Why Are Modern Wizards so Much WEAKER? - Harry Potter Theory

[@frankbauerful]

Powerful wizards were always outliers. During Merlin's time there was only ONE Merlin. It''s not like every wizard during Merlin's time was so powerful And Merlin didn't manage to create the Philosopher's Stone. Flamel was the only one to do so. It's not like all of Flamel's compatriots were able to do so. All of these exceptionally powerful wizards are centuries apart. So power level hasn't decreased. It's always been a rare occurence that a wizard managed to rise above all others.

[@Fiery154]

Exactly. Famous people are famous because they were special in their own time. We remember Einstein and Tesla and Benjamin Franklin because they were outstanding, JimBob down the street was not equally outstanding and was therefore not remembered.

[@FrisianFront]

​​@@Fiery154and there are a people that manage do do great things/feats but go wholefully unnoticed.

[@LexusFox]

They also tend to be very weird eccentrics with a touch of… idk what to call it but connection to “it” or magic.

[@randyross5630]

@frankbauerful I think Wizards in the Harry Potter Universe are more Powerful when they are Transgender, and Merlin and Flamel were both born Women... Prove me Wrong!

[@frankbauerful]

@@randyross5630 🤣🤣🤣

[@codyconnor6981]

Less they got weaker, and more muggles continue to advance and adapt while the magical world didn’t change much.

[@Aaahrg]

Muggles can fly to space, wizards don't. Let it sink in.

[@voen]

@@Aaahrg "Muggle Science put a man on the moon, all magic did was turn a handsome guy into a snake!"

[@Aaahrg]

@@voen and the guy died at the age of 72 despite being "immortal"

[@Neuviletteiudexofmemes]

I mean… Wizards seem to be able to interact with Metaphysics. They would, can, and will always, stomp muggles, regardless of technological advancement, excepting technological advancement that integrates magic, thereby making the distinction null and void. Want an example? Voldemort could’ve wiped muggles from the modern world with a few words. “Dementors, go kill them.” And since it seems Dementors were actually created by a spell originally, “Expecto Umbra” most likely, if you examine extra material very closely and accept it as canon, any Wizard in the world could kill the entirety of Muggle kind, by themselves.

[@XiaoYueMao]

this is true if your comparing wizards to muggles, but we arent, wizard to wizard, modern wizards are objectively less impressive than the many examples of past wizards, even dumbledore didnt do any great magical feat comparable to the hallows, the philospher stone, or an enchanted hecking castle that is practically semi sentient, all he has going for him is random knowledge and a ton of raw power for all intents and purposes

[@OwenLeBlanc-l7h]

The weakness of modern witches and wizards is nonsense imo. How many wizards have we mentioned? 4 founders, Merlin, and Flamel. That's what 6 people? How many hundreds or thousands of witches and wizards existed throughout history, but were entirely unremarkable and therefore not recorded. It's a completely normal historical phenomenon. You should only expected a small few exceptional people at any given time.

[@Fiery154]

Dumbledore, Harry, and possibly Snape will go down in history. Possibly Moody, but who knows what will escape the Mad-Eye of history.

[@Shaun_Oh]

Came here to say exactly this, couldn't agree more

[@marchoshes6912]

There is a lot of witches and wizards There are wizards in witches who are just as powerful then that are being. Explained in this video

[@meacadwell]

Agreed. And I'll add how much that's known about these "exceptional" wizards are actually true in the wizarding world. They were around so long ago you know their stories have been embellished to a certain degree. Because of the nature of oral storytelling, each time a tale is told it's changed just a little bit until the current story will have at least a few differences from the original story after even a relatively short period of time. It's also possible what another wizard did was tacked on to one of these exceptional wizard's stories, similar to what what Gilderoy Lockhart did. Last, but not least, look at how many different contradictory stories there are about Merlin and he's the best known of the bunch. If we can't keep his stories straight how are the stories of the other exceptional wizards, who are less known, supposed to be accurate?

[@toddfraser3353]

Just like how many people think new stuff, music, art, books.... Isn't as good as it use to be this would be applied to the wizarding world. The pop station plays this year's top hits. The oldies station plays 2 decades of the hits that stood. The classical station spans centuries. Art like stone sculptures can span millennia. Overtime the mediocre and even the better than average will get forgotten over time while the exceptional will get distilled into historical memories.

[@josecuestas7246]

Answer: it could be result of several reasons: 1. Genetic defective. As the wizards, particulary the blood purists, are prone to avoid enter in relationship with muggles, limiting their genetic pool to only other pureblood wizards, to the point that most of the wizards of ancient and noble houses are related each other like cousins or siblings. A kind of practice that can causes serious genetic issues, like the case of the hemophillia in the muggles. 2. Isolation. The wizarding world in general keeps themselves isolated from the rest of the world, to be hidden from the muggles. But bringing as consequences the lack of learning from the new advances, new social aspects and new mindsets, leaving the wizarding world stuck with outdated ideas. 3. Slow innovation. In comparison with the muggles, the wizards are too much reliant from one aspect, the magic, leading them to not updates or get better their society, like the muggles, that we uses the science and technology, that each day advance and get update constantly, allowing us to learn and grow as society, than be outdated like the wizards. In my opinion, one or this three reasons can explain why the modern wizards are weaker.

[@mr.xtothez]

I think the theory in the Video about bloodlines was complete bullshit. The whole point of this mudblood debate throughout the books was that purebloods are not more talented at all. So this Theory doesnt make sense. Also theres no mentioning of powerful bloodlines. Its just pure or not. I dont want to be a hater and i appreciate the content but i think somebody who is a youtuber focused on harry potter should have gotten that message from the bood

[@rolandswift4311]

@@mr.xtothez There might actually be something to the theory. Certain beneficial abilities like being a parselmouth, metamorphmagus, and to some extent a seer are all at least hinted to have a strong genetic component. It's not a stretch to believe that other valuable genetic abilities that could've made a witch or wizard more powerful might've been lost as bloodlines were brought to an end.

[@josecuestas7246]

@@mr.xtothez Well, regarding the theory of the blood, you can also notes that the most strongest wizards, are generally the Half-Blood, like Albus Dumbledore or Voldemort, whom shows more potential than several pure-blood wizards, implying that maybe the genetic plays a role in the magical potential of a wizard. And this means, that maybe the purist practices actually weakens the magic power of the wizards, for limited their genetic pool, causing that the modern pureblood wizards were weaker than Half-blood wizards.

[@mr.xtothez]

@@rolandswift4311 You mean seers like Professor trelawney whos descandent of the great seer whats her name?

[@Acuas]

As far as we know, the "pure blood" wizards, are not really pure blood right? They wrote the book themselves, and they put into said book whoever they wanted, but how would you know if 10 centuries ago one of the ramifications of the family had relations with a muggle, and then introduces 1 half-blood to the family tree, and that would literally make almost all the pure blood families end up half blood, since they only pair between themselves, at some point, no more pure blood lines would remain.

[@robertmckenna3994]

There is another possibility for why wizard kind seems to be so much weaker in Harry Potter’s time. Many of the more powerful and notable persons of the age had been either recruited or killed off by Voldemort. Hagrid said in The Philosopher’s Stone,”No one ever lived after he decided to kill ‘em, no one except you, and he killed some of the best witches and wizards of the age.” What if this wasn’t mere hyperbole? What if Voldemort’s reign of terror did result in the deaths of the best and brightest of a generation? This would certainly bring down the quality of magic done outside of his own and his servants. With some notable exceptions such as Dumbledore, McGonagall, and Slughorn. And he did try to kill or recruit each of them.

[@sashmiel6566]

That is a good point. I think its because it gets lost in the fact that we don't see the full extent of Voldemort except his use of Horcrux and Unforgivable curses and surrounded himself by the trappings of those more powerful than himself. As much as Magical Beasts was disliked, Grindlewald looked outright dangerous and cunning on his own.

