this is way past being topical but i was away from tumblr when it happened, so:
so about about that HPMOR ending, huh.
what i think is most interesting is that -- okay so in like chapter nine, in the initial draft, narcissa malfoy was alive. so yudkowsky killed her off, presumably because he had some idea for a later plot development or w/e that would make for an interesting twist. and now, in the fullness of time, we can see what that could have been
so what does that change? well it lead to draco talking about it with harry, and it got harry to swear an oath of vengeance against whoever narcissa malfoy's murderer was. and that was (effectively) dumbledore. and that lead to... nothing. that was never brought up again and had absolutely no impact on the story, and then at the end it was revealed that narcissa malfoy was actually living brainwashed in australia so there was absolutely no point.
but that's all plot consequences, and HPMOR isn't really about plot. here's what killing off narcissia malfoy got: it got draco to talk about it to harry: how during the war when the death eaters would kidnap the family and friends of someone in the order of the phoenix and threaten to torture them to death. and dumbledore sez in his longwinded fashion that rather than give in to the demands and reveal that they would be coerced by that kind of threat, they would instead kidnap someone from a death eater family and torture them to death. SO FROM A GAME-THEORETICAL STANDPOINT (dumbledore continues) IT WAS CLEAR THAT DOING THAT DID NOT LEAD TO LEVERAGE, SO THE DEATH EATERS STOPPED DOING IT.
so in the end it was so yudkowsky could write about some hamfisted decision theory with extremely dubious "practical" applications, w/ a torture porn gloss.
#yes yes i know not very charitable
so about about that HPMOR ending, huh.
what i think is most interesting is that -- okay so in like chapter nine, in the initial draft, narcissa malfoy was alive. so yudkowsky killed her off, presumably because he had some idea for a later plot development or w/e that would make for an interesting twist. and now, in the fullness of time, we can see what that could have been
so what does that change? well it lead to draco talking about it with harry, and it got harry to swear an oath of vengeance against whoever narcissa malfoy's murderer was. and that was (effectively) dumbledore. and that lead to... nothing. that was never brought up again and had absolutely no impact on the story, and then at the end it was revealed that narcissa malfoy was actually living brainwashed in australia so there was absolutely no point.
but that's all plot consequences, and HPMOR isn't really about plot. here's what killing off narcissia malfoy got: it got draco to talk about it to harry: how during the war when the death eaters would kidnap the family and friends of someone in the order of the phoenix and threaten to torture them to death. and dumbledore sez in his longwinded fashion that rather than give in to the demands and reveal that they would be coerced by that kind of threat, they would instead kidnap someone from a death eater family and torture them to death. SO FROM A GAME-THEORETICAL STANDPOINT (dumbledore continues) IT WAS CLEAR THAT DOING THAT DID NOT LEAD TO LEVERAGE, SO THE DEATH EATERS STOPPED DOING IT.
so in the end it was so yudkowsky could write about some hamfisted decision theory with extremely dubious "practical" applications, w/ a torture porn gloss.
#yes yes i know not very charitable
