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ImpAtom posted:To be honest the thing that always confused me the most was "how the gently caress are the Weasleys so poor?" You can hardly blame them, the currency is insane. Making change sounds nightmarish when it's 29 Knuts to a Sickle and 17 Sickles to a Galleon. I am neither a mathematician nor an economist, but I'm pretty sure neither of those values should be prime numbers. Heaven forbid you want to split a Galleon with someone. Maybe this is what all those Arithmancy classes were for?
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Dec 11, 2014 03:53
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Don't even try thinking about wizard economics, the prices would be completely hosed. Anything that can be transfigured would be ludicrously cheap, because someone could just sit around turning bricks into pewter cauldrons all day. The only valuable goods would be food and magical items.
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Dec 11, 2014 04:32
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Chamale posted:Don't even try thinking about wizard economics, the prices would be completely hosed. Anything that can be transfigured would be ludicrously cheap, because someone could just sit around turning bricks into pewter cauldrons all day. The only valuable goods would be food and magical items. Is it impossible to transfigure things into gold? This is never discussed, and yet apparently one of the great things about the Philosophers' Stone is it turns things into gold. Are valuable things harder to transfigure other things into, perhaps? Do you have to know every quality of an item in order to create it through transfiguration? If it were, it's obvious why something like a bookstore would exist, since you would have to know the entire contents of a book to create it, or why broomsticks are valuable (presumably it's the enchantment part, not the broom part, that makes a broomstick worthwhile).
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Dec 11, 2014 04:57
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PT6A posted:Is it impossible to transfigure things into gold? This is never discussed, and yet apparently one of the great things about the Philosophers' Stone is it turns things into gold. Are valuable things harder to transfigure other things into, perhaps? Food is one of the five exceptions to Gamp's Law of Elemental Transfiguration, according to Hermione. You can't turn something into food - although she says you can increase the quantity of food, so maybe a wizard family could avoid going hungry by magically duplicating their pantry. Presumably some of the other laws say that you can't transfigure other things into money, and maybe there's some kind of physical or legal law that prevents transfiguration for profit. I looked it up, and the other exceptions to Gamp's Law are never actually stated in the books.
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Dec 11, 2014 05:07
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Chamale posted:Food is one of the five exceptions to Gamp's Law of Elemental Transfiguration, according to Hermione. You can't turn something into food - although she says you can increase the quantity of food, so maybe a wizard family could avoid going hungry by magically duplicating their pantry. Presumably some of the other laws say that you can't transfigure other things into money, and maybe there's some kind of physical or legal law that prevents transfiguration for profit. I looked it up, and the other exceptions to Gamp's Law are never actually stated in the books. That is probably one of the biggest rear end-covering retcons in the series to be honest. Harry uses a "refilling charm" in an earlier book to refill a cup full of alcohol without problem and you can transfigure inanimate things into living things so it seems kinda hard to argue that you can transfigure a teacup into a rabbit but not into rabbit stew.
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Dec 11, 2014 05:11
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JKR said in an interview before book 4 that there is legislation making it illegal to transfigure certain things. Presumably anything you can buy in a shop is illegal to transfigure, since otherwise it would be too widely available to sell. The Ministry of Magic is absurdly repressive.
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Dec 11, 2014 05:15
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Stop trying to (trans)figure out the world of Harry Potter. Stop it.
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Dec 11, 2014 06:13
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ImpAtom posted:That is probably one of the biggest rear end-covering retcons in the series to be honest. Harry uses a "refilling charm" in an earlier book to refill a cup full of alcohol without problem Easy! The refilling charm probably simply transports liquid, it doesn't create any. The cup itself is probably charmed to make it easy for kids in the lower years to get the liquid from a nearby receptacle. quote:and you can transfigure inanimate things into living things so it seems kinda hard to argue that you can transfigure a teacup into a rabbit but not into rabbit stew. ... yeah, I got nothing. Honestly, a college friend already pointed out that problem to me.
