Who Created The UNFORGIVABLE Curses | Harry Potter Film Theory
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00:00 Okay, just quick trigger warning,
00:01 this video does include a verbal reference to suicide.
00:04 Hey, brother!
00:05 The unforgivable curses,
00:07 the three most powerful and darkest spells
00:10 known to wizard kind,
00:12 the use of a single one even once
00:15 can land you a lifetime in Azkaban.
00:18 They are, of course, the Imperius Curse,
00:20 the Cruciatus Curse,
00:21 and last but certainly not least,
00:23 (speaking in foreign language)
00:26 Throughout the story,
00:26 Harry finds himself on the receiving end
00:28 of each of these curses at least once,
00:31 and even tries to use two of them,
00:33 which keep that in mind
00:33 because it is going to be incredibly important
00:35 as we peel back the various layers of this idea.
00:38 But overall, it's not hard to understand
00:39 why they could be so dangerous.
00:41 One kills, one tortures, and one controls.
00:44 But as long as we've been reading Harry Potter,
00:45 they've just existed in the canon.
00:48 We've never really thought to ask
00:49 who created these spells and why,
00:52 but let me tell you, as we dove deeper and deeper,
00:55 I couldn't believe how the actual creators of the spell
00:58 managed to weave themselves into the story so perfectly.
01:03 Like, it continues to pay off over and over.
01:06 Today, we find out.
01:08 (dramatic music)
01:10 - Hey, brother!
01:13 - Who created the unforgivable curses?
01:19 Well, today, I think we're just gonna start
01:21 with the answer and then work backwards
01:23 because the more you peel it back, the crazier it gets.
01:26 My confidence level on this one is sky high.
01:28 So without any further ado,
01:30 the creators of the unforgivable curses
01:32 were none other than the three Peverell brothers,
01:36 the same brothers who created the Deathly Hallows.
01:39 The idea being that not only did each brother
01:41 create one of the Deathly Hallows,
01:43 but they also each created
01:45 one of the unforgivable curses.
01:47 But before we get too deep into this,
01:48 I do wanna give a huge shout out to Brettsthoughts
01:51 over on TikTok for first piecing together this idea.
01:55 'Cause like I said, once I started digging into it,
01:56 I found it to be more and more and more true.
01:59 So I reached out to him and asked
02:00 if we could expound upon it here on the channel,
02:02 and he was all for it.
02:03 So if you wanna see the original post
02:05 or any of the other TikToks he makes,
02:07 I will leave a link to that down in the description
02:09 down below.
02:10 He does lots of other fun Harry Potter content.
02:12 So please go check it out.
02:13 Give him a follow and a like.
02:14 Tell him we sent you there.
02:16 Thank you, Brettsthoughts.
02:17 So again, the idea is that the three brothers
02:18 who created the Deathly Hallows,
02:20 the Elder Wand, the Resurrection Stone,
02:22 and the Cloak of Invisibility,
02:23 each created one of the unforgivable curses.
02:26 Dumbledore himself says it's more likely
02:28 that the brothers were just incredibly talented,
02:30 powerful wizards who were able to create
02:32 the Deathly Hallows rather than it being more likely
02:35 that they ran into death on a bridge
02:37 who gave them the items.
02:39 But if they were clever enough
02:40 to make those super powerful items,
02:42 then it stands to reason that they were also clever enough
02:45 to come up with these insanely powerful spells.
02:48 In fact, the fact that Avada Kedavra is the killing curse
02:52 and that they're also supposed to have created
02:54 the Deathly Hallows kind of fits pretty well on its own,
02:58 right?
02:58 Like the creators of the Deathly Hallows
03:00 created the killing curse.
03:01 I mean, heck, you could probably go one step further
03:04 and say that the creation of the spell Avada Kedavra
03:07 is what led the Elder Wand to have such a reputation
03:10 as a wand that could never lose.
03:12 Like, is it truly an unbeatable wand
03:14 or was he just the only one who knew
03:16 the unblockable killing curse?
