My interpretation is that the potion gives the drinker a kind of magical intuition for what to do in order to achieve the best possible outcome for the drinker. I do not think that it enhances the subconscious ability to extrapolate information and choose the best possible path however, as Harry's friends later drink Felix Felicis before the Battle of the Astronomy Tower and successfully manage to avoid curses during the battle. I doubt that they were always able to see or sense when the death eaters were about to cast curses, so the luck it provides can't come from information they know, imo. So basically, I think the potion somehow analyses the best possible path you could take to achieve your goal and guides you along it, which is kind of scary, since it drugs you into abandoning free will.
It probably does provide precognition if your goal requires it. Harry clearly triggered events that he couldn’t know to be helpful at the time. After all, divination does exist in this universe.
The Astronomy Tower fight isn't all that conclusive. We didn't see any specific examples of how it affected that battle, so it's still within the realm of possibility that the students were just naturally able to defeat dark wizards. After all, they held their own about evenly against many of those same Death Eaters just one year prior, in the Department of Mysteries. I still don't know whether the potion is real or fake, and am not claiming either. Just showing why this use of it may not be as ironclad as it seems.
A clear and precise answer, and the way I thought Felix Felicis worked as well. It shows the way to making one’s goals possible. Hence why the potion wouldn’t work with a task that is impossible. Such as when Harry considered using the potion to see what Draco Malfoy was doing in the Room of Requirement without knowing what to ask the room to become. You also bring up an interesting question. If used excessively, would one lose their free will and decisiveness? Being left unable to make decisions without the aid of Liquid Luck?
@@robertmckenna3994 Fascinating question indeed. Assuming the potion does guide you in that sense, I could see it having a psychological effect over time. It wouldn't actually be magically-caused damage, though. It's more akin to "use it or lose it", regular old atrophy. By not using your own reasoning to make decisions over a long enough period, you would fall out of practice and may find it far more difficult than normal to decide things on your own again. But over time you'd regain the habit and it'd become easy again. (Or as easy as decision-making ever is...) It's funny, this actually circles back to something I've considered before. That someone who spent their formative years under the imperius curse would find independent action incredibly difficult when they finally had it removed. I imagine them hearing someone speak, not feeling magically coerced to do what they say, and then just letting their attention wander off of them and going back to just sitting there waiting for an order. I suspect at first they would only act on instincts like hunger, and it would take a lot of work to get them back to normal everyday-person behavior. Yes I think about this a lot.
@robertmckenna3994 it's a pretty common group with objects that allow one to see the future, often times that person will be unable to function properly without seeing the future to know what to do because they relied on their future sight too much.
I like what you said that the potion gives the user a form of clairvoyance. I think of it like there are waters around us of probabilites that flow in casuality all each with their own inital conditions. The potion doesn't effect the flow of these probabilites but allows the user to, sub consciously, feel these flows and follow the ones that lead to their hearts desires. I think emotion plays a role in the potion in determining the outcomes of the, "Luck". I think back to the movie where Harry mentioned he felt like he needed to go to hargrids. Maybe that is where the monkeypaw effect happens. The driving force is your heart and if you start to desire things that are just not physically possible you start to become more and more reckless, or you begining to cloud your own clairvoyance, effectively ignoring the effects of the potion int he first place. To summarieze I agree that the potion seems to be a type of clairvoyance of the soul.
In the book it seemed like the potion didn't change physics. It seemed like the potion gave someone abilities similar to Allice Cullen and Pual Atredies where they could see different possible futures and knew what to do to make the future they wanted happen. When Harry took the potion he knew exactly what he needed to say and do to get what he wanted but he still had to say and do the right things.
It's pretty much just fate from tbate. You see the different possible strings, take hold of the one you like and follow it to the future wanted, but that also means that sometimes the future you want just isn't possible,or would need you to do something "reckless" or immoral in order to achieve a goal, things the said person will regret.
I agree with the clairvoyance part of your theory. I think the potion gives a very watered down, but still very potent effect similar to a demiguise. The user can see multiple paths, select the most favorable one, forget about it, but still follow that chosen path. As "Felix knows what's right."
It could simply be that the potion inclines the drinker to act on the random states and circumstances in the way that leads to the most fortuitous outcome, rather than changing the universe itself. It wouldn't really be "luck" anymore at that point, but it would still look like it to the casual observer.
I always thought that the reason Felix Felicis was not used more regularly in combat was perhaps because it could only be made in small amounts. And any attempt to make a larger batch of the potion results in failure. So why don’t potioneers stockpile it? My guess to that question is that maybe it is something that losses potency over time. The potion takes six months to brew, with some very complicated steps. So one would need to have time and skill to make it correctly. Not to mention the timing to make it for a specific fight that may occur at any moment. On top of this we haven’t considered the cost of the ingredients. Perhaps these are either hard to acquire, are prohibitively expensive, or both. Any one of these reasons would make Liquid Luck’s use in duels challenging.
It seems like Felix Felicis just gives the drinker nudges in the right ways to go to achieve their aims. After all, when Ron and Hermione were questioning Harry's reason for going to Hagrid's after drinking it, his reply was, "Trust me, I know what I'm doing... or at least... Felix does." There's also the start of the paragraph just before Harry told Slughorn that he is the Chosen One: "He knew he was safe: Felix was telling him that Slughorn would remember nothing of this in the morning."
One of Voldemorts biggest problems was his deep hatred of depending on anyone or anything. His self importance is directly why he wouldn’t want to use liquid luck
My theory is that it works by borrowing your own luck from your future self. If everyone has a set amount of luck in their lifetime, the potion takes a small percentage of that and concentrates it over the next few hours. This means that the more you take it, the less lucky you will be in the future. Taking it occasionally, you wont notice it, but do it too much and it'll really screw you up.
Liquid luck can work within the framework of normal physics. You need to assume that you can achieve anything you want by making proper decisions. Like you can go from point A to B on the map but you need to know the path. Liquid luck is like enabling gps in your head. And then you just know the path to point B from where you are now.
The potion doesn't contradict the laws of physics. Witches and wizards already possess this ability. The potion could enhance the magic-user's subconscious use of magic in order for them to accomplish literally anything. Trying to do a backflip? Well, wizards already have the innate ability to fly, and though most need a broomstick, the use of the potion would allow them to generate just enough push to do it. Trying to convince someone of something? Well, the Imperius curse exists, and so does Legilimency. Surely, through subtle manipulations of the brain's functioning, the person could be convinced of anything. Rolling a dice? Levitation itself is more than enough to influence the roll. Subtle nudges in the right direction could give you 6s every time. While it appears to be luck, it moreso just grants the wizard almost full control of their subconscious influence of reality. Basically turning accidental magic from a rare phenomenon which occurs alongside heated emotions into a commonplace, subtle extension of the subconscious. Though your explanation definitely makes a lot of sense.
Many times, it is said that Liquid Luck can't make you do something that you are not capable of doing. So it must guide you into the proper choices to take the proper path to accomplish your goals, so it must use some type of clairvoyance. Similar to Dr. Strange in Infinity Wars, when he saw the one path to thwarting Thanos.
In the books it is stated something like that it enlightens parts of the way to achivement but not the entire way and that it made it possible to achive anything somebody is theoretically able too. So I think it might be a combination of empowering and increase of confidence in the abilities somebody naturally has and it might enable/activate a kind of basic „inner eye“ for everybody, not only skilled seers, to guide to the right decisions to be made.
Well done sir! A very good explanation indeed. I do like the idea of "passive-claravoyance" perhaps being a large part of its effects. Amazing. I do agree it might not make everything in your day perfect 1000% like the weather change from rainy to clear sky's but it may help you avoid getting wet. P.s. I do think it may allow the user to tap into all information they have and use it at full comprehension, like the pill in the film "Limitless". So even if Harry wasn't good or practiced in speechless casting, he at least had read about it enough to know how it should work properly.
3:10 "and it fundamentally defies the principles of causality and probability"... well given that time travel is possible in the HP universe (regardless how it can or can't alter the past), it's certain that future events can become their very own cause. This makes me think that magic must be powerful enough to defy said principles.