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Dec 11, 2014 07:33
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Goblins defintily have some magical charms on their own coins to prevent counterfitting. I think the real money would be had manipulating the exchange rate between various muggle and wizard money. Rich pure bloods would be too good to deal with muggle money and Goblins probably aren't able to keep abreast of Muggle financial institutions very well. Some enterprising muggle-born could make a killing. As far as food is concerned. Hermione does make some 'food like' stuff for the trio on their camping trip in book 7. Maybe transfigured food can look like food pretty easily, but managing it to taste, look, and digest like food is extremely difficult.
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Dec 11, 2014 19:36
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ashez2ashes posted:
I am pretty sure they mention having to steal food during the camping trip.
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Dec 11, 2014 19:40
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Pththya-lyi posted:Easy! The refilling charm probably simply transports liquid, it doesn't create any. The cup itself is probably charmed to make it easy for kids in the lower years to get the liquid from a nearby receptacle. It isn't. It's a bottle of alcohol that Slugworth specifically brought and was said to be good rare stuff, and Harry refills it to keep him happy while he's drinking with Hagrid. bobkatt013 posted:I am pretty sure they mention having to steal food during the camping trip. Yeah, that is where the Law of whatever is first mentioned. Ron bitches that they don't just create food and Hermione tells him they can't, his Mom is just bringing out food she already had prepared and stored.
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Dec 11, 2014 20:07
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ImpAtom posted:It isn't. It's a bottle of alcohol that Slugworth specifically brought and was said to be good rare stuff, and Harry refills it to keep him happy while he's drinking with Hagrid. You can increase the quantity of food with magic, you just can't create it from thin air. Presumably the refilling charm doesn't work on an entirely empty bottle. Chamale posted:Don't even try thinking about wizard economics, the prices would be completely hosed. Anything that can be transfigured would be ludicrously cheap, because someone could just sit around turning bricks into pewter cauldrons all day. The only valuable goods would be food and magical items. Most wizards are ludicrously terrible at magic so I can believe that they would pay for a perfect pewter cauldron made by a transfiguration master instead of trying to make one themselves.
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Dec 11, 2014 21:09
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Chamale posted:JKR said in an interview before book 4 that there is legislation making it illegal to transfigure certain things. Presumably anything you can buy in a shop is illegal to transfigure, since otherwise it would be too widely available to sell. The Ministry of Magic is absurdly repressive. so basically Magic England is a totalitarian state?
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Dec 12, 2014 01:50
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icantfindaname posted:so basically Magic England is a totalitarian state? There is a magical sensor on every underage mage in England that was put into place and is maintained just to keep anyone from having to "deal with the bother of solving Muggles problems for them". Does that sound legitimate to you or is that explanation way to hand wavy for any truly free society to accept? NOITAMROFNI EROM ROF RELBBIUQ TSETAL EHT DAER
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Dec 12, 2014 02:46
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I figure the easiest way to explain that stuff about food and currency away is that food and water created entirely by magic is non-nutritious and that money must be created and handled by goblins and counterfeiters are somehow hosed over if they try and create a Galleon or whatever. So you can make rabbit stew from a rabbit transfigured from a stool/hydrogen atoms, but it won't do you any good from a nutritional view. You still starve to death at some point.
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Dec 12, 2014 03:25
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icantfindaname posted:so basically Magic England is a totalitarian state? Not totalitarian so much as very pre-modern. Bizarre bans and ham-handed economic manipulation weren't uncommon in the time period when the Statute of Secrecy was signed and the Ministry has never reorganized along Enlightenment philosopical lines, much less modern ones.
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Dec 12, 2014 11:25
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Has anyone been reading any of the 12 new JKR stories that have been posted to Pottermore.com? The new stories started on December 12. https://www.pottermore.com/en-us/jkr-writing
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Dec 17, 2014 14:35
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Inveigle posted:Has anyone been reading any of the 12 new JKR stories that have been posted to Pottermore.com? The new stories started on December 12. I figured they'd all be published in a proper short story book at some point, so I didn't bother registering on the site to read them.
