Random Stuff II

[Kobold King he/him]

You enter the nebula to evade the Klingons! Sheeesh, do I have to explain everything?

 

We've been through this, ensign. Trying to hide in a nebula is like taping a dollar bill to your nose and hoping they don't recognize you.

[TwiLyghtSansSparkles she/her]

Brother gets a free TV and Blu-Ray player.

I...um....applied for a job in Anchorage?

[Orlion Blight he/him]

We've been through this, ensign. Trying to hide in a nebula is like taping a dollar bill to your nose and hoping they don't recognize you.

You assume that the Klingons are using visual means to find us! Never mind the immensity of space could render such a strategy void until you get close enough, they are no doubt tracking us by means of some radar technology which the nebula, according to science fiction anyway, will be scrambled! 

 

Unless YOU are a Klingon, SIR... I demand a Tribble Test!

Edited August 27, 2015 by Orlion

[Kestrel she/her]

what is this a wip

[The Honor Spren she/her]

OMYGOSH!! My volleyball team one their first game ever! Off to chorus practice!

[RippleGylf she/her]

I just finished WoR! Now I can go read Warbreaker and Elantris, which I've already checked out from the library.

[Kestrel she/her]

 

Midnight Essence

these rep ranks keep getting weirder and weirder.

[TwiLyghtSansSparkles she/her]

In the Disney movie Aladdin, the title character releases a genie from a magic lamp. Genie, voiced by Robin Williams, materializes with a joyous cry of "Ten thousand years gives you SUCH a crick in the neck!"

This line has caused some speculation among fans. You see, Genie references many twentieth century pop culture icons, as well as cultures that a genie in the Middle East would have no knowledge of (such as Scotland). These fans believe that, rather than taking place in a quasi-medieval version of the Middle East filled with magic and mayhem, Aladdin takes place in a far future dystopia where the ruins of past technology have been mistaken for magic. Although this interpretation ruins many a childhood, it does make sense.

Unless, of course, you've read The Once and Future King.

In this adaptation of King Arthur's legends, Merlin is a wizard who references events and fashions that, to Arthur, have not yet happened. Merlin does this because, as he explains, he was born at the end of time and ages backward.

This explanation solves a few problems with the other theory. If Genie really is the last remnant of a technologically advanced society, then it was a strange one indeed, what with scientists able to conjure living beings and parade floats out of thin air. If, however, Genie was born at the end of time itself, then he could be the product of a universe whose very laws were breaking down in bizarre ways. His powers are not the result of lost technology, but of decaying physics and events we cannot hope to comprehend.

There you go. I just saved your childhood.

[Orlion Blight he/him]

In the Disney movie Aladdin, the title character releases a genie from a magic lamp. Genie, voiced by Robin Williams, materializes with a joyous cry of "Ten thousand years gives you SUCH a crick in the neck!"

This line has caused some speculation among fans. You see, Genie references many twentieth century pop culture icons, as well as cultures that a genie in the Middle East would have no knowledge of (such as Scotland). These fans believe that, rather than taking place in a quasi-medieval version of the Middle East filled with magic and mayhem, Aladdin takes place in a far future dystopia where the ruins of past technology have been mistaken for magic. Although this interpretation ruins many a childhood, it does make sense.

Unless, of course, you've read The Once and Future King.

In this adaptation of King Arthur's legends, Merlin is a wizard who references events and fashions that, to Arthur, have not yet happened. Merlin does this because, as he explains, he was born at the end of time and ages backward.

This explanation solves a few problems with the other theory. If Genie really is the last remnant of a technologically advanced society, then it was a strange one indeed, what with scientists able to conjure living beings and parade floats out of thin air. If, however, Genie was born at the end of time itself, then he could be the product of a universe whose very laws were breaking down in bizarre ways. His powers are not the result of lost technology, but of decaying physics and events we cannot hope to comprehend.

There you go. I just saved your childhood.

 

Still have not read "The Once and Future King", but it is on my reading list!

 

A couple other examples of mystical creatures having a weird relationship with the future: the Dragon from John Gardner's Grendel was able to perceive the future. Of course, this does not seem to be the case with the Genie who does not know how the conflict between Aladdin and Jafar will end. 

 

The other: in John Crowley's Little, Big the fairies remember the future and do not know what happened in the past. Pretty much the reverse of our relationship with the past and future. This seems to fit more with Genie's personality, in that he can "remember" some future pop culture references but does not seem to remember anything in the far past. 