03:18 But so yes, if you're doing the math,
03:19 that does mean I think the first brother, Antioch,
03:22 who had the Elder Wand,
03:23 is the one who created Avada Kedavra.
03:26 And since he was the first brother,
03:27 he also seems like a good place to start.
03:29 As the story goes, Antioch asked Death to create a wand
03:33 more powerful than any in existence,
03:35 a wand that must always win duels for its owner,
03:38 a wand worthy of a wizard who had conquered death.
03:41 Conquered death indeed.
03:43 More like conquered the spell that can cast death.
03:47 But really, the way Antioch describes
03:49 how he wants the wand to work
03:51 lines up pretty well with how we know
03:53 Avada Kedavra to work.
03:55 Moody tells the class in "Goblet of Fire,"
03:57 "Not nice, not pleasant, and there's no counter curse.
04:02 There's no blocking it.
04:03 Only one known person has ever survived it,
04:06 and he's sitting right in front of me."
04:08 An unbeatable spell for an unbeatable wand.
04:11 Even the fact that Harry himself is the only person
04:14 to survive Avada Kedavra, and then by book seven,
04:16 he like levels up and survives it again,
04:19 this time cast by the Elder Wand, seems to fit.
04:23 Of course, in that moment,
04:24 Harry himself actually is already the master
04:26 of the Elder Wand and master of death
04:28 in a way that Antioch never really was.
04:30 Because while Antioch may have conjured up the spell
04:32 that can cast death, he certainly couldn't avoid death.
04:36 And actually even more interesting
04:37 is that the Elder Wand has a Thestral Core hair,
04:40 which according to Wizarding World,
04:42 "Is a potent but tricky core to master,
04:44 only a witch or wizard who is capable
04:46 of accepting death could do so."
04:48 So yet another reason to question whether or not mastery
04:51 of the Elder Wand comes from winning it
04:52 or just the mindset of the user.
04:55 Voldemort fears death above all else,
04:57 while Harry walks into the forest fully prepared to die.
05:01 Thanks of course, in part to his Council of the Dead,
05:03 which Harry was able to summon to his side
05:06 using the Resurrection Stone.
05:07 Which is a great segue into the second brother, Cadmus,
05:10 the creator of the Resurrection Stone.
05:12 And as far as I'm concerned, the Cruciatus Curse.
05:16 According to the story, Cadmus was an arrogant man
05:18 who sought to humiliate death.
05:20 So he asked death for a stone
05:22 that could call the dead back away from him.
05:25 And while he does get or make the stone,
05:27 he discovers it doesn't really work the way he'd hoped.
05:30 Because while he can successfully summon the girl
05:32 he had hoped to marry in life,
05:34 he finds that she is in constant suffering.
05:38 Yet she was sad and cold, separated from him as by a veil.
05:42 Though she had returned to the mortal world,
05:43 she did not truly belong there and suffered.
05:46 Finally, the second brother,
05:47 driven mad with hopeless longing, killed himself,
05:50 so as truly to join her.
05:52 Gosh, the wording there is so specific
05:54 that there is no chance it is a mistake.
05:56 Like, by a veil?
05:58 That is 1000% a reference to the veil in the death chamber
06:02 that Sirius falls through.
06:04 Which, in case you were curious,
06:05 we also have a theory
06:06 that maybe the Peverell brothers were responsible
06:08 for creating the veil itself.
06:10 Full video by clicking the card.
06:11 But I digress.
06:12 It is pretty clear from the description
06:14 of Cadmus's use of the stone
06:15 that both for the living and the dead,
06:18 the resurrection stone causes insufferable pain,
06:22 even if it's not the kind you'd expect.
06:24 Really, it's as Dumbledore says.
06:27 - Words are, in my not so humble opinion,
06:29 our most inexhaustible source of magic,
06:31 capable of both inflicting injury and remedying it.
06:35 - And of course, what he means there
06:36 is that while magic is obviously very powerful,
06:39 the non-magic words you say to another person
06:42 can be just as damaging and harmful or helpful
06:46 than even the worst magic.
