SquirrelWithATophat
41608
1190
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May 17, 2025 5:18 PM
SquirrelWithATophat
41608
1190
34
dontfloatmygoat
It’s absolute bollocks. Makes no sense.
LtRooney
Eiladar
I could see it working, but only I'd there are players who's entire purpose is to block the seeker. Essentially you'll have two games being played at once; an aerial game of, essentially, soccer where people are chipping up the single digit points, while the rest of the team are engaged in an all or nothing blitz. I just can't see it being a hit as a spectator sport.
MaxIn
The snitch would be a fine mechanic if it was less points - yes it ends the game, but if it was 40pts or something, you would be preventing the other seeker if you were behind by 40, instead of it being a total game changer
GeneralVertex
Catching the snitch is Quidditch. The stuff happening on the field with the entire rest of the team is meant to give the team that doesn't catch the snitch a chance of overturning the results. You know, like Republicans in state legislatures in the US.
NiftyGoblin
the snitch just ends the game, and has a nice chunk of points I thought. So they could catch the snitch and lose if they scored more points than the snitch is worth.
jrntn
(that makes it worse)
managedgoods
I don't mean to defend a terf's creation, but most games are quite plain. I guess I would welcome the parking lot frog, depending on the particular event.
ElbowDeepInAHeadlessHorseman
You know who REALLY needs a bludger to crash into her stupid transphobic mold-ridden face? Yeah, so do I.
Lianthrelle
JKKK? Yeah
rustythecyborg
Except the frog wouldn't be in the parking lot, it would be on the court with everyone else getting in the way.
CacklingOctopus
In that case, I would absolutely watch a game of Baskuidditch.
vampire49
Could be worse, could be Calvinball.
SquirrelWithATophat
That just reminded me about the episode of American Dad where Steve gets put in charge of Major League Baseball, so he drastically changes the rules and turns the sport into a chaotic mosh pit of violence and absurdity.
InfocalypseRising
To be fair wizards are a group of people who are completely blown away by the concept of a toaster so it actually tracks that their sports would be stupid
Crowlands
How does "They don't understand the technological developments of a culture they actively avoid, and do not require said advancements within their own culture." equate to "They make profoundly poorly designed games."?
I'm sure the Sentinelese people have come up with competitions to pass the time that make Waaaay more sense than Quidditch.
AbsolutelyNotBacon
Not to give any credit to the TERF in chief but I think it was once confirmed that it's stupid on purpose. I don't exactly remember the reason why, though. I think it had something to do with Jowling Kowling Rowling hating IRL sports and their often seemingly arbitrary rules or something and that's how she expressed it with her very limited writing skills.
bonetonelord
FoxPesdassi
But how else could people know that the entire game is ALL ABOUT the oh-so-special person who catches the frog, and all the other players are just meaningless nobodies?
Jumpkickasaurus
Damn it, Ramirez!
cousteau
Also you get 150 points and "win" the match but if you're in a league and they're adding up points then snatching the snitch prematurely can mean you lose the competition.
bridgebrain
They should just fix it with a 50 point jump. Its enough that it's important to get, and its important to get it to end the game, but not enough to utterly undo the other players work
bittenicht39
You can lose the match as well. The points scored from hitting the regular three rings and the 150 points from the snitch are added to the match score, and if the snitch-catching team is more than 150 points behind when they catch it, they lose the game by catching the snitch.
cousteau
Oh, I must've misremembered. Yeah that's even more ridiculous. I thought you "officially won" the match if you got the snitch.
DoseOfScience
It's there for the dramatic turn around. Writers (using the term loosely) tend to make shitty games for their stories because they're focused on things that are plot relevant or that the MC hard counters than exploring each option and creating balanced gameplay.
djhash
I don’t know. If the frog and Ramirez were in a field where the wrong step would cause a shovel to spring up and smack him straight in the face or hidden trap that sinks him in mud, it might be more entertaining.
justherefortheconfession
I'd watch that. Definitely more entertaining than normal basketball, but then I want landmines in football and snipers in baseball.
nesurame
what if the batter didnt know who was the opposing teams pitcher was? like youre standing there, and then the 3rd baseman just throws it right at you
InvidiousSquid
Hello yes I am far more interested in watching the parking lot frog catching thank you.
