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Tiggum posted:What is this a reference to? quote:Again though, it's way exaggerated here. It might be difficult in HP, but in MoR it's a unique skill that no one else has. Which also illustrates another major difference between the two, which is that in the original there are really difficult things that only extremely skilled wizards can do and which are beyond the abilities of the protagonists (but might be used by their friends or enemies). In MoR there are really difficult things that literally only Harry can do because he's always got to be better than everyone else at everything. Xander77 fucked around with this message at 08:39 on Aug 2, 2017 |
# ? Aug 2, 2017 08:36 |
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# ? Jun 7, 2024 04:40 |
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Xander77 posted:As a poster above noted, Army of Darkness. Oh yeah: Chapter 58: TSPE, Constrained Cognition, Pt 8 quote:A/N: A movie trailer for Army of Darkness, resembling the one Harry saw, is THV1KkPXIxQ on YouTube. quote:In darkness absolute, a boy stood holding his wand to the solid metal wall of Azkaban, essaying a magic that only three other people in the world would have believed possible, and that none save he alone could wield. And yeah, breaking into a jail and standing there while Abra-Kedabras are being cast is def not dangerous in the least. quote:And sure, the whole thing could work, but... quote:If you think your own life is valuable enough that you're not willing to take on an eighty percent probability of dying in order to protect all the prisoners in Azkaban, his Slytherin side observed, there's no way you can justify taking a twenty percent risk to your life to save Bellatrix and Professor Quirrell. The math doesn't add up, you can't be assigning consistent utilities over outcomes here. ... quote:What if the portkey doesn't take us where Professor Quirrell said it did? quote:Harry's brain suggested that he could try to Transfigure a surface cover over the hole in the wall, leaving a space for Bellatrix and Professor Quirrell to hide in, wearing the Cloak, while Harry turned himself in. And Professor Quirrell would eventually wake up, and he and Bellatrix could try to figure out how to exit Azkaban on their own. quote:It wasn't likely that the Defense Professor would go on teaching at Hogwarts. quote:"No longer trusst you," Harry said simply. "Not ssince you tried to sslay the protector man." quote:Harry angled the broomstick and began accelerating, upward and toward the center of the triangular space. His left hand, gloved to prevent direct contact between his skin and something which Professor Quirrell had Transfigured, held the switch of the control on the Muggle device. This is so amazingly loving stupid. So we wanked back and forth on the question of whether Azkaban is a strict maximum security inescapable prison, or a place literally any powerful magician can get in and out of easily (and again, that's the point on which the crux of the entire last few chapters rests upon)... and our final coherent measure of safety is "even if anyone can easily get into the prison, reach a prisoner, Patronus the dementors and cut a hole in the walls / roof to reach safety, guards with broomsticks might be alerted and chase them". And the clever way our heroes overcome this foolproof deterrent is... faster broomsticks. Ok.
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# ? Aug 6, 2017 11:01 |
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Xander77 posted:Wow. NihilCredo posted:The Aurors aren't the wardens of this prison.
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# ? Aug 6, 2017 12:55 |
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That's not in the least what the text says. A powerful wizard can stroll into the prison, patronus as the dementors / prisoner (thus far, the sequence of events is confirmed as normal) open the walls "in seconds", and soar out, along with any company, into a radius at which portal keys work.
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# ? Aug 6, 2017 15:17 |
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Xander77 posted:That's not in the least what the text says. A powerful wizard can stroll into the prison, patronus as the dementors / prisoner (thus far, the sequence of events is confirmed as normal) open the walls "in seconds", and soar out, along with any company, into a radius at which portal keys work. Yup, but before that point, your broomstick shorts out, meaning that the only meaningful protection is the antix2-gravity jinx. Just so Harry can use Muggle Tech to save (?) the day.
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# ? Aug 6, 2017 15:27 |
Fanfiction.net removes actual urls from stories because their rules are bizarre, so that was Yud's only real choice for sharing his dumb reference.