06:48 It's like that old saying,
06:49 "Sticks and stones might break my bones,
06:51 "but words will leave me emotionally scarred
06:54 "and keep me in therapy for the rest of my life."
06:55 I'll tell you who really understood this was Umbridge.
06:58 Like, sticks and stones might break your bones,
06:59 but words will leave 16 different scars on your hand, Potter.
07:03 I mean, obviously we don't normally want
07:04 to experience pain of any kind,
07:06 but it's interesting that as kids,
07:07 everyone was way more concerned
07:08 with bodily harm than mental harm.
07:10 Either way, the point is,
07:11 the pain felt by Cadmus Peverell and his deceased fiance
07:14 is not physical pain, but it is nonstop emotional torture,
07:19 which I think, clever wizard that he was,
07:22 Cadmus was able to convert into a spell,
07:25 which if directed at another person,
07:27 could cause them to feel that pain in a very physical way.
07:31 But thus, the spell is kind of tragic, isn't it?
07:34 It means it's not really about torturing someone else.
07:37 It's about a way to release your own negative emotions,
07:41 which honestly lines up pretty well
07:42 with how Bellatrix explains using the spell to Harry.
07:46 "Never used that unforgivable curse before, have you, boy?
07:48 "You need to mean them, Potter.
07:49 "You need to really want to cause pain, to enjoy it.
07:52 "Righteous anger won't hurt me for long.
07:54 "I'll show you how it's done, shall I?
07:55 "I'll give you a lesson."
07:57 Now, of course, in her case,
07:58 she really is trying to cause pain,
08:00 but the takeaway is that you do need
08:02 to be really feeling the emotion.
08:05 Embrace your anger, if you will,
08:07 and channel it through yourself into the spell.
08:10 The best account we ever get for what it feels like
08:12 to be hit with the Cruciatus Curse comes in the graveyard
08:15 when Voldemort is using it to torture Harry.
08:17 It was pain beyond anything Harry had ever experienced.
08:21 His very bones were on fire.
08:23 His head was surely splitting along his scar.
08:25 His eyes were rolling madly in his head.
08:27 He wanted it to end, to black out, to die.
08:31 It hurts so bad he wants to die,
08:34 which is interesting wording,
08:36 because, of course, in the story,
08:38 that's exactly what death wants, isn't it?
08:41 And it's exactly how Cadmus felt
08:43 until the point where he took his own life.
08:46 And perhaps even more interestingly
08:48 is that even in such pain, Harry does not pass out.
08:52 Normally, if you were in that much pain,
08:54 that would be your body's response
08:56 to protect you from having to feel it.
08:58 And yet, Harry stays conscious.
09:00 Why?
09:01 Because this isn't regular physical pain.
09:05 It is emotional pain made physical.
09:08 And emotional pain demands to be felt.
09:11 That said, though, eventually,
09:13 Harry himself manages to overcome the Cruciatus Curse as well
09:16 and no longer feel pain when hit with it,
09:19 which, incidentally, comes immediately
09:21 after Harry has survived the Avada Kedavra Curse
09:24 for the second time.
09:25 Harry has again become a master of death,
09:27 and the result, Harry had been expecting it.
09:29 He knew his body would not be allowed
09:31 to remain unsullied upon the forest floor.
09:33 It must be subjected to humiliation
09:35 to prove Voldemort's victory.
09:37 He was lifted into the air
09:38 and took all his determination to remain limp.
09:41 Yet, the pain he expected did not come.
09:43 Point is, Harry is not affected by the spell anymore,
09:46 which is great for him,
09:47 because he's still pretending to be dead in this situation.
09:50 And I guess, does Voldemort think
09:51 this is going to hurt a dead body?
09:54 Is he just, what?
09:55 This is weird.
09:56 But if he's keeping track,
09:57 then that means that in becoming master of death,
09:58 Harry is able to overcome two of the unforgivable curses,
10:02 which to me, furthers the connection
10:04 between the unforgivable curses,
10:06 the Deathly Hallows, and the Peverell Brothers.
