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quote:the suddenly returning sense that he was an ignorant child gone insane with audacity who had no right to be in this room and no right to question Albus Dumbledore about anything Harriezer at his most self-aware this chapter, I see.
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Dec 23, 2017 09:50
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Dalris Othaine posted:Harriezer at his most self-aware this chapter, I see. Unfortunately, being a Mary Sue, he is immune to apotheosis.
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Dec 23, 2017 20:22
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I've read the books once and seen the movies multiple times and I'd just like to say that Harry & Ginny is bullshit. Should've been Luna.
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Dec 25, 2017 08:56
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Chapter 77: SA, Aftermaths: Surface Appearances (part 2, aftermaths)quote:"No, there is only one person who holds so much power over you, and who would be most perturbed to find you executing any plot without his knowledge. Your true and hidden master, Albus Dumbledore." Draco saves Millicent Bulstrode (the time-turner messenger) from some bullies. quote:"Thank you," Draco said. "All of you please leave her alone, she's just a pawn. Miss Bulstrode, you may consider the favor you did me in February to have been repaid." And Draco turned back to his Potions homework, hoping to Merlin and back again that Millicent didn't say anything incredibly stupid like 'What favor?' - quote:You could recruit a group that included Bellatrix Black and Amycus Carrow alongside Lord Malfoy and Mr. MacNair, and keep them in line with the Cruciatus Curse. But the instant the master of the Dark Mark was gone, you didn't have an army anymore, you had a circle of acquaintances. That was why Father had failed. It hadn't even really been his fault. There'd been nothing Father could have done, after inheriting Death Eaters who weren't really friends with each other. quote:It was an unnerving feeling, not so much of being invisible as of not existing.
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Dec 25, 2017 13:57
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Chapter 78: Taboo Tradeoffs Prelude: Cheatingquote:Mr. and Mrs. Davis looked rather nervous, as they sat in a certain special section of the Hogwarts Quidditch stands - quote:Thus it had been with some trepidation that Mr. and Mrs. Davis had insisted on an audience with Deputy Headmistress McGonagall. It was hard to muster a proper sense of indignation when you were confronting the same dignified witch who, twelve years and four months earlier, had given both of you two weeks' detention after catching you in the act of conceiving Tracey. quote:Seated to the left of Mr. Davis was another concerned parent, a white-haired man in elegant black robes of unmatchable quality, one Lucius Malfoy, political leader of the strongest faction of the Wizengamot. quote:To the left of Lord Malfoy, a sneeringly aristocratic man with a scarred face who had been introduced to them as Lord Jugson. quote:Then an elderly but sharp-eyed fellow named Charles Nott, rumored to be nearly as wealthy as Lord Malfoy, seated on Lord Jugson's left. This goes on for a while, despite the vast majority of these characters not mattering in the slightest. But hey, what else is new? Hermione's head isn't in the game (editing my transcript, I won't even dignify that with wordplay). quote:"Do we really need a plan?" the Sunshine General said, sounding a little distracted. "We've got you and me and Lavender and Parvati and Hannah and Daphne and Ron and Ernie and Anthony and Captain Finnigan." quote:Some might have called it sabotage, but Draco knew better. Harry had also sent Lieutenant Finnigan to the Sunshine Regiment, even though Professor Quirrell's mandate had only required that Harry give up one Lieutenant. That too had been a deliberate move, making crystal clear to everyone that Harry wasn't dumping his least-favored soldiers. quote:The soldiers in General Malfoy's army, at least those with higher Transfiguration scores, were picking up leaves and Transfiguring them into... well, if you looked at Padma Patil, who was almost done with hers, it looked like her leaf was becoming a left-handed glove bearing a dangling strap. (The window had zoomed in to show this.) quote:"I do not know," said Lucius Malfoy, his tone calm though no less aristocratic, "but I must trust that he has good reason for doing it." I mean, that might work as a parody of generic fantasy, with the world being in stasis for millennia, but neither actual medieval times, nor (as far as I can tell) the HP-verse (insofar as the wizards in HP are meant to be human rather than strawmen) quote:The common consensus had been that, with odds that bad, it was practically impossible for them to lose. After all, General Chaos was bound to come up with something really spectacular, facing odds like that. quote:You might guess that there