Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire Doesn't Make Sense? 

It’s 1994. You’re rocking your sweet new wizard robes, Omnoculars ready. Your dad spent your NEWT fund to get tickets for the Quidditch World Cup. It’s a giant blowout that is over in 30 minutes. You are accosted by drunk Death Eaters afterwards. Life isn’t great.

Schrodinger's maze: Every student who enters the maze is both dead and alive until an instructor can confirm a students state of life or death.

The triwizard tournament is literally the worst spectator sport of all time😂

The tri wizards tournament is the worst sport to watch ever "Guess well stare at this lake for a while" "Let's all watch the maze and see who comes out"

Or couldn't Molly have just looked at her clock and seen that they were in mortal peril?

Voldemort: accio glasses! And that is how you make your mortal enemy blind.

The reason muggle parents are ok with hogwarts is cause they don't get the daily prophet

“Dumbledore being Dumbledore” is my new explanation for the entirety of this series

What would've made sense: Harry did you put your name in the goblet? Harry: No. Snape: I believe him. Has Potter ever shown talent enough to circumvent the goblet's barrier? So then how did his name appear? Harry: I dunno. Voldemort maybe, he's only been trying to kill me for years. Dumbledore: In light of these events we shall postpone the Tournament until we can conduct an inquiry.

I always thought it was weird that Harry's relationship with Mad Eye started out with an imposter instead of the real guy. Not a plothole just weird.

New Ministry of Magic dress code: short-sleeve shirts only

WHY DIDN'T ARTHUR JUST RIDE THE EAGLES TO MRS WEASLEY?!?!?

It always annoyed me too how Fleure was bassicaly dismissed during the whole book. She was awesome!

I'm really surprised you didn't talk about how convoluted a plan it was to get harry to touch the cup, which was a portkey. If the cup can become a portkey, why not anything else in the school Moody/Crouch: "Harry pass me that quill" Harry: "Sure" *Picks up quill that is a portkey. Boom! Sent to Voldy

I’ve always really disliked how fluer was portrayed during the tournament. You have to be a good witch/wizard to make it into the tournament, and they just kinda made her meh. I wanted to see her being a badass.

"Dumbledore asked Harry quietly: DID YOU PUT YOUR NAME IN THE GOBLET OF FIRE?"

You forgot to mention that the BEST way Barty Crouch Jr could think of to get Harry Potter to the graveyard was to get Harry to win the Triwizard Tournament. Even if the only way he could get Harry to the graveyard was by portkey, Barty could have just asked Harry to stay after class with him one day, and asked Harry to fetch something for him. Harry then could grab the thing he was asked to fetch, and get sent to the graveyard. Like, how could winning the Triwizard Tournament POSSIBLY be the best way to get Harry to the graveyard!!!

J.K. Rowling doesn't strike me as someone who ever watches sporting events. The rules of Quidditch itself is testament to that.

In my head the cup was already portkey that would take the winner to the beginning of the Maze and that where was put a kind of second layer on it to transport them into the graveyard

I mean, come on, Quidditch as a sport just in general doesn't make that much sense

And why would anyone even show up to "watch" the second task? An hour of just staring at the lake.

I expected you to spend a lot of time on how Vldemort and Barty Crouch Jr. thought the best way to get Harry Potter to touch a portkey was to enter him in a six month tournoment, guide him through it and turn the cup for the third task into a portkey. And trust that no one else would win the tournament (as Cedric almost did) and Voldemort would only have Fleur Delacour who would be useless to him. There are thousands of easier plans to get Harry to touch a portkey. Fake Moody even meets him in Hogsmeade, where apparation is allowed, and could have grabbed him and apparated. The whole basis for the story makes no sense. Also, Dumbledore never suspects Moody is an imposter for about 8 months, then when Moody takes Harry to his office after he is injured Dumbledore is certain Moody is an imposter? And, since it is so easy to impersonate someone with polyjuice potion why aren't there more safeguards against polyjuice potion to insure people are who they appear to be?

Okay here's a thought. Harry was a horcrux, right? So was it ever even POSSIBLE for him to die from natural causes?? like.. horcruxes have to be destroyed in really specifix circumstances, so if you make a living horcrux, could they just up and die when crossing the street one day? Probably not, right? So was Harry like invincible during the whole series?? And if dumbledore knew that, maybe that's why he wasn't really bothered with protecting harry during the triwizard tournament.

