- Today's video is brought to you by Audible.
Hey brother!
Ben, do you think a Muggle
could ever become Master of the Elder Wand?
Yes, I know.
We've discussed the Elder Wand to death,
like who and when and why
certain people became masters of it whenever they did
and the weird rules associated with it.
And to be honest still, I'm not even sure I agree
with what Harry tells Voldemort
about how he personally came to be Master of it.
Which, as a refresher,
is that Draco disarmed Dumbledore
which then made Draco the Master.
And then later at Malfoy Manor,
Harry physically takes Draco's wand from him,
which makes Harry the Master,
even though it's a completely different wand.
Which, like, it's fine,
but also Harry walks into the woods
using the Invisibility Cloak,
which he's already the Master of,
and then activates the Resurrection Stone
to summon his dead loved ones
to help him accept sacrificing himself
for everyone back at the school
so he's was also the Master of the Resurrection Stone,
and like, I dunno, uniting Deathly Hallows.
They're not all three on the same person at the same time,
but they're all real close.
I mean, whoever unites the Deathly Hallows
becomes Master of Death.
And promptly after dying, he doesn't die,
which seems like he's already Master of Death.
I mean, I guess even if the Draco version is true,
then he's already mastered the Elder Wand at that point,
so either way.
Whatever, it's Draco's wand, okay.
But alternate endings aside, the point is,
the rules are kind of weird,
which makes for interesting questions
when you thrust odd circumstances into them.
Like, for example, what would happen if, say,
a Muggle disarmed someone
who was the Master of the Elder Wand?
Well, today, we discuss.
(upbeat music)
- [Ben And J] Hey brother!
Guys, before we dive on into today's video,
we need to give a huge thank you
to today's sponsor, Audible.
This is a service that personally
I literally used every single day,
whether it's driving to work or doing the dishes
or mowing the lawn or just even falling asleep.
Actually, on the falling asleep one,
one of my favorite features is the sleep timer,
which you can just set for like 10 or 15 minutes
so that if you fall asleep
the book doesn't just keep running all night
and you totally lose your spot.
But Audible is great
because they have a huge selection of audiobooks,
as well as other spoken word media
available in their vast library.
Literally thousands of titles to choose from.
Actually, a fun fact,
if you listen to literally everything
in the Audible library,
it would take you, wait for it, three centuries!
Unless, that is, you boost the narration speed,
which this is something Ben does.
He listens to everything at two times speed,
so it's only gonna take him like 150 years!
He's very proud of his listening speed.
He hears way faster than you do.
And finally, Audible offers a monthly credit
which you can redeem for literally anything
in their entire libraries,
whether it be a brand new bestseller
or an old childhood favorite.
You can keep your credits for up to a year.
And if you get something and you don't like it,
great news!
You can just swap it out.
And this month, the book I want to recommend to you guys
is called "The Rise of Kyoshi."
You might not have realized this,
but the world of "Avatar: the Last Airbender"
has expanded into novels
which you can now listen to with your ears,
at regular speed or Ben speed.
And "The Rise of Kyoshi"
is the story of the Avatar two Avatars before Aang.
She shows up a lot in the show
and it's really cool to get her backstory.
If you'd like to sign up
for a free trial of Audible's Premium Plus account,
you can head over to audible.com/supercarlin
or text SUPERCARLIN to 500-500.
Again, that is a free trial
of Audible's Premium Plus account
at audible.com/supercarlin
or text SUPERCARLIN to 500-500.
Link is in the description down below.
I am fascinated by this question
because there are just actually a lot more layers at work
than you might be aware of.
First let's just talk wandlore.
Like even Ollivander himself says
wizards don't know everything about how wands work,
in that very vague way people use to answer questions
when they don't know the entire answer.
"The wand chooses the wizard.
That much has always been clear to those of us
who have studied wandlore."
"A person can still use a wand
that hasn't chosen them though?"
"Oh yes, if you are any wizard at all,
you will be able to channel your magic
through almost any instrument.
The best results, however,
must always come where there is the strongest affinity
between wizard and wand.
These connections are complex.
An initial attraction,
and then a mutual quest for experience,
the wand learning from the wizard,
the wizard from the wand."