PineappleLoopsBroether
RustyRedbeard
This also supports the point. I wouldn't want a basketballing event to ruin a good game of parking lot frog.
TheLesserOfTwoWeevils
What's with the AI picture and caption text? And welcome to 20-30 years ago I guess?
FoxPesdassi
It started as a real image that was AI-upscaled for some reason.
Cranbananarama
Glad someone else noticed it's AI. Which is weird, since I've seen normal posts of like tweets and junk discussing the same plot point.
mabelbagel
What everyone fails to realize is that EVERY aspect of sports is made up, stupid and arbitrary. Why are field goals 3 points? Why 5 fouls before the bonus light comes on? Why 10 pins in bowling? Why 3 periods in hockey?
There’s a “good” reason behind every rule and participating in an “official” game brings the unspoken promise to adhere to the rules and regulations of that game.
The way you feel about quidditch is the same way all non-sports playing people feel about sports.
TinyLiehon
An 1841 Connecticut law banned ninepin bowling because of its perceived association with gambling and crime, and people were said to circumvent the prohibition by adding a tenth pin according to Wikipedia
LoopStricken
Ten pins because 1+2+3+4
mabelbagel
And that’s a “good” reason. But it’s no better than having 1+2+3+4+5 for 15 total.
All sports rules are arbitrary.
apLundell
Ok, but none of that is the point. The point is ludology. Game design. Some collections of arbitrary rules make good and interesting games. Others do not. Quiddich's snitch rule is so far outside good game design that it's not really believable that it survived in a sport that is traditional and beloved.
apLundell
Or to put it more stupidly : The math don't work.
apLundell
And to head off an obvious, but wrong reply : I don't mean good and interesting as in "I like it". I mean good and interesting as in every part of the game is meaningful and contributes in a balanced way to the end result. Ludology is much closer to math than it is to art.
Mewmus
Seems like poverty would be something non existent in the Wizarding world because they can just conjur anything they need
cousteau
Isn't this one of the premises of Star Trek?
Mewmus
Post scarcity society
Arracor
And yet somehow the Weasleys manage to be spectacularly poor to the point where it affects the plot several times. Yeah....
Mewmus
from what I understand, Arthur makes a decent wage, it's just that him and Molly wouldn't quit making kids. Irresponsible breeding imho.
TinyLiehon
Somebody hasn't memorized the five Principal Exceptions to Gamp’s Law of Elemental Transfiguration :)
KerryCoder
The thing is, the entire book series is like the "golden snitch" rule. It makes NO SENSE and when you look back over it, it's *riddled* with racism.
Imadethisaccounttopost
Actually the snitch is strategy, and not a guaranteed win. When the snitch is caught the game is over, period.
You can use this to prolong the game and catch up, or end the game early when you have a good lead.
The issues with the Potter series, they focus on the snitch and not the rest of the game.
Each hole is worth a different set of points, 10-20-30, the snitch is 150.. you can beat a Snitch by outscoring it..
Arracor
What? There's no point difference between the different hoops. It's always been 10 points a goal, or 150 for the Snitch.
Imadethisaccounttopost
Thank you for the correction!
I thought each hoop a different point, starting at 10.
And yes, you can out score a snitch... if you do 16 hoops and the other team catches the snitch and didn't make a single hoop.. then they lose.
Arracor
I was wondering if this was some shit Hogwarts Legacy or its spinoff added since they already fucked around with the Quidditch rules........
JanglesPrime
Yeah, but the seekers and the rest of the teams are essentially playing two different games. It's like putting a basketball hoop in the middle of a soccer field so that two people can play one-on-one while the teams play around them. Having a ball game based on broomsticks in the air should have been fantasifull enough.
Imadethisaccounttopost
Yep, you see no real conversation between the two.
The seeker needs to determine if they need to block or grab the snitch.
TinyLiehon
Except the Beaters need to split focus between both. Do you assist Chasers by clearing paths with the Bludger or do you use that Bludger to block the opposing Seeker?
Iinajoki360
Well as a TERF, Rowling is quite into ruining a perfectly good thing by focusing on something small.
Arracor
Imagine a world where she'd just...... kept her fucking mouth shut. Doesn't even have to change her mind, just, she never spoke up about it.
