Avada Kedavra vs Power Armor

[Panzersharkcat]

Or any sufficiently thick armor. I just said power armor since it's probably the only way somebody can move with inch-thick armor or something on. Anyway, I just finished rereading the Harry Potter books and was dicking around on TV Tropes when I read something along the lines of JK Rowling saying that in a fight between a Muggle with a shotgun and a wizard with a wand, gun beats wand. That drew me back to Order of the Phoenix when Dumbledore was using desks and statues to block Voldermort's killing curses. That got me wondering how useful armor would be against the killing curse. I'm guessing a bulletproof vest like cops wear would be useless but I wasn't sure about stuff like what Space Marines or even what Brotherhood of Steel Paladins wear. Would it render the killing curse useless, stop it barely and result in chunks blown off the armor, or would it not matter at all with the chunks blown off going into the body of the wearer?

[Bright]

The question would be whether it's in the nature of the spell to discern that some objects are only covering human beings. The statues at the Ministry of Magic, after all, were animate objects, not living things. It might still kill someone, even if they're wearing something to sort of block the beam.

[Panzersharkcat]

That is true, I guess. It doesn't set anyone's clothes on fire if it hits them like it did to the desks. If that's the case, how far does that go, though? If I got a sheet of lead and held it an inch in front of me to block it, would that count would I still be dead?

[Connor MacLeod]

Aim for the neck. you can kill a Space Marine witha pointy wooden stick if you aim for the neck.

[Ryan Thunder]

Aim for the neck. you can kill a Space Marine witha pointy wooden stick if you aim for the neck.

You can't be serious.

[Panzersharkcat]

I imagine it's hard to aim a stick that accurately without sights of some sort. I guess it wouldn't matter too much if you disarmed the guy first so you can just pelt him with spells without worrying about being shredded to pieces by minigun fire.

[TithonusSyndrome]

Spells in HP arc and twist like popular depictions of lightning weapons, often with what appears to be some sort of guiding principle behind them. I don't see how else all these wizards and witches in the books can make all the snap shots we see them making all the time without putting serious thought into their aim. Can this find an exposed neck? Ask JK, I guess.

[Panzersharkcat]

I don't recall that happening in the books. If it's from the movies, I have seen only three of the movies (because I have a stick up the ass attitude towards changes in adaptations) and I don't exactly remember much detail from them regarding how spells work.

[ray245]

Wasn't the spell stopped by a rock? Although I might be mixing things up between the movie and the book. It would be weird if the spell can go through all sorts of magical defences and yet at the same time, can't go through any decent body armour.

[Esquire]

I'm not sure it'd be out of place for spells to be defeated by nonmagical armor. Since wizards don't wear it, there wouldn't be any reason to design* spells to overcome armor, and Avada Kedavra might just be very highly optimized against the magical defenses (Protego shields, etc.) that wizards typically use.

*This is assuming spells are in fact created and haven't simply existed forever in their current states. I'm pretty sure someone is described as a spell researcher and that Arithmancy is used for spell creation, but that might just be the fanfiction talking.

[Majin Gojira]

Hell, from what I remember standard magic has problems with highly dense targets and if I recall, a physical medieval shield was used to block spells.

So why not Avada Kadavra?

[Ahriman238]

In the fourth book, Harry takes cover behind a tombstone and that works fine. In the movie version the curse is visibly blasting apart the stone, but it still seems to hold.

Then again, when Dumbledore fights Voldemort in book five, he animates several gold statutes to fight, and they are severly damaged by AKs. Perhaps it has different effects on stone than metal? Fawkes also takes a Killing Curse in that book, "dies" and is promptly reborn.

[Connor MacLeod]

Aim for the neck. you can kill a Space Marine witha pointy wooden stick if you aim for the neck.

You can't be serious.

Oh I am.