Thing is, in the books, from what Hermione said, time travel *has* inadvertently lead to changed pasts and futures. She talked about witches and wizards who used them, and inadvertently ran into their past selves, who thought there was dark magic involved upon seeing their future selves, inadvertently resulting in one, or the other, killing their other self. It's one of the *big* reasons that Time-Turners are so heavily regulated by the Ministry, and why Professor McGonagall had to fight tooth and nail to get one for Hermione!
I like the theory that’s it’s basically just water and works based on the placebo effect like how harry made Ron think he took it before a quidditch match
It sounds to me like it affects probability. (Like certain Superhero characters) Yes, the world is random, BUT some things are more likely than others to happen. This could create an aura that aids in bringing those more probable things forward. This wouldn't disrupt the ENTIRE fabric of reality. It would just be a localized phenomina. (Like any other spell)
I agree with the assessment that it probably just allows a person to have an intuition of what they need to do, as well as a boost in assertiveness and confidence.
I learned a simple rule of life, if someone telling you "No" is the worst outcome that could happen then there is nothing to fear. Not asking someone out that you like gives you zero chance where if you ask it is 50/50. And when you do put yourself out there that sometimes tips the scales in your favor. Yes there is downside to this if you push it to hard but the phrase "It never hurts to ask" is a phrase for a reason. Just think, I can not sing Karaoke and then have fun singing some song. Your view on this is spot on and it fits the story very well also.
It seems like this particular potion can basically manipulate outcomes but unconsciously. It almost seems like somewhere during the process of the potion unknown to Harry, the potion seems like it makes the user unconsciously predicts the future and guides the body to ensure that whatever the initial desire is achieved by forcing the user to do acts that favor the desire and can lead to an alternate future.
That's exactly what I thought! Felix Felicis only affects the mind. It greatly enhances confidence and intuition, I suppose. How did Harry know he had to go to Hagrid, though? I know Hagrid sent him an invite to Aragog's funeral in the book. Did Harry have any reason to think Slughorn would be nearby? I remember that in the movie, Hermione told him that Slughorn likes to go for a walk after dinner. So Harry's subconscious could've put it together and concluded that the chances of meeting Slughorn on the way to Hagrid were high.
I think in the books Harry not only decides to go to Hagrid he decides by intuition to go around the green house where Sprout and Slughorn collect plants he needs for potion classes. I don't see how Harry could have subconsciously known that. I think in addition to enhancing confidence it enhances the abilty in Divination giving the drinker a blurred picture of the future allowing him to choose the best course of action.
@@patrickdematosribeiro1845 could be. Trelawney seems to think you don't have to be a seer to see the future, most people (wizards?) have some abilities they can learn to use in her class. But maybe it's not like a picture of the future, just a feeling or a sudden desire to do something. It's what most people call intuition. Sometimes, people feel like their intuition has helped them to predict the future, but is it really so? It is also possible something made both Harry and Slughorn go that way. Maybe the weather was good and they wanted to admire the plants? Or Harry subconsciously expected that Slughorn, the Potions master, would be where potion ingredients grow.
It has been suggested after actual study that what we consider to be "lucky" also encompasses events that are brought about as a result of confidence in one's abilities and/or heightened perception as a result of a positive outlook, such as finding money on the street because everyone else overlooked it, or winning a competition because you noticed a clue in a newspaper. Thus when Harry tricks Ron into believing that he's spiked his drink with the Felix Felicis potion, per expanded definition he did actually make him luckier. Since both the positive and negative aspects of this potion centers around confidence and recklessness (the feeling that as long as you just go with the flow, everything you want will eventually occur) I believe this is one of the core components of what the potion actually does. And since that same certainty of action and confidence is one of the things most people find charismatic in others, that probably helps too. Obviously there's a divination aspect to the effect as well, because otherwise the potion would just make you more charismatic and promote risk taking behavior that would increase the odds of both success AND failure, but I think the trick here is that it does both, and then the divinaton aspect of the magic only has to pick the better outcome of two choices every time. A clever loophole to make its job easier. If someone could improve on this recipe even further I'd dare say that a genuine potion that temporarily turns you into a seer might be the result. But then again, I wonder how powerful the effect really is? From what you hear in the books the potion has only been used for comparatively small things like to keep the imbiber safe in a dangerous situation or to navigate a difficult diplomatic task. When Slughorn speaks of it he just claims to have used it to experience a "perfect day". But even though this potion is permitted to be used at potion making tournaments (surely it must have been brewed in advance for this due to the long and complex process) we don't hear anything about someone chugging a whole bottle and then coming up with a groundbreaking new potion recipe, or getting a flash of genius inspiration and suddenly making up a new spell on the spot, even though both of these should be well within the potions level of power. So maybe the last bit of secret sauce is that the potion also cleverly manages the imbiber's expectations?
First, allow me to say how much I have enjoyed your videos on all the varied topics you have touched on. Well done indeed. Second, I am of the opinion that liquid luck is nothing but a placebo. My reasoning is simple. Ron thought he drank the potion and performed brilliantly in his Quiddich match. Harry drank it, and everything just sort of worked in his favor. It wasn't the potion, but the BELIEF in the potion. Sometimes, all you need is a push to believe in what you do in order for things to work out.
Or perhaps Dumbledore's manipulative actions always laid it out. It's hard to believe Albus himself couldn't get a memory from Slughorn. But knowing Slughorn's tendencies, and knowing how Harry really intrigued Slughorn to the point of infatuation. After all it just so happened that Dumbledore decided to give Harry lessons ( training) right after he put on the cursed ring that would take his life eventually leading to curcumstances of Snape getting the DADA position that is also cursed , sealing Snapes fate at the school. And old Albus just happened at the same time to find his old friend to teach potions. And coincidental...? that Harry wouldn't of been told earlier, when he went with Dumbledore that he could actually now continue his goal of being an auror and not lead to circumstances that eventually has Harry finding the HBP book in the cupboard. All the memories that Dumbledore showed Harry pertained to helping Harry later in DH. And the training Harry needed by finding a way to get that memory. It's almost as if Dumbledore himself took liquid luck. Because of all the insane, crazy , circumstances that needed to occur for the story to happen the way it did. Originally the HBP was supposed to be in the second book COS. Just saying I really find it hard to believe that Dumbledore could not of gotten that memory. And the valuable lessons Harry learned along the way helped him to defeat Voldemort. As far as no one else getting killed that night Dumbledore died?.....That was pure ......luck
Accepting that it's fictional, no, it's real within the Potter context. Remember when the potion was bubbling merrily away in slughorn's room? Big golden drops leaping about and nothing spilled
They way you describe it reminds me of the old Æon Trinity Universe and how High Level Clairsentience operates, where a person becomes a node of possibilities and is able to Perceive the most favorable outcome, and make it happen.
Liquid Luck is simply magical "creatures" invisible to all connected to the user effectively giving them a team with an illusion of "luck" Its like those "horses" pulling the carriages that one girl could see.
9:00 No thats not it. The potion is known and wizards look down upon it as being not authentic. In effect the gains are ill gotten and as time wears off the gains received will fall away leaving you with what you started with. BOOM! Damn I'm good today.
The creatures by their very nature provide the feelings you describe naturally. The more potion you apply the stronger the pull to the creatures = more creatures = more emotions and clarvoiance and possibly death if you overdose because well... to much of a good thing is never good right? Now if one could only TRAP one of these entities...🤔I need another potion for that, and a magical trap. Yeeeessss...
My interpretation of the potion is that it simply attunes the user to the ebb and flow of the energies in the world around them. Every use detailed in the books only shows the lucky outcomes in situations that the users are directly involved in (though the outcomes can be profound, e.g. Harry accidentally bumping into Ginny while invisible ultimately combination with Harry marrying Ginny), so it doesn't change anything about the world outside the user other than the way in which the user interacts with it. This is consistent with Harry's sudden change in attitude and carefree behavior while under the influence of Felix. It got him out of his own way in order to allow him to ride the waves of the universe. It's a potion that bestows upon the user an intuitive sense of what the right place and the right time are.
Personally, I thought it might endow additional blood or oxygen to the brain enabling it to work more quickly and efficiently making it easier to perceive the majority of potential options that could be enacted.
Magic prophecies exist, meaning that magic is in some way capable of reading the future. Could be liquid luck gives the drinker a subconscious sense of the future and helps guide them to the choices that will lead to futures they desire (like zigmunt's potion book is to to guide people with whispers sometimes).