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11:47 Speaking of whom, that brings us to the third brother,
11:50 Harry's very own long dead ancestor.
11:53 Ignotus Peverell, creator of the invisibility cloak.
11:56 And as far as this theory is concerned,
11:59 the Imperius Curse.
12:00 Ignotus stands apart from his two brothers
12:03 as the youngest and the wisest.
12:05 And he does not seek to overpower or humiliate death,
12:08 simply to avoid him.
12:10 Or perhaps in a more realistic setting,
12:11 just be left alone and protect the ones he loves.
12:15 Similarly, the Imperius Curse stands apart
12:17 from the other two unforgivable curses.
12:20 While all three can be used to terrible ends
12:22 and are very dangerous in the wrong hands,
12:25 the experience of being hit by the first two
12:28 is very different from being hit by the Imperius Curse.
12:31 Avada Kedavra obviously kills you.
12:33 Crucio makes you feel like your literal bones are on fire,
12:37 but Imperius, it was the most wonderful feeling.
12:41 Harry felt a floating sensation as every thought
12:44 and worry in his head was wiped gently away,
12:46 leaving nothing but a vague, untraceable happiness.
12:49 He stood there feeling immensely relaxed,
12:51 only dimly aware of everyone watching him.
12:54 Wait, I'm sorry, is the Imperius Curse just like meditation?
12:57 Because I don't know about you guys,
12:58 but sometimes I feel like maybe I could go
13:00 for a dose of Imperius Curse.
13:01 You know, in a controlled setting with someone I trust.
13:03 But you see what I mean?
13:04 Rather than death or pain, it's bliss.
13:07 And yes, complete control over the other person.
13:10 But if Ignotus is indeed the creator of the Imperius Curse,
13:13 then consider his intended use.
13:16 It's just to hide and protect.
13:18 He never had any intention to kill or cause harm
13:21 or in this case, enslave people.
13:23 His goal was just to turn people away
13:25 in an almost kind, even peaceful manner.
13:28 Obviously gets put to terrible use eventually,
13:30 but can we really hold that against Ignotus
13:32 if that wasn't its original intended use?
13:35 I don't know, maybe, probably.
13:37 I guess we can all see how we feel
13:38 about whoever invented AI in like another five years, right?
13:40 Or does that really lay on one person's shoulders
13:43 or did it like invent itself?
13:44 I don't know, but in the meantime,
13:45 look, it drew me as a wizard.
13:48 What do you mean?
13:49 Shut up, it looks exactly like me.
13:50 Okay, he has a way better chin
13:53 and I should do my hair different.
13:55 Getting back on track though,
13:56 what continues to just blow my mind about this theory
13:59 is how the Hallows and Harry's mastery of each one
14:02 continues to match up with Harry's conquering
14:06 of the corresponding curse.
14:08 For example, it always kind of bothered me in "Goblet of Fire"
14:10 when Bardicrouch Jr. is putting the class
14:13 under the Imperius Curse
14:14 and Harry is able to just shake it off
14:17 on his very first try.
14:19 And then he heard Matt I. Moody's voice
14:21 echoing in some distant chamber of his empty brain.
14:23 "Jump onto the desk, jump onto the desk."
14:27 Harry bent his knees obediently, preparing to spring.
14:30 "Jump onto the desk."
14:31 "Why though?"
14:32 Another voice had awoken to the back of his brain.
14:34 "Stupid thing to do, really," said the voice.
14:37 "Jump onto the desk."
14:38 "No, I don't think I will, thanks,"
14:41 said the other voice a little more firmly.
14:42 "No, I really don't want to."
14:44 Like I get it, Harry's just naturally gifted
14:46 at defense against the dark arts,
14:48 but if ever there was a just,
14:49 "Harry's better than everyone
14:51 because he's the chosen one" moment, this is it.
14:54 Because it's not like it's always super easy for him.
14:56 I mean, it takes him like a whole year
14:58 to learn how to do the Patronus charm.
15:00 And he never gets very good at occlumency, like at all.
15:03 But in one go, with a powerful Death Eater
15:06 casting an unforgivable curse on him,
15:08 he shakes it off on the first try.
