The Shocking TRUTH Behind Blood Status and Magical Power - Harry Potter Theory

Blood status has been a controversial and longstanding source of division and prejudice in the Wizarding World, and it all stems from the categorization of magical bloodlines into pure-bloods, half-bloods, and muggle-borns.

And while I don’t condone demonizing any of these groups and certainly don’t want to contribute to further prejudice, I can’t help but wonder if there are actual physiological differences between them—beyond just their blood, of course.

Voldemort's stance on blood purity is an unusual one, as despite being a half-blood himself, he condemned anyone that wasn’t pure of blood. This becomes increasingly confusing when considered in tandem with his own ego, as he hardly seems like the type of person to undermine his own identity.

At first glance his hatred and prejudice towards other groups seems like completely blind and baseless discrimination, but if we consider that his ultimate goal undermines his OWN identity, perhaps it tells us that he genuinely perceived qualities in pure-bloods that he felt were essential for true magical prowess.

Today we’re going to be exploring all of that AND MORE as we attempt to identify differences between pure-bloods, half-bloods and muggleborns.

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[coleblack]

I've always thought that the inbreeding of the pureblood families is probably why magic has gotten "weaker" over the ages. That there actually was a difference when the prejudice started, but when fresh genes stopped being added it led to genetic issues that held wizards back. Which is why I think it's not a coincidence that the three most powerful wizards of modern times were half blood.

[dawall]

It depends on whether or not they have a squib in their family tree. It is speculated that these individuals were kicked out of the magical community or left it because of discrimination and entered the muggle community, and they are the source of the spontaneous wizards and witches being born amongst muggles. While the genes for magic still exist in these individuals for some reason, they are born switched off in these individuals and eventually reactivate somewhere further down in their bloodline. That is just one speculative explanation.

[TheRayvolution]

I do NOT believe in Muggle Born. They are related to unregistered Sqiubs. British Ministry doesn’t track Squibs when they marry Muggles and leave the wizard world. They still have the damn magical genes!!!

[mikeylicksit]

"Ron, you're making it snow" is always fun to come back to (movie or book version, which is a bit different). The Weasley's are a powerful bloodline for sure, and even their magic appears with heavy emotion involuntarily.

[PalmelaHanderson]

My head canon has been for a while that Voldemort doesn't himself care that much about blood status beyond wizard/muggle. He just realized he could weaponize prejudice to get all the pure blood wizards on his side. Almost everything everything Voldemort does is (in his mind) coldly rational. Blind prejudice doesn't make sense for his character.

[victoriar]

Harry himself was born to a witch/wizard couple, which, despite his mother being a muggle born, should genetically give him an advantage over a muggle born. But, he was brought up in a ridgedly Muggle, anti-magic household where his very magical essence was squashed. But, with the care, support and encouragement of Hogwarts, he learned to thrive aa a wizard.
We don't know much about how it is from characters like Hermione to grow up in the Muggle world, not suppressed, like Harry, but probably needing to control the energy through the tricky emotions etc. It must make a difference from the nurture rather than nature perspective.

[briansanders]

Let's not forget to factor in Squibs, people with two magical parents, but absolutely no magical abilities themselves.

[larryrottenberk]

Being a pureblood obviously comes with advantages like growing up around this stuff, so they're more adept in the wizarding world, but that's only to the age of 11, and muggle-borns seem to realize that they have magic at a fairly young age even though they can't explain or understand it growing up with muggles. Then there's half-bloods, who seem to be the most powerful for some reason.

[realmdarkness]

Voldemort's obsession with pure blood supremacy even though he's a half blood is most likely because he hated his "filthy muggle father" for leavinging his mother, leading to her death due to sadness. It's also a tool to use to get pure bloods to his side

[InfiniteMonkeysSA]

I think the magical gene is an on/off switch, and if it's on, magical power depends on intelligence and willpower, which are affected by genetics and environment. However, muggles can be just as smart as wizards, so it's possible for a muggle-born to be as powerful as a pureblood.

