Harry Potter And The Methods Of Rationality

I CAN'T FUCKING BELIEVE HE [[spoiler:GWEN STACIED HER. ASSHOLE.

Willing Suspension of Disbelief, broken. This can't have happened. This is so very wrong.

ALSO DON'T GIVE SPOILERS TWO WEEKS BEFORE THE CHAPTER IS EVEN OUT!

Yes, I am pissed off. It might have been an excellent idea if the setup had been more solid. As it is, it felt lazy and rushed. Fifteen minutes of Twenty Four style against-the-clock generic action movie drama, followed by a pointless boss fight where GWEN STACY DIED IN A VERY CONTRIVED WAY.

edited 29th Jun '13 6:18:55 PM by TheHandle

No... while shocking, what happened actually seems exactly right for the series. We knew someone with epic levels was gunning for her already. This is the natural result of someone with epic levels trying to take out a first-year. Also, it's not as if it's going to be permanent.

Bug report Ch. 88: "Professor Flitwick was standing on his chair at usual" — "at" should almost certainly be "as."

edited 29th Jun '13 6:19:39 PM by Exetera

This just didn't happen, did it? Not if he wants folks to keep reading? This has to be a nightmare or the second last chapter in a Downer Ending piece of shit? I don't give a fuck about Gwen Stacy, she was just the love interest of the third most pointless superhero after Supes and Bats. I do give a fuck about Hermione fucking Granger.

Neither do I; what I'm talking about is the STUPID TROPE: "Go rescue your significant other, except she'll be already fatally wounded and will die before you can do anything about it, and you'll be stuck with the guilt forever."

Also, don't gratuitously insult popular heroes. They are popular, and people might take exception to that.

If the setup and buildup had been better, I would have believed it, but, as it is right now, my brain just went "BULLSHIT" and "NO". If only we'd had had, say, experienced some of it from Hermione's perspective, that would have made it better.

edited 29th Jun '13 6:24:28 PM by TheHandle

If I had a farthing for everytime I pissed off someone because I said their favourite superheroes bit I would have a really big pile of obsolete British currency. That stuff matters to me not.

This story did.

It did. I don't think it does in the same way anymore. I can't back it or defend it now. If this sticks. I thought Rowling fucked up with the way she treated kids who identified with Slytherin. This is worse.

You don't care: good. All the more reason not to thoughtlessly lash at them: you have no stakes in this, and nothing to gain.

What does that asshole want, anyway? I've had it with his bullshit. I'm not even interested in understanding him anymore, I just want him gone.

edited 29th Jun '13 6:33:00 PM by TheHandle

There was a lot of buildup. Reread the preceding chapters if you missed it. Especially look for Harry's resolution at the end of old 85 (I wish it hadn't gone away...) which basically meant, by the rules of Narrative Causality, that someone was going to get killed very soon. Arguably 86 was a pacing misstep, since it put a giant wall of text between the relevant foreshadowing and the incident. The only thing that I'd call actual anti-foreshadowing, though, is Chapter 87; while it may have made a lot of micro-level sense for Hermione and Harry to have that particular scene together, it most certainly is not the right way to build up to Hermione getting killed.

edited 29th Jun '13 6:38:55 PM by Exetera

Heh. Resists urge to put Bill's thoughts on superman video on reply. Barely.

More! More rage! Feed me, Seymour!

Also, shame on you, Yudkowsky. Fridging? Really? There are any number of fanfics I can read for that. I read your shit to be surprised.

Good.

Most certainly not. That is not how you do Ret Irony.

Still, this shouldn't have happened. Dumbledore can teleport around the school, which is full of wards, and... who has the Map, currently?

edited 29th Jun '13 6:48:51 PM by TheHandle

edited 29th Jun '13 7:03:12 PM by AlexRose

Search for "Show Markup Help" on top-left of the editing box while you're editing a mesage, the relevant instructions are there. This site does not use BB code.

edited 29th Jun '13 6:56:34 PM by TheHandle

Oh my. When are we getting 90&91?

