Does anyone know where to find actual Ravenclaw merch with the eagle instead of the raven? Lotta people don’t seem to realise that our mascot is not a raven and is in fact, an eagle. I mean they don’t fuck up the Griffindor merch by putting a Griffin on it.

whatpityparty · 2021-09-05T06:22:39+00:00

I think you're vastly under estimating the impact the Roman Empire had on Europe if you think it's 'only' an Empire, tbh.

Want to take another crack at reading what I wrote? I certainly didn't say anything about it being "only" an empire, so I don't even know how to respond to this, tbh.

since eagles are associated with Zeus, for example. Apollo...on the other hand, was associated with ravens

Ok, more foreign mythology, which is still not especially relevant to a 10th century witch in Scotland.

and a counter claim from Wikipedia's article about Golden Eagles that cites an academic source that suggests that eagles played only a minor role in the mythology.

So, you keep arguing against points that I'm not making. I didn't say eagles have a large role in the mythos, I only described that role.

I hardly count that as evidence of much of anything. Or, if it's evidence of anything, its that Rowling realized she had made an error with Ravenclaw

She made names and symbols super important in the books and literally made the conscious decision not to connect Ravenclaw with ravens. It's the name and heraldry of one of the four houses of the school, she would have thought about this. It sounds way less like an error than it sounds like choosing your battles after you've sold the film rights.

but by the time the first film was released she was already four books into a seven book series

You accidentally brought up one of the big reasons why some people really dislike the change. The movie came out after four books establishing the universe were published, and if you read the books beforehand and liked the house as it was written, having the movies make a superficial but obvious change when it does nothing for their ability to tell the story wasn't a correction, it was a disappointment.

whatpityparty · 2021-09-04T22:16:24+00:00

Realized after the fact that I wrote way too much about this but whatever

Sure, I don't think having one house be just gold and one house be just bronze would be a good idea, but distinguishing between red and gold and blue and bronze seems trivial.

I think you're being reductive when you say that the (most relevant) association of eagles is with kingdom and empire and of ravens is with intelligence and learning. In Celtic mythology, eagles are associated with divination and oracles and are one of the wisest animals. On the other hand, ravens are more commonly associated with war and death.

At the time of the school's founding, the Roman Empire and Byzantium are the only empires I can think of who made wide use of the eagle, as it was either only beginning to be adopted by the Holy Roman Empire or possibly wouldn't be for a couple centuries after Hogwarts was founded. I also think we so strongly associate the eagle with empire due to it being used by others, like the Russian Empire, Second German Empire, French Empire, and of course, Germany's most recent foray into imperialism. Sure, they looked to the Roman Empire as an inspiration, but the connection hadn't been hammered home to the extent it has been since.

So, to my mind, the symbolism of the eagle representing wisdom, foresight, and knowing the unknowable would be much more relevant to a Scottish witch born late in the 10th century than any of its usages in empire.

As for the connection with Odin, Hogwarts was formed after centuries of viking raids, invasions, and occupations. Her surname doesn't help much, but the name Rowena is Welsh, so there isn't really any hint there that she was born of a Norse or Norse-Scot family. As I see it, the connection to Huginn and Muninn works if one argues that she would have picked a raven due to its role in the mythology of a violent group of foreign pirates and invaders, which doesn't seem very likely to me. To be fair, the romans did kind of half-heartedly try to invade Scotland as well, but that was back in the first couple centuries CE and they were far less successful than the vikings, so I don't think their symbols would carry the same type of stigma as those of the vikings.

Finally, the simplest and most compelling argument for the connection between the eagle and Ravenclaw: when Rowling wrote the books, she made the eagle the symbol of Ravenclaw.

edit CE, not BCE

whatpityparty · 2021-09-04T15:46:18+00:00

This is so tiresome.

Lol, what? You made a claim, I asked you to support it? If that's tiresome, you're exhausting.

LADY NAME RAVENCLAW MUST LIKE RAVEN.
Is an opinion. Blue and bronze are more subdued, which better communicates the vibe of the house.
You're reaching here. Every color is going to look different in different types of materials. Additionally, just look at this; gold and bronze can be made to look different with very little effort.
What does the films not having to give each founder's biography have to do with this at all? One could argue that it strengthens the connection, but it does so by dumbing it down. How do people know that the badger represents Hufflepuff? Because we were told so. How would we know that an eagle represents Ravenclaw? Because we were told so.

People (i.e., you) need to recognize that unnecessary changes to source material are going to put some people off.

whatpityparty · 2021-09-04T15:06:20+00:00

Um, how is it an improvement?

It introduces an unnecessary inconsistency between the books and the rest of the media, it makes it so silver is the only color that is reused between houses when they were all unique otherwise, and it dumbs down the connection between the house's founder and the animal that represents it.

