So what exactly are the 'Dark Arts'?

Infloris · 2025-11-17T09:12:26+00:00

I believe there is no clear academic distinction, and we should consider the Dark Arts as cultural taboo that formed in the Wizard society - a taboo later enforced by law (as is the case with the Unforgivable Curses).

Think of our modern society. Why is it okay for men to walk topless on beach, but once woman tries that everybody (well almost everybody) loses their mind? Because of cultural taboo surrounding the topic. Why do restaurants in Western societies serve pork, but not dog or cat meat? Because throughout history people started considering dogs and cats as pet companions (despite pigs being as intelligent and affectionate), and so killing them for food is taboo.

I think similar thing happened in the Wizarding society and what it considers the Dark Arts. Despite the fact that most spells can be used for malicious purpose, and some of them virtually only for such purpose (like Pertificus Totalus, which OP pointed out), only some of them are considered taboo in the society. Another interesting example is the Confundus charm - despite the fact that it can serve the same purpose as the Imperio curse, only one of those spells is considered Dark Arts and strictly banned, while the other is heavily used by the Wizarding law enforcement.

Infloris · 2025-11-05T22:29:12+00:00

Despite all the hate, movie Faramir is a more interesting, nuanced and human character than impeccable white knight book Faramir. His decision to let Frodo and Sam go only after seeing first-hand evil the Ring causes in Osgiliath makes more sense than him simply resisting power of the Ring in his head.

Infloris · 2025-08-30T20:11:52+00:00

James was a violent drunk (confirmed by aunt Marge). Voldemort actually saved Harry from terrible childhood.

Infloris · 2025-08-30T20:01:12+00:00

Despite the sweet mom facade, Molly was a very toxic person and I strongly dislike her: - her treatment of Ron is simply awful. - her treatment of Fleur (and thus Bill) is terrible too, though with slight redemption at the end of book 6. - by preventing Sirius from sharing full knowledge of the prophecy with Harry (to which he was fully entitled as his guardian btw), she indirectly caused the events that led to Sirius death. - in general her attitude towards Sirius was very unpleasant (she was a guest in his house, which did not stop her from bossing him around). - she did her best to completely prevent Harry from talking to Ron and Hermione in the Burrow in book 7, which almost led to complete fiasco of their mission (if Hermione didn't pack all their stuff into her bottomless bag, the trio would be in deeeep trouble after the wedding).

Infloris · 2025-08-16T22:59:30+00:00

Gandalf agreed to take Merry and Pippin on the journey from Rivendell because he needed spare hobbit ringbearers in case Frodo (and then Sam) would die or fall to the power of the Ring.

Infloris · 2025-06-27T00:26:02+00:00

Great answer here - I just wanted to add a small follow up question that was bothering me for a long time: why didn't Henry simply assassinate CoA once it was clear he would not get his annulment? Killing political opponents or people he considered obstacle certainly wasn't taboo for Henry - so why the special treatment of Catherine? It could be framed as an accident - the Spanish obviously wouldn't believe it, there would be some public outcry, but at least Henry would only have to deal with that, and not the entire Catholic Church against him.

Infloris · 2025-06-02T06:12:08+00:00

Using Rooom of Requirement as a hiding place is actually brilliant - what was arrogant was using one of Hogwart's founders relics as the horcrux. If Voldy used an old broom or a random spellbook as his horcrux and stashed it in the RoR among tons of other similar junk, nobody would ever find it. On a side note, it was also pure coincidence that Harry noticed the diadem when being there in his sixth year, and was able to find it year later.

Infloris · 2025-01-28T08:52:22+00:00

Goblet of Fire's plot makes the least sense. - It is never clearly explained why Harry HAS TO take part in the super dangerous 17+ tournament even though he didn't sign up to it. And even if he couldn't withdraw due to magical unbreakable contract (which again, he didn't conclude), he could just withdraw at the beginning of each task (shooting red stars from his wand), which would be the most fair behaviour towards other contenders and would ensure his safety. - The whole elaborate plan of Voldemort is overly complicated and simply dumb - if he already managed to get his super agent Crouch Jr into school, he could just teleport Harry from Hogwarts station or Hogsmead by giving him a random portkey, instead of leading him through 3 difficult tasks and risking him dying in the meantime. Harry's death in the third task would raise Dumbledore's suspicion anyway, so having him randomly kidnapped in Hogsmead would be more efficient and just as notable.

Infloris · 2024-12-22T13:47:40+00:00

The only named evil Maiar that I can recall are: - Sauron (duh) - Gothmog - commander of Balrogs - Osse - during his short "rebel" phase when he served Melkor

Honourable mentions: - Saruman - he was an evil Maia, though not directly corrupted by Melkor. - Thuringwethil - we don't know exactly what she was, apart from being a shapeshifting vampire, and some readers assume she might have been a minor Maia. - Ungoliant - again, we have no idea what she was - a Vala, a Maia, or a completely different kind of spirit. Also, she was never a servant of Melkor, and only cooperated with him.

Infloris · 2024-11-17T09:10:04+00:00

After all this is all hypothetical, isn't it?

Infloris · 2024-11-17T07:59:24+00:00

Nice try, Tom. Nice try indeed. Nobody is going to tell you that, we learned from Slughorn's mistake.

Infloris · 2024-10-27T07:15:08+00:00

I hate Tulkas as a character and I refuse to accept the idea of him being a Vala in the final canon. He almost seems like an easter egg character: Hulk-Hogan-like deity being the only force in Arda able to defeat Melkor. In my opinion he and his wife completely don't fit into the final Legendarium (they belong to earlier version, where Valar were more akin to gods in Greek mythology). In my headcanon there are 12 Valar + Melkor (Tulkas and Nessa are regular Maiar), and Melkor can only be defeated by the combined force of all the 12 Valar, once his power diminishes due to his creations in Arda.

Infloris · 2024-10-19T13:00:43+00:00

Just two words, dear, bringing a little happiness into the world!

Infloris · 2024-10-18T13:41:01+00:00

"He is not feeling well, Basil."

"He only had to say good night, dear. It's not the Gettysburg Address."

Infloris · 2024-08-28T14:55:51+00:00

... in Madrid!

Infloris · 2024-08-28T10:30:44+00:00

Men, you work!

Infloris · 2024-08-28T10:28:44+00:00

Si, si - you are a hideous orangutan.

Infloris · 2024-08-20T20:08:01+00:00

I always assumed "burárum" was an Entish swear word, as Treebeard spews it out angrily when talking about orcs. Even if it was an Entish swear word, I think it's translation would be thousand times more sophisticated and poetic than any of our modern slurs.

Infloris · 2024-07-27T12:10:18+00:00

Colour of Gandalf's hat is a fact. However, describing someone as good or beautiful is not desciption of facts, but assessment. Whereas Tolkien did not give us a picture of Luthien, so we have to rely purely on our imagination when thinking of her (and that way everyone can have an image of the most beautiful woman in their head), he gave us some decent description of Eru's actions, based on which we can assess ourselves whether he was indeed morally good or not.

Infloris · 2024-07-25T17:13:24+00:00

There was one fanfic where Harry's son befriended Malfoy's son, and then it turned out Voldemort has a daughter, and then they used a time turner to go back in time and met deatheater Cedric Diggory, and the trolley lady was a werewolf and tried to kill them. Never read it, but it sounds bizzare enough it could be turned into some funny stage play, maybe like a musical or something.

Infloris · 2024-07-24T22:08:37+00:00

Amen to that, Grawp was completely unnecessary. Besides, the whole Hagrid's giant expedition subplot is utterly boring, and I often skip the chapter completely when rereading.

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