the "Why didn't they just shoot Voldemort?" thread

[DudeistBelieve]

Okay from the other topic, someone brought up the question about why they didn't just shoot Voldemort. Now I use to watch these movies with my ex and drive her up the wall with all my questions cause really a LOT of what the magic community does doesn't make sense and is overly pretentios, but this question I investigated in earnest.

Arguments the dim-witted harry potter fan gives as to why the gun wouldn't work...
1. Muggle technology doesn't work around magic.
2. Voldemort would just be able to stop the bullet with magic
3. Voldemort will keep regenerating until the horcruxes are destroyed
4. If they did that there wouldn't be a story.

well... heres my counter argument,

1. You tell me some sort of electronic device doesn't work, I get it. Theres no telling what a magical aura could do to electricity. However a gun is mechanical and chemical. I have to assume if a pully and rope can work in Harry's universe a revolver would work to. Maybe you could argue that the gun powder wouldn't combust... But an obvious solution to that would be just use the wizard-chemical-equalvelent of gun power. Then you got yourself a magic gun!

2. Bullshit. First off, most of the spells require either saying a two syllable word and making a motion with the wand and I doubt Volde could do that against a bullet. Secondly, Voldemort being the racist that he is wouldn't know what a gun is/does if he saw one so he wouldn't have anyway of anticipating the impending bullet.

3. So Voldemort comes back... Just keep shooting everytime he resurrects. It's not like it's instantaneous, and you could probably do it several times before he actually could come up with an effective counter... and even then, just have hermione snipe him from across the pond. The time granted (instead of being wasted fighting him with magic) would be invaluable in finding the remain horcruxes.

4. NO! I freaking hate this response, because all it is trying to cover up how poor the story really is. Hey, I get a kick out the series, but this is a glaring serious plot hole. The whole reason the stakes are high is because the magic world assumes that unless Harry stops volde the muggles wouldn't stand a chance... Truth of the matter is, and JK Rowling said so herself, that in a straight up war with the magical realm the muggles would win. We have vastly superior technology and armor, not to mention numbers.

The only reason, the only GOOD reason why they didn't shoot Voldemort is because Harry just plain didn't think of doing it... and seeing as how both he and hermione both came from the muggle world and never once even lampshaded it I see is a major flaw in the whole series.

 

[Sandytimeman]

that wouldn't have made for a good story. They say hindsight is 20/20, I imagine that given a history book we could point out easy solutions for most problems.

 

[TitanAtlas]

Cuz if things were that easy, the books would never be that funny...

Oh the menace of the world is going to kill us all, oh no what do you do *shoot gun and kills villain* Well...... that was anti-climmatic...

The reason why i think nobody tried to shot him in the movie, is because the ones that tried died, and suffer worst fates then death...

 

[Soviet Heavy]

I always thought that the lack of muggle perspectives was a wasted opportunity in the books. The best chapter of Half Blood Prince was when Crouch kept visiting the Prime Minister and keeping him updated on the Wizarding World. That was really neat, seeing how the Muggles reacted whenever Crouch burst through his fireplace.

So much fuss is made in the books about how the muggle world has adapted without magic, but we never see beyond the wizard perspective. Shame really.

 

[FalloutJack]

Another good explanation is that the wizarding community just puts too much faith IN magic, believing that technology is really just a thing, a parlor trick (rather ironic mode of thinking that it is). In short, hubris! They live in a world of dragons, hexes, and flying brooms! The comfort and safety of a well-armed fighter jet with machine guns and missles would be lost upon them.

Frankly, I say ole' Tom hates normal people because nothing he's got can amount to "I am death, destroyer of worlds." and never will.

 

[Happy Yay]

Magical society has developed so that associating with Muggles and utilizing their advances is a social taboo. Arthur Weasley is interested in Muggle technology, and that's regarded as complete folly.

So it makes sense why they wouldn't put faith in it to stop a problem that is so challenging for their "obviously superior" magic.

 

[coolbeans21]

The way I like to imagine the books is. Voldermorte wins the battle against the loyalist wizards, decides to take on the rest of the muggle world and is taken out by a sniper within 30 seconds, Tango down!