I'm currently reading the Harry Potter series for the first time ! (I'm 22 so this is extremely late) and I'm waiting for my goblet of fire book to arrive. Then I'll read and THEN ILL ACTUALLY WATCH THIS VIDEO. SEE YA IN A MONTH 😜

"Welcome to the Tri-Wizard Tournament, the game where everything's made up and the points don't make sense."

With the honorable mention: we know that there are unregistered animagi (Mauraders) so I wouldn't find it surprising if there were other unregistered people/items/etc.

Great job. Again, you brought up points except for the veritaserum that I hadn't even thought of. Some of my favorite illogical points in the story- 1. Gillyweed - Considering everything else they can do, one would think that breathing underwater would be a SIMPLE thing. And yet, Hermione not only doesn't know how to do it, but her extensive search of the library also yields her nothing because Neville apparently took out the only book in the whole damn library to talk about gillyweed. 2. The 2nd Task nearly starts without Harry - Huh? How does that make any sense? Harry didn't even choose to compete. Remember he has to because his name spitting out of the Goblet of Fire constitutes a magical contract, forcing him to compete in all 3 tasks. And yet, they can start an event without him? Then why doesn't he just be late or skip all three? Haha... crazy stuff. 3. Moody (Barty) can see through the invisibility cloak - Hahaha... come on. Plot hole. Death can't see through the cloak but Moody's special eye CAN. Moody is more powerful than death.

One thing that bothers me is the ball and how rude Harry and Ron were to the girls.

when adult logic is applied to childrens stories you get these problems.

The fact that Fluer really didn't get a chance to shine has always bothered me with this book.

As a teacher: Hogwarts is the most terrifyingly unsafe school just on a day to day basis, let alone with the magic shenanigans.

Regarding the Dark Mark on the arm: wasn't it supposed to be a secret? When Harry told Sirius about the discussion between Snape and Karkaroff, that Karkaroff had wanted to see Snape's arm, Sirius didn't understand what that was all about. I think nobody was supposed to know about it.

The fact that Death Eaters all get branded with the Dark Mark that gets more prominent the stronger Voldemort gets also creates a plothole for book 5 when Harry tries to tell everyone that Voldemort is back. Not only is he being ignored, but being called a liar and physically tortured by Umbridge because of it. All the Ministry of Magic would have needed to do was take a look at all the arms of the imprisoned Death Eaters which would have shown them that Harry was right all along.

Wasn't the final task a winner take all, but based on the points, you were allowed to enter in order of who had the most points? So Fleur got into the maze last based on her placing.

“Hey nice to meet you, pull up your sleeve.” 😂

I love that you call him ‘Voldy’

"People disagree with this"? I mean... they should agree because you are 100% right with this quidditch thing. It's just stupid because quidditch rules are mostly stupid.

never does harry once say "err, actually I don't wanna do this!! I didn't put my name so y'all better figure out how it got there, 'cause I aint doing this"

Wow, the Fleur point-thing is so true! I always thought it annoying that she apparently was so bad compared to the others in all the tasks, I feel a little better now, except she still didn`t get credit.

I always interpreted Krum's catch as a selfish act. He put aside his team and went for the singular glory of catching the snitch. It made me dislike him during the whole Hermione/Ron triangle.

The veritaserum could have been solved as a plot hole by simply saying that it is either difficult to make and produces very little each batch like liquid luck, or just by saying that the ministry can't administer it to a person for legal reasons.

Besides the Veritaserum plothole, which I thought of too, I found another serious plothole you did not mention: owls. At first Harry uses Edvige to communicate with Sirius, then he tells Harry to use a regular owl. So, apparently, a random owl is able to locate an addressee even if they are hiding and the sender does not know where they are. Then why doesn't the Ministry send an owl to Black and follows it? JK Rowling even addressed this issue in an interview telling that wizards can make themselves unreachable; but then how did Evdige and other owls find Sirius?