was some sort of incredibly complicated and fascinating explanation behind this, and you would be right. quote:"Report!" snapped the Dragon General, doing his best to conceal the fatigue he felt after casting seventeen Locking Charms, with more yet to come. quote:There was a cautionary tale the Potions Master had told them (with much sneers and laughter to make the stupidity seem low-status instead of daring and romantic) about a second-year witch in Beauxbatons who'd stolen some extremely restricted and expensive ingredients, and tried to brew Polyjuiceso she could borrow the form of another girl for purposes better left unmentioned. Only she'd managed to contaminate the potion with cat hairs, and then instead of seeking a healer immediately, the witch had hidden herself in a bathroom, hoping the effects would just wear off; and when she'd finally been found, it had been too late to reverse the transformation completely, condemning her to a life of despair as a sort of cat-girl hybrid. You just need to open Wizard warfare through the ages and steal some ideas. It's a book that necessarily exists both within the HP-verse and in HPMOR. It's not like the Battle Room, where the specific conditions are somewhat unique, and the students are justified in re-inventing the wheel of tactics for their circumstances. This is a simulation of actual warfare, so going to the antecedents should be the obvious first move. Yes, the adult world is composed of worthless NPCs who have nothing to contribute, but still. That's just terribly bad advice, by any standard. quote:Every single Potions recipe seemed to demand at least one magical ingredient, but why should that be true? quote:Conservation laws. They'd been the critical insight in more Muggle discoveries than Harry could easily count. In Muggle technology you couldn't raise a feather one meter off the ground without the power coming from somewhere. If you looked at molten lava spilling from a volcano and asked where the heat came from, a physicist would tell you about radioactive heavy metals in the center of the Earth's molten core. If you asked where the energy to power the radioactivity came from, the physicist would point to an era before the Earth had formed, and a primordial supernova in the early days of the galaxy which had baked atomic nuclei heavier than the natural limit, the supernova compressing protons and neutrons into a tight unstable package that yielded back some of the supernova's energy when it split. A light bulb was fueled by electricity, fueled by a nuclear power plant, fueled by a supernova... You could play the game all the way back to the Big Bang. quote:Magic did not appear to work like this, to put it mildly. Magic's attitude toward laws like Conservation of Energy was somewhere between a giant extended middle finger, and a shrug of total indifference. We stop for a brief reminder that Tracy, Susan and Neville exist, and are way more cool in this fanfic than they are in the HP-verse proper. TVTropers start jotting down Moments of Awesomesauce. (This isn't actually relevant in a meaningful sense) Harriezer flashbangs Hermione's army with potions, hence the goggles. quote:"NOW!" bellowed Blaise Zabini, formerly of Sunshine, now commanding a detachment of Chaos Legionnaires. "I mean, TUNAFISH!" The Slytherin boy's hand grasped the cloth shielding the cauldron from the triggering touch of daylight, already beginning to move it aside. Hermione accuses Draco of plotting with Snape, Alohamora's his fancy glove and knocks him out. A development which is basically unconnected to the gimmick of this particular battle. quote:The elderly Charles Nott said nothing as he stood from his chair. The scarred Lord Jugson said nothing, as he stood from his own chair. quote:We won. quote:Later, looking backward, Harry would think of how, in his SF and fantasy novels, people always made their big, important choices for big, important reasons. Hari Seldon had created his Foundation to rebuild the ashes of the Galactic Empire, not because he would look more important if he could be in charge of his own research group. Raistlin Majere had severed ties with his brother because he wanted to become a god, not because he was incompetent at personal relationships and unwilling to ask for advice on how to do better. Frodo Baggins had taken the Ring because he was a hero who wanted to save Middle-Earth, not because it would've been too awkward not to. If anyone ever wrote a true history of the world - not that anyone ever could or would - probably 97% of all the key moments of Fate would turn out to be constructed of lies and tissue paper and trivial little thoughts that somebody could've just as easily thought differently. The next morning, Dumbledore enters the great hall with three Aurors in tow. quote:The Aurors swept toward him with swift strides, Auror Goryanof approaching from the other side of the Ravenclaw table as though to block any escape in that direction, Auror Komodo and Auror Butnaru approaching from Harry's side, the Headmaster following straight on Komodo's heels.
