Welcome to the Potter discussion.

I'll go back to the Potter discussion, talking everything. Harry Potter, fantastic beasts and the Wizarding world fandom. I am your host Oscar. Hello everyone. This is episode 121. I just had to say it. Of course. I, I just, I just had to, um, thank you. Thank you, everyone who has joined me today, this is going to be a very, very fun episode because we are talking about professor McKinnon.

Throughout the entire story. Maggie Smith's professor McGonigal, Minerva McGonigal has played an instrumental role in the development of the store. That is, she is a warrior. She's a mentor. She has anything Harry needs her to be. And she's anything that will get her by a very strong character and someone that I will definitely enjoy breaking down because there's a lot to delve into here and I'll leave.

I'm not going to get to it. The entire thing today, we never do. Um, we, we can definitely get over some of the overarching topics that I think are really interesting and we'll definitely help out this episode. Now, some housekeeping for get into it this Wednesday. Um, we have another episode of the Quill and ink coming out.

I believe it is the 16th, correct me if I'm wrong. March 16th, around March 16th, the co-learning is coming. Um, I was going to do the discussion of the Japanese trailer on the podcast because the Japanese trailer didn't launch, but I figured the one was just about enough. So I'm deciding that I'm willing to do that on the email.

And I'm mostly focusing on Tina because Tina has not been in the trailers. We saw her in a picture though. So. That's a receipt, data's a VAR and a picture. Um, so we're going to talking about that. Uh, also I've did a poll on Instagram at the Potter discussion talking about whether you think Tina is in the fantastic beasts and where to find them three.

And some, there was some very interesting responses that I think you will definitely enjoy hearing about on the Quill Nikes. So I'll make sure you sign up for that. And when you sign up, you get a perfect guy to a hair upon America. For free again, that is a guy to a Harry Potter marathon that will just make your, your movie watching experience just that much better to make you sign up for that.

And that is just about it. So let's get. All right. So the first big topic I want to start off with is who is she? Who is professor Morganville? What does she do in the story as we started out with all these bugs and episodes? Well, I think her two biggest tricks are, she is very smart. She's very wise and she is very strong.

I think the two main places or strength come from are her allegiance with Dumbledore and how she has kind of seen him, him fight him, do whatever. Um, she has kind of learned from that, but also she has been portrayed by Maggie. Who knows the strength of the character in the books. It was no problem for Maggie to not for Maggie, for McGonigal it, to be written as this strong character, but for it to be translated into the movies.

I think that was the biggest challenge when she was, I think that definitely solidified her position as a strong character in the, in the series because Maggie. I knew the character. She knew exactly how to, to put herself out there in such a way that would show these strength in the inner strength and the outer strength of professor McGonigal.

It might be difficult to see it because when you think of roughs and McGonigal, all you really see is just her tapping drink on the shoulder with a roll of parchment on the first year. But it really, if you go farther than that, if you really think about what's after that, I think it's definitely easy to see.

How she is how she is, uh, the, the strong character that we really know her ass and the first and second books were really difficult for her to show her strength only because there were no real opposition that she had to face. The moment I'm I'm coming back to is, uh, in the death of house part to, uh, where she cast the peer actors and locomotor, um, and all of the statues come to life and she, and they all jumped down and then she always, and she, she.

You know, Hogwarts is under attack. Do you do to do the school, protect the boundaries and they all marked off all the, all the statues March off and she, oh, and then she goes, I always wanted to use that's. Well, of course we all laugh at that every single time. So that I found really funny, um, and really a big moment for her, which is just perfect because that is exactly what she does.

Um, she really brightens the story too. I mean, you can regularly think of a moment where she is. She's. I mean, of course there was much of what she's somber, but I think Dumbledore was definitely only a moment where she's like not brightening or, you know, making like quick remarks or like how has a sharp tongue, I think that's how she can kind of stay on top of the tide and not just get swallowed in with the rest of the teachers.