Am I the only one who has an issue with Harry being in the tournament at all? Like they put the age line in for people that are 17, which is the age of maturity in the wizarding world, basically you have to be an adult to enter. So why was Harry allowed to stay? Bagman says that Harry is simply obliged to play. Crouch says anyone who comes out of the Goblet has to play. Imposter Moody says its a binding magical contract But 1). Harry is a minor, is he bound by a contract when he is only 14? 2). Harry didn't enter. What happens if he doesn't play? Wouldn't the contract effect the person who entered the parchment? Not just the name? 3). Does that mean anyone who was 17 could have just entered random names into the Goblet? like first or second years, and if they came out they would have been forced to play? This whole contractual obligation tied to the Goblet is problematic.

Cup was already registered as a portkey to take the winner back to The beginning point. Moody / crouch put another layer of portkey on top of it. Which was no problem because the object already was registered as a portkey. Voldy would probably have sent Harrys dead body back with the cup. If everything went to plan. Bigger doesnt make sense is why James comes out of voldys want before Lilly James was killed first.

“Maybe they’re safe. Maybe they’re dying” 😩😂😂 I love how you display three different editions of GoF during this 😍

Totally agree with your opinion on the triwizard tournament, I feel the exact same way! Not too mention I was literally screaming inside my head for Harry to use accio when he dropped the egg and the map, so frustrating!

18:50 is my favorite chapter in the whole book. The Egg and The Eye. Loved the interactions between Snape and "Moody" and rereading it after knowing the ending was even better. It was so easy to trust and like "Moody" afterwards. Plus there was tons of tension. I was bummed it wasn't in the movie.

Also, I don’t think J.K. Rowling or her editors/publishers ever envisaged tens of millions of nerds dissecting every word for complete logical consistency in a fantasyland

What bothers me is that it's 10 points for each quaffle and 150 for the snitch. Why not 1 point for a quaffle and 15 for the snitch? Do wizards just have some kind of obsession with bigger numbers?

That's amazing how critically you approach the books. I love the series, too, and when I watch your videos on HP I realise how blind I am to the plot holes and convenient things in the story 🙈 never crossed my mind how weird the tournament is, when the viewers can't really watch most of it, ha...

I always thought that the cup was meant to be a port key that took the winner out of the maze. Since it has to be registered with the Ministry, there could be something that notifies the Ministry whenever something is turned into a port key. So fake Moody had to mess with the cup and make it take Harry to the graveyard. It could’ve been two way just because fake Moody didn’t remove the original purpose of the port key; once it took Harry to the graveyard it was still enchanted for transport outside of the maze, hence why Harry could use it again

As a Bulgarian I've only read the translated HP books. Now seeing pages from your book, I realise how funny the Bulgarian accent is written! :D It's not accurate at all, but I imagine how hard it is to write an accent for an unpopulat foreign language. And of course, having a Bulgarian characted in Harry Potter is so awesome for us! Our country barely gets any representation in western pop culture (no reason why it should) and all of a sudden, we are in Harry Potter!

Having recently reread the book myself, I think it's strongly implied that people just didn't know about the Dark Mark being branded on Death Eaters' arms last time. Like, it just wasn't known to the general public. Given that, it makes a little more sense that people wouldn't jump to checking others' arms to see if it's there.

Dumbledore's definition of "safe", in the words of Arthur Dent, "Ah, this is obviously some strange usage of the word 'safe' I that I wasn't previously aware of."

I found your channel trough your Harry Potter videos and I really enjoy them! I‘m really looking forward to the halfblood prince book because it‘s my favourite!

“We don’t know how portkeys are made” *in literally the next book- dumbledore: “Portus”

I love these types of videos. I like breaking down certain scenes or concepts in our favourite media and talking about the things that don't make sense, or that stand out as a little weird.

So this is super small, but on my most recent reread of the series I noticed that at the end of the last chapter of Goblet of Fire when everything is being wrapped up its mentioned that the horseless carriages show up to take them to the Hogwarts Express. In Order of the Phoenix, one of the minor plot points is that Harry can now see what's pulling the carriages because he saw Cedric die. Shouldn't Harry have been able to see them at the end of Goblet of Fire? Like I said its a really small detail, it just keeps popping into my head every time Harry sees the thestrals as I'm reading Order of the Phoenix.

