death to capslock

On Human Sacrfice and Dark Magic

2016-08-24T18:02:00Z

Posted by: annoni-no.livejournal.com

I've spent some time archive binging recently and got to thinking about what the new conclusions meant for old issues that weren't directly addressed. In particular, I was reminded of all the old complaints about Lily's sacrifice being held up as exceptional even though most parents would die for their children. And if sacrificial magic is as ancient, wild, and Dark as it is claimed, without needing any channeling incantations or rituals, there should be thousands, if not millions of people throughout the history of humanity clearly benefiting from such sacrifices. Yet canon says there aren't. Few people are even aware of the possibility that it could happen, let alone happen reliably. Why not?

Well. What is one of the most essential things we learn about the Dark Arts?

You have to mean them.

And that was just in reference to such highly domesticated spells as avada kedavra and cruciatus. (They have incantations! They give consistent results! And people want to call those Dark? Puh-lease.) I suspect that the further back you go, the more vital will and intent becomes to any manipulation of magic.

( So of course most parents would be WILLING to die for their children, but how many would WANT to? Would PLAN on it? )

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Magic Is Might: The Dark Arts and the Workings of Human Magic

2015-09-18T23:21:00Z

Posted by: condwiramurs.livejournal.com

I was going to post an excerpt from my half-finished Severus and Voldemort essay, but instead it became an essay of its own.

Magic Is Might: The Dark Arts and the Workings of Human Magic

In her latest post, “Seclusion and the Dark Arts,” terri brilliantly brings together the two main strands of Voldemort’s and the Death Eaters’ interests, overturning Secrecy and dark magic, theorizing that they were seeking to make useable again the old communal magics that shamans and village magic-workers would have used to tap into the emotion-driven power of muggles to boost their own magical ability.

In my comment in reply I wrote, “You've also anticipated an argument I'll be making in Indestructible when I talk about Severus and Voldemort and flight being one of the dark arts.”

My thinking about the nature of unsupported human flight, the reasons it may have taken so long to be developed, and what role it played in Severus and Voldemort’s relationship led me to formulate some ideas about the nature of the dark arts more generally. And now terri’s essay has pushed it all into much clearer focus for me.

We’ve got a number of terms for the working of human magic, and they all mean something specific. Which has implications for understanding what Tom might have thought regarding the nature of human magic and the relationship of muggles to magic-users. Whether or not he was even correct in his suppositions.

Though he may have been.

( Read more... )

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Harry Potter Abridged! DH Chapter 36

2015-08-30T22:23:00Z

Posted by: sweettalkeress.livejournal.com

LAST CHAPTER OF THE BOOK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!11

( The end is nigh! )

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Harry Potter Abridged! DH Chapter 35

2015-08-29T22:41:00Z

Posted by: sweettalkeress.livejournal.com

Might as well continue this sequence.

( Read Chapter 35 )

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Indestructible - An Addendum on Flight

2015-08-24T13:36:00Z

Posted by: condwiramurs.livejournal.com

I've been writing up some of my thoughts on Voldemort and Severus, and it's made me realize how central flight is. Both to Severus' relationship to the Dark Lord, and to his character and arc in general. It all unfolded suddenly in my mind last night and became clear.

It's one of the hidden keys, an important one - like in Filius' challenge in PS/SS.

I know how it works - I'd figured out that part already (I'll explain when we get to Voldemort). And where Severus got the idea - that's obvious.

But I just figured out when and why Severus decided that he needed to work out the secret of unsupported flight.

Not for himself. That's not Severus' strongest motivator.

And not as a welcome-back present for the Dark Lord, although ironically he's the only one Severus ended up teaching the magic to.

For Harry.

( Read more... )

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Harry Potter Abridged! DH Chapter 24

2015-08-04T12:34:00Z

Posted by: sweettalkeress.livejournal.com

Hey, it's my birthday! Have another one of these!