[@felix5728]

Thus leading to the biggest plot hole in the series. We are supposed to believe that Voldemort, a person known to wipe out entire Wizarding families that included some of the best witches and wizards, was going to spare Lily Potter, a muggleborn (one of the things he hated above all else due to his own past) witch who opposed him and who he believed had a role in a prophecy to bring about his downfall (giving birth to his equal) simply because it would be a waste to kill her since she was smart. This makes absolutely no sense. Given everything we are told Voldemort 100% would've wiped Harry's family, and without sparing Lily there would be no chance for the events of the series to occur.

[@robertmckenna3994]

@@felix5728 completely wrong. Voldemort gave Lily the chance to step aside because Severus Snape asked it of him. Had he not done so Voldemort would have just marched in and killed everyone without preamble. But it was the choice that Snape bought for her that made the prophecy possible. Had Lily not been given the chance to save her own life then the protection Harry had against Voldemort would not have been there to save his life.

[@felix5728]

@@robertmckenna3994 Except it still goes against his character

[@rikhuravidansker]

@@felix5728 He did not see Lily as a threat, and he tried to recruit Lily (Muggleborns can join the Death Eaters if they have a magical ancestor, if they are descended from Squibs, or if they renounce the Muggle world, implying the Death Eaters are ableist eugenicists rather than clannish ableists per se, and also indicating just as in folklore, the Death Eaters know perfectly well that magic is NOT hereditary: the reason Petunia can't learn magic is because some people are more talented than others, and those are the ones the magical quill writes down).

[@SubjectDelta20]

I think it has to do with blood purity. I don't think it's a coincidence the strongest wizards in history were half-bloods. Tom Riddle, Dumbledore, Merlin, Harry Potter, *(probably Grindelwald too, but his blood status is unconfirmed)* all Half-bloods. It seems wizards breeding exclusively with other magicals is what made them weaker. Apparently the influx of muggle blood always leads to greater expansion of power & ability.

[@Sturebrallan]

I agree! Perhaps because the pure-blood wizards were were experiencing quite a bit of incest, which might have limited their magical potential.

[@Mackedo5]

I'd agree to a point. There are things that blood purity can help maintain. Parcel tounge being an example, or Tonk and Fleur's innate powers being another. For sheer power, I agree, but there are reasons families might want to focus on blood purity.

[@davidconner-shover51]

This would explain the prevalence of squibs among the pure bloods

[@nickmeyer238]

Makes sense. Dogs that are mutts tend to be way healthier than pure breed because of recessive genes.

[@Sileste17]

Wait, Dumbledore wasn't a pure blood?

[@joshwhalen17]

Wizard: *Makes a feather float* Me: *Boots up the Game Boy Advance emulator on my phone*

[@GandaMelgao]

Real Wizard - vaporize the phone

[@camerongunn7906]

​@@GandaMelgao Average American: Shoots wizard in face.

[@Acuas]

@@camerongunn7906 Wizard turns invisible and kills the average american before he even notices someone is close by.

[@z_ed]

Yall weird 🥴

[@stanurena3129]

@@AcuasAmerican activates thermal scope

[@Orurandokun]

... I mean, no muggle can be as good in fighting as Bruce Lee, as intelligent as Einstein, as tall as Andre the giant, or as fast as Usain Bolt. What makes them special It's that they are the exception, not the rule.

[@sammycakes8778]

I mean Maggie's also created weapons that anyone could pick up and easily use. Wizards had to train years to be able to use their magic at a semi high lvl.

[@SamForShort]

The question isn't "why is no one as fast as Usain Bolt *right now*?" It's, "Why has no one else has been able as fast as Usain Bolt, even 1000 years after he died?" Like imagine the Founder's of Hogwarts set a world record or something and their records haven't been broken in over a millennia. That's my understanding of it, at least.

[@wyslanniknewworldorder9525]

_"You're my _*_special_*_ "_

[@spiritofthewolf15x]

No one HUMAN can be as amazing as those you listed, the thing is, HUMANS working together for a common cause, like eliminating an obvious threat to our continued existence. Magical beings pose a clear and present danger and were most likely deal with as such.

[@aedes947]

But we compensate with tools use and team work. "God created men, Colt made them equal"

[@user-pc7xq6dz2i]

Dumbledore, Grindelwald, and Voldemort are 3 of the most powerful wizards ever and they all lived simultaneously in modern times. How does the existence of Merlin and a few other people over the previous millennium indicate that wizards have gotten weaker? This theory was based on a bunk premise.

[@Acuas]

There are only so many theories about Harry Potter you can talk about, I imagine he just invented a topic that didn't exist and talked about it.

[@user-pc7xq6dz2i]

@@Acuas there are a million topics you can invent that aren’t factually contradicted by basic lore

[@umitencho]

Plus noted inventions like Wolfbane potion being made by a modern wizard, or Harry's grandfather getting rich on hair potions. Harry himself being a prodigy at martial magic.

[@JirouLierge]

BEFORE WATCHING: My theory is that they only seem weaker, mostly do to the ministry bricking them by limiting what they can learn.

[@mac3971]

Wasn't there a book report in one of the stories about the ineffectiveness of the witch trials? Something about a witch using a tickling charm on fire and being burned at the stake 30+ times in different disguises.

[@ragefacile4832]

Yep.

[@Beregorn88]

The third book

[@mathieubordeleau150]

It's not like you would heard of the average wizard from a 1000 years ago, the Hogwarts where likely the exception to the rule where it came to power level the same way Dumbledore and Voldemort are far more powerful than the average wizard. It's like saying the average person is dumper today than in the past by comparing them to Leonardo and Einsteins.

[@LordePhantom]

I think the Muggles started winning because of Squibs. Think about it, everyone in your family can perform all these amazing things and all you're doing is just watching everything. That would drive many to hate their families and pushed to side with Muggles

[@Mortablunt]

That’s a nice theory, but the cannon answer as the author put it is Muggle with a gun > nearly any wizard. And with magical people being outnumbered 20,000 to 1…

[@LordePhantom]

@@Mortablunt That works I guess

[@troublewithweebles]

Being only a 1:42 into the video, the powerful wizards you mention seem to be a century or so apart from eachother. I would wager we are seeing the regular course of exceptional wizards through history, punctuated among the more every day magic folks.

[@OverworkedITGuy]

The problem with this theory is that it ignores the natural progress of the human species from rural/feudal governing structures to the modern governing structures the entire world has evolved into. Also, the wizards named were all extreme outliers of the wizarding community during their own times. They were all exceptions, and not the rule... even in their own times. And as far as powerful wizards after Dumbledor's generation? What about Voldemort, Snape? Both were exceptional wizards of their generation who innovated magical techniques. They created entirely new spells and magical abilities in just their (relatively) short lives. The Marauders managed to create the map while still students at Hogwart's. Who knows what else they could have created or discovered had their lives not been cut short by their particular involvements in the new Wizarding War. Or the other young wizards of their generation and the generation of Harry and his classmates who died as result of Voldemort's war before they even had a chance to come fully into their magical power and abilities. Something else to keep in mind, those wizards of old were operating with the peak of human technology available to them for the most part, and they used it. Magical potion makers for example, would have been using the exact same types of equipment non-magical apothecaries used. Basic bottles, flasks, cauldrons, etc were the top of the line back then. But magical potion making equipment never progressed beyond that stage. All the while, muggle equipment for brewing, mixing and chemistry had advanced by leaps and bounds in the subsequent centuries. At the current times, the wizarding world always seems like it's actively fighting against and intentionally trying to keep their members ignorant of modern human technology and advancement. Technology a large number of the new incoming wizards (the muggleborn) would have grown up with and been exposed to for their entire lives before joining the Wizarding World. It seems like everything in the Wizarding world is intentionally designed to force a stagnant environment that frowns on actual innovation and expanse of knowledge in even the most basic things. * Why aren't current day magical potion makers using modern beakers, flasks and other types of equipment to ensure precision and consistency in measuring ingredients and reliable temperature control for their elixirs the way muggles do for a wide variety of medicinal and non-medicinal chemical production? * Why does the wizarding world still use quills and parchment instead of even pen and ink technologies from the 1900's much less basic pencils and modern paper? * Why do even highly experienced and supposedly educated wizards and other teaching professors seem so baffled by things as simple as a rubber duck? * Why aren't students of wizarding schools taught things like maths and history that are necessary for proper education of functioning adults regardless of whether they have magical abilities or not? It all seems contradictory and inconsistent, with the sole purpose of keeping the wizarding world technologically uneducated and behind the curve. Especially when we know for a fact that magic and modern technology can co-exist with no problems. See the Hogwart's Express, the Night Bus, Haggrid's motorcycle and Arthur's car (which can't possibly be the only ensorcelled automobiles out there). There are a lot of moving parts going on here, but I don't think some grand conspiracy by the muggles is the source of some perceived "loss in power" of the magical world as a whole.