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# ? Aug 6, 2017 16:48 |
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Jazerus posted:Fanfiction.net removes actual urls from stories because their rules are bizarre That one kinda makes sense in that I could see ways that adbots might take advantage otherwise.
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# ? Aug 6, 2017 17:00 |
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Jazerus posted:Fanfiction.net removes actual urls from stories because their rules are bizarre, so that was Yud's only real choice for sharing his dumb reference.
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# ? Aug 6, 2017 18:13 |
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Xander77 posted:That's not in the least what the text says. A powerful wizard can stroll into the prison, patronus as the dementors / prisoner (thus far, the sequence of events is confirmed as normal) open the walls "in seconds", and soar out, along with any company, into a radius at which portal keys work. In addition to what Zomborgon said: first chapter of the Azkaban trip: quote:"The ordinary Patronus Charm, Mr. Potter, wards off a Dementor's fear. But the Dementors still see you through it, they know that you are there. Only not your Patronus Charm. It blinds them, or more than blinds them. What I saw beneath the cloak wasn't even looking in our direction as you killed it; as though it had forgotten our existence, even as it died."
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# ? Aug 6, 2017 18:30 |
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Given that it was a whole start of chapter note there were probably a bunch of people in the reviews going "wait what's this boomstick thing am I missing something."
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# ? Aug 6, 2017 22:46 |
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reignonyourparade posted:Given that it was a whole start of chapter note there were probably a bunch of people in the reviews going "wait what's this boomstick thing am I missing something." Probably before his audience's time.
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# ? Aug 7, 2017 13:58 |
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Chapter 59: TSPE, Curiosity, Pt 9quote:Broomsticks had been invented during what a Muggle would have called the Dark Ages, supposedly by a legendary witch named Celestria Relevo, allegedly the great-great-granddaughter of Merlin. 2. I have no idea how the whole "supposedly" or "allegedly" thing ties into anything, but it makes as much (or as little) sense as qualifying "the printing press was allegedly invented by Johannes Gutenberg". (Ok, a few centuries worth of difference, but still) 3. That's not how broomsticks work in the HP universe. It's intuitively obvious (for instance) that broomsticks would have momentum, and that's how they're depicted in the movies (obviously). quote:That is the story of how Harry James Potter-Evans-Verres was almost killed by his own lack of curiosity. quote:None of this actually went through Harry's mind at the time. quote:Then Harry glanced behind him, remembering for the first time to check whether Bellatrix or Professor Quirrell had been blown off the broomstick. quote:Harry looked back again, saw Bellatrix looking around with a puzzled, wondering look on her face. Her head kept turning, turning. Anyways, Snake!Quirremort is also knocked out. quote:It was to have been Professor Quirrell who told Harry when it was safe to use the portkey. quote:The Sun, which had shone on the two only briefly, was swiftly occluded by a raincloud as they shot away from Azkaban, in the direction of the wind and faster than the wind. The portkey takes Harriezer and co to a healer in unknown country. Apparently Harriezer's only weakness is that he can't place accents. quote:
Also, there's a tiny bit Yud kinda riffs on the fact that the healer character is a huge cliche, with Harriezer doubting whether the whole thing is real or a performance... it's weird. quote:"What potion did you give her?" the witch said after opening Bellatrix's mouth and peering inside, her wand flashing multiple colors of illumination. quote:"Excuse me," said Harry's voice. It now sounded as distant and detached as the fading Harry felt. "I'm going to faint in a few seconds, I think." Xander77 fucked around with this message at 16:48 on Aug 14, 2017 |
# ? Aug 12, 2017 16:00 |
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Xander77 posted:1. A Muggle like Harry would be educated in the 1990's, a point at which terms like "the Dark Ages" have been obsolete for decades. I agree with everything else you posted, but I find this completely believable. It's not like Harriezer seems to give a poo poo about history that doesn't connect directly to one of his pet projects, and - as someone who minored in history - I still have to explain to people sometimes that no, they weren't really the 'Dark Ages'.
