Thread Rating:
  • 0 Vote(s) - 0 Average
  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5
You know you want it, baby.
 
#26
Quote:M Fnord wrote:
Quote:nemonowan wrote:
May I point out that Doug inadvertently changing a nickname retroactively is mildly unsettling?
Quote:Hazard wrote:
Not retroactively. I think the Trio just didn't pay all that much attention to Luna, so it's pure luck they noticed the change in nickname just as it had happened.
It's not retroactive, but if you look at the timestamps either there's a date error or something weird is going on:
Quote:Doug meets Luna wrote:
Wednesday, September 18, 1995, 6:15 PM
Quote:The kids monitor the Ravenclaw Massacree wrote:
Wednesday, September 18, 1995, 7:32 PM
Ron notes that people've been calling Luna Shirley for a while now... where "a while" means approximately an hour? I suspect shenanigans.
It is retroactive ... sort of.  Note the way Hermione realizes that she can't recall when people switched from "Loony" to "Shirley" -- and Harry and Ron agree that it must've been before they got on the Express.  That was two weeks ago.  
Twonky was standing right there when Looney told Luna he officially dubbed her "Shirley" (and she accepted the name in a moderately formal manner).  I don't know why the house-elves might've taken that exchange as an instruction to alter time so that Luna hasn't been called "Loony" for some two weeks, but I can't at the moment see any other plausible mechanism for the change.  
-----
Big Brother is watching you.  And damn, you are so bloody BORING.
Reply
 
#27
Quote:M Fnord wrote:
Quote:nemonowan wrote:
May I point out that Doug inadvertently changing a nickname retroactively is mildly unsettling?
Quote:Hazard wrote:
Not retroactively. I think the Trio just didn't pay all that much attention to Luna, so it's pure luck they noticed the change in nickname just as it had happened.
It's not retroactive, but if you look at the timestamps either there's a date error or something weird is going on:
Quote:Doug meets Luna wrote:
Wednesday, September 18, 1995, 6:15 PM
Quote:The kids monitor the Ravenclaw Massacree wrote:
Wednesday, September 18, 1995, 7:32 PM
Ron notes that people've been calling Luna Shirley for a while now... where "a while" means approximately an hour? I suspect shenanigans.
Not to mention that the Trio are looking at the Marauder Map. Which I don't think shows nicknames (or else Barty Crouch Jr. could never have been confused with his father Bartemious Crouch). That means that the knowledge that Luna's nickname now is Shirley just popped up into their heads, and Hermioned noticed that she doesn't remember when and where she learned that piece of data.
This seems at least a Fidelius-level effect, and that is if it only affects memories. When you think of how important names are in most magical traditions (think Dresden Files, Kingkiller, Terramar, Ananzi Boys, etc) the fact that Doug just changed one by a mere proclamation and the universe accepted it as truth is worrying.
Or else we are reading too much in an innocuous but ambiguous scene. But then maybe it should be corrected to point out that Hermione just read the nickname in the map.
Reply
 
#28
No corrections are necessary.

No explanations are forthcoming.
-- Bob
---------
Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.
Reply
 
#29
... If it is a result of Doug declaring that it might just be a hint of the Fates themselves keeping an eye on the matter, or another deity, but the Fates are the most likely. That's... not good but also not terrible, given how they tend to like him and his goals.

I mean, Doug hasn't aged since he skipped out on his home reality for the vast multiverse he's working through on his way home, but he hasn't aged, hasn't from the start. If that doesn't say something is sheltering him on his trip I don't know what would.

Also keep in mind Toothpick. The guy has a chunk of Yggdrassil in his back pocket.
Reply
 
#30
Hazard Wrote:... If it is a result of Doug declaring that it might just be a hint of the Fates themselves keeping an eye on the matter, or another deity, but the Fates are the most likely. That's... not good but also not terrible, given how they tend to like him and his goals.

I mean, Doug hasn't aged since he skipped out on his home reality for the vast multiverse he's working through on his way home, but he hasn't aged, hasn't from the start. If that doesn't say something is sheltering him on his trip I don't know what would.

Not since the start, just since he left Mega-Tokyo at the end of DW II. Note the lyrics of the song he used to leave that reality.

Note also that Hexe asked The Three to "butt out" of Doug's journey after that Step. If - I say again If - a Celestial is looking after Looney, it isn't one of them.

Hazard Wrote:Also keep in mind Toothpick. The guy has a chunk of Yggdrassil in his back pocket.

Well, maybe not Yggdrasil. Re-read the scene where Dumbledore is in Doug's mindscape and pay close attention to the descriptions given...
--
Rob Kelk
"Governments have no right to question the loyalty of those who oppose
them. Adversaries remain citizens of the same state, common subjects of
the same sovereign, servants of the same law."

- Michael Ignatieff, addressing Stanford University in 2012
Reply
 
#31
No need to involve the Fates when you've got more likely culprits such as Doug's aura, house-elf magic, Doug's aura interacting with house-elf magic, the way people with werewolf names seem to become werewolves (or did becoming werewolves retroactively change their names without anyone noticing?), etcetera.
----------------------------------------------------

"Anyone can be a winner if their definition of victory is flexible enough." - The DM of the Rings XXXV
Reply
 
#32
If the Three had ever intended to 'butt out' of Doug's journeys they wouldn't have let their local avatars in Nekomika get involved with him.