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Jan 12, 2018 14:59
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Xander77 posted:Any people with a deeper interest in physics - is that just a gross simplification, or outright incorrect? It's mostly correct, though a bit breezy. It's also pretty basic and well-covered physics, so it's not like EY gets credit for knowing it.
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Jan 13, 2018 04:36
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I wonder, does Yud ever take a moment to point out that his Harry's basic assumptions of how magic works are really bad, and it has no obligation to be anything like physics? Who am I kidding, he probably thinks they're genius. Also, from the same chapter: quote:Later, looking backward, Harry would think of how, in his SF and fantasy novels, people always made their big, important choices for big, important reasons. Hari Seldon had created his Foundation to rebuild the ashes of the Galactic Empire, not because he would look more important if he could be in charge of his own research group. Raistlin Majere had severed ties with his brother because he wanted to become a god, not because he was incompetent at personal relationships and unwilling to ask for advice on how to do better. Frodo Baggins had taken the Ring because he was a hero who wanted to save Middle-Earth, not because it would've been too awkward not to. If anyone ever wrote a true history of the world - not that anyone ever could or would - probably 97% of all the key moments of Fate would turn out to be constructed of lies and tissue paper and trivial little thoughts that somebody could've just as easily thought differently. Rather tellingly, all three of these references are wrong past a superficial level. Seldon's explicit purpose was to create a replacement for the Empire, not rebuild it. Raistlin severed ties with his brother because he resented that the burly, friendly, and handsome fighter was more well-liked than he was, and Raist had resented the hell out of that ever since he walked in on him screwing the girl Raistlin was crushing on in their teens. That was then entire point of much of his arc. Frodo didn't give a drat about the whole of Middle Earth, he left the Shire because Gandalf told him that Sauron knew a hobbit named Baggins had the Ring, and urged him to move to Rivendell to be safe. Liquid Communism fucked around with this message at 11:43 on Jan 13, 2018 |
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Jan 13, 2018 11:10
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This was one of the most fun chapters to read while it was still being written, because Big Yud challenged his readers to come up with creative ways for Harry to save Hermione. Also, my fan art was submitted around here, so my name was included as one of the background characters in the next couple of chapters.
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Jan 13, 2018 13:19
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this is where MoR really starts to go off the rails and loses any relationship to sensibility whatsoever
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Jan 13, 2018 17:19
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Xander77 posted:So actual battle magic never advances? People never come up with obvious ideas such as armor, improvements upon armor, armor piercers, much less all the "cool-looking but actually quite useless" innovations that composed a huge portion of military inventions throughout history? Presumably not much effort is being put into military innovations practical for use by 12 year olds. Liquid Communism posted:Frodo didn't give a drat about the whole of Middle Earth, he left the Shire because Gandalf told him that Sauron knew a hobbit named Baggins had the Ring, and urged him to move to Rivendell to be safe. Yeah but once IN Rivendell no one is urging him to take the ring to Mordor, he makes that offer all on his own.
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Jan 13, 2018 17:19
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reignonyourparade posted:Yeah but once IN Rivendell no one is urging him to take the ring to Mordor, he makes that offer all on his own. It's way more complicated than him doing it because he "wants to save Middle Earth". Frodo's a really interesting character because of that - part of it (a reasonably large part of it I think) is that he doesn't like the idea of someone else taking the ring because of the hold the ring has on him. He also doesn't hold out much hope that the quest can actually succeed, he just thinks it's the right thing that they at least try. What Frodo wants to save, if he can, are the people who are precious to him especially Bilbo. The greater Middle Earth isn't something he's too concerned with.