One thing to note is that very few events we see as luck are actually random in a quantum physical sense. For example, rolling a die is a purely mechanical process. The reason we call it luck is because it is almost impossible to predict or influence the outcome by our own actions (see chaos theory). Therefore I agree to the hypothesis of "subconscious clairvoyance", as it might enhance the senses in a way that one can predict the outcome of actions that are unpredictable for normal humans. That isn't even physically impossible in theory. That of course means that Felix Felicis can not manipulate real randomness (quantum level events). But that's not even necessary in most cases. It could make the drinker know intuitively how exactly to roll a die to get the desired outcome, or predict where a roulette ivory ball will end up.
Yes if you had a super powerful computer and programed alot of equations into it you could predict the dice roll and it wouldn't seem so random. This is why weather forecasts have gotten so much better over the past few decades supercomputers did an enormous number of calculations and found patterns in seemingly random weather. If you have enough data almost nothing is truly random.
If it does work the potion probably makes the person's intuition as well as enhances their magical ability to favor anything in their environment to come out the way that they would desire. Like for example the weather if it looks like it's cloudy then if the person wants it to be sunny then it'll just suddenly go away. It also could have an effect on the energy in the universe that if you believe the theory that we all are made of energy and that it would somehow rewrite the energy to work in your favor to make a positive outcome that you would desire, this even taking advantage of the time and as well realty itself.
I honestly think that the sense of clairvoyance theory is probably the best answer for how it works. We are talking about a magical world that cannot be properly explained by science, but the most likely explanation for how the potions works is that it grants the user a sense of temporary clairvoyance that manifests itself in the form of incredible confidence. Chances are that Budge was well aware of this and he deliberately chose to conceal this fact so, if people tried to unlock the secret of how the potion worked, they would have no way to do it because they would be operating under the assumption that the potion manipulates luck rather than granting temporary clairvoyance. Knowing the truth about how the potion really worked would be the key to unlocking the secrets of clairvoyance itself, which would be extremely dangerous if such knowledge fell into the wrong hands. Imagine if Voldemort had access to that kind of information?
Here's another idea: In Path of Exile, being lucky in any given event causes the internal 'dice' to roll twice, and it picks the best of either outcome. So it's still possible to hit a low score, but the chance of a low score is a lot smaller. The user can usually at worst hope for a reasonably good outcome, and at best gain fairly consistent high values.
Quantum mechanics only deals with the interactions and behaviors of subatomic particles. It has no bearing at all on things at the macro level. In fact, things that are true at the subatomic level are often completely at odds with how things work at larger scales. While your overall premise may have some merit, you should not invoke a theory you don't understand just to make it sound more legitimate.
If anything liquid luck probably just influences the drinker to make choices that gets them to their goal, like a GPS of sorts. Drinker (in this case harry) consumes the potion and turns on the gps function that tells them to do this thing to get to their goal, they don’t HAVE to do it and it’s not like doing random things gets them what they want, in Harry’s case it all started with him initially wanting to go down to Hagrids despite the advice of Hermione and Ron and choosing to do such “I feel like it’s the place to be tonight” which starts the tumble of him actually getting the memory.
6:12 I thought they were able to conjure something from nothing, unless they're just summoning it from a different place, like in chamber of secrets when Draco and Harry were dueling and Draco summoned/created a snake.
3:11 "it rewrites quantum states" Actually, no, it doesnt. If we're referencing Schrödinger here then it would in fact simply lock in the uncertain states into a state of certainty.
Ok yes I agree with you. Especially if you consider that Harry technically had all the information he needed to pull off every one of those deeds, with particular focus on Professor Slughorn, I mean, even Voldemort managed to sweet talk him into sharing what he knew, and while Harry can be a right git from time to time, he's a much more genuinely nice person, if Voldemort could do it it should be easy for him. He also knows Slughorn well enough to know that, while he's not a bad person, he's most assuredly very self-motivated, and thus easily swayed if the topic of easily acquired valuable ingredients was brought up. He could presumably tap into the powers of Voldemort's soul fragment to make nonverbal spellcasting a possibility, as we know he gained many other benefits in that manner without even realizing it, and we also know that he knew nonverbal spellcasting was a thing both from his studies and because he'd seen it in action in Snape's memories. All the potion would have had to do was give him the clarity to put it all together and the confidence to carry it all out, no reality manipulation necessary. If this is how it actually works I still wonder why more genius wizards aren't trying to use it to come up with new spells though, as it would certainly help.
We know that future sight and even time travel exist in the Harry Potter universe. So a potion that allows one to subconsciously predict the future and perform the precise series of actions that will lead to the best possible outcome doesn't seem that farfetched.
Your explanation and understanding of Quantum Mechanics has one flaw, or rather is missing a critical component which could explain how Felix Felicis, or Liquid Luck works, with out breaking Probability, nor Quantum Mechanics: Quantum Entanglement. Under the Theory of Quantum Entanglement, particles, and presumably other things, even greater scales are connected intrinsically and irrevocably even if separated vast distances. How Felix Felicis, Liquid Luck, could work, rather than break, or defy anything, is to allow the person who has ingested the potion to perceive Quantum Entanglements around them. In this way, what seems random to others, has perfect order to the person who ingested Felix Felicis, Liquid Luck, at least while it was active in their brain and nervous system .
I mean, stopping aging is a matter of perspective. The Elixir of Life from the Philosopher's Stone extends your life for as long as you continue to drink it regularly, in essence it stops you from aging. But it still doesn't count as "stopping aging" since what it presumably does is repair all the damage your body has taken in the interim, it's more like a strong healing potion. This one thing would definitely be an easier task to accomplish than making someone genuinely lucky. Which is again why I think Felix Felicis likely messes with the expectations of the one who drinks it. It may not be able to turn what is going to be a rainy day into a sunny day for your enjoyment, but it might lead you to your new favorite book of all time because you stayed indoors instead, for example, you will still experience it as you being lucky when all it really did was take your expectations and redirect them, you wanted it to be sunny, which the potion cannot do, so instead it gave you insight enough to find something that made you forget the rain.
Magic did accomplish stopping aging with Nicholas Flamel with his Philosiphers Stone. And this single potion could theoretically work in a similar fashion. Also we don’t know the exact manner in which liquid luck works, nor the way it affects the quantum field. And without that knowledge the best we have is educated guesses and theory.
The idea of enhancing or activating some latent seer quality is a fascinating one....someone who's already a gifted seer may find that Felix Felicis works rather differently for them than for most. As a writer, that makes the ol' idea factory giddy. As for whether the potion's fake or not...I guess a lot of it comes down to metagaming Rowling herself. Does she seem to imply it works, or does she leave breadcrumbs that allow it to be secretly a fraud? There ARE some suspicious moments... Ron and the Quidditch game is the obvious example here. Harry pretended to slip him the potion so that Ron would THINK he had Luck, because Harry knew that Ron had the skills to win, he just needed the confidence. Placeboing him would let his genuine skill shine through. And the idea of frauds in general are already prevalent throughout this series. Lockhart talks a big game but is a liar and can't do 99% of what he claims. Great with a memory charm, though. Felix's creator being similarly arrogant and boastful feels like a potential link to imply trickery. Like she's saying, or at least thinking, that "people who act like this are usually frauds". I'd want at least two more examples before treating this as strong evidence, though. Even the idea of people doing "impossible" things using nothing more than confidence is shown in the series, with Neville and the Imperius Curse. It's not quite like the movie portrays it, where you can puppet someone around as if they were on strings. Instead, you give them mental commands, and they follow them as if hypnotized. In fact it works VERY similar to hypnotism, with the unfortunate detail that it bypasses real-life hypnotism's "rule" that people still won't do things they strongly disapprove of. All of this to say that Neville being described as performing feats of gymnastics that would normally be impossible for him - and Harry uses the word impossible - seem to be nothing more than a sign that Neville was _always_ capable of these things, if he gave 100% to the task. If you take away his anxious nature, as well as temporarily remove any fear he has of hurting himself with the stunt, he can indeed do these wacky gymnastic feats. To tie it back to Felix Felicis, it could be using a similar system, by which intense confidence and devotion to a task allow you to do what you were always theoretically able to do. This gives another layer of plausible deniability to the potion's effects: "The power was in you all along." The usage of the potion during the battle of the astronomy tower lends itself nicely to this as well. Just one year prior, these students were already taking on Death Eaters on roughly equal terms. They got banged up, sure, but were banging the baddies up in turn. Between the experience gained in that fight and the additional learning of sixth year, they could well be even stronger, and thus win with less injuries, no luck required. All the more-so when you consider that there were far more students, and some teachers, in the mix as well. In the end, the main thing to look at is Harry's on-page usage of the potion. The way the story describes him feeling, acting, and making decisions. Less what he himself says, and more what the narrator says about him. This is the make-or-break moment. If there are hints HERE that there may be something fake about the potion, as far as I'm concerned that's the ballgame. But it also has the chance to refute the theory by making him do things that can't be explained by confidence - magical or otherwise - alone. In the absence of either, we're left to make nothing more than a judgement call, and must conclude that it is, ironically, inconclusive. I _have_ actually checked that scene before, years back, and left uncertain, so I'd be curious to hear other people's takes, and I might read it again if something piques my interest.
