17 HP Chamber of Secrets
Jul. 26th, 2019 06:04 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
chantaldormand posting in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
deathtocapslockCh17 The Heir of Slytherin
>Ever read The Evil Overlord List? Well this chapter is like opposite to that. The only things we lack is Storm troopers and wedding with kidnapped princess.
>Somewhere around chapter 6 Jo ran out of her budget for interior design so now we are stuck with pretty anticlimactic place for final boss battle.
>Jo describes Salazar's face as 'monkey-like' with long thin beard. Considering how Jo describes Slytherins and how all of them is either rich or merchant...Well let's hope she didn't intend to sound anti-Semitic...
>Logical error: Harry cranes his neck to look at Salazar's statue from top to bottom and then notices Ginny. Considering Chamber's colour scheme and fact she is on the same level as Harry he should spot her immediately without needing to look at the statue. +1 to LOL
>Aaaannndd now that Harry flung aside his only weapon he lost any kind of respect I had for him. +3 to LOL +1 to DC
>Considering that Harry spend whole book ignoring Ginny, his desperation is strange. Also that is not a proper procedure for handling unconscious, potentially wounded people!
>Once again, Harry acts around suspicious people like baby lemming. A guy who up until this point was trapped in a book is walking around in the same room where you've just found an unconscious girl? Nope, nothing strange here officer! +2 to LOL
>”‘You’ve got to help me, Tom,’ Harry said, raising Ginny’s head again. ‘We’ve got to get her out of here. There’s a Basilisk … I don’t know where it is, but it could be along any moment. please, help me””Well, for once Harry has his priorities right.
>Oh boy, Harry is really slow in this chapter. Probably because he used his annual allotment of brainpower in the previous chapter.
>Sure, Harry won't need his wand, after all even if he had it he wouldn't know what to do with it.
>This whole chapter reads like early 2000's PA warning against 'internet friends'.
>"Hungry looks", huh? It's good thing that HP books are children literature or there would be mountain of slash fanf...oh...+1 to FWBP
>I wonder how power transfer works in this situation. The way Tom talks about it, it seems that he managed to not only figure out how to create a horcrux, but also how to turn it into a dementor so once again he could become Real Boy TM...Just what kinds of books are kept at Hogwarts???
>Dealing with your own mental health problems can be both terrifying and hard. That being said, the fact that even after Ginny connected the odd goings at Hogwarts and holes in her memory she didn’t seek out help is unforgivable to me. To continue ignoring the problem and potentially harming others...it’s selfish, irresponsible and cowardly :( +1 to CC, +1 to LOL
>It’s terribly nice of Tom to expose so thoroughly what was going behind scenes. It’s almost like he is buying himself time, wouldn’t you say Harry?
>Tom, considering you are about 50 years past expiration date you probably should stop eye-fucking a 12 year old. +1 to FWBP
>Rising werewolf cubs under bed? Wrestling trolls? Either Hagrid is even more insane/stupid than I expected or Tom wasn’t the only person at Hogwarts framing Hagrid.
>” But I admit, even I was surprised how well the plan worked. I thought someone must realise that Hagrid couldn’t possibly be the heir of Slytherin. It had taken me five whole years to find out everything I could about the Chamber of Secrets and discover the secret entrance … as though Hagrid had the brains, or the power!” Well Tom, neither Harry has enough brainpower to figure out on his own where the CoS is, so your logic fails flat.+1 to LOL
>Before reading HBP, Albus figuring out that Tom is suspicious was somewhat impressive. Nowadays, not so much.
>Wait, so Dumbledore didn’t keep close eye on Tom after the burning wardrobe incident? Jo, you just love shooting yourself in foot, don’t cha?
>So instead of planning to sneak into school later and stealing Basilisk so you could use it for something more productive than killing off High Schoolers, you decided to create a horcrux out of book in hopes that one day you could continue your glorious days of terrorizing school population??? That isn’t even insane, it’s just plain stupid. And petty. +1 to LOL
>It’s good to see that even dark lords have their own edgy teenager phase. Shame Tom never grew out of his own.
>Knowing Tom’s family background it’s not so strange that he decided to ditch his father’s name, but why the heck he had to keep using a nickname he came up with in High School…
>Wait wait wait; if Tom managed to suck out Ginny’s lifeforce here, could 2 Voldemorts run around or would time travel rules apply here? I have so many questions...
>Harry, that speech was so cheesy that local mice population started running around in search of entrance to CoS.
>Waiter: Messier, as you ordered: double Deus Ex Machina with side dish of incompetent villain and broken suspension of disbelief. Bon appetite!
>Description of Fawkes left me wondering about phoenixes diet. On one hand long, sharp beak could suggest fish based diet, but I imagine that a long tail would get in the way…
>For love of balance, Tom just kill the brat and be done with this nonsense. Do you really have time to chit-chat with 12 year old when you could be terrorizing masses? +2 to LOL
>There is something Freudian about Basilisk slithering out of Salazar’s mouth…+1 to FWBP +1 to DC
>Shame Harry didn’t take a towel for this adventure. He could wrap it around his head to protect himself from Basilisk’s gaze. Or challenge Tom to wet towel duel ;P
>Ever helpful Harry describes Basilisk as “thick as an oak trunk”. While we have no way of figuring out measurements of this majestic creature, after the last chapter where Harry commented on 6 meters long molt… Well I’m imagining that Basilisk has grub worm proportions.
>I have to question how Fawkes managed to damage Basilisk’s eyes without getting at least petrified.
> “There was no answering voice. Instead, the Hat contracted, as though an invisible hand was squeezing it very tightly.” And then something long and wooden fell out of the Sorting Hat. And kept falling. Harry lifted it and stared bewildered.
