- Today's video is brought to you by Me Undies.
Hey brother!
Okay guys, for a very long time,
one of the things I have always wondered about
is basically everything to do with the Marauder's Map.
How on Earth did the Marauders
create this thing to begin with,
because it is one of the most OP pieces of magic
in the entire story.
Also, are there any limits to its abilities?
Would Muggles show up on the map?
And also, if the Marauders were this good at magic,
how is it that the ever-incompetent Filch
is the one who confiscated it from them?
Because for one, I don't think he ever
could've got it from them.
And for two, I don't think there's any chance
he could've kept it from them.
But with that confiscation comes the ever-huge question
about the Marauder's Map.
Fred and George ultimately find it,
but how do they ever figure out how to use it?
- I solemnly swear that I am up to no good.
- I know that they're up to no good,
but are you telling me they guessed that pass phrase?
And not to knock Fred and George's magical abilities at all,
because I actually think those abilities are immense,
but it's a tough password to guess.
And that's also if you are even able to realize
that there is a password that needs to be guessed.
So today, we are going to roll up our sleeves
and try to get to the bottom of all of it.
Actually, I'm not wearing any sleeves today,
you know what I mean.
(suspenseful music)
- [Both] Hey brother!
- Guys, before we dive on in,
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The Marauder's Map, possibly one of the biggest plot devices
in the entire series,
if Harry was able to actually successfully use it.
Let me clarify.
He uses it constantly, he's just not good at it.
This thing has the power to show and name
every single person inside of the castle,
including all of its secret passages,
and Harry has an Invisibility Cloak,
and is constantly being caught by Filch.
Filch!
He can't even do magic!
And also Snape, but let's face it,
that guy's basically a bat.
The point is, the thing is outrageously powerful
and a Hogwarts artifact that I would argue is right up there
with any of the Hogwarts founder specific items,
or for that matter, I daresay, even the Sorting Hat.
I mean, four wizards were literally able
to put a piece of their intelligence
into a piece of parchment.
Everyone knows it's easier to put intelligence
into hats than parchment, that's the real trick.
Also, has it ever occurred to you or bothered you
that Hogwarts is supposedly unplottable on a map,
and yet, here exists a highly detailed map of Hogwarts?
Or that the map is able to correctly label students,
generations later, who were not born during the time
of the invention of the map?
I'm not even saying it would be easy,
but maybe you could've somehow put tracers
on every student you were at school with
at that point in time,
but how is this thing future proof?
Also, in "Chamber of Secrets", Harry gets blamed
for dropping that pudding at the Dursley's household
because the Ministry of Magic knows
that magic happened there,
but they're not able to identify who did it,
so it has to be Harry, meaning their trace technology
is not even as good as what the Marauder's Map can do,
because if it is, it would've shown
there was a house elf present during that time.
Which, let me just say,
this whole idea of not doing magic at home is bogus,
because anybody with wizarding parents
is just able to do it, because their parents can do magic.
This is obviously the reason
that Slytherin is constantly winning the House Cup,
because their parents are ambitious and they're like,
"Yo, we're using this advantage."
"They can't tell it's you,
"it's three free months of practice."
Plus, the whole blood purity thing
means most of these students
probably also have wizarding parents.
Anyway, my point is that the Marauders,
four high schoolers, are able to plot
an unplottable location with better magic trace technology
than a centuries-old magical government
whose primary job is tracking magical things.
How do they do this?
Imagine if the Ministry of Magic had this technology
for all of London.
"Can't find Volde, wait, wait a second.
"No, he's right here.
"What's he doing at a florist?"
"This wedding's going to be huge.
"Floral arches, chandeliers.
"Wormtail, have you called the caterers yet?"
Classic Voldemort, terrible wedding planner.
Floral arches by this afternoon?
You gotta be kidding me.
But getting back on track, how did the Marauders do it?
Well, first of all,
let's tackle the unplottable-ness of Hogwarts,
because they actually tackle this
in a really clever and easy way.
The real idea about being unplottable
is that you can't specifically show the location
of Hogwarts on a map.
So, even though they map out the school itself,
they don't give away where it is.
It's kind of your classic,
"If you have a map but have no idea
"where the place is that the map depicts,
"does that place even exist?"
