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fubarobfusco comments on Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality discussion thread, February 2015, chapters 105-107 - Less Wrong Discussion

6 Post author: b_sen 17 February 2015 01:17AM

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Comment author: Izeinwinter 18 February 2015 02:06:48AM 26 points [-]

.. I have a theory about that.

What is the number one piece of advice we give people about relationships? The one rule which is regarded as the key to success and happiness in romance?

Its honest communication.

Salazar's decendants can have a perfect, magically enforced, version of that. And all they have to do is marry their cousin. The family wasn't obsessed with blood purity at all, it is simply that after growing up in a household where harmony was routinely established via this glorious gift of Salazar, the very idea of intimacy with anyone that this could not be shared with was usually repugnant.

That's why Quirrel calls it a curse. It lead the entire clan down a path of inbreeding! Unintentional consequences are unintentional.

Comment author: fubarobfusco 18 February 2015 07:12:55AM 1 point [-]

That's why Quirrel calls it a curse. It lead the entire clan down a path of inbreeding! Unintentional consequences are unintentional.

Perhaps — but in canon, Voldemort himself is not a pureblood. For that matter, his mother was not exactly raised to know how to have healthy relationships.

Comment author: Izeinwinter 18 February 2015 10:12:47AM 2 points [-]

Riddle was born out of the near-final collapse of the bloodline. Grandparents were awful because of over 500 years of insularity and intermarriage. Mother whammies cute boy as escape tactic / because she's just seriously fucked up. But because his mother conceived him with someone not from the family, he ends up the first scion in, well, most likely centuries to be born with good health. Physically, anyway.