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Jan 13, 2018 17:49
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Chapter 79: Taboo Tradeoffs, Pt 1quote:The Aurors weren't paying any attention to him. Komodo spoke again, still in that colorless voice. "Mr. Malfoy has regained consciousness in St. Mungo's and named you, Hermione Granger, as his assaulter. He has repeated these accusations under two drops of Veritaserum. The Blood-Cooling Charm you cast upon Mr. Malfoy would have killed him if he had not been found and treated, and it must be presumed known to you that this was a fatal curse. I therefore arrest you upon the serious charge of attempted murder and you will be taken into Ministry custody to be interrogated under three drops of Veritaserum -" But we can't have Harriezer not quote:"HERMIONE YOU DIDN'T DO IT YOU'VE BEEN FALSE-MEMORY-CHARMED!" quote:Minerva couldn't possibly have stood still, she paced back and forth through the Headmaster's office, the back of her mind half-expecting Severus or Harry to tell her to shut up and sit down, but neither the Potions Master or the Boy-Who-Lived seemed much concerned with her quote:The clear intent of the Blood-Cooling Charm had been to kill Draco Malfoy so slowly that the wards of Hogwarts, set to detect sudden injury, would not trigger. Under interrogation, Professor Quirrell had told the Aurors that he had cast several tracking Charms upon Mr. Malfoy's person in January, shortly after Mr. Malfoy's return to Hogwarts from Yuletime break. Professor Quirrell had cast tracking Charms because he had learned of a person with a motive to harm Mr. Malfoy. Professor Quirrell had refused to identify this person. The tracking Charms which Professor Quirrell had cast were triggered by Mr. Malfoy's health falling below an absolute level, rather than by sudden changes, and had therefore alerted Professor Quirrell before Mr. Malfoy had died. quote:Dumbledore inclined his head. "I went myself, Harry, the moment I heard. But by the time I reached the trophy room, Mr. Malfoy was already unconscious and Miss Granger had gone -" quote:The old wizard continued. "- but a False Memory Charm of such quality requires as much time to create as a true memory. Creating a detailed memory of ten minutes would be ten minutes' work. And according to the court Legilimens," Albus's face now seemed more tired and lined than before, "Miss Granger has been obsessing over Mr. Malfoy since the day that Severus... yelled at her. She has been thinking of how Mr. Malfoy might be in league with Professor Snape, how he might be planning to harm her and harm Harry - imagining it for hours every day - it would be impossible to create false memories for so much time." Anyways, they (?) (the Scrappy gang? That works for me) decide that it's probably Voldermort, who took a break from infiltrating Howgwarts to grab the quote:Harry lifted his glasses and rubbed his eyes, briefly. "Fine. How do we get Hermione off the hook, exactly? I suppose it's too much to hope that with all the lawyers gone, the judges understand the concept of 'common sense' and 'prior probability' well enough to realize that twelve-year-old girls basically never commit cold-blooded murders?" quote:Light glinted off the old wizard's half-moon glasses; he spoke carefully, and not without anger. "Legally, Harry, we are dealing with a blood debt from Hermione Granger to the House of Malfoy. The Lord of Malfoy proposes a repayment of that debt, and then the Wizengamot votes on his proposal. That is all." quote:Harry's head sank into his hands. "He'll give Draco Veritaserum." Ok. Time for Harriezer to investigate. He already knows rather than suspects the "who" and "what", thanks to author fiat. Now he has to establish "how" well enough to convince an adversarial bunch of NPCs. Can he manage it? I mean, we could still theoretically have a decent episode of Columbo, or CSI: Hogwarts, even if we can't manage for an actual detective plot, right? quote:Back when Hermione was fighting bullies, she was finding notes under her pillow each morning, telling her where to go -" quote:"Fred!" the old wizard said commandingly. His robes were the black of a moonless night, his eyes hard like blue diamonds. "George! With me, now!" quote:The interrogation room at the Department of Magical Law Enforcement was usually lit by a small orange light, so that the Auror interrogating you would be leaning toward your uncomfortable metal chair with most of their face in shadow, preventing you from reading their expression, even as they read yours. quote:The Potions Master searched under Hermione Granger's pillow, and beneath her bed, and then began going through her trunk, sorting through mentionable and unmentionable items without change of expression, and finally succeeded in drawing forth a set of papers describing places and times where bullies would be found, all of the papers signed only with an elaborate 'S'. Students are arguing about Draco and Hermione. Time for one of Harriezer's dumbest loving lectures, and that's saying something: quote:"All of you SHUT UP! " roared Harry Potter, as he hit the table with his fists so hard that plates rattled all the way along it. quote:There were no clues, none that he was smart enough to find. Xander77 fucked around with this message at 13:52 on Jan 17, 2018 |
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Jan 15, 2018 13:11
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Wasn't Draco actually planning to rape and murder her though?