( Read Chapter 24 )

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Harry Potter Abridged! DH Chapter 17

2015-07-14T23:58:00Z

Posted by: sweettalkeress.livejournal.com

[As Harry and Hermione turn to exit the graveyard, they spy an unknown figure in the distance]

( Read Chapter 17 )

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Harry Potter Abridged! DH Chapter 15

2015-07-12T18:35:00Z

Posted by: sweettalkeress.livejournal.com

[The next morning, Harry buries Mad-Eye Moody’s magical eye]

Harry: Better there than in the clutches of that evil Umbridge, after all.

( Read Chapter 15 )

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Harry Potter Abridged! DH Chapter 14

2015-07-09T12:26:00Z

Posted by: sweettalkeress.livejournal.com

[They crash-land in the middle of a forest]

( Read Chapter 14 )

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Harry Potter Abridged! DH Chapter 13

2015-07-07T22:57:00Z

Posted by: sweettalkeress.livejournal.com

Umbridge: What are you two looking so surprised about? This is where my office is—of course I would be up here!

( Read Chapter 13 )

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Harry Potter Abridged! HBP Chapter 27

2015-06-17T15:55:00Z

Posted by: sweettalkeress.livejournal.com

( Read Chapter 27 )

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Harry Potter Abridged! HBP Chapter 26

2015-06-16T18:11:00Z

Posted by: sweettalkeress.livejournal.com

( It's the Birdbath of DOOM )

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Harry Potter Abridged! HBP Chapter 25

2015-06-15T09:57:00Z

Posted by: sweettalkeress.livejournal.com

( Read Chapter 25 )

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Harry Potter Abridged! HBP Chapter 23

2015-06-13T18:17:00Z

Posted by: sweettalkeress.livejournal.com

( See Dumbledore show his nihilistic true colors! )

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A response to Terri_Testing and Swythyv: Just how much DID Voldemort change...

2015-06-07T22:24:00Z

Posted by: sweettalkeress.livejournal.com

...about the Birdbath of Doom?

I remember a little while ago, Terri_Testing wrote an article about the true nature of the Birdbath, building on another article written by Swythyv, where they theorized that it was initially put there as a test by Merlin, in the hopes of weeding out those unworthy of attaining his level of wisdom and skill. Having just finished the Abridged version of the chapter in which it appears, I have to wonder just how much Voldemort changed when he commandeered the setup to hide his Horcrux.

Think about it: if the ritual Merlin created involved an initiate sailing to the island on a magical boat (often accompanied by a squire or servant to administer the potion) and drinking the potion in the Birdbath, that's pretty much what Harry and Dumbledore do anyway. The only components Voldemort seems to have added are the Horcrux and, possibly, the Inferi. However, we don't actually know Voldemort put the Inferi there. It's entirely possible that they've always been there, and are the bodies of those who failed the test set for them in the Birdbath. Terri_Testing, and maybe also Swythyv, seem to be under the impression that failing the test results in death--but, per Terri_Testing, both Dumbledore and Kreacher failed the test, and they didn't die automatically (Kreacher doesn't even die by the end of the series). What they did do, was attempt to get a drink of water and disturb the surface, causing the Inferi to emerge and try to grab them. Maybe everyone who attempts the ritual must drink from the water, and those who have failed arouse the Inferi, which drag them under water to their deaths.

So really, the Horcrux is the only thing we KNOW Voldemort added. The big question is, is this an act of sacrilege, and does it merit punishment? On the one hand, tampering with ancient magic, especially by incorporating an evil object, seems like the sort of thing that would be taboo--but on the other, Merlin was a Slytherin, and so he might have been perfectly okay with the locket being returned to his personal Birdbath. There is the fact that the locket was a Horcrux, of course--but here's the thing: most of the characters we meet in the series think Horcruxes are ultimate evil, but there's no reason to think the same thing would have been true in Merlin's time. It's hard to say how a Horcrux could ever be "good" per se, but in the past it might have simply been another bad thing people did, rather than the most awful thing in the history of ever. The days of King Arthur would have most likely been a lot more violent than modern times, after all, and so killing someone without remorse to save yourself, the essential component of a Horcrux, might not have looked quite as bad back then as it does today.