The rest of the death eaters are whisked off to gitmo.

There is only one true wizard named harry, and his name is Dresden

 

[Thunderous Cacophony]

3. Voldemort will keep regenerating until the horcruxes are destroyed

3. So Voldemort comes back... Just keep shooting everytime he resurrects. It's not like it's instantaneous, and you could probably do it several times before he actually could come up with an effective counter... and even then, just have hermione snipe him from across the pond. The time granted (instead of being wasted fighting him with magic) would be invaluable in finding the remain horcruxes.

Voldemort doesn't actually resurrect in his body; The horcruxes just keeps his soul linked to the Earth. You might get him once, but then his soul goes and floats about until he builds a new body, which you can be damn sure he will equip with some sort of shielding amulet to protect himself. (fool me once and all that)

Magical society has developed so that associating with Muggles and utilizing their advances is a social taboo. Arthur Weasley is interested in Muggle technology, and that's regarded as complete folly.

So it makes sense why they wouldn't put faith in it to stop a problem that is so challenging for their "obviously superior" magic.

Also this. Even for people who grew up in the Muggle world, after seeing all the amazing, reality-defying stuff that magic could do, it's no wonder they didn't bother to think about technology. It's the same way that problems in our world are solved with the internet; we may get a better solution by asking our old neighbour how they solved the problem, but we are so used to finding internet answers that those are the only ones we look for.

 

[Davatehi]

Well, the main reason is probably becasue the book would be over in like five minutes.

Spoiler: It would be cool though

 

[DudeistBelieve]

3. Voldemort will keep regenerating until the horcruxes are destroyed

3. So Voldemort comes back... Just keep shooting everytime he resurrects. It's not like it's instantaneous, and you could probably do it several times before he actually could come up with an effective counter... and even then, just have hermione snipe him from across the pond. The time granted (instead of being wasted fighting him with magic) would be invaluable in finding the remain horcruxes.

Voldemort doesn't actually resurrect in his body; The horcruxes just keeps his soul linked to the Earth. You might get him once, but then his soul goes and floats about until he builds a new body, which you can be damn sure he will equip with some sort of shielding amulet to protect himself. (fool me once and all that)

Magical society has developed so that associating with Muggles and utilizing their advances is a social taboo. Arthur Weasley is interested in Muggle technology, and that's regarded as complete folly.

So it makes sense why they wouldn't put faith in it to stop a problem that is so challenging for their "obviously superior" magic.

Also this. Even for people who grew up in the Muggle world, after seeing all the amazing, reality-defying stuff that magic could do, it's no wonder they didn't bother to think about technology. It's the same way that problems in our world are solved with the internet; we may get a better solution by asking our old neighbour how they solved the problem, but we are so used to finding internet answers that those are the only ones we look for.

But Harry spends a good amount of time in the real world. There really isn't a good reason for him not to at least consider, at least for a second "Why don't I just shoot him?"

 

[Redlin5_v1legacy]

It's fiction. Flying brooms. Having a real argument over this around me and my friends would lead to facepalms.

Sure, maybe but it didn't happen. Because that would have really lessened the tension.

Whatever...

 

[Voodoo_Person]

To say that Voldemort wouldn't know what a gun is doesn't make sense when you consider he grew up in a Muggle orphanage until he was 11, and as for having to say something to cast a spell, they actual have lessons in using non verbal spells in the books, so it's not necessary to actually say a spell

 

[Suicidejim]

Voldemort turned all the guns in the world into small mice prior to his uprising. Something like that.

Spoiler: Basically:

 

[repeating integers]

I have no doubt he could just cast a passive spell that creates a bullet-reflecting shield around him which lasts for a while.

And looking at the guy, I wouldn't be surprised if bullets had no effect. Doesn't he look to you like the sort of thing that could only be killed by magic?

Then there's the logical (read: boring nobody cares) answer, which is that Harry doesn't actually know how to use guns, and in a life-or-death situation he'd almost certainly miss and/or jam the bloody thing and then get murderised by Voldy's green death beam.