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# ? Aug 12, 2017 16:07 |
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Prism posted:I agree with everything else you posted, but I find this completely believable. It's not like Harriezer seems to give a poo poo about history that doesn't connect directly to one of his pet projects, and - as someone who minored in history - I still have to explain to people sometimes that no, they weren't really the 'Dark Ages'. Yeah. Yudkowsky is educated (as much as he's educated) in the 80s-90s as well, and it's not like the Dark Ages was anymore of a reasonable term at that point in time. The real issue is that Yudkowsky often uses historical comparisons of various forms, and they're invariably stupid because he doesn't know what he's talking about.
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# ? Aug 12, 2017 18:55 |
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Prism posted:I agree with everything else you posted, but I find this completely believable. It's not like Harriezer seems to give a poo poo about history that doesn't connect directly to one of his pet projects, and - as someone who minored in history - I still have to explain to people sometimes that no, they weren't really the 'Dark Ages'. The continued usage of "the Dark Ages" is regrettably, even aggressively true. In fact, I've noticed over the years that the more "rationalist" (or outright euphoric) someone is, the more likely they'll be to use it.
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# ? Aug 14, 2017 00:23 |
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hole_left_finno-korean_hyperwar.png The Dark Ages, as a label, will probably never die. Unfortunately.
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# ? Aug 14, 2017 08:41 |
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90s Cringe Rock posted:hole_left_finno-korean_hyperwar.png I assume this was an accidental Ctrl-V but I googled it and still had a chuckle.
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# ? Aug 14, 2017 09:55 |
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Nah, that chart exists, it’s just a joke based on the original “hole left by the Christian dark ages” chart, which is terrible for many reasons including but not limited to the unironic use of the term “dark ages.”
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# ? Aug 14, 2017 10:04 |
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Pieuvre posted:The continued usage of "the Dark Ages" is regrettably, even aggressively true. In fact, I've noticed over the years that the more "rationalist" (or outright euphoric) someone is, the more likely they'll be to use it. I just use it interchangeably with the Middle Ages. It really depends on context and what incredibly depressing aspects of life you're focusing on. If you're talking about all of the grimdark poo poo, Dark Ages it is!
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# ? Aug 14, 2017 17:06 |
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Chapter 60: The Stanford Prison Experiment, Pt 10 I'm reviewing this one in non-narrative order. quote:The wizard was already reaching within his robes for his hourglass when, in habit, his eyes jumped to a random spot between the road and the wall, to memorize it - quote:"Now it is my turn to inquire of you." Professor Quirrell's back straightened from where it had leaned back against the glacier wall of painted concrete. "I was wondering, Mr. Potter, if you had anything to say about nearly killing me and ruining our mutual endeavor. I am given to understand that an apology, in such cases, is considered a sign of respect. But you have not offered me one. Is it just that you have not yet gotten around to it, Mr. Potter?" 2. Another character relationship that is swiftly saved from any overtly quick progression. quote:"What was that place?" Harry said hoarsely, in a voice pushed out of his throat like water forced through a too-thin pipe, in the darkness it sounded almost as shattered as Bellatrix Black's voice had been. "What was that place? That wasn't a prison, that was HELL! " It could be a take on how reactionary fantasy often is, longing for a return to the status quo / fighting to maintain one, without ever examining how terrible aspects of the setting might be, even without a Dark Lord / Empire in the mix. It could (and I'm extending a LOT of unwarranted credit here) be a reference to the many inequalities and injustices we happily tolerate / applaud in OUR society on daily basis. You might think "well, this sounds like a set of issues that could be solved or alleviated by a motivated ... Conversely, we can take any relevance to real life issues as totally unintended, and the principal point of the scene to do with Quirrelmort trying to corrupt Harriezer: quote:"On our first day of class, you tried to convince my classmates I was a killer."" quote:A faint smile twitched on the Defense Professor's lips. "You know, Mr. Potter, if He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named had come to rule over magical Britain, and built such a place as Azkaban, he would have built it because he enjoyed seeing his enemies suffer. And if instead he began to find their suffering distasteful, why, he would order Azkaban torn down the next day. As for those who did make Azkaban, and those who do not tear it down, while preaching lofty sermons and imagining themselves not to be villains... well, Mr. Potter, I think if I had my choice of taking tea with them, or taking tea with You-Know-Who, I should find my sensibilities less offended by the Dark Lord." quote:And the boy blurted out the last most terrible question which he had earlier been unable to ask; as though to say it aloud would make it real, and as though it were not, already, vastly obvious.
