The Harry Potter book and film series is one of the most thrilling, entertaining, and beloved fictional franchises in the world. And not without reason. Harry Potter is a brilliant tale of the power of love and friendship, and watching young Harry fight against the most dangerous and powerful dark wizard who ever lived was a thrill ride from start to finish.
However, there were moments in the Harry Potter saga that didn’t seem to make a whole lot of sense. Harry is a great wizard, but frankly he’s no match for many of the witches and wizards he goes up against, and despite that fact he still manages to miraculously survive every single time. The plot armor that it took to keep Harry alive for seven installments was pretty dang thick, to be honest. And here are 10 instances where Harry Potter was painfully obviously saved by plot armor.
His Burning Hands
So as is revealed throughout the course of the entire Harry Potter series, Harry Potter himself is lucky enough to have a lot of magical abilities and protections that specifically keep him safe from Lord Voldemort.
But one thing that is never really explained to the extent that it needs to be is the fact that he literally melts Professor Quirrell’s head with his hands in the first installment in the series. He isn’t even trying to do anything, but Harry’s touch does that much damage on its own. But only in this one particular circumstance, right when he needs it.
His Impressive Talents
Harry is undoubtedly a very talented wizard who knows more than his fair share at his age. However, he’s still a kid, going up against a bunch of adults. And typically those adults are very familiar with and adept at using all manner of dark magic.
It’s understandable that Harry might be able to get out of some sticky situations on occasion, but Harry often times faces off against one or more witches and wizards who should be his equal or greater when it comes to magical skill. However, because of plot armor, he always escapes these scenarios relatively unharmed.
Barty Crouch Jr.’s Missed Opportunities
Barty Crouch Jr. devoted a huge portion of his life to serving Harry Potter up to the dark lord, and he was apparently clever and sneaky enough to pose as Mad-Eye Moody for an entire school year in order to make that happen.
Although Voldemort may have wanted Harry for himself, Barty had about a million opportunities to kill Harry or at least take him captive and hold on to him for the sake of old Voldy. And even when the plan goes sideways, Barty wastes all of his time blathering at Harry and basically outing himself instead of just offing Harry right then and there.
The Problem Of Peter Pettigrew
Granted, Peter Pettigrew is incredibly cowardly, and by the time Harry Potter meets Ron Weasley at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry the benefits to killing Harry Potter aren’t that great. However, killing Harry really had no downsides and a lot of upsides for Peter.
Peter was in close contact with Harry for years, he literally had every opportunity imaginable to just end Harry, and because everyone already assumed that he was dead he never would have been caught. And if he wanted to ingratiate himself with the dark wizards of the world, including Voldemort, what better way to do it than by killing the boy who lived.
Voldemort’s Timing
A lot of people have pointed this out before, but it does seem wildly considerate of Voldemort to essentially plan all of his attacks on Harry Potter for the end of the Hogwarts school year.
Obviously for the sake of consistent storytelling it’s easy to see why author J.K. Rowling decided to structure the series this way, but on a basic common sense level it really seems like a logic fail. Honestly, Voldemort literally may have been victorious over Harry if he just didn’t wait so long to make his move every time, or at least switched up his timeline every once in a while.
The Wand Connection
There is some logic to Voldemort and Harry Potter’s wands having some kind of mystical connection. After all, Harry and Voldemort have a mystical connection themselves, and their wands both have cores that came from the very same phoenix. However, the whole issue of their wands connecting seems like a strange one if you follow that logic through to its conclusion.
I mean, presumably many wands have cores that came from the same animals, so does that mean whoever possesses wands with matching cores will never be able to use magic against each other? It definitely seems a little too convenient to buy.
He Chooses To Live
Plot armor can make some sense and still be plot armor. And that certainly seems to be the case for the instance where Voldemort actually “killed” Harry. During their final confrontation, Harry shows up to be slaughtered, and it seems that for a moment he is.
He has some sort of hallucination of Dumbledore, where he learns that Voldemort has actually just killed the Horcrux and not Harry. Harry can choose to die, or he can choose to live, so he chooses to live. It makes sense in the story, but it’s hard to imagine more obvious plot armor than a character literally just deciding not to die.
By The Horcrux
Not to disregard Harry’s significant talents as an actual wizard, but it’s safe to say that in any real world circumstance he is no match for Voldemort. In fact, many of the witches or wizards he has gone up against are at least a match to Harry’s own power.
However, Harry was also a Horcrux for Voldemort’s fractured soul, and that seemed to be a pretty powerful shield against his own harm. Harry got some of Voldemort’s abilities because of the Horcrux, and he likely got some of Voldemort’s power. And, of course, since he was also a part of Voldemort, the dark lord had a hard time actually doing any harm to Harry.
Voldemort’s Orders
So one of the easiest ways to keep Harry alive when he should be public enemy number one is when Voldemort orders all of his followers not to kill Harry, because he believes that he needs to be the one to end the boy who lived for good.
There is some comprehensible logic to that decision, however, as it makes Harry’s survival a lot easier as well. Harry comes face to face with Voldemort’s followers dozens of times over the course of the series, and any one of them could have killed him if Voldemort hadn’t explicitly told them all not to.
His Mother’s Love
You know, although plot armor can be incredibly irritating sometimes, people need to give credit where credit is due. And J.K. Rowling came up with a pretty brilliant explanation for Harry’s constant plot armor when she explained that his mother’s willingness to sacrifice her life for Harry imbued him with the most powerful form of protection that anyone can have: love.
Obviously the symbolism there is pretty deep, and this plot point doesn’t just exist as an excuse to keep Harry alive, however it does explain how he constantly survives situations that should kill him and gives a magical meaning to what seems like a major plot convenience.