This was the foreshadowed death of an extremely central character. "Fridging," as the term is usually used, refers to setting up a female mannequin for the sole purpose of sweeping it offstage to a round of angst. These aren't the same at all.

Dumbledore was almost certainly off looking for Horcruxes. Since he was apparently out of bounds for Minerva's Patronus, it's not surprising that he also couldn't access the Hogwarts wards.

I can't imagine you spoiled anyone; anyone navigating here for new posts would land on my first, on the previous page. Now that you've figured out the system, though, mind sharing whatever thoughts you had?

Monday, 7PM PDT. Well, that's when we get 90. Unsure about 91.

edited 30th Jun '13 8:19:30 AM by Exetera

I think it'd be more interesting if Herminone convincingly stays dead and Harry has to face the consequences of that; I mean Harry was already trying to rip apart the foundations of reality, now he just has an additional motivation.

I assumed our Defense Professor was behind this, but his reactions surprised me:

"The Defense Professor had tried to send an impulse to retreat, to don the Cloak of Invisibility and flee..."

"Despite its little ups and downs, on the whole this had been a surprisingly good day -"

If this was the work of the Defense Professor, I'm confused as to what he hoped to accomplish. He didn't want Harry to fight or come in contact with the troll, and surely there are more discrete and reliable ways of assassinating Hermonine. What could a rampaging troll in Hogwarts possibly accomplish that another method couldn't do more simply and with less uncertainty?

edited 29th Jun '13 7:00:31 PM by AlexRose

He wanted to k-

He—

H—

He didn't want Harry hurt, he needed him alive for his future plans. His goal that day was v—

FUCK THIS SHIT!

^^^ I beg to differ. I've always seen it used to refer to the employment of the death of one character to motivate another. It's usually a female victim and a male hero, with the entire situation having an underpinning of chivalrous nonsense.

So I take it I'm the only person who's glad this happened?

edited 29th Jun '13 7:10:40 PM by FurikoMaru

Yes.

And for added hilarity I have just received my second notification email on chapter pointless and chapter waste. What fun.

edited 29th Jun '13 7:26:23 PM by TamH70

You guys sure don't disappoint.

Quirrell's concern seems to be primarily about Harry's killing urge: once it starts, he doesn't seem to be at all confident about when it will stop. He also doesn't want to run the risk of Harry actually saving Hermione again.

It's remotely possible that you may have actually seen the term "fridging" used so broadly as to only mean death as motivation. However, that particular definition of the term would most certainly not justify the "lol fridging, how lame" you actually responded with - death as motivation has a long and important tradition in literature, and if you really meant the term that broadly, you would have used it with more respect.

edited 29th Jun '13 7:43:21 PM by Exetera

We try.

Sod this, time for a musical interlude:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ocGJYvmArPc

Fridging is never a concept I will treat with any respect whatsoever. However it is presented or spun or defended.

edited 29th Jun '13 7:39:19 PM by TamH70

Come to fuck some birds with chainsaws?

Email verbatim, though this site's formatting may bork the looks somewhat.

Ch. 88-89, 'Time Pressure' Pt. 1 & 2. 5,900 and 2,900 words.

http://hpmor.com/chapter/88 http://hpmor.com/chapter/89

If hpmor.com suffers any difficulty try: http://www.fanfiction.net/s/5782108/88 http://www.fanfiction.net/s/5782108/89

If you have lost track of the current plot, I recommend reading from http://hpmor.com/chapter/85 or at least http://hpmor.com/chapter/87

There are no Author's Notes for Ch. 88-89.

No Author's Notes. I wonder why.

^^^^ Just because something has a long tradition doesn't mean you can't rib people for doing it again.

Also, holy spectre of a bygone age, Nornagest!

Hey, Furiko. When I saw the chapter update on Less Wrong I just knew the reaction here would be worth watching, and what do you know, I was right.

I can't get behind the authorial decision, but the reactions almost make up for it. I haven't seen rage this delicious since the Red Wedding aired.

edited 29th Jun '13 8:05:40 PM by Nornagest