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# ? Aug 15, 2017 08:20 |
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"Why am I not like the other children my own age?" yer a douchebag, harriezer
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# ? Aug 17, 2017 15:10 |
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Chapter 61: TSPE, Secrecy and Openness, Pt 11 In this chapter, DMS (dropping their new single soon) discussion the implications of the escape (the fourth below is Flitwick, but no one bothered to give him a personality, so he has nothing to contribute) quote:An old wooden door marked with the sign of a toilet burst open with a slam, and four invisible rescuers stormed through it. Except: quote:It took considerable effort for her to wrench her attention back, but she sat back down, and Severus gestured up a chair for himself as well, and the three of them drew together to begin their council. quote:"No one has tried to forcibly take my blood," Severus said. He gave a quick grimace of a smile. "Except the Defense Professor." quote:"So," Albus said heavily. "Our first suspect is Voldemort, risen again and seeking to resurrect himself. I have studied many books I wish I had not read, seeking his every possible avenue of return, and I have found only three. His strongest road to life is the Philosopher's Stone, which Flamel assures me that not even Voldemort could create on his own; by that road he would rise greater and more terrible than ever before. I would not have thought Voldemort able to resist the temptation of the Stone, still less because such an obvious trap is a challenge to his wit. But his second avenue is nearly as strong: The flesh of his servant, willingly given; the blood of his foe, forcibly taken; and the bone of his ancestor, unknowingly bequeathed. Voldemort is a perfectionist -" Albus glanced at Severus, who nodded agreement, "- and he would certainly seek the most powerful combination: the flesh of Bellatrix Black, the blood of Harry Potter, and the bone of his father. Voldemort's final avenue is to seduce a victim and drain the life from them over a long period; in which case Voldemort would be weak compared to his former power. His motive to spirit away Bellatrix is clear. And if he is keeping her in reserve, to use only in case he cannot attain the Stone, that would explain why no kidnap attempt was made on Harry this day." quote:"Mr. Potter is an Occlumens? You gave him an invisibility cloak and he is immune to Veritaserum and he is friends with the Weasley twins? Albus, do you have any idea what you have unleashed upon this school?" Her voice was nearly shrieking, now. "By his seventh year there won't be anything left of Hogwarts but a smoking hole in the ground!" In the actual continuity, Albus keeps a lot of Harry-related secrets from Minerva - but those are mostly (ugh) "Quest" things meant to shape to Harry into a willing sacrifice that would eventually take out Voldermort, not things that are necessarily loving with Minerva's purview. Because canon Dumbledore actually respects Minerva. Yes, even though she's a woman. Yes, even though she's concerned about keeping things orderly (like, ugh, amirite, creative chaos as long as it's not aimed against MY projects) Also "nearly shrieking". How dare she, the nagging shrew. quote:"Then why," Albus said, and now there was no humor at all in his voice, "when I planned to retrieve Harry immediately after his arrival in Diagon Alley, did I find that this would result in paradox?" quote:"Well," said the Potions Master. Again the expressionless face. "I am afraid that Mr. Potter does have a motive." quote:There was another pause, and then Madam Bones's voice said, "I have information which I learned four hours into the future, Albus. Do you still want it?" quote:"Nonetheless, Headmaster," Severus said. "Just because the Death Eaters never used Muggle artifacts in the first war, that does not mean he is ignorant. Rockets fell on Britain as weapons, in the Muggle side of Grindelwald's war. If he spent the summers of those years in a Muggle orphanage, as you told us, Headmaster... then he, too, has heard of rockets. And if he has been listening to reports of Mr. Potter and his mock battles using Muggle artifacts, he would certainly learn his enemy's strengths and try to redouble them himself. That is just how he thinks; any power he sees he will try to take for his own." quote:"What will you tell Madam Bones?" she whispered. This really should be the chapter cliffhanger, but since this is Harriezer's story, we actually end with him being summoned to Minerva's office, to have his Time-Turner tested. How will our hero get out of this one. Xander77 fucked around with this message at 11:36 on Aug 21, 2017 |
# ? Aug 19, 2017 22:56 |
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Pieuvre posted:"Why am I not like the other children my own age?" Yer a self-insert, 'arry!
