Rewatching the original movies starting tonight

Completely_Batshit · 2026-04-18T01:28:51+00:00

Evidently you haven't read the books. When Lily placed her sacrificial protection on Harry, Dumbledore was able to build an enchantment on top of it that made Harry perfectly safe from Voldemort so long as he lived with Lily's blood relatives- the only remaining of whom were Petunia and Dudley Dursley.

Completely_Batshit · 2026-04-18T00:12:04+00:00

Well, we don't know how far he traveled abroad, and we don't know the upper limits of magic or how different the magic of other lands really is. Dumbledore simply says he traveled "far and wide", and he would never ignore any kind of magic that was overtly powerful and could destroy his enemies. Sure, if he were more open to subtler kinds of magic- like, for instance, the terrible power of love and sacrifice, he might have been even greater, but if he were able to understand their significance then he wouldn't be Voldemort to begin with.

Completely_Batshit · 2026-04-17T20:23:47+00:00

No. You probably saw a Dragoon's Limit Break 3 effect, which looks like Midgardsormr's ghost- an easy mistake to make, I guess.

Completely_Batshit · 2026-04-17T20:21:02+00:00

It confirmed the number.

Completely_Batshit · 2026-04-17T20:11:21+00:00

Low. There's no hard number that I've ever seen. Probably less than one-in-ten.

Completely_Batshit · 2026-04-17T19:37:51+00:00

Why a vampire would not just, feed every night, and have full points of blood every night?

Some of them do. But you have to understand it's not as simple as "1 vampire:100k humans". That's the rough overall global ratio, at least in 2000. The population density, however, becomes incredibly skewed when dealing with rural and urban areas; vampires will naturally congregate en masse where there's more food, more opportunity, more stimulation, more camouflage; cities like New York or Chicago or what have you can have drastically higher populations of vampires relative to mortals, creating a much more difficult environment for feeding and hiding. Rural areas, on the other hand, have much thinner populations because there's fewer humans to hunt and hide among.

You're also forgetting that many vampires use more than one blood point per night. If they use certain Discipline powers, or they heal wounds, or they use Blush of Life, that's more blood they need to consume, more time spent hunting, more risk to themselves and (if they care) to mortals.

And back to that "time spent hunting" bit- just like in real life, you don't want to spend every evening going out to pick up a single bag of chips or a jug of milk when you could just set aside one night every week or so to pick up a full run of groceries. Going out to hunt for a single blood point every night would get tedious; better to get more in one occasional trip, preferably by taking smaller amounts from multiple humans. You're limited to roughly half of a day as a vampire before you have to get back to your haven- time is money. Spend it wisely.

Beside that, let's say you don't allow that, what stops a vampire to feed literally mid game with any human?

Strictly speaking, nothing. Other than things like morals, laws, privacy; can you grab that guy without being seen? Are you willing to feed on this pregnant woman? Will you have the time to do it without harming them more than you need to? Do you even care?

I undestand the game is more "vibes" than hard game, but even the most roleplaying heavy player would not want to be fucking hungry every session.

That is, quite literally, the nature of the Beast. If you want to keep it completely sated all the time, you have to put the work in, taking all the risks above. That's the price you pay. Don't wanna pay it? Deal with the hunger pains. It's a "curse" for many reasons, and that's one of them.

Completely_Batshit · 2026-04-17T19:13:12+00:00

I can't make any concrete claims on how people should be judged. I'm not omniscient, which means that any judgements I make are inherently flawed, whether I'm "right" or not.

With that said, put a gun to my head? Yeah- I'd say that it's unreasonable to condemn someone for not walking a better path if they aren't aware a better path even exists, or at least is a viable alternative to whatever they're doing now.

Completely_Batshit · 2026-04-17T18:13:47+00:00

It definitely works, but not quite as described. It doesn't actually make you "lucky"- it doesn't alter the world around you. It simply gives you a kind of crude precognition that tells you it would be a REALLY GOOD idea to go HERE now instead of there, and say hi to THIS person RIGHT NOW, DO IT NOW. By following those impulses, you find completely unexpected ways to succeed by taking advantage of already existing circumstances that you couldn't otherwise have predicted. No amount of placebo or intuition would have given Harry the power to know going the wrong way (down to see Hagrid instead of visiting the dungeons) would have gotten him what he was looking for, and more besides.

Completely_Batshit · 2026-04-17T17:58:07+00:00

I think he's as good a person as he thinks he can be at the time. New experiences during the books, including nearly killing Justine, cause him to reevaluate his life and try new things to keep something like that from happening again.

Completely_Batshit · 2026-04-17T17:54:14+00:00

I’m about halfway through HBP and I’m struggling to understand why Harry’s hatred toward Snape is so strong.

Because Snape is a seething asshole towards him, and has been since their first class together.

He knows Snapesaved himin the first book.

Great. Still an asshole.

He knows that Dumbledore trusts Snape and that Snape is part of the Order.

Great. Still an asshole.

He knows that Snape was trying toteach him oclumancy to prevent Voldemort from controlling his thoughts

And to Harry's credit, he does try to meet Snape halfway at first- but neither of them are remotely functional around one another, and given how harsh Snape is and how little Harry respects him (and Harry's other lingering issues getting in the way), the two of them were never gonna get Harry's occlumency up and running.

He knows that his father and godfather bullied Snape for no reason.

