Some questions about boggarts

[dantheman931]

These have probably been addressed elsewhere, but as I suffer from inveterate laziness, I've never seen any answers, if indeed they exist. (I'm sure someone will fill me in, if that's the case.) Anyway, onward...

1. No one knows what a boggart looks like because it turns into your worst fear the instant you lay eyes on it, right? So suppose you had a boggart, a box, and a video camera hooked up to a recording device of some kind. You stick the boggart in the box, switch on the camera, and *without looking at the screen,* record the boggart for some length of time--30 seconds, five minutes, whatever. Afterward, you watch the video you just recorded. What would you see? My suspicion is that you wouldn't see anything--boggarts are probably noncorporeal until they turn into someone's worst fear. But what do you guys think?

2. How does a boggart manifest an abstract fear, e.g., fear of failure or fear of heights? Spiders are one thing, but I have no idea how you would take something abstract and make it solid and tangible. Thoughts?

3. What would your personal boggart be? Mine would have to be spiders, or indeed just about any bug. There's something deeply disturbing to me about a creature that just has the wrong number of legs and eyes...

 

[CODE-D]

1/2. Magic, A wizard did it, plot ex machina, plot no jutsu, Rowling not thinkin things through

3. failure, try that boggart cause Im not talkin minor failure. I mean somethin no one has any hope of comin back from.

 

[LITE992]

1. I think its appearance will always be the biggest fear to whoever sees it. If two people were to see it at the same time, it would look different for both people. Going from what I believe, if it was recorded, its appearance would be different for each spectator.

2. In this case, it would put you in a scenario where that fear would occur. If you're afraid of heights, you would find yourself standing on a small platform over a bottomless pit. I'm not even sure how that would happen, unless it can create an illusion under your feet.

3. Failure. In which case there would be a crowd in front of me booing and loling.

 

[dantheman931]

1. I think its appearance will always be the biggest fear to whoever sees it. If two people were to see it at the same time, it would look different for both people. Going from what I believe, if it was recorded, its appearance would be different for each spectator.

The only problem with that is, in the book, Harry describes all of the forms the boggart takes, implying that it can't take more than one form at once. He even wonders why Professor Lupin's worst fear appears to be a glowing balloon (the full moon).

 

[Hugga_Bear]

1/2 I agree with first response, simple overlooking. If I had to guess I'd go with nothing seen at all, since it requires a real observer, however given the nature of being recorded in the wizarding world it may work out...

3. My fears are complex but linked, essentially, to failing to protect people as a whole. My boggart would likely be the horrific and preventable deaths of everyone I know, one after the other.

 

[dantheman931]

3. failure, try that boggart cause Im not talkin minor failure. I mean somethin no one has any hope of comin back from.

You mean the "I just pushed the button that launched the nukes, oh f**k me" kind of failure? If so, that's a pretty good one. Would your boggart turn into a big, red, inviting button?

 

[CODE-D]

3. failure, try that boggart cause Im not talkin minor failure. I mean somethin no one has any hope of comin back from.

You mean the "I just pushed the button that launched the nukes, oh f**k me" kind of failure? If so, that's a pretty good one. Would your boggart turn into a big, red, inviting button?

No I wouldnt really feel its my failure if somehow I (a normal civilian without clearance)managed to nuke someplace by pushing one button, thats not really my fault.

The worst the boggart could do is change into me, nothin different.
If Im aware my fear is absolute failure and the boggart changes to look exactly like me.

1-Its gonna hurt
2-Im gonna kill it.

 

[000Ronald]

1) My understanding is that electronics and magic do not mesh at all; I'm reasonably certain something like a boggart would short out and break a video camera.

Also, it's stated somewhere that a Boggart had trouble projecting several fears at once, which is why they had to face it one at a time.

2) What LITE992 said; it would create the illusion of you standing over a ledge or a crowd of people booing at you.

3) I'm not entirely certain a boggart would affect me; I don't react to fear like other people. My greatest fear is someone hurting the people I care about, and I react to that by beating the shit out of them. Assuming the boggart has some level of occulmec (that is, psychic) ability, it would know better than to do that.

 

[LITE992]

1. I think its appearance will always be the biggest fear to whoever sees it. If two people were to see it at the same time, it would look different for both people. Going from what I believe, if it was recorded, its appearance would be different for each spectator.

The only problem with that is, in the book, Harry describes all of the forms the boggart takes, implying that it can't take more than one form at once. He even wonders why Professor Lupin's worst fear appears to be a glowing balloon (the full moon).

Ah thanks, I completely forgot about that part.

 

[HardkorSB]

No one knows what a boggart looks like (...) But what do you guys think?

I'm not certain but I'm pretty sure it's something like this:

Seriously (as serious as you can get about this sort of thing) just have it look in the mirror.

 

[Slaanesh]

I'll just answer the third(since the first 2 have been explained better then I could):

Grizzly bear-Gorilla hybrid dressed up as Bozo. I still get chills just thinking about it.

 

[thylasos]

1.) They're fictional.
2.) They're fictional.
3.) They're fictional.

 

[Sizzle Montyjing]

1.) They're fictional.
2.) They're fictional.
3.) They're fictional.

Internet for you!

OP: Okay, let's say in this hypothetical situation, that all of this Harry Potter crap does exist, well let me tell you what would happen.
Boggarts would have to deal with it, because in this hypothetical world of magic, technology is catching up, and magic would be obsolete by the time we invite RAY-GUNS!
*manical laugh*

...

That's how i like to think of it anyway.

 

[Something Amyss]

Probably should have mentioned this is specific to Harry Potter. There is a "real" creature of folklore called a boggart. Anyway....

1) My understanding is that electronics and magic do not mesh at all; I'm reasonably certain something like a boggart would short out and break a video camera.

They state that Hogwarts is so full of magic it shorts out muggle devices, but never say what the threshold is. However, I'd imagine it takes more than one critter.

However, none of that is quantified, so anything we could say is just a best guess. If magic shorted out stuff routinely, though, Harry and Hermione's families would be royally fucked.

 

[000Ronald]

Probably should have mentioned this is specific to Harry Potter. There is a "real" creature of folklore called a boggart. Anyway....

1) My understanding is that electronics and magic do not mesh at all; I'm reasonably certain something like a boggart would short out and break a video camera.

They state that Hogwarts is so full of magic it shorts out muggle devices, but never say what the threshold is. However, I'd imagine it takes more than one critter.

However, none of that is quantified, so anything we could say is just a best guess. If magic shorted out stuff routinely, though, Harry and Hermione's families would be royally fucked.

Harry and Hermione aren't constantly using magic on the people and things surrounding them. Boggarts purposely effect everyone around them, which means it wouldn't be a stretch to say that they affect everything around them.

And if a higher concentration can short out even a digital watch, imagine what something as powerful as a Boggart would do to anything as complex as a Video Camera. Especially a good one.

 

[Debatra]

1. A Boggart must intentionally manifest itself as the victim's fear. In Order of the Phoenix, Moody uses his eye to look through several floors and into a desk to identify one. Presumably some form of X-Ray vision (or maybe the camera idea, assuming the Boggart didn't know it was being recorded) could get its true form.

2. For the most part, Boggarts don't use illusion; they actually shapeshift. They aren't quite as dangerous as a real *insert thing here*, but a Boggart-Dementor has been demonstrated numerous times to have similar effects as a real one. Abstracts... I know not.

3. If a Boggart selects me as its target, anyone who happens to be in the room should run. Or open a window. Long story short, the room will flood.

 

[Geekosaurus]

Maybe it looks like everything until you look at it?