I figure that the Fates basically struck a deal with him, without him knowing. They'll ensure he'll make it home in one piece and in good health, and in return he just helps them by being the 'hero from out of town and just passing through' that they need. The steps and steplets make it pretty clear that he doesn't exactly need a lot of nudging for that, if any.
Reply
 
#33
Huh. And here I thought it was just a joke on teenage fads.
________________________________
--m(^0^)m-- Wot, no sig?
Reply
 
#34
Quote:Bob Schroeck wrote:
No corrections are necessary.
No explanations are forthcoming.
Well, that's telling!  Wink

Quote:Hazard wrote:
If the Three had ever intended to 'butt out' of Doug's journeys they wouldn't have let their local avatars in Nekomika get involved with him.
IIRC, did not The Three in OMB ask that Doug not become involved?  Because, really, it was just happenstance that he showed up there.  He would have just tried to move along, but Skuld pretty much derezzed his bike.  Which then led to him making a binding promise with Skuld's Higher Self that she help him rebuild it.  (And Skuld being Skuld, decides the old version of the bike just wouldn't do, so goes above and beyond by making redesigning his bike pretty much from the ground up, hence it's jet-fighter-on-wheels look.)  And then the crap with Marler all started going down, and Doug being Doug gets involved.  Because, of course, he is Doug, and Doug will never be anyone but Doug.  And thus, Doug got involved.

Wink
Reply
 
#35
Losing access to the Room of Requirement is going to be painful when the time comes.
Reply
 
#36
Quote:Matrix Dragon wrote:
Losing access to the Room of Requirement is going to be painful when the time comes.
Quote:...I would head up to my old duty station and park myself in front of the Big Board despite the lack of anything to keep an eye on...
For the sake of Doug's sleep, DON'T let him ever realize the Room could make its Big Board monitor crisis situations worldwide.... 
"Here I come to save the day!"
-----
Big Brother is watching you.  And damn, you are so bloody BORING.
Reply
 
#37
DHBirr Wrote:
Quote:Matrix Dragon wrote:Losing access to the Room of Requirement is going to be painful when the time comes.
Quote:...I would head up to my old duty station and park myself in front of the Big Board despite the lack of anything to keep an eye on...
For the sake of Doug's sleep, DON'T let him ever realize the Room could make its Big Board monitor crisis situations worldwide.... 

"Here I come to save the day!"

Interesting things in the global news in Sept' Oct 1995:

The Unabomber manifesto was published.
O.J. Simpson was found not guilty
The Bublegum Zone started being written
Al Gore invented the Internet
Neon Genesis Evangelion first landed.
________________________________
--m(^0^)m-- Wot, no sig?
Reply
 
#38
I should note, I love the response to the bullying shown against Luna. Once the administration learns of it, they actually address it. This pleases me so much.
Reply
 
#39
Dartz Wrote:Interesting things in the global news in Sept' Oct 1995:

...
Neon Genesis Evangelion first landed.
Doug's a few steps too early to learn about transfictionality, so he probably won't notice that one.
--
Rob Kelk
"Governments have no right to question the loyalty of those who oppose
them. Adversaries remain citizens of the same state, common subjects of
the same sovereign, servants of the same law."

- Michael Ignatieff, addressing Stanford University in 2012
Reply
 
#40
It's not like Hogwarts gets Japanese TV, after all...
-- Bob
---------
Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.
Reply
 
#41
Reply
 
#42
Twonky's name is a coincidence. No connection to the classic SF story or the movie.

The Centaurs... don't have an omen about Doug. Quite the opposite, in fact.

Lucius isn't defecting, yet. He's just... weighing his options.

The Celestials/magic thing? I came up with that, but I no longer remember the circumstances or even how long ago. It's been sitting, without a context, in my dev file for quite a long time now, though.
-- Bob
---------
Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.
Reply
 
#43
With regards to the centaurs, this is one thing that isn't the Ministry's fault. The centaurs were offered Being classification, but chose to be classified as beasts because they didn't want to be in the same classifications as goblins (and a few others, IIRC).
-----
Stand between the Silver Crystal and the Golden Sea.
"Youngsters these days just have no appreciation for the magnificence of the legendary cucumber."  --Krityan Elder, Tales of Vesperia.
Reply
 
#44
I've been laughing HARD at this chapter.