[@BlueSkyCountry]

During the founding of Hogwarts the most advanced Muggle warfare technology was a trebuchet. Now there are drones which could airburst piloted by an operator miles away. Infrared and thermal scopes can still see through invisibility cloaks and spells. If you are following the Ukraine war right now, it is literally a battlefield that the Terminator movies predicted.

[@zacgonzales5883]

Well, assuming the tech would work reliably in the magical areas. It's established that electronics don't work well at Hogwarts and the like; surely wireless signals would be most affected.

[@zlamanit]

@@zacgonzales5883that’d leave a very few places with this amount of magic. And while electronic may not work, a simple chemical reaction or a mechanical device should be unaffected. In fact, the interference that magic causes would provide an easy way of finding magical places.

[@Kakarot64.]

​​@@zlamanit Odds are the strength Hogwarts has at shorting out electronics is an accidental outlier rather then an intentional feature, one caused by millenia of standing wards and hundreds of generations of magical education and spell casting saturating the area with ambient magic. Most magical locations probably aren't as strong of a deterrent to electronics.

[@zacgonzales5883]

@zlamanit Oh, yes I'm sure most mechanical or chemical tech would be fine, and even wireless tech may work at least some of the time, but the point is it would be, perhaps, unreliable. That aside, I also think that the biggest weakness of the Wizarding world is their utter lack of understanding of science and technology. If they would ever truly understand that they could absolutely devastate muggle weapons.

[@BlueSkyCountry]

@@Kakarot64. Magic in Harry Potter sounds like it is a manifestation of electromagnetic energy as well, that is why it affects other EM waves. An EMP burst from a handheld "zap circuit" that is used to remotely shut off and fry computers can theoretically disable a wizard's magical abilities temporarily like a Taser. I am glad the HP world does not exist in this one, because if it did, these poor wizards and witches would be corralled in EMP fences in Area 51 or Raccoon City being experimented on.

[@gullinvarg]

The statute of secrecy might have caused a decrease in power because of inbreeding. Who are the most powerful witches and wizards in Harry Potter? Voldemort, Severus, Bellatrix, Dumbledore, McGonagall, Hermione come to mind. How many of them are half blood or Muggle born as compared to pure blood, from that list only Bellatrix is pure blood and she's mentally unbalanced. While the statute of secrecy does require mating with a witch or wizard, it does make it difficult to do otherwise.

[@milanka882]

It's interesting reading these comments because a lot of people overlook someone light Flitwick. After all, he was the only Hogwarts staff member to have actually killed a death eater during the final battle. He was known for being a duelling champion in his younger days, and I think that in the books he was grossly under developed, under utilised, and there were so many opportunities that were just overlooked because the author wasn't really capable enough in her talent to write him and do him justice. And I won't talk about the abomination the movies did to his character. The interesting thing is that while he may not be half blood, he is part goblin, so there is definitely some infusion of new genetics in there. when talking about powerful wizards, I believe he deserves a place on this list, and he is not a pure blood… Not even fully human. Of course the other person that deserves a place on this list is Remus Lupin, who we know is a half blood.

[@scorpiovenator_4736]

Mad eye moody seems like a good example of a legendary modern wizard, considering he filled half the cells in Azkaban.

[@VeneficusCubes]

while not actively following Harry Potter's universe anymore, these type of videos are a good food for thoughts for my own story

[@rensocruz1866]

I don't think wizards are "weaker", there just hasn't been a wizard prodigy in recent history. I'd compare it to muggles, every so often comes a genius that changes the world (examples: Davinci, Newton, Einstein). Maybe the next "Merlin" hasn't been born yet 🤷

[@TheGoodLuc]

Or wasn't discovered and written about.

[@benfarrar741]

There is NO WAY the muggles of the 1700s could have withstood any sort of attack from the wizarding community. A single imperius curse on a muggle leader, and the fight is over. Transfigure the muggle gunpowder stores into sand, and the fight is over. A draught of liquid death poured into the water supply, and the fight is over. The muggles just aren’t that threatening. Even compared to the powers of Fred and George Weasley, they aren’t that threatening.

[@geeljire9247]

True. If i had to fight a wizard in such a setting, i would just employ wizards of my own.

[@FreckleAkane]

Unless the muggles had effective weapons of their own. Such as religious beasts and monsters, demons, djinn, dragons

[@FreckleAkane]

Remember in medieval lore, werewolves are a Christian saint’s casual curse

[@FreckleAkane]

I can actually see old school Christianity being the most dangerous and lasting enemy of the wizard community. Especially with saints having lore of strong mystical ability

[@benfarrar741]

@@FreckleAkane according to J.K. Rowling, the wizarding community subscribes to all the same religious faiths that the muggles do. Except Wicca.

[@starsnake8176]

I had a different theory, I was thinking that the government (both magical and muggle) doesn't want people to become too powerful, so they simply don't teach the more powerful spells and such. For instance, wasn't it stated that you can't fly under your own power that you need a broomstick? But Voldemort figured out a way to do it. Also how come in 600+ years nobody ever made another sorcerers stone? I think more powerful magical knowledge is kept hidden or been destroyed in case someone come along who is so talented in magic that they can't be stopped from overthrowing the government. Which is the greatest fear of all governments.

[@gamer708886]

3:30 Did they find them lighter than a duck? O-O

[@GrantMartin-lh1ok]

Constantly adding new restrictions on what they can teach and pass on

[@MiraSmit]

Got a question though. If the ministry of magic is truly overseen by smuggles, why wasn't there a mugglr response when Voldemort, a wizard who wants to subjegate and or kill off smuggles took over said ministry and began implementing all sorts of wild ideas. Didn't Death eaters also begin to kill muggles? Weren't dementors not allowed to roam much more freely during Voldemort's reign of power? Muggles would have taken notice of the weird deaths and if the ministry of magic is supposed to be under their control a lack of compliance would have set off alarm bells.

[@ic8575]

Think of other political movements in history with subversive beliefs that undermine the more powerful order of society - the KKK, criminal mafias, guerilla fighters, etc. Voldemort would have been aware that he and the death eaters are not capable of overthrowing the muggle government - but they can still undermine their authority while continuing to keep a relatively low profile.

[@Sorain1]

Nominally overseen by muggles. But it's pretty clear the Ministry deliberately keeps the UK government and Royal family in the dark.

[@jarlnils435]

Merlin was 5th century. Rowling admitted that she mixed up something when she wrote that Merlin was a student of Slytherin. She said it was a mistake. Merlin would have been over 500 years old, when Hogwarts was founded. But he was not immortal, so he was dead.

[@rikhuravidansker]

I would think she confused Merlin with St. Malachy, but to be fair I would think this means the Founders REFOUNDED Hogwarts.

[@voxorox]

Yeah, being long dead would make it kind of hard to deliver the Hogwarts letter.

[@jarlnils435]

@@voxorox it would be worth a first class order of Merlin to deliver Merlin a Hogwarts Letter 500 years into the past for him to join the school.

[@Supreme0757]

This is the case in many fictional series. Harry Potter, Star Wars, Naruto, and etc a lot of series where there is more war, turmoil, or just conflict in general in the earlier generations it forces everyone to become stronger or more powerful to survive. Once times become easier upcoming generations tend to be in more peace and is therefore weaker .