TinyLiehon
Not sure whether letting teens whack cannon balls at others is a perfectly good thing but opinions may vary
espilono
I've seen some wild things go on in American highschool football, an argument could be made that the cannon balls are safer
Iinajoki360
You may have a point there friend
q2grapple
I don’t think anyone would accuse JK Rowling of being clever enough to explain it. It’s just another plot hole
Aurentis
No. It's a movie plot hole. Much as I hate defending that dogshit person, and as crap as so much of her writing genuinely is, the snitch isn't the weak point.
It's worth 150 points, or fifteen goals. The game ends when it is caught, and not before. The strategy is in catching it when the scores are in the correct arrangement.
2graves
It's just silly and fun. Sports are taken way too seriously anyway
Hyzenthlay021
She's hardy unique in the plot hole department
KerryCoder
Yeah, but a lot of authors with plot holes at least have other redeemable qualities. She has none.
TheLordDusty
Except she did explain that she came up with the idea of the Snitch being worth a disproportionate amount of points after a fight with her boyfriend because she thought people like him (and lots of other people in this post by the look of it) would get frustrated at strange and unbalanced rules in sports.
So not a plot hole, it was very much intentional.
enygma6
So it’s the inverse of Hanlon’s Razor?
FuzzyZergling
Not every writing foible is a plot hole. The term only really applies to logical inconsistencies within the PLOT, this is just silly worldbuilding.
TheWombatStrikesAgain
She did actually recognise the problem and made it a plot point in one of the later books. In that book team protagonist needs to not just win the game but score extra points to win the season, so Harry is supposed to primarily keep the other seeker from catching the snitch, and only catch it himself once they scored enough.
So, one point for accepting criticism. Versus three hundred points for sticking with shitty ideas and opinions.
Badprenup
Is that accepting criticism? Because you can give me any number of poorly thought out rules for a game and I could write a story around them and make the worst rules the key to the protagonist winning.
TinyLiehon
Yugi attacking the moon comes to mind :) (and yeah, I know those scenes predate the printed cards)
heyletsbefriends
thats not a plot hole
AliceInjection
The entire storyline is dog shit. It reads like she pulled it out of her ass as she went alone with no forethought or direction whatsoever.
evilspyre
An entire book worth of boring camping proves that it was pulled out of the ass.
TinyLiehon
She explains it in the written for charity book "Quidditch Through the Ages". Some medieval politician showed up at a game and promised 150 gold coins if a player caught the bird he released on the pitch. That bird nearly went extinct as future games saw it crushed on capture. Luckily it was saved from that fate by advanced in enchanted metal
Athanar
Yes, but you know that was something she did later.
TinyLiehon
QttA was released after book 4 but as a lot in the series was planned out there's no teling how early she may have had this bit of worldbuilding figured out.
TheGreatSynan
I lot of aspects are purely to show just how quirky the wizards are and make things fall apart of you try to apply world building logic. It's the same as the monetary system, even magical creatures would likely have a more local system.
Crowlands
The monetary system is a reference to old English money being stupid arbitrary amounts. 12 pennies to the shilling, and such.
The snitch is just a (Lazy, stupid) way to make Harry Potter the most important character.
TheGreatSynan
12 is actually the best number for things like money and measurements. It can be split evenly by 2, 3, and 4. 10 can only be split by 2 and 5 ( and when is that last time you had to split something evenly by 5?). Sorry, but Okie number system should be base 12, and this is the hill I will die on more then any other.
Harry Potter doesn't even keep the same base number between levels of currency, so it has absolutely 0 logic.
I also agree about the snitch. It's just to make him a special boy.
Qualtagh
yeah, a lot of people forget that the world was deliberately nonsensical. I think it was supposed to invoke the vibe of a kid experiencing a world that they were not equipped to understand. Ironic, considering JKR's limitations in understanding the world around her...
echoawoo
I can; it's an instant win button for the protagonist that carries the threat of failure, is exercised a couple of times, and presumed to be sufficient (it was not)
CelestialSea
The whole series is one giant plot hole. Not surprising since it was penned by someone who's 100% asshole.
medimr
It's not, really. It was just an easy way to have the protagonist be super special without having to describe an entire game of some made-up sport.
