Skip to main content

harry potter - Is Viktor Krum a good wizard?


I rarely introduce movie canon into a question, but I'm watching Goblet of Fire and there's the scene where Moody/Crouch Jr is helping Harry figure out how to solve the first task (dragons), where he says, "Krum's head may be filled with sawdust, but Karkaroff's is not; you can bet he's got a plan."


Is there a basis in canon that Viktor Krum's head is "filled with sawdust", i.e. he's kind of dopey? Or is this just a characterization choice used in the movie? I didn't get the vibe off Viktor in canon that he's a "dumb jock" or not a talented wizard. So what gives about Viktor Krum? Is he daft or is he a smart and capable wizard who happens to be the best Quidditch Seeker in the world?



Answer



Krum is definitely NOT a very bad wizard.





  • As Nominsim noted in the comment, he performed a self-transfiguration charm for the second task (1/2 way done but fully effective - it got him where he needed AND he didn't damage himself) by turning half of himself into a shark. As we saw mentioned elsewhere in canon, transfiguring living things is one of the hardest of configurations, and doing so on humans is even harder.




  • He was chosen as his school's champion. Somehow I doubt that being a dumb jock with good reflexes and flying skills would be enough to be chosen. (Then again, Harry was a champion... *DVK ducks and hides*)




  • Hermione liked him enough to actually go out with him somewhat seriously. Since this is NOT a hollywood romantic comedy, I'm going to make an assumption that Hermione's personality is that of a typical nerdy know-it-all girl; and nearly 100% of those that I have known (and I've known plenty) were almost exclusively into guys who had intelligence.




  • He said that he and the others on the TriWizard team were the ones who were steering their magical boat to Hogwarts (when questioned how they would get back home without just-eloped Karkaroff). Presumably, that's not a fully trivial skill.





Comments

Popular posts from this blog

futurama - How much time is lost in 'Time Keeps on Slippin''

In time Keeps on Slippin' , Farnsworth creates a basketball team which he matures by abusing Chronitons. This leads to time skipping forward by random, but ever increasing amounts. How much time was skipped in this way? Answer Unfortunately, I don't think a good estimate can be made for this, for two reasons: Many of the time skips move forward by an indeterminate amount of time. At one point, the Professor mentions localized regions of space skipping forward much more than others. We then see two young boys on the street below complaining about having to pay social security, only to suddenly become senior citizens and start complaining about wanting their money. Thus, each individual could have experienced a different amount of time skippage.

aliens - Interstellar Zoo story

I vaguely remember this story from my childhood: it was about an interstellar zoo that came to Earth with lots of bizarre and unusual species, and humans would file through and gape at all the crazy looking creatures from other planets. The twist came at the end when the perspective shifted to the other side of the bars and we discovered that the "creatures" were traveling through space on a kind of safari. They thought they were the visitors and we were the animals. Neither side knew that the other side thought they were the zoo creatures. Answer Got it. Zoo, by Edward D. Hoch. Published in 1958. Link to Publication History Link to PDF

Which Doctor Who works are canon?

I have been watching a Doctor Who documentary and they mentioned that Paul McGann did audio stories so he wasn't just a one-hit Doctor (and that there are novels featuring his Doctor as well). My question is: is Doctor Who canon just the show, or is it like Star Wars where some books and audios are canon and some are not? The documentary also shows that before 2005 they did audio stories where the Doctor is female and obviously that cannot be — not the female part, but the show doesn't count any female Doctors in episodes like The Day of the Doctor . Answer Nothing, and also everything The definitive piece of writing on Doctor Who canon is this blog post by writer Paul Cornell . I'm essentially going to be summarizing his post here, much less eloquently, but one section I want to quote directly is this: Nobody at the BBC has ever uttered a pronouncement about what is and isn't canonical. (As I'm sure they'd put it, being such enthusiasts for good grammar.) Be...

harry potter - Did Dolores Umbridge Have Any Association with Voldemort (or Death Eaters) before His Return?

I noticed that Dolores Umbridge was born during the first Wizarding War, so it's very likely she wasn't a Death Eater then (but she is pretty evil -- who knows?). After that Voldemort was not around in a way that could affect many people, and most wouldn't know he was planning to rise again. During that time, and up through Voldemort's return (in Goblet of Fire ), did Umbridge have any connection with the Death Eaters or with Voldemort? Was she doing what she did on her own, or was it because of an association with Voldemort or his allies? Answer Dolores Umbridge was definitely not a good person. However, as Sirius points out, "the world isn't split into good people and Death Eaters". Remember that he also says that he doesn't believe Umbridge to be a Death Eater, but that she's evil enough (or something like that). I think there are two strong reasons to believe that: Umbridge was proud to do everything according to the law, except when she trie...