Hey, brother!
Ben, one of thet most gaping plot holes
or just broad stroke problem-solving plot devices
in the wizarding world of Harry Potter is
Felix Felicis.
Better known as liquid luck.
Because, having a potion that can just like solve all of the problems Harry has,
kind of takes away from all the hard work and suffering they endure while, you know normally solving the problems.
But what if J. K. Rowling didn't actually introduce anything like this?
What if Felix Felicis actually
does nothing?
So, in case you need a refresher:
Felix Felicis or liquid luck
is introduced on Harry's first day of potions in his sixth year
by professor Slughorn.
(which has its own set of problems, but we'll come back to that)
He says, he has taken it twice in his life, had two perfect days
and offers it up as a prize to whoever can concoct the best grass of living death in that class.
And much to the surprise of everyone, including us the readers, Harry wins!
(because he has Snape's old textbook)
Harry then ironically later uses the potion against professor Slughorn
to procure the memory professor Dumbledore needs,
to confirm his theory, that Tom Riddle
has been creating horcruxes since he was in school.
And Felix Felicis is a really cool idea for a potion
and it's really fun reading how it affects Harry.
But the problem when you have a fix-everything-plot-device like that is:
Why isn't everyone just always using it?
Now to our credit though,
J. K. Rowling does put up a lot of roadblocks and stipulations
in order to justify the use of Felix Felicis and solve this problem.
For example some of the ingredients, like Occami eggs, are
really hard to come by, but then some of them are just stuff like...
horseradish? But more on that later.
Another barrier is that it takes six months to brew
and the effects can be disastrous if done wrong.
Aaand even if you managed to brew it correctly,
it can be toxic if you take too much and overuse can lead to
dangerous recklessness and extreme overconfidence.
So yes, the barrier to entry is high and the consequences could be extreme and yet
the benefit seemes so awesome
it is still hard to believe people aren't constantly trying to make this.
Maybe that stuff which hurt away a
majority of people, but surely not everyone. And most especially, if you're already a
potions master. Yeah, Snape is really one of the biggest problems when it comes to Felix Felicis, because
nothing about his life seems like it's drenched in sunshine and happiness and good fortune. He's unpopular at school the girl
He's unpopular at school, the girl
he's in love with marries his worst enemy, he eventually has to guard over their offspring and
eventually he's asked to murder the one man, he actually really respects.
Luck is literally defined as the good or bad things that happen to you, that are out of your control.
I mean Snape's whole life just seems like the definition of bad luck.
Just nothing good ever happens for him.
You would think someone with such bad fortunes, who was also a potions master,
would have this stuff on stock.
At least a bottle
for like an emergency situation. Right?
And by emergency situation I mean, like, I don't know, maybe you overhear a prophecy
about your boss killing the woman you love and you need to, like, talk
your boss out of that situation?
Although, I guess to be fair, maybe Snape actually was successful in that request
and Lily does kind of just go out of her way to die that night.
But, I mean, that kind of says the whole story, so...
Either way very unlucky for Snape.
Now you could argue that Snape is the kind of person, who would never want to rely on something like luck,
since he does seem to despise people, who were simply born into better fortunes than himself
"Our new Celebrity."
And despite his life being pretty gloomy,
he is actually still a pretty successful wizard.
At one point he is second in command to both Dumbledore and Voldemort at the same time!
Who's really in control guys?
This is because Snape is an insanely hard worker.
And I don't think he could bear, if he thought anyone thought he got to where he was by Luck.
So, sure, maybe snape will never use the potion, but I feel like he would still have it on hand.
I mean, he has stocks of Veritaserum on hand, and that's not even allowed at school.
Unless, he as a potions master, knows that Felix Felicis actually does nothing.
All throughout the Half-Blood Prince,
Snape reveals that he really understands potions.
Like, even more than Slughorn, who is constantly impressed by Harry's brewing abilities.
(All of which are actually coming courtesy of Snape's old textbook)
So, let's take a look at the ingredients of Felix Felicis.egg
You have Ashwinder egg,
Horseradish, squill bulb, Murtlap tentacle, tincture of thyme
Occamy eggshell and powdered common rue. Half of them are completely common and non-magical.
Horseradish, thyme, common rue?
What is that? All just for Flavor? Squill bulb might sound magical,
but a squill is just a flower, that we, even muggles, use for cough-medicine.
Occamy yolks are somewhat useful, Gilderoy Lockhart uses them in his line of shampoos,
but their shells are just silver. And then we're just left with Murtlap tentacles and Ashwinder eggs.
The Murtlap is the thing that bites Jacob in Fantastic Beasts
and its tentacles are said to improve one's defenses against jinxes
and we see harry use it after his detentions with umbridge to sooth his hand in.[drags]
And then there's the Ashwinder eggs, which are most commonly used in love potions.
Which makes me think, that the real effect in potions is to create some sort of
infatuation or positivity in the drinker. And are we sure they're not just making tequila?
I agree, the potion does sound like you would at least put the drinker in a very good mood,
but I also think it's even more possible, that the drinker is simply under the spell of The Placebo effect.
If you're not familiar with the Placebo effect,
that's when your belief that something works, causes it to work.
