Daniel Shellenbarger > Recent Status Updates

"Have it your own way, Potter," said Malfoy, grinning maliciously. "If you think they can't spot a Mudblood, stay where you are."
"Fezzik," said Harry, finally completely done with Malfoy, "Tear his arms off"
I kid, but wouldn't it just be a perfect end to that scene...

Here's a glaring plot inconsistency. In the first book, Gryffindor loses the Quidditch Cup because Harry's injured and unable to play but they play anyway and get flattened. In book three, Malfoy is faking an injury and "can't play" so Gryffindor is forced to play Hufflepuff instead. Given the prior example, shouldn't Slytherin have been forced to play without him or forfeit?

I don't care if Snape was a triple agent who gave everything to defeat Voldemort, I'm glad he's dead, the petty bullying abusive jerk...

Another thought about HP&tSS, what's Hagrid's deal? He gets Harry and Hermoine in BIG trouble saving him from possible jail time but he doesn't have the guts to go to McGonagall and say, "Yeah, there was a dragon, I messed up and those kids helped me out of a tough spot," instead he does nothing while the school treats HH&N like pariahs. That's cold. Shame on you, Hagrid!

mostly enjoying this, but we've got a character agonizing about the likelihood of erasing her own existence; logically either her time-travel was always part of the universe and she can't change anything or she's in an alternative universe, either way she's safe; if time-travel COULD create a new timeline within the same universe, her ceasing to exist would create a causal paradox and the new timeline would collapse

"There's not a single witch or wizard who went bad who wasn't in Slytherin," well Hagrid's going to feel stupid when he finds out about Peter Pettigrew

Why aren't Squibs in charge of muggle-magician relations? Think about it. Any wizard is inherently dysfunctional in a tech-savvy situation and has little knowledge of muggle society, Squibs HAVE to accept a muggle-like lifestyle to survive. Sure they can't DO magic, but they understand the magical world in a way that no muggle could and how it interacts with the muggle world in ways wizards can't.

there's a part of the old Gary Cooper movie Beau Geste in which the heroes are all stuck in a desert fortress surrounded by unseen Tuaregs, outnumbered and getting picked off one by one, this is that but set in a probably-haunted bunker on an alien world.

I love the setting of this book, so vaguely unsettling and remorselessly hostile, kind of like a mix of Beau Geste and a Gothic horror novel.