Honestly, the way I look at it, the shield charm is capable of blocking exactly what it needs to for the plot, and I'm really not sure why anyone is trying to apply logic or reason to a magic system some woman made up to serve the purposes of her books.

If the author needs a wizard to survive a nuke, they can cast a shield charm and survive a nuke. If not, then it won't work for them. Simple as that.

 

Where's the fun in that? I want to be right.

 

If I'm Albus Dumbledore, and I'm hunting around Hiroshima for some leftover Grindelwald agents in 1945, and the Americans just decide to have the worst timing with their bombs, I'm pretty confident that I'll be able to protect myself from a nuke. Could Dumbledore stop it with a simple Protego? Maybe. He's Dumbledore, after all. But no, Dumbledore would use something much stronger than a standard Shield Charm, even a perfectly cast one. Maybe it's some more powerful/advanced shield charm variant, maybe he'll transfigure himself some physical protection, maybe he'll apparate, or maybe he'll just cast a spell that forces the explosion to go around him like he's Moses. The question really isn't "can magic save you from a nuke", because of course it can. A basic Protego is just the most boring and certainly not the most effective way to do so.

Fuck, we're gonna get this in Fantastic Beasts 6, aren't we?

 

I think this is where I might just be understanding of the 'Books aren't canon' crowd.

There's too much stupid shit in canon for me to give it any credence.

It's not like I even liked canon anymore anyway after HBP. It's why I rated AUs and xovers so highly.

 

Damn, I'm now in the 31-40 age bracket

Also, why am I not surprised that this thread turned into yet another shield charm discussion thread.

 

Thinking about it, I should change my vote and put the games as canon. As a kid I loved to read the chocolate frog cards and the games also gave us some pretty good spells.

 

Always that one person who thinks OG books aren't canon. It never ceases to baffle me

 

Can you elaborate a bit on what would make a shield charm break? Though I don't doubt that a shield charm could defend against a nuclear blast, including the radiation, shield charms seem to have "durability" when it comes to defending against magic.

From the Goblet of Fire where "Hermione managed to shatter [Harry's shield charm] with a well-placed Jelly-Legs Jinx", we see that that shield charms do break against stronger spells. It also seems to be implied that Dolohov's spell broke Harry's shield which did blunt the effects of the spell. It seems that magic has its own system of strength where a shield charm has some form of durability and spells have a measure of strength that will either overcome it, be deflected, or blocked. Essentially, magic seems exhaustible but only against other magic.

 

I actually disagree with this, because it fits too well with the Potter magic feel that a 'Flame Freezing Charm' does nothing but make fire cool and tickle.

 

I feel like some of the economics related questions were hard to answer because the real answers to those questions are more nuanced and there are a lot of "but in this scenario it could be really good/bad" aspects to them.

 

Magic. If something isn't magical, it cannot break shield charm.

 

That's what I thought. I was confused as to what he considers the mechanics behind the breaking of shield charms via magic to be.

 

@RandyRanderson

Yeah, protecting against magic vs a nuke is the crucial difference, duh. The only thing that can defeat magic is other magic.

 

Fair enough. I thought your statement on durability extended to spells as well.

 

I am surprised how unpopular tiring physically is. How many of you would be able to write with a pen for two hours straight?

 

I think that's partly because you could only choose one option. Mental fatigue would come before physical fatigue, so people go with that.

 

I think magic is inexhaustible in itself, but the act of casting magic is tiring. Its a little like playing Table tennis. From the outside it does not look particularly tiring, but when you play TT you get tired after a while. Keeping you eyes on the ball, hand movements and footwork are somewhat physically tiring, and keeping focus mentally exhausting. Similarly staying focused, wand movements, keeping eyes on the target and footwork is tiring.

I voted mental fatigue because I think that's what will set in before physical.

 

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