Like, for example, if you had a really bad headache and your friend told you:
"Oh my gosh, I have this amazing new headache medicine", and they gave it to you and boom your headache was cured!
But then later you found out actually they gave you a tic-tac or something. That can sound crazy, the Placebo effect is enormously
well documented and is very much a real thing, even though it kind of sounds like...
what's the word?
Magic?
"I love magic!"
Yes, how convenient, that magical luck in the world of Harry Potter behaves so much like what is often perceived as magic in the real world?
The most glaring example of this in the book is when Harry literally
placebos Ron by making him think he drank Felix Felicis before his quidditch match.
But he doesn't take it
and that is the key: Ron does not take Felix Felicis and yet the effects are the same:
Ron plays amazing because he believes he's extra lucky. And the more I thought about it,
the more it just seems like everything about Felix Felicis
Is just there to make you, the drinker, take that Placebo bait?
Hook line and sinker. I mean the fact that it's so rare
Time-consuming and difficult to make, makes you think that, wow, when you were in the presence of it
Yeah, this is, this is like an amazing thing! The whole six-month stimulation makes it easy to mess up,
but I think that is still just part of the lie. Because how
awfully convenient is it that if you take it and nothing happens, It's easier just to assume
"oh, I probably messed up making the potion" rather than the actual conclusion, that Felix Felicis doesn't really do any
even the danger of overuse:
If you the drinker think, you were only going to get to try this once,
it puts a lot of pressure on you to make the best out of that occasion.
So you do! And sorry, what were the other side effects?
Overconfidence and dangerous recklessness?
Yeah, duh!
Sure, if you take the potion and then approach some different problems with
renewed vigor and positivity and bravery, you probably are going to make some headway on those things,
but it's not sustainable. Eventually mistakes will happen
Mistakes happening, by the way, is conveniently one of the signs, that the potion is just "wearing off". "What? Bad things are happening again?"
"Oh, no, don't worry, that just means, it's wearing off.
That's totally normal. Totally normal, don't worry!" Even the spell used while making the potion, Felixempra, is
kind of questionable. Felixempra is only
used, while making this potion. If you use, it outside of it on anything, else guess what it does:
Nothing. Probably, because even when are using it on the potion, it does nothing.
But, if you are still not convinced, take this under consideration: How did Slughorn have it ready so fast?
We literally see Harry recruit Slughorn to be his potions professor two months before
the term starts. And yet, somehow on the first day of class, he has a six month potion ready to go. Sure, I
guess it's plausible. He just happened to be brewing it six months earlier.
But he says he's on the run from the death eaters. Constantly changing locations.
And this sounds like a complicated potion to make.
How is he doing this, if he's constantly moving around and on the run?
Perhaps, this is because, much like Snape, Slughorn has realized, that the potion doesn't actually give you luck. The two perfect days
he mentioned, could just be days, when he took the potion, before
he realized this. And was under the Placebo effect. And why not? Why deprive your students of that? They're really excited about it.
It's a cool thing to do on the first day of class.
"But J", I hear you saying, "Harry does use it to great effect and so does Ron and Ginny and Hermione during the battle below the astronomy tower!
How'd you explain that?" Yes, Harry does get the memory from Slughorn after taking the potion. But, I will remind you,
Dumbledore gave him this task ,because he always
believed, Harry had it in him to do this. He didn't even know, Harry had the potion and definitely didn't
intend for him to use it. He thought Harry could do it on his own,
because he could. It's just that, after taking the potion, Harry believes he knows what to do, that the decisions
he's making are the right decisions.
I will admit, that Harry's sudden and almost improbable decision to go to Hagrid's was probably the biggest hurdle
I had, when trying to explain this.
"Hagrid, I feel, it's the place to be tonight."
Because why would you decide to do that, right? It just seems so out of the blue,
but it's not. Hagrid does invite Harry, Ron and Hermione to come to Aragog's funeral and
Hermione and Ron are the ones who talk Harry out of doing it. Harry actually feels sorry for Hagrid. In fact,
It's kind of out of character for Harry, not to help Hagrid. On pretty much every occasion ever, Harry decides to help Hagrid.
Always. So I don't think it's any coincidence, that after he takes this and suddenly has this boost of confidence
He's like: "Yeah, I need to go to Hagrid. I need to, I need to help him. That's, that's where I'm gonna be.
That's the right place to be. Yep, Hagrid's." And as for Ron, Hermione and Ginny fighting the death eaters,
I think it's just like the quidditch match:
I think they always had it in them to go toe to toe with the death eaters.
Isn't it a better story, if all of their training is paying off,
and they're not just surviving, because they drink a potion? I think so, but in the end
it's not that I think this potion does nothing. Like I said earlier,
I think at the very least it makes you feel positive, lowers your inhibitions and just gives you more confidence.
But most importantly, it lets you believe you are
Lucky and then you just act accordingly. Ben ,my question for you, and everybody else is what do you think? Is Felix Felicis
actually liquid luck? Or is it just a giant Placebo effect? Let me know your thoughts in the towel section down below. These socks are
amazing! And a special thanks to these Patrions who support Super Carlin Brothers on Patreon! Guys,
thanks as always for watching this video. Please remember to leave a like on it
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I will see you in another life, brother.