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# ? Aug 19, 2017 23:23 |
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Xander77 posted:(the fourth below is Flitwick, but no one bothered to give him a personality, so he has nothing to contribute) It's Fawkes, actually, Flitwick was left behind at Hogwarts. And I agree on this, it bothered me quite a bit that Flitwick barely appears in the story at all, considering that he is nominally Harriezer's Head of House. Certainly he could have played foil to his antics at least as well as McGonagall. In fact, he actually does so - once, and then never again: quote:"After which," Harry said, "the Headmaster told Professor Flitwick that this was, indeed, a secret and delicate matter of which he had already been informed, and that he did not think pressing it at this time would help me or anyone. Professor Flitwick started to say something about the Headmaster's usual plotting going much too far, and I had to interrupt at that point and explain that it had been my own idea and not anything the Headmaster forced me into, so Professor Flitwick spun around and started lecturing me, and the Headmaster interrupted him and said that as the Boy-Who-Lived I was doomed to have weird and dangerous adventures so I was safer if I got into them on purpose instead of waiting for them to happen by accident, and that was when Professor Flitwick threw up his little hands and started shrieking in a high-pitched voice at both of us about how he didn't care what we were cooking up together, but this wasn't ever to happen again for as long as I was in Ravenclaw House or he would have me thrown out and I could go to Gryffindor which was where all this Dumbledoring belonged -" "Cool ideas used once and then dropped forever" could be this fic's subtitle, come to think of it.
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# ? Aug 19, 2017 23:56 |
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It annoys me how complicated he's made time travel, especially given how simple it was in the original story. Everything's fixed, you can't change the past. It's useful for being in two places at once, but you can't go back and change anything. And it's got nothing to do with what you know or when you know it, because the whole plot revolves around them going back to do things that already happened but they didn't know about or didn't know they were involved in. There's no "you can't go back and change this or you'll cause a paradox", it's just that you can go back but whatever you do will result in whatever already happened. It's futile.
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# ? Aug 21, 2017 01:15 |
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IIRC there is also mention of Wizards who tried to meddle with time and "terrible things" happened to them.
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# ? Aug 21, 2017 10:23 |
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And then there's Cursed Child...
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# ? Aug 21, 2017 11:10 |
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Chapter 62: The Stanford Prison Experiment, Final If anything, the arc name should be referring to diffusion of responsibility, or the bystander effect. We're not arguing that society participates in the cruelty that is Azkaban, but rather that it allows it to take place. quote:Minerva gazed up at the clock, the golden hands and silver numerals, the jerking motion. Muggles had invented that, and until they had, wizards had not bothered keeping time. Bells, timed by a sanded hourglass, had served Hogwarts for its classes when it was built. It was one of the things that blood purists wished not to be true, and therefore Minerva knew it. (Because you can keep relatively exact time with sun-dials and sand/water glasses. Exact enough to time classes, anyway) quote:She couldn't imagine it, and the reason she couldn't imagine it was that she couldn't imagine Harry fighting You-Know-Who. Ugh. Tiggum posted:It annoys me how complicated he's made time travel, especially given how simple it was in the original story. Or not, since I'm going to quickly summarize most of it: quote:"I'm sorry for the inconvenience, Mr. Potter, but I need to ask you to use your Time-Turner to go back six hours to three o'clock, and give the following message to Professor Flitwick: Silver on the tree. Ask the Professor to note down the time at which you gave him that message. Afterward the Headmaster wishes to meet with you at your convenience." quote:One hour earlier, having used the last remaining spin of his Time-Turner after putting on the Cloak of Invisibility, Harry tucked the hourglass back into his shirt. quote:"Hello, Harry," said the old wizard. I mean, yeah Voldermort might have a fired a nuclear missile or whatever at the Dursley's house - and Dumbledore didn't think that was likely to happen. And as far as I can tell, Voldy and Dumby are meant to be exactly the same as they are in the cannon. quote:
quote:"Please," said the old wizard in a whisper. "I have no right to ask your forgiveness, Harry James Potter-Evans-Verres, but please, at least say that you understand why." There was water in the old wizard's eyes. quote:
As it stands, I'm sure the whole thing is reduced to "sheeple, amirite? Guess we Great Men will have to decide how to herd them".
