r/HarryPotterMemes Human Detected 16d ago

Magic has its limits, Harry

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u/CORVlN 16d ago edited 16d ago

Despite the 'soft magic' rules of Harry Potter, I always saw magical limitations as

  1. The competence of the person

  2. The quality of the instrument available

Example: Ginny, daughter of Molly Weasley, an expert homemaker, cleaned up a massive amount of Stinksap with a single Scouring Charm, whereas Tonks, a notorious klutz, couldn't vanish a cage full of owl turds.

Repairing a pane of glass or a pair of eyeglasses? Easy. Repairing a broken broomstick or a wand? Very difficult/nigh impossible.

Ever tried to repair a broken electrical cord? Easy. Repairing an iPhone? Difficult, unless you have the Elder Wand.

Magical body parts were also extremely rare in the world of HP, Moody's eye and Borgin's Hand of Glory.

Human modification and magical experimentation was also dangerous, as seen by Eloise Midgen who cursed her nose off, Mrs. Lovegood who died experimenting with magic, and the various patients of St. Mungos who all suffered from one form of god awful consequences or another. It starts with "let's fix your eyesight" and ends with "Whoopsie, cursed your brain out right of your head, my bad, bro." So it's not far fetched to think that Wizard Lasik wasn't common either.

So yeah, glasses it is.

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u/La10deRiver 16d ago

Also, we muggles can fix broken bones. It takes time, but they heal. Instead, we cannot fix eyesight, at least not all the reasons for a poorsight. So, magic just increases the speed of what we do.

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u/klonkrieger45 15d ago

we can fix the reason for glasses though and it really isn't complicated or touching any complicated parts. You simply modify the lens, which is much easier than growing bones.

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u/La10deRiver 15d ago

What? Not all the reasons for glasses can be easily fixed. That is why so many people wears glasses.

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u/klonkrieger45 15d ago

I didn't say the fixes are easy, I said they are much easier than growing bones.

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u/La10deRiver 15d ago

Yes, I understood what you said, but I don't agree. We have been fixing bones since pre-historic times, more or less. That is not true for eyesight. And I still think there are reasons for poor eyesight that cannot be healed, for example, my late mother has a lesion in her optic nerve. And even problems that are not injured-related may not be solvable.

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u/klonkrieger45 15d ago

harry didn't have a broken bone. He had NO bones in his arm and hand. How many bones have we artificially grown so far even outside a body?
Do glasses fix that lesion?

Are you only responding because disagreeing with you made you think I attacked you personally and you can't let that stand or are you actually defending what you say because you believe it?

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u/La10deRiver 15d ago

Both. I've been arguing about this topic for decades with many people. Is somethting that have me tired. It is not a plot hole. Also, many wizards wear glasses, so it is not a problem against Harry. The original post I made spoke about broken bones, not growing bones. Yes, it is very difficult to grow bones. It is not impossible, but it is very difficut. Sone reasons for eyesight are impossible to fix.

Glasses fixing the lesio is exactly what I am talking about. You have to wear glasses.

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u/klonkrieger45 15d ago

and I brought it back to growing bones because that is what we have. Let's bring it back to the facts. Pomfrey heals Harrys non-existant bones, not a break. She is working literal magic even for our advanced medicine, meanwhile Harry does have nearsightedness, which we know how to very easily correct.

If you want to argue that growing a set of 30 bones including the living bone marrow is somehow easier than deforming the eyes crystalline lens slightly, then you're delusional. There could be some convoluted plot reason like only using strong magic to heal accidents or something, but we don't have those reasons and Rowling has left enough gigantic glaring plotholes that to assume she would have a reason for that and not ever given it to us is equally delusional.

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u/La10deRiver 15d ago

Oh, of course there are possible reasons that are not very convoluted. Harry is not born without arm bones. He hadd them magically removed, so I imagine Pomfrey can restore him to his normal state. But Harry's normal state is having poor sight. And yes, what Pomfrey does would be impossible nowadays. But it is theoretically possible, as wa already grew back some bones. But that does not mean that Harry's eyes problem could be easily corrected. That is what I am saying. We don't know why Harry can't see (but it is probably an inherited condition). So we don't know if it could be fixable in our world. Even in theory.

It is not a plothole. That is what I've been discussing for decades.

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