CronoDAS comments on Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality discussion thread, February 2015, chapter 112 - Less Wrong

4 Post author: Gondolinian 25 February 2015 09:00PM

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Comment author: Jost 25 February 2015 11:56:14PM 3 points [-]

Horcruces in canon don't seem to affect people's personalities or magic

w/r/t magic: IIRC, the Voldemort-Horcrux inside Harry is responsible for him being able to speak Parseltongue. (Although my memory is a bit fuzzy on this; it’s been a while since I last read book 7.) Also, there’s a weird horcrux/magic interaction, which leads to the King’s Cross scene near the end of book 7.

w/r/t personality: Wearing a Horcrux can at least influence the mood of the wearer, see the big row between Harry/Hermione and Ron in book 7. (Why canon!Harry is apparently not influenced by being a horcrux is still a mystery to me …)

Here, though, Harry isn't just a vessel for Voldemort; he's actually a copy of the same soul. It makes perfect sense for the wands to be very similar, and it makes sense from an authorial perspective to emphasize that: it looks like an echo of canon in the event, but it's the sort of thing that enriches the story on a second reading.

You’re absolutely right; the Law of Conservation of Detail is already satisfied by that. However, I still consider Priori Incantatem a plausible option for the next few chapters.

Comment author: CronoDAS 26 February 2015 05:49:04AM 2 points [-]

Why canon!Harry is apparently not influenced by being a horcrux is still a mystery to me …

He was - he had a kind of telepathic link to Voldemort, which gave him visions of what Voldemort was doing. Snape was supposed to teach Harry Occulemency to keep Voldemort out of his head, but it didn't work; Voldemort sent Harry a false vision of Sirius in danger to lead him into a trap.

Comment author: Jost 26 February 2015 10:23:47AM 0 points [-]

Oh, absolutely!

Sorry, my original phrasing was bad. Let’s try again: I still don’t understand why the horcrux inside canon!Harry seems to have no influence on his mood, similar to the mood changes caused by wearing Slytherin’s locket in book 7.

Comment author: higurashimerlin 27 February 2015 04:39:50PM 2 points [-]

I guessing it did and Harry had nothing to compare it to. It has been suggested that Harry's canon step parents were effect and made into complete monsters by ten years of being around a horcrux.

Comment author: CronoDAS 26 February 2015 09:28:42PM 1 point [-]

Hmmm... Well, Harry did spend most of "Order of the Phoenix" acting like a moody teenager. Maybe he just got used to it after a while?

Comment author: TobyBartels 26 February 2015 08:15:35PM 1 point [-]

Maybe it did, just think how jolly Harry might have been otherwise!