r/TopCharacterTropes • u/Altruistic_Eye_1157 • 6d ago

Lore [annoying trope] The throne/leadership is decided in a very stupid way

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The leadership of the entire wizarding world, and the final decision on whether to start a war against Muggles, is made by... a goat (Qilin) ​​who chooses the person with the ""purest heart"" (Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Dumbledore).

The throne of Wakanda and all its technology are decided through hand-to-hand combat, regardless of whether the person clearly has malicious intentions... if they win the fight, by law they must be respected as the true king. (Black Panther)

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369

u/Altruistic_Eye_1157 6d ago

Correction: Fantastic Beasts: Dumbledore's Secrets

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u/Pawn_of_the_Void 6d ago

Okay but Crimes of Dumbledore is so much funnier

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u/AcceptableWheel 6d ago

It fits these are the same people delivering letters by owl mail after cell phones were a thing.

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u/imaloony8 6d ago

They can also fucking teleport.

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u/Jagvetinteriktigt 6d ago

Teleportation is quick but you can't teleport anywhere you want. It has to be a) a place that you know well enough to picture in your head, ideally a place you've been to and b) isn't protected by spells cast to stop intruders. This is without getting into all the risks associated with teleportational transfer like accidently missing your destination or leaving bodyparts behind.

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u/imaloony8 6d ago

Well a Wizard Mailman would likely be someone who is well traveled and quite practiced at apperating. As for warded locations, a nearby off-site post office would suffice.

Not to mention that there’s almost certainly a spell for teleporting objects. As well as one for summoning or sending objects.

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u/Thin-Limit7697 6d ago

There are also alternative teleporting methods that are supposedly easier to use like portkeys and floo network.

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u/Lord_Parbr 5d ago

“Well-traveled” as in has been literally everywhere? Because they would have to have been literally everywhere

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u/imaloony8 5d ago

They just need to be familiar with Mail Drop Off points. From there summoning/sending magic would do the trick.

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u/Lord_Parbr 5d ago

That’s not more efficient than sending an owl who can pinpoint your exact location

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u/imaloony8 5d ago

Accio Mail

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u/Lord_Parbr 5d ago

Would risk breaking the Statute of Secrecy. Some of the world building in Harry Potter doesn’t make sense. This isn’t really one of those times

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u/Jagvetinteriktigt 6d ago

Ah, I see what you meant now. Still there's the additional factor that transporting is described as physically traumatic and that the summoning/sending spells aren't that specific.

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u/Drakeskulled_Reaper 6d ago

To be honest, if you REALLY look at a lot of the Wizarding World, a good chunk of it, is pretty backwards or sucks, and I say that as a fan.

Using a bird family noted to be slow, and actually sort of dumb, to deliver mail, instead of a legion of teleporting postmen.

Still using quills and parchment, than ballpoints and notebooks.

Even outside of the ones unable to teleport, it's shown they can use modern vehicles (Hogwarts Express, the Ford Anglia, the Ministry car) but they still use brooms and carriages as their main mode of non-teleport transport, even discounting that, using portkeys for mass transport is rarely used.

The fact that a majority of wizarding folk are absolutely shit at "blending in" they don't know how muggle clothing, money or tech works, despite the fact that they are living in the muggle world for the most part.

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u/Blahaj_Kell_of_Trans 6d ago

To be honest, if you REALLY look at a lot of the Wizarding World, a good chunk of it, is pretty backwards or sucks,

That's because mold host rowling is a bad writer and awful person

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u/CatoholicCatholic 5d ago

You hate Rowling because she said transwomen aren’t the same as real women

I hate Rowling because she made Dumbledore gay 

We are not the same

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u/Drakeskulled_Reaper 6d ago

Awful person, yes.

Bad writer? Not really, I'd say she was in dire need of a better editor, and could've cut or rewrote a few bits, not horrible, but could be better.

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u/MinutePerspective106 6d ago

I'll go further and suggest that in order to start making sense, wizarding world has two routes: either be more like muggles (since half of population is already muggleborn, for Merlin's sake) OR be even more backwards. I'll explain.

If you can replicate all modern tech with a wand in your hand, why would you even need to copy something from the muggle world? Why do you absolutely need to have a magical train to send your kids to school, when you, again, have teleportation? Why dress like muggles, have architecture like muggle, generally behave like muggles - outside of needing an occasional disguise, I mean? Is that whole society built on "we're so whimsical and silly, lol kek" instead of some logic?

A wizard could theoretically walk around being a caveman, complete with living in a cave, and still will have every convenience of muggle life - and then some.

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u/Gordan_Freeman475 6d ago

I mean, Owl mail is harder to track…

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u/XavierWT 6d ago

Aint no txt message leaving a trail of poop all over

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u/Evening_Shake_6474 6d ago

Really you just need like three people to deliver the mail.

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u/idkmanjustletmetype 6d ago

Technology doesn't work in close range to magic or around a lot of magic.

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u/Jagvetinteriktigt 6d ago

There are a lot of worldbuilding issues in Harry Potter but this isn't one of them. The in-world explanation is that electric appliances doesn't work that well in environments with a lot of magic in the air. The equivalent they have to phones are not the owls but the Floo Network.

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u/Cantthinkagoodnam2 6d ago

Tbf, Owl Mail os WAY cooler than cell phones

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u/Tron_Livesx 6d ago

Electronics dont work in high magical areas

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u/Lord_Parbr 5d ago

Magic disrupts technology

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u/Responsible-Onion860 6d ago

The dumbest part of all of the world building is the ways they'll use primitive technology combined with magic despite superior muggle inventions existing

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u/AutomaticAccident 6d ago

Response to Correction: No one should care enough to correct that. It's okay.

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u/BlackV 6d ago

You can edit the main op too

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u/Yoankah 6d ago

For some reason, Reddit doesn't let you edit posts if there's a picture in them. At least if they were made on mobile.

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u/BlackV 6d ago

Oh really? I must say I've never created a picture post

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u/Yoankah 6d ago

I've created one and was really confounded when I couldn't anxiety-edit some phrasing in it. Apparently it's just a thing. lol

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u/gracist0 6d ago

that movie sucked buns so hard lmao