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# ? Aug 22, 2017 19:43 |
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Tiggum posted:It annoys me how complicated he's made time travel, especially given how simple it was in the original story. Everything's fixed, you can't change the past. It's useful for being in two places at once, but you can't go back and change anything. And it's got nothing to do with what you know or when you know it, because the whole plot revolves around them going back to do things that already happened but they didn't know about or didn't know they were involved in. There's no "you can't go back and change this or you'll cause a paradox", it's just that you can go back but whatever you do will result in whatever already happened. It's futile. I think you misunderstand: It's not "or you'll cause a paradox" it's "If you try to go back and do something and events prevent you from doing so, that's because whatever you were going to do would cause a paradox." And while technically you can't change anything, that doesn't mean you can't set things up so that it turns out your initial perception of events was wrong in the first place: this even happens with the execution of buckbeak in the books, albeit accidentally.
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# ? Aug 23, 2017 06:04 |
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reignonyourparade posted:I think you misunderstand: It's not "or you'll cause a paradox" it's "If you try to go back and do something and events prevent you from doing so, that's because whatever you were going to do would cause a paradox." And while technically you can't change anything, that doesn't mean you can't set things up so that it turns out your initial perception of events was wrong in the first place: this even happens with the execution of buckbeak in the books, albeit accidentally. That doesn't fit with the "don't tell me anything, I might want to go back in time" thing. If you can't change the outcome anyway then it doesn't matter what you're told. Things have happened whether you personally know about them or not.
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# ? Aug 23, 2017 07:57 |
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That's a different rule: information can't go back more than six hours, so if he learns something from four hours in the future he can't go back more than two hours.
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# ? Aug 23, 2017 08:21 |
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Chapter 63: TSPE, Aftermaths part 1 Literally all about aftermaths. Half a chapter for people who aren't Harriezer (which we'll be covering now) and half a chapter for our very special boy. quote:"Fawkes," Harry said, just as she was opening her mouth, "that girl over there is Hermione Granger, she's not talking to me right now because I'm an idiot, but if you want to be on a good person's shoulder she's better than me." quote:There were bags of fatigue beneath Snape's eyes, Draco saw as their Head of House came close, the Potions Master had never been a sharp dresser (that was an understatement) but his robes were even dirtier and more disarrayed this morning, spotted with extra grease. quote:It was a few minutes later that Millicent Bulstrode ran up to them, visibly out of breath, and said, "Mr. Malfoy, did you hear?" quote:Harry was up from the bench in an instant, heading toward the Hufflepuff table, a horrible sick feeling dawning in the pit of his stomach. It was one of those things he hadn't considered when he'd decided to commit the crime, because Professor Quirrell had planned for no one to know; and now, afterward, Harry just - hadn't thought of it - Conversely, there's an arranged meeting with a certain "L.L" that plays on the readers expecting it to be Luna, rather than an utterly forgettable character: quote:Lesath Lestrange said, in a breaking voice, "My life is yours, my Lord, and my death as well." quote:Amelia looked at the human form resting unconscious on the healer's bed, the burned and blasted flesh, the thin sheet that covered him for modesty's sake having been peeled back at her command. Bones should really be focusing on the time between when the Patronus was last in effect and when Bellatrix rocketed away - that could give her some clue about what happened - who it happened to - who actually broke into Azbakan and why. quote:She was heading toward the infirmary, and Harry Potter was leaving it, when they passed each other. quote:"Fred and George Weasley!" spake Dumbledore in a Voice of Power. quote:When Alastor Moody had lost his eye, he had commandeered the services of a most erudite Ravenclaw, Samuel H. Lyall, whom Moody mistrusted slightly less than average because Moody had refrained from reporting him as an unregistered werewolf; and he had paid Lyall to compile a list of every known magical eye, and every known hint to their location. quote:"I can't believe you lot never told me about this resurrection thing," Mad-Eye Moody said with considerable acerbity. "D'you realize how long it'll take me to do the grave of every ancestor of every Dark Wizard I've ever killed who could've been smart enough to make a horcrux? You're not just now doing this one, are you?" quote:"Tenth vial," said Snape. quote:Aftermath, Daphne Greengrass and Tracey Davis:
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# ? Aug 28, 2017 11:14 |
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Portkeys are ridiculously monitored and you can't create one without the ministry knowing. Crouch Jr got around it by just modifying the cup portkey that was meant to take the winner back to the entrance of the maze.
