Slick Mongoose Posted February 23, 2015 Share Posted February 23, 2015 I don't think we need to spoiler tag speculation! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Slick Mongoose Posted February 23, 2015 Share Posted February 23, 2015 109 is up. Spoilers follow. Love the ending. I really want to see a proper, no holds barred duel. Edit: "noitilov detalo partxe tnere hoc ruoy tu becafruoy ton wo hsi." Reverse it: ish ow not yourfaceb ut your coh erent extrap olated volition I show not your face but your coherent extrapolated volition I hadn't heard of coherent extrapolated volition before, but googling suggests it's Yudkowsky's own theory and it makes perfect sense for the his version of the mirror: http://wiki.lesswrong.com/wiki/Coherent_Extrapolated_Volition It’s meant as an argument that it would not be sufficient to explicitly program our desires and motivations into an AI. Instead, we should find a way to program it in a way that it would act in our best interests – what we want it to do and not what we tell it to. Edit2: This was probably the most overtly preachy chapter in the story so far, in that the section about the Atlanteans ignoring the making of the mirror is obviously a parallel to how the Yudkowsky feels about The Machine Intelligence Research Institute. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Slick Mongoose Posted February 24, 2015 Share Posted February 24, 2015 110 is up. Two more chapters coming tomorrow. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Slick Mongoose Posted February 25, 2015 Share Posted February 25, 2015 And 111 is up. And holy shit. If this is all a plot i've got no idea what the hell is going on. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lokisnow Posted February 25, 2015 Share Posted February 25, 2015 I read the first couple chapters of it. Sort of transforming Harry from a flawed well rounded character into a boring Gary stu character of the kellhus/doc savage/ender wiggin ubermensch variety. Also it seemed like Harry was a fairly vicious villain early on which was interesting and disconcerting. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
felice Posted February 25, 2015 Share Posted February 25, 2015 I read the first couple chapters of it... Also it seemed like Harry was a fairly vicious villain early on which was interesting and disconcerting. In the first couple of chapters??? What are you referring to? Biting a maths teacher at seven years old isn't exactly Dark Lord material, and not very Gary Stu either. Spoilers for latest chapters: So, the big question is, was that the real Dumbledore? If it was, he's an idiot. If he was actually present inside the mirror the whole time, but unable to know what was happening around the mirror while he waited, it was an incredibly awful hiding place. Why not keep an eye on the place by magical surveillance of some kind, and apparate there in the event of anything of concern? Or if that's not reliable, hide in a manner that doesn't render him blind. But perhaps it wasn't Dumbledore, but Voldemort's imagined version, like the imagined versions of his family that appeared before? And the mirror showed him an image of what he wanted - Dumbledore being defeated. An artefact that powerful shouldn't have any trouble faking the effects of the time spell in progress. Or the time spell trap might have been real, and in place the whole year, with a fake Dumbledore to manage it. But even if it was really him, there's no reason to think he was trapped by the mirror, so he could have escaped before the time spell caught him. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gertrude Posted February 27, 2015 Share Posted February 27, 2015 Yeah, I don't even know, nor care, really. I'm not approaching this because of the rationalist aspect, but because it's a good story. I know the puzzle of it is what some people like, but ... whatever. Just let me read it and be entertained :) I'm still confused by Voldemort's actions here. Why the elaborate construct to pour his soul into? To better propagate the Voldemort legend so that Harry can beat an even scarier enemy? I honestly don't even know what he wants anymore. He said in parsel tongue that he plans for Harry to rule to world, so is V just in it for kicks? Does he want to retire to the stars? I like how he handled Hermione, and more importantly, his reason for doing so. I can totally buy that V knows secrets that can bring a body back to life. Harry figuring out some arcane secret and pulling a miracle out of his ass would have been less fun. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
felice Posted February 27, 2015 Share Posted February 27, 2015 I'm still confused by Voldemort's actions here. Why the elaborate construct to pour his soul into? I assumed it was a clone of his actual original body, made from a sample of his blood he hid before his physical death ten years earlier. How he managed the transformation between Voldemort and Monroe I'm not sure, but it was obviously a pretty thorough transformation (maybe related to the animagus ability?). I honestly don't even know what he wants anymore. He said in parsel tongue that he plans for Harry to rule to world, so is V just in it for kicks? Does he want to retire to the stars? When did he say he wanted Harry to rule the world? As far as I can make out, his motivation is to save the world from Muggles (who have become a serious potential threat to the entire planet in the last few