Like professors sprout is the kind of person I would imagine professor McGonagall would be if she had, if, if you wasn't the kind of sharp, sharp tongue, you know, quick-witted person and that she was. Want to be the person that she was. And they professor a sprout is Devon. The kind of person that is just like is, is nice.

Just because like her default setting is smiling and being generous, which is awesome. Uh, those people are just fantastic to have just in general. And I think that's what professor McGonagall would be if she didn't want to be the person she was. And that makes any sense. She wanted to be strict. She want.

Have that authority over people just so they would stay in line so she could continue protecting the world that they lived in. She, although, well, I think, I think she did try at least to be nice. He'd at least try to be, you know, somewhat charitable. Um, but she had no patience for me, for people who didn't think that way.

And she really despised fakes and people who weren't honest, because those were the kind of people that she just had no patience for. Like Lockhart. She was. Send them into the chamber of secrets. She was happy to. Um, but for people like Harry, she knew the hair wasn't faking his skill or his talent or whatever you want to call it.

So she liked him and Draco. Um, although he was a very talented wizard. He did have his father by him onto the putter team, stuff like that. And so professional McGonigal didn't like that very much. Even if he didn't, I think mechanical would find his, his position Draco's position as one that she could sympathize, uh, with, because yes, I was there before she was strict.

She was, she had, she had a firm grasp grasp, and she definitely drove the wheel with a firm hand, but she knew which, which direction to drive in general. But I think is why she managed to be the person. She, she was like I said before, And maintain her, her, her place, snake McGonagal and tumbler were really the, the, the course.

On the, the teaching staff, they knew what was going on and they knew exactly what was happening. So McGonigle knew that she had to kind of oppose Snape because Snape wanted to be good. He wanted to be good, so, so bad. And he was working with the dark Lord. Now McGonigle is good. She is good. And she is not working for the dark load.

So she. To keep that position because Snape, I think it was much easier for snake to stay in with the dark Lord at like, at where, where he was, because he had her to gain his trust, but McGonigal did not have to work to stay in with Donald Laura, like snake, but she had to work to stay, to stay nice. It's a lot easier to be mean than it is to be nice for a lot of people.

And I think Miguel. Is just like that. She is very, very, not safe. I mean, she she's the Ali polar opposite of Snape and they both knew it. So I'm a gun and got to really work to keep her place as the anti snake. Not really to so put him in his place, but really just to keep the scales and bounces because Dumbledore was really the one who was holding up the plates and a Goggle and Snape were on or on them.

And he did not want to out that way, the balance to 100. So McGonigal had to keep the scales balanced, so to speak, uh, which I think is how she also built her character because she knew exactly what she had to do to stay there. And she did that without tiring at all. So that was a very long description of kind of who she is, uh, who, where she stands and how she keeps.

All right. So now I want to talk about, and what is her role and how does she relate to Harry? So this is some that I think I was also very important to her character. And some that I think is also very important to the story because her relation to Harry or her relationship to Harry is really where this whole tide like this, this whole picture ties together.

So to Harry, I think she. Acts as a protector. Um, now not in the sense that she is always hovering over him. Her wand raised already to, to zap a fly out of the air. If whenever we dare approach Harry, but she steers them in the right direction. Almost like a parent. And Arthur and, and Minerva, I think, uh, we're just the people that guided Harry and his life Dumbledore was the one who taught him how to live.

But, um, McGonigal really taught him how to have a life in the first place. Not, not that, not that he would not a walk without him, but of course, without parents, however, just like didn't know the basic things. So he needed the. Like, uh, like Molly, he needed to deal with like Minerva to show him really where to go and nothing.

That's, that's where her value comes in as a person with Harry is that she showed him the way. And Harry would likely be clueless in the ways of Hogwarts without Minerva, you know, cause of as an inside person. And of course, I know, think. Well, Molly went to, went to Howard's. Arthur went to Hogwarts, come on.

Like, why can't they tell him, well, then went to Hogwarts, but kind of a long time ago. So like they had like two HELOC, there are two different, uh, groundskeepers org was the, goes to grad school and modeling wasn't it wasn't school. So that tells you anything. Um, they of course know how to do it and they can definitely tell Harry how to, to, to lead a good life.

