jbay comments on [FINAL CHAPTER] Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality discussion thread, March 2015, chapter 122 - Less Wrong

6 Post author: Gondolinian 14 March 2015 04:00PM

You are viewing a comment permalink. View the original post to see all comments and the full post content.

Comments (162)

You are viewing a single comment's thread.

Comment author: jbay 14 March 2015 10:06:39PM 17 points [-]

Really good ending chapter. The presence of Hermione's character totally changes the tone of the story, and reading this one, it became really clear how heavily the Sunshine General was missing from the last ~third or so of the story arc. Eliezer writes her very well, and seems to enjoy writing her too.

I thought Hermione was going to cast an Expecto Patronum at the end, with all the bubbling happiness, but declaring friendship works well too.

Irrelevant thought: Lasers aren't needed to test out the strange optics of Harry's office; positioning mirrors in known positions on the ground and viewing them through a telescope from the tower would already give intriguing results.

Comment author: buybuydandavis 16 March 2015 12:10:11AM *  7 points [-]

The presence of Hermione's character totally changes the tone of the story, and reading this one, it became really clear how heavily the Sunshine General was missing from the last ~third or so of the story arc. Eliezer writes her very well, and seems to enjoy writing her too.

Harry's world was bleak without Hermione. Harry's love for Hermione, and even love for Humanity in general, had been missing for a while. He largely went into young Tom Riddle mode for a long time, without Hermione's influence.

Harry:

Being friends with you means that my life doesn't have to go the way Voldemort's did.

Recall Quirrell:

“Then here is what I might have done at your age, if there had been anyone to do it for—”

Hermione showed Harry the possibility of both love and understanding. He had love from his parents, and understanding from Quirrell, but both from Hermione. The world became a different place for Harry when he came to know Hermione.

Maybe I was expecting too much adulthood from Harry, but in every meaningful way but romantic, he loves Hermione, and Harry's evasion of that admission was disappointing, if not entirely out of character.

Comment author: TylerJay 17 March 2015 07:47:49PM 3 points [-]

And just a few lines before your last quote:

Quirrell:

"I did not have any friends like that when I was young." Still the same emotionless voice. "What would have become of you, I wonder, if you had been alone?"

Comment author: buybuydandavis 17 March 2015 09:05:14PM 1 point [-]

That's a good one. For anyone knowing knowing about the Horcrux, it's an interesting nature/nurture experiment to muse upon.