It does, we actually made a video
about Hogwarts' exact location if you wanna check that out.
So very cleverly, the Marauder's Map doesn't actually
tell you where the school is,
and even though it does have reference points
to places you can leave through all the secret passages,
it doesn't tell you where those are,
so again, you don't have any reference points
to triangulate from.
Triangulate.
I think I said it wrong before.
Honestly, the really impressive bit of magic
they have going on here though is labeling
every single person who is currently inside of the castle.
How?
Again, I can kinda see a scenario
where you're able to put a trace on all of the students
who are currently at the school,
but what I don't understand is how they have it continue
to work into the future.
Where is it sourcing the names from?
They're names that don't even exist yet.
It seems like there would have to be some type
of magically updated list that keeps track
of everybody who comes to the school.
And it seems that way, because it literally is that way.
Let me introduce you to the Quill of Acceptance
and the Book of Admittance.
These are two infallible magical artifacts
from the four founders of Hogwarts themselves.
They are both located in the castle
in a tower that students never visit.
The book is bound in dragon hide,
and the ink sits next to an ink well that is empty.
And here's how it works.
The moment that any child exhibits any form
of magical ability at all,
the quill will spring to life
and try to write that person's name into the book.
- This boy's had his name down ever since he were born!
- But the fail safe here is that the book
must agree with the quill.
So if the book doesn't determine it as sufficient magic
to actually produce magic, it won't let the quill
write the person's name down.
And these two combined have a perfect record.
They have never made a mistake
and admitted either a non-magical person,
or Squib, to the school.
Which, I need to weigh in here,
because I find that Squib portion
of that kind of ridiculous.
They're still members of the magical community,
because the very definition of a Squib
is the non-magical offspring of magical parents,
meaning they definitely know that magic exists!
I am 100% on board for admitting
these students to the school.
You don't even need magic
for a lot of the classes in the school.
History of Magic, Care of Magical Creatures,
Herbology, Ancient Runes, Arithmency, Astronomy,
other classes that start with A.
Yeah, they should be allowed.
Who wants to start a group?
The Group for Encouraging Squib Tolerance
at the Education Place.
What does that spell?
GESTATEP?
Tell you what, we're gonna hyphenate education-place.
Join GESTATE today.
We're making T-shirts!
Maybe, we'll see, we have a lot to do.
Anyway, the book and the quill.
These two together document the existence of magical people
by determining their magical prowess, despite their age,
meaning there does exist something that the Marauder's Map
could be sourcing all of these magical names from
into the future forever.
To me, this is both a good and maybe the only explanation
as to how this map is able to perform this particular feat.
And it also kind of helps explain how something
that these high schoolers made is so ridiculously powered,
because it's quite literally sourcing some of its power
from an artifact left by the original founders.
But wait, would that mean that only students
who attend Hogwarts would show up on the map?
Would Muggles show up on the map?
Actually, even if you don't attend Hogwarts at all,
you should still show up on the map,
because just because you didn't go to Hogwarts
doesn't mean you couldn't have.
For example, in "Goblet of Fire",
Draco talks about how he could have gone to Durmstrang,
and he could have.
But either way, his name was still written into the book
because he was also, at the very least,
accepted to Hogwarts.
And as for Muggles, it does mean that they would not show up
on the map at all,
meaning that the map does have some limitations.
But that's fairly inconsequential,
because Muggles aren't allowed to go there
and they can't even see the castle.
But what about Filch?
He is a Squib, who shows up on the map,
but his name should not be in the book.
Filch is indeed an odd case,
and his existence at the school makes zero sense at all,
but we here at Super Carlin Brothers believe
that Filch is not only not a Squib but also not a human,
rather a poltergeist.
He shows up on the map
because he is a literal part of the school,
in the same way that Peeves is able to show up on the map,
which he does.
I know that that might sound like a little bit
out of left field, we actually made an entire video
about this particular topic.
If you wanna check it out, you can do so right here.
I promise it makes sense.
But for those of you who stuck around,
in a nutshell, it goes like this.
Peeves is a manifestation of rule breaking,
and Filch is a manifestation of rule following.
They are both parts of the castle,
and therefore can exist on the map.
And this continues to make sense when you consider
the characters in the story
that both of these two poltergeists most resonate with.