And, huh. But my nervous there, Minerva could really, really know what's happening. She could definitely help Harry out as much as he needs because Harry really needs that inside person. He really needs to know exactly what's happening just in general. He really has no sense of what's happening in Hogwarts without people really telling you what's happening.

And it kind of sounds bad, but Harry really have no clue. Uh, what, what, what, what was happening in like at all? He wasn't directly being informed. Um, she could of course figure it out. What if we think back to it, it's, it's her minding that tells him where the Basler is. It's Dumbledore. Her really tells her how did, if he'd rolled more.

Harry needs those people in his life, like, like Minerva to show him the way and to give him a good example of what a person should be. Mineral really helped Terry out with his, figuring out his life and knowing exactly what to do at home. All right now let's talk strengths and weaknesses. What are some Minerva's strengths?

Well, I think the two, again, that we mentioned before are definitely the most prevalent. She is strong and she is smart. The two traits that a true hero should have a heroine, like, like McGonigal should have she. Comes out of the store. She really pops out and she really knows how to use her talents. But her weaknesses, I think, are a place that are interesting because she doesn't have many, I mean, as a person that her staffer, she can't really afford to have many, but what she does, I think her, their, her, her, her main weakness, the main thing that really stops her from doing the things that she would usually do are she is scared of.

As anyone is, um, she knows the true volume, the true horribleness of what he is a few violence of Voldemort. Cause she is only, only people who was old enough to fight in the, uh, when, when the dark load was actually. In power before in the dark ages. So she knows firsthand exactly just how terrible he is.

And I think that holds her back. The people not know the true extent of, well, the Lord's power are the ones that are the, the, the most scared of him. And although that might not be the best as they. Have the, had the most time to really learn their craft as magical people. Uh, they will be the most useful in a battle, but they aren't.

I think it definitely helps because they cause of course, fear is what keeps you alive if that's even true in the real world. Um, if you're scared to jump off a cliff, it's your body saying, no, go you're gonna die. And so when people are scared of the dark Lord, it's saying there, their bodies would assign them, do not go near him because he will kill you.

And that's not great. That's not great for any, for the, the good side, because that means people that don't want to go near him. Well, it's kinda the same for deaf theaters. It's Dumbledore for them. The dark load for Harry is, does Dumbledore for the death theaters. So it's kind of a, everyone's scared of everyone kind of situation, but McGonigal is particularly scared of the dark Lord.

And I think we see that fear being vanquish it's unfortunately the very last second, but when she is battling Voldemort with Kingsley and, uh, I want to say. Uh, the very end they're very, uh, and battle in the great hall. Um, of course it's, uh  so, uh, Jenny, her, my, and I want to say someone like Ron, maybe Luna are battling Bellatrix and Kingsley and McGonigle and maybe either other Molly or fluid or, uh, battling Voldemort all at once.

So that I think is where her. Her strength against Voldemort comes from the fact that she is not alone in being afraid of him. Everyone, I mean, as ever Harry was, is a very, very, very afraid of Voldemort. And now in the battle that, uh, she was with other people and that she could see that she was not alone in that fear was when she could really come out of it.

Her may and the worry was that she was alone. That no one else was afraid. And she knew that I would also like, was this scared of more, but it was just the fact that she wanted to be, she, she did not want to be alone in her own personal fear of him, but when she saw that there, she wasn't at all, that really pulled her out of the, the, the darkest part of the spiral of actually being afraid of Baltimore.

And that's kind of where her fear just slowly disappeared. How many died? Uh, of course it was gone because there was, there was no option to be afraid of. So I think her, her, her afraid ness, I just like, oh, fear that boy that just refuse to come to me. Um, her fear came from her, her, her worry that she was alone in her own, in her own phobia of Voldemort and that she would never go out of it.

