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The Harry Potter universe completely relies on wands. While witches and wizards are born with some level of magical potential, their wands are the very tools that enable them to control it. Instead of being listless sorcerers who stumble through their lessons without any sense of self-control, they can use wands as a vessel for magic.
As such, wands serve as containers, enhancers, and effective tools for using any otherwise aimless spells. While some witches and wizards do not need wands for every spell, they are still essential for students at Hogwarts to learn in the first place. Unfortunately, wands make no sense.
10
How Were Wands Discovered?
There Is No Real Science To Wands
Wands are an extremely peculiar tool, and they have never been especially easy to imagine. Harry Potter‘s most powerful wizards would naturally look for an opportunity to expand their control of magic, but the wand is a bizarre selection. After all, wands are nothing more than wooden sticks with magical cores inside.
It likely took powerful magic to create them, but powerful magic is difficult to harness without those very wands.
Druids were supposedly the first wandmakers, so it makes some sense that they would look to wood. Still, the exact origins of wands have never been fully explained. It likely took powerful magic to create them, but powerful magic is difficult to harness without those very wands. Their very existence is a mystery in itself.
9
How Do Hogwarts Students Study So Many Subjects?
Wands Tend To Specialize in Specific Topics
In the Harry Potter universe, wands tend to specialize in different subjects. Unicorn hair wands struggle with the dark arts, for instance, and thunderbird tail feathers are excellent tools for defensive spells and transfiguration. Every Hogwarts student has a different wand, yet they all take the same classes.
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Having these core classes is confusing when wands are so tightly connected to specific subjects. A student attempting to learn the dark arts could struggle with a unicorn hair wand, so they are naturally at a disadvantage. At first glance, the entire concept feels patently unfair. It makes no sense that Hogwarts would not have the tools to mitigate that issue.
8
Uagadou Should Use Wands
The African Wizarding School Rarely Does
Hogwarts is not the only wizarding school in the world. Other continents and countries also feature schools designed to prepare students for the rigors of life as a wizard or witch. Uagadou, the African wizarding school, is known for teaching students to excel in Transfiguration, Astronomy, and other key subjects. Unfortunately, the school lacks one thing that Hogwarts insists its students provide: Wands.
There are eight major wizarding schools in the world. Uagadou is the only major school in the continent of Africa.
Because wands were a European invention, Uagadou preferred to do without it. Some African wizards still use wands, but they are few and far between. Considering how powerful wands are, that is completely ridiculous. If Uagadou students already have talents, then they can enhance them by using wands. If they are as important as the Hogwarts students insist, then it should have caught on in Uagadou as quickly as it did in Ilvermorny, Mahoutokoro, and all the other schools.
7
Why Are House Elves Not Allowed To Own Wands?
If They Enjoy Being Servants, Why Have a Law?
The Ministry of Magic is famously corrupt, but one of its rules is just baffling. Per a Ministry order, goblins and House Elves are not permitted to use wands, though they do have the potential. They rely on wandless magic instead, and any House Elf caught using a wand is severely punished.
In the books, Hermione led a campaign to free the House Elves from servitude, but this storyline was cut from the movies.
That policy is downright absurd, considering that there is no real need to have that law. The House Elves are supposedly perfectly happy to serve wizards and rarely turn on their masters. If they truly enjoy their place in life, then they would happily avoid using wands. Instead, the law appears to indicate that they would rebel against the wizards, though the story seemingly insists the opposite. It is an odd ruling that just makes the House Elves more confusing.
6
How Are Hand-Me-Down Wands Acceptable?
Why Would Charlie Replace His Chosen Wand?
The Weasleys famously lack the funds of the Malfoys, Blacks, or Potters. Though they are a well-known pure-blood family, they lack the prestige of their fellow magical families, leaving them in a precarious position. For Ron, that meant always putting up with hand-me-downs. As disappointing as hand-me-down robes are, however, a hand-me-down wand is just ridiculous.
