The Wizarding World of Harry Potter (a thread for Potterheads)

.... @coldstars: what are you reccing and where do I find it
@OnnaStik: yeah, those are all major issues that are probably never gonna be addressed.

 

From the previous page of the thread, Sacrifices Arc starting with Saving Connor and continuing on from there

 

must read, going to read
thank

 

I am like, 95% sure I remember reading JK LEGIT SAY Tom Riddle ~could never love~ because he was born as the result of a love potion. Which. EUGH.

With you 100% on this I fucking hate memory charms and their casual usage in the Harry Potter world, along with love potions which are literally a more precise, (potentially) milder form of imperio! And yet you can buy them in a joke shop. Because it's soooo funny to alter people's brain states.

 

I disagree with you guys on the characterisation of Voldemort. I don't think it was sloppy writing, but I don't have the spoons to go into this right now. Ping me in a day or two if I still haven't posted it?

 

Yeah, she did. Which also REALLY brings new levels of horrifying to how love potions are totally unregulated.

I will say re: Voldy that you can argue that part of how cartoon-evil he is can be explained by the fact that he's chopped his soul in half seven times (fraction of soul remaining in body: 1/128), died, spent ten years as a ghost-thing in a forest in Albania, possessed the back of Quirrell's head, drank unicorn blood, got pelted with snowballs by Fred and George, got dispelled from the back of Quirrell's head, reincarnated as an ugly baby, and reincarnated again as the Noseless Wonder, and none of that can possibly be good for one's sanity. When we see younger!Tom he seems a lot more competent and smooth-talking manipulative and a lot less evil cackling and overelaborate plans and generalized oppression with an unclear end goal.

 

How did he get to Albania, anyways

 

That's a question I wouldn't mind JKR answering. :::PPP

 

i am now very curious about how exactly she'd fuck that up

 

he flew

 

Crap, I forgot to add "Had to live with the shame of knowing he failed to kill an infant, which can die from being held wrong." That would drive any mass-murderer to madness. :::PPP

 

This all seems relevant to my interests. :3

Oh, and on the subject of house-elves, that reminds me of some of the best theorizing I've ever read. I don't buy everything this guy thinks, but this essay about elfin thought processes is incredibly compelling. (A lot of the weird assumptions he seems to be making are actually from other essays about his take on the likely path of WW history. My worldbuilding-loving self adores those, but idk how dry they might be for others.)

 

Kind of haphazardly stringing some thoughts together.

Re: the "Voldermort can't love because he was conceived while the dad was under the effects of a love potion, in what is at best a coercive act" thing is only partly true. I looked up the quote and shared it earlier in this thread, but basically she said it was thematically important.

I kind of want to argue about a lot of things posted here but I'm too tired and it's good food for thought.


Also I really enjoyed the Sacrifices Arc, it does get some really neat things going on, but I eventually grew tired about how certain... Sub arcs of a big arc where like repetitions of the same previous sub arc. Malfoy also ended up severely annoying me at some point. Maybe I'll pick up where I left.

I do feel sad about losing the spirit I feel reading the books when looking at the analysis. Also I am still so so so angry about the racist bullshit she has pulled. In the end, Rowling fucked up a lot, but I am eternally grateful for her and her books. I guess I am mostly at peace with the book's mistakes.

I am still in disbelief about Dumbledore in retrospect. I can't erase the warm trust I gained as a kid, the way I basically agreed with pretty much the entire Order, and realizing again how horrifying so many of his actions are has the most disconcerting feeling of reality unraveling... This happens every time I remember this about him!

 

Same tho. I was wholeheartedly on Team Dumbledore and thought he was basically the sweetest, kindest (but also kinda weirdest, but in a good way) old dude ever. And then all this meta came out about how... morally dubious all of Dumbledore's actions are, and it's just like yep that sure was a shitty thing that happened, that sure was a shitty thing he did there, why didn't I see that earlier

And I think the reason is, we were shown things through Harry's point of view, and Harry clearly didn't realize how messed up this whole thing was, and also we were guided to look at his overall intentions and not necessarily the collateral damage? Like, despite all the meta pointing out how shitty Dumbledore was, I still definitely believe that his heart was in the right place, he was just... severely misguided as to how to DO things without sacrificing a lot in return.

 

Dumbledore feels like someone who's trying to be Chaotic Good, despite being a Lawful Evil nature from a Lawful Evil society. This is not meant as a disparagement on the character, more explaining how, even in his best attempts, the mindset of "well, sacrificing for the greater good" and "no, this Alterable Event has been said to occur, I will not Alter it directly even if I have the option, because that would be too many variables and no chance it will succeed. I will instead subvert it after the case, following the Rules as Implied" ends up being his default logic.

He wants to be a good person, and he's trying his best, but his mind is bogged down by a lot of things that are really morally questionable, and with no one (not even himself) around willing or able to say "Wow, that's a shit idea. Try something else."

 

Part of it is also that we got presented with him as the sweet, kind, old man who's just trying his best for ~5 books, and then at the end of the series we get the reveal of Manipulative Chessmaster Dumbledore who's trying to be a hero with a villain's toolkit, and that opens up a lot of his earlier actions to much closer scrutiny for malicious intent than we were inclined to give them before. (Like, say, his hiring practices, which got written off under "Hogwarts/the wizarding world is wacky and weird" in earlier books, but as the series started trying to get more serious and he was revealed to not have the students' best interests at heart started to attract a lot more negative attention.)

 

/whispers/ There is a reason Sacrifices Arc is called Sacrifices Arc

Also yeah, @Raire, occasionally stuff gets repetitive and a little frustrating - recovery isn't a straight line and Harry especially backslides a lot, and also Draco...well, he wouldn't be Draco if he weren't an unreasonable, self-centered git about stuff. Toward the end I feel like they made enough progress to finally break some of their cycles, but ymmv. I also know a couple people who couldn't handle the heaviness of the abuse side of things (particularly around book 5) and who had to take breaks and come back to it later for their own health. Shit gets fucked up

 

you can't say a thing like that and not link!

 

Me when people are mad at some new cringeworthy thing JKR said and it's my first time hearing about it.
#flocci's Dumbledore comics are a gift

 

Oh god what is it now. The house titles came out a bit too long ago for me to expect them to be the most recent drama but...