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Jan 17, 2018 06:12
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Stroth posted:Wasn't Draco actually planning to rape and murder her though? It'd be a legit twist if someone evil had just slipped Draco some alcohol to lower his inhibitions and reaction speed, counting on him to provoke and lose a fight to Hermione.
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Jan 17, 2018 11:27
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Chapter 80: Taboo Tradeoffs, Pt 2, The Horns Effect We open with a lot of "woo, the Wizengamot was built with impressive magics, now lost to us". quote:That (if you were wondering) is how the country of magical Britain managed to elect Cornelius Fudge for its Minister, and yet end up with Albus Dumbledore for its Chief Warlock. Not by law (for written law can be rewritten) but by most ancient tradition, the Wizengamot does not choose who shall preside over its follies. Since the day of Merlin's sacrifice, the most important duty of any Chief Warlock has been to exercise the highest caution in their choice of people who are both good and able to discern good successors. You would expect that chain of light to miss a step, sometime down through the centuries; that it would go astray at least once, and then never return. But it has not. The Line of Merlin continues, unbroken. quote:
quote:Harry had read the Daily Prophet that morning. The headline had been "MAD MUGGLEBORN TRIES TO END ANCIENT LINE" and the rest of the paper had been the same. When Harry was nine years old the IRA had blown up a British barracks, and he'd watched on TV as all the politicians contested to see who could be the most loudly outraged. And the thought had occurred to Harry - even then, before he'd known much about psychology - that it looked like everyone was competing to see who could be most angry, and nobody would've been allowed to suggest that anyone was being too angry, even if they'd just proposed the saturation nuclear bombing of Ireland. He'd been struck, even then, by an essential emptiness in the indignation of politicians - though he hadn't had the words to describe it, at that age - a sense that they were trying to score cheap points by hitting at the same safe target as everyone else. http://www.patheos.com/blogs/slacktivist/2008/10/08/false-witnesses-2 A) Fred Clark is (as far as we know) not a terrible human being. B) The point of the argument made is not (though as we can see, can easily be twisted to be) "I'm so much smarter than all the sheeple". quote:Harry shot to his feet before he could even think, it was only Professor McGonagall's sudden frantic grab on his wrist that stopped his hand going for his wand; and the Transfiguration Professor whispered desperately, "Harry it's all right there's a Patronus -" quote:"The Headmaster said I shouldn't ought to talk," the boy said, not quite able to keep the edge out of his voice. I guess that's what happens when you read fanfic? quote:He'd give her a chance, everyone in this room deserved one chance... quote:"Enough! " bellowed Lucius Malfoy, and a show of hands ended the deliberations. The white-maned man stood tall and terrible, his silver cane held high in one hand like a gavel about to fall. "For what this mad woman has tried to do to my son - for the blood debt that she owes for trying to end the line of a Noble and Most Ancient House - I say that she will -"
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Jan 20, 2018 16:14
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Xander77 posted:We open with a lot of "woo, the Wizengamot was built with impressive magics, now lost to us". Anything about superiority is at least in this case you reading into it. It even says that just because other parts of the world have different traditions doesn't mean that THESE traditions are wrong?
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Jan 21, 2018 12:47
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reignonyourparade posted:Anything about superiority is at least in this case you reading into it. It even says that just because other parts of the world have different traditions doesn't mean that THESE traditions are wrong?
