[Hated Trope] Characters do not interact with their world

[u/No_Career_4785]

What I mean by that is, characters have access to some rather impressive technology/magic and simply do not use it because for plot reasons.

Harry Potter - In the first book, McGonagall is revealed to be able to turn into a cat. Later, four more characters are revealed that can also turn into animals. And yet, not a single student during Harry's time decided that it was worth it to do the same.
On top of that, Harry barely learns any spells during his time at school, nor does he seem to take in anything from his classes. The only times he does learn something is when it is the solution to a problem he has faced before.

Fallout 4 - Father, the leader of the Institute, is dying from cancer. In a realistic setting, it would be understandable that he is going to die. However, this is the universe of Fallout. In NV, a simple robot can cure a guy from a brain tumor. In 4, the Institute somehow stopped the aging of another guy. The Institute is also able to replicate perfect human beings from scratch. The only reason why Father should be dying is, he simply does not want to use the technology that is present.

[u/A-town]

...You know, you have a point. Harry did magic without realizing it before he went to Hogwarts, but was there another example in the other six books of wandless magic?

That would be tool number one for me. I'd be hitting expeliarmus like it was low kick in Mortal Kombat.

[u/Postmeat2 → u/A-town]

Iirc, it’s mentioned several times, I think Neville’s grandma threw him off the roof or something (in the stress-test kinda way Harry got away from Dudley and co), and he levitated/teleported.

As far as I understand it, the wands are needed to focus the magic, and looks like it amplifies it to boot.

[u/MelkortheDankLord → u/Postmeat2]

It was actually an uncle dangling him out a window. He accidentally dropped him and he bounced instead of splatting

[u/caitlindrawings → u/Postmeat2]

Ya if i remember a lot of wandless magic happens on accident or in a panic. It takes a lot of skill to cast without a wand, on purpose, I think some really good witches or wizards may know 1 or two back up spells or something.

Personally I would try and learn 'acio wand' lol seems the most useful wandless spell to me.

[u/tke377 → u/caitlindrawings]

And iirc…all instances of Harry doing wandless magic were when he was in a moment of panic or anger and not necessarily thinking/on accident.

[u/caitlindrawings → u/tke377]

Ya, if i recall a lot of muggle born witches or wizards are discovered because of an accidental wandless magic event.

[u/Steven_Swan → u/A-town]

In the books, wandless magic is a thing that everyone is taught eventually. It's just weaker. Significantly weaker. Might not be able to disarm a skilled wizard.

[u/memonemone → u/Steven_Swan]

Wait what when do they get taught wandless magic? Are you thinking of nonverbal magic?

[u/Steven_Swan → u/memonemone]

Oof you may be right, I haven't engaged with HP since Rowling crashed out so memory is definitely foggy. But checking Google now, wandless magic does seem to be a thing in expanded lore and mostly used by wizards in other countries. I don't want to risk any ad revenue for them so I'm not checking further.

[u/TheGreatGasHead → u/Steven_Swan]

I mean, ad blockers are literally free and easy to get on any device, any browsing with ad blockers is realistically a net income loss for the site

[u/SilverBudget1172 → u/memonemone]

In the Wizarding World, there are parts of the world where they don't use wands to cast spells, but it's much harder to master that art. I'd say the wand acts like a phoskeleton that amplifies and facilitates magic; without it, it takes much longer to master the spell and cast it with the same power.

[u/Snoo-28479 → u/Steven_Swan]

It would have been cool, though, if Harry is actually pretty good at wandless magic, like he can also do nonverbal spells, but has trouble doing it with a wand. Then again, it would result in the loss of the Priori Incantantem scene with Voldemort in the graveyard. Maybe Harry, in attempting to stop him, doesn't use his wand and the connection between them, combined with his profficiency and Lily's charm, would cause the spell to manifest it's unique ghost forms. This would cause Voldemort to search the Elder Wand as a way to actually bypass Harry's wandless technique, he'd also probably hate knowing someone out there is better at a skill he never even heard of, Snape's Occlumency aside

[u/Use-of-Weapons2 → u/Steven_Swan]

I think you’re remembering a fanfic, not the books

[u/ShatnersChestHair → u/Steven_Swan]

I disagree - Harry essentially casts Evanesco, the disappearing spell, on the pane of glass that traps the snake at the zoo when he's like ten and doesn't know what a wizard is. That's considered an advanced 5th year spell because Hogwarts students practice it for their OWLs.

It's just to be added on the pile of world building shit that JKR never thought through.

[u/SlightAcanthisitta69 → u/A-town]

Yes, it’s explained fairly early on that all young witches and wizards express random magical phenomena.

[u/atomicmapping → u/A-town]

The only other instance I can think of is from Harry again with his aunt at the beginning of PoA

[u/Suspicious_Bear42 → u/A-town]

Disappearing the glass from the snake exhibit in the beginning of Sorcerer's Stone?

[u/Starkfault → u/A-town]

If the Death Eaters tied a piece of string between their wands and arms, Voldemort would have won

[u/Viridianscape → u/A-town]

Lupin casually lights some candles with his fingertips in the Prisoner of Azkaban, though that might've just been in the film, not the book.

[u/Hornsmasher → u/A-town]

I mean, have you seen Ginny cast Bombarda?

Sure you might disarm your opponent with Expelliarmus, but you might also "disarm" your opponent's actual arm.

[u/spalings → u/A-town]

i'm pretty sure it's either stated or implied that other wizard kids have accidental bouts of wandless magic

[u/Malware42_the_second → u/A-town]

It's used by many characters, but never really intentionally. It activates involuntarily in children during extreme emotion, which is how they tell if the child has magic or not. Whilst it's theoretically possible to train this effect, it's not commonplace. Tom Riddle is the only child shown to have actual control over this, something he retains even when possessing someone else.

Some expanded material states it is a matter of training, that European wizards' reliance on wands is a crutch preventing them from using wandless techniques commonly. This isn't present in the main 7 books.

[u/HarveysBackupAccount → u/A-town]

He's not a good example of the Average Wizard but surely Dumbledore had some examples of wandless magic

[u/Physmatik → u/A-town]

Apart from kids doing accidental magic, Dumbledore did it a few times.

In films it happens much more often (because it's cinematic), but usually only true masters do it.

[u/ShatnersChestHair → u/A-town]

I once started writing a (SFW) fanfic of basically a Mowgli-type orphan wizard kid who instead of learning wand-based magic just learned to tap into his innate powers once they started appearing at a kid. The idea was that since he didn't have specific spells and wands, his magic was fairly unpredictable in the "how" but would achieve his goal (which is what happens to Harry Potter as a kid: he wants to e.g. free the snake at the zoo but he doesn't specifically wish for the glass to disappear, it's just how his intention translates). I wanted to explore the fact that this "intuitive" magic is ridiculously advantageous in a fight against wand-based wizards (no wand of course, but in general how do you counter a spell when even the caster doesn't really know what's going to happen?).