I think what it actually does is subtly augment your PERCEPTION. Similar to what you're thinking. But rather than outright predicting the future, I think what it actually does is augment your ability to pick up on subtle cues you may have otherwise missed so you can act on them.
I think in a universe where people can foretell events and have literal prophecies, a tonic that gives people a temporary sixth sense about favorable probability isn't too farfetched
The trouble is that Harry found Slughorn where he didn't know Slughorn would be. If Slughorn hadn't been in the wrong place, where Harry ran into him on the way to Hagrid's, he wouldn't have gotten the memory. That means that the potion knows things the drinker does not and leads the drinker toward their goal through steps the drinker would NOT have even thought were necessary. Harry completely abandoned the plan the trio had come up with after drinking.
Thank god. I was so worried this whole video was a waste of time with the Placebo effect as the answer. Psychological enhancement and improved foresight are good answers. (At the end of the day it is just magic as the answer. These theories are fun. Also, Voldermort, I feel, would just think liquid luck beneath him and is used by people not powerful enough to rely on themselves. )
If you have viable prophecy and clairvoyance in the universe, then a luck potion doesn't contradict randomness or disrupt the laws of nature any more than they do. you have a universe based on probabilistic causal threads, the potion simply quantum locks the drinker onto a thread of unlikely but possible events that lead to a desired outcome
What would happen if two wizards used Felix Felicis with the same goal in mind? For example, if they were competing against each other. They couldn’t possibly both succeed in a competition where only one can come out victorious, right ?
Liquid luck actually work probably work in Quantum mechanics, the "randomness and uncertainty" is only random and uncertain from a traditional physics standpoint, there are solid patterns in quantum mechanics that allow you to fairly accurately predicted the outcome of a quantum mechanical operation, once youve observed that outcome previously
@@MountainFisher That was my first thought, too. It was all planned for Harry to go to Slughorn's quarters, but after drinking the liquid luck he was insistent on visiting Hagrid's even though it was totally illogical to do so.
Imagine if you were a wizard that just focused all your abilities in perfecting Liquid Luck. Youd be basically unstoppable at everything. Even if it was basically just a PED youd still do very well.
Isn’t his potion book a joke? It’s why snape always wrote directions on the board and why Hermione suddenly couldn’t succeed in potions just using the book for Slughorn because the book is just wrong
Yeah, I always got the sense that it just granted Harry clarity of thought, focus and confidence. There's no way a bona-fide good luck potion would not be more of a staple if that's what it was. Frankly, even with this "nerf," I don't see why it isn't more of a staple. Maybe it's due to a culture of self-reliance? The potion is an easy path to success, but it cheapens the merit of the accomplishment, so even if you used it, you would have to live with a sense of not having truly earned your spot in the sun.
I'd say it's kind of a spiritual drink, as in, the ingredients help induce a physical and mental state that is heightened and more attuned to what you may say it's either the cosmos, your higher self, etc. In that regard, the potion doesn't control causality, rather, helps you attune to the spiritual side of you that controls your own destiny, intentioned in a positive way, so, intentioned to algn yourself, temporarily, with the would be best version of yourself, that's why, with some unconscious awareness of things beyond your life, you do what is seen as best for you, from the other side. Might seem too far reaching but you know, we're talking about magic, anything is possible
I feel like the potion is like A drugs, but obviously not crazy like hard drugs but definitely like coke and weed where it makes you chill like weed so nothing seems complicated but the drive of coke that gives you that little spring in your step. Although it doesn’t seem like much those two things alone boost your confidence astronomical and when you’re super confident everything seems to workout
Does Felix Felicis contain any demiguise hair, or diricawl feathers? Both of those beasts can sense imminent danger and remove themselves from the situation. Perhaps that’s where the clairvoyance that leads by only a few seconds or minutes comes from.
Remembers me early skyrim... making potion to Improve Enchanting, Then, making enchantment to improve potion crafting, ... rinse and repeat, each time more powerfull results xD
Liquid luck works the same as psilocybin which causes an interference in the brain opening a stronger connection to one’s higher self which transcends space and time allowing for a outcome based on intentions.
4:28 "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic". -- Arthur C. Clark Perhaps the magical community are closer to quantum physicists than they think they are?
Maybe this potion works in a different way? Maybe it doesn't influence your surroundings on the quantumphysical level, maybe it makes you sense this quantum physics subconciously and than you can act accordingly?
![Blox Fruits Dragon Rework Update [Full Stream]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/EqDAp8udhm0/mqdefault.jpg)
MORE LONG VIDEOS: ruclips.net/p/PLB5djWCQq2_e0UCOmVbhRP8HkxetpzXUV
All that Liquid Luck _actually_ is: it's merely a placebo.
I think, for a potionaire, "Liquid luck" is a lot easier to sell than "Temporary psychological and clairvoyant help for difficult situations"
Never thought I would hear about quantum physics in a Harry Potter theory
My interpretation is that the potion gives the drinker a kind of magical intuition for what to do in order to achieve the best possible outcome for the drinker. I do not think that it enhances the subconscious ability to extrapolate information and choose the best possible path however, as Harry's friends later drink Felix Felicis before the Battle of the Astronomy Tower and successfully manage to avoid curses during the battle. I doubt that they were always able to see or sense when the death eaters were about to cast curses, so the luck it provides can't come from information they know, imo. So basically, I think the potion somehow analyses the best possible path you could take to achieve your goal and guides you along it, which is kind of scary, since it drugs you into abandoning free will.
It probably does provide precognition if your goal requires it. Harry clearly triggered events that he couldn’t know to be helpful at the time. After all, divination does exist in this universe.
The Astronomy Tower fight isn't all that conclusive. We didn't see any specific examples of how it affected that battle, so it's still within the realm of possibility that the students were just naturally able to defeat dark wizards. After all, they held their own about evenly against many of those same Death Eaters just one year prior, in the Department of Mysteries.
I still don't know whether the potion is real or fake, and am not claiming either. Just showing why this use of it may not be as ironclad as it seems.
A clear and precise answer, and the way I thought Felix Felicis worked as well. It shows the way to making one’s goals possible. Hence why the potion wouldn’t work with a task that is impossible. Such as when Harry considered using the potion to see what Draco Malfoy was doing in the Room of Requirement without knowing what to ask the room to become.
You also bring up an interesting question. If used excessively, would one lose their free will and decisiveness? Being left unable to make decisions without the aid of Liquid Luck?
@@robertmckenna3994 Fascinating question indeed. Assuming the potion does guide you in that sense, I could see it having a psychological effect over time. It wouldn't actually be magically-caused damage, though. It's more akin to "use it or lose it", regular old atrophy. By not using your own reasoning to make decisions over a long enough period, you would fall out of practice and may find it far more difficult than normal to decide things on your own again. But over time you'd regain the habit and it'd become easy again. (Or as easy as decision-making ever is...)
It's funny, this actually circles back to something I've considered before. That someone who spent their formative years under the imperius curse would find independent action incredibly difficult when they finally had it removed. I imagine them hearing someone speak, not feeling magically coerced to do what they say, and then just letting their attention wander off of them and going back to just sitting there waiting for an order. I suspect at first they would only act on instincts like hunger, and it would take a lot of work to get them back to normal everyday-person behavior.
