Dutchman Dirk Willems was a religious prisoner who escaped in 1569, but when the guard pursuing him fell through the ice of a river, Willems turned around to save the guard. He was then recaptured and burned at stake.

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    • operacion_ogro [he/him]@hexbear.net
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      7 months ago
      reddit copy pasta

      Ok, this has been driving me crazy for seven movies now, and I know you’re going to roll your eyes, but hear me out: Harry Potter should have carried a 1911.

      Here’s why:

      Think about how quickly the entire WWWIII (Wizarding-World War III) would have ended if all of the good guys had simply armed up with good ol’ American hot lead.

      Basilisk? Let’s see how tough it is when you shoot it with a .470 Nitro Express. Worried about its Medusa-gaze? Wear night vision goggles. The image is light-amplified and re-transmitted to your eyes. You aren’t looking at it–you’re looking at a picture of it.

      Imagine how epic the first movie would be if Harry had put a breeching charge on the bathroom wall, flash-banged the hole, and then went in wearing NVGs and a Kevlar-weave stab-vest, carrying a SPAS-12.

      And have you noticed that only Europe seems to a problem with Deatheaters? Maybe it’s because Americans have spent the last 200 years shooting deer, playing GTA: Vice City, and keeping an eye out for black helicopters over their compounds. Meanwhile, Brits have been cutting their steaks with spoons. Remember: gun-control means that Voldemort wins. God made wizards and God made muggles, but Samuel Colt made them equal.

      Now I know what you’re going to say: “But a wizard could just disarm someone with a gun!” Yeah, well they can also disarm someone with a wand (as they do many times throughout the books/movies). But which is faster: saying a spell or pulling a trigger?

      Avada Kedavra, meet Avtomat Kalashnikova.

      Imagine Harry out in the woods, wearing his invisibility cloak, carrying a .50bmg Barrett, turning Deatheaters into pink mist, scratching a lightning bolt into his rifle stock for each kill. I don’t think Madam Pomfrey has any spells that can scrape your brains off of the trees and put you back together after something like that. Voldemort’s wand may be 13.5 inches with a Phoenix-feather core, but Harry’s would be 0.50 inches with a tungsten core. Let’s see Voldy wave his at 3,000 feet per second. Better hope you have some Essence of Dittany for that sucking chest wound.

      I can see it now…Voldemort roaring with evil laughter and boasting to Harry that he can’t be killed, since he is protected by seven Horcruxes, only to have Harry give a crooked grin, flick his cigarette butt away, and deliver what would easily be the best one-liner in the entire series:

      “Well then I guess it’s a good thing my 1911 holds 7+1.”

      And that is why Harry Potter should have carried a 1911.

    • axont [she/her, comrade/them]@hexbear.net
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      7 months ago

      If I remember right there’s a point in the third book where Harry has to explain what a gun is to the wizards and it’s something like “It’s like a wand that only casts kill”

      • FourteenEyes [he/him]@hexbear.net
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        7 months ago

        They also literally have time travel and could have easily Baby Hitler’d Voldemort but JK Rowling does not violate the timestream or the gender binary

    • HumanBehaviorByBjork [any, undecided]@hexbear.net
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      7 months ago

      pretty sure they literally address this at one point, and the explanation is that the wizards are all such stupid incurious dickheads that not a single one of them really knows what a gun is. basically every technological advancement made after the 18th century is a complete mystery to them.