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I mean hell who even needs military gear, if you can block it with stone then you can presumably block it with like, a steel roundshield or something.
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Aug 26, 2020 19:40
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Sydin posted:I never got the whole "cannot be blocked" thing. Presumably they just mean "cannot be blocked by magic", because during their brief duel I distinctly recall Dumbledore "blocking" avada kedavra by animating a giant stone statue to jump between him and the spell, which presumably means the spell cannot pass through suitably sturdy physical objects? Would Voldy be powerless vs a group of muggle policemen with riot shields, or firing from behind an armored car? The statue ended up as rubble, so riot shields no, vehical maybe.
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Aug 26, 2020 19:46
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There's a reason the Shrieking Shack podcast just started calling Avada Kedavra the "gun spell" after a certain point, along with noting it makes wizard battles kinda boring when everyone's just shooting colored lasers GI Joe style half the time with nothing creative.
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Aug 26, 2020 19:52
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JethroMcB posted:We've already seen that they have a way to kill your soul and leave your body alive What? DrBouvenstein posted:I can't recall... Was it ever commented on by Harry or Hermione (or any other Muggle-born) that the standard Muggle "Magic Words" used by children and stage magicians is basically the same as the killing curse? Cause I feel like that's weird. When I first heard that avada kedavra was a serious spell in harry potter, I thought it was a joke. May as well have made the counter-spell "howcus powcus."
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Aug 26, 2020 20:01
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Friend posted:What? Dementors can suck your soul out of your body and consume it, leaving you a soulless husk that's still biologically functional.
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Aug 26, 2020 20:10
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Friend posted:What? The Dementor's Kiss. Leaves a person "alive," but whatever spark that made them a conscious individual is just gone. The Ministry has it performed on Barty Crouch Jr. at the end of Goblet of Fire, narration tells us "He was worse than dead." Dumbledore's reaction boils down to "Well, you just eliminated our only potentially cooperative witness and ended the entire Crouch family line, so, great job."
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Aug 26, 2020 20:14
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gourdcaptain posted:There's a reason the Shrieking Shack podcast just started calling Avada Kedavra the "gun spell" after a certain point, along with noting it makes wizard battles kinda boring when everyone's just shooting colored lasers GI Joe style half the time with nothing creative. I always thought this was on purpose - Rowling's way of writing about the very British middle class terror of fire arms
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Aug 26, 2020 20:23
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JethroMcB posted:and ended the entire Crouch family line, so, great job." Well, considering how inbred the "pure blood" families must be, that might not have been a bad thing.
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Aug 26, 2020 20:55
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Wizards are dumb.
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Aug 26, 2020 21:21
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Jiminy Christmas! Shoes! posted:Wizards are dumb. Going all out on intelligence and dump wisdom is not a wise choice 
Miss Mowcher fucked around with this message at 22:51 on Aug 26, 2020 |
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Aug 26, 2020 22:01
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Tulip posted:I always thought this was on purpose - Rowling's way of writing about the very British middle class terror of fire arms it is, but from its own perspective in which Harry is heroic for using "non-lethal" ammunition. it also is very lazy from the perspective that magic is meant to be interesting and creative. my headcannon is that ultima from ff is a spell in hp and its just every wizard who tried casting a spell with that word has died in the aftermath
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Aug 26, 2020 22:35
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Tulip posted:I always thought this was on purpose - Rowling's way of writing about the very British middle class terror of fire arms It's deliberate, but I'm not sure it's because of that. All three of the Unforgivable Curses are just really boring: murder, torture, and coercion. I think it's a banality of evil thing. Evil wizards have the power to alter reality itself and they use that power to accomplish what any old rear end in a top hat with a gun, pliers, and rope could do. Friend posted:When I first heard that avada kedavra was a serious spell in harry potter, I thought it was a joke. May as well have made the counter-spell "howcus powcus." It very much is a joke.
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Aug 26, 2020 22:51
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PeterWeller posted:It very much is a joke. As is to be expected, JK Rowling has claimed otherwise with a presumably straight face. "Does anyone know where Avada Kedavra [the Killing Curse] came from? It is an ancient spell in Aramaic, and it is the original of abracadabra, which means 'let the thing be destroyed.' Originally, it was used to cure illness and the ‘thing’ was the illness, but I decided to make it the ‘thing’ as in the person standing in front of me. I take a lot of liberties with things like that. I twist them round and make them mine."
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Aug 26, 2020 23:00
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They made a big deal of them being the "unforgiveable curses" when they were first introduced, but in the last book, all the heroes are just throwing them around like nobody's business instead of doing weird creative spells to solve their problems, so it feels like they're pretty fuckin' forgiveable. Like they should be doing a bunch of weird goofy spells to fight back against the deatheaters instead of just shooting the same bullet spells back at them. I've seen a whole lot more interesting magical combat than that.