Yes I think about this a lot.
@robertmckenna3994 it's a pretty common group with objects that allow one to see the future, often times that person will be unable to function properly without seeing the future to know what to do because they relied on their future sight too much.
I like what you said that the potion gives the user a form of clairvoyance. I think of it like there are waters around us of probabilites that flow in casuality all each with their own inital conditions. The potion doesn't effect the flow of these probabilites but allows the user to, sub consciously, feel these flows and follow the ones that lead to their hearts desires. I think emotion plays a role in the potion in determining the outcomes of the, "Luck". I think back to the movie where Harry mentioned he felt like he needed to go to hargrids. Maybe that is where the monkeypaw effect happens. The driving force is your heart and if you start to desire things that are just not physically possible you start to become more and more reckless, or you begining to cloud your own clairvoyance, effectively ignoring the effects of the potion int he first place. To summarieze I agree that the potion seems to be a type of clairvoyance of the soul.
Game and string theory colliding in a harry potter breakdown....did not have that on my bingo card
Apparently the Japanese Flying Class teach quit playing Quidditch professionally after she found out that someone had been slipping her Liquid Luck
Oh man that would be brutal, you think you’re so good at something and no you were just slipped a potion.
@@Catherine.Dorian. it’s tragic
The Flying Instructor in Hogwarts Legacy?
@@CallemJayNZ yes
@@macwelch8599So then no, that did not ever happen because that is not Canon at all. Nothing that happens in Hogwarts Legacy is Canon
In the book it seemed like the potion didn't change physics. It seemed like the potion gave someone abilities similar to Allice Cullen and Pual Atredies where they could see different possible futures and knew what to do to make the future they wanted happen. When Harry took the potion he knew exactly what he needed to say and do to get what he wanted but he still had to say and do the right things.
It's pretty much just fate from tbate. You see the different possible strings, take hold of the one you like and follow it to the future wanted, but that also means that sometimes the future you want just isn't possible,or would need you to do something "reckless" or immoral in order to achieve a goal, things the said person will regret.
trying to explain ✨magic potion✨with quantum physics is WILD
Quantum physics is nothing less than magic ngl
Well.. In a matter of speaking, magic and science are quite the same.
Fan lore. People create opinions based on what already is.
@@EnactingAnEra no they aren't. not even remotely.
Wait until you read a certain really rational HP fanfic.
I agree with the clairvoyance part of your theory. I think the potion gives a very watered down, but still very potent effect similar to a demiguise. The user can see multiple paths, select the most favorable one, forget about it, but still follow that chosen path. As "Felix knows what's right."
Very LUCKY to have another one of your wonderful videos
It could simply be that the potion inclines the drinker to act on the random states and circumstances in the way that leads to the most fortuitous outcome, rather than changing the universe itself. It wouldn't really be "luck" anymore at that point, but it would still look like it to the casual observer.
It magic so it does both.
Remember Ron? Harry didn’t actually use Felix Felicis on him…Ron only thought he did? That would answer the question. 👍🏻
I always thought that the reason Felix Felicis was not used more regularly in combat was perhaps because it could only be made in small amounts. And any attempt to make a larger batch of the potion results in failure.
So why don’t potioneers stockpile it? My guess to that question is that maybe it is something that losses potency over time. The potion takes six months to brew, with some very complicated steps. So one would need to have time and skill to make it correctly. Not to mention the timing to make it for a specific fight that may occur at any moment.
On top of this we haven’t considered the cost of the ingredients. Perhaps these are either hard to acquire, are prohibitively expensive, or both.
Any one of these reasons would make Liquid Luck’s use in duels challenging.
Does the book even mention the potion's shelf life? How good is it once it's made?
@@DeepFleeceheartHarry waits a long time after it was brewed to drink it in the Half Blood Prince
@@Based808 how long? Like, weeks? Months?
@@DeepFleeceheart months
@Based808 thank you. I wonder how long it can keep for, then.
It seems like Felix Felicis just gives the drinker nudges in the right ways to go to achieve their aims. After all, when Ron and Hermione were questioning Harry's reason for going to Hagrid's after drinking it, his reply was, "Trust me, I know what I'm doing... or at least... Felix does." There's also the start of the paragraph just before Harry told Slughorn that he is the Chosen One: "He knew he was safe: Felix was telling him that Slughorn would remember nothing of this in the morning."
One of Voldemorts biggest problems was his deep hatred of depending on anyone or anything. His self importance is directly why he wouldn’t want to use liquid luck
Independence
My theory is that it works by borrowing your own luck from your future self. If everyone has a set amount of luck in their lifetime, the potion takes a small percentage of that and concentrates it over the next few hours. This means that the more you take it, the less lucky you will be in the future. Taking it occasionally, you wont notice it, but do it too much and it'll really screw you up.
Liquid luck can work within the framework of normal physics.
You need to assume that you can achieve anything you want by making proper decisions. Like you can go from point A to B on the map but you need to know the path.
Liquid luck is like enabling gps in your head. And then you just know the path to point B from where you are now.
it might also be a metaphor for the placebo effect. harry makes ron think he put it in his food and because ron believes he does well in quidditch.
The potion doesn't contradict the laws of physics. Witches and wizards already possess this ability. The potion could enhance the magic-user's subconscious use of magic in order for them to accomplish literally anything.
Trying to do a backflip? Well, wizards already have the innate ability to fly, and though most need a broomstick, the use of the potion would allow them to generate just enough push to do it.
Trying to convince someone of something? Well, the Imperius curse exists, and so does Legilimency. Surely, through subtle manipulations of the brain's functioning, the person could be convinced of anything.
Rolling a dice? Levitation itself is more than enough to influence the roll. Subtle nudges in the right direction could give you 6s every time.
While it appears to be luck, it moreso just grants the wizard almost full control of their subconscious influence of reality. Basically turning accidental magic from a rare phenomenon which occurs alongside heated emotions into a commonplace, subtle extension of the subconscious.
Though your explanation definitely makes a lot of sense.
Many times, it is said that Liquid Luck can't make you do something that you are not capable of doing. So it must guide you into the proper choices to take the proper path to accomplish your goals, so it must use some type of clairvoyance. Similar to Dr. Strange in Infinity Wars, when he saw the one path to thwarting Thanos.
In the books it is stated something like that it enlightens parts of the way to achivement but not the entire way and that it made it possible to achive anything somebody is theoretically able too. So I think it might be a combination of empowering and increase of confidence in the abilities somebody naturally has and it might enable/activate a kind of basic „inner eye“ for everybody, not only skilled seers, to guide to the right decisions to be made.
Well done sir! A very good explanation indeed. I do like the idea of "passive-claravoyance" perhaps being a large part of its effects. Amazing. I do agree it might not make everything in your day perfect 1000% like the weather change from rainy to clear sky's but it may help you avoid getting wet.
P.s. I do think it may allow the user to tap into all information they have and use it at full comprehension, like the pill in the film "Limitless". So even if Harry wasn't good or practiced in speechless casting, he at least had read about it enough to know how it should work properly.
3:10 "and it fundamentally defies the principles of causality and probability"... well given that time travel is possible in the HP universe (regardless how it can or can't alter the past), it's certain that future events can become their very own cause. This makes me think that magic must be powerful enough to defy said principles.
And Wingardium leviosa, if pronounced correctly (ask Hermione), cancels gravity for example...
Thing is, in the books, from what Hermione said, time travel *has* inadvertently lead to changed pasts and futures. She talked about witches and wizards who used them, and inadvertently ran into their past selves, who thought there was dark magic involved upon seeing their future selves, inadvertently resulting in one, or the other, killing their other self. It's one of the *big* reasons that Time-Turners are so heavily regulated by the Ministry, and why Professor McGonagall had to fight tooth and nail to get one for Hermione!
I like the theory that’s it’s basically just water and works based on the placebo effect like how harry made Ron think he took it before a quidditch match
Luck can be very interpretational. Such as fighting Voldemort,it might be lucky to die quick and painless than be tortured
It sounds to me like it affects probability. (Like certain Superhero characters) Yes, the world is random, BUT some things are more likely than others to happen. This could create an aura that aids in bringing those more probable things forward. This wouldn't disrupt the ENTIRE fabric of reality. It would just be a localized phenomina. (Like any other spell)
Don't you think the wizarding world contradicts the laws of nature itself
The difference between Luck and Fate is that Luck is an accident.
is it?
