Eugen RochkoMay 11, 2017

I'm rewatching the Harry Potter movies and here's a couple thoughts:

Nerdwriter is right, Prisoner of Azkaban is the best of the movies

Harry James Evans-Verres Potter is a better character than Harry Potter, canon Harry is pretty dumb and hard to watch. Also, wtf is Hermione doing in Gryffindor. What's the reason for Ravenclaw house to exist if Hermione is not in it?

One of the reasons I like HPMOR more than canon is because the characters' awesomeness potential is actually used

Show threadEugen RochkoMay 11, 2017

For me, Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality is the canon now. The original books have too many seams. Okay, telling people to read a fanfic is a hard sell because of the fanfic stigma, plus the first 10 or so chapters have a different style to the rest of the book, after 3 or so years I've given up personally recommending it to anyone and expecting results

Also the fact that this one fanfic is longer than the 7 original books

Show threadbentosmile 🍱May 11, 2017
@Gargron the writing in the original books is so wonky. and I don't quite get the nerd popularity, as Harry is basically a jock (cheats off his friends in class, good at sports, etc etc.) plus I remember being a teenager, and if I acted towards my friends the way Harry does... well, you just don't do that. o_O
Show threadEugen RochkoMay 11, 2017

@bentosmile hey i'm in a school with the most powerful wizard in the world

better not tell him about my private investigation of events and any evidence i find

Show threadbentosmile 🍱May 11, 2017

@Gargron argh and the whole Snape thing gets me... as he's proven to be good in the first book, but because he's a teacher with a crappy attitude Harry and co decide he is evil and don't quit until the goddamn end!

(+ don't get me started on people making fascism analogies with it... but merrily ignoring how Dumbledore is basically responsible for enabling a new generation of evil wizards without making any open stance against it, and is knowingly giving them tools to be evil by educating them)

Show threadEugen Rochko

@bentosmile also because snape loved lily it excused his decade-long cruel treatment of small children 🤔

to be fair rowling tried to show that slytherin does not equal evil - slughorn and the redemption of draco/narcissa, though she did an awful job of it. because 11 y/o kids are predestined to be evil dark wizards and their handymen

May 11, 2017 at 7:52pmWeb
Show threadbentosmile 🍱May 11, 2017

@Gargron yeah, it's not all of syltherin... but just the ones which beyond a certain point everyone basically knows are working for voldemort (or at least everyone who needs to know).

(of course one could make an argument for attempting to persuade them away from voldemort... but there wasn't really any made. and then I suppose they would just go elsewhere to learn magic if expelled... so at the end it comes down to a crisis of conscience I guess.)

Show threadEugen RochkoMay 11, 2017
@bentosmile a few right avada kedavras by the "good guys" and a lot of tragedy could've been averted, but no, ya gotta expelliarmus everybody because you're harry potter and you learned one spell in 7 years
Show threadbentosmile 🍱May 11, 2017

@Gargron the ironic thing is that in neo-pagan terms, even the "good" magic is bad magic, because it does harm. :D (thinking about the various jinxes and stuff that they cast instead of 'forbidden spells')

it is definitely where it falls down as a fascism analogy. people did terrible things to fight fascists, because they had to. characters in HP have to remain virtuous, so they can be unambiguously the good guys, so they cannot fight effectively; requiring a miracle to win.