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Aug 26, 2020 23:01
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It's a "weed is a gateway drug" type deal. Zero tolerance policy on supercurses.
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Aug 26, 2020 23:49
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Does anyone at Hogwarts do any drugs?
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Aug 26, 2020 23:51
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Edgar Allen Ho posted:Does anyone at Hogwarts do any drugs? Hufflepuff House.
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Aug 27, 2020 00:45
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Wanted By Weed posted:As is to be expected, JK Rowling has claimed otherwise with a presumably straight face. Oh that may very well be true. I just meant it's a joke in the sense that its similarity to abracadabra is obviously deliberate.
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Aug 27, 2020 00:54
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harry potter: did writing the books all the time also make Rowling DUMB AS poo poo
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Aug 27, 2020 03:04
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Tulip posted:I always thought this was on purpose - Rowling's way of writing about the very British middle class terror of fire arms I really doubt that Rowling wanted to make fun of British Middle-Class Fears. She has, after all, graduated into the sort of upper class Brit who is terrified of trans people. Being completely serious about The Killing Curse but also fairly blasé about philosophically worse things is totally on-brand for her.
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Aug 27, 2020 03:24
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JethroMcB posted:The Dementor's Kiss. Leaves a person "alive," but whatever spark that made them a conscious individual is just gone. The Ministry has it performed on Barty Crouch Jr. at the end of Goblet of Fire, narration tells us "He was worse than dead." Dumbledore's reaction boils down to "Well, you just eliminated our only potentially cooperative witness and ended the entire Crouch family line, so, great job." I always thought that might have been on purpose given it was made obvious that Voldemort has a shitload of sympathisers in the Ministry so they made sure he was silenced asap.
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Aug 27, 2020 07:10
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Speleothing posted:I really doubt that Rowling wanted to make fun of British Middle-Class Fears. She has, after all, graduated into the sort of upper class Brit who is terrified of trans people. Being completely serious about The Killing Curse but also fairly blasé about philosophically worse things is totally on-brand for her. Nah, Rowling is very contemptuous or middle England mores, desire having evolved into a recording billionaire making GBS threads on minorites over twitter. See: everything about the Dursleys.
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Aug 27, 2020 09:01
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SlothfulCobra posted:They made a big deal of them being the "unforgiveable curses" when they were first introduced, but in the last book, all the heroes are just throwing them around like nobody's business instead of doing weird creative spells to solve their problems, so it feels like they're pretty fuckin' forgiveable. There was a bit in book seven where Harry goes to the Ravenclaw common room with Luna and uses an Unforgivable on one of the Carrows to protect McGonagall from a back attack. He could have used a disarming or knockout spell, but he chose the mind control one instead. The others don't really react much to that fact, and Harry defends himself by saying Carrow was about to sneak attack McGonagall. It was such an ACAB moment.
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Aug 27, 2020 15:13
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SlothfulCobra posted:They made a big deal of them being the "unforgiveable curses" when they were first introduced, but in the last book, all the heroes are just throwing them around like nobody's business instead of doing weird creative spells to solve their problems, so it feels like they're pretty fuckin' forgiveable. Speaking of them doing terrible things, honestly the memory altering/erasing spell should be illegal too. Maybe not ' lifetime in Azkaban' level, but it's pretty drat horrific at its core.
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Aug 27, 2020 15:13
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I've finally read through the thread. My irritation as a child was all the wacky amusing stuff in the first book like the non-sequitor of Dumbledore saying a bunch of nonsense words as his speech kinda got dropped. As a kid I couldn't tell if Harry got some extra special intro to the school that everyone after him didn't get (presumably the continuing student deaths put a damper on things) or if it's the same but just not mentioned in the books. There was so much whimsy in the first that got dropped. Anyway, this has been a fun read and I'm now subscribed to the Shrieking Shack podcast.
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Aug 27, 2020 15:40
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Is it ever established how old magic and wizarding are?
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Aug 27, 2020 16:56
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jojoinnit posted:I've finally read through the thread. My irritation as a child was all the wacky amusing stuff in the first book like the non-sequitor of Dumbledore saying a bunch of nonsense words as his speech kinda got dropped. As a kid I couldn't tell if Harry got some extra special intro to the school that everyone after him didn't get (presumably the continuing student deaths put a damper on things) or if it's the same but just not mentioned in the books. There was so much whimsy in the first that got dropped. I mean presumably most kids get the same kind of speech. Harry misses the feast in books 2 and 3 because of his misadventures with the car and the dementors, Book 4 has Dumbledore doing almost exactly the same speech and announcing the Tri-Wizard Tournament and then after that you have the escalating deaths.