Blah blah blah.
Okay, that explanation
is really open-ended at the end of the day,
which gives us a lot to work with.
For example, he states you could channel your magic
through almost anything.
Which is just so funny to think about.
Like I'm imagining a wizard just like,
picking up an umbrella and waving it around, like...
(wand firing)
Wait.
The point though is that wands
are merely vessels through which your magic flows,
they are not responsible for the magic itself.
Though, to be fair,
they are the most effective instruments for producing magic.
In fact, if you go digging
through the Wizarding World Archives,
you can find writing about how certain cultures in history
didn't use wands at all.
Like, indigenous Americans just used wandless magic.
This is also a part of the explanation
for why child wizards are able to make random things happen
when they're angry or scared,
even though they don't have a wand.
Wands are only amplifiers of magic,
not the source of the magic itself.
I mean, if wands could just do magic,
then there would be no Squibs, right?
Can't do magic?
Just get a wand and voila, problem-solved!
But no, a wand will never help Filch do magic
because he can't do magic because he has no magic.
Although something is up with that cat.
I am just saying, like,
I'm pretty positive Flich is a poltergeist,
but that's a whole different video.
As ever in "Harry Potter" though,
there are some weird situations that need explaining.
Like when Harry's wand produces a golden fire
at the Battle of Seven Potters.
Wands can't do magic on their own,
and yet Harry is convinced his wand acts of its own accord
and shoots very powerful golden fire at Voldemort.
And the first thing worth noting here
is that this is a very atypical situation
for a wand to begin with.
And that Harry's wand is not exactly brand new
at this point.
Like, it had a lot of its own experiences
through the Wizarding World with Harry.
If it was brand new off the shelf,
you can bet this would not have happened.
But as Dumbledore explains in King's Cross,
Harry's wand is able to perform this way
because it absorbed some of Voldemort's power
when Harry dueled him in the graveyard.
And so, when specifically Harry is holding the wand
and is pointing it specifically at Voldemort,
it is indeed extra powerful.
It has essentially been upgraded by experience,
but is only extra sentient in this way for Harry.
So again, Harry, couldn't just hand his wand
to a Squib or a Muggle and point them at Voldemort
and reproduce the same results.
But so then what does happen if you hand a Muggle a wand?
Well, based on what we've learned so far,
you'd think absolutely nothing.
The wand is nothing more than a fancy stick to them.
Not that that stopped us from buying any, mind you.
I mean, who doesn't love a good fancy stick?
(wands clattering) Oh God, oh God!
Got 99 problems and they're all fancy sticks.
Anyway, I too would have argued
that Muggle plus wand equals Muggle with stick,
but I would have been wrong.
In fact, diving into the Wizarding World Archives,
you can find out exactly what happens
when a Muggle picks up a wand
when James Steward, one of the founders of Ilvermorny,
picks one up.
"As Isolt watched,
James finished marking the graves he had dug by hand,
then picked up the two broken wands
that had lain beside the Boot parents.
Frowning, he examined the sparking core
of the dragon heartstring
that protruded from Mr. Boots, then gave it a casual wave.
As invariably happens when a No-Maj waves a wand,
it rebelled.
James was sent flying backwards across the clearing,
hit a tree and was knocked out cold."
Now to be fair, the wand in question was broken
and we know that even for a fully trained wizard,
well, sort of fully trained wizard using a broken wand,
the results aren't great.
- Obliviate!
(wand firing)
(Gilderoy crashing into wall)
- But, even if the wand James had picked up had been whole,
I think the result would have been the same
as the author has also weighed in
on what happens when Muggles handle wands.
"I've been asked what would happen
if a Muggle picked up a magic wand in my world.
And the answer would probably be something accidental,
possibly quite violent.
Because a wand in my world is merely a vehicle,
a vessel for what lies inside the person."
This actually also lines up
with what happens to that monkey
who takes Newt's wand in "Fantastic Beasts."
(wand firing) (monkey screeching)
I'm mean, I guess to be fair,
we can't know for sure that that monkey wasn't magical,
but I'm gonna go ahead and make that leap.
To me, it would honestly make more sense
if nothing happened,
but obviously I'm wrong in this situation
and something does happen.