But in the battle when she realized that she was not. And when they killed Wal-Mart once. And for all her, her fear of him was finally vanquished and she could move on in her life. Now I want to talk about how the story would be different without her. So she plays a huge role in story, as we have talked about and talking about this home the whole time, uh, she's had some great moments.

She's got some, some amazing victories, but that means that without her, this story would have likely crumbled. So I want to go over just a few things out. We'll be doing. If she was in fact not in the story now, I think it would be different if you was, but you just didn't do the same things. Or if she just hurts her, it didn't exist.

I think it would be better if her character just didn't exist in terms of if you didn't do anything or if he didn't exist, because if she didn't exist, that means that the people who. Who would usually have not done anything, whatever had to step up and the gap kind of would have been filled. But if professor McGonagall did really was, was there and she just didn't do the things that she usually did that whole we'll just be there forever because no one would, no one could fill a peg  was already in.

Um, but if McGonigal didn't do anything in the position that she was, no one else could do anything either because they needed to be where she was in order to make the change at McKinnon. Um, that was very, that was long-winded. So, yeah, so, so let's just talk about it. If she was not in the story at all, for characters did not exist.

I think a lot of the same things would happen. I think Harry would do the same things. Um, just in, in general. Uh, I think Molly would, I think have a bear role in his life because she could, we were talking about before, um, he. Harry really needs that, that kind of person in his life to tell him exactly what to do.

But if, if you wasn't, if she wasn't in his life, if McGonigal was not there, I think again, mom would have to step up, but also Harry wouldn't have the same comfort at Hogwarts. Um, Griffin, Nora is kind of his pillow. Um, everyone that like bats, that that's where he has his friends. That's where the, the, the warm.

And Dumbledore is really his, his teacher. Um, Lupin is like the only person. Uh, he has like four people that are actually actually care about him, how it works. It's Dumbledore, Ron, her mining, and then Lubin for a year. So without those people, he really has no one else to talk to you. He's no one else to interact with.

And he's no one else to get advice from. And his draw strength from. So McGonigal had to be there to really give him the strength that he needed to continue forward. But if you wasn't there, that means if, if, if we got to go. If McGonigal wasn't there, that means hearing needed to drop that strike from someone else, which is very difficult because that's kind of strung did not come from nowhere.

And Heron really needed that kind of, of power from someone because she can not draw it out himself. He needed someone else to show him exactly how to get it. They kind of motivation inside himself and they kind of drive to go out and find out the horses and it destroyed them. But then comes the question of if McGonigal was there, but you just didn't do anything.

If she wasn't there, it would have been, uh, all of her duties would have been fulfilled by someone else and hair just, would've been a little more clueless, but if she was there and she didn't do anything, I think they would have lost the war. I mean, it's as simple as that, but you can see how much.

Professional McGonigal does in terms of helping the war effort, he's a part of the order of the Phoenix. She had changed the statues. Of course, I'm going back to that. She commands the battle. She does all of that. And yet she still stays ahead of the tide of just becoming another. Her work has just become this, this huge thing that people cannot do that other people just find it very difficult to do, which is why, if it wasn't there again, multiple people will have to pick out where she left off, but if she was there and she just didn't share, she ignored her duties and she decided her office eating, uh, newts all day.

Um, she definitely would not. Be the kind of person that we see her eyes and Maggie Smith would definitely have not have gotten the part because now he's met is not the kind of person who would just sit around lazy only, and I'll go, oh yeah, I do that. Do that. Oh, this, this paper gets enough because I don't want to, the character of McGonigal would have been vastly different if she didn't have the bit of the, the part in the story that we see or have, and think that's, that's really the bottom line.

Everything. When the duties or the character change, which is why we see a lupins role change when he's not a teacher, that's why we see Dumbledore role change when he's not even alive anymore. That's I think why professor  is a very different person. If she did not have the due to she usually. So let's get into some of her best moments.

Some of, some of them are goggles, absolute best moments of all time in this story. What has she done? Well, what things has she done that no one else has. Let's talk about it. So I'm going to skip over the, and look a motor on. That has happened so many times. We've already talked about that so much. So I'm going to skip over the time she enchanted all those statues and I'm going to skip to let's call it the dual, the dual she had with Snape that I think is one of her best moments.