[@shakycameratheater]

Well, there is the after effects of nuclear bombs. Being what humans are, it is amazing how rarely used nuclear bombs actually are. Human kind may have altered our atmosphere.

[@magicpyroninja]

Part of it has to do with the modernization of the rest of the world, but part of it also has to do with rules and regulations that are put upon people in The wizarding world to make sure they don't end up as dangerous dark wizards. I imagine a lot of people from history if they were looked under a microscope today might be considered dark wizards even though at the time they were heroes

[@justinweber4977]

It is kind of interesting that Dumbledore, Slughorn and if you wanna count the edits Snape made to his textbook, are the only 3 Post Statute Of Secrecy Wizards that seem to have made any real advances in magical disciplines. Meanwhile, look at the massive changes to the muggle world in the same time frame.

[@tylerjones7113]

This isn't just Harry Potter. The whole of how things were better in the GOOD OLD DAYS, and how we were more noble, more powerful, wiser, etc. compared to the degenerate days of today is VERY common in a lot of stories, fantasy and science fiction.

[@trying-to-learn]

Because we subconsciously know our pre-modern ancestors were better than us.

[@milanka882]

Maybe because it's true.

[@trying-to-learn]

@@milanka882 real

[@Acuas]

@@trying-to-learn I wouldn't say they were better, they just had less "problems", less things to mind about, but they also had no control over what to do, and nobles could do whatever they wanted, laws basically didn't exist, normal people had no rights, you say they were better, but no one in the modern live would want to live at that time, they might think they want, but if you don't end up being a noble, everyone would hate it, more so if you end up as a woman.

[@GandaMelgao]

@@Acuas in my not so humble opinion the 60s, 70s and 80s were much better than the days we currently living. But I agree with most of your comment. Life was very different 500 years ago, 2000 years ago. I wouldn't like to live there. Real wizards existed 2000 years ago. They did as they pleased. In the modern world, that would not be possible. Too many rules, too many laws for wizards.

[@raggarbergman]

I know most of them are non-canon now and was more B-canon as they were not canonised into Lucas works. But you could say that about tue old sith to that most of the ancient lords were more powerful than Palpatine.

[@robbybobbybobirwin]

In the books they explored the idea of wizards being fascinated with muggle technology. It is vastly different than wizards way of doing things like communicating and traveling. I think it would be interesting to delve into that more and sort of have an understanding of how science and technology compares to magic in general. For instance the concept of magics effectiveness against something like an atomic bomb and muggle war in general.

[@Cyberlisk]

01:05 - All the powerful wizards you mentioned from the past were also outliers. That they are the ones most known now is called survival bias.

[@UhOhDovah]

The fact that muggles had any chance against any decent wizard during a witch hunt doesn't make any sense. Any witch or wizard who was caught would've either been a terrible wizard or just surrendered. Muggles didn't have anything good to fight a wizard who isn't a total buffoon

[@Mortablunt]

Guns. Lots of guns. Then swords, spears, maces, poleaxes, flails, clubs, bows, halberds, falxes, and knives. Muggles have numerical advantage by 20,000:1.

[@UhOhDovah]

@@Mortablunt sounds nice but wizards can obliviate entire cities with rain, aparate just about instantly and literally just go invisible with the right charms. It doesn't track for me

[@Mortablunt]

@@UhOhDovah Take it up with JK. The strongest Wizard we see in action is Dumbledore, and even he doesn't have any defenses or reflexes that would save him against bullets.

[@benecsaba7263]

@@Mortablunt Oclumency. Wizzard can control other wizzards as well, so probably they can do with muggles. They can cause muggles to shoot each-other.

[@kestrelwings]

I was also wondering about magical objects. It seems like no magical objects were made between 1500 and when the Weasley twins started making things. Why did wizards stop making magical objects? I would expect Hogwarts to teach that subject.

[@alecadams6973]

Dumbledore's deluminator, Arthur Weasley's car, and the marauders map come to mind

[@VariaBug]

We know that broomsticks have been improved upon over the years. Also unlike regular people who rely on technology so no innovations are constantly made, Wizards have both items and spells. Technological innovation is done by necessity and not because people just make it. One would be the owl mail system. HP takes place in the 80s to 90s so most people still used snail mail. However later in the series we see the Patronus charm is innovated upon to send audio recording to others. Who knows is by our time this ability is more widespread and faster for sending messages while owl mail is more for documentation and packages?

[@rasheedjalloul]

This also explains why muggle borns are so powerful. It’s because they’ve absorbed information from both worlds subsequently enriching their creative magical library with more ingredients.

[@jacobmckeever5358]

As a side note, there was a line in the books i remember that puts a damper on any notion of a possible muggle victory (*before modern times) against the wizard community, i believe the line was saying that witch burning was actually a pass time for many wizards, noting that one witch got caught 43 or something separate times because it was fun. they would cast a spell that negated whatever was done to them. most witch hunts you were burnt or at worse tossed into a pond and was told you were a witch if you could float. the only people that would be unable to free themselves from simple situations like that were very young wizards who hadn't received all their education from hogwarts, you know the school that all wizards are required to go to for a thousand years. or people that can't cast wandless magic or in certain cases silent magic to save their own lives. with all of that in mind, i had a theory at one point that i'd have to verify aspects of by reading a proper history of magic, would be something along the lines of deeper magic, magic that goes beyond simple wand waving or casting spells, take lily as an example, she cast a charm? upon her death that later saved harry on multiple occasions from voldemort, there isn't any instances recorded of similar phenomena but there should be. but why stop there, if you can cast a charm upon death, can't you do the same with any form of magic as long as you properly did so? imagine it like this, at some point the muggles would become too much of a nuisance while you wouldn't have a large enough group of wizards that would desire to defend them. however, the smarter ones know that they would all die out eventually if the muggles weren't there. so, to protect the larger muggle population from a situation of wizards actually going to war with them, they cast a worldwide spell. This spell wasn't cast with a wand or by a person, imagine if the statute of secrecy wasn't just a set of laws to protect wizard society from revealing the truth to the muggles. imagine if it was a contract formed to do so. the triwizard cup had a similar curse placed on it like contractual magic forcing those who were chosen to participate. What if a strong enough wizard or group of wizards made a contract that didn't require peoples consent to be a part of just being born within a certain area. This contract could have been the statute of secrecy. To keep the worlds, separate unless a muggle is found to have magic and to keep wizards from telling certain secrets to muggles unless they met certain criteria. Think of it this way, in the matrix deja vu is actually someone rewriting the code in the matrix, something has changed. Hagrid said at some point, most people don't want to see magic so when it's in front of their faces they don't see it, don't recognize it. Perhaps that is this contract in effect. and perhaps this contract can tie into you saying there are few aggressively strong wizards, or they lack proper peers in their times to allow wizard society to progress properly. Thus this magic is continuously powered by the very society that enforces it; the wizard society has their magic syphoned off on a small scale to power the charm cast upon their domain(*s). thus not many wizards can become as great as the founders or merlin etc.

[@jacobmckeever5358]

and just an afterthought, the contract could also be used to detect muggleborns, how can a society as small as it is monitoring all magic within the UK at every moment, there isn't an apparatus that does it unless its something done automatically.

[@theprofessor7965]

This actually makes sense as the witches and wizards in Fantastic Beasts seem to follow the muggle borders when it comes to dividing their own ministries. Something I find odd as well is that the fashion, culture, and aesthetics seem to follow the muggle country where the witch/wizard is from. Which is a discrepancy because there are times when magical people seem to have no clue over muggle memetics or common games such as charade or cards.

[@tahapamuk]

Wizards of this universe should approach magic like scientists do. They need to share and act as one. One or two exceptional individual can't win against ordinary horde. They didn't have the number.

[@thewalkingcrow8946]

It's the same thing with music. Everyone forgets the bad songs, but the good ones that last through time are the ones remembered. The books and movies take a snapshot of all of them. History in the future will only mention a few of them.