But the result is still completely accidental
and has nothing to do with the wielder actually doing magic.
But whether or not something would happen
or if a Muggle could do magic with the Elder Wand
is not our main question today.
Our question is just could a Muggle
be the Master of the Elder Wand?
The Elder Wand is supposed to be the most sentient wand,
and we know the saying, "The wand chooses the wizard."
So the obvious answer would be no.
But for one,
"The wand chooses the wizard" is just the saying
and not necessarily any sort of hard truth.
And for two, let's review again the canon version
of how Harry becomes Master of the Elder Wand,
by physically taking a completely separate wand
from Draco, who is apparently currently the Master.
That transfers mastery of Draco's wand,
and the other one he was Master of, to Harry.
The Elder Wand, from miles away,
recognizes that its Master loses a wand.
But what is really important to me about it
is that Draco loses his wand
in a completely non-magical way.
Harry just wrenches it out of his hand,
something any Muggle also could have done.
And you might think, yeah,
but like a Muggle could never disarm a wizard
who has a wand.
And yet that's just not true.
I mean, even Dudley manages to punch Harry
in the face at the beginning of "Order of the Phoenix."
(mimicking punching effect) (punching effect reversed)
So let's say for example, Dudley meets Draco on the street.
He sees his wand, recognizes what it is,
totally freaks out, punches him in the face,
takes the wand and runs.
Like, to me,
I don't see how that would be any different
from how Harry took the wand from Draco,
except that Draco also got punched.
Which as far as I'm concerned,
would have been a great redemption arc for Dudley.
Put that boxing background to some serious use.
(dramatic music)
(Draco groans)
Either way, Draco loses the wand.
Like, yes, If Harry had done something magical
to disarm Draco, then sure,
the Elder Wand would have a way of detecting
that Harry was magical.
But he doesn't do anything magical,
it's completely physical!
And yet, Harry becomes the Master.
So if Dudley took it, why would it be any different?
Are we supposed to think the Elder Wand
can determine the magicalness of someone's punch
or the wrenching from someone's hands?
I mean, I don't know.
Maybe it could, but either way the end result is the same.
Draco is disarmed and defeated.
So I don't see why the end result for the Elder Wand
wouldn't also be the same.
Which is to say in that scenario,
Dudley Dursley would be the Master of the Elder Wand.
A sentence I didn't think was possible to exist.
Now to be fair,
that wouldn't really mean very much for Dudley
other than that he's about to probably become the target
of some very high powered wizards.
But even if Dudley was the Master the Elder Wand,
it wouldn't mean he was any steps closer
to actually doing magic with a wand,
even the world's most powerful wand.
At best, I would say he would at least be able to pick it up
and wave it around, just consequence free,
because he was the Master.
But it was still pretty much just behave
like a regular stick.
And again, nothing wrong with regular sticks!
(wands clattering)
They just keep going.
I keep thinking this joke is funny,
then I have to pick them up.
That's best case scenario though.
It's also possible that the moment Dudley
picked it up, the Elder wand would be like,
whoa, you are a Muggle and I am not okay with it.
See you! (mimicking wand firing)
But, assuming Dudley
did become the Master of the Elder Wand,
even if he never picked it up,
I do think it would mean that another wizard
could come along and defeat Dudley
and become the Master themselves,
having defeated the previous Master.
And that is the explanation that makes the most sense to me.
Yes, a Muggle could become Master of the Elder Wand.
No, they would not be able to do any magic.
Yes, they would probably just become a terrible target
and die soon anyway, so it's not desirable.
But Ben, my question for you and everyone else
is do you agree?
Could a Muggle become a Master of the Elder Wand?
And, bonus question, what's your favorite wand?
Personally, I really love the Weasley twins ones
because when you line them up like this,
you have the start of a broom handle
and the back of a broom.
And I just think that's so clever!
But guys, thanks so much as always
for watching today's video.
Don't forget to leave a like on it
if you haven't already,
and subscribe by clicking that little button
right down there
so you don't miss any future "Harry Potter" action from us.
If you would like a more in-depth explanation
about how Harry is able to produce those golden flames,
you can check out this video right here.
But Ben, until next time,
I will see you in another life, brother.