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Jan 21, 2018 15:35
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i can see why you'd assume that since "And in Asia they tell other tales entirely, which may not make Britain's version wrong." reads like yud suddenly slipped into writing a sourcebook for vampire: the masquerade
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Jan 21, 2018 18:20
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I get that Yudkowsky is trying to make a flawed hero with all the over-the-top "The Darknezz within me" and this PC >NPC crap, but he really just comes across as an insane psychopath manipulating people to accomplish...vaguely defined things that go nowhere, like a gay attraction to Malfoy and displaying no human empathy whatsoever. It ticks all the nerd boxes (wow look a D&D reference, Yudkowsky IDs with us, animes) but really just shows to show how shallow and useless Yudkowsky's rationality is. Really all of the human interactions and segues about history to show Just How Much Smarter Harry possessed by Yudkowsky is really just go to show that Big Yud is a crazy man who has never interacted with the real world at all. Sorry if I'm rehashing the thread, but rereading this (and realizing I used to like it when I was younger) is leaving a bad taste in my mouth. Am I the only person who's reading Yud's risk assessments as that scene in Batman vs Superman where Batman explains that because Superman might harm some people he need to die?
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Jan 21, 2018 20:41
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Given how terrified of Transfiguration Yud is, if he was doing his analysis rationally he'd have concluded that Minerva McGonagall is in fact a walking weapon of mass destruction. However you can see his opinion of that character.
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Jan 22, 2018 12:53
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TheGreatEvilKing posted:Am I the only person who's reading Yud's risk assessments as that scene in Batman vs Superman where Batman explains that because Superman might harm some people he need to die? Batman was right. Supes had already directly caused the death of thousands and given zero shits about it, showed no love of or compassion for human life (other than the lady that he was currently loving), and had demonstrated multiple times that he was an arrogant bully. Lex Luthor was actually the hero of that film (outshined only by Jar of Piss). Remember when Supes let Jimmy Olsen get executed in front of Lois Lane for no reason? Lol
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Jan 23, 2018 03:29
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The real takeaway, of course, being that BvS was loving terrible (just like MoR)
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Jan 23, 2018 03:35
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one of the only good things about MoR is that it led to someone writing The Metropolitan Man, which is an examination of lex luthor, and superman's relationship with humanity that's very good but don't read it as though lex is a hero - the story doesn't really come down on anybody's side, morally.
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Jan 23, 2018 03:36
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Chapter 81: Taboo Tradeoffs, Pt 3quote:In rising half-circles of dark stone, a great sea of upraised hands. quote:As of now, this present time, the boy neither likes nor dislikes the plum-colored robes, because his brain does not assign them enough agenthood to be the subjects of moral judgment. He is a PC, and they are wallpaper. Anyways, this is a fairly short chapter, without many diversions. I could justifiably quote it in full, as most of it ends up being relevant. quote:It wasn't the world's most solid hope, it was based on one newspaper article from a woman who'd been False-Memory-Charmed, but Rita Skeeter had seemed to find it plausible, that Mr. Weasley had allegedly owed James Potter a debt because... quote:Could a hundred thousand Galleons be used to save more than one life if spent some other way? said Slytherin. We have research to do, battles to fight, the difference between being 40,000 Galleons rich and being 60,000 Galleons in debt is not trivial - quote:"No," said the voice of Dumbledore. quote:Harry waited, staring at the old wizard, and then spoke again. "I will go to Azkaban," Harry said to the old wizard, as though they stood alone in the world, "before Hermione can be taken there, and start snapping my fingers. It may cost me my life, but by the time she gets there, there won't be an Azkaban anymore." quote:"I withdraw my offer!" shouted the Lord of Malfoy. "I will not accept the debt to House Potter in payment, not even for a hundred thousand Galleons! The girl's blood debt to House Malfoy stands!" quote:By this point Harry Potter had entirely forgotten the existence of Professor McGonagall, who had been sitting there this whole time undergoing a number of interesting changes of facial expression which Harry had not been looking at because he was distracted. It would have been overly harsh to say that Harry had forgotten her because he did not consider her a PC. It could be more kindly said that Professor McGonagall was not visibly a solution to any of his current problems, and therefore she was not part of the universe.  