About the dragon task: I think the points also depended on other things like how long it took you and how impressive it was overall. I think it was mentioned that Harry was fastest which might explain why he got more points than Fleur (maybe she took really long). While Harry didn't do a lot of cool magic his flying abilities must have been really impressive. That still doesn't explain why Fleur didn't get higher scores than Cedric though. But it makes sense that Krum also wins because he and Harry both have a judge each that's really biased towards them while Cedric has none and Fleur only has Madame Maxime but she gives fair marks to the others so it doesn't make a whole lot of a difference.

Please keep this series going - the review + what doesn’t make sense for each book. You’re going a great job!

Dudley had a PlayStation in 1994.

As to the whole portkey thing, I believe that the cup was already a portkey, that would transport the winner from the center of the maze to the outside, into the cheering crowd's view, and the Crouch Jr just added a "leg" to the trip. Because, when you think about it, the Ministry probably tracks portkeys, so they would know if an object that wasn't already a portkey, became one. However, if the cup had already been made into a portkey, I do not think they would have any way of knowing. As to the point system in the Tournament, I always assumed it was to give each contender a more priviledged starting point in the maze, kinda like a F1 grid.

This has made me realize something about Voldy's character that no one really talks about... He's theatrical. Like total drama queen. Thank you for helping me come to this conclusion!

I just discovered these videos. I LOVE your reviews. I recently became a Harry Potter fan. It’s awesome to hear another fan speak so in depth about these wonderful books. Way to go!!! :)

I have just finish a reread of the series today and the point you brought up about Harry not using accio the retrieve the map is such a great point. I personally found reading all the books this time that this happens a lot. There are spells they can very easily use, and have before, to get out of situations or help which they just don't. For no seemingly good reason. I just have to ignore it or I get really frustrated.

Maybe I'm remembering incorrectly, but didn't the contestants with the most points get a head start on the last task? Even if the points don't matter, better placement in the first two tasks gave them an advantage on the third.

I love your Harry Potter videos! It's so funny to me that the Triwizard Tournament has spectators because with the lake task and the maze task, no one in the stands could see anything! They were just looking at the surface of the lake and some really tall hedges the whole time. Also, re: Arthur and the patronus, it's possible that he didn't learn how to use a Patronus to communicate yet. Because in OOTP, didn't someone say that the Order had a special way of communicating with each other, referring to the Patronuses? So maybe Dumbledore taught everyone in the Order how to do it after Voldemort came back and the Order was reestablished. Also, in OOTP, Dumbledore makes a Portkey using the "Portus" charm, so I think anyone who knows/is powerful enough can do it? Although I think they mention that Dumbledore is making an illegal/unregistered portkey, which isn't allowed. Edit: Actually, when they’re discussing how to transport Harry at the beginning of OOTP, they mention that they can’t make an unregistered portkey: Lupin says “it’s more than our life’s worth to set up an unauthorized Portkey.” So they could do it, it’s just really illegal.

about the portkeys thing: it is worth noting that the portkey didn't take Harry back to the centre of the maze, but instead to right in front of the spectators. One theory I've heard is that Voldemort intended to portkey straight to Hogwarts, surprise everyone and eliminate basically all the powerful people who would oppose him, like Dumbledore and Fudge.

I think the Cup Portkey was two way because they were going to deliver Harry's dead body back to the school, so that they could make it look like he died tragically in an accident and Voldemort would have remained in the shadows that much longer. Also, I think Fleur got shortchanged in the first task because not only was Karkaroff pulling points against her, but so was Ludo Bagman to a degree, because his bet with the goblins where he needed Harry to win outright, and Barty Crouch Sr, because he was influenced by the Imperius Curse.