OhIfIMust
Exactly
spud497
'cause she's a fucking hack.
OhIfIMust
I've been saying that since I tried reading The Philosopher's Stone and couldn't get past the 1st chapter.
spud497
Understandable. She's a plagarist and a hack. I believe she sued a bunch of people who spoke out against her for breaking their copyright and bullied them into silence, though I don't know the details or if that's even true to begin with. She's a terrible creature through and through.
NoNameFred
It's not a plot hole. It was her making a dig at her footie-mad husband: deliberately creating a sport with ridiculous rules to frustrate and infuriate sports-fans, because she was fed up with the way they went on about the minutiae of rules and specific plays. It's not a bug, it's the intended feature.
LusciousLucius
The rules were also made up in the first book, where everything was a lot more whimsical & none of it was intended to make any particular sense. The game rules didn't really survive the tonal shift towards more serious content and harder world building in the later books very well. Most stuff from the early books didn't, honestly.
Xenarion
If that's true, I can respect that.
Disclaimer: I said "that", not "her"
Bluedinosaur
I can't. I'm not even a sports fanatic myself. She did it out of spite for her ex, not to prove an actual point.
RuBisCO1
Yet she demands specific rules about gender, is frustrated and infuriated by the idea of gender and sex being diffrent things.
SageOfDepth
My how the turn tables
LariCheltsy
Owl House called this out nicely too
TinyLiehon
So did Rowling. In Quidditch through the Ages Brutus Malfoy's quoted strategy for winning a game is to take out the opposing seeker first
LtRooney
OhIfIMust
How so?
bjo23
https://youtu.be/FkgpdDBejGc?si=JLz0YcmXQc4YDLLL
LariCheltsy
By...directly calling it out as minimizing all your efforts in the game
OhIfIMust
I know nothing about Owl House.
whereismymind86
think harry potter, but much better written, and with way more queer representation. It's great, and you probably know more about it, than you think, cause an owl house fan comic gets posted on imgur very regularly. In an episode of the show they are playing a sport that is very quidditch-esque, and it suddenly ends because somebody catches the snitch, at which point Luz, the protagonist, goes on a long rant about how it makes the rest of the game meaningless, it's great.
whereismymind86
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FkgpdDBejGc (the moment in question)
Stpehen
Owl House has a game called Grudgby, it's like Rugby. The game ends when the one team catches the Rusty Smidge. It's worth 999 points. Luz the Human calls the rule stupid and a waste of time to do anything but catching the Rusty Smidge.
OhIfIMust
Haha, yeah that'll do it!
infinitesimalwonder
"It's like someone took a real game and grafted on this pointless extra position so that you could be the Most Important Player without needing to really get involved or learn the rest of it. Who was the first Seeker, the King's idiot son who wanted to play Quidditch but couldn't understand the rules?" Actually, now that he thought about it, that seemed like a surprisingly good hypothesis. Put him on a broomstick and tell him to catch the shiny thing..."
theend587
Would you trust the Kings idiot to catch the ball that ends the game and only ends the game if it is captured.
And understanding to block the rival player in catching the snitch when you are 60 points behind.
Ultemus
I like this! Everything about the golden snitch seems tacked on, narratively and canonical. the sport itself, without it, is actually pretty engaging. This explanation is canon as far as I'm concerned.
TinyLiehon
First seeker were the 14 players at a game where a small-wanded medieval politician released a tiny, fast bird promising 150 gold coin to the player who caught it. Later games made it 150 points and nearly made the bird go extinct as Seekers tended to crush it on capture
Hyzenthlay021
I think you nailed it here. Potter knows like two spells, and is the protagonist, while Granger is the workhorse in the background holding the tatters of the plot together so there can be more than one book.
astrangehop
Eh, that's more the movies until at least book 4. Each main and several side characters actually get agency earlier on. Then the books start to ape the movies. "Boys — I've read the script and we need to go to next location" starts becoming frequent.
SalmonMax
In a nutshell, yes, though it feels more like an authorial shortcut than an in-universe historical note, hehe. Rowling wanted Harry to be a sports star, but in a team sport that would feel pretty unearned in his first year not just playing Quidditch, but as a wizard at all. What to do? Invent a sport where one person basically wins or loses the match, despite it being a team sport, and make sure he wins it.
