Harry Potter: Wizards vs. Muggles

Well, I wasn't sure where to actually post this, but Bobby G suggested Literature.

I'm not actually sure why I'm posting this, other than I thought it would be fun to figure it out. Also, I think the fact that Im tired and sick may have something to do with it.

Anyway: Who would win the war? Muggles or Wizards?

https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/posts.php?discussion=qsyrv3ettktp569a2cj47rnr&page=29#706

Try the harry potter thread.

Word of God says guns > wands.

However, I've heard from other people that a wizard shouldn't even have to get into a gunfight at all to win a war with Muggles. I imagine they'd be real good at a guerrilla war, since they're really good at hiding.

I wonder if nukes can kill dementors...

I didn't want to derail the Harry Potter thread. This one has more potential for flame warring, although I'll do my best to keep a lid on that.

Anyway: Wizards are good at guerilla warfare, true.

I doubt they'd want to bring out nukes unless thre is no other recourse. Hmmm...

Well, if we scale down, what's the least powerful Muggle weapon do you think would kill a dementor? Was it said that they were weak to fire or was that zombies inferi?

There's also some cool stuff in the Beasts book... like a giant leopard that breathed out plagues. I wonder if you could get one of those things in the middle of NYC.

Inferi are weak to fire (It's on the cover to the 6th Harry Potter book)

I think, maybe, napalm may do it? If napalm is hot. Alternatively, flamethrowers. Something not kinetic-based, at any rate; fire or electric weapons.

And yup; something like that could certainly throw New York off its' loop. Apparate it in, maybe; or fly it in.

Hmmm... How much damage to you reckon a troll could do downtown before its' stopped?

Wizards have an advatage of knowing their enemy exists. As far as I can remember only the top dogs of the Muggle world are aware of their wizarding counterparts. If there was sddenly a fight on hand, wizards have the benefit of surprise.

But last I checked there were a lot more muggles than wizards.

I'm gonna hazard a guess and say most tangible things in the wizarding world can be hurt if you hit em hard enough; bullets and explosives work well for that.

I'm pretty sure Dementors don't like fire.

This is something I've thought about and discussed many times. The end result is always the same: stalemate.

Humans have guns, tanks, planes, satellites and nuclear weapons. Every time a wizard pokes his head out of cover, he's gonna be squished, hard. However, any time humans go after wizards, they'll never find them. They'll just hide in an unplottable location, or a house under the Fidelius, or they'll apparate away, etc. No side has a clear advantage. Stalemate, forever.

Napalm vs. Dementor. I sure as hell want to see that.

I imagine only stuff as large as gatlings or RP Gs would be effective against trolls. Do police have stuff that big?

^ I've also been thinking about nuclear weapons, I dunno if they'd actually be useful in the long term. Could be something demoralizing, but unless you have a city that's got only mostly wizards then you've got to deal with collateral damage, and people won't be happy about that. And like you point out, it's not likely that Muggles will ever find a place where wizards outnumber Muggles by a lot.

edited 28th Nov '10 8:19:58 PM by melloncollie

But who says Dementors are tangible?

I got the impression that they're only tanible when they want to b. Otherwise it woulda ben awkward in a forest or whatever...

Okay, for this hypothetical scenario: Voldemort broke the Masquerade before he was defeated, by him and his Death Eaters levelling Los Angeles. Muggles took this as a sign of aggression and attackd back.

Also: It takes time to launch a nuke away. Wizards can Apparate hit hard and fast then retreat before anyon can do anything about it.

edited 28th Nov '10 8:19:19 PM by CyganAngel

Unless they start recruiting squibs. You take somebody who has the ability to see magic, yet has been shunned my the magical community; hell of an asset. The MI 6 would have a field day.

Medicus: In the event of a war, however, I'm sure both sides are going to go out of their way to figure out methods of negating those advantages.

edited 28th Nov '10 8:19:52 PM by Scholastica

@Cygan Angel: assuming we don't start launching cruise missiles into tents again? Does the US know that Voldemort wants HP? If so they'd probably leave him tied to a pole somewhere and snipe anyone who teleports in.

Let's say this:

No nukes. Wizzards Apparated in and Transfigured them into something harmless.

Because that's exactly what I see wizards doing.

After all, wouldn't you want to disable something that powerful?

The US has no knowledge of the situation yet. They have, as someone suggestd earlier Squibs to tll thm of magic; but the Squib doesn't know nything about the situation.

edited 28th Nov '10 8:22:46 PM by CyganAngel

@ Cygan: Maybe someone should ask Rowling about the dementors. I thought in the movies they just flew around the trees really fast, but yeah it hasn't really been established.

^ How would they know where to find them? Would they even know what nukes are? It hasn't been clearly established how knowledgeable of Muggles most wizards are. Mr. Weasley is supposed to be in charge of Muggle Relations and he knows almost nothing.

edited 28th Nov '10 8:23:22 PM by melloncollie

Don't you have to understand something to transfigure it? I don't think many wizards are nuclear physicists.

Where does it stat that in the book?

Anyway, okay; so they Vanish it instead.

We could set them to detonate. You know how some bank vaults will lock if the temp. exceeds a set amount? We could do that with nukes; have them in whatever base we keep them in, and if the sensors detect any source of bodyheat they detonate. last i checked we have a lot of nukes.

Boom, one less wizard.

Thats a lot of nukes to find.

That said I don't see why any nation would be so quick to push the button. Nukes are for destroying a whole lot of people and things in a certain area. Unless you have a wizard army then I don't see why they would use them. Especially on their own soil.

It would be a lot of work to find all the nukes, but they could alwys use summoning charms.

Or not, we've got other explosives that can kill just as well. I think I read something about the Israelis putting semtex in a watermelon.

I said earlier that maybe they could detonate one or two for intimidation, which is pretty much how the U.S. got Japan to surrender in WWII. But yeah, I don't really see them being used all that much.

It would help to know where these people are fighting, who exactly is fighting, and how many there are.

Is it Voldy vs the UK?
The entire British magical world vs. NATO?

Australia vs New Zealand?

edited 28th Nov '10 8:30:45 PM by Scholastica

Actually, I think tht would serve to unite the wizards, not cower thm into submission. After all, they can't nuke Diagon Alley or anything, so the wizards are safe... nd look at what they're willing to do!

Plus, muggleborns would know what nukes are.

lo yah, we should come up with the complete scenario, but I'm not sure I'm coherent enough to come up with te scenario all on my own

edited 28th Nov '10 8:30:56 PM by CyganAngel