Because I'm moronic enough to have a Twitter feed, I happened to find a link to this particular article regarding Gamp's Laws of Elemental Transfiguration.

So I'll just leave this here for Taure to explode all over the place and end with one question: why the fuck does Roger Ebert care about Gamp's Laws of Elemental Transfiguration?

 

Hahhaha what?

 

Here we go.

There is nothing in canon that indicates that Molly Weasley isn't a skilled witch. She's an overbearing fatsack, but again - nothing indicating that she isn't a skilled witch.

OT: I wonder if Mr. Ebert is a member here?

 

Word. Random housewife defeating trained death eater is a bit off. Perhaps she is a.. UNSPEAKABLE? Nah thats retarded.

 

Bah, that's like saying there's nothing to indicate Voldemort isn't a raving fanatic of deep-sea fishing. It's true, technically, but based on character progression and what can be reasonably expected out of him, Fisherman!Voldemort wearing a plaid shirt and a goofy hat ain't gonna happen.

Similarly, a woman who spends twenty five years doing nothing but raising her children can hardly be expected to be a badass, Tier 0 spellslinger, capable of killing a woman whose whole life has been dedicated to, mostly, ending people's shit.

 

Pretty much what he said.

 

While I hate your emoticons and everything that they stand for...

that'd be a pretty awesome fic/crackfic/realseriousfic

 

I love how they use the fact that you can't heal someone if the Killing Curse has been used. Yes, that's clearly a flaw in Transfiguration/conjuring.

 

:facepalm




But in all seriousness, this is what happens when a mildly clever person tries to go above their pay grade, and talk about HP magical theory that's been debated by more anal intelligent minds than theirs.

Edit: I mean, just looking at the thing again, isn't his last example, temperature, demonstrably false? I could've sworn they've conjured stuff like tea that probably wasn't lukewarm.

 

Temperature? Really? Anyone else remember the fact that this is a universe where you can just make fucking fire? Unless I've forgotten a LOT and had it supplanted by fanfiction, you can make fire in Harry Potter.

 

They can't conjure new clothes but they can fucking transfigure old shit. And there isn't an example of anyone building a house via magic but I seriously doubt it's not impossible. Unless of course, they're talking about conjuring a full house. I'm sure you could conjure the materials and use magic to build it.

 

Not going to say Molly whipping Bella's ass was not a wtf moment, but Bella spent the majority of her adult life in a prison, I'm assuming without her wand. How was she so awesome if she wasted away in jail for something like fifteen years?

That always bothered me in the books.

 

Magic.

/troll

Seriously though, she was mad but I always assumed her skills from when she fought during the First War were still intact, it's just that she was a bit less there, mentally.

 

I can picture Taure as the Mr. Hyde to Ebert's Dr. Jeckyll.

THIS.

True, but the caveat to that is how Bellatrix wtfpwns all the Snatchers at Malfoy Manor, *and* cows the generally-feared Greyback. She's clearly pretty bad-ass, and in my view, the extended-Azkaban-holiday coupled with her probably being unhinged prior to it makes her very unpredictable and very, very dangerous.

I've said it - I think we all have here on DLP - that Rowling's insistence on demonstrating "maternal love trumps obsessive love" by having Molly kill Bellatrix was not only a ludicrous overstep, but a slap in the face to the character of Neville, who by rights (and every rule of satisfying fiction) should have been the one to kill that crazy bitch. *That* would have been a Crowning Moment of Awesome, which is not to say that what Neville did by beheading Nagini *in front of Voldemort* was anything less than Complete and Total Awesomesauce.

OT: Whoever this Bre Whalen is, s/he is a fucktard. There are so many idiot claims in that article I have no idea where to even start with dismantling it. What passes for logic is laughable.

"Harry Potter Expert" - Jesus Titty-fucking Christ.

 

It also would've been completely predictable, and on par with the goblins suddenly worshipping Harry.

Objectively, you can't say that you know with any certainty that she has no skill, or that *all* she does with her days is raise kids and fix sammiches. I could posit an argument that shows that she most likely practiced more magic in a day than most other people, but I don't have the energy to craft another Weasley wank.

The proof's in the pudding: If all we have to go on is what she's done, well...she killed Bellatrix Lestrange (SCOREBOARD.)

Personally, I can think of nothing more fitting (and hilariously embarrassing) than a seasoned duellist and murderer getting killed by a fat housewife - almost on par with a barely-trained kid defeating the darkiest dark lord that ever lorded in the dark.

I hope she knit a Weasley sweater for herself that said "COME AT ME, HO!" or "BITCHES CAN'T IGNORE MY GIRTH."

 

Oh no.
It should've been Augusta Freakin' Longbottom cursing Bella in the back when she tried to kill Neville.
*Although Neville cursing Bella to save his gran's life would be cool, too.

 

I thought the whole Molly pwns Bella scenario was a 'mother lifts tree off kid' deal - extraordinary ability in a maternal emergency. The 'not my daughter!' line, etc, combined with what read in the book to me as 'holy shit, Molly pwned Bella', not 'awesome!Molly strikes again'.

While there's nothing to indicate she's not a very skilled battle-witch, there's also nothing to indicate that she is*, beyond one moment of ultra Weasley!protectiveness.

*Her being in the order doesn't necessarily indicate any proficiency for duelling.

 

I raged at this part in DH. But I raged at the whole of DH. Bella was described as a witch of 'prodigious skill and no conscience', and was defeated by a woman who has almost definitely been a housewife for her entire adult life. While I'm aware that it is never said that Molly is unskilled at duelling, I feel that it is implied. After all, if she was a master duellist, wouldn't Molly have been one of the Order's more prominent members, in terms of Order duties?

 

Am I the only one that WTF'd at this? You also can't have clothing and food without money...

 

Is this guy a troll or just stupid?