Love how Doug has basically being trolling practically half the cast.
Reply
 
#45
I had always assumed the beast classification thing was along the lines of not wanting to be a member of the same group as the humans.  The fact that they could make that choice in the first place, and understand its consequences, is evidence enough that they're not beasts.  I rather suspect it was along the lines of "if you choose, you don't have to live like savages.  You can do everything the way that us Europeans do and live with us.  And you'll be one of us except when we decide it's time to persecute you."  And, seeing no upside in that, they helpfully pointed out that their body was >51% beast before galloping back to the safety of the forest.  Mistrust doesn't come from nowhere, and Wizarding Britain provides plenty of reasons for that.
I hate to have that dark of a reading of children's book, but racism is rampant and endemic in that setting.  Sure, it's not against what we would consider races of humans -- yet. If Lord Emo took over, it would only be a matter of time before majou shoujo started getting slaughtered for practicing badthink Eastern magic (and for excessive genkiness not befitting the emo nature of magick).  And the Ministry is not exactly blameless in the matter of preventing racism.
Bob, I hope you take it as a compliment that I thought someone else had invented your idea on magic.  It's something that once read, seems so fundamental.  I had assumed it was an IRL magical tradition or RPG, since you've done your research.
-- ∇×V
Reply
 
#46
I've found that, as the Harry Potter books handle later years in Harry's life the books themselves take on an ever darker, grim and pessimistic tone. This is not necessarily a bad thing, but the problem is that the intended audience also seems to change and grow older along with it, and things that could've been reasonably handwaved away as a 'it's a children's book, no need to look too deeply into it' become things that should be looked into and examined in depth and at length, and these things are often critical parts of the longer term narrative.

Which means that things like the behaviour and treatment of house elves and other non or partially human sapients as well as things like memory and love manipulating magic, which are simple, potentially silly or convenient throwaways for earlier books, take on troubling and terrifying identities when one's attention is drawn to them again. And yet, they are often still treated as a silly or convenient thing to use, often without regard for the consequences towards anyone hit by such magics.
Reply
 
#47
So, on a reread, I have to note, I really do love just how clueless Snape is of what he's tangling with. I'm hoping the greasy little shit manages to dig his own grave, either metaphorically or literally.
Reply
 
#48
4. Gee, Mr. Wizard, What Are We Learning Today?
Gee Timmy, GLAD you asked.  ;p Big Grin
Rolanda...   Rolanda...  Um, wazzername, the broom flight teacher / quiddich head coach?
"Merlin's beard, yes!" Pomona added. "Why, last year..." She stopped short. "Well, perhaps I shouldn't go into that. Remus Lupin two years back was friendly, if quiet, but Lockhart before him was a bore." She fanned herself. "I can't believe I found the man so attractive at the time. Now that I recall it, he only spoke of himself, and that to excess."
Had to go and look it up to realise they were talking about...  well, really they were talking about Barty Crouch Jr DISGUISED as 'Mad Eye.  No wonder he rather creeped them out.
"Oh, no!" Pomona sat up straight. "Well, not really. More troublecatchers than troublemakers. Poor Harry... it really isn't his fault, but so much has happened to him."
A fairly accurate description of the hazards of being the lead charecter; If somethings due to happen, its gonna happen to YOU.  Hmm.  There might be some fertile ground you could mine there as far as deconstructions go in the future.
And so he was, as part of the clique surrounding Draco "I've Stolen Andy Warhol's Hair" Malfoy. Huh. I must have not been looking up — or listening closely — when he replied during the roll call. I glanced around the Hall, and saw no one who matched the description of the girl I'd thought I'd seen in his place. Weird.
Or perhaps Doug was seeing through an illusion of some type?  Only Time and BOB knows for sure.  Though if I'd thought to read the Concordance...
"Yeah!" another chirped. "He was talking about how important 'situational awareness' was, and he was doing all kind of wandless stuff to demonstrate."
Though it totally wouldnt work here  I still love the version of Doug and Thibor tag teaming that particular lesson.  Anyone happen to remember where it could be found?Hopefully there were a few dozen owls in the Forest who would respond to my call.  
and the next scene we are reminded that Owls are MUCH more common around Hogwarts than Doug realises and why.  SOmehow I dont think this will end well... I smirked at him. "Got anyone you'd like to get rid of?"
Albus smiled ruefully. "Would certain members of the Wizengamot count?"

*double snerk!!!*
I know, I know — pot, kettle, apparent reflectivity indices — but I mean, really. Worse than me.
That's.... really kind of scary, if you think about it.
ZOMG!!!!  The CHANT!!!  IT BUUUUUURRRRRRNNNNNNZZZZZZ
Hear that thunder rolling till it seems to split the sky?
That's every ship in Grayson's Navy taking up the cry-

NO QUARTER!!!
-- "No Quarter", by Echo's Children
Reply
 
#49
Three pages in and nobody's commented on the new name in the "prereaders" line... and now that I've lampshaded it, it doesn't matter.
--
Rob Kelk
"Governments have no right to question the loyalty of those who oppose
them. Adversaries remain citizens of the same state, common subjects of
the same sovereign, servants of the same law."

- Michael Ignatieff, addressing Stanford University in 2012
Reply
 
#50
Ah, I see what you did Rob. And no, to be honest I didnt read that section, just kind of jumped straight to the concordance
Hear that thunder rolling till it seems to split the sky?
That's every ship in Grayson's Navy taking up the cry-

NO QUARTER!!!
-- "No Quarter", by Echo's Children
Reply


Forum Jump:


Users browsing this thread: 2 Guest(s)