As usual fu- Wait. What? Is this the long awaited apology that is meant to excuse everything that prompted a thousand "gently caress you Yud"s thus far? quote:So Harry, who at this point had a fair amount of adrenaline in his bloodstream, startled and jumped quite visibly when Professor McGonagall, her eyes now blazing with impossible hope and the tears on her cheek half-dried, leapt to her feet and cried, "With me, Mr. Potter! " and, without waiting for a reply, tore down the stairs that led to the bottom platform where waited a chair of dark metal. quote:And then Minerva McGonagall, who was Head of House Gryffindor even if she didn't always act like it, looked up high above at where Lucius Malfoy stood; and she said to him before the entire Wizengamot, "I regret every point I ever gave you in Transfiguration, you vile little worm." quote:His dark side had also noticed, when it was looking through the entire room for anything that could possibly be used as a weapon, that the enemy had been foolish enough to bring a Dementor into Harry's presence. That was a powerful weapon indeed, and one that Harry might wield better than its supposed masters. There had been a time in Azkaban when Harry had told twelve Dementors to turn and go, and they had gone. quote:Harry took all the silver emotion that fueled his Patronus Charm and shoved it at the Dementor; and expected Death's shadow to flee from him - quote:The Lords and Ladies of the Wizengamot are departing their wooden benches, leaving as they came, looking rather nervous. quote:But there are a very few, seated on those wooden benches, who do not think like this.
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Feb 2, 2018 20:40
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Chapter 82: Taboo Tradeoffs, Finalquote:In time the boy enunciated words slowly and precisely. I guess that's what happens when you're a "rationalist" who tries to come up with a coherent system of ethics while disregarding pretty much every field relevant to the subject as no nearly rational and scientific enough. You get nightmare "common sense" creations like this, that would fall apart under the slightest bit of scrutiny and can only survive by not actually examining or discussing any assumptions. quote:"Is Minerva's life also of infinite worth?" the old wizard said harshly. "Would you sacrifice Minerva to save Hermione?" quote:"I'm surprised," Harry said, amazed that his voice was almost steady. "I would have expected the Death Eaters to go after another Light family and start a cycle of escalating retaliation, if you didn't get them all with your first strike." quote:"And here's the thing," Harry said, "here's the thing I've been thinking about over and over. The Dark Lord gave Lily Potter the chance to walk away. He said that she could flee. He told her that dying in front of the crib wouldn't save her baby. 'Step aside, foolish woman, if you have any sense in you at all -'" An awful chill came over Harry as he spoke those words from his own lips, but he shook it off and continued. "And afterward I kept thinking, I couldn't seem to stop myself from thinking, wasn't the Dark Lord right? If only Mother had stepped away. She tried to curse the Dark Lord but it was suicide, she had to have known that it was suicide. Her choice wasn't between her life and mine, her choice was for herself to live or for both of us to die! If she'd only done the logical thing and walked away, I mean, I love Mum too, but Lily Potter would be alive right now and she would be my mother!" Tears were blurring Harry's eyes. "Only now I understand, I know what Mother must have felt. She couldn't step aside from the crib. She couldn't! Love doesn't walk away!" quote:Every time you spend money in order to save a life with some probability, you establish a lower bound on the monetary value of a life. Every time you refuse to spend money to save a life with some probability, you establish an upper bound on the monetary value of life. If your upper bounds and lower bounds are inconsistent, it means you could move money from one place to another, and save more lives at the same cost. So if you want to use a bounded amount of money to save as many lives as possible, your choices must be consistent with some monetary value assigned to a human life; if not then you could reshuffle the same money and do better. How very sad, how very hollow the indignation, of those who refuse to say that money and life can ever be compared, when all they're doing is forbidding the strategy that saves the most people, for the sake of pretentious moral grandstanding... quote:But it was understood, somehow it was understood, that utilitarian ethicists didn't actually rob banks so they could give the money to the poor. The end result of throwing away all ethical constraint wouldn't actually be sunshine and roses and happiness for all. The prescription of consequentialism was to take the action that led to the best net consequences, not actions that had one positive consequence and wrecked everything else along the way. Expected utility maximizers were allowed to take common sense into account, when they were calculating their expectations. quote:A final image came to him, then: Lily Potter standing in front of her baby's crib and measuring the intervals between outcomes: the final outcome if she stayed and tried to curse her enemy (dead Lily, dead Harry), the final outcome if she walked away (live Lily, dead Harry), weighing the expected utilities, and making the only sensible choice.