[+Slowswift he/him]

So if the Horcruxes can only be destroyed by irreparable magical harm

Why

In the name of Merlin's pants

Did they not just point their wands at the locket and use "Avada Kedavra"

Why

[TwiLyghtSansSparkles she/her]

So if the Horcruxes can only be destroyed by irreparable magical harm

Why

In the name of Merlin's pants

Did they not just point their wands at the locket and use "Avada Kedavra"

Why

 

My best guess is that the Unforgivables are meant to affect living things, and can thus only harm something that's actually alive. Kind of like how poisons work on people and animals, but if you were to use one to try and unlock a safe, it wouldn't do any good. Then again, we've never seen Avada Kedavra used on anything but living beings, so we don't know if it's incapable of damaging nonliving matter. If we had a scene where, say, Bellatrix shot a random Killing Curse at a random wall and it fell, that would be a helpful benchmark; that way, we could know if the Unforgivable Curses are capable of inflicting collateral damage on surrounding matter, or if they can only affect living beings. 

[mail-mi he/him]

My best guess is that the Unforgivables are meant to affect living things, and can thus only harm something that's actually alive. Kind of like how poisons work on people and animals, but if you were to use one to try and unlock a safe, it wouldn't do any good. Then again, we've never seen Avada Kedavra used on anything but living beings, so we don't know if it's incapable of damaging nonliving matter. If we had a scene where, say, Bellatrix shot a random Killing Curse at a random wall and it fell, that would be a helpful benchmark; that way, we could know if the Unforgivable Curses are capable of inflicting collateral damage on surrounding matter, or if they can only affect living beings. 

 

But the Horcruxes are living beings--or, at least, inanimate things with living things inside of them. So couldn't the Avada Kedavra kill the soul and yet leave the object intact?

[TwiLyghtSansSparkles she/her]

But the Horcruxes are living beings--or, at least, inanimate things with living things inside of them. So couldn't the Avada Kedavra kill the soul and yet leave the object intact?

I read them as more a parody of life than anything. The Horcruxes in other beings don't have heartbeats, so far as we've seen, and the Horcrux in the locket is the only one with a heartbeat we know of. Horcruxes in objects don't need to eat or breathe or pass waste or anything else living beings need, so my thinking is that they're not technically alive.

[Mestiv he/him]

So why the Horecrux inside Harry died when Harry got hit by avada kedavra? And we see that you can destroy a Horecrux with poison, using badilisk fang and poison.

[The Sovereign]

So if the Horcruxes can only be destroyed by irreparable magical harm

Why

In the name of Merlin's pants

Did they not just point their wands at the locket and use "Avada Kedavra"

Why

I've actually given this a lot of thought over the years, my suspicion has always been that it was similar to why the Cruciatus Curse failed the first time Harry tried to use it (on Bellatrix), you need to really mean it in your soul. I don't think Harry/Ron/Hermione we're actually capable of successfully casting the spell. With that said I suspect someone like Snape could have done it. Dumbledore's plan ingraining the idea that the mission needed to be between the three (and kept secret) however ousted the opportunity for someone with a less pure soul to get the chance to try though.

Edited August 28, 2015 by Iron Eyes

[Mestiv he/him]

I've actually given this a lot of thought over the years, my suspicion has always been that it was similar to why the Cruciatus Curse failed the first time Harry tried to use it (on Bellatrix), you need to really mean it in your soul. I don't think Harry/Ron/Hermione we're actually capable of successfully casting the spell. With that said I suspect someone like Snape could have done it. Dumbledore's plan ingraining the idea that the mission needed to be between the three (and kept secret) however ousted the opportunity for someone with a less pure soul to get the chance to try though.

 

Do you think Dumbledore could do it? Of course he probably knew a dozen of different ways, but still, was Dumbledore able to cast a proper Avada Kedavra?

[+Slowswift he/him]

My best guess is that the Unforgivables are meant to affect living things, and can thus only harm something that's actually alive. Kind of like how poisons work on people and animals, but if you were to use one to try and unlock a safe, it wouldn't do any good. Then again, we've never seen Avada Kedavra used on anything but living beings, so we don't know if it's incapable of damaging nonliving matter. If we had a scene where, say, Bellatrix shot a random Killing Curse at a random wall and it fell, that would be a helpful benchmark; that way, we could know if the Unforgivable Curses are capable of inflicting collateral damage on surrounding matter, or if they can only affect living beings.