[@nickisashkir]

I really like how Discovery of Witches handled this and it is also a bit implied in the Harry Potter universe. Years gone by, their internal wars dwindled their populations. Now there's not enough dna variety to keep a diverse population & their traits are disappearing.

[@diedertspijkerboer]

The idea that muggles control wizards is not consistent with the fact that the Prime Minister was shocked about finding out magic was real and found out by Fudge announcing himself. If muggles controlled wizards, the previous PM would have informed the new one about the secret department. Also, the PM's reaction of fear when Fudge told him about Voldemort and his expectation that the magical community could solve the problem shows that he had no confidence that muggles are more powerful than witches and wizards.

[@Sturebrallan]

I think you might be beginning to scratch on something. I don't remember if it was from one of your videos that I got the conclusion that there are extremely few wizards in the world compared to muggles (something like 3000-6000 witches and wizards in Britain). But I think that that plays a huge part in the balance of power being on the muggles side. Especially when muggle technology is constantly anvancing. It might have been that as early as the 17th century the muggle technology had advanced to a point that the magic of the wizards no longer could compensate for their inferior population size. I also couldn't help thinking that what you said about wizards being more powerful in the old days, might just be because it was the powerful ones that made it into the history books, so looking back at history it seems as if all wizards were very powerful. In reality truly powerful wizards like Albus Dumbledore and Tom Riddle might have been as rare back then as they were today. These are just a few thoughts I got from watching the video. Wishing you a pleasant day! ⭐

[@swehumorofficial]

Some interesting addendums: In ancient times, an otherwise unremarkable wizard using a spell taught to first-year olds accidentally caused the eruption of Mount Vesuvius (releasing 100,000 times the thermal energy yield of the Hiroshima-Nagasaki bombs). In medieval times, wizarding duels had participants ripping literal mountains from the earth and throwing them as projectiles. We also have examples of wizards who would raise islands from the ocean floor. Of course, there are also more modern examples of great power. Perhaps the most impressive was in 1927, when Gellert Grindelwald casually, effortlessly and nonverbally (thus employing only a small fraction of his full power) threatened to incinerate the city of Paris with a single spell. Indeed, Grindelwald's whole character is a solid counter-argument to the point presented in this video. He looked into the future and saw examples of Muggle technology yet to come (up to and including nuclear weapons), yet had no doubt that he and his followers could beat and enslave all of Muggle society. Sure, he was an arrogant man, but he was never delusional or stupid - arguably the second-most intelligent character in the franchise, only slightly behind Dumbledore - and wouldn't have tossed his life away in a conflict he wasn't sure he could handle.

[@felix5728]

Far more realistic answer: they did it to themselves. It is stated early on that wizards stay secret or else muggles would want magical solutions for all their problems. This lines up with a simple yet cold truth we are shown about wizards: they are selfish with magic. This is evident in their subjugation of other magical races and refusing or limiting their access to magic. It shouldn't be the least bit surprising that they chose to isolate themselves. By doing so they essentially put their own society in a slow chokehold. Their isolation also cut them off from themselves somewhat. How absurd would it be for a teenage muggle to believe that their school is the only one in the world? Yet students at Hogwarts were surprised to find out just that. It shows how little they know about their own world. It is only natural that knowledge would be lost over time and that progress would be slowed. After all, a wizard's "power" is simply how far they have progressed with magic.

[@akiraraiku]

Their ignorance of the current world affairs and recent past outside of their own isolated national wizard community is astounding indeed. Though one could say that being unaware of other schools is down to the point of view of children taken in the books. The schools are so few and far between that you ought to know the other major one near you at least i think.

[@felix5728]

@akiraraiku We are shown 4th years being surprised about the existence of other schools. That is the equivalent of an American high school student. It also raises questions about their education. Do they not learn about notable wizards from other schools? For example, was there never a single headmaster of teacher another school who did or created something noteworthy? If you are referring to being selfish with magic, it is almost, if not always, adults who make those statements.

[@Ravenblack42]

Such great content on this channel and very intriguing and convincing theories as always. Following along with the one presented in this video, had I been alive during the time of Grindelwald in the early to mid 1900's, I'm not convinced I would have refrained from becoming one of his followers. Considering what muggles have done to Wizard kind in centuries past, and continue to in increasing measure, I can't help but feel that Grindelwald, and formerly Dumbledore, was somewhat justified in his actions during his pursuit of a world war with the muggles in order to force them into subjugation to Wizard rule.

[@Uberdude6666]

9:00 That logo says so much about those it represents, its unironically really good logo-design.. I dunno.. If its a conspiracy, my money's on that its the Internatinal Stature of Secrecy actually being a sort of "treaty of mutually assured retaliation", where breaches in the Stature are met by sanctions from the other nations' magical governments. Ministires therefor has no choise but to abide by self-imposed rules designed to make sure the Stature is protected. In the end, it becomes this dystopian stately institution where even the top leaders are beholden to "the system". Kinda like 1984. The focus on secrecy means witches and wizards are effectively discouraged from developing their power too much. Umbridge perfectly show this in her approach to teaching. If wizards and witches are weaker and don't know any advanced magic, they are easier to control and everybody are "safer"...

[@Sorain1]

See, that makes sense of how wide scale cooperative education didn't preserve the knowledge of magic they had. The government deliberately trying to keep the knowledge of the public limited (in part because it's made up of old families who intended to keep the knowledge to themselves for their own advantage.) lowers the broader base of magical knowledge. This centralizes power and causes innovation to die stillborn because people have to reinvent the glue to make the wheels. (so to speak) Then came the two big internal struggles, the wizarding world war and more local to England, the first Voldemort war. The families who kept the knowledge died out, and it was lost. In part because families had set up fail deadly protections on the knowledge to prevent the government (or rivals using the government as a tool) from taking the knowledge from them. Voldemort cared more about destroying his enemies than preserving what they knew, even to his own benefit. No one remarks on that as unusually heinous, so we can reasonably infer the war with Grindelwald operated on the same MO. Raw power is difficult to really point to as even existing compared to it being a 3 state system. (no magic, squib, magic.) Knowledge thus becomes the marker for powerful vs weak and would lead to this hording and loss of knowledge situation.

[@89TStefan]

Well, this is pretty obviously hinted during the whole story. There are two worthwile mentions here. The first wizarding war, which ended up in killing many of the most famous wizards of that time and no one to follow them. And incest is a topic from the first to the last book. And it is heavily implied that the intermarriage of wizard families strongly contributed to the overall degration of skills. The tragical irony about this is that many pureblooded families don't even see that or do not want to see it. So strong is the blindness and the open hate towards muggles which is also a big topic. However, the overspanning theme is that the wizards themselves brought their very own downfall.

[@michaelburnsjr5809]

If Joan or her fellow writers were to ever try to tell a modern struggle between muggles and wizards, I think it could be bad for the series overall. For the muggles to stand a chance, the story would have to essentially make the magic system more grounded. Right now it’s purposefully limitless so you can basically add whatever “magic” stuff you want that your story needs. Muggles have science/weapons that are limited due to the law of conservation of energy. In the wizarding world, as far as we know about magic, It’s quite literally, limitless. Infinite. As far as we know there is no limit on what spells can do and magic can create. I would love this kind of story, but as soon as you put a limit on what magic can do, it can be hard to write around for future stories… Another option would be to go the route that muggles, using science, find out how to access magic somehow and that’s how they rediscover the wizarding world.

[@YYeezzppeerr]

I also think it has do to with lower standards. Because their numbers declined under the Witch burnings, they had to replenish their ranks. So they may have been more keen to take in more students and also more muggle borns with lower amount of magical potential. This is similar to the star wars theory on why some jedis in some eras are stronger then in different once. Like when it was a large scale conflict, a jedi purge or something similar the jedis had to recruit more with lower amounts of midichlorian count to strengthen their numbers. I do think the situation with wizards are the same. Or this is an factor out of many.