By your own logic, luck cannot exist if you believe in fate. As there are no accidents in a already predestined life
@@thor.halsli Its a quote from a TV Show. I don't believe in either of them. Lol
I agree with the assessment that it probably just allows a person to have an intuition of what they need to do, as well as a boost in assertiveness and confidence.
IDK about the intuition but it certainly gave Ron assertiveness & confidence when he only thought he took it
Instead of it being called Liquid Luck, I think it should be called Liquid Confidence.
That's called beer.
I learned a simple rule of life, if someone telling you "No" is the worst outcome that could happen then there is nothing to fear. Not asking someone out that you like gives you zero chance where if you ask it is 50/50. And when you do put yourself out there that sometimes tips the scales in your favor. Yes there is downside to this if you push it to hard but the phrase "It never hurts to ask" is a phrase for a reason. Just think, I can not sing Karaoke and then have fun singing some song. Your view on this is spot on and it fits the story very well also.
It seems like this particular potion can basically manipulate outcomes but unconsciously. It almost seems like somewhere during the process of the potion unknown to Harry, the potion seems like it makes the user unconsciously predicts the future and guides the body to ensure that whatever the initial desire is achieved by forcing the user to do acts that favor the desire and can lead to an alternate future.
That's exactly what I thought! Felix Felicis only affects the mind. It greatly enhances confidence and intuition, I suppose. How did Harry know he had to go to Hagrid, though? I know Hagrid sent him an invite to Aragog's funeral in the book. Did Harry have any reason to think Slughorn would be nearby? I remember that in the movie, Hermione told him that Slughorn likes to go for a walk after dinner. So Harry's subconscious could've put it together and concluded that the chances of meeting Slughorn on the way to Hagrid were high.
I think in the books Harry not only decides to go to Hagrid he decides by intuition to go around the green house where Sprout and Slughorn collect plants he needs for potion classes. I don't see how Harry could have subconsciously known that. I think in addition to enhancing confidence it enhances the abilty in Divination giving the drinker a blurred picture of the future allowing him to choose the best course of action.
@@patrickdematosribeiro1845 could be. Trelawney seems to think you don't have to be a seer to see the future, most people (wizards?) have some abilities they can learn to use in her class. But maybe it's not like a picture of the future, just a feeling or a sudden desire to do something. It's what most people call intuition. Sometimes, people feel like their intuition has helped them to predict the future, but is it really so?
It is also possible something made both Harry and Slughorn go that way. Maybe the weather was good and they wanted to admire the plants? Or Harry subconsciously expected that Slughorn, the Potions master, would be where potion ingredients grow.
These videos are my favourite! As the movies only vaguely glance over some ridiculously powerful things, without any explanation.
It has been suggested after actual study that what we consider to be "lucky" also encompasses events that are brought about as a result of confidence in one's abilities and/or heightened perception as a result of a positive outlook, such as finding money on the street because everyone else overlooked it, or winning a competition because you noticed a clue in a newspaper.
Thus when Harry tricks Ron into believing that he's spiked his drink with the Felix Felicis potion, per expanded definition he did actually make him luckier.
Since both the positive and negative aspects of this potion centers around confidence and recklessness (the feeling that as long as you just go with the flow, everything you want will eventually occur) I believe this is one of the core components of what the potion actually does. And since that same certainty of action and confidence is one of the things most people find charismatic in others, that probably helps too.
Obviously there's a divination aspect to the effect as well, because otherwise the potion would just make you more charismatic and promote risk taking behavior that would increase the odds of both success AND failure, but I think the trick here is that it does both, and then the divinaton aspect of the magic only has to pick the better outcome of two choices every time. A clever loophole to make its job easier.
If someone could improve on this recipe even further I'd dare say that a genuine potion that temporarily turns you into a seer might be the result. But then again, I wonder how powerful the effect really is? From what you hear in the books the potion has only been used for comparatively small things like to keep the imbiber safe in a dangerous situation or to navigate a difficult diplomatic task. When Slughorn speaks of it he just claims to have used it to experience a "perfect day".
But even though this potion is permitted to be used at potion making tournaments (surely it must have been brewed in advance for this due to the long and complex process) we don't hear anything about someone chugging a whole bottle and then coming up with a groundbreaking new potion recipe, or getting a flash of genius inspiration and suddenly making up a new spell on the spot, even though both of these should be well within the potions level of power. So maybe the last bit of secret sauce is that the potion also cleverly manages the imbiber's expectations?
First, allow me to say how much I have enjoyed your videos on all the varied topics you have touched on. Well done indeed. Second, I am of the opinion that liquid luck is nothing but a placebo. My reasoning is simple. Ron thought he drank the potion and performed brilliantly in his Quiddich match. Harry drank it, and everything just sort of worked in his favor. It wasn't the potion, but the BELIEF in the potion. Sometimes, all you need is a push to believe in what you do in order for things to work out.
Or perhaps Dumbledore's manipulative actions always laid it out. It's hard to believe Albus himself couldn't get a memory from Slughorn. But knowing Slughorn's tendencies, and knowing how Harry really intrigued Slughorn to the point of infatuation. After all it just so happened that Dumbledore decided to give Harry lessons ( training) right after he put on the cursed ring that would take his life eventually leading to curcumstances of Snape getting the DADA position that is also cursed , sealing Snapes fate at the school. And old Albus just happened at the same time to find his old friend to teach potions. And coincidental...? that Harry wouldn't of been told earlier, when he went with Dumbledore that he could actually now continue his goal of being an auror and not lead to circumstances that eventually has Harry finding the HBP book in the cupboard. All the memories that Dumbledore showed Harry pertained to helping Harry later in DH. And the training Harry needed by finding a way to get that memory. It's almost as if Dumbledore himself took liquid luck. Because of all the insane, crazy , circumstances that needed to occur for the story to happen the way it did. Originally the HBP was supposed to be in the second book COS. Just saying I really find it hard to believe that Dumbledore could not of gotten that memory. And the valuable lessons Harry learned along the way helped him to defeat Voldemort. As far as no one else getting killed that night Dumbledore died?.....That was pure ......luck
Accepting that it's fictional, no, it's real within the Potter context.
Remember when the potion was bubbling merrily away in slughorn's room? Big golden drops leaping about and nothing spilled
They way you describe it reminds me of the old Æon Trinity Universe and how High Level Clairsentience operates, where a person becomes a node of possibilities and is able to Perceive the most favorable outcome, and make it happen.
Liquid Luck is simply magical "creatures" invisible to all connected to the user effectively giving them a team with an illusion of "luck" Its like those "horses" pulling the carriages that one girl could see.
The potion is a call to the creatures to come and bond with the user for a short time. BOOM i created that lore on the toilet.
9:00 No thats not it. The potion is known and wizards look down upon it as being not authentic. In effect the gains are ill gotten and as time wears off the gains received will fall away leaving you with what you started with. BOOM! Damn I'm good today.
The creatures by their very nature provide the feelings you describe naturally. The more potion you apply the stronger the pull to the creatures = more creatures = more emotions and clarvoiance and possibly death if you overdose because well... to much of a good thing is never good right? Now if one could only TRAP one of these entities...🤔I need another potion for that, and a magical trap. Yeeeessss...
Liquid Luck sounds like Adderall to me. 😁
My interpretation of the potion is that it simply attunes the user to the ebb and flow of the energies in the world around them. Every use detailed in the books only shows the lucky outcomes in situations that the users are directly involved in (though the outcomes can be profound, e.g. Harry accidentally bumping into Ginny while invisible ultimately combination with Harry marrying Ginny), so it doesn't change anything about the world outside the user other than the way in which the user interacts with it.
This is consistent with Harry's sudden change in attitude and carefree behavior while under the influence of Felix. It got him out of his own way in order to allow him to ride the waves of the universe. It's a potion that bestows upon the user an intuitive sense of what the right place and the right time are.
Personally, I thought it might endow additional blood or oxygen to the brain enabling it to work more quickly and efficiently making it easier to perceive the majority of potential options that could be enacted.
