mjr comments on Luminosity (Twilight fanfic) Part 2 Discussion Thread - Less Wrong

6 Post author: JenniferRM 25 October 2010 11:07PM

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Comment author: alethiophile 03 December 2010 06:14:05AM *  2 points [-]

Darn you, cliffhangers!

I want to know what effect Elspeth's other self will have on being Chelsea'd. If her other self can somehow propagate her love for her mother back to her, then that would take out a major chunk of the damage Chelsea can do to her. (Who else does Elspeth have a relationship with that Chelsea can nuke? Several people, Edward and the Denalis mostly; however, they aren't nearly as close to Elspeth. It would put even more of a crimp in her possible future relationship with Edward, though.)

On a side note, Chelsea's power is scary. Not just for its obvious nightmare-fuel, but for the cognitive implications. If it doesn't affect memory but still affects a person's evaluation of another's importance to them, then it must be either fundamentally changing their moral values such that even after reevaluating their memories, they do not feel that the other is important, or forcing the relationship-evaluating bit of their mind to evaluate to 'false' (or "Chelsea's chosen value", whatever) regardless of memory. But if it was the simple latter case, then a victim once they had left her immediate presence could undo most of the effect simply by reevaluating their memories and noting the things that make the other person important, which is evidently not the case. Thus, Chelsea is either fundamentally changing your sense of morality, or introducing irremovable inconsistencies into your relationship evaluation. Either way is awful.

Comment author: mjr 03 December 2010 10:56:10AM 1 point [-]

Does indeed seem like Elspeth put in her love for her mother in deep storage to be retrieved later, with the full force of the truthfulness that she's so good at conveying.

That "Forces of the Universe" spiel was a good sell, though; too bad that the alternative is, as you say, quite the monster.

And then there's Allirea, whose fate was left unclear as a surprise to no-one. Maybe she'll be there to meet the Cullens and Bella (who might have a bit of an advantage with being able to pay attention to her when others aren't, except whatever Eleazar manages with his "there's someone there" trick). They may be able to get some resistance going on after all.

Or, Allirea gets dragged back again, lather, rinse, repeat.

Moer.

Comment author: alethiophile 03 December 2010 02:18:51PM 1 point [-]

I really liked the disposal of Allirea. Eleazar's interaction with Santiago there was priceless.

Comment author: [deleted] 03 December 2010 05:49:51PM 1 point [-]

Agreed!

Poor Allirea, though--she's got to be running out of time before Demetri shows up.