Harry Potter And The Methods Of Rationality

Why exactly is it meaningfully more powerful than the ability to send one person back in time?

It might not even be that it's too powerful, as that it's a really obvious safeguard for the Ministry to implement. They are semi-routinely giving students the ability to travel back in time, which is, as noted with the time-criminal case, easily abused; it's a no-brainer to at least limit the ability to the person who you gave the device to. You might trust the person to go back in time responsibly, but that doesn't mean you trust them to make the same judgement.

I'd just like to post my audio book reading.

http://www.newgrounds.com/audio/listen/420833

The rest can be found in order on my submissions list on the left side of the screen.

That's one helluva reading. Thanks!

Given your status as a proponent of "crap fic theater", I'm not sure whether or not to take that as a compliment... Ah, whatever, I'll take it, thanks. Now, I conscript you to help spread the word of this audio book! It seems most people gave up on making a proper audio book when Eneasz put out his podcast... This is making it difficult to get more people in on the project. I can't start chapter 8 till I have a Hermione! I absolutly refuse to voice young girls, I don't want to break my voice.

so I finally finished the entire thing, very fun fanfic. My one question is what Granger used in the first battle that Draco/Harry didn't notice.

Actually that was a lie, I have a second question. What is the release schedule like for the Mo R?

edited 26th Jun '11 11:43:08 PM by thatguythere47

1.: She had the other first years who Draco earlier thought of as viable general candidates (Zabini, Goldstein and Mc Millian IIRC) on her team and they collaborated on working out a plan, while Draco and Harry did that on their own.

2.: There is none. My guess would be that the next chapter will be released in August or early September, after the rationality boot camp. If it hasn't been released by then my next guess is November, after the Singularity Summit.

^^ Is it bad that when I read "Draco/Harry", I immediately thought of shipping?

edited 27th Jun '11 7:12:33 PM by Taelor

Am I the only one morbidly curious to see what will happen if/ when Rationalist!Harry meets Umbridge?

Any theories, anyone?

Ooooooh dear. I do not want to see Umbridge taken up a notch.

And she would be, you know he'd do it.

Well, if she's kept at the same intellect, we could see Rationalist!Harry Curb-Stomp Battle in a battle of wits. Either way, Harry's triumph over that demon harpy, canon self or not, will be a CMOA for both him and the author.

I honestly think she could get butterfly'd away; if the Ministry wants to clamp down on the school in this timeline, they have to factor this Harry into their scenario. He's only going to get louder and crazier as he gets older, and the adults here are a bit sharper than canon, in some cases. The task of reining everyone in calls for someone less regimented in their thinking this time around, and I think even Fudge would figure that out.

Understandable, but I would like nothing more in this masterpiece fanfic than for Harry to snipe awsay at her every arhument. Like what he did to Snaoe, except Umbridge would totally deserve it.

edited 18th Jul '11 5:23:01 PM by gamerex27

Taken from E's "Philosophy of Fanfiction" blurb:

From this we can conclude that he'll try and make sure that Harry's fifth year will be at least as difficult as it was in canon, in proportion to his improved smarts/basic logic. For Umbridge to show up as a primary antagonist, she'd need to both be smarter, for whatever reason, and still be antagonistic (and, for proper catharsis, pettily, *mindlessly* evil) despite those increased smarts.

O'course, that could just mean that there will be other stuff happening in the background...provided the Ministry is still being stupid enough to send Umbridge. (Unless they're using the one year curse to get rid of a really annoying coworker?) ...Thinking about, that kind of means there's no intrinsic reason Umbridge has to show up in fifth year, beyond tradition. And if there's one thing Methods has done, it's beat The Stations of the Canon with a tungsten crowbar.

I do want to see what Methods version of Dumbledore's Army (Chaos Legion?) would be like, though. Smaller? Scarier? More teeth?

edited 18th Jul '11 9:05:50 PM by twasBrillig

You're assuming it'll cover a fifth year. The assertion on the trope page that he's trying to motor through everything in the books in Harry's first year has a ring of truth to it,I feel. :-)

While I'm sure Quirrelmort would be all for some evil, overbearing, stupid adult to harden Rationalist!Harry's notions of the moral superiority of being rational and intelligent and chip away at his empathy for fellow magical peoples, the delay to his timetable for using Harry to further his ambitions of universal domination would be unacceptable. Therefore any foreseeable conflict between Umbridge and Harry will be preempted by Quirrelmort by judicious application of murder.

And since it's Quirrelmort he foresaw it about November and his original Christmas present to Harry was going to be Umbridge's corpse re-animated to serve his every whim before he thought better of it and did the thing with the Pioneer horcrux instead.

edited 21st Jul '11 4:36:42 PM by Coefficientofsnark

Honestly, I would rather have Umbridge be her original self and have the First Law fulfilled by another character.

I think upping Umbridge to Methods levels would actually detract from her character. Umbridge is an incompetent, sadistic bureaucrat who has been given a lot of power and will do anything to maintain the status quo.

If she was given the same gigantic boost to her critical thinking skills that other Methods characters have had, she wouldn't do any of the ham handed and overbearing things she did in the books.

She would actually be subtle and manipulative and use wizarding law like a precise scalpel so as not to jeopardise her own position and those of the her superiors who put her there. Wheras in canon she rather openly tortures students, commits flagrant abuses of power and tries to use the law more like a large club with nails in it.

On the one hand, Methods Harry is far too clever for this kind of strategy and Quirrelmort even more so. The two of them would have her ruined almost before they even started. Yes at the same time I feel like not having her take this approach would result in something very important being lost.

Dolores Umbridge sticks out in my mind as one of the very few characters I actually feel genuine seething hatred for. Not in the "I utterly hate this character for how poorly written she is" way like Rinoa from FF 8, but as in actually getting angry about her as a person.

I remember making a mental note in my head after reading Order of the Phoenix for the first time, (One of the few Mental Notes that has actually stuck with me for any length of time) commending J.K. Rowling for her skill in making me utterly loathe this woman. She's one of the first fictional characters I ever encountered who I actually wanted to see genuinely suffer and I can't help but worry that feeling would be lost if she were changed to fit in with the rest of the Methods 'verse.

I personally doubt that Umbridge will have any significant part in the story; she might get a mention or make a brief appearance, but I think her role in the story has already been fulfilled. Like Capt. Fargle says, upgraded Umbridge is hardly Umbridge at all. What happens when an irritating thorn in the foot character who doesn't get an upgrade gets put into the story? Look at Rita Skeeter.

Although come to think of it, Harry already had the confrontation with Mc Gonagall about authority figures who start to think enforcing authority is more important than fairness or efficiency as soon as they're the ones in charge, and she went the reasonable route. Snape can be cruel, but he seems to have avoided turning out as a self-righteous authority figure, leaving that path largely unexplored.

Started reading on my kindle. I'm up to just past the point where Draco and tortures Harry after their first experimental day.

Pretty good so far.

edited 21st Jul '11 9:22:06 AM by Xiphoniii

Wow, the thing hasn't being updated in nearly 2 months?

NOPE.

It is dead, isn't it?

Likely.

What are Eliezer last words on it?

Let the man take a break if he wants to. This was just EY's way of having fun, after all.