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Aug 27, 2020 17:09
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Jiminy Christmas! Shoes! posted:Is it ever established how old magic and wizarding are? I'm sure it's covered in Mr. Binn's class but he's a joke character who puts anybody he lectures to sleep so I guess we'll never know lol Sydin fucked around with this message at 17:22 on Aug 27, 2020 |
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Aug 27, 2020 17:10
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Zore posted:I mean presumably most kids get the same kind of speech. Harry misses the feast in books 2 and 3 because of his misadventures with the car and the dementors, Book 4 has Dumbledore doing almost exactly the same speech and announcing the Tri-Wizard Tournament and then after that you have the escalating deaths. Ah yeah I straight forgot about him missing the feast in those books. That's fair. I just remember the feeling that it lost all whimsy as it went on.
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Aug 27, 2020 17:18
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jojoinnit posted:Ah yeah I straight forgot about him missing the feast in those books. That's fair. I just remember the feeling that it lost all whimsy as it went on. It definitely does. Compare book one, especially the early chapters, to anything book four on.
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Aug 27, 2020 17:37
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Edgar Allen Ho posted:It definitely does. Compare book one, especially the early chapters, to anything book four on. I wonder if there might be some real world influence in that regard. When the first book came out "Young Adult" was not an established demographic like it is today and Philosophers/Sorcerers Stone was a "Children's Book". By the time Deathly Hallows is out YA is a well defined category with it's own section in the book store. I wonder how much of the shift away from whimsy in the back half of the series was due to real world influences on Rowling, whether she was conscious of it or not.
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Aug 27, 2020 18:21
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Book 5,6,7 feel pretty clearly like post 9/11 reactions
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Aug 27, 2020 18:31
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galagazombie posted:I wonder if there might be some real world influence in that regard. When the first book came out "Young Adult" was not an established demographic like it is today and Philosophers/Sorcerers Stone was a "Children's Book". By the time Deathly Hallows is out YA is a well defined category with it's own section in the book store. I wonder how much of the shift away from whimsy in the back half of the series was due to real world influences on Rowling, whether she was conscious of it or not. Harry Potter was one of the main forces behind the advent of the YA category. So I think it's better to look how the category was influenced by the evolution of the series instead of how the category influenced the evolution of the series. Rowling was certainly influenced by real world events, consciously or not--all authors are. But I think there's a simpler explanation in that she envisioned readers growing up with the series, so each new installment gives up a bit more of the first book's whimsy and replaces it with more serious and "mature" content.
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Aug 27, 2020 19:18
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GodFish posted:Book 5,6,7 feel pretty clearly like post 9/11 reactions There was a shift in tone but it was already there in the last chapters of book 4. That came out 2000
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Aug 27, 2020 19:19
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Sydin posted:I'm sure it's covered in Mr. Binn's class but he's a joke character who puts anybody he lectures to sleep so I guess we'll never know lol It's best not to learn about history if you plan to repeat it. amigolupus posted:There was a bit in book seven where Harry goes to the Ravenclaw common room with Luna and uses an Unforgivable on one of the Carrows to protect McGonagall from a back attack. He could have used a disarming or knockout spell, but he chose the mind control one instead. The others don't really react much to that fact, and Harry defends himself by saying Carrow was about to sneak attack McGonagall. It was such an ACAB moment. All Cops Are Unforgivable.
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Aug 27, 2020 19:56
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I Love Loosies posted:There was a shift in tone but it was already there in the last chapters of book 4. That came out 2000 A lot of people point to book 4's ending as the point where the tone shifts, but I think it had been shifting ever since Book 2. Book 1 revolves around plots to hide and steal a magic artifact. Book 2 revolves around a mysterious monster assaulting students and staff. Book 3 revolves around an evil wizard jailbreak and the revelation that the government employs soul-sucking demons.
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Aug 27, 2020 20:21
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Yeah, the series lost all its charm for me with the start of Book 3. So so many people are like "but book 3 is the best one!!!" but its where the series lost me. Ghost soul sucking demons, kangaroo courts, and then for me the death of any non-serialized series honest to fuckin god timetravel
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Aug 28, 2020 01:00
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on the other hand, book 3 is the only actual good literature in the entire series. and in an odd coincidence, the only movie directed by an actual human person instead of some congealed glob of british upper classness
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Aug 28, 2020 03:42
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Speaking of book 3, that was the movie that started Dumbledore being much more shouty and angry, right? I remember him being pretty chill in the earlier movies, so it was really confusing when he became more intense, especially when the books always described him as a kindly old grandpa.
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Aug 28, 2020 08:53
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Yeah the original actor died between movies two and three, so they replaced him with a new guy who had WAY too much energy, particularly for the earlier books.
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Aug 28, 2020 09:11
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