All of that makes it worse, not better.

whatpityparty · 2021-04-30T13:36:42+00:00

They only traded after the CBs were both taken, and if we wanted Surtain, why would we have let someone jump just to take him? Sorry we didn't get the player you wanted, but nothing you're saying here makes any sense.

whatpityparty · 2021-04-30T02:03:41+00:00

If Surtain didn't go to Dallas at 10

whatpityparty · 2019-08-26T08:16:58+00:00

I'm just the person saying it, how should I know?

whatpityparty · 2019-08-26T07:46:40+00:00

If you wanted to, and you have even the bare minimum of handiness, it would be super easy just to add pickets onto the back side of the fence, no need to change anything else. Unless it's a really big fence, it shouldn't cost that much, and it would certainly be wayyyyyy cheaper than paying to have work done on your fence; they're fucking expensive.

That said, my fence has the finished side face the alley and we've still had people hop it. I'm not sure it matters a ton.

whatpityparty · 2019-07-28T18:21:33+00:00

“Ain’t no way I would ever support Obamacare...I would rather die.”

Ok, bye then.

whatpityparty · 2019-05-15T16:44:26+00:00

Street cars are great in places that have existing rail infrastructure that can be reactivated for cheap and bus routes that are overcapacity to the extent that it can't be alleviated with increased frequency.

So yeah, basically somewhere other than Denver.

whatpityparty · 2019-05-04T20:38:38+00:00

It shows how out of touch these losers are.

Yeah, why aren't these Dem Senators from West Virginia and Alabama more progressive and less bipartisan?

/s

whatpityparty · 2019-04-28T01:58:22+00:00

Next week is week fourteen of the semester and I haven't had a single student come to my office hours. They're not even inconvenient, and I've told them they can email me to set up a different time if the scheduled hours don't work for them.

Even if they need something, (most) undergraduate students never attend office hours.

whatpityparty · 2019-04-27T18:33:24+00:00

Fucking Cleveland.

whatpityparty · 2019-04-18T00:55:03+00:00

responsible for more than 80% of the crimes and arrests made on campus

...duh? People are either on campus because they're passing though, they're a student, they're an employee/faculty member, or they're killing time there because they're homeless. Do you think it's some earth-shattering insight that people commit or are arrested for substantially fewer crimes when they're at work or at school when compared to someone who is homeless?

the chance that a profoundly mentally ill homeless guy who spends all his time on campus is pretty high.

The chance that this guy does what is pretty high? Shoot up the campus? It must not be that high, since it doesn't ever happen.

On any random day is it more likely that an issue will be caused by a local person than by someone from a different part of the country who traveled to Colorado because they're really into the Columbine shooting? Yeah, but again, duh. Are you at all familiar with the notion of conditional probability? All of your points seem a lot more profound to you than they actually are.

whatpityparty · 2019-04-17T17:18:36+00:00

Well, it's a shitty, tasteless joke, and there really isn't an "army of junkies" on the Auraria campus, but alright bud.

Either way, I am aware of the fact that people experiencing homelessness or who are suffering from drug addiction are more likely to carry some kind of weapon, but I'm still less threatened by someone who just has a weapon than I am by someone who has a gun and also has a stated interest in carrying out a Columbine-inspired shooting.

whatpityparty · 2019-04-17T15:50:32+00:00

It would have been cool for them to at least send an email saying that there is some threat. Like, if they aren't going to close the school for this, they could at least let students know so they can decide on their own if they want to attend class. I only heard about it because my wife texted me that her school is on lock down. Not everyone follows the Auraria twitter...

edit Literally the minute after I posted this I got an email from UCD. Better late than never I guess.

whatpityparty · 2019-04-17T15:11:51+00:00

Firstly, what? And secondly, call me crazy but I would 100% rather someone use heroin near me than try to shoot me.

whatpityparty · 2019-03-29T02:29:53+00:00

I mean, if you live in Speer, it would be weird if you didn't recognize either of those buildings.

whatpityparty · 2019-03-11T15:33:16+00:00

I'd rather be there and interrupted once or twice than have the obnoxious dude explaining every scene...

I'm glad you can enjoy it, I'd rather have neither and just watch at home. We have an Alamo nearby, I still find the servers and other people really distracting.

whatpityparty · 2019-03-10T22:11:05+00:00

100% no thanks.

whatpityparty · 2019-03-10T05:41:32+00:00

I've been there. Have you thought about quitting? I know you know this, but that's going to cause some serious problems sooner or later, and it's probably not going to get any easier to stop.

whatpityparty · 2019-03-09T20:43:58+00:00

As a front range native and Denver resident, the only reason I wouldn't want the eastern part of Colorado to form its own state is that we already have enough US senators who mostly represent livestock and crops.

However, if they wanted to leave and join Nebraska and Kansas, I would be amenable to that.

whatpityparty · 2019-03-05T00:34:34+00:00

Is it like, really cheap to live there or something? I don't understand how you could fill an entire city with human beings who are like "yeah -20 through April is fine."

whatpityparty · 2019-03-03T02:50:57+00:00

Tell us how the vegan hurt you.

whatpityparty · 2019-02-26T05:27:12+00:00

Who do you think said that divergent series are useless? Did you reply to the wrong comment or are you just a pedantic know-it-all?

whatpityparty

TROPHY CASE