She stood up to a teacher of more, if not equal, if not more skilled than her and still. She knew that it was her duty to get rid of snake. Even on that, sample's not, I wanted to get rid of gun, needed him out. He, she, she needed the, the castle to be hers. She needed the world to kind of become a Hollywood, you know, like positive for houses for the battle.

So when she battled snake, when Saint drew has won to hairy. Stepped in front of Harry and took the duel and she shot the dog down, fire wild fire. That's the sound of harmonics and snipped Dodge. That's, uh, he, he deflects it. And actually, if you, if you, uh, play back that scene, he deflects it at the Keros and at the death theaters behind him to get rid of them too.

Um, as she's going out that just shows the goodness of Snape. He does his great bat, smoky cloak, a black tissue flying thing, and he's gone. So that I think is one of her best moments. And another one is just a line that she has. And, uh, when it's it's on there, they're putting up the, the great bubble around Hogwarts where so.

Then the Flint WIC is like, whenever you know, this, this is never gonna keep the dark Lord out. Um, you know, this is never going to keep, you know who out, but McGonigal says you, you might as well call him by his real name, uh, Voldemort. He's gonna kill you either way. Um, so that was another part that I thought, but to go crushed, um, she understood the magnitude of the situation.

She called to her peers and said, we're going to die, but let's do it together. I'm kind of dark, but I don't know. She, she still knew that that was a moment to take control. She still knew that that was their moment to rise up and really shake the. That is where McGonigal knew that the Voldemort was their target.

And that was when the was when she shucked a chip away at her fear and really opened the door of her phobia, you know, Voldemort, Voldemort, Voldemort, she cried at his name. Um, so I think that was another, it was one of my, my favorite McGonigal moments when, uh, one of her best. Not the third and final moment that I really saw strength in  was when Harry and Ron were late for transfiguration class.

They, they ran up and then, um, they, they kind of went to stop and said, oh, I'm so glad that professor McGonagall isn't here. But then they saw the cat on the desk and asked professor McGonigal, she jumps off transfigured into a human. And Ron says that was brilliant. And then McGonigal said, Thank you for that assessment, Mr.

Weasley, whether then she goes on to say maybe it would be more useful in how to transfigure you and Mr. Potter Intuit pocketwatch then maybe one of you would be on time. All right. This is a classic professor. McGonigal got your line. Um, Harry and Ron. Well, rather Ron just walked right into that one. Um, so that one, I laugh at every single time because I'm just, is just like, no, sorry.

I'm I'm shutting. Mute mute. Um, and she, she sees that they are never going to be on time again. It's just so she's, so she just goes, you know, just be on time and then they're like, okay. Um, and then they're on time forever. That's uh, I think are some of the mechanical's best moments. There are so many more, and I would encourage you to tell me if any more than.

Uh, should, should have been on this list. Uh, you can go send me a DM on Instagram at the pot discussion or an email file discussion as you can with a conference, anything that you want to tell me about professor McGonigal, but let's move on to one final topic before we go. And I think that final topic would be if we could change anything about.

What would it be? So this is going to be a topic that we have to really think about because it was professor McGonigal is the kind of person that has everything figured out. She has her clothes laid out two weeks beforehand. She has her breakfast already made. Um, and she just, she, she knows exactly what she's going to have.

And she, she lives her life on a straight line and she knows that she will never wait. From that. So changing something in her schedule, I think is something that is very difficult for her because she sees that as a, a pathway to failure. Um, she, she sees that if she gets. Uh, her, her, her daily life, her life will just crumble apart.

Not, not necessarily the fact that like, she, like, if she doesn't, uh, if she doesn't like take the same walk every morning and like, in a sense that she doesn't teach the same lesson that she wants to, if she wants to be consistent, I think that's, that's the right word. She's afraid of being inconsistent and she wants to be on the same page.