If, on the other hand, it is sarcilegious to tamper with the Birdbath in this way, what might a suitable punishment be? Do we ever see Voldemort suffer any such punishment?

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Harry Potter Abridged! HBP Chapter 17

2015-06-07T18:04:00Z

Posted by: sweettalkeress.livejournal.com

[Harry and his friends take the Floo back to Hogwarts]

( Read Chapter 17 )
*A/N: So basically Terri_Testing’s theory about the Reasonable Restrictions on Underage Magic is canon (or as good as canon)

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Harry Potter Abridged! HBP Chapter 12

2015-06-01T13:44:00Z

Posted by: sweettalkeress.livejournal.com

[The first Hogsmeade trip arrives]

( Read Chapter 12 )

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Harry Potter Abridged! HBP Chapter 10

2015-05-30T11:07:00Z

Posted by: sweettalkeress.livejournal.com

( Some mention of incest in this one )

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Harry Potter Abridged! OotP Chapter 32

2015-02-24T19:45:00Z

Posted by: sweettalkeress.livejournal.com

( Read Chapter 32 )

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Harry Potter Abridged! OotP Chapter 24

2014-12-29T17:01:00Z

Posted by: sweettalkeress.livejournal.com

I thought I'd post one more of these before I departed from the lovely land of Harry Potter and Iron Maiden and returned to my boring old American hometown.

( Contains some discussion of rape )
*AN: As I think of it, how creepy is it that there’s no way to defend yourself from what amounts to symbolic rape other than to experience it? And why the hell do “good guys” use a power like that?!

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Harry Potter Abridged! OotP Chapter 22

2014-12-03T13:28:00Z

Posted by: sweettalkeress.livejournal.com

I apologize if this one's a little less funny than normal--I was dealing with severe anxiety when I wrote it and some of the things hit a little too close to home. Plus the subject matter was just harder to make funny :/

( Read Chapter 22 )

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Albus and the Birdbath

2014-11-20T09:06:00Z

Posted by: terri-testing.livejournal.com

Thank you, oryx_leucoryx, for this one.

We don’t need to posit mysterious antidotes. We don’t need to posit anything. To understand what was going on in that cave, we just need to read more closely—and to remember Kreacher’s experience.

Kreacher is the key to understanding Albus’s unsuccessful encounter with the Birdbath of Doom.

*( Read more... )

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Harry Potter Abridged! OotP Chapter 19

2014-11-07T16:08:00Z

Posted by: sweettalkeress.livejournal.com

In honor of the Bonfire Night festivities being held in the city, have another one of these!

( Some brief mention of suicide in this one )
*A/N: Just because you point out that Hermione would be a textbook Ravenclaw if she didn’t have to be in Gryffindor for the sake of the story doesn’t excuse it, Rowling….

**A/N: For the record, this was also in the text.

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The fan's perspective on Dark magic...

2014-01-28T13:42:00Z

Posted by: sweettalkeress.livejournal.com

So, elsewhere on the 'net, I came across someone tearing apart The Draco Trilogy, and this person had something very interesting to say about Dark magic:

When you use Dark Magic, it's because you want someone to die, or feel terrible pain, or bend unquestioningly to your will; you want that for its own sake, and not necessarily to accomplish anything. Dark Magic has nothing to do with whether or not a spell causes pain, just the wizard casting it.

This came from a fan of the series, of course, but without meaning to it in essence confirms what we've been saying all along about the way morality and Dark magic work in this series--it's not the spells a wizard uses that are Dark or otherwise, it's whether the wizard themselves is good or evil. If the wizard using a spell is "evil," then no matter what they do it will be evil and Dark. If the wizard using a spell is "good," then no matter what they do it will be good and not-Dark.

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Harry Potter Abridged! OotP Chapter 13

2013-12-29T23:50:00Z

Posted by: sweettalkeress.livejournal.com

[After class, Harry goes to dinner, where everyone is talking about him]
( Read Chapter 13 )
*A/N: As I think of it, did this not occur to Rowling?

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