The Weasleys were members of the Sacred Twenty-Eight, which meant that they were some of the few Pure-Blood wizards in England.
Charlie, Ron’s brother, passed his wand down to his little sibling. The wand was slightly broken, but it worked fairly well for Ron. Charlie simply just bought a new wand. Unfortunately, that makes very little sense. A broken wand is extremely dangerous, and the Weasleys would have known that. Besides, Charlie could have just continued working with that wand if it was so safe that an 11-year-old could use it. Passing Ron his personal wand was just absurd.
5
Wands Can Be Permanently Broken
They Should Break Far More Often
Wands are powerful tools, but they are little more than glorified sticks at the end of the day. They can be permanently broken by wizards from unhappy accidents. Just as Hagrid once accidentally sat on a birthday cake, wands could easily be shattered the same way. It’s really a wonder that it does not happen more often.
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In the hands of irresponsible 11-year-olds, wands should break as easily as glasses. It is hard to imagine children maintaining the same wand for the extent of their Hogwarts career, let alone for the rest of their lives. Though wizards likely try to take care of them, accidents happen. Wands should be breaking much more often.
4
Wizards Never Lose Their Wands
And They Are Also Rarely Stolen
Just like the fact that wands should break fairly often, they should also be lost. Students in their first year at Hogwarts are juggling classes, House expectations, and the struggle of simply navigating the ever-changing castle. On top of that, they have to carry books and parchment everywhere they go. Students should lose their wands far more often.
Wands should be missing, stolen, or forgotten far more often than they are.
After all, these first-year students have never had a wand before. Keeping their wands close is not natural to them at that point. Wands should be missing, stolen, or forgotten far more often than they are. Replacements, too, should come extremely often. Wands may choose the wizard, but wizards are not always responsible.
3
How Are There So Many Phoenix Feathers?
There Are Very Few Phoenixes
At Ollivanders, Garrick Ollivander prefers to use just three cores in his wands: dragon heartstring, unicorn hair, and phoenix feathers. Unicorns and dragons are extremely hard to come by, especially since a dragon presumably needs to die to claim its heartstrings. To have a full shop, Ollivander likely needed to have a good supply of all three core types.
Harry and Voldemort both had phoenix feather cores.
That, in itself, makes no sense. There are very few phoenixes in the Harry Potter universe. While this is still the rarest core type, there should not even have been two phoenix feathers that simply found their way to Ollivander. If the feathers are so powerful, it is hard to believe that Ollivander could get them at all.
2
Wands Do Not Respond To Disarming Consistently
The Spell Is Very Inconsistent
With the introduction of the Elder Wand, disarming became a key aspect of wand lore. After all, disarming an enemy meant that the Elder Wand would pass on to whoever defeated its previous master. Yet, despite constantly beating enemies in training sessions and in the fields, other wands do no such thing.
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That inconsistency could be passed off as a special quirk of the Elder Wand. However, other instances were also confusing. Expelliarmus, the disarming charm, was meant to simply force a wand out of a target’s hands. Instead, it often threw the entire target back, caused miniature explosions, and even caused a light show. The entire concept of disarming was baffling because it was never wholly consistent.
1
Wandless Magic Has No Clear Rules
It Just Happens With No Explanation
Wandless magic is possible, but there are no rules that curtail its use. Powerful witches and wizards were able to make use of wandless magic, but it was always presented as more difficult. In areas without wands, however, it is as simple as gesturing, something more wizards could easily do.
Wizards should likely eventually work to take off the training wheels and abandon wands completely.
The lack of rules makes wands feel unnecessary. If Hogwarts simply trained Ron to wave his hand, he would never have needed to replace his wand at all. Wandless magic can also be completed without words, making it even more powerful. If powerful wizards show their strength by using magic without wands, then wizards should likely eventually work to take off the training wheels and abandon wands completely.
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