NotSomoneElse68
He never failed to be the one who got it.
FuzzyZergling
Is that a quote from Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality? I know I've read it SOMEWHERE, but I don't recall the exact source…
CheeseIsNaturesFudge
Well this is a must read now
hyjukilo
If it's the one I'm thinking of, they also experiment with spell pronunciation. If "It's levi-O-sa, not levio-SA" made a difference to that spell, what about others?
infinitesimalwonder
Yep, you got it!
DimwitF
Crazy that the guy who wrote that is arguably the root cause of a murder cult
jherazob
Wait, what? I know of him being Ground Zero of the AI Doomer strain of whackos but not of this
DimwitF
https://maxread.substack.com/p/the-zizians-and-the-rationalist-death
Max Read has a good summary of the crazy situation; basically the Rationalist thing spawned off a sub group following someone going by Ziz, and they're the crazy murdery kind of True Believers
goodbyeitwasfunwhileitlasted
It's actually a little more complicated. The game CAN'T end until the parking lot frog is caught. "They've been playing for 4 days, and the score is 480 to 532. The heat have pulled out their 3rd shift lineup, but the bulls are leaving their 2nd shift on the court for now. The frog was reportedly seen near the south lot 2 days ago, but neither team has gotten it. Both teams are running on empty at this point. Reminds me of last year when a match went for 8 days before one team forfeit."
Discgolfing
This is how I imagine cricket is
SpamYarBlockers
So, cricket
Adualion
also all of the players would all be on the court and some of them would running around with baseball bats trying to smash baseballs at other basketball players heads during this entire match
forelle
Also I always read it as a borderline satirical hint at overly British sport rules
Dracology
Correct. The game can't end and it won't promise victory even if you catch it although obviously if 150 points wont win the game for you then you probably aren't trying to catch it so much as stop it from being caught
HeartsAndStars
Someone read Quidditch Through the Ages
CrabbyBlueberry
Imagine if 17776 was about quidditch instead of football.
TheBlueMuppet
My favorite was the 1-yard wide field.
ItsACrazyWorld
I remember that catching the golden snitch doesnt mean you win. It just gave you like 200 points or something, so tech if one team is up more then that, catching it doesnt mean you win?
goodbyeitwasfunwhileitlasted
Yeah, it just gives 150 points, it's not an auto-win.
apLundell
Although, since everyone is aware of the score, you wouldn't grab it if you weren't in a winning position. I suppose you'd try to interfere and bluff with the other seeker?
Gustave13
then what the fuck are the points for
jridley
The game is won on points. Catching the snitch rewards 150 points and ends the game. If your team is more than 150 points behind, you do NOT want to catch the snitch, but you MUST stop the other team's seeker from catching it.
Gramsar
The points exist so the author can give points to the hogwarts houses. This also explains why each goal is worth 10 points and not only one as normal thinking humans would count
ChazzK
For making people think the writer knew what they were doing.
smashfaceawesome
If you’re winning or um if you’re losing by less than 140 points then you might be justified having your whole team look for the snitch.
GrammarNationalSocialist
Optimistically, so the team that's behind has a reason to mess with the opposing seeker. Realistically, what ChazzK said
NotSomoneElse68
Your total points for the season determine the ultimate winner.
HaniiPuppy
+ if a team is so far behind that the points for catching the frog don't make up the difference, then that team's frog-catcher is purely prioritising trying to prevent the opposing team from catching it until they could win by catching it, which sort-of acts as a wee bit of a balancing mechanic.
xerolf
tackles frogcatcher and yeets the frog across the parking lot.
wolfrog
This basically makes Malfoy seem less like a jerk and more of a sportsman. Preventing a seeker from finding the snitch is a valid priority.
DontCommentWhenDrunk
Plot twist - the frog was taken by a hawk 21 hrs ago from the south lot.
AstartesLibrarius
...is the Hawk from Atlanta? Cuz I think that counts as a mascot.
reverendbonobo
I think that counts as Gryffindor.
Account3577
Does that mean the hawk technically wins the game?
