He used it against a basilisk that was blind. It literally fell on the blade. It seems to me that in order to fight a person with a sword you would need to be up close and personal and I would think that in a fight between competent wizards distance is a must.

 

It was only effective because 1) Harry didn't know a more effective spell, 2) the Basilisk was, as Pete pointed out, blind.

I'm not denying that in some situation a blade wouldn't be effective, but more like a knife to the back, than a sword to the front...If you're in a situation where a sword could reasonably be used then you'd surely be more likely to use magic of some sort.

Also, swords are incredibly difficult to use effectively without substantial training. Its certainly not something you can learn on your own in a couple of months, the way many fics that have Harry start using a sword show.

 

Or Harry owning a magical sword that is enchanted so he doesn't need training to use it.

 

I don't think I've ever actually come across that as an item in a fic. I could accept that such an item would deal with the lack of training, but I still wouldn't see it as a valid replacement for spellwork.

 

I'd accept it only if Harry can find a way to hook into the worldwide Morphin Grid.

 

There are creatures immune to magic, though, aren't there? In that case, I suppose a sword might be a useful tool. Generally speaking, though, a wand does everything a sword does but is smaller and lighter.

 

My guess is there's some evidence in the books for incorporating Muggle types of fighting/battles.

Bellatrix has a talent with knives. Yes, we read, what . . . once that she threw a knife? But, anyone who's tried throwing knives at targets knows its not something you can simply do. It takes practice. So, unless we assume she got completely lucky, and just happened to carry a knife on her that could be thrown with any degree of accuracy, and/or that she somehow also used magic to guide the knife, we can assume she learned somewhere how to throw knives—a rather non-magical element of fighting.

Draco's use of Goyle and Crabbe show a reliance not on magical strength, but on physical strength for protection. Although it's a leap to say physical strength equals fighting, we also see physical altercations in the books alongside magical altercations. Two that stand out the most to me is Harry and Sirius, and Hermione and Draco. Yes, Harry and Hermione both come from a Muggle world, but it also shows that magic doesn't completely replace the idea of physically striking someone (at least, by their third year).

With that said, I still shake my head at Harry becoming a martial-arts champion after a few months of training, or why something like that even has to be incorporated. But, I see nothing wrong with him learning how to physically strike someone as well as magically attack. After all, he may not always have his wand.

 

The problem is that whenever he 'learns how' it's filler, really bad filler. I'd accepting him hitting people if it was out of the blue because he had no other option or he was extremely angry, such as the Sirius confrontation. But actually learning how to do it is never ever any good.

There's nothing wrong with hitting people, just learning how to do it as a replacement or even as a back up. Because it's boring to read about and any time spent learning how to fight physically could have instead been used to learn magic so he wouldn't need the ability to fight hand to hand.

 

I know that fic, best reaction is to just read Threadmarks.

 

Notice:

The discussion on Naruto and power levels has been moved to
Other Fandoms > Other Fandoms Discussion > [Naruto] How powerful should a character be?

 

In other news… fuck muggles. And shitty magic by pro-muggle authors. And H/Hr.

 

Back to the classics, I see.

 

Does that mean I can bitch again about how much I hate fanfics where Harry immediately becomes friends with Neville in their 4th year, during the TWT, after his fight with Ron?

 

If next ~10 fics you'll have some hopes for devolve into that, then yes.

I think.

:facepalm

 

Or about everybody knowing about the phrase: Greater Good?

 

If we're retreading old material, I feel the need to mention how fucking stupid books written in parseltongue are.

 

§Open Sesame§

 

"Seer Luna" has always been a peeve of mine.

 

Yep. It annoys me any time an author tries to make Luna anything more than just a slightly disturbed child. No she does not have special powers and no she is not Rowena's descendent.

 

And Harry never banged Fleur, doesn't stop authors from writing about it.