Magic prophecies exist, meaning that magic is in some way capable of reading the future. Could be liquid luck gives the drinker a subconscious sense of the future and helps guide them to the choices that will lead to futures they desire (like zigmunt's potion book is to to guide people with whispers sometimes).
One thing to note is that very few events we see as luck are actually random in a quantum physical sense. For example, rolling a die is a purely mechanical process. The reason we call it luck is because it is almost impossible to predict or influence the outcome by our own actions (see chaos theory).
Therefore I agree to the hypothesis of "subconscious clairvoyance", as it might enhance the senses in a way that one can predict the outcome of actions that are unpredictable for normal humans. That isn't even physically impossible in theory.
That of course means that Felix Felicis can not manipulate real randomness (quantum level events). But that's not even necessary in most cases. It could make the drinker know intuitively how exactly to roll a die to get the desired outcome, or predict where a roulette ivory ball will end up.
Yes if you had a super powerful computer and programed alot of equations into it you could predict the dice roll and it wouldn't seem so random. This is why weather forecasts have gotten so much better over the past few decades supercomputers did an enormous number of calculations and found patterns in seemingly random weather. If you have enough data almost nothing is truly random.
"Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity."
-Seneca
I see liquid lock as something that highlights the best route to take to provide the best potential outcomes for a given situation
If it does work the potion probably makes the person's intuition as well as enhances their magical ability to favor anything in their environment to come out the way that they would desire. Like for example the weather if it looks like it's cloudy then if the person wants it to be sunny then it'll just suddenly go away.
It also could have an effect on the energy in the universe that if you believe the theory that we all are made of energy and that it would somehow rewrite the energy to work in your favor to make a positive outcome that you would desire, this even taking advantage of the time and as well realty itself.
I honestly think that the sense of clairvoyance theory is probably the best answer for how it works. We are talking about a magical world that cannot be properly explained by science, but the most likely explanation for how the potions works is that it grants the user a sense of temporary clairvoyance that manifests itself in the form of incredible confidence.
Chances are that Budge was well aware of this and he deliberately chose to conceal this fact so, if people tried to unlock the secret of how the potion worked, they would have no way to do it because they would be operating under the assumption that the potion manipulates luck rather than granting temporary clairvoyance.
Knowing the truth about how the potion really worked would be the key to unlocking the secrets of clairvoyance itself, which would be extremely dangerous if such knowledge fell into the wrong hands. Imagine if Voldemort had access to that kind of information?
Here's another idea: In Path of Exile, being lucky in any given event causes the internal 'dice' to roll twice, and it picks the best of either outcome. So it's still possible to hit a low score, but the chance of a low score is a lot smaller. The user can usually at worst hope for a reasonably good outcome, and at best gain fairly consistent high values.
It could allow the user to see the clear immediate future like a dimiguise
Quantum mechanics only deals with the interactions and behaviors of subatomic particles. It has no bearing at all on things at the macro level. In fact, things that are true at the subatomic level are often completely at odds with how things work at larger scales.
While your overall premise may have some merit, you should not invoke a theory you don't understand just to make it sound more legitimate.
Awesome as always thanks ❤
If anything liquid luck probably just influences the drinker to make choices that gets them to their goal, like a GPS of sorts. Drinker (in this case harry) consumes the potion and turns on the gps function that tells them to do this thing to get to their goal, they don’t HAVE to do it and it’s not like doing random things gets them what they want, in Harry’s case it all started with him initially wanting to go down to Hagrids despite the advice of Hermione and Ron and choosing to do such “I feel like it’s the place to be tonight” which starts the tumble of him actually getting the memory.
YESSSS this is amazing.. this is the content I'm looking for 🤯🤓🤓
I'm pretty sure Felix Felicis is just really good scotch whiskey.
Maybe a little bit of Bolivian marching powder mixed in there too "just to be safe"
6:12 I thought they were able to conjure something from nothing, unless they're just summoning it from a different place, like in chamber of secrets when Draco and Harry were dueling and Draco summoned/created a snake.
3:11 "it rewrites quantum states"
Actually, no, it doesnt. If we're referencing Schrödinger here then it would in fact simply lock in the uncertain states into a state of certainty.
Ok yes I agree with you. Especially if you consider that Harry technically had all the information he needed to pull off every one of those deeds, with particular focus on Professor Slughorn, I mean, even Voldemort managed to sweet talk him into sharing what he knew, and while Harry can be a right git from time to time, he's a much more genuinely nice person, if Voldemort could do it it should be easy for him. He also knows Slughorn well enough to know that, while he's not a bad person, he's most assuredly very self-motivated, and thus easily swayed if the topic of easily acquired valuable ingredients was brought up. He could presumably tap into the powers of Voldemort's soul fragment to make nonverbal spellcasting a possibility, as we know he gained many other benefits in that manner without even realizing it, and we also know that he knew nonverbal spellcasting was a thing both from his studies and because he'd seen it in action in Snape's memories.
All the potion would have had to do was give him the clarity to put it all together and the confidence to carry it all out, no reality manipulation necessary. If this is how it actually works I still wonder why more genius wizards aren't trying to use it to come up with new spells though, as it would certainly help.
We know that future sight and even time travel exist in the Harry Potter universe. So a potion that allows one to subconsciously predict the future and perform the precise series of actions that will lead to the best possible outcome doesn't seem that farfetched.
I know, it's magical, no scientific solution needed.
Your explanation and understanding of Quantum Mechanics has one flaw, or rather is missing a critical component which could explain how Felix Felicis, or Liquid Luck works, with out breaking Probability, nor Quantum Mechanics: Quantum Entanglement.
Under the Theory of Quantum Entanglement, particles, and presumably other things, even greater scales are connected intrinsically and irrevocably even if separated vast distances. How Felix Felicis, Liquid Luck, could work, rather than break, or defy anything, is to allow the person who has ingested the potion to perceive Quantum Entanglements around them. In this way, what seems random to others, has perfect order to the person who ingested Felix Felicis, Liquid Luck, at least while it was active in their brain and nervous system .
I think it might be a sort of mix of the psychological effect and the clairvoyance, hence the recklessness and functionality we see from it
I mean, stopping aging is a matter of perspective. The Elixir of Life from the Philosopher's Stone extends your life for as long as you continue to drink it regularly, in essence it stops you from aging. But it still doesn't count as "stopping aging" since what it presumably does is repair all the damage your body has taken in the interim, it's more like a strong healing potion.
This one thing would definitely be an easier task to accomplish than making someone genuinely lucky. Which is again why I think Felix Felicis likely messes with the expectations of the one who drinks it.
It may not be able to turn what is going to be a rainy day into a sunny day for your enjoyment, but it might lead you to your new favorite book of all time because you stayed indoors instead, for example, you will still experience it as you being lucky when all it really did was take your expectations and redirect them, you wanted it to be sunny, which the potion cannot do, so instead it gave you insight enough to find something that made you forget the rain.
Maybe liquid luck is similar to NZT-48, the “Limitless” drug.
Amazing video about liquid luck in Harry Potter,fantastic job.
Magic did accomplish stopping aging with Nicholas Flamel with his Philosiphers Stone. And this single potion could theoretically work in a similar fashion. Also we don’t know the exact manner in which liquid luck works, nor the way it affects the quantum field. And without that knowledge the best we have is educated guesses and theory.
Philosophers stone*
@@Pokemon-Kid112 thank you 🙏 that is what I meant to type but I was writing this in a hurry.
The idea of enhancing or activating some latent seer quality is a fascinating one....someone who's already a gifted seer may find that Felix Felicis works rather differently for them than for most. As a writer, that makes the ol' idea factory giddy.
As for whether the potion's fake or not...I guess a lot of it comes down to metagaming Rowling herself. Does she seem to imply it works, or does she leave breadcrumbs that allow it to be secretly a fraud? There ARE some suspicious moments...
Ron and the Quidditch game is the obvious example here. Harry pretended to slip him the potion so that Ron would THINK he had Luck, because Harry knew that Ron had the skills to win, he just needed the confidence. Placeboing him would let his genuine skill shine through.