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Feb 10, 2018 14:10
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This makes me wonder what the war against Voldemort actually looked like in this version of the story because it doesn't seem to make sense. What was Voldemort trying to achieve and how was he going about it? What was Dumbledore actually doing to stop him?
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Feb 11, 2018 04:10
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Tiggum posted:This makes me wonder what the war against Voldemort actually looked like in this version of the story because it doesn't seem to make sense. What was Voldemort trying to achieve and how was he going about it? What was Dumbledore actually doing to stop him? That gets explained in the last few chapters. Suffice it to say the answer is stupid and disrespectful to the source material.
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Feb 11, 2018 19:06
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I may be hazy, as it's been a long time since I read those books, but isn't Dumbledore's brother the bartender in Hogsmeade?
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Feb 13, 2018 09:10
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Liquid Communism posted:I may be hazy, as it's been a long time since I read those books, but isn't Dumbledore's brother the bartender in Hogsmeade? Yes, Aberforth. They've been estranged since his sister died at the age of fourteen. (Aberforth confronted Dumbledore about Grindelwald, Grindelwald attacked Aberforth, Dumbledore came to his defense, the whole thing turned into a major duel, and his sister was caught in the crossfire. It was basically the defining event of Dumbledore's life) Aberforth helped Harry and Co get back into Hogwarts in the seventh year during Voldemort's occupation. MikeJF fucked around with this message at 10:09 on Feb 13, 2018 |
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Feb 13, 2018 10:05
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Aberforth fucks goats.
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Feb 13, 2018 10:07
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That too.
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Feb 13, 2018 10:08
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Okay, that's what I thought. So the whole tortured-to-death thing is just Yud being Yud.
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Feb 13, 2018 10:42
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Rational Voldemort would obviously know that torturing someone's loved ones is the best way to force them into compliance, and furthermore...
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Feb 13, 2018 11:07
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MikeJF posted:(Aberforth confronted Dumbledore about Grindelwald, Grindelwald attacked Aberforth, Dumbledore came to his defense, the whole thing turned into a major duel, and his sister was caught in the crossfire Plus their sister might have actually been part of the fight and was possibly killed in self defense. It's implied by the supplement books that she was an Obscurial, someone that had lost control of their magic due to childhood abuse and would turn into a massive monster that wrecked everything around it when stressed out.
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Feb 13, 2018 19:59
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Ugh, Dumbledore burning Narcissa alive is just taking a giant poo poo on that character.
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Feb 14, 2018 07:52
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TheGreatEvilKing posted:Ugh, Dumbledore burning Narcissa alive is just taking a giant poo poo on that character. "In my defense, I had misplaced my spectacles and thought she was Fawkes."
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Feb 14, 2018 09:30
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TheGreatEvilKing posted:Ugh, Dumbledore burning Narcissa alive is just taking a giant poo poo on that character.
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Feb 14, 2018 14:14
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TheGreatEvilKing posted:Ugh, Dumbledore burning Narcissa alive is just taking a giant poo poo on that character. The great part is, given how terrified Yud is of Transfiguration, you'd think he'd have just turned her into a teacup and stepped on it or something. I mean, I'm pretty deeply surprised that Voldemort in this version doesn't have a full chess set made out of his enemies.
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Feb 14, 2018 15:07
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Liquid Communism posted:The great part is, given how terrified Yud is of Transfiguration, you'd think he'd have just turned her into a teacup and stepped on it or something. That seems more like the White Witch's schtick.
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Feb 14, 2018 16:02
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Dalris Othaine posted:That seems more like the White Witch's schtick. Given that Yud has never had an original thought in his life, why would yet another poorly understood ripoff of another work be a surprise?
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Feb 14, 2018 16:53
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