[HPforGrownups] Why on earth....

[Denise]

No: HPFGUIDX 722

Reminds me of Stephen King, the Talisman.  I really liked that book too!

Dee

  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Sister Mary Lunatic 
  To: HPforGrownups at egroups.com 
  Sent: Friday, September 01, 2000 3:35 PM
  Subject: RE: [HPforGrownups] Why on earth....



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  It's a time-honored tradition in novels of this sort, to have a series of
  trials that the hero must go through in order to sharpen his powers.  The
  hero (usually a kid) has to solve the mysteries, locate the talismans, fight
  off the minor villains, and hone his magical powers before he faces the
  Really Big