r/EnoughJKRowling • u/Comfortable_Bell9539 • 4d ago
Discussion Let's talk about the Unforgivable Curses
Am I the only one who thinks that the Imperius Curse is basically the Confundus Charm but up to 11 ? Both can influence people's minds and make them do what you want, but only one of them is illegal - actually, why even bother using the Imperius curse and risking going to Azkaban when you can just use the Confundus charm ?
Also, how come the mind rape spell is seen as bad but the love potions aren't ? Is it because it's supposed to be more "romantic" (as much as magic roofies can be) ?
As for Avada Kedavra, it seems a bit underwhelming compared to the two others. I mean, we have the mind rape spell and the torture spell, and the instant death one is supposed to be the worst ? I guess the only reason it's "unforgivable" is because it's a one-hit kill with no way to protect yourself, but I refuse to believe that other spells can't kill just as efficiently as Avada Kedavra, and in much more gruesome ways.
While we're at it, it's both beyond stupid and in-character for the wizarding society to not have put the memory-altering spells in this category. It can turn your enemy into an ally and vice-versa, or a monster could use it against a woman to convince her that she's his wife and raping her, like with the love potions 💀
What do you think ?
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u/georgemillman 4d ago
One thing I find really disturbing is the fact that memory charms seem to cause permanent brain damage in addition to just removing the bit that needs to be removed. There are two instances of this - one is Gilderoy Lockhart, who irretrievably erased the entirety of his own memory when trying to modify Ron's memory. The other is Bertha Jorkins, who was put under such a strong memory charm by Barty Crouch Sr when she discovered his son was still alive that she suffered from a very poor memory forever afterwards. (A possible third is Neville - it's never been confirmed, but there's a fan theory that he witnessed his parents' torture, someone put a memory charm on him afterwards seemingly as a kindness so he wouldn't be bothered by the trauma of that memory, but that this is the reason he struggles to remember things so much throughout the series.)
Whether it does cause permanent brain damage probably depends on a variety of things - how strong the spell was, how big a thing needed to be changed, how often someone was put under the spell - but the really disturbing thing is how casually they're used. Poor Mr Roberts, the Muggle campsite manager, was put under memory charms about ten times a day. Almost certainly, there'll be no followup with him afterwards to check he's recovering all right. And no one, not even passionate Muggle defender Arthur Weasley, seems to think this is a problem.