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Eliezer_Yudkowsky comments on Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality discussion thread, part 2 - Less Wrong
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Sadly, being not logically omniscient, I am not capable of always perfectly living up to my endeavor to write a story with perfectly consistent rules. There are these things called mistakes.
Well, yeah, but... you could have tried to fix it, rather than just saying "whoops, guess I messed up".
ETA: I realize that could have sounded petty. The reason I'm making a big deal out of this is that the presence of inconsistencies pretty much shoots to hell our ability as fans to speculate meaningfully about the fic.
I feel reluctant to directly contradict canon in this case by having McGonagall not transform the pig, never mind the havoc it wreaks on all neighboring paragraphs. Do you have a different suggested fix?
I'm partial to adding an incantation and a stern warning.
Edit: It occurs to me that the Animagus transformation doesn't require an incantation either, so that's not a general rule about free vs. non-free Transfiguration, and it's hard to imagine that an incantation like Crystferrium ("Furniporcis"?) wouldn't give away the direction. Just the warning, then.
Yes, the big thing that's missing is the warning not to try to copy her example. Anything else can be chalked up to the Professor's leet transformation skillz.
Pavitra and Caspian's suggestions above seem good.
"She's McGonagall" is a perfectly acceptable explanation. I had assumed that McGonagall gained the ability to maintain safe transfigurations to living creatures through years of hard work in controlled conditions of the type we gain just a glimpse of when Harry is showing off his new trick. It doesn't seem all that much harder than, say, flying.
I'm definitely in favor of a wizard did it. Word of God might be enough on this one, though a don't try this at home could still be called for.
ETA: TVTropes warning
A witch did it, silly.
Please don't link to known memetic hazards without appropriate warnings.
fine
Thank you.