I'll try to give explanations to some of your points. 1. The Irish seeker was about to catch the snitch whilst Krum was hurt during the game with blood on his face. Krum knew that Bulgaria would not catch up in the points, so he flew off and caught the snitch first, to even out the scores. His intentions were not to win, but the end the game on his terms. 2. Arthur should've sent a Patronus, but remember that this happened late in the night. Molly was sleeping whilst this happened. And if Molly was worried, she could've used her clock to see how the family is doing during the quidditch cup...and send a Patronus if she was awake. Arthur made sure that they went back to the Burrow first thing in the morning, so he expected to tell all of this to Molly in person. 3. The first thing that Fudge did when learning that Barty Crouch Jr's was responsible for those events, he ordered a dementor to enter the school and suck out Crouch's soul, without even wanting to hear his confession. Fudge would not have wanted to listen to Harry either since he expected Harry to suffer from hallucinations due to Rita Skeeter's article about him. This meant that Fudge would not have cared to use veritaserum or that memory extraction technique on Harry, as Harry's memories, according to Fudge, were not real. 4. Again, revealing the dark mark would not have meant anything to the close-minded Fudge. 5. Dumbledore speaks mermish and is in good terms with the merpeople. I am confident that the mer-people would have helped if Harry was actually drowning (a point that you mentioned, which I think is true). 6. I was surprised that the third task included creatures, such as the sphynx, acromantula and a blast ended screwt. These creatures might have killed the champions so I assume that teachers were asked to patrol areas where these monsters were in. And I don't think that Dumbledore would have expected one student to cause fatal harm to another. 7. I assume that Fleur took the longest to get her egg. 8. Anyone can charm an object and make it a portkey. In order of the phoenix, dumbledore created a portkey twice to send people away from or to Hogwarts. And i don't think that the 7 portkeys used in deathly hallows were registered with the infiltrated ministry either. 9. The charm needed to enchant an object and make it a portkey is tricky. it's one thing to create a portkey that teleports you to a different location at a pre-planned time, but it takes more advanced magic to enchant an object so it works as a portkey twice, and can be used at a random time. I think that Crouch enchanted the portkey to work twice, since he wanted Voldemort to use Harry's corpse for polyjuice potion, transforming into Harry and arriving in Hogwarts to kill Dumbledore, whilst disguised as Harrt, This is someone else's theory by the way.

Dumbledore makes a portkey at the end of the 5th book and Fudge basically tells him off that he doesn't have registration for the creation of a portkey so my assumption is that it's illegal to make one without ministry approval, but the actual act itself doesn't require anything other than knowing the spell.

I love hearing you talk about this, I don’t have many Potter heads to talk to

My reasoning for the portkey cup is that it was always meant to be a portkey designed to take the winner back out to the entrance of the maze (where Harry and dead!Cedric end up when they come back), and that Barty Jr. just added an extra layer in somehow.

On your point on the Veritaserum, for me, truth is subjective. What's true for one person wont be true for someone else, and if wizards psychology worked even slightly like human psychology, you can turn any lie into a truth just by telling yourself that it is true.

The Triwizard Tournament - the original wizarding Hunger Games

“I have a bunch of things” There is actually only one thing, *calmly*

I like to think that they planed to kill Harry and send him back to the maze, so everyone thought he died in the task. Never got why he came back to a different spot though.

After reading the books back prior to finishing the series, one major thing stood out to me and still does; How come Moody/Crouch Jr. wasn't accosted for performing not one, but ALL THREE Unforgivable Curses in front of Harry's class!? Yes, The Ministry knew that Dumbledore was bat shit crazy and was somewhat lenient with what he allowed his staff to do at Hogwarts, and yes, he was using Moody's wand at the time, but they're still illegal curses and it's mentioned in the same chapter that use of ANY of those curses will get you locked up in Azkaban, let alone all of them! Regardless of the reasons for using these, you'd think The Ministry would send someone to Hogwarts to find out why an "Ex-Auror" is showing a bunch of 14 year olds how to perform these spells! It may not be a plot hole as such, but it's something to definitely ponder.

The message Patronus is used only by Order of the Phoenix members and Arthur wasnt in the Order during the first war, probably didn't know how to use it yet.

So something that has always bugged me about this book is that Sirius says he doesn't know what Karkaroff showing Snape his forearm means, when surely as a member of the order and as someone who was literally in Azkaban, unless he is just lying to Harry because Harry doesn't yet know that Karkaroff is a Death Eater

Hi @Merphy Napier - Great video, really enjoy the series. You're right it is winner take all for the last task. But the 1st and 2nd task gave away points so that 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th could be decide. The tri wizard champion in 1st place gets to enter the maze first and then each member has a couple of minutes delay. It is a very long and futile way to decide who goes in the maze first but makes for a great couple of chapters. Keep up the great content :)

Better question, why didn’t Molly look at her clock? All of her children and Arthur are on that clock.