15:11 You kidding me?
15:12 But this theory explains it, because at that moment,
15:15 Harry is already the master of the Invisibility Cloak.
15:20 And the spell and the object are linked
15:23 by their creator, Ignotus Peverell.
15:25 And you might think like, "Wait, I mean, sure,
15:27 the cloak is extraordinary, but how would Harry's use of it
15:30 be any different than another person's?"
15:31 And I'm right there with you, but Dumbledore, as ever,
15:33 does seem to discern a difference.
15:35 "But the cloak I took out of vain curiosity,
15:37 and so it could never have worked for me
15:39 as it works for you, its true owner."
15:41 Actually, and this feels like no coincidence at this point,
15:44 but we mentioned earlier that throughout the story,
15:46 Harry actually attempts to use
15:47 two out of the three unforgivable curses.
15:50 Crucio on Bellatrix, which Harry does hit her with the spell,
15:53 but he doesn't really succeed in causing her much pain
15:56 at all, largely, I think, because Harry is not the type
15:58 of person to try to channel his emotional pain
16:01 into another person.
16:02 And then he also attempts the Imperius curse
16:04 when they're breaking into Gringotts.
16:06 But when you look at these examples,
16:07 Crucio is used moments after Sirius
16:10 has passed through the veil.
16:12 And the resurrection stone brings someone back
16:15 as if they're separated by a veil.
16:18 And it's like, in that moment,
16:19 all Harry wants to do is bring Sirius back.
16:22 And it's almost as if instinctively,
16:24 he knows how to see him again
16:26 and reaches for the correct brand of magic,
16:30 the Cruciatus curse.
16:31 - Crucio!
16:33 - Imperio, Harry is much more successful with
16:35 and uses to control the goblin Bogrod
16:37 to let them into the vaults at Gringotts.
16:40 But goodness me, do you know what Harry happens
16:42 to be wearing the very first time he uses this spell?
16:46 The invisibility cloak!
16:47 Ah, like the pattern connecting these things
16:49 is just too real.
16:51 In the story of the three brothers,
16:52 arguably Ignotus is the only one to master his hallow
16:56 while the other two become victims of theirs.
16:59 Harry, on the other hand, masters all three.
17:02 When Cadmus uses the resurrection stone,
17:04 it causes him the unbearable pain of the Cruciatus curse
17:08 and he wants to die.
17:09 But when Harry uses it,
17:10 it's so that he can be peacefully escorted to death
17:14 and afterwards, he's no longer affected
17:16 by the Cruciatus curse.
17:18 Antioch seeks to conquer death and be invincible
17:20 by using the Avada Kedavra curse with the Elder Wand,
17:24 whereas Harry allows himself to be hit
17:26 by the unblockable Avada Kedavra curse
17:29 with the unbeatable Elder Wand and remains unaffected.
17:33 And as if you need any more convincing at this point,
17:36 here's where things get super fun.
17:38 Even the names match up with the spells.
17:42 A, Antioch and Avada Kedavra,
17:44 C for Cadmus and the Cruciatus curse,
17:47 and I for Ignotus and the Imperius curse.
17:51 A pattern that actually continues to be carried over
17:54 to the only confirmed creator
17:55 of another dark magic spell in the series.
17:59 The Half-Blood Prince and Sectumsempra.
18:02 Or should I say Severus Snape and Sectumsempra.
18:06 (scoffs)
18:07 I love this theory so much.
18:09 Big shout out one more time to Brettsthoughts
18:10 over on TikTok.
18:11 Again, there is a link in the description
18:13 down to his original posting if you wanna see that
18:15 or his other Harry Potter content, all really good.
18:18 So definitely go check it out.
18:20 (upbeat music)
18:22 Thanks for watching today's video.
18:24 As always, guys, if you wanna see
18:26 how the three brothers also created the veil
18:28 and maybe some other magical artifacts,
18:31 you can check out this video right here.
18:33 But Ben, otherwise, until next time,
18:34 I will see you in another life, brother.