harry potter - What are the limits on a Metamorphmagus?

In the Harry Potter books, Metamorphmagi are people with the innate ability to change their own shape at will. Tonks is the main example of a Metamorphmagus, and she is shown changing the shape of her nose, the colour and shape of her hair, and once even taking the form of an entirely different old lady.

What are the limits imposed on this ability, though? Do Metamorphmagi have to maintain some human form? Are they free to morph into any anthropomorphic creature, such as a goblin or a house-elf? What about any animal or plant? Can they go even further, and transform into inanimate objects such as an oversized armchair like Slughorn does through Transfiguration? Can they get as big or as small as they want?

Answer

In Order of the Phoenix, Tonks explains to Harry that she can change her appearance at will, not her shape.

‘I’m a Metamorphmagus,’ she said, looking back at her reflection and turning her head so that she could see her hair from all directions. ‘It means I can change my appearance at will,’ she added, spotting Harry’s puzzled expression in the mirror behind her.
_{Order of the Phoenix - pages 51-52 - Bloomsbury - chapter 3, The Advance Guard}

If there is an example of Tonks changing into another race, such as a goblin or house-elf, I personally cannot recall it from canon.

I don't think being a Metamorphmagi extends to animals because turning oneself into an animal is specifically called an Animagus.

My interpretation of canon is that a Metamorphmagus can change their human appearance. So, yes, Tonks can change her appearance to look like an old lady or Mundungus Fletcher or Aunt Petunia or Dumbledore. But she cannot change her appearance to look like Griphook, Dobby, Firenze, Peeves, or the Weasley clock.

As well, baby Teddy Lupin, who is a Metamorphmagus, in his baby picture is not shown turning into a goblin or chair -- his hair is shown changing colors. As children in the wizarding world do not have control over their magic (Tom Riddle being the exception), our best bet at seeing whether a Metamorphmagus could turn into a broomstick or a Grindylow would have been with Teddy Lupin. Yet he did not turn into anything non-human.

This is only going by what we know from the books. Perhaps a Metamorphmagus has powers we don't know about, but J.K. Rowling hasn't disclosed any to date.

Comments

Did the gatekeeper and the keymaster get intimate in Ghostbusters?

According to TVTropes ( usual warning, don't follow the link or you'll waste half your life in a twisty maze of content ): In Ghostbusters, it's strongly implied that Dana Barret, while possessed by Zuul the Gatekeeper, had sex with Louis Tully, who was possessed by Vinz Clortho the Keymaster (key, gate, get it?), in order to free Big Bad Gozer. In fact, a deleted scene from the movie has Venkman explicitly asking Dana if she and Louis "did it". I turned the quote into a spoiler since it contains really poor-taste joke, but the gist of it is that it's implied that as part of freeing Gozer , the two characters possessed by the Keymaster and the Gatekeeper had sex. Is there any canon confirmation or denial of this theory (canon meaning something from creators' interviews, DVD commentary, script, delete scenes etc...)? Answer The Richard Mueller novelisation and both versions of the script strongly suggest that they didn't have sex (or at the very l...

Why didn't The Doctor or Clara recognize Missy right away?

So after it was established that Missy is actually both the Master, and the "woman in the shop" who gave Clara the TARDIS number... ...why didn't The Doctor or Clara recognize her right away? I remember the Tenth Doctor in The Sound of Drums stating that Timelords had a way of recognizing other Timelords no matter if they had regenerated. And Clara should have recognized her as well... I'm hoping for a better explanation than "Moffat screwed up", and that I actually missed something after two watchthroughs of the episode. Answer There seems to be a lot of in-canon uncertainty as to the extent to which Time Lords can recognise one another which far pre-dates Moffat's tenure. From the Time Lords page on Wikipedia : Whether or not Time Lords can recognise each other across regenerations is not made entirely clear: In The War Games, the War Chief recognises the Second Doctor despite his regeneration and it is implied that the Doctor knows him when they fir...

story identification - Animation: floating island, flying pests

At least 20 years ago I watched a short animated film which stuck in my mind. The whole thing was wordless, possibly European, and I'm pretty sure I didn't imagine it... It featured a flying island which was inhabited by some creatures who (in my memory) reminded me of the Moomins. The island was frequently bothered by large winged animals who swooped around, although I don't think they did any actual damage. At the end one of the moomin creatures suddenly gets a weird feeling, feels forced to climb to the top of the island and then plunges down a shaft right through the centre - only to emerge at the bottom as one of the flyers. Answer Skywhales from 1983. The story begins with a man warning the tribe of approaching skywhales. The drummers then warn everybody of the hunt as everyone get prepared to set "sail". Except one man is found in his home sleeping as the noise wake him up. He then gets ready and is about to take his weapon as he hesitates then decides ...

warhammer40k - What evidence supposedly supports Tau as related to the Necrontyr?

I've heard of rumours saying that the Tau from Warhammer 40K are in fact the Necrontyr. Is there anything that supports this statement, in WH40K canon? I just found this, on 1d4 chan 1 : Helping Necrons? Or are they Necrontyr descendants? An often overlooked issue is that Tau have no warp signatures, just like Necrons, hate Warpspawns and Warp in general, just like Necrons, have the exact same skull shape,stature and short lives, and the overwhelming need for Technology and beam weapons, JUST LIKE NECRONS. GW may have planned a race that simply prepares a pacified, multiracial galaxy for Necrons to feast upon, supported by Ethereals that have a C'tan phase blade. Then there is a reference of "dark seed in east" by the Deceiver, so the tricky C'tan might give Tzeentch the finger in the JUST AS PLANNED competition. Or maybe GW just has so little creativity that they simply made a new civ conforming to an Old One's standards without knowing it. Is this the connec...

Blog

Search This Blog