IIRC, if a Killing Curse hits an inanimate object, it goes boom. Like in the graveyard, Voldemort hit a statue while trying to hit Harry. The statue acted like somebody had hit with a massive sledgehammer. Though I could be misremembering.

[The Honor Spren she/her]

I love how 17th sharders can theorize just as well about other books that aren't Sanderson.

[SmurfAquamarineBodies he/him]

Do you think Dumbledore could do it? Of course he probably knew a dozen of different ways, but still, was Dumbledore able to cast a proper Avada Kedavra?

 

I don't think so. I'd say that after indirectly causing the death of his sister he was slightly afraid of his power.

 

And how can someone mean an Unforgivable if he was afraid of his power. 

[The Sovereign]

Do you think Dumbledore could do it? Of course he probably knew a dozen of different ways, but still, was Dumbledore able to cast a proper Avada Kedavra?

I would guess that at one point in his life he could, but in his later years it was no longer in his nature. As Smurf said, I think the death of his sister forced him to put psychological blocks on his powers.

 

IIRC, if a Killing Curse hits an inanimate object, it goes boom. Like in the graveyard, Voldemort hit a statue while trying to hit Harry. The statue acted like somebody had hit with a massive sledgehammer. Though I could be misremembering.

You are not remembering incorrectly, in the Riddle graveyard Voldemort does this while chasing Harry. However, I think the mistake you are making is thinking that a Horcrux is an inanimate object. To steal from Sanderson's terminology, I would say the piece of soul leaves the object in a state that is the Potterverse equivilent of heavily invested and therefore no longer really inanimate. We see this for sure with Riddle's Diary in Chamber of Secrets and then again with the Locket in Deathly Hallows.

[+Slowswift he/him]

You are not remembering incorrectly, in the Riddle graveyard Voldemort does this while chasing Harry. However, I think the mistake you are making is thinking that a Horcrux is an inanimate object. To steal from Sanderson's terminology, I would say the piece of soul leaves the object in a state that is the Potterverse equivilent of heavily invested and therefore no longer really inanimate. We see this for sure with Riddle's Diary in Chamber of Secrets and then again with the Locket in Deathly Hallows.

In that case, if it's living it's dead, and if it isn't, it's still gonna have a really bad day, right?

[The Sovereign]

In that case, if it's living it's dead, and if it isn't, it's still gonna have a really bad day, right?

Precisely.

[Edgedancer he/him]

In the Disney movie Aladdin, the title character releases a genie from a magic lamp. Genie, voiced by Robin Williams, materializes with a joyous cry of "Ten thousand years gives you SUCH a crick in the neck!"

This line has caused some speculation among fans. You see, Genie references many twentieth century pop culture icons, as well as cultures that a genie in the Middle East would have no knowledge of (such as Scotland). These fans believe that, rather than taking place in a quasi-medieval version of the Middle East filled with magic and mayhem, Aladdin takes place in a far future dystopia where the ruins of past technology have been mistaken for magic. Although this interpretation ruins many a childhood, it does make sense.

Unless, of course, you've read The Once and Future King.

In this adaptation of King Arthur's legends, Merlin is a wizard who references events and fashions that, to Arthur, have not yet happened. Merlin does this because, as he explains, he was born at the end of time and ages backward.

This explanation solves a few problems with the other theory. If Genie really is the last remnant of a technologically advanced society, then it was a strange one indeed, what with scientists able to conjure living beings and parade floats out of thin air. If, however, Genie was born at the end of time itself, then he could be the product of a universe whose very laws were breaking down in bizarre ways. His powers are not the result of lost technology, but of decaying physics and events we cannot hope to comprehend.

There you go. I just saved your childhood.

Hmm, then how do you explain the robotic insects from the series?

[TwiLyghtSansSparkles she/her]

Hmm, then how do you explain the robotic insects from the series?

They are emissaries of Animators from Beyond the Fourth Wall who sent them in hopes of earning the love of children. Little did the Animators know, Genie had already taken all of their love and there was no room in their hearts for robotic insects.

[Orlion Blight he/him]

Hmm, then how do you explain the robotic insects from the series?

I imagine similar to the origin of the Golden Army