Yes, it's a lapse to allow Harry his wand. However, Voldemort couldn't reasonably have expected that Harry could perform that Transfiguration trick, which in-universe is unprecedented. In the chapter where Harry discovers the technique (i.e. partial transfiguration), McGonagall refused to believe it was even possible beforehand, and Dumbledore was astonished to see that it worked. (Yes, I'm aware LW has redefined the mechanics of Transfiguration in MoR.) So, Voldemort didn't know Harry could do anything like that.

Now, given all the precautions Voldemort had taken (such as all the Death Eaters, primed to let loose curses), and everything Voldemort could be reasonably certain that Harry was capable of, how dangerous did Harry seem to be, anyway? Put like that, I don't think the risk, from Voldemort's perspective, is very big.

It's also interesting to consider what Harry did in light of his first lesson with Quirrell. Back then, Quirrell asked Harry to say how objects in the classroom could be used for combat. Harry rattled off a list of increasingly far-fetched ways he could use things in the room to kill and maim. Quirrell remarked that Harry had a killer instinct, but was that it was useless because he was untrained. Well, one year later, and Harry has been trained (by Voldemort!), and the teacher is brought down by his own student's dangerous creativity.

I suppose that's another way Voldemort shot himself in the foot, but there's a nice symmetry to it nonetheless.

 

Which would be fine, if Voldemort hadn't made it obvious that he was fully prepared to take no chances and not underestimate Harry. He takes tons precautions that some would consider excessive, berates his Death Eaters the moment they stray their eyes, etc. He obviously wants to take no chances for anything unexpected.

And yet he allows him his wand. Not that smart, I don't think.

 

It's been a long time since I read MoR (and when I read it, it went up to, I think, the Azkaban breakout?), but didn't Voldemort specifically have a version of the Evil Overlord List? He was definitely portrayed as being Dangerously Genre Savvy.

I haven't read the end, so take this for what it's worth, but from what I've read about it, it seems very strange for Voldemort to take all sorts of precautions except the most obvious one.

And man... "Stuporfy." I can't read that and not think of those "ermahgerd!" memes.

 

Yeah, I agree that it was a stupid mistake on Voldemort's part, just that it wasn't that huge of a mistake. YMMV, and all that.

As for "Stuporfy"... yup, it's a little cringe-worthy. In-universe, it does kind of make sense, as it was designed to mimic the function of a Stunning Spell (with one exception), and that the incantation was intended to be mistaken for "Stupefy". Nevertheless, it's jarring and inelegant.

 

The often misspelling as "Stupify" would be much better, I think, given that people who read all the books confuse it for the actual spell.

 

http://www.reddit.com/r/HPMOR/comments/2xqtzu/harry_potter_and_the_methods_of_superrationality/
Worth a read I think.

 

Lulz. Planning Fallacy, indeed.

 

Updated again.

I don't know how LW can alternate between writing a serious fic and what reads like crack every other chapter and expect that his fic be called genuinely good. It has its strengths, moments of brilliance even, but its flow and consistency are terrible. The latest chapter would have been more at home in a crack fic.

 

The last arc feels like a total cop-out. It didn't feel brilliant or well-written to me at all. It felt like LW was grasping for straws the entire time.

Also, I hold an irrational (or is it?) hatred towards Hermione for the length of this fic. She's on a moral high horse of epic proportions, her naïveté and irrational - yes, I said it - justifications for her actions and criticism of Harry's own actions - is annoying and jarring. Sunshine Army, what the fuck?


However terribly executed it may be, I applaud LW's intentions to further awareness of the power of rationality and the potential of the singularity, as it is a belief I share. At least someone is trying to push these ideals towards popular culture.

If you liked the premise of this fic, the Ender's Game style battles, you really should check out Hogwarts Battle School by Kwan Li instead. If you're a beginner to fanfiction, this isn't a bad fic to start with, but you'll soon realize that it doesn't even compare to the better ones out there.

 

Could be a deliberate anti-climax to make a point about overly-convoluted ideas not being the solution to everything.

Frankly I'm just surprised that Harry's situation was resolved via the use of magic.

 

Heh, this solution is a lot closer to what I expected.

I'll wait for the rest of the end before I make any final judgments.

 

Why did Yudkovsky delete the author's notes from the FFN version? Is there a on the net with them still in place?

 

http://hpmor.com/

 

I clicked on the link and I'm amazed that there exists such a devout following for a fanfiction of all things.

There are even HPMOR Wrap Parties on March 14th - in 20 cities apparently. I am, quite frankly, bamboozled.

 

It is an extremely popular fanfiction, and considered by many as an entry point to fanfiction, and/or the best of fanfiction.

Some guy actually gave the author a summer home to stay in for a few weeks to write this last arc.

My university's "Intro to Fanfiction" class actually heavily features this fic throughout the course, according to the syllabus. Then again, it's a student-organized course which has merely been approved by the professors in the Humanities department, so that's probably not worth anything.

 

Sorry, what?

???

 

This was good for the first 2/3 or so, and then got sort of stupid at the end. It still was much better than the "canon" solution though, which I felt was a pretty big cop out.

The solution linked calling back to more of the things Harry discovered over the year than just the transfiguration felt much more like a proper conclusion.

 

I'm quite frankly more surprised that people consider this as entry level fiction.

Entry level would be the older ones, like the Hero trilogy, the Psychic Serpent trilogy or even potentially anything Rorschach's Blot has written.

HPMOR is not, by any means a good or justifiable presentation of what Fanfiction has to offer. You can tell your "teachers" they got it wrong.

I also detest HPMOR from a literary standpoint, but that's mostly based on opinion and such which I won't deviate into here.

 

That's hardly surprising, I guess. MoR is by far the most popular fanfic on the internet. Which are the other fics in the syllabus?

*Sigh* Of all the fanfics out there, this had to be the one with the huge following. If only other authors with awesome stories could come to arrangements like these..... I would definitely loan Mira Mirth my Summer home to see On the Way to Greatness finished. If I had one, that is.