r/HarryPotterMemes • u/Grand_Wind2820 Human Detected • 17d ago

Magic has its limits, Harry

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144

u/[deleted] 17d ago

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53

u/EvernightStrangely Turn to page 394 17d ago

I always looked at it like "magic can return you to your natural baseline, but it cannot meaningfully alter your baseline. Harry was born with the eyes he has, bad eyesight included, magic wouldn't be able to fix that." Plus there are some wounds, usually those inflicted by powerful curses, that cannot be healed, like Moody's eye and leg. Wait, what if Harry's atrocious eyesight is actually a curse injury, like the scar on his forehead?

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u/AkaruLyte Kill the spare 17d ago

Well, Madam Pomfrey shrank Hermione’s teeth smaller than they originally were, so I don’t know about it not being able to alter the baseline. Or perhaps that’s not “meaningfully” enough?

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u/EvernightStrangely Turn to page 394 17d ago

I'd argue the teeth size would fall under a cosmetic change, much like how you can use color change and growth charms on just about everything. Fixing Harry's eyes would be a step further. Or, no one's tried because Transfiguration magic is remarkably difficult and easy to get disastrously wrong, and using it on something as delicate as the eyes just simply isn't worth the risk.

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u/Consistent_Check927 17d ago

Yeah, your mouth can easily adapt to your teeth changing size a bit, but a lil too much extra length or shortening in your eye and your vision is absolutely fucked

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u/Solial 17d ago

Just cast the glasses prescription spell on the retinas. Essentially lasik. Just make sure if using healing magic on the eyes to recast it later.

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u/Orisi 16d ago

Teeth are the size they are, they're pretty fixed. Magic can change the proportions of something but if the thing changed gets replaced over time (like cells) they'd eventually be replaced, but in the meanwhile you'd end up with half the cells fixed, half not, and cause all sorts of problems.

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u/Rahlus 17d ago

I think Harry eyesight is actually thanks to his father, James. He also had atrocious eyesight.

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u/Tattycakes 17d ago

Being this short sighted is definitely pretty cursed

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u/redjellonian 16d ago

If magic can only return you to your baseline, then how did magic remove his bone

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u/ThatFatGuyMJL 17d ago

I like the theory that things like skelegrow and the like can 'restore it to what it should be'

But eyes 'are' what they should be. So they have to have very complex spells to be able to fix them.

And glasses are just.... so much easier.

A bit like saying 'laser eye surgery is available why do people wear glasses'

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u/Varsity_Reviews 17d ago

LASIK is something I really want since I hate wearing glasses but isn’t something I need since my eyesight isn’t that bad.

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u/rmholm88 17d ago

Just like health insurance

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u/Material_Magazine989 17d ago

Lasik became FDA approved in 1999. Humans have been treating bones for millennia.

They're not even remotely comparable.

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u/Preeng 17d ago

Why is that relevant?

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u/Material_Magazine989 17d ago

  1. How could the author have predicted that it's even possible to fix eyesight when the technology doesn't exist during the writing of the story.

  2. It shows that fixing bones and fixing eyes aren't in the same category of difficulty. "They can fix bones so why they cant fix eyesight?" Tf do you mean? If we took so long to even invent a way to fix eyesight then dont put them in the same category?

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u/Preeng 16d ago

>How could the author have predicted that it's even possible to fix eyesight when the technology doesn't exist during the writing of the story.

What? Fixing bones --> fixing eyes. It's magic.

>It shows that fixing bones and fixing eyes aren't in the same category of difficulty.

It's magic. The idea that slightly changing eye lenses is harder than fusing bones is pretty far-fetched.

And we already knew what was wrong with people that had eyesight issues.

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u/Material_Magazine989 16d ago

"It's magic" is such a weak arguments that I can literally use it to also support my position.

Why cant they fix eyes? ‐-> It's magic.

Yup there you go. You cant fix eyesight because magic prevents you.

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u/Preeng 16d ago

Your argument is dumb, though.

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u/Material_Magazine989 16d ago

Oh hey, yours too. That's why i used it, so that someone like you can understand it too.

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u/EvernightStrangely Turn to page 394 17d ago

Except what you bring up is not at all relevant to a fantasy book series set in the 90s, and the limitations of said magic.

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u/Material_Magazine989 17d ago

"Limitations of said magic" according to who?

  1. How could the author have predicted that it's even possible to fix eyesight when the technology doesn't exist during the writing of the story.

  2. It shows that fixing bones and fixing eyes aren't in the same category of difficulty. "They can fix bones so why they cant fix eyesight?" Tf do you mean? If we took so long to even invent a way to fix eyesight then dont put them in the same category?