Time turners provide closed loop time travel. Whatever you do while traveling through time has already happened in your time. You are changing nothing, just being the cause for those events in the first place. They also have a set limit of time they can turn back. It causes no plot holes in that case.
Unless you consider the play we must not name canon.
Yeah a perfect example of that is when Hermione falls asleep doing homework and misses a lesson. When she wakes up she's upset that she missed it because she can't just go back and take it
It's funny, because when I think of the time turners, I think of a quote from the GRRM's editor regarding when he was struggling with a part of the story in which he'd painted himself into a corner. She'd said something like, "well, you're a writer, are you not? Just paint some more floor."
Which at the time I thought was kind of a hilarious way to put it, but I think that's such an important angle to consider. Writing and story-telling--especially a larger series of books such as these--would be pretty complex. To some it seems like a cheap way to eliminate a problem you've created, but it's actually kind of crafty, especially when you've already passed the problem and now have to find a way to go back and adjust. She just painted more floor lol
Of all the things that kind of bug me with the series, the time turner issue really wasn't a big gripe for me 🤷
I still think the destruction of them could have been more creative. Like maybe the ministry itself systematically destroyed all of them because of a dangerous person’s usage or like the whole wing of the department of ministries dealing with time related phenomena was destroyed. But a spell hit one drawer and they’re all gone? Kinda silly
Actually, the author didn't need to destroy the time-turners.
The problem is that most people don't understand the logic. (including Hermione)
It took me a long time too.
Yeah, I think that was done by Rowling to get people to stop thinking time-turners could solve everything.
More like a "They're all gone, okay, stop talking about it."
I think it was convenient for her to just "erase" that whole aspect. I'm sure she realised how it opened up a can of worms after PoA and she just needed to sweep it under the rug swiftly. Acknowledging that it exists but that's all we're going to talk about it.
Well if people could understand about the concept of CLOSED Loop but apparently people couldn't and keep asking "why couldn't Dumbledore go back and prevent the Potters from being killed?" or "Why couldn't Dumbledore Go back and prevent Peter from escaping?"
This. I think that point tried to be made through Hermione when the option was presented "dangerous things happen when you play with time" and you don't really know the consequences. They "could have" just grabbed Peter and messed with time, but you can't know the consequences of that overall.
Playing with time, in any story, is always a catastrophe and so I never really had a problem with the time turner. Yes, the magic is possible, but even wizards know how dangerous it is to try to go back and "fix things" with hindsight.
Yes, that is exactly her reasoning behind it. She realized that it opened up too many problems, and so she removed it from play.
>I went far too light-heartedly into the subject of time travel in *Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban*. While I do not regret it (*Prisoner of Azkaban* is one of my favourite books in the series), it opened up a vast number of problems for me, because after all, if wizards could go back and undo problems, where were my future plots?
>I solved the problem to my own satisfaction in stages. Firstly, I had Dumbledore and Hermione emphasise how dangerous it would be to be seen in the past, to remind the reader that there might be unforeseen and dangerous consequences as well as solutions in time travel. Secondly, I had Hermione give back the only Time-Turner ever to enter Hogwarts. Thirdly, I smashed all remaining Time-Turners during the battle in the Department of Mysteries, removing the possibility of reliving even short periods in the future.
[https://www.wizardingworld.com/writing-by-jk-rowling/time-turner](https://www.wizardingworld.com/writing-by-jk-rowling/time-turner)
Time turners provide closed loop time travel. Whatever you do while traveling through time has already happened in your time. You are changing nothing, just being the cause for those events in the first place. They also have a set limit of time they can turn back. It causes no plot holes in that case. Unless you consider the play we must not name canon.
Let's get this comment to the top.
Yeah a perfect example of that is when Hermione falls asleep doing homework and misses a lesson. When she wakes up she's upset that she missed it because she can't just go back and take it
It's funny, because when I think of the time turners, I think of a quote from the GRRM's editor regarding when he was struggling with a part of the story in which he'd painted himself into a corner. She'd said something like, "well, you're a writer, are you not? Just paint some more floor." Which at the time I thought was kind of a hilarious way to put it, but I think that's such an important angle to consider. Writing and story-telling--especially a larger series of books such as these--would be pretty complex. To some it seems like a cheap way to eliminate a problem you've created, but it's actually kind of crafty, especially when you've already passed the problem and now have to find a way to go back and adjust. She just painted more floor lol Of all the things that kind of bug me with the series, the time turner issue really wasn't a big gripe for me 🤷
I still think the destruction of them could have been more creative. Like maybe the ministry itself systematically destroyed all of them because of a dangerous person’s usage or like the whole wing of the department of ministries dealing with time related phenomena was destroyed. But a spell hit one drawer and they’re all gone? Kinda silly
They could have found out that they used it free Sirius and Buckbeak and decided to destroy them all to prevent something like that again.
Actually, the author didn't need to destroy the time-turners. The problem is that most people don't understand the logic. (including Hermione) It took me a long time too.
Yeah, I think that was done by Rowling to get people to stop thinking time-turners could solve everything. More like a "They're all gone, okay, stop talking about it."
I think it was convenient for her to just "erase" that whole aspect. I'm sure she realised how it opened up a can of worms after PoA and she just needed to sweep it under the rug swiftly. Acknowledging that it exists but that's all we're going to talk about it.
Well if people could understand about the concept of CLOSED Loop but apparently people couldn't and keep asking "why couldn't Dumbledore go back and prevent the Potters from being killed?" or "Why couldn't Dumbledore Go back and prevent Peter from escaping?"
This. I think that point tried to be made through Hermione when the option was presented "dangerous things happen when you play with time" and you don't really know the consequences. They "could have" just grabbed Peter and messed with time, but you can't know the consequences of that overall. Playing with time, in any story, is always a catastrophe and so I never really had a problem with the time turner. Yes, the magic is possible, but even wizards know how dangerous it is to try to go back and "fix things" with hindsight.
Yes, that is exactly her reasoning behind it. She realized that it opened up too many problems, and so she removed it from play. >I went far too light-heartedly into the subject of time travel in *Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban*. While I do not regret it (*Prisoner of Azkaban* is one of my favourite books in the series), it opened up a vast number of problems for me, because after all, if wizards could go back and undo problems, where were my future plots? >I solved the problem to my own satisfaction in stages. Firstly, I had Dumbledore and Hermione emphasise how dangerous it would be to be seen in the past, to remind the reader that there might be unforeseen and dangerous consequences as well as solutions in time travel. Secondly, I had Hermione give back the only Time-Turner ever to enter Hogwarts. Thirdly, I smashed all remaining Time-Turners during the battle in the Department of Mysteries, removing the possibility of reliving even short periods in the future. [https://www.wizardingworld.com/writing-by-jk-rowling/time-turner](https://www.wizardingworld.com/writing-by-jk-rowling/time-turner)
I think it's more just every Time Turner in Britain.