"Slain by a human, of all things. An unlucky thrust with a wooden spear."Argel Tal
tapped two fingertips against his neck. "Tore out most of his throat, laid it bare to the bone. I’ve never seen anything like it. Blood of the gods, I’d have laughed if it hadn’t been so pathetically tragic. He bled out before the Apothecaries could reach
him, still trying to shout the whole time."

Added hilarity for it being a Word Bearer as WELL as a Space Marine.

[Block]

Wasn't there some chaos witchery involved?

[Kuja]

Oh I am.

To be fair, Argel Tal there is talking about a guy wearing pre-heresy armor, probably Mk.3 or 4, which did have gaps in its protection. "Modern" space marines in Mk.7 or Mk.8 are wearing suits that were better designed to put a stop to that type of lucky blow.

[Connor MacLeod]

Well thats true but there are plenty of similar cases where that doesn't apply - like in Gray Knights. I think the point is more 'where you aim' will matter in the case of magic spells, weapons, etc. Protection isnt uniform and can't protect everywhere, after all.

(Also the "pointy stick killing Astartes" is just so great I can't help but bring it forward when I have a chance.)

[Sinewmire]

Was that marine wearing his helmet, Connor?

Film Avada Kedavra would presumably blust off chunks of ceramite, such as previously mentioned tombstones.

I'm guessing stuff like Silver-tattooed hexagrammic wards wouldn't work as that's pretty much the point of the spell.

[Crown]

Wasn't the spell stopped by a rock? Although I might be mixing things up between the movie and the book. It would be weird if the spell can go through all sorts of magical defences and yet at the same time, can't go through any decent body armour.

Tombstone in the GoF books you might be thinking of, unless you mean the Resurrection Stone in the DH book, but if you did mean that you're wrong and mistaken.

[Kuja]

Well thats true but there are plenty of similar cases where that doesn't apply - like in Gray Knights. I think the point is more 'where you aim' will matter in the case of magic spells, weapons, etc. Protection isnt uniform and can't protect everywhere, after all.

(Also the "pointy stick killing Astartes" is just so great I can't help but bring it forward when I have a chance.)

Heh. Fair enough.

[Alyrium Denryle]

I'm not sure it'd be out of place for spells to be defeated by nonmagical armor. Since wizards don't wear it, there wouldn't be any reason to design* spells to overcome armor, and Avada Kedavra might just be very highly optimized against the magical defenses (Protego shields, etc.) that wizards typically use.

How do you know? I mean, when did wizard Britain go all separatist? My guess on that, and it is a guess, is that because their culture has not progressed much in 500 years (there has been some cultural contamination, like newspapers and soda... but their political system reminds me of Italy during the Italian Wars), that it was in the late medieval/renaissance periods.

Why wouldn't they be able to deal with armor?

We need to know more about the metaphysics behind magic, which are not really touched on. I dont think we can reach any rational conclusions here. This whole thread is an argument from ignorance.

[Simon_Jester]

Was that marine wearing his helmet, Connor?

Film Avada Kedavra would presumably blust off chunks of ceramite, such as previously mentioned tombstones.

I'm guessing stuff like Silver-tattooed hexagrammic wards wouldn't work as that's pretty much the point of the spell.

Yes, but it's also the point of the wards- so where does that leave us?

[Batman]

What is the average tombstone made of? Just so we have a rough idea of what shattering one means in physical damage delivered (and perhaps glimpse a hint as to the mechanism)?

[Eternal_Freedom]

I believe the GoF book specified it as being a large marble tombstone.

[Batman]

So how would a large marble tombstone react to being hit by, say, a .50cal FMJ round?

[Alyrium Denryle]

What is the average tombstone made of? Just so we have a rough idea of what shattering one means in physical damage delivered (and perhaps glimpse a hint as to the mechanism)?

The spell does not work that way. It carries some energy, but it does not damage or kill that way. It snuffs out the targets life force. Kind of like how when you throw a towel over a fire, it might impart some energy from the kinetic impact, but that is now how it kills the fire.