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Dec 17, 2014 15:23
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They're not new stories, they're just new pottermore information. The media keeps posting this wrong story over and over and over...
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Dec 17, 2014 22:20
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Well geez you would think she would want to do something special with the 4 year anniversary coming up.
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Dec 17, 2014 22:30
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It's been almost 4 seconds since the end of JK Rowling's obsession with Ron Weasley
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Dec 17, 2014 22:44
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And 5 books since the end of our obsession with the rest.
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Dec 17, 2014 22:54
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Is this ancillary Pottermore stuff available anywhere else? I'm interested in a lot of the tidbits that have come out of it like the commentary on the books and the additional stories, but from what I've heard of Pottermore it just doesn't seem fun.
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Dec 19, 2014 00:15
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The Harry Potter wikia, though I don't think there's a way to just display all the Pottermore stuff.
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Dec 19, 2014 05:08
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The Harry Potter wiki is incredible just due to the fact that they try and tortuously work the books, films and video games into one coherent canon so you get individual articles on students harry did fetch quests for as if they were important.
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Dec 20, 2014 11:57
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Mr. Moon posted:The Harry Potter wiki is incredible just due to the fact that they try and tortuously work the books, films and video games into one coherent canon so you get individual articles on students harry did fetch quests for as if they were important. Excuse me but Harry trading wiggenwald bark for quidditch armor from George is one of the pivotal moments in their interaction and the entire trajectory of their character development 
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Dec 20, 2014 21:58
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Guy A. Person posted:Well geez you would think she would want to do something special with the 4 year anniversary coming up. Will some mod please change the loving thread title
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Dec 22, 2014 01:26
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Make me some suggestions
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Dec 22, 2014 04:40
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It's been almost 8 years since the end of Harry Potter.
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Dec 22, 2014 04:43
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Harry Potter and a Bunch of Nerds Analyzing Plot Holes
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Dec 22, 2014 04:43
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It's finally been 4 years since the end of Harry Potter
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Dec 22, 2014 04:50
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It's been almost 4 years since people didn't complain about the thread title
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Dec 22, 2014 04:52
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Harry Potter And The Impending Four Year Anniversary
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Dec 22, 2014 05:05
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It's been almost 4 years since It's been almost 4 years since the end of Harry Potter.
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Dec 22, 2014 05:21
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It's been four years since we went to war with Eurasia.
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Dec 22, 2014 15:11
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It's been almost four years since the thread title changed.
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Dec 22, 2014 17:24
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Harry Potter and the Order of the
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Dec 23, 2014 00:09
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Dat thread title 
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Dec 23, 2014 17:11
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icantfindaname posted:so basically Magic England is a totalitarian state? Someone joked in an earlier discussion that the reason no one outside of magical Britain reacts to Voldemort's rise to power is because Britain is the magical equivalent of an underdeveloped country. Magical Britain has always been an oppressive, dysfunctional state with horrible problems that no one else in the magical international community wants to deal with. Voldemort is just the latest in a long line of despots. EDIT: And then there's the whole episode where Fudge is rounding up his political opponents and sentencing them on kangaroo courts while living in constant fear that Dumbledore is going to overthrow the government. QuoProQuid fucked around with this message at 00:45 on Dec 28, 2014 |
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Dec 27, 2014 22:08
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I'd like to think that it's because British wizards rely on magic too much, and thus are lazy as a result. I mean, look at the Ministry of Magic -they're run by paranoid, slobbering idiots that pass down corrupt judgement on anything that breathes in their presence. And the people who are well and sane aren't in a position to act. Magical Britain is probably the country that everyone else laughs at (behind their backs of course).
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Dec 28, 2014 05:31
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