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# ? Aug 28, 2017 11:38 |
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MikeJF posted:Portkeys are ridiculously monitored and you can't create one without the ministry knowing. Crouch Jr got around it by just modifying the cup portkey that was meant to take the winner back to the entrance of the maze. quote:According to Remus Lupin, the creation of unauthorised Portkeys incurs some sort of punishment, and Cornelius Fudge was quite angry when Albus Dumbledore created one in front of him without permission. However, as demonstrated by Dumbledore and Barty Crouch Jr, the Ministry does not have the ability to detect the creation of such Portkeys.
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# ? Aug 28, 2017 13:57 |
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I was reading that awful thread someone (probably divabot?) linked a while back about rational fiction. The apologists in it recommended The Metropolitan Man as a positive example of the genre, a fanfic about Rational Lex Luthor plotting to kill superman. It was the most lifeless loving thing I've ever read. Luthor is wholly devoted to his task, free of doubt or frustration. Just a cold series of experimental steps leading to him eventually fluking into being able to kill superman (explicitly luck per the dialogue). He's not a character, just a cipher for the author to solve their own optimisation problem. All the joy of reading someone recounting their tales of tweaking their path of exile build with none of the fun of playing or coming up with it yourself. I understand the appeal of that sort of thing, just not the choice of medium. There were actually sort of interesting moments, all of them involved aborted explorations of the morality of superman's actions and none of them involved luthor. Also in the end kryptonians were weird eel-spiders and superman was genetically engineered by his ship to be human looking, because goodness knows that in a setting with an alien capable of hearing and seeing almost everything and flying unaided it's just not rational to have him happen to look like a hot dude. Maybe it's mean to say but most of the people in the thread heavily into rational fiction seemed to have extremely poor conceptions of what stories are.
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# ? Aug 29, 2017 14:52 |
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Gitro posted:I was reading that awful thread someone (probably divabot?) linked a while back about rational fiction. The apologists in it recommended The Metropolitan Man as a positive example of the genre, a fanfic about Rational Lex Luthor plotting to kill superman. It was the most lifeless loving thing I've ever read. People aren't rational actors, so having a person be the protagonist of your rationalwank fic is a detriment, duh. There's no interesting ground to cover in a character struggling to maintain Rational goals and mindset in the face of their own human frailties and foibles.
