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PaperclipPerfector  1yr ago (text post)   2385 thread views

Friday Fun Thread for November 3, 2023

Be advised: this thread is not for serious in-depth discussion of weighty topics (we have a link for that), this thread is not for anything Culture War related. This thread is for Fun. You got jokes? Share 'em. You got silly questions? Ask 'em.

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I had fun roleplaying a bit and making my own personal cannon. I unlocked the killing spell, and never used it on anything smarter than a Troll. It was a little silly that the killing spell got treated so badly, but I created a literal mountain of bodies without the killing spell.

There's a huge bit of hypocrisy in the way that you can learn an explosion spell and routinely aim it directly at people and that's not unforgiveable. But the Imperio spell, which (if the game allowed it) could be used to force an enemy you would otherwise be forced to kill to surrender is an Unforgiveable Curse.

Imperio is a huge security breach just waiting to happen with one simple spell (and, indeed, happened in the books). The Killing Spell is known to be impossible to block (not sure if it was mentioned in the books), negating a huge part of Aurors' training. Crucio, well, it's a spell for causing sustained pain and doesn't have the excuse to be useful in combat (you're stuck pointing your wand at 1 opponent and they'll either be fine the second you stop or you're going far enough to do mental damage).

Yes, I think they mention Avada Kedavra being unblockable in the books, but if I recall the rationale for it being Unforgiveable is that you have to truly wish the person you aim it at to die. If I recall the rationale for Imperio being Unforgiveable is that you have to want to dominate the target. Sure, those rationales make sense on their own, but what are we expecting to happen to someone if you aim Confringo (Blasting Curse) at them? It's essentially shooting a bazooka at someone. Surely you're shooting it hoping it won't be blocked, so what are you hoping for? For them to only lightly explode to bits and not die? Somehow there's no moral event horizon being crossed in the game if you shoot it at all human and human-equivalent sentient beings. In the books, I don't remember the good guys casually casting deadly spells in combat, to avoid this hypocrisy.

Maybe moral norms were different in the 19th century. I guess it would have been boring if the only spells you could cast in combat were stupefy and expelliarmus.

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