sketerpot comments on Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality discussion thread - Less Wrong

34 Post author: Unnamed 27 May 2010 12:10AM

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Comment author: sketerpot 25 July 2010 09:51:15PM 1 point [-]

I suppose that someone could use Polyjuice potion and affect some of Neville's behavioral quirks, like his tendency to use ridiculous-but-cool "special attacks". Polyjuice is a difficult potion and has a month-long lead time, but it's not inconceivable that Neville could have made or otherwise obtained some. Considering all the scheming that's been going on after the first battle, it wouldn't even be that much of an ass-pull. Or there might be simpler disguise methods; since this is all taking place underwater, it's hard to see and the voices are distorted.

Comment author: gwern 28 July 2010 04:16:29AM 2 points [-]

So, we need to postulate:

  1. Polyjuice potion made a month ago, by first years, for no reason they could know in advance
  2. A student who is an excellent enough actor to mimic Neville on the fly
  3. A student who is also skilled enough to learn the Breaker move (on top of his usual classwork and, of course, the Polyjuice potion)
  4. A student skilled enough at tactics to take on Weasley and win (see 1-3)
  5. A student who is somehow skilled enough for 1-4, but not as useful as Neville (so that becoming Neville's dead decoy is a net win)

I dunno, all of that seems like an asspull to me. And to what effect? Neville could've just swam off to 'play assassin' without all this. 'chaos' doesn't seem like a sufficient explanation.

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