw are never mentioned, but I assume they have some penalty shootout system

[–] [email protected] 7 points 5 hours ago

It made me irrationally mad that every significant character in the books was a seeker. Like Rowling's shorthand for a worthy adversary or ally was just they play seeker. Harry, Draco, Cedric, Cho, Ginny, Krum, Charlie, Regulus. I know we get to know other members of the Gryfindor team, but aside from that everyone of note is so impressive because they were a seeker.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 8 hours ago (1 children)

Quick recap, in quidditch, scoring goals scores 10 or 20 points, catching the snitch scores 150 points

Idk how canon this is, but I remember a quidditch computer game I used to play (on Windows XP) where usually when you scored your team would get the ball through the hoops multiple times in rapid succession, so scoring like 5 times in a row. Like if in basketball, if your team caught the ball after making a hoop you could pass it back and shoot again. That at least makes the point value of the snitch less egregious. Everything else you mentioned is very true though.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 5 hours ago

I think I remember that, Quidditch world cup? It was like a special move for Slytherin in the training chapter.

[–] [email protected] 35 points 15 hours ago (1 children)

Quidditch is a game designed solely for Harry Potter to be special. And it shows

[–] [email protected] 15 points 13 hours ago

It was actually designed specifically to piss off sports fans because the scoring is illogical.

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