Most of the teachers and Dumbledore
really don't seem to take Filch seriously at all.
- Students in the corridor!
- They are supposed to be out of bed, you blithering idiot.
- But Umbridge does, and he loves Umbridge,
and effectively becomes an extension of her regime.
Peeves, on the other hand, listens to nobody, ever,
except Fred and George.
"'Give her hell from us, Peeves.'
"And Peeves, whom Harry had never seen to take an order
"from a student before, swept his belled hat from his head
"and sprang to a salute as Fred and George wheeled about
"to tumultuous applause from the students below
"and sped out the open front doors
"into the glorious sunset."
We've finally made it full circle
and we are back to Fred and George.
To me, this is a particularly telling detail
about Fred and George,
because all students have some mischief up their sleeves.
It's how Peeves is able to exist at all.
But Fred and George embody this idea
in almost its purest form,
again, in the same way that Umbridge embodies rule following
in its purest and ugliest of forms.
Fred and George though are really two of a kind,
save for perhaps the Marauders,
who preceded them by a couple of decades,
and who they are constantly compared to.
"Black and Potter.
"Ringleaders of their little gang.
"Both very bright, of course,
"exceptionally bright, in fact,
"but I don't think we've ever had
"such a pair of troublemakers."
"I don't know, Fred and George Weasley could give 'em
"a run for their money."
Indeed they could, and I daresay,
exactly what the Marauders were hoping for,
for someone to carry on their legacy,
because again, I'm sorry, the people who created
the Marauder's Map lost it to Filch?
Not only does this seem unlikely,
based on what the map literally does
in showing them where Filch is,
but I also don't think that they would've struggled
in getting it back from him at all.
And yet, it lives inside of Filch's office for years,
until the Weasley twins show up.
What feels far more likely to me
is that the Marauders were nearing
their departure from the school
and the map wasn't really gonna be much use to them anymore.
But they would love to leave their path to success behind
for a future band of tricksters to pick up on,
and where better to hide it than the very place
you may go if you were in trouble for breaking the rules,
Filch's office.
I mean, just look at the opening line of the map.
"Messrs. Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot and Prongs
"Purveyors of Aids to Magical Mischief-Makers
"are proud to present The Marauder's Map."
This title even kind of suggests that the map
is intended for other mischief-makers,
not even just themselves,
and when Lupin sees it years later,
this is what he tells Harry.
"Because these mapmakers would have wanted
"to lure you out of the school.
"They'd think it was extremely entertaining."
See, the point of the map
is to get other students to use it,
follow in their footsteps, carry on their legacy
and leave it somewhere that future mischief-makers
can find it, in Filch's office,
in a folder titled "Confiscated and Highly Dangerous".
I honestly doubt they had to do that much figuring at all
to get the map to reveal itself to them.
After all, the map would already be able to identify them
based on its own magic,
and we learn when Snape tries to read it
that it kind of has some sentience of its own.
Now, to be fair, the Marauders specifically
did not like Snape, so this could be specifically
a safeguard against just him,
but I personally like to believe that the map
also did not like Snape.
The point is, I don't think Fred and George
had to figure out the map.
I think it quite literally presented itself to them.
They are the Marauders' spiritual successors,
and telling them its secrets is literally
what it's made to do.
And finally, I think that Fred and George
understood the sentiment of the creators of the map
so much that they themselves passed it on
to future mischief-makers, Harry and the golden trio.
But guys, for my question of the day, what do you think,
or are there any other little problems or loopholes
with the Marauder's Map?
Let us know in the towel section down below.
Also, if you wanna join GESTATE,
they don't actually have a Squib emoji,
but they do have a squid emoji,
so just leave that down below
if you wanna be a part of the group.
It's fun, we have snacks!
That you can eat and then gestate.
Also guys, don't forget,
this week we are hosting Fandom Trivia
here on the Super Carlin Brothers channel.
That's going to start at 6 PM on Friday, May 21st.
Be sure to set a reminder or something,
we can't wait to see you there!
Otherwise guys, as always,
thank you so much for watching this video.
Be sure to like it if you hadn't already
and subscribe to the channel so you don't miss
any future Harry Potter action from us.
If you'd like to see that full video
about how Filch is definitely a poltergeist,
you can do so by clicking it right over here.
Otherwise, until next time, bye!