Harry: A stick?
SH: It’s Helga’s quarterstaff. Good for work and self-defense.
Harry: How it’s supposed to help me against Basilisk?
SH: Beats me if I know!
>Silver sword? I hope it’s only coated in silver, otherwise it’s mostly decorative. Also the way the handle is described makes me think that it would be very hard to get a good grip on it. No sane person puts gems into handle, you put them into pommel.
> Mouth “lined with fangs”??? Jo are you sure you weren’t attending biology classes with H.P. Lovecraft?
>Harry you are a moron. You are fighting with monster who has more venom fangs than average household has toothpicks and you decided to stab it through mouth? With a sword? +2 to LOL +1 to DC
>I have sooo many questions about how Basilisk’s venom works.
>That has to be the least effective way of applying anti-venom. Considering that, the fang was about as long as the sword, Harry not only was injected with enough venom to kill majority of Hogwarts’ population, but also is rapidly losing blood.
>Oh for Christ sake. Tom, just toss a few AKs to kill both Fawkes and Harry. You just have shown that casting magic isn’t the problem so why in the seven hells you are just shooing phoenix away. +1 to LOL +1 to SC for Tom
>Darn, in this chapter Fawkes just keeps earning his keep. He brought Harry weapon, nerfed Basilisk, healed the protag and now even fetched the Diary. Jo why do you keep writing pets as more active characters than your protagonist??
>Harry doesn’t take the diary off his lap before stabbing it with the fang. A few inches in wrong direction and we wouldn’t be dealing with next generation of Potters. +1 to LOL
>”Venom sizzled hole” in diary? What the heck Jo?
>BTW if that is how this ”venom” works, half of protag’s arm should fell off before Fawkes intervened.
>If I awoke to blood-soaked guy with a sword standing over me I would freak out. Crushes or not.
>Ginny’s reaction here is somewhat lackluster. Sadly, it isn’t because she is permanently possessed by Tom.
>I’m not sure about expelling, but there should be some kind of punishment. Ginny endangered whole school population and caused a few students to miss a good chunk of school year. Yeah she is a victim in this case, but she had numerous occasions to stop this insanity.
>Harry leaves a mountain of potential priceless potion ingredients to rot in CoS.*sigh*
>Either Ron is pro-lifter or the confrontation took much longer than text would suggest.
>lol Harry crawled through narrow passage with poisoned sword. It’s miracle that he didn’t end up either stuck or poisoned again.
>JKR is in business of poetic justice. Quirrell was (metaphorically) playing with fire so he was burned alive. Lockhart profited from stealing accomplishments and erasing memories so now he doesn’t remember who he is.
>Jo, we get it. Fawkes is stand in for angel. You can stop describing Fawkes’ glowy wings.
>The gang doesn’t even consider that there has to be human friendly exit from CoS. After all the entrance they used to enter the tunnels was really dirty yet somehow Tom made numerous visits to CoS during this book.+1 to LOL
>Why, oh why Jo? If kids grab Fawkes by tail feathers to fly off, the only thing they will accomplish is ripping them out. Why not just fire-teleport them out? If Fawkes cannot do group teleporting then he can go one by one….+1 to LOL
>Ok, so now that I’m done with CoS I can start on PoA...What do you mean there is one more chapter?? Why?? Add one or two pages more and you could nicely tie things up in this chapter!
Crime Count: 1
Death Count: 3
Freud Would Be Proud: 3
Leap of Logic: 16
Uncovered: 0
Spell Count: Tom: 1
no subject
Date: 2019-07-28 02:57 pm (UTC)Heh, knowing quality of Jo's answers, maybe it's for the best :P
Ah, a fellow weaponry enthusiast! Going off Pottermore the Sword of Gryffindor is made entirely out of silver, which even in fantasy setting is ridiculous. If it had at least core made out of something sturdier, I could accept it. But sword made out of silver? Good joke.
An interesting thing is fact that the between various appearances in media, changes styles. One handed, two handed, curved, straight... Honestly, if it wasn't obviously a continuity failure, it would be much more fitting enchantment for magical sword than absorbing substances :P
Basilisk's proportions are comedic no matter how big oak you use for the measurements. We know that the Basilisk is at least 6 meters long, but it can't be much bigger because in such damp conditions molt would degrade much quicker than normally. Then there are fangs. Let's say that out of rows of those fangs only the biggest ones are as long the sword and let's say that what Harry meant by "as long as sword" was "as long as blade" not "as long as blade, hilt and pommel". Harry held the sword in two-and grip which means it's either 1,5-handed sword (so called bastard sword) or 2-handed sword. Most people who try to categorize swords tend to say that anything with blade longer than 70 cm is either 1,5-hand sword or 2-handed sword.
So yeah the longest Basilisk's fangs compared to the rest body are 1/10 of length... it's like Angler fish :D
Nah, it isn't that bad, but last few chapters of each HP book are always frustrating for me. Must be amount of BS JKR keeps pushing.
no subject
Date: 2019-07-29 08:58 am (UTC)ohh gosh, really? i mean everybody and their dog knows that silver is rather soft as a metal... so what would be the use? good thing i do not do pottermore, the rage would not have been worth it
—> i didnt know you that in english the 1,5- handed sword had an extra name as in german there are different criteria for the name- thanks for that bit of trivia
and loool i will never take the basilisk serious again after reading that it looks basically like an angler fish :D
no subject
Date: 2019-07-29 03:25 pm (UTC)There is a lot of insistences in English terminology for white weapons, but in most cases bastard swords are 1,5-handed swords. Honestly I came to conclusion that if I have any questions about white weapons I'm better off talking with local HEMA members than with historians. They tend to have more useful (for me as writer) information.