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# ? Aug 29, 2017 19:51 |
Gitro posted:I was reading that awful thread someone (probably divabot?) linked a while back about rational fiction. The apologists in it recommended The Metropolitan Man as a positive example of the genre, a fanfic about Rational Lex Luthor plotting to kill superman. It was the most lifeless loving thing I've ever read. obviously methods of rationality sucks. but many of the fics supposedly inspired by it are a lot better than it, and metropolitan man is one of them. you are missing the point entirely the story is somewhat lifeless because that's lex luthor. a cold series of experimental destruction detached from human emotion is like the definition of his character. it's not out of place for him to act like a morally dubious randian ubermensch like it is for harry potter. but honestly the point of the fic isn't really lex luthor, it's the exploration of superman's morality that you mentioned. it's hardly aborted - the fic is really very effective at portraying the objective horror of a figure like superman, both for the humans around him and for himself, without overexplaining it. luthor killing superman through a lucky shot just after they've reached a reasonable agreement that will benefit both superman and everybody else is a really pretty unsubtle commentary on human nature and fear of the unknown leading us to violent solutions that simply maintain the status quo. Pvt.Scott posted:People aren't rational actors, so having a person be the protagonist of your rationalwank fic is a detriment, duh. There's no interesting ground to cover in a character struggling to maintain Rational goals and mindset in the face of their own human frailties and foibles. sure there can be. the problem with eliezarry isn't really that he's "Rational", it's that he's a rationalbot - everything he does is Rational because he does it, which is a revealing parallel to yudkowsky himself. eliezarry is the most rational one in the room, always - suck it, sheeple! but of course eliezarry's brand of rationality isn't rational at all. a realistically characterized character who is philosophically inclined to believe in empiricism & logic above all having to confront their emotions and impulses in difficult situations is something else entirely, and could be written interestingly. lex luthor's belief in himself as a brilliantly rational visionary has literally always been part of his character. but he isn't actually behaving entirely rationally from a sane point of view, and i don't think the story is trying to say that he is. it doesn't really try to sway you on whether superman or lex is correct, or neither. certainly i didn't walk away thinking that the story wanted me to feel that the good guy had won. Jazerus fucked around with this message at 20:30 on Aug 29, 2017 |
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# ? Aug 29, 2017 20:15 |
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Jazerus posted:obviously methods of rationality sucks. but many of the fics supposedly inspired by it are a lot better than it, and metropolitan man is one of them. you are missing the point entirely nah, not really. Pretty much every rationalfic is better than HPMOR, but you haven't seen a bar set that low outside the pages of Earthworm Track & Field. Alexander Wales writes better than Yudkowsky, but so does pretty much everyone, and Wales is still a bit dull a writer. Anyway, the least bad rationalfic is Cordyceps, which is an irrationalfic in which thinking is bad for you. I enjoyed it. The rationalfic that is worse than HPMOR is My Little Pony: Friendship Is Optimal, which is a cursed slab of ponyfucking (the trope is "Conversion Bureau", and how I wistfully look back on the days when I didn't know what that was) that makes HPMOR look like Dostoevsky and nfw am I linking it. This was written with the explicit intent of doing to MLP what HPMOR did to HP, i.e. use it as advocacy for Yudkowskian tropes. The guy in his AI-simulated MLP pony body delighting in sex with an AI-simulated talking MLP pony sex doll is totally not the point except it really obviously is: quote:That is he didn’t think about anything until the two of them started glowing, throwing off multicolored particle effects while he heard a triumphant horn blow. Slightly below the center of his vision, he saw an almost opaque window announce to him: (I mean, it's possible to miss someone else's kink. First time I read "In the Barn" by Piers Anthony, I thought it was a psychological horror story rather than the blatant fetish fuel it obviously is in retrospect.) I think I've noted before that what we really need is for Perfect Lionheart to decide that now he needs to pwn rationalfic.
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# ? Aug 29, 2017 21:20 |
divabot posted:nah, not really. Pretty much every rationalfic is better than HPMOR, but you haven't seen a bar set that low outside the pages of Earthworm Track & Field. Alexander Wales writes better than Yudkowsky, but so does pretty much everyone, and Wales is still a bit dull a writer. yeah i just understand what metropolitan man is going for and appreciate it it's striving to be an old-timey sci fi story in an asimov or bradbury kind of way, where the moral questions and conflicts of philosophy are the point. it maybe doesn't get there entirely but it wouldn't seem entirely out of place in a sci fi anthology from the 50s
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# ? Aug 29, 2017 21:26 |
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# ? Jun 7, 2024 04:40 |
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divabot posted:I think I've noted before that what we really need is for Perfect Lionheart to decide that now he needs to pwn rationalfic.
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# ? Aug 29, 2017 21:26 |