The Restaurant at the End of the Universe

12:31 AM

in Discussion on answer by Web Head: Can we identify all the characters in this "Ultimate Space Battle" poster?, 3 hours ago, by Egor Klyuchnyk

Thank you! I'm really made this

Oh wow.

Wait… so he drew the image AND asked the char-id question about it?

Isn't that… uh. Don't we have a rule against such questions?

I thought we figured at some point that at least for story-id questions, we don't allow questions that are deliberately asked as a puzzle, where the original poster hides some information he knows, or even hides that they know the answer.

Let me see what scifi.stackexchange.com/help/promotion says

> The community here tends to vote down overt self-promotion and flag it as spam. Post good, relevant answers, and if some (but not all) happen to be about your product or website, that’s okay. However, you must disclose your affiliation in your answers.

Alex

@b_jonas Isn't there a distinction between hiding information necessary to answer the question, and hiding the answer itself?

b_jonas

The poster of that question is probably selling that image as a poster for money, and doesn't disclose his affiliation in the question. But that rule only mentions answers. Hmm.

I'll flag for moderator attention because I can't figure out if this is allowed.

Alex

@b_jonas The poster of the poster is posting his poster for money.

b_jonas

@Alex Or so I think. I don't have a definite proof of anything here.

Alex

@b_jonas I was just commenting on the confusing use of nouns.

b_jonas

12:42 AM

@Alex Yes, I know.

Alex

@b_jonas By the way, if you read my comments to an answer to your question, don't be insulted.

b_jonas

@Alex I've had enough of that today. DMM points out in today's rerun annotation on Irregular irregularwebcomic.net/1841.html that the dial of a watch is called a “crown” so that it isn't confused with the clock's face which is called a “dial”.

@Alex scifi.stackexchange.com/a/195341/4918 ? I tend to side with you, because I believe (and have expressed in other answers) that Apparition is harder than some Muggles here seem to believe, and so even when the Dark Lord himself is involved, and even after we have enough proof that he has Apparated at least once, we have to be cautious about inferring that he's Apparated in some other specific case.

Alex

@b_jonas Yeah, that one. But I was referring to my most recent comments there where I might have implied that I think the question is a bad question.

b_jonas

I upvoted Pryftan's answer despite that I disagree with some of his conclusions, because he does bring up some potentially relevant points that are worth to discuss. And I'm glad that you are there to argue with him pointing him to the direction that I'd push too.

Alex

In other words, I agree with both of you but also disagree with both of you. Sort of.

b_jonas

12:52 AM

@Alex As for that, I mention in my question that “It seems to me that just like Harry, the Dark Lord seems to prefer flying over apparation in general”. Maybe I should have expanded that a bit more, with specific proof of the Dark Lord flying long distance, and of how Harry Potter enjoys flying more than Apparition or Portkeys.

Alex

@b_jonas I doubt anyone enjoys the feeling of Apparition. But convenience sometimes wins out.

b_jonas

I didn't ask that because I underestimate the Dark Lord and think that he couldn't Apparate if he wanted to, I just found his apparent taste of travel by broom strange in this case, when he does generally use difficult magic to solve his problems.

Alex

@b_jonas For the record, he doesn't need a broom to fly.

b_jonas

@Alex Meh, some people in the real world actually enjoy driving. For 40 minutes the way to their work in the morning and then 40 minutes to home. As long as most of it is on the freeway, not in the city, and they can spend it in their own well-tended car.

@Alex Yes. And he sometimes executes pepole by letting Nagini do the deed rather than casting the killing curse himself.

Alex

@b_jonas Yeah but Apparating is described (at least from Harry's perspective) as actually physically painful.

@b_jonas Which is a major plot-hole when it comes to Snape.

@b_jonas I preempted you:

45 secs ago, by Alex

@b_jonas Which is a major plot-hole when it comes to Snape.

b_jonas

1:01 AM

[previous line:] And I'm not talking about the attack on Arthur Weasley, where he may have wanted to avoid being present in person. I'm talking about Professor Snape, when he was standing right there.

IIRC we have a question about that on the main site.

56

Q: Why didn't Voldemort kill Snape with Avada Kedavra?

Voldemort was very fluent in Avada Kedavra. He never ever hesitated before using that. Also, there was no thumbs down in using it. Avada Kedavra was quick and effective. Why didn't Voldemort kill Snape with Avada Kedavra?

harry-potter

15

Q: Why did Voldemort use Nagini when killing Severus Snape?

In Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Voldemort thinks that killing Snape will give him full control of the Elder Wand. He uses his snake, Nagini, to kill Snape rather than any number of spells he knows. This allows Snape to live long enough to help Harry defeat him. Why? Is there any reason...

harry-potter

He might have wanted to preserve his high level spell slots, because that was during the Battle of Hogwarts, and he could suspect that he'd have to participate more in that later before he could rest.

Or perhaps he wants to keep Nagini used to hunting, so that he can use her as a weapon when necessary. So sometimes he gives a live victim to her to finish, rather than easy dead meat or eggs.

Or the Dark Lord could be secretly afraid of Professor Snape, and think that Professor Snape would suspect that he'd eventually try to kill him, and he'd prepare some clever trap for when he casts the killing curse. So he lets Nagini trigger the trap, because that seems less risky than foolishly doing the expected thing himself.

I don't know what the right answer is, but there are lots of possibilities, and I don't see why it would necessarily be a "plot hole".

And I don't like questions asked with the assumption that something is a "plot hole" right at the start. I am an IT guy who knows a bit about debugging, and so I know that even if something is a plot hole, it's better to seek the answer from a point where you try to suppose that it's not a plot hole and understand the reason from that starting point.

Alex

@b_jonas Eh, I don't necessarily mean "plot hole" in the sense that it makes no sense. More like it seems like an obvious contrivance to keep Snape alive long enough to give Harry the memories.

I should probably have been more precise with my words.

b_jonas

@Alex Yes, it seems like that. But that's the point. Even if the bug is not in your code, it's usually easier to start debugging by asking why your code is not working, and it's from that starting point that you can reduce your code to a minimal reproduction that still produces the bug, at which point you can start to reasonably suspect that the bug isn't in your code and report the bug to the maintainer of the code that is the next suspect.

You don't start by assuming that it's a compiler bug or a CPU bug, unless you're already so deep inside developing the compiler that you know how to debug a compiler bug.

I think that applies to fiction and plot holes too.

Alex

@b_jonas I think I get your point (and agree) but the references are flying over my head.

b_jonas

1:16 AM

And the library under your code that you report the bug to with the minimal example will do the same, he'll start debugging with the assumption that the error is in his library implementation, and reduce his code to a minimal example until he can eventually report to the library under him, in the rare case when the fault really is not on his side or the side of the stupid user who reported a not-a-bug.

@Alex Sorry, you're right. Let me be a bit more specific, because in this case I can.

You know that JKR isn't good in world building, so if you think that Hogwarts doesn't have enough teachers to teach all those classes, or that the economy of the wizarding world can't possibly be stable, or something like that, then you are often right.

But on the other hand, at least for the seven main books, she does seem to understand the motivation of her characters quite well, so if any important character in the book does somethign that looks strange to you, such as scifi.stackexchange.com/q/91195/4918 "Why did Amycus Carrow think he could lie to the Dark Lord?" in my case, then it's better to assume that JKR knew what the character was thinking and why she did that action, and she understands it better than you do.

In this case, the question is about the Dark Lord's motivations. The Dark Lord is a complicated and hard to understand person, and although there are a few people on Sci Fi SE who seem to understand him to some degree, even they might not understand him as much as Dumbledore or JKR does. And I'm not sure if you're among those people in first place.

I'm certainly not a person who understands the Dark Lord, so from my point of view it wasn't a stupid question. (You could argue that it was a stupid question because I should have remembered one of the two examples given in the first answer.)

Um, I'm talking about the Dark Lord Apparating and scifi.stackexchange.com/a/60081/4918 again.

Alex

@b_jonas Wait, which question are you talking about now? Are you back on the apparating question?

Never mind, I see you preempted me.

But for the record, I wasn't saying the question is stupid (and I don't think I would say something like that even if I did think the question was stupid).

Just that I wouldn't have asked it based on lack of evidence of Voldemort refusing to Apparate.

b_jonas

1:35 AM

@Alex That's why I asked it as a positive question, asking if you know an example from the books when he does apparate.

I am satisfied with the examples found, but I am still interested in the new information.

Alex

@b_jonas Which is what led to the disagreement between me and Pryftan.

b_jonas

I have to go now though, good night.

Alex

@b_jonas Good night.

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The Restaurant at the End of the Univ…