7.8 KiB
[deleted by user]
-
Author: u/None *
-
URL:
-
Score: 36
-
Created: 2015-02-23T20:04:51
Post:
[removed]
Comments:
u/drageuth2 [+16] (5 hours later)
it must have something to do with the deep desires and wishes arising from within the person. Squeezing mayonnaise onto a hamster will not qualify as that, for most people."
Stares stonily at his monitor, trying desperately to give nothing away
Calmly, using the minimal number of motions, clears his internet browsing history
u/None [+3] (2 hours later)
Should replace "balefire" with "fiendfyre".
u/CeruleanTresses [+4] (10 hours later)
I think they're meant to be synonymous.
u/None [+3] (21 hours later)
Balefire is a term from the series of novels called "the wheel of time".
u/CeruleanTresses [+4] (22 hours later)
I'm sure it is, but that doesn't mean that EY didn't intend the word to be synonymous with "fiendfyre" here. Bale = evil, especially a force of destruction. It fits, and sounds a lot less silly than "fiendfyre phoenix."
u/Jace_MacLeod [+4] (7 hours later)
So Voldemort's CEV (Coherent Extrapolated Volition) is to face Dumbledore? That... makes a lot of sense, actually.
u/chaosmosis [+2] and with strange aeons, even death may die (5 hours later)
Isn't the obvious move here to steal the mirror itself? The puzzle can then be solved at leisure, and plus you get a super amazing magical artifact that survived Atlantis' fall.
Also, if Atlantis was erased from time, that implies Voldemort's horcruxes, even widely dispersed as they are, do not necessarily make him immortal. I wonder if he's done anything to deal with that threat area. I'd guess not, as if he understood secret time magic he'd presumably already have won.
u/Mendatt [+6] (7 hours later)
I must confess a certain degree of curiosity about your ideas for stealing the mirror that was described as being utterly anchored to the earth's movement, and immune to fiendfyre, which sounds impressively destructive, even if we don't have a perfect idea of how much so.
u/None [+3] (8 hours later)
[deleted]
u/chaosmosis [+2] and with strange aeons, even death may die (a day later)
I agree, that phrase did not seem literal to me. The word "seemed" is used, and the tone of the paragraph is rather mystic and exaggerated.
u/sephlington [+3] (15 hours later)
One assumes it's not actually anchored permanently in place there, as it's implied it was constructed in Atlantis, and unless Hogwarts was built around the ruins of Atlantis, then it must have been moved to there.
u/chaosmosis [+1] and with strange aeons, even death may die (a day later)
The immunity to fiendfyre is irrelevant, because I'm not talking about destroying the mirror.
I don't think the description of the mirror as seemingly anchored to the spot within the room was meant to be interpreted literally. How would someone be able to see something like that with human eyes?
Even if the mirror is anchored, all else being equal it seems easier for Quirrell to defeat Dumbledore's anchoring wards than for Quirrell to trick the Atlantean security protocols. And the bonus is that he would get a unique magic artifact this way.
u/chaosmosis [+3] and with strange aeons, even death may die (5 hours later)
Redacted.
this message was mass deleted/edited with redact.dev
u/CeruleanTresses [+3] (9 hours later)
The criticisms you mentioned are the same ones that came to mind when I read the chapter. I agree, it got very expositiony and that joke came across as meanspirited. The wording also seemed pretty immature for Quirrell.
u/Jace_MacLeod [+2] (a day later)
I'm not sure the joke about Harry not acting as a real 11 year old was meant to be mean-spirited. Anecdotal evidence, of course, but to me it just came across as poking fun at the readers. (And Quirrell really is cynical enough to be plausibly indignant about it. He'd be cynical about the sun rising in the east if he had an excuse for it.)
Unfortunately, you can't hear the author's tone of voice when reading a text, so playful humor and indignant ribs are sometimes difficult to tell apart. Worse, we're hearing it told in-character by an villainous uber-cynic who considers the rest of humanity to be depressingly idiotic. At that level of encryption, jokes sound like insults and vice versa.
Anyway, since a joke and barb look very similar in this context, it doesn't make a whole lot of sense to be too offended. (Rather, one must be precisely offended. Given prior probabilities of EY telling a joke vs not telling a joke, I estimate this to be roughly 20% of base levels of indignation. /s)
u/LessRight [+2] (a day later)
Also, when I read it I thought it was actually describing what readers would have had to think of Eliezer in order to believe that he was so stupid as to think Harry acted like an eleven-year-old. In which case it's only a step away from self-deprecating.
u/Jace_MacLeod [+3] (a day later)
Metahumor is confusing.
u/CeruleanTresses [+2] (a day later)
I agree that that's what it sounded like, but it came across as more of a jab than as self-deprecation. "Ha, you idiots, did you think I was just stupid? I was actually not stupid; you're stupid for thinking I was stupid."
It's not so much that I feel personally insulted, as that I think it was a jarring momentary shift in tone and--like OP of this thread said--broke immersion. It puts a bad taste in my mouth to see the narrative wave around its own recent twist like that. Like if at the end of Sixth Sense the guy turned to the camera and said "Oh wow, I sure didn't see that coming! This changes everything in retrospect, but it all makes perfect sense! What kind of crazy God would come up with this one?"
u/chaosmosis [+2] and with strange aeons, even death may die (a day later)
lel
I agree with you somewhat, but you should take into consideration that the fact the statement was ambiguous is evidence that Eliezer wasn't trying very hard to avoid sounding rude.
u/logrusmage [+2] (35 minutes later)
So neither of them come up with the rule from canon about not wanting to use the stone at all? Or wanting to destroy it?
Very clever confundus use, though. Can't wait to see this final confrontation.
u/alexanderwales [+13] Time flies like an arrow (53 minutes later)
"Huh," Harry said. "Maybe the rule is that the person has to not want to use the Stone themselves - no, that's too easy, you already solved that rule with the story you gave Mr. Nott."
Unless you're thinking there's a distinction between "not wanting to use it at all" and "not wanting to use it yourself"? But I don't think that Dumbledore or Flamel would pass the former test.
u/logrusmage [+2] (an hour later)
Unless you're thinking there's a distinction between "not wanting to use it at all" and "not wanting to use it yourself"?
That was my initial thought, yes.
u/ajuc [+7] (36 minutes later)
For a moment I thought he will retrieve the stone and it would make the confundus permanent.
u/ajuc [+1] (15 minutes later)
Have you noticed, that the words of false comprehension?
Still don't tell me much :)
u/STL [+3] (8 hours later)
You got it slightly wrong: actual words
u/shupack [+2] (46 minutes later)
The mirror reflects your thoughts.
u/gryfft [+4] (51 minutes later)