death to capslock

Harry Potter Abridged! DH Chapter 35

Sat, 29 Aug 2015 22:41:00 GMT

Posted by: sweettalkeress.livejournal.com

Might as well continue this sequence.

( Read Chapter 35 )

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Lessons in Immortality

Tue, 25 Aug 2015 18:22:00 GMT

Posted by: sunnyskywalker

Condwiramurs, Terri, Sweettalkeress, and the rest of you are just too inspiring. I had plans for last night (okay, probably involving silly pictures of cats, but still), and instead all your brilliant commentary inspired me to write a short fic. Your punishment is to suffer the results. (Er, but only if you want to.)

Lessons in Immortality
Characters: Albus Dumbledore, Tom Riddle
Categories: Gen, PG
Word Count: 972
Summary: Albus is determined that his NEWT alchemy students not be lured onto any of the tempting, dark paths to immortality. Especially not Tom Riddle.

Fic this way

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Indestructible VII - Miscellaneous Cards I

Wed, 19 Aug 2015 22:37:00 GMT

Posted by: condwiramurs.livejournal.com

All right, as promised here are the remaining miscellaneous bits I need to cover along with our look at Severus himself. I’ve decided to fold the discussion of occlumency in here too, since it’s not that complicated to need a long post by itself.

However, for the sake of length, I’ll be posting this in sections. The first three cards in this set first, and the other three later.

In “Part VI – Dark Marks and Dark Arts,” we moved ahead in the alphabet from A for Albus and alchemy, to D for dark and death. Let’s continue skipping along the alphabet here and see what we’ve got.

This time:

F, for flight.

I, for immortality.

L, for love. (Can’t forget that.)

Next time:

O, for occlumency.

P, for purity.

T, for tower, with a side jump back to C for cave.

Then we can get back to our main subjects, S for Severus and V for Voldemort. And then I can finally go back to talking about moral arcs and that gravity assist thing I mentioned a while ago, and explain my two readings of the last books. Which I’m really eager to do after I get through all this stuff.

So, onward.

( Read more... )

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Harry Potter Abridged! HBP Chapter 23

Sat, 13 Jun 2015 18:17:00 GMT

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...

Sun, 07 Jun 2015 22:24:00 GMT

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

Sun, 07 Jun 2015 18:04:00 GMT

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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io9's AU ending idea for Deathly Hallows

Sun, 16 Mar 2014 16:07:00 GMT

Posted by: sunnyskywalker

Good to know other people out there are also still analyzing the series and not finding the ending satisfying!

The Awesome Harry Potter ending JK Rowling didn't even know she had

The quick version for everyone who doesn't want to click through: a reasonable twist interpretation of "either must die at the hand of the other" is that in order to die, Harry or Voldemort must die at the hand of the other--that is, there isn't any other way for them to die. So by killing Voldemort, Harry loses any chance of ever dying himself and becomes forever The Boy Who Lived... which means that he sacrifices any chance of being reunited with his dead friends and family in the wizarding afterlife.

I have to say, this one hadn't occurred to me, but it's an interesting idea, assuming you could get the mechanics to work well enough not to distract from the drama. I'll have to give it some more thought. Immortal!Harry might be a little too terrifying an ending...

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The Phoenix and Death in the Harry Potter Books

Fri, 28 Oct 2011 17:36:00 GMT

Posted by: sweettalkeress.livejournal.com

( Read more... )

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