Hey Brother!
That was from everyone who came out to our How not to Suck at Vlogging Workshop at Nerdcon.
Such an awesome time, thank you guys all for coming out. Ben you know what character
I've always had a lot of questions about from Harry Potter?
Peeves the Poltergeist.
I mean obviously he's a troublemaker at the school, who for some reason
Is allowed to stay, but he's not quite a ghost because he can touch physical objects, but
He can still make himself invisible and fly? Then--what I don't--what is he?
And then it gets more confusing with Ron. He has the "ghoul" in the attic, is that not a ghost either?
I--I feel like I don't know the difference at all between ghost and ghoul and
Poltergeist, and so today we are going to give him the bottom of that.
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Hey Brother!
Before we get started
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Okay, so for me growing up as someone who wasn't particularly interested in ghost stories or old monster movies or the horror genre in general,
Ghost and ghoul and poltergeists were pretty much just
interchangeable to me. At best
I thought it was just like a regional thing, like how in the South if you order an iced tea you get a sweet tea
And up north if you order a sweet tea
They're like well, you know we have sugar on the table, and you're like
No, that's not the same thing sugar doesn't dissolve in water. And if you're sitting there computer like, uh, J
sugar does dissolve in water just go up north and try and make your tea sweet tea. Try it! Try it! Okay, scratch that. Maybe a
Better example is just like Bigfoot verse Sasquatch verse yeti verse abominable snowman.
All pretty much the same thing right? Or maybe not, maybe I just started a whole separate argument in the towel section (cringes)
In any case in the world of Harry Potter all three are present and are different things
But it's kind of hard to tell the difference between all of them. Wizards
Themselves even have a hard time, you can see in the prisoner of Azkaban movie on the marauders map a classroom called
Ghoul Studies, which on the Harry Potter wiki page, which I know is super official says that what they study in there is the
Difference between ghouls, ghosts, and poltergeists
Which I thought was crazy because that was exactly what I was doing this video on. Let's start with poltergeists. In
Regular folklore poltergeist is German for
noisy ghosts and they are considered a type of ghost typically responsible for
physical disturbances. They can do things like knock stuff over or like even pinching or biting. Probably the most famous depiction of
Poltergeist other than Peeves himself, who actually isn't present in any of the Harry Potter movies, is from the 1982 movie Poltergeist,
Where the ghosts are actually quite very, very much aggressive. That version has them abducting children,
Possessing clown dolls, knocking over glasses of milk, bringing up dead skeletons, you get the picture. JK
Rowling's understanding of poltergeists though is much different. In a recently released ebook on
Pottermore, "Short Stories from Hogwarts of Power Politics and Pesky Poltergeists" she describes that even though poltergeists are typically
Described as ghosts, they are in fact not. Many accounts of poltergeist in folklore have a strong association with
Adolescents and teenagers so, to JK
Rowling it only makes sense that a poltergeist would be generated in a school full of teenage witches and wizards. And
Generated is the key word. Peeves is not actually a ghost at all. He is literally a physical
manifestation of all of the mischievousness and trickery of
Generations of witches and wizards at Hogwarts which I think is a freaking awesome
Explanation. I mean it sort of explains
Why he's able to, you know, handle physical objects
But also why he kinda has a lot of ghostly qualities too. He's sort of somewhere in between.
But so then where does that leave ghosts? Ghosts in Harry Potter as you probably are aware are
Actually the transparent imprint of a deceased witch or wizard,
but only witch or wizard.
Muggles cannot come back as ghosts. Although "coming back" is maybe not the best phrase as the ghosts in Harry Potter
aren't really coming back from the dead because
They didn't really ever pass on. This means when people ask them what it's like to die, they are
Unable to give very satisfactory answers because they did it wrong. Unlike poltergeists
They cannot interact with any physical surroundings,
But that doesn't mean they don't have any effect on their physical surroundings.
The air around them is always a lot colder and even though they can pass through things without causing any harm to themselves
They do cause disturbances in air, fire, and water.
Which brings us to ghouls. Turns out comparing ghosts and ghouls in my head was just so totally not even the same thing at all. Nope.
Ghouls come from Arabian folklore where they are literally desert-dwelling and demons who can shapeshift into different animals,
But are most commonly associated with hyenas. Which is not how I have ever thought of ghouls,
But apparently what they do is lure people into the desert where they then kill them and eat them.
(pops lips)
More modern folklore, on the other hand, describes them a lot more like zombies in terms of them being some sort of
Undead monster largely associated with graveyards. Harry Potter's version of a ghoul
Though is different still and if you want a full description I would recommend Newt Scammander's "Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them."
Obviously. According to Newt, ghouls are not particularly
Dangerous creatures. Although to be fair and I'm not sure Newt would describe like any creature as particularly dangerous.
But really, they're nothing more than roughly
Human sized ogre-esque like creatures who are dim-witted and buck-toothed and don't really harm anything. Mostly
They just want to be left alone and so often find their ways into
The attics or barns of witches and wizards where they can survive off moths and spiders, which sounds like such a
Brilliant existence if you ask me. And
surprisingly, they are not seen, really, as a nuisance by witches and wizards who often adopt them as pets or and
I quote talking points. Oh! What--what is that lumbering I heard? Do you have a ghoul upstairs? Yes,
Yes, that is my ghoul. That is my actual monster living in my attic that I keep around for...
Yeah, I would say get rid of them.
But that does bring me to my final question of the day, now that we know the difference between all three of these things is,
If Peeves is such a troublemaker,
Why do they let them stick around Hogwarts? And the answer is...
Because mostly there is not much they can do. There have been attempts over the years to get rid of them
But none in over a century. Because of the nature in which he was created which is to say generated by the
Mischievousness of the students and, you know, just how many generations of students have come through Hogwarts, he is one of the most notorious
Poltergeist in all of the world. The last person to try and expel him from the castle was a caretaker named
Rancorous Carpe who tried to trap him in a large glass bell jar that had a bunch of containment spells
Worked into it. He tried to lure Peeves into a particular place by using a bunch of weapons he thought Peeves would find
Irresistible. He was right. About the weapons, not about the glass jar.
Peeves got the weapons and easily escaped the jar
And then wreaked havoc and everyone had to leave the castle for three days. It was a big catastrophe.
Now personally I feel like Dumbledore himself probably could have found a way to get rid of Peeves
But I think he like many of the students eventually grow
Fond of Peeves and see him as much a part of the experience of attending Hogwarts as the moving staircases.
So that's why Peeves remains there to this day.
Or at least that's the shorthand version of it. If you want to get a much more detailed
Telling of it, I recommend you check out the e-book on Pottermore. Lots of other really cool, interesting stories in there as well.
Ben my question for you, and everybody else is who is your favorite
Non-Human character from Harry Potter? Let me know in the towel section down below.
These socks are amazing! Guys
Thanks for watching as always please remember to like this video if you haven't already and subscribe so to never miss any future
Harry Potter content and don't forget to check out dftba.com for our new awesome
Sticker pack. If you want to see some more Harry Potter videos
I recommend this one where we discussed whether or not Dumbledore has a Horcrux.
Hint, he totally did. And this one where we
Describe why the veil was created in the department of mysteries. But Ben that's all I got for today man.
I will see you in another life brother.