decades), and keep himself occupied by whatever means appeal to him at the time. And he also wants to save the world from Harry, which he is cautious about due to his past experience with Prophecy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gertrude Posted February 27, 2015 Share Posted February 27, 2015 I thought the description of the blank body was more in line with the book Voldemort - messed up nose, too tall, long fingers. Humanoid obviously, but just wrong. I didn't get the impression that V was described as such before, meaning this body is def. different. Maybe based on his original, but not a clone. In the Azkaban break-out, I'm pretty sure snake Quirrell mentioned that the plan was for Harry to rule the world. It seemed flippant at the time, but ... parsel-tongue. Let me see if I can find it ... ah, chapter 58. Right before they leave via the broom. "Sso," Harry hissed, "what iss your plan for me, precissely? ""You ssaid no time," came the snake's hiss, "but plan iss for you to rule country, obvioussly, even your young noble friend hass undersstood that by now, assk him on return if you wissh. Will ssay no more now, iss time to fly, not sspeak." OK, so it's country, not world. His plans may have changed now, but I'm thinking not too much. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
felice Posted February 27, 2015 Share Posted February 27, 2015 I thought the description of the blank body was more in line with the book Voldemort - messed up nose, too tall, long fingers. Humanoid obviously, but just wrong. I didn't get the impression that V was described as such before, meaning this body is def. different. He definitely has the red eyes in Harry's memory of his parents' death; is he described elsewhere? The Death Eaters certainly recognise him in the latest chapter. Obviously it's not his natural form - he couldn't look like Voldemort when passing as David Monroe - so he must have be doing something to change his appearance back and forth. Not transfiguration, because he didn't have the Stone to make it permanent, but some other form of magic that's naturally permanent. Otherwise the blood would presumably have regenerated into the Monroe form. In the Azkaban break-out, I'm pretty sure snake Quirrell mentioned that the plan was for Harry to rule the world. It seemed flippant at the time, but ... parsel-tongue. OK, so it's country, not world. His plans may have changed now, but I'm thinking not too much. Ah, I'd forgotten that. The plans may have changed due to Harry figuring out Quirrell's real identity; either way, it's not necessarily a high priority plan for Voldemort - it could be "well, once I no longer have any other use for you, and if I haven't needed or wanted to kill you for any reason, I guess I could stick you in charge of Britain." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gendrys Forge Posted February 28, 2015 Share Posted February 28, 2015 New chapter is up. Gotta say, I thought people were going overboard with the "EY is a pretentious douchebag", until I saw the end of the chapter, where he says if the fans don't come up with a good ending, he will post a "much shorter sadder (shitty) ending". On the HPMOR subreddit he is basically whining how we did this to ourselves, sounds like he is crying about how nobody really liked the mirror chapters so now he is out to punish us, fuck this guy... I haven't been waiting all this time just to take a bloody test to get the proper ending. Also he made some comment about how "collectively we might be smarter then him", lol get off your own dick man, you're pretty clever not a god level super genius. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
felice Posted February 28, 2015 Share Posted February 28, 2015 Gotta say, I thought people were going overboard with the "EY is a pretentious douchebag", until I saw the end of the chapter, where he says if the fans don't come up with a good ending, he will post a "much shorter sadder (shitty) ending". He's done this before, and has suggested long ago that he might do the same with HPMOR (somewhere in the Author's Notes). I don't think there's much cause for concern; I'm sure someone will come up with a solution. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
felice Posted March 1, 2015 Share Posted March 1, 2015 The absence of Cedric Diggory is strange given that the last thing we see before the skip to 6:45pm is Harry considering asking him for help. It's pretty clear that Harry isn't expecting anything from him in the subsequent chapters, though, so if Cedric plays a role then Harry must have had the memory obliviated. That strikes me as an excessive precaution to take given what little Harry knows in advance, though certainly a highly sensible one in retrospect. Could he (or Cedric) have sent himself a real note from the future? One reasonable way to use Cedric would be to give him the invisibility cloak and send him back in time with instructions to observe and do nothing else, then leave the cloak somewhere Harry could retrieve it before going back himself. After dropping off the cloak, Cedric would be free to take any actions he deems appropriate. If he's sane, he'd get out of there the instant Quirrell was revealed as Voldemort, and report it to an Auror. If not so sane, he could have stuck with Harry the whole time, though if he hasn't returned the cloak yet, the potential for catastrophe is significant. But "The cavalry is not coming" suggests that the solution has to be something he will do, not something he's already done without us knowing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Slick Mongoose Posted March 3, 2015 Share Posted March 3, 2015 114 and 115 have been posted. Spoilers follow. Big hairy ones. So the power that Voldemort knew not turned out to be..... Stuporfy! :lol: Or maybe partial transfiguration. Or antimatter. Or an unwillingness to do Voldemort any permanent harm (love? Kinda?) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