SilicaGelPacket
Depends on whether either of the teams had at least 151 points by the time the hawk caught the frog
EveryGOPAccusationIsActuallyAnAdmission
You just lost the game.
somnif
So, basically Cricket....
cptunderpants
And when you start to realise the whole wizard/muggle dynamic is an analogy for the British class system, it makes even more sense.
phuzz00
Written my a middle class person fetishising the upper classes...
Nichols3
Also it doesn't win the game, it gives the team that caught it like 150 points.
Lianthrelle
My favorite part is that both point amounts are in a group of 10 (10 or 150) just so the numbers would look better. One point per goal and 15 for the frog would have the same effect
LucianKane
And signals the end of the game, so if the extra 150 didn't help, the game ends and you lose
Vesorias
Creating a situation where losing teams will want to prevent the snitch from being caught without catching it themselves.
OnlyWantToSayOneThing
Creating an entire class players whos job it is to smack bewitched balls towards the person of the opposite team that is seeking the snitch.
NeurodivergenceMedley
Yeah, I dunno why there wasn't more fouling of the opposition seeker. Single most powerful player in the entire game, and everyone leaves them alone for almost the entire game? I call BS
Crowlands
15 times as much as a goal.
How many football (Not the stupid American hand based one) matches have you seen that go 16-0?
Nichols3
Given that there's no definite end to a quidditch match without the snitch being caught, the points are theoretically infinite. Catching the snitch and losing happens at the start of Goblet of Fire, Ireland wins 170-160 against Bulgaria, which would mean before it was caught Ireland was up 170-10. I assume JKR didn't know much about sports, really.
TinyLiehon
In Quidditch Through the Ages (which released somewhere amid the first 3 books) there's a quote by Brutus Malfoy for winning games "Take out the Seeker first". I think she knew
Flyvemaskine
This was included to attempt to justify the nonsense score value of the snitch. In practice it would only serve to allow a much worse team to readily beat their better playing opponent. Only the seeker matters.
Nichols3
I honestly don't remember if they explain the snitch even having point values in The Philosopher's Stone, just that catching it wins Harry the game when he almost chokes on it.
Laurowyn
The game was intended to highlight how ridiculous sports generally are. Knowledge of sports was irrelevant for that task. For example, the fact that a goal is worth 10 points, but it's never stated if/how it's possible to gain less than 10 points. Penalties are a free shot at goal, or change of possession. So why not count goals instead of 10 points per goal? Like rugby; 5 points for a try, 2 extra points for a conversion, 3 points for drop goal or penalty kick. insane. but we still watch/play.
LtRooney
The first book was clearly meant to be Roald Dahl inspired whimsical, so the game was intended to be obviously stupid, and somewhere between that and book 4 she completely lost the capacity for introspection and just made the entire thing a collection of why all the stupid and messed up shit from the first three was actually totally fine and you're wrong for pointing it out.
TinyLiehon
The games feature less and less as the books progress though
Nichols3
I can definitely agree with that. JKR attempted to make the stories "grow up" with the reader but there's no fixing the giant holes in the story like the time-turner, and she goes back to that whimsical fairy-tale sort of writing again later with a luck potion being something that has a tangible effect.
Crowlands
OK, but is there Any watsonian reason for why the Bulgarian seeker caught the snitch? Did he somehow make it into the finals without knowing the rules? Was he completely oblivious to the score?
The doylist reason is, I suspect, "J.K. Rowling got mad that people kept saying how stupid it is that the snitch erases the value of all other players except beaters (Who should focus the seeker but never do, unless it's to spite Harry Potter), so made it happen, regardless of any sense."
Legomaniac91
Because he saw that his team was getting completely flattened by Ireland. Better to end with a 10 deficit than a 50-100 gap
aguacatedeldiablo
It's explained in the book as Krum understanding that they were getting beat like they stole something, so he wanted to end the carnage. And, for what it's worth, one of the Weasley twins made a bet that Ireland would win, but Krum would get the snitch (at least in the book, I don't think that made it into the movie), and it was treated as supremely unlikely, but not impossible, so it was likely not unheard of, at least in universe.
potshot
I guess the explanation would be a lapse of concentration. Maybe the difference-making goal was scored moments before and the seeker was tunnel-visioning on the snitch. But yeah, the likely reason is that it sounds fanciful and magical at face value but doesn't stand up to scrutiny like most of the universe.
