'Harry Potter' Fans Lose It Over Theory Dumbledore Wasn't Elder Wand Master

If you're a fan of "Harry Potter," this theory about Dumbledore and the Elder Wand will definitely leave you feeling a bit shaken and confused.

As Dumbledore once stated,

The truth. It is a beautiful and terrible thing, and should therefore be treated with great caution.

Wise words.

We'll do our best to be gentle as we explain the theory.

Here we go...

Reddit user Wmdonovan23 recently suggested Dumbledore was never the true master of the Elder Wand and that Voldemort was (GASP).

Yes, we know some of you might find this to be quite controversial.

But keep your wands in your robes and take a deep breath because this kind of makes sense.

This all comes down to the concept of "besting," which determines who has control over the Elder Wand.

In case you need a little refresher: The Elder Wand is the most powerful wand in the wizarding world.

For a witch or wizard to take control of the Elder Wand, they have to "best" the previous wielder (beat them in a duel).

The Elder Want respects power, and it only gives its allegiance to very special individuals, like Dumbledore and Harry Potter.

Wmdonovan23 thinks the wand never truly belonged to Dumbledore because of something that happened when Grindelwald stole the Elder Wand from Gregorovitch.

According to Wmdonovan23's theory, Grindelwald never actually "bested" Gregorovitch.

Here's what the scene from "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows" says:

Gregorovitch burst into the room at the end of the passage and his lantern illuminated what looked like a workshop; wood shavings and gold gleamed in the swinging pool of light, and there on the window ledge sat perched, like a giant bird, a young man with golden hair. In the split second that the lantern's light illuminated him, Harry saw the delight upon his handsome face, then the intruder shot a Stunning Spell from his wand and jumped neatly backward out of the window with a crow of laughter.

And here's Wmdonovan23's explanation of the why this didn't qualify as "besting":

This scene depicts Grindelwald stealing, what we later find out to be, the Elder wand. Now, as theft is a cowardly action, and because Grindelwald never forced the Wands position from Gregorovitch, but merely missed him with a stunning spell, how can we justify explaining the allegiance of the Elder wand changing to Grindelwald?

I don't know how we can justify it, Wmdonovan23. I'm not sure if I know anything anymore.

Dumbledore beat Grindelwald years later, but since Grindelwald arguably didn't have ownership of the wand and Gregorovitch was still alive, Dumbledore never became the wand's true owner.

In other words, Gregorovitch remained the owner of the wand through all that time.

But, Voldemort eventually ended up killing Gregorovitch. So, based on this theory, Voldemort was the true owner of the Elder Wand, not Dumbledore.

The silver lining is, the ending of the "Harry Potter" saga remains the same (phew).

As Wmdonovan23 explains, none of this contradicts the ending of the books, when Harry Potter becomes the owner of the Elder Wand.

Potter bests Voldemort, who was weakened after his horcruxes were destroyed, and becomes the master of the wand.

When Voldemort was destroyed by Harry, the Wands allegiance changed because Harry had bested its actual owner, not because Harry had bested Draco Malfoy, who was the supposed master of the Elder wand after disarming Dumbledore. The end result is still the same, but the path of the Elder wand Allegiance is different that Harry suspects.

The one big hole in this theory is that the Elder Wand is very mysterious and doesn't necessarily follow any particular set of rules.

When this same theory was discussed in 2012 on a Science Fiction and Fantasy forum, the users came to that exact conclusion: The laws around the ownership of the Elder Wand aren't completely defined.

So, everything in the books could also be true, but this theory is still pretty compelling.

A lot of people are still freaking out about this theory on Reddit.

There is a serious debate going down.

Some are providing counterarguments as if they're discussing a controversial political topic.

Comment from discussion Dumbledore was never the true master of the Elder wand, Voldemort was..

But some of these counterpoints are just straight-up confusing and don't have a lot to do with "Harry Potter."

Comment from discussion Dumbledore was never the true master of the Elder wand, Voldemort was..

Regardless of how you feel about this Elder Wand theory, we can all probably still agree Dumbledore is the dopest wizard of all time.

Sorry I'm not sorry, Merlin. You're just not that cool.