Surprised you didn’t mention the fact that Crouch Jr. could have completely bypassed the entire tournament and just made a quill or something a portkey and asked Harry to pick it up.

Seriously loving these... I'd watch 40 mins of these problem videos... and I'm a HUGE Potterhead! Thank you Merphy for making these, it's how I found you 🖤

The time travel in book 3 actually makes perfect sense. They can only do what's already been done. As they are about to go back in time they are also already about to come back. This is how harry realizes he saves himself becuase he already did it. Now why she doesnt go back and take charms is covered by the cursed child. The time Turner's can only go back a certain amount of time, this implies her nap was long enough to make time travel impossible, also it makes 2 Hermione's, one that is going to be woken up by ron and harry and this obviously cant be done if she then freaks out about a class she missed then goes back making it so from Ron's perspective she was in class, suddenly not with them, then napping, then freaking out about the class she just missed. Now in the cursed child that time travel is a garbage fire.

You catch so many things, and they're really interesting points. You're my HP expert now.^^ BTW, Fleur is pronounced like "flirt"(without the "t). ;)

I saw a really good theory about the port key of the tournament that Voldemort planned to sent Pettigrew back to Hogwarts transfigured as harry to have no suspects that he was back

Hey, I’m really enjoying this series. I hope you manage to finish all the books 🙂

I forgot that the spectators saw almost anything of the tournament hahaha

For me, the biggest plothole of the book is that the whole story could have taken place in a week instead of an entire school year. Once Barty Crouch, Jr was able to impersonate Moody and get on Hogwarts grounds, all he needed to do was, on the first day of classes, say "Harry Potter! I've heard so much about you! Come by office later." Then when he's alone with Harry, stupefy him and get him to the graveyard (I know wizards can't apparate on Hogwarts grounds, but I'm sure Crouch, Jr was smart enough to have found a way to smuggle Harry's body out of the school via his chest, or invisibility cloak, some other way, and then use Floo Powder, or a Portkey, or apparate with the body once off the grounds). Yes, Dumbledore might have gotten suspicious, but it's still better than what actually happened. There was no need to involve Harry in the Tri-Wizard Tournament at all, or to have Crouch Jr masquerade as Moody for an entire school year; if the objective was just to capture Harry and get him to the graveyard, he could have done it in a week at most.

#1 Duke just lost to Stephen F Austin last night... so there’s an example of a huge upset for you lol

17:40 First of all, the spell to make the Portkey is pretty easy (the spell is Portus, we learn it in the fifth book when Dumbles enchants the wizard statue's head to take Harry over to Hogwarts), the real problem is that it's illegal to make it without the Ministry's permission. You can make it, but you're not allowed to, something Barty Crouch Jr. wasn't really worried about at that point. And I think the Portkey took Harry back not because JK suddenly changed Portkey rules, but because it had been previously enchanted to take someone over to the entrance of the maze. So Barty Crouch Jr. took Harry to the graveyard and someone else's spell took him to the entrance, and only then the Cup ceased to be a Portkey. You know that's what happened because the Portkey doesn't actually take him back to where he left, as many people say, but to the entrance of the maze. If the Cup had taken him back to the start point, he would've appeared in the center of the maze, but he didn't, which means the spell that took Harry back was the one under Crouch's spell. Now, how the hell Harry figured out that there was a second Portkey spell under the first, which is what led him to Accioing the Cup, is a whole different question I can't answer

I love the videos keep them coming! Hope you have a nice holiday season.

Oh My God, that scene when harry drops the egg and the map!!! I've literally screamed at him, every single time when I read the book, JUST USE ACCIO! He can be really daft sometimes....

I think quidditch should have been written better.

I feel like the cup portkey had a two way portal because it was already a portkey that was supposed to take the winner back to the start of the maze and when Barty Crouch Jr. put it so it took them to the graveyard, there was still the other portal transfer and that’s how Harry got back with Cedric.

Lovely video been watching the Full catalogue your Harry Potter video r reviews today

Considering how the quidditch point system is messy with a 150 golden snitch, I wasn’t really expecting anything less from the Triwizard tournament point system. The Wizarding World must be just had a point systems. 😂

Well, animagi are also supposed to be registered with the Ministry and, apparently, every other wizard can do that without the Ministry's knowledge too. Why not portkeys too?

I waited for this sooo long