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Alsadius comments on Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality discussion thread, part 17, chapter 86 - Less Wrong Discussion

9 Post author: Alsadius 17 December 2012 07:19AM

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Comment author: Alsadius 18 December 2012 05:38:30AM 11 points [-]

He admits freely that Moody would have kicked his ass in a real fight, so I'm not sure how much actual superiority was established there.

Comment author: pedanterrific 18 December 2012 05:27:02PM 7 points [-]

Just because Harry's learned to keep his claws sheathed doesn't mean he's not still engaging in dominance contests.

Comment author: Alsadius 18 December 2012 07:30:16PM 6 points [-]

I think in this case it's more an "I'm not as pathetic as you think I am" contest. Nobody's going to mistake him for the best duelist in that group, but he's not willing to concede complete inferiority. It's certainly a status game, it just doesn't rise to the level of "establish[ing] superiority".

Comment author: JamesAndrix 21 December 2012 07:09:40PM 3 points [-]

Moody set it as a condition for being able to speak as an equal.

Comment author: Tenek 19 December 2012 04:49:58PM 0 points [-]

He gets the mechanism wrong though. In a real fight, Moody kills him or at the very least takes his toys away if he's needed alive. There wouldn't be any time-turned copies of him in the first place.

Comment author: Alsadius 19 December 2012 07:54:15PM 1 point [-]

Stable time loops are sort of a problem for what-if scenarios - it's sufficiently hard to make up one, coming up with alternates isn't always possible.