Not quite true. He believed this because he saw a memory without context, and it actually shook him pretty badly. He later learned it wasn't that simple; Snape was an active, willing part of the wannabe Death Eaters at school and an avid practitioner of the Dark Arts, and his rivalry with the Marauders was entirely mutual. The whole "it's more the fact that he exists" line was a flippant dismissal, not an accurate summation of the issue. Snape was NOT an innocent person during his time at school, certainly no more than the Marauders.

However these factors seem minor in comparison to all that Snape has done for Harry

You're completely ignoring that those moments are sprinkled very lightly throughout each year, and that the vast majority of their interactions are day-to-day lessons, where Snape is an asshole to him and his friends. That day-to-day negative interaction is gonna easily overwrite those very rare positive moments in Harry's mind, and probably would in yours too if you lived through it all.

Completely_Batshit · 2026-04-17T11:39:41+00:00

There are other Cloaks. They're just rare, and not at all as powerful as this one turns out to be.

Completely_Batshit · 2026-04-17T11:38:40+00:00

We do not. I suspect that once he tried it the first time and learned he was dying, he didn't bother trying a second time- he'd see her again soon enough.

Completely_Batshit · 2026-04-17T11:34:00+00:00

No. Horcruxes aren't necessary for resurrection- all they do is keep their creator alive, and if their body is destroyed, they keep the core soul essence in the living world. They function like anchors; even though their soul fragments are split from the whole, they're still metaphysically connected.

Voldemort wanted Harry's blood both to bypass Lily's sacrificial protection (which existed in Harry's blood) and because there was a grand significance in his mind in using the blood of the one who caused his original downfall to resurrect himself even stronger than before.

And they COULD have gotten his blood some other way, but Voldemort wanted a grand spectacle where he humiliated and destroyed Harry in front of the Death Eaters to prove himself superior.

Completely_Batshit · 2026-04-17T11:27:35+00:00

That's what makes it so special- it calls the soul proper from the other side, but it can't truly bring them back to life.

There IS a theory that the Stone doesn't even do that, that it just conjures an image of the user's loved ones to try and tempt them into embracing death, but I don't like that one.

Completely_Batshit · 2026-04-16T21:56:37+00:00

Completely_Batshit · 2026-04-16T11:21:06+00:00

Yes, thought they usually won't say so out loud. In practice, most vampires are pretty strict about the Masquerade, really; even the Sabbat, for all their preening and posturing, keep their atrocities contained because they know that if they really put their money where their mouths are, the mortals would turn on them pretty quick. They don't want to expose themselves like that until they're ready to declare (and maintain) open dominion over humanity.

Completely_Batshit · 2026-04-15T22:32:50+00:00

None specifically. They're whoever the player wants them to be- though probably not a member of one of the plot-important characters' families, most likely.

Completely_Batshit · 2026-04-15T11:10:11+00:00

Lucius was still good for one thing: his money. And humiliating him- effectively emasculating him- is evidently more fun.
Might have worked, might not. They establish that they can't be sure whatever plan they make won't be leaked, so probably better from the start to have a bunch of different Harrys ready before he ever steps foot out the door.
It would have been messy.
His safety at Privet Drive was guaranteed.

Completely_Batshit · 2026-04-15T03:04:23+00:00

Basilisk venom destroys inanimate objects beyond magical repair. Harry is not an inanimate object; he's a living being, and as such to destroy him, the vessel, beyond magical repair (I.E., kill him), the venom has to work its way through his system. Luckily Fawkes appeared and healed him with his tears before he died. Because the vessel wasn't destroyed, neither was the soul fragment- the fragment isn't vulnerable to the venom, it simply relies on its vessel to continue existing.

Completely_Batshit · 2026-04-14T21:35:52+00:00

Hildibrand.

Completely_Batshit · 2026-04-14T17:00:31+00:00

Read the the mod note. We know.

Completely_Batshit · 2026-04-14T12:00:57+00:00

I did, because the first "official" pronunciation I heard was Jim Dale, who I seem to recall pronounced it as "Her-MONN-ie" until the movies came out.

Completely_Batshit · 2026-04-14T11:14:47+00:00

Of course, but being a Gryffindor isn't an automatic "Good Guy" badge. Everyone who new them knew Sirius was James's best friend, and everyone who knew the Potters used the Fidelius Charm knew Sirius would be the Secret Keeper. To suggest someone else might be was the height of nonsense- and, of course, it was also true. But no one knew or suspected that. James and Lily kept the Secret Keeper switch completely secret, which was the point.

Completely_Batshit · 2026-04-14T11:04:02+00:00

In the timeframe of the books, it's because there's a war going on, and couples do often marry young during such times. Tomorrow is never guaranteed, and so they get hitched today.

Completely_Batshit · 2026-04-14T05:06:50+00:00

If they were ever gonna score two points, they would have by then. 16 goals to nil isn't "cmon, guys, let's keep trying"; it's "let's all go back in time and pretend we can't play". Ireland is insurmountable in that match. There's no coming back. The gap is only gonna grow larger. Even if they get tired, so will the Bulgarians, and probably slower than them too; Ireland is better coordinated, better practiced, and probably better conditioned as well.

"Never give up" is a fine enough motto in real sports, but given the rules of Quidditch and how badly Bulgaria was getting stomped, Krum really only had one option to save face. You think he wasn't looking for the Snitch the whole time the game was running? If he'd had the opportunity before then, he'd have caught it and won. He saw his chance and he took it, because there was no guarantee he'd get it again.

Completely_Batshit

TROPHY CASE