[@garywatts2316]

Restraint on the magical community. When they were in the open and didn't have to hide it and think of the advancement in humanity that have been made. Some things became more unmoral as time passes. So a lot of power magic or spells would have been regulated so people would of had no reason to learn them. Think animagus they have to register. 1000 years ago I doubt they did

[@milanka882]

In other words, Wizarding Society is yet another victim to big government encroaching on people's lives and curtailing people's ability to innovate for themselves. obvious that visiting society is yet another victim of what happens when a society becomes feminised as well.

[@palantir135]

If modern wizards really are weaker in magic I would suggest that inbreeding among the wizard families is the cause.

[@David-bg9od]

Given wizards and witches being born to non magical parents all the time. I don't think inbreeding is a problem.

[@palantir135]

@@David-bg9od those new born wizards from muggle parents are not pure blood. It seems that many wizard families from ‘the dark side’ only married within pure blood wizard families. That means, since there aren’t that many pure blood families that you get inbreeding.

[@maartenl.1365]

I've always wondered why they'd tell the muggle prime minister so much. This makes perfect sense tho. It also explains why there are so few magical families left in the UK.

[@victoriusrex25]

Wizardkind would stand no chance against muggles in a full scale war. Mugles can always find new ways to harm others meanwhile it is not the purpose of magic to use. Muggles can also change their ways more easily. Wizardkind could never change

[@misamokuzelpizu]

could also explain the origins of pure blood ethics in some wizard families. Originally they wanted to protect their magical power from the real thread of being wiped out by the muggles. They kept to themselves and probably where the first ones to form hidden communities. but much later it evolved into believes about halfbloods and muggleborns being "lesser" id love see fanfiction about that..

[@gatorbait9385]

I always assumed the magical blood got watered down. As in, the "pure blood" families we know aren't pure at all because only the witches and wizards from centuries prior could've been.

[@zlamanit]

That would be a logical assumption but in books the most powerful wizards are half bloods

[@gatorbait9385]

@@zlamanit I assumed that was based on their drive to learn and achieve and prove themselves, not that they were naturally stronger than the other witches and wizards. But I see your point

[@RikkiCattermole]

Magic in HP is limited by the mind, not blood. This has been documented in the books pretty much from day one (Hermione). Exceptionally powerful magical beings have impressive minds. Blood is irrelevant, although it may provide extra innate powers (parseltongue). It may also increase intelligence through genetics and therefore powers. The reason there are less powerful wizards? Complacency. Thats it. If you're not fending for your life, you're not having to invent new magic to defend yourself.

[@josecarlosnunocorona2894]

My theory is that everything changed with the Muggles' mastery of electricity, let me explain; At some point in the novels someone mentions (I think Hermione) that electronic devices do not work in the magical world because magic interferes with the signals, they comment on it very superficially, so I imagine that it refers to electromagnetic signals, electromagnetism is a physical field, therefore magic could be interpreted as tangible effects of another physical field that interferes with the electromagnetic field, In the real, natural world, all things that interact with each other and generate interference do so in a symmetrical or equivalent way, therefore if one thing affects another, then it suffers from the same effect but in reverse, therefore if electronic devices are affected by magic, then, YES or YES magic would have to be affected by the presence of electricity so that, the more electricity used in The more electricity used in a town, city, or country, the less effective the magic that is attempted to be manipulated within that area would be. Therefore in YOUR theory of a fictitious Wizard-Muggle war, it would be enough to use isolation fields against magic based on electromagnetic pulses to render wizards totally useless, likewise it would explain your theory that wizards are getting weaker and weaker, it would also explain why it seems that wizards used Muggle artifacts and enhanced them with magic for their use, but out of nowhere they were frozen in the analogous era. And all this in the 90's!!, I can't imagine what the tension of the magical world would be like today!!

[@jmace2424]

It’s kind of like a phenomenon we see today. When you get further along in time, it’s harder to distinguish yourself because so many people have done the easy things and grabbed the low hanging fruit of history.

[@esteban20969564]

I do believe that the SoS banned most of the more powerfull spells and potions that could be. hell they even banned Avada kedabra, a spell that kills automatically... and that affected how the majority of wizards never learn more than what the wizard academy teach, those who wanted to learn more or forbidden spells became catalog as "dark wizards" and hunt by aurons. and casually the "bad guys" in the books are very powerfull compare to the no name NPCs of hogwards. So yes, I belive the minestry force the population to not have easy access to powerfull spells and magic to avoid any problem with the muggles, basically saying "we can't have our nukes while the muggles have theirs"

[@BlueJeanes]

The most powerful magic would likely register on muggle instruments. This would draw attention, and cause inadvertent breaches within the statute of secrecy. Dedalus Diggle and his shooting stars, for example. It is likely that any magic that is too powerful is locked away in the Department of Mysteries. It is, therefore, no mystery that people like Voldemort and Grindelwald were able to amass so much power- they simply ignored those constraints.

[@mecahhannah]

Awesome as always thanks ❤

[@davidioanhedges]

There are surprisingly few Wizards and Witches in the UK, and Hogwarts seems relatively empty, something happened that killed a lot of the population, and left them a small remnant of their former numbers, with smaller numbers, and a lot of inbreeding, the powerful outliers will also be less likely I suspect there was a war between the Muggles and the Wizards, and the Muggles won... and the remaining wizards and witches negotiated a deal, both sides know that muggle borns exist, so it's better to restrict and train wizards and witches

[@andregpsantos]

hmmmm, from a book perspective it doesn't seem to hold water, who is controlling the Ministry of Magic? the Minister visits the new Prime minister and it always seems they are not knowledgeable of the Magical world

[@JB-bb1bh]

My head canon: *The statue of secrecy chilled most pleb wizards. *Agree muggles pushed them out, maybe catholic church or some other powerful organizations told them to f off. *WW2 conflict in the prequel series likely did NOT help matters. *Mr 'mort pulled a palpatine and clapped everyone relevant in his way during the cold war. The Minster magic discussion makes sense.

[@atrumluminarium]

I think this is akin to literacy in the muggle world (probably goes hand in hand even). In the real world up until the 1800s most people were illiterate but in the present day we see it as a time of amazing science, philosophy, art and literature, and the respective person intimately attached to that discovery. Today we are making progress faster than ever yet the inventions are almost faceless. For example everyone knows James Watt invented the steam engine but I'm willing to bet that 90% of people don't know who invented the blue LED or lithium ion batteries without googling it. Likewise I imagine that in the past with more likelihood for poverty, it was rarer for a child wizard to get a formal education. Hell even the Weasleys in the modern times still struggle with giving their children a magical education and the Gaunts didn't afford it at all. Therefore in those days the best wizards were either rich enough to afford magical schooling (or normal schooling and actually learn to read manuscripts) and buy/make wands, or else they happen to randomly be so good that they could do extraordinary things without needing a formal education. In the modern times, with a formal education we saw the creation of things like sectum sempra and its anticurse, the marauders' map, rediscovery of horcruxes, 5 known animagi, almost everyone being able to cast a patronus, 2 people capable of unpowered flight, 2 seers, a muggleborn who was apparently impressive enough at potions to be Slughorn's all-time favourite student even though he was a little racist, etc.

[@TalkingWizards-w7k]

There is, what I would like to call, the 'Pele' problem. When looking back at history, some of the wizards and witches may seem more powerful, but they were using magic at an earlier period of history when the knowledge of magic was less refined. Magic is said to be discoverabe and open to research and possible to manipulate to create new spells and potions etc. (like a science). If that is the case, it is possible that an average wizard, who has benefitted from 'centuries' of development, can be more powerful in terms of abilities than famous historical ones. The abilities are just more dispered (there are more formal educational institutions than in the past)--as a result, less stand out, unless they are truly, truly exceptional like a Dumbledore or a Voldemort.

[@cameron120587]

But what about Professor Binns summer essay assignment “Witch Burning in Medieval Was Pointless: discuss” in Harry Potter 3. There is an antiburning charm that was so effective that several witches and wizards chose to change appearance and be ‘burned’ multiple times.