So I think that is what we'd change about her, her being okay. Professor McGonagall, being okay with not doing the same thing every single time, because it works. I mean, it works very well, but at a certain point, we need to, to show Bronco that there's more than one way to do something and she needs to see that for herself.

And she needs to understand that life goes on. Life goes on. If you don't do something that you did the day before I was in was at time the same exact way. I think this will apply to things like her teaching, like sure of her life, but it would also apply to things like her confidence, like her strength.

She has great, great. I guess you call them scores in both of those, but she is just petrified that they will be damaged by something that happens. She is petrified that she will not be able to move forward and she is terrified of. Of of the, the world just coming to a close, coming to a close, coming to a close.

Oh. Or the NES. So that I think is just one big thing. I would change about her. I would give her time and I would give her space to expand and evolve into more than one kind of person. So that is that. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you for listening all the way to this episode. I was worried I wouldn't finish in time.

I woke up way too late today. Nah, it was like 10 when I woke up. So I, I, I could not bear being late. I don't like I'm like professional McGonigal. I cannot bear being just standing every single day at the same time. So I, I even have to shorten my morning walk to get here. I was so hard, but I will take a, an afternoon, walked away.

They make up for it. I, you know, I'm starting to see that that's, that's the thing. I would change it out. Me too. That would be, I would give myself a room to not be petrified that I would do something wrong. Um, but, uh, yeah. Yeah. I mean, that's it. Thank you for listening. So, so, so much, um, I hope you enjoyed this episode.

I enjoyed making it. I had this plant for a very long time. Um, it was interrupted by the trip. By Columbia ideas that I had that I just had to record. Um, this is, uh, actually going to be episode one 19. Um, but then of course I went on my vacation, which was great. And then I went on my other vacation, which was awesome.

Uh, two weeks I was gone and then I had to trailer and then I got. And next week's episode I was going to have is one 20, uh, that didn't work out, obviously. Um, but yeah, so I think this is definitely going to be a, uh, a, uh, a long, long string of things that are happening. So I'm glad that I have managed to make it thus far in recording this.

And 1 25 is approaching. I'm not doing any special, uh, at 1 25, but still as a milestone, I think. I was just thinking about it. And based on the space between the, um, movies of the, the crimes of Grindelwald and this movie of, of the normal door, I think I'm going to be at like three or 400 by the time that he comes out, movie four, if  comes out, I think it will.

But, um, it's. Thinking that far ahead, just boggles my brain because we have 52 episodes in a year and say that it was like Swope three. Like four years since the, I think, yeah. Yeah. The contract all came out in 2018. Um, so that's four years. So four times, if you do a skull, like 200 around 200 episodes.

Yeah. That's all I'll, I'll be at MSO like 3 25. By the time this success comes out by the time movie four comes out. But on the ad, like episode one, I think I'll be at like, I was a 1 25 by the time. The trailer comes out because it was the 12th as I'm recording this. So it'll be all I've recorded about another month's worth of episodes, but I am so excited to see this.

I am so excited to see the new movie to do a dis discover the answers. Um, JK Rowling did say that answers are given, as you will know, if you read the latest edition at the Quillen Inc. Um, Yeah. I mean, that's it. I rambled on long enough. Thank you for listening again. You can go follow me on Instagram. We are approaching 3000 followers.

If you want to be part of the 3000 follower group, go ahead and go follow me on Instagram at the Potter discussion. I want to do an episode all about the polls and quizzes that I've done on there soon. So make sure you go take part in that because there's going to end up so. Soon and you can be a part of it.

So that would be very fun. Again, add the Potter station on Instagram and you can also send me a DM on Instagram. If you have anything to say about more about McGonigal, Andy sent me an email. Anything else? Um, that is the Potter discussion at g-mail dot com. They're also the two links in the show notes below for these to be page link.

I think Google form link for everything you want to hear or say on the show. Um, but that is all the stuff I want to say today. Thank you for listening. And as always remember that. Can be found even in the darkest of times, even one, when he remembers to cherry on really late, I'll see you later.

This was the Pulitzer discussion.