felice Posted March 3, 2015 Share Posted March 3, 2015 Definitely partial. The antimatter wouldn't be a possibility without it, since has wand wasn't touching any solid object to transfigure. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kyoshi Posted March 3, 2015 Share Posted March 3, 2015 *so I can find this again.* Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
felice Posted March 4, 2015 Share Posted March 4, 2015 I still think Harry dying and getting uploaded into the Horcruxes makes more sense, though. We know Voldemort didn't understand the horcruxes fully (he got trapped in them for nine years), the map ("an extraordinarily powerful artifact") couldn't tell them apart, and the boggart couldn't tell them apart (it remains in the form of a mountain troll when Quirrell opens the door, despite having been out of Harry's sight for some time), and the pouch presumably can't tell them apart (Voldie puts Hermione's horcrux in the pouch without seeming to expect Harry will have any difficulty retrieving it), and possibly even the Cloak of Invisibility (which works perfectly for Voldie against Harry's will). Are there any examples of magic that does distinguish between them? And it fits Harry's guess way back in chapter 6: "Or maybe the Dark Lord didn't really die that night... and now, in accordance with the ancient prophecy, he and I are locked in a deadly duel where the winner shall lose and the loser shall win -" obviously just wild imagination on Harry's part, but in the same chapter he worries about a hypothetical female classmate being bitten by a horrible monster and dying in his arms, so it's not like the author failed to include foreshadowing of actual events 8) The monomolecular wire was clever, but if the robes had had any kind of enchantment against cutting (a sensible precaution for battle robes!), or Voldemort or any of the Death Eaters had noticed he was up to something in the several minutes he was concentrating on transfiguration, he would have been in big trouble. An even smaller antimatter blast would have been safer; enough to kill himself instantly, hopefully badly hurt but not kill Voldie and the Death Eaters, and not kill Hermione. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gertrude Posted March 13, 2015 Share Posted March 13, 2015 So ... are we all satisfied with how things are wrapping up? It's been a fun ride for sure, but I kinda feel ... unresolved. Yes, one more chapter to tie it all together, and maybe that will have the magical something that gives it closure. Right now, however, I just kinda feel that the author is trying to show us how clever he is. Is that unfair? completely off-base? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
felice Posted March 14, 2015 Share Posted March 14, 2015 Right now, however, I just kinda feel that the author is trying to show us how clever he is. Is that unfair? completely off-base? More so than for the story as a whole? Any particular aspects that are bothering you? I'm finding the aftermath chapters quite satisfying, though I wouldn't have minded if most of them had been a bit longer. And even after the final Hermione chapter tomorrow, there's still the epilogue to come, though there'll be quite a wait for that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Plessiez Posted March 14, 2015 Share Posted March 14, 2015 Not sure how I feel about the recent run of chapters either. I've certainly liked them more than most of the other post-Time Pressure chapters (particularly 108 and 119, although I suppose both those chapters are prime examples of Yudkowsky "trying to show us how clever he is" and don't do much to actually move the story forward). But I'm not completely convinced by a couple of major plot decisions.Ultimately, I think Quirrel is a much more interesting character (and a better villain) than post-reveal "Ah, ah hah, ah hah hah ha!" Voldemort, and I think a resolution that invovled more talking/persuasion on Harry's part (or perhaps something like felice's horcrux idea) would have been more appropriately thematic than the partial transfiguration stuff we actually got. Obviously the actual ending was clearly foreshadowed in earlier chapters, and it's probably something Yudkowsky had in mind before most of the middle (and, to my mind, better) chapters of the story were actually written. But it still feels like a misstep, to me.I'm also really not sure what to make of Hermione's (apparent) resurrection, or the fact she's not going to get a speaking part until the final chapter. Given both the author's attitude towards death in general, and the central importance of Hermione's death to the story, it just feels strangely anticlimatic to have an 'and then she got better because of magic' ending pulled out of the hat like this, with so little time spent on any characters' reaction to it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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