[theafaith]

Really like the "natural" vs. "trained" athlete analogy. Sometimes the "naturals" are lazy and complacent while the "trained" work hard and surpass them. Great video!

[gxogefx]

Fun fact: the harry, ron and hermione trio all cover the three types of magic users, ron the pure blood, harry the half blood and hermione the muggle born

[Timberwolf]

I think the ability to wield magic is a genetic mutation that is quite present, even in many muggle bloodlines. But these genes are simply switched off in those muggles, only to be switched on occasionally when a new life is created, possibly due to some changes in the environment triggering this.
This would be the explanation that makes the most sense to me why "muggleborn" exist.

[TheRealValkLord]

So basically if CRISPR becomes advanced enough and some lucky muggle gets to witness magic then couldn’t the entire Earth be populated in say 300 years with mostly witches/wizards?

[TheTrmetzgar]

I have a theory that Muggle born and the real pure bloods wizards. According to wizard lore, at one time there were no wizards and then some wore born and they were called the first wizards or pure born so there wizard lines were born from there offspring. So if a muggle born wizard came into existence the same way isn't that the same thing if you think about it logically. I think that is the reason why current pureblood wizards hate them so much. It's also because they have struggled to keep magic in their family through questionable methods but they are just postponing the dilution of their bloodlines. I think the truth is they are lesser in power. From what I have seen muggleborns tend to be powerful from the beginning. Just a thought.

[NoneofyourBusiness-ivpi]

JK has said ALL muggleborns are descended from squibs

[frostdova]

i think its magic itself that makes them live longer, they cna even be cured through magical means which dont work on muggles, case in point is that squibs dont seem to live as long

[yvs]

as far as i am aware, the magical gene is simply dormant in families of muggle born. maybe a squib decided to live a normal life, married a muggle, had kids and grandkinds who lived as muggles... until they had children with someone who also had a dormant gene. the mistrust of muggleborns comes from the fact that they would be the most likely double agents in the war between wizards and muggles. i would understand if exceptional magical abilities such as being a parselmouth would get filtered out by the gene going dormant. or maybe they too could be dormant? it seems like other than Dumbledore knowing the "alternative" explanation, no one was confused by the fact that Harry as a child of 2 non parcelmouths was a parcelmouth. Tonks also had an ability that neither of her parents have or at least isn't mentioned despite the fact that we "meet" both of her parents in the books.

[newhybrid]

It would depend on how dominant the wizards parents genes are etc.
But Voldemort was amongst the most powerful wizards ever(in the aspect of raw destructive power i think he is number 1) and he was a half blood, however he was of the Salazar Slytherin bloodline.
His ancestry is still full of power even if Tom Riddle Sr was a muggle, his magical blood is so strong and pure that he isnt affected by Tom Srs muggle blood

For example offpring of an incredibly powerful legendary wizard and a muggle will likely be more powerful than a child from two weak or average wizards

Pure blood increases propability for more power but its not definitive for the reasons i already said

Kinda like the Elder Wand, it amplifies the output of your spells to a certain extent yes but you are still not unbeatable

Another simple way to put it is that a short mother and a tall father still often produce tall kids but both parents being tall make it more likely for the child to be tall as well


There isnt just one factor as to where magical power comes from like you said, thats nonsense.
Like everything there are several factors.
Blood/genes matter, training matters, mentality matters, hard work matters, willpower matters, understanding matters etc.

Dumbledore was ingenious which helped him and Voldemort really pushed his limits due to lack of morals which worked for him.
So we already know there are other factors besides blood.

[craxd]

I think that Tom said what he did about "blood purity" over the purebloods' ideas; to pacify them. Tom knew that the three most powerful wizards (to him) were Grindelwald, Dumbledore, and himself. He denied that Harry was also powerful for his age.

Muggle-borns would have sprung from squibs in the line, or from some other rather darker things to have happened, where a wizard met up with a muggle woman. Technically, if it was from the latter, they would have been a half-blood. Dean Thomas was a half-blood, which he later found out.