[@canaan5337]

I’m guessing the power levels of people from the distant past, is due to the slight embellishment of the stories of their feats of strength throughout the centuries having a cumulative effect on the story.

[@Mortablunt]

My pet theory about this is magical education is purposefully limited to teach wizards basically just enough magic to have fundamental competency and then absolutely nothing else. If the average length of schooling in advance countries is 12 to 16 years and wizards are getting at most seven if they even stay on for that last year, then basically, it’s the same as if you had a civilization of people with nothing beyond a sixth grade education.

[@jonathankruger6356]

My biggest question is how exactly did the muggles win ? In the movies in books we saw what devastation a handful of wizards can pull off. So in an actual organised war the muggles would be wiped out & made to serve wizard kind

[@firefly551969]

Given the power (however diminished) of modern magical types, and the "more powerful nature" of historical magical types, the idea that the powerful were (and continue to be) trodden down by the powerless never made sense. Is it supposed to be altruism? Some sense of being "better than that"? Let your family be killed, to prove that you're a better person than their killer? No, I don't believe that. Peter Pettigrew killed dozens with a single spell...

[@unbreakableunion]

You could be on to something. You brought up a good point. Why does to minister of magic have to inform the muggle prime-minister of when a dangerous magical item is brought into the country?

[@Maholix]

I think if your theory had been about the role of the ministry itself, it would have been sound theory. I do agree with you that the ministry is backwards on purpose, being a semi regressive institution. And for that to be the case for as long as it has been there has to be a reason. So yes I believe your theory on that level. However if you deeply analyze the wizarding world in terms of power, it's only as weak as it is because of its institutionalism. Many who break the bounds of the system wind up being significantly more powerful than they ought to be otherwise. Everyone thinks of the mighty wizards like voldemort, Dumbledore and Harry Potter. But thinking on it, even those who did magical studies that weren't entirely sanctioned are more powerful. Newt scamander and hagrid both have more power than one would suppose for their particular station in life. Why? Because they don't follow the expected norms, instead opting to do their own thing. One could argue that this is in fact the same case for those great wizards aforementioned. Dumbledore for example was researching the Hallows and invented the delumenator. Pretty sure they didn't cover that in ministry sciences class. In truth if there is a weakening, it's a lack of understanding about the ancient ways, the more primal forces and perhaps the light of the Stars. Astral positioning seems to be in the background of many forms of magic in the wizarding world, yet is widely not understood by modern wizardry. Then too we have the mention of magic and tech not working well together. Much like how the Giants are resistant to certain curses and forms of magic, modern-day technological constructs in the world seem to be magically resistant, with any merging of technological Muggle inventions requiring high forms of magic to even be able to be enchanted. Ironically, this means The wizarding war could have pushed humanity into a technological age. The adaptation of technological means could have initially been something that humanity adapted as a defensive response and as a replacement to magic itself. Then they likely forgot about this reason once magic became less common knowledge. This is not a baseless understanding of the situation either. The books mentioned that technology does not work well within the bounds of Hogwarts, but if you pay attention, you'll see anything that mentions technology alongside the magical community works strangely or with difficulty requiring great effort. The invention of the technological age gave humans an edge over the magical community. Ancient wizard practice and its knowledge fades, leaving modern day wizards in an over institutionalized system, which is focused more on perseverance of their medieval Hay Day than on recovery. Wizards often used quills for example, instead of the more modern pens. Why? It's because magic works better alongside the more familiar medieval tools. Their society is stuck in a way.. and due to their separation from modern society and thus limited numbers, they are driven away from experimentation. They aren't weakening per se, they are simply not learning at the same rate that they should be because of a over conservatism of their current way. I am a firm believer that if they just intermixed like they did long before, The wizarding community could experience new advancement and their numbers might swell again. But they are currently in a system which doesn't move forward and doesn't even look back on its own founding, choosing to simply be as it was.

[@Deehyaz]

I think you’ll have to provide explanation on how muggles can defend against magic before I can agree with this. What’s to stop a wizard from apparating in a government office and take control of a government official’s mind?

[@Deehyaz]

@@Zileas01 Magic probably is weak against direct confrontation with muggle weapims. It’s more for covert missions, surprise attacks, preplanned attacks and the like

[@524ti]

@@Deehyaz when muggle will develop into type 3 civilization they will have there own version of magic and trust me it will be powerful like marvel, anime magic which can negg diff our real life world

[@randomasgray]

This theory assumes that they indeed got weaker and not that the tales about famous wizards of the past got inflated over time.

[@Michael-wh1vs]

I don't think wizards are getting weaker. You have to remember that Brittain has had 100 years of conflict in Wizard society. I think its affected their numbers, and ultimately, overall power sense, there is less of them.

[@Kaneki_Live]

We should distinguish between Sorcerers and Wizards. Sorcerers have a limited but highly potent set of spells, drawing their magic from their bloodline. Wizards, on the other hand, are typically of mixed heritage, with weaker inherent power but greater intellectual potential. This makes them curious, experimental, and capable of learning a broader range of spells through study, practice, and discipline. While Sorcerers excel naturally in their specialized magic, Wizards must work consistently and diligently to learn spells, but they can never truly master a field. This is the key difference between the two.

[@stuartgoodlad1481]

isn't this kind of a Eugenics thing? like, 1000 years ago, the magic bloodlines were so much more pure. since then they must have been diluted, even in the families who consider themselves so pure. Tom Riddle Sr situation could have happened so many times. Each time cutting the bloodlines purity in half. Manacled situation?

[@paulgraf5746]

Most of powerful wizards wrote down their knowledge and passed it on to future generations. Just take a look at how many books are in the library. While some spells might get lost, most of them are not and even get improved as well as new ones are invented. So it only makes sense that there is a wider knowledge over all sorts of magic today than there was in the past. There are always powerful people around with a lot of potential, and in modern times there is much more knowledge they can use. Voldemort for example, the first dark wizard in history to create not one but seven horcruxes. No dark wizard succeeded in this before. Flamel creates the philosophers stone what no other alchemist has done before. Dumbledore, who could do things with his wand which even powerful old wizards have never seen before while still being in school. If anything, modern wizards are more powerful than ever which is probably why Grindelwald felt they were ready to take over the Muggel world

[@CMaldonado1690]

Death eater army: *Exists* AC130 Spectre gunship: *105mm goes boom*

[@logannichols5848]

Maybe, i know that in most lore on magic, lead is immune to magical effects, iron is also often immune. Lead and iron were common use in everything around the 16th to 17th centuries. It is no un common for dnd players to use magic work around anti magic fields i would think it would be just as easy to work magic around a metal that magic couldn't effect. I just don't see how the wizards could have lost.

[@evilpatman9288]

If the most destructive wizard spells are things like bombarda and the killing curse, which you need to be close(like 50 yards away max) to do, they would get absolutely destroyed by muggles casting our version of bombarda though an artillery barrage miles away. To be completely honest I have no idea what Voldemort planned on doing with such a small army compared to how big most modern militaries are, not even something like the US military. Wizard Espionage would only go so far, we don't have a corrupt ministry keeping people from fighting back. Hogwarts Legacy is basically the last time period where wizards held a true power gap over muggles, right before we started inventing stupidly effective explosives for use in warfare. Plus why are we acting like Dumbledore isn't one of the most powerful wizards of all time? Grindelwald was literally referred to as the most dangerous dark wizard of all time when Dumbledore beat him. Then when one even more powerful them him shows up he is the only person in the world who is stopping Voldemort from getting the entire wizarding world thrown into war with the muggle world over wizard supremacy. Wizards of old seem a lot stronger because they could be more open with their magic until the Muggles started Witch Hunting, the entire point of Hogwarts in the first place to to make a place that wizards could live and study magic in peace away from crusading muggles.

[@Knowledge.to_Come]

I think people misinterpret ancient magic and the standard wizard. The founders of Hogwarts and Merlin were both wielding ancient magic. Hogwarts itself is a stronghold of this ancient magic they used to build it.