Nichols3
The seeker for Bulgaria is Viktor Krum and is a contestant in the Tri-Wizard tournament. He is (from memory) shown to be sort of self-absorbed, I don't think it's a stretch to say he was more interested in "winning" against the Irish seeker than he was at winning the game.
As far as Harry not getting focused by opposing beaters, I imagine it's very similar to hockey, if you're roughing the fragile star player the goons are going to break your nose as hard as they can.
LtRooney
They character speculate he realized the score was just going to get more and more lopsided and decided to end things early while it would still come out looking kinda close.
Cyanide555
They explain in that one that they knew they'd lost so he wanted to end on his terms and not go out with a worse score
thisisjunk
If I remember correctly, the game CANNOT end until someone catches the Snitch.
neonkrypton
What happens if the seekers get knocked out of the game ?
thisisjunk
You run up against bad game design. But, it'd probably just be a draw.
jrntn
Correct, it couldn't be a worse designed game
aguacatedeldiablo
Eh. I mean, it's not great as a sport. But as a narrative device, it accomplishes two things - it is a complete and internally consistent game, with complex and unique rules that make it distinct from "muggle" sports. And, with the game not ending until the snitch is caught, with stories of games lasting days or weeks, it reinforces the notion that the Wizarding world is inherently less concerned with human life than the muggle world.
Mack1986
So what's the point of the rest of the game?
aguacatedeldiablo
Part of me finds it interesting that people don't understand the rules. They're explained adequately enough in both the books and the movies, and enough different situations play out that edge cases can settle any confusion. But the other part of me knows that the rules are, in fact, needlessly complex, somewhat contrived, and I can't really fault someone for not understanding.
CrabbyBlueberry
There's Krum in book 4 who caught the snitch while his team was embarrassingly far behind in the World Cup. I consider it a dick move. There was also the House Cup in book 3, where Harry's team had to win by a wide margin for a tournament.
Retrikaethan
iirc you don't win by catching the snitch, but get 150? points for your team and the game ends. SO if the game goes on long enough, that snitch won't win you the game, but cost it so instead of trying to catch it you then have to stop the other seeker from catching it at all costs... really though if you're that far behind you've probably already lost the marathon portion of the game so eh.
Feldunost
The individual games aren't be all end all. All the points you score all year decide which team wins the cup at the end; so you can lose a game to snitch capture and still have scored a lot of points that still matter.
Ivain
Unfortunately, outside that one time in third year where the game was sabotaged by ministry-owned 5X dark creatures barging onto the field, this never comes up anywhere at all. The only other quidditch game we see or hear of is the World Cup Finals, the one where points don't matter in the slightest.
Frankly, the position of seeker was clearly made to get Harry onto the schools' "sportsball" team without having to care about actual teamplay or strategy.
Feldunost
I mean yeah narratively it's definitely to make Harry more special and popular I agree wiht that. But the points do matter in the school cup, characters talk about it sometimes in terms of "If X house beats Y by a lot we can still win overall". The world cup is elimination style bracket matches so yes overall points don't matter there. I would say as well during the world cup the team that won didn't catch the snitch because they were so dominant in the match so points matter in that respect too
Feldunost
Also, just to be clear I also think the snitch is worth too many points. I feel like 50 would be a good number, I just think there are so many more plot holes that are actually relevant to the story and the quidditch stuff doesn't really matter.
RadiDaddy
Presumably to score enough points that the other team getting the points for catching the snitch isn’t enough to make you lose.
jrntn
Or, in plain english, bad game design
loma45
Also IIRC the... beaters? Bruisers basically could fuck with the person chasing the snitch - so it would have to be a balancing act. Ignore the seeker and he might catch the snitch and win. Spend too much time focusing on him and the rest of the team might score so many points that it you'll still lose even if you catch it.
DoggosAreLife
So if the other team is having such a lead, the seeker will actively not trying to get the snitch, but rather keep the other seeker from getting it?
LuminoZero
There's a scene in the 4th Book when a Seeker catches the Snitch even when it made his team lose, because he knew they were never going to come back from the deficit (outclassed) and he wanted it to end on his own terms.
GreenFox
yes. that's literally a plot point in one of the books.
DoggosAreLife
Haha oh wow, thanks. I was too old when the books came so never read em.