One thing I noticed is that Harry threatens people a lot. My initial reaction was, “Nahh, that wouldn’t work.”
I’m not going to echo requests for evidence so much as I will note that I would have enjoyed some examples to engage with to explore the concept of just what would and would not have worked.
Harry engages in plenty of behaviors that are similar to threats. That is, they are obnoxious power plays. Some of them are even threats proper. A significant feature of Harry’s threats is that they tend to represent the declaration of a broad social political position—somewhere on the other side of a spectrum from, say, simple extortion. The difference being that if Harry was gagged such that he could not utter threats he may have carried out some (but not all) of the ‘threats’ as punishments or political attacks anyhow—I know I would have. Speaking with words just allowed both parties to save wasting utility on costly communication.
A quote of Harry’s springs to mind. When Hermione and Malfoy threatened him regarding traitors he did not submit. Instead he noted that sometimes you actually have to exercise the power. It would seem that nobody has had cause to take that stance with Harry just yet.
I’m not going to echo requests for evidence so much as I will note that I would have enjoyed some examples to engage with to explore the concept of just what would and would not have worked.
Harry engages in plenty of behaviors that are similar to threats. That is, they are obnoxious power plays. Some of them are even threats proper. A significant feature of Harry’s threats is that they tend to represent the declaration of a broad social political position—somewhere on the other side of a spectrum from, say, simple extortion. The difference being that if Harry was gagged such that he could not utter threats he may have carried out some (but not all) of the ‘threats’ as punishments or political attacks anyhow—I know I would have. Speaking with words just allowed both parties to save wasting utility on costly communication.
A quote of Harry’s springs to mind. When Hermione and Malfoy threatened him regarding traitors he did not submit. Instead he noted that sometimes you actually have to exercise the power. It would seem that nobody has had cause to take that stance with Harry just yet.