= 27d567bc2d48d9f40e9ccc20ea370b15)
fubarobfusco comments on Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality discussion thread, part 17, chapter 86 - Less Wrong
You are viewing a comment permalink. View the original post to see all comments and the full post content.
= 783df68a0f980790206b9ea87794c5b6)
Loading…= b715d02e85f7b3b4ae65ca3d3e450868)
Subscribe to RSS Feed
Powered by Reddit
= f037147d6e6c911a85753b9abdedda8d)
You are viewing a comment permalink. View the original post to see all comments and the full post content.
Comments (606)
What percentage of "facts" Moody exposits to the audience/Harry do we think are false or misdirection? At the least, the comment about Avada needing to find a soul is out of line with Canon where it can be blocked by inanimate objects such as statues.
Also: I look forward to the inevitable Moody/Quirrel showdown/makeouts.
Moody♠Quirrell ... no, just no.
(Harry seems to have been through quadrant vacillation between Hermione and Draco, though. Hermione starts flushed for Harry, who doesn't reciprocate, so she goes pale instead to prevent him from becoming a Dark Lord. Harry♦Hermione seems pretty stable, although Harry has some pale infidelity with Draco — who briefly waxes caliginous before attempting to auspiticize between Harry and Lucius. After Draco drops Hermione, she tries to set up Harry♥Draco, not knowing that Draco has more ashen aspirations ....)
Some of us are going to need a link explaining this system.
Let me tell you about quadrants.
That, if anything, makes the system less clear.
Okay, some explanation: I took drethelin's "showdown/makeouts" line to be an oblique reference to Homestuck, a long and rambling webcomic saga which prominently features a number of character relationships that might be described in such terms. If this assumption is false, the comment doesn't make much sense.
So I responded in terms of the "quadrants" used by Homestuck's troll characters to describe their romantic lives. There really isn't any simple explanation of these, but this is as good as any.
Yes there is a simple explanation.
Some relationships (♥ and ♠) involve intense, romantic, sexual passion, whereas others (♦ and ♣) are quieter, more reasonable, and closer to friendships and other platonic relationships. Also, some relationships (♥ and ♦) are based on positive feelings, whereas others (♠ and ♣) are based on negative ones.
♥ (violent positive) is passionate romantic love. ♦ (quiet positive) is deep platonic attachment. ♠ (violent negative) is a love/hate relationship. ♣ (quiet negative) is smoothing things over between a feuding pair.
Point of order: the caliginous quadrant is not love/hate; it's all hate, but in a sexualized way. You have to genuinely dislike someone to be ♠ for them.
You mean that the one time I try to rely on how vague English is about feelings and just use "love" for "fascination, sexual tension, importance in one's life" it's not proper usage? That's it, I'm suing the Ingaevones.
I've read that, and I'm no more enlightened. However, I approve of in-jokes, so I've taken away my downvote. Also, now I know that I should never, ever read Homestuck, so that's something.
That's a shame. If there's one thing that Homestuck does right, it's time travel (and actually thinking through and writing what a world with casual time travel and timeline enforcement would look like.)
Er, okay? That's not my objection.
This is a reference to the webcomic/multimedia series Homestuck by Andrew Hussie, which features a species of timetravelling aliens known as the Trolls due to fact that the first ones that the protagonists meet were actual internet trolls. The Trolls have their own wierd system of romance built around four quadrants: the flushed quadrant (denoted with a ♥) which loosly aproximates what humans think of as romantic love; the pale quadrant (♦) which is sort of an intense platonic friendship wherein one partner serves as a stablizing force on the other, more unstable partner; the ashen quadrent (♣) whereby one partner attempts to mediate between to otherwise violently opposed partners; and the caliginous quadrant (♠), which can be described as "romantic hate", and involve such things as "hatesnogging" and "murderfondling". A more detailed description can be found here.
It should also be noted that this thread already contains at least on reference to a Hussie creation (cousin_it's "HP: Punch AM in snout to establish superiority"), so it's likely that fubarobfusco was primed to interpret things in that light.
What do you mean, "no, just no"? Here are two extremely competent characters who will inevitably be pitted in full force against each other. They both respect competence in others (and likely relish a bit of a challenge), so they will necessarily admire each other, more and more as they get the measure of their respective power. They're not naive preteens drunk on their first slightly creative idea, they're adults with a lifetime of experience who know exactly how to have a rivalry. They'll never grow tired of playing against each other and they know that perfectly well. You will forgive me for shipping that just a little bit.
It's odd, being reminded that in the mainstream mentioning slash is on the level of potty humor, when in the world I normally inhabit you're supposed, on pain of being called a narrow-minded Philistine, to appreciate a story's literary value whether or not it's angsty porn in a setting based on dogs' social and reproductive habits where men get pregnant.
Eh? I've nothing against slash, I just don't see Moody as having the time for that sort of thing. Shoot first and fantasize later, maybe ....
Moody makes time for every potential threat and for the occasional artifact hunt. You can argue it's not one of his priorities, but he's not exactly pressed for time should he so wish.
A much bigger problem is the inevitable distraction. He can have time-turned selves and possibly allies watching his back, his currently active enemies, and Quirrell's potential plots, but so can Quirrell. And there are probably more dark wizards who would benefit from Moody being distracted than the reverse. And is Moody even an Animagus? If not, or depending on his form, that's another advantage for Quirrell.
They could take an Unbreakable vow to abstain from shenanigans while on dates, but that's way too big a constraint for either to accept, doesn't stop third parties, and is probably full of loopholes.
An Unbreakable vow requires one party to sacrifice the possibility of freely trusting the other party. That's not a healthy relationship.
Sexual tension based on how fascinatingly brilliant each person is at trying to kill the other is rarely conducive to trust and healthy relationships. People are notoriously more tolerant of fucked up relationship dynamics under stressful conditions; a battle to the death with the world at stake would qualify.