And the idea of frauds in general are already prevalent throughout this series. Lockhart talks a big game but is a liar and can't do 99% of what he claims. Great with a memory charm, though. Felix's creator being similarly arrogant and boastful feels like a potential link to imply trickery. Like she's saying, or at least thinking, that "people who act like this are usually frauds". I'd want at least two more examples before treating this as strong evidence, though.
Even the idea of people doing "impossible" things using nothing more than confidence is shown in the series, with Neville and the Imperius Curse. It's not quite like the movie portrays it, where you can puppet someone around as if they were on strings. Instead, you give them mental commands, and they follow them as if hypnotized. In fact it works VERY similar to hypnotism, with the unfortunate detail that it bypasses real-life hypnotism's "rule" that people still won't do things they strongly disapprove of.
All of this to say that Neville being described as performing feats of gymnastics that would normally be impossible for him - and Harry uses the word impossible - seem to be nothing more than a sign that Neville was _always_ capable of these things, if he gave 100% to the task. If you take away his anxious nature, as well as temporarily remove any fear he has of hurting himself with the stunt, he can indeed do these wacky gymnastic feats.
To tie it back to Felix Felicis, it could be using a similar system, by which intense confidence and devotion to a task allow you to do what you were always theoretically able to do. This gives another layer of plausible deniability to the potion's effects: "The power was in you all along."
The usage of the potion during the battle of the astronomy tower lends itself nicely to this as well. Just one year prior, these students were already taking on Death Eaters on roughly equal terms. They got banged up, sure, but were banging the baddies up in turn. Between the experience gained in that fight and the additional learning of sixth year, they could well be even stronger, and thus win with less injuries, no luck required. All the more-so when you consider that there were far more students, and some teachers, in the mix as well.
In the end, the main thing to look at is Harry's on-page usage of the potion. The way the story describes him feeling, acting, and making decisions. Less what he himself says, and more what the narrator says about him. This is the make-or-break moment. If there are hints HERE that there may be something fake about the potion, as far as I'm concerned that's the ballgame. But it also has the chance to refute the theory by making him do things that can't be explained by confidence - magical or otherwise - alone. In the absence of either, we're left to make nothing more than a judgement call, and must conclude that it is, ironically, inconclusive.
I _have_ actually checked that scene before, years back, and left uncertain, so I'd be curious to hear other people's takes, and I might read it again if something piques my interest.
I think what it actually does is subtly augment your PERCEPTION. Similar to what you're thinking. But rather than outright predicting the future, I think what it actually does is augment your ability to pick up on subtle cues you may have otherwise missed so you can act on them.
I think in a universe where people can foretell events and have literal prophecies, a tonic that gives people a temporary sixth sense about favorable probability isn't too farfetched
The trouble is that Harry found Slughorn where he didn't know Slughorn would be. If Slughorn hadn't been in the wrong place, where Harry ran into him on the way to Hagrid's, he wouldn't have gotten the memory. That means that the potion knows things the drinker does not and leads the drinker toward their goal through steps the drinker would NOT have even thought were necessary. Harry completely abandoned the plan the trio had come up with after drinking.
I think that liquid luck is both of your theories: A mood and psychological enhancer as well as giving the user unconscious clairvoyance.
i don't understand why people question "luck" and try to find a scientific answer in a world where there is literal magic lol
Thank god. I was so worried this whole video was a waste of time with the Placebo effect as the answer.
Psychological enhancement and improved foresight are good answers.
(At the end of the day it is just magic as the answer. These theories are fun. Also, Voldermort, I feel, would just think liquid luck beneath him and is used by people not powerful enough to rely on themselves. )
If you have viable prophecy and clairvoyance in the universe, then a luck potion doesn't contradict randomness or disrupt the laws of nature any more than they do. you have a universe based on probabilistic causal threads, the potion simply quantum locks the drinker onto a thread of unlikely but possible events that lead to a desired outcome
What would happen if two wizards used Felix Felicis with the same goal in mind? For example, if they were competing against each other. They couldn’t possibly both succeed in a competition where only one can come out victorious, right ?
Liquid luck actually work probably work in Quantum mechanics, the "randomness and uncertainty" is only random and uncertain from a traditional physics standpoint, there are solid patterns in quantum mechanics that allow you to fairly accurately predicted the outcome of a quantum mechanical operation, once youve observed that outcome previously
I like your theory about liquid luck!!
I think the potion doesn’t make you more lucky but directs you towards a series of events that are advantageous to the user.
Felix Felices invokes the Placebo effect
It's a fantasy and magical world so it is beyond a placebo effect. Remember how Felix guided Harry to get the memory?
@@MountainFisher That was my first thought, too. It was all planned for Harry to go to Slughorn's quarters, but after drinking the liquid luck he was insistent on visiting Hagrid's even though it was totally illogical to do so.
@@MountainFishermagical Placebo probably. I mean they are wizard, they probably bend reality unconciously under the effect of Felix Felicis.
Felix Felices is practically a placebo to the wizarding world.
Imagine if you were a wizard that just focused all your abilities in perfecting Liquid Luck. Youd be basically unstoppable at everything. Even if it was basically just a PED youd still do very well.
My guess is that this potion enhances alertness and gives a feeling of supreme self-confidence. Muggles have a substance with similar effects.
You know I think when Harry drank Liquid Luck Draco was able to fix the Vanishing Cabinet
Felix felices is like the equivalent of taking Adderall or microdosing lsd except more effective.
So it's an amphetamine and benzodiazepine cocktail taken in a shot of vodka but just slightly magical. Got it 👍
Isn’t his potion book a joke? It’s why snape always wrote directions on the board and why Hermione suddenly couldn’t succeed in potions just using the book for Slughorn because the book is just wrong
The book you are referring to is Advanced Potion Making by Libatius Borage. The book in the video is by Zygmunt Budge.
In our real world, I can see your point! But in the wizarding world, liquid luck can be just that...a potion of luck!!!!
"In my experience, there's no such thing as luck."
Obi-Wan Kenobi
Makes me think of quantum superpositions effect in a way instead of a psychological effect
It temporarily removes all doubtful thoughts.
Yeah, I always got the sense that it just granted Harry clarity of thought, focus and confidence.
There's no way a bona-fide good luck potion would not be more of a staple if that's what it was.
Frankly, even with this "nerf," I don't see why it isn't more of a staple.
Maybe it's due to a culture of self-reliance?
The potion is an easy path to success, but it cheapens the merit of the accomplishment, so even if you used it, you would have to live with a sense of not having truly earned your spot in the sun.
I'd say it's kind of a spiritual drink, as in, the ingredients help induce a physical and mental state that is heightened and more attuned to what you may say it's either the cosmos, your higher self, etc. In that regard, the potion doesn't control causality, rather, helps you attune to the spiritual side of you that controls your own destiny, intentioned in a positive way, so, intentioned to algn yourself, temporarily, with the would be best version of yourself, that's why, with some unconscious awareness of things beyond your life, you do what is seen as best for you, from the other side. Might seem too far reaching but you know, we're talking about magic, anything is possible
Best way to think of liquid luck is liquid nudge. I suspect it heightens a persons senses to maximum potential. That’s why many things are possible.
I feel like the potion is like A drugs, but obviously not crazy like hard drugs but definitely like coke and weed where it makes you chill like weed so nothing seems complicated but the drive of coke that gives you that little spring in your step. Although it doesn’t seem like much those two things alone boost your confidence astronomical and when you’re super confident everything seems to workout
Does Felix Felicis contain any demiguise hair, or diricawl feathers? Both of those beasts can sense imminent danger and remove themselves from the situation. Perhaps that’s where the clairvoyance that leads by only a few seconds or minutes comes from.
Remembers me early skyrim... making potion to Improve Enchanting, Then, making enchantment to improve potion crafting, ... rinse and repeat, each time more powerfull results xD
Liquid luck works the same as psilocybin which causes an interference in the brain opening a stronger connection to one’s higher self which transcends space and time allowing for a outcome based on intentions.
4:28
"Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic". -- Arthur C. Clark
Perhaps the magical community are closer to quantum physicists than they think they are?
Maybe this potion works in a different way? Maybe it doesn't influence your surroundings on the quantumphysical level, maybe it makes you sense this quantum physics subconciously and than you can act accordingly?
Yes its a potion capable of changing the laws of quantum physics.