[@MrWiz1969]

I think that it probably has more to do with those original Wizards and Witches were creating more spells, potions, etc. making them seem more powerful than modern Wizards and witches.

[@victoriar4637]

This is an interesting theory if you consider the attitude some "pure blood" magical families and individuals that witches and wizards are better than muggles and Muggle borns - if the muggles were able to suppress the magical community to that extent, then maybe they're thinking out of fear of non-magic people, rather than a real sense of superiority. Or, more likely, the sense of importance arises from fear.

[@TheLastKentuckyIrregular9524]

For the same reason men from the 1940s were so much stronger than men from today. Indolence born of easy living. The Wizarding world became very insular and more and more reliant on magic the same way we have become reliant upon technology today.

[@randyroo2]

Stronger by what metric? The average? Muscular strength?, Endurance? Fighting? Pain tolerance? Year on year we are seeing improvements in pretty much all athletic achievements at the olympics, So its safe to say that today our modern day outliers far surpass previous generations. The average, maybe its hard to tell. I would say they were tougher/ hardier and on average much healthier people as jobs typically involved tough labour and they had to endure much tougher living conditions with minimal access to medicine. Penicillin wasn't even available until around the mid 40's. TV also wasn't a thing so People were most likely much more active. BUT, food was much more scarce and toxic chemicals could be handled with minimal regard for long term affects, for sure rendering them weaker and less healthy. The worst thing though from the previous generation is how many brilliant men were wiped out due to WW1 and WW2. The average person was shorter, slim, fit and hardy but may also be suffering from some malaffliction In comparison today we have food in abundance allowing unrestricted growth even on our belly's. Kids particularly boys seem to be discouraged from being manly or tough, beatings are pretty much banned both at school and at home and you won't find kids growing up in workhouses either. Kids are widely protected by the government except from knives(ok shouldn't have gone there) Lots of Jobs and lifestyles have become Sedentary for sure making us unfit on average. A fit healthy lifestyle has become a choice now that todays generation need to actively pursue to remain healthy. The ones that do IMO will far surpass the 40's generation as we have much better availability of almost everything and healthier environments. The average person today is fat, mentally ill, soft and unfit so we definitely lose here.

[@milanka882]

Also, it is known that many of the 1940s had a higher general testosterone level than men of today. I would also argue, even though it is politically incorrect to do so, that part of the problem with the Wizarding World is its gradual feminisation. If you look at the history of the ministry of magic, it was very early on in the peace when there was a female minister. It is known that the more feminised a society becomes, the weaker and less powerful it becomes. And it is pretty obvious how feminised the Wizarding world has become. and it shouldn't come as a surprise to anyone that an author that is a known ideologue and feminist would come up with such a weak, and pathetic feminised world. Again, these things are politically incorrect, but if we are going to diagnose a problem and talk about it honestly, you have to call a spade a spade and say things that have to be said no matter how offensive they are.

[@524ti]

@@randyroo2 imagine in type 3 civilization we muggle will become semi immortal, develop our own magic, teleport in different planet, create own planets and stars,use energy from star

[@MezunaKua]

To me, it’s simply a case of peace bringing complacency and thus, a sense of ‘weakness’

[@MrKevin486]

I dont really agree with this. There wasn't really many super OP wizards or witches in the past either at any one given time, its not like every witch or wizard in the time of the Hogwarts founders were on their level, they were exceptional for that time period just as Tom Riddle, Dumbledore, and Grindelwald are for our present time. You could argue that the wizards and witches of old were more creative because of the amount of new magic they did, but is that the result of creativity or simply that since less was discovered it was simply easier to come up with new magic compared to modern day? It mirrors the muggle technology in a way. Its like, sure people invented planes and computers and cell phones, and that was amazing in a sense and now because we arnt really inventing new things and just tweaking or improving older things to be slightly better, it might seem that we arnt as smart or inventive but its more stagnation than anything since inventing entirely new things is way harder when things have already been invented. In the past no one could fly so we had a goal to do that and invented planes. Same idea with water and boats, and submarines, and land with cars, and space with space ships. But now, we've already invented all the base things. Like what kind of brand new vehicle could we invent to traverse a new thing we can't already traverse? I guess time or dimensions would be next or deep space. I think it's the same for magic. The base magic has pretty much all been discovered and so inventing entirely new things is near impossible compared to how it was in the past. So the newer witch's and wizards seem less powerful or prolific but they really aren't. I'd say it's especially true for the normie witches and wizards. There probably wasn't too much difference between normie ones now and normie ones in the past.

[@smitabhmoitra5726]

To be fair, power is a relative term. Late 20th century muggle police/military forces would annihilate wizards from any era.

[@Neenerella333]

Magic is said to make some mechanical and electronic devices malfunction.

[@MasterDarthJezza]

@@Neenerella333 given the typical effective ranges of firearms from after WW2, Pistols: 50m, Assault Rifles: 300+ (standard issue), Sniper Rifles: 800+ low end (current record: 3,800m). I think the deciding factors are if magic can cause malfunctions that far away and if the wizard knows they're in danger.

[@smitabhmoitra5726]

​@@Neenerella333it seems to be limited to electronics, like radios, not mechanical objects like engines or firearms.

[@Neenerella333]

@@smitabhmoitra5726 I'm going off piste, as my reference is the Dresden Files.

[@smitabhmoitra5726]

​@@Neenerella333 I'm going by something Hermione said in the 4th book. They only refer to electronics

[@christianschulz1443]

I agree, they were fighting a war and they were loosing it. Also im sure they started it to. Magic in Harry Potter seems to have dark consequences in some on a regular basis. They probably saw muggles grew stronger and wanted to take over before their power diminished and failed

[@slayer7682]

magic community could just wear invisible clocks and Dumbledore himself said he doesn't need a clock to be invisible; they could just walk around Avada Kedavraing everyone and the other two unforgivable curses all over the place

[@crownedcrow7745]

We pushed them back with little more than pitchforks and torches. You're damn right its fear that keeps our worlds separate.

[@L_Eres]

I like the simple version: blood became scarce. Wizards had more children with muggles, they didn't teach them the proper ways and with time, they became less powerful. Ofc, they killed each other as well, or simply forgot to leave any successor. So, the result is how it was in books. Dark Wizards were obsessed with pure blood for reason. The methods ofc... were awful

[@east221]

This would open the door to a muggle agency to enforce the statute, and i would watch the hell of that show. On the real side, Fudge visited the muhhle minister just to inform him of the importation of the dragons and sphinx, not to ask for permition or anything.

[@rsk6929]

I think its a lack of pursuit of transfiguration. Transfiguration is a wizards best tool when dualing at higher levels

[@grochek1]

Actually, I do find parts of your hypothesis worthwhile. However, you made a mention that I think it would behoove you to expand upon. You mentioned how the technology was causing a problem for the wizards. However, you did not give any details. Here is a detail. In the late 1600's, the flintlock gun was expanding rapidly throughout Europe. The improvements in accuracy, range, and rate of fire were quite significant over the previous version (the wheellock). Additionally, these guns were cheap enough that a large portion of the population could have one in their home. Thus, the wizards found themselves falling behind. As such, going into hiding makes sense. The reason I feel that the flintlock is a key turning point is because witch trials had been going on for at least 200 years before the Statue of Secrecy was adopted, so it is unlikely those that drove the wizards into hiding. As such, I concluded that the advancement in firearms to be a likely cause.

[@BoindilTwoBlades]

It's like with music: only the truly good stuff is remembered, making the past seem less mediocre than the present.

[@FebrithDarkstar]

I think you got it right the first time - it WAS the butterbeer :D

[@Sorain1]

Imagine if there was a tradition of Lead being used for drinking vessels, and especially potions cauldrons. Now consider that even though being magical gives them resistance, it doesn't give immunity to poison and extrapolate over a very long period of time. (more time to accumulate more lead in their systems before conception.) Ugly, isn't it?