Too sikhs.

[mike_smith]

As you may have noticed, it's October 23, and I'm still doing these things. My plan was to have already received my copy of "Dagon Bal Z: Budokai Tenkaichi" by now, and to have finished reviewing this book well in advance of that date. Well, while it's just as well that my shipment is late, because I haven't been able to finish as scheduled, I'm

Comments

[mike_smith]

The which?

[mike_smith]

Oh, now I got it. No, that's just the swirl artists use to represent fingerprints in anime and manga sometimes. In this case, the forced persepctive of the lady's thumb means that it's so close you could see the whorls on her thumb.

[jim_smith]

Big Al also assures Harry that the boat must be safe for use, as Voldemort himself would need it should he ever need to visit the Horcrux himself, or retrieve it to take it to some other location.

Why would Voldemort need to visit the Horcrux? The only reason anyone needs to get the thing is to destroy it; Voldemort's only use for it is to sit still and preserve his soul. What would he do, visit it every night and sing it to sleep?

I suppose he needs the boat so he can retrieve it to put it in a better hiding place, if he feels this one is compromised. So really he has the boat there in case anyone tries to reach the Horcrux via the boat. For that matter, why have an entrance to the cave at all? I'm starting to see how this guy got his ass kicked by a baby.

Dumbledore is confident that they won't be any trouble until after they've taken the Horcrux, but in the meantime he advises that he and Harry defend themselves with fire.

Yeah, defend yourselves with fire. Aboard a boat. Against zombies sitting in a lake. That's gonna

[mike_smith]

Why would Voldemort need to visit the Horcrux?

I suppose it's possible that he'd need to check and see if it's still in tact. As explained in a previous chapter, Voldemort probably can't feel it when his Horcruxes are threatened or destroyed, so he might feel the need to inspect them personally. Also, circumstances might someday require him to reassemble what's left of his soul, like if he were to discover some alternative means of living forever.

For that matter, why have an entrance to the cave at all?

I wondered the same thing myself. For that matter, he could have set it up so only HIS blood would open the door. But again, as Dumbledore suggests, Voldemort wouldn't just hide the Horcruxes to keep people away, but to serve as bait for anyone who might have learned too much about them. Why go to the trouble of killing Dumbledore at Hogwarts if you can lure him onto your own territory and force him to play by your rules? Granted, he survives this experience, but he's much weaker for having done so.

Yeah, defend

[jim_smith]

But again, as Dumbledore suggests, Voldemort wouldn't just hide the Horcruxes to keep people away, but to serve as bait for anyone who might have learned too much about them.

See, though, I'd leak false information about the locations of phoney Horcruxes, and set my traps there. Imagine if Harry and D-Dore went to all this trouble (or more) and it was some kinda fake poison Horcrux, never realizing that the real one is hidden in a secret cave which doesn't have a big door saying "WELCOME TO VOLDEMORT'S HORCRUX PLEASE PRESENT ONE (1) DROP OF BLOOD TO ENTER AND STEAL VOLDEMORT'S HORCRUX."

Actually, D-Dore's ring of fire surrounds them even on the boat, so I guess it does work.

I guess. If I were a zombie, though, I'd blunder into the ring of fire, groan because I'm on fire, fall down back into the lake, and pop back up because I'm not on fire anymore. D-Dore's gonna have to keep that ring of fire pretty tight to keep any zombies from going under it and coming up on the other side. And if he's got it that close, he's running the

[merenwen_81]

Why would Voldemort need to visit the Horcrux?

So that he can fondle it and call it his precious (I realise making bad LOTR jokes at Jim serves no purpose).

[_kneebiter]

I assume that if big D had poured out the New Improved Surge, it would have immediately reemerged into the basin.

And yes, Harry was operating under blind panic once the zombies came -- didn't he even apologize for forgetting about the fire?

Regarding the underaged-magic ban and how much of that is idiot Ministry and how much poorly-thought-out plot device, I take two from column A and one from column B. A lot of this book and the last one has been showing how bungling the Ministry is, and even a clever first-year has the wherewithal to kill (as Galva Ron and Booger Red demonstrated in book one, when they knocked out a magic-resistant troll with a Levitation Charm applied to its own club. To be fair, they were operating on blind panic then, too, but got lucky; still, imagine the same with a knife and on purpose.) Fortunately, per my theory from the last chapter, all magicals even in first year become cripplingly stupid, so no harm done.

[mike_smith]

I assume that if big D had poured out the New Improved Surge, it would have immediately reemerged into the basin.

So do I. I just don't see how it can tell the difference between someone scooping it out to drink, or scooping it out to pour on the ground. Because in the latter case the force field would prevent this. Also, I'm not sure how Harry managed to scoop out the entire contents of the basin. Try bailing out a sinkful of water with a cup and you'll see what I mean. But that's magic for you, I guess.

And yes, Harry was operating under blind panic once the zombies came -- didn't he even apologize for forgetting about the fire?

Yes, and Dumbledore said it was perfectly understandable. I , for one, am much less forgiving than Dumbledore. This isn't just a knock on Harry, by the way. As far as I'm concerned, anyone fighting zombies should be able to stay calm and keep their cool, because zombies move so slowly that you've got plenty of time to collect your wits and react

[sabra_n]

And it's not like Harry hasn't been in stressful situations before- he has life-threatening adventures in every book. So yeah, I didn't like that instance of panic, either. Especially because Defense Against the Dark Arts is supposed to be his best subject.

-blue

[flaxenescapee]

[tekalynn]

The impression I get is that since Horcruxes are a forbidden subject at Hogwarts, it's assumed that no one will ever learn about them, and thus no one will ever attempt to create one.

Sounds like abstinence-only sex education.

[mike_smith]

No, because abstinence-only sex education would be at least required to explain what it is that you're not supposed to do. This is an important distinction, because sex is pretty easy to figure out through trial and error, if nothing else. No one's gonna think of killing a guy and using that to preserve parts of your soul.

And a policy of not telling anyone about that would make sense, except that if anyone does learn about it and starts doing it, no one else will recognize the crime he's committing.

[tekalynn]

Good points. Thanks.

[jim_smith]

I think tekalynn's specifically referring to the practice of never explaining condoms or birth control on the assumption that students will never try to have potentially risky sex, so it'll never come up and they won't need to know.

The idea there is that if kids are taught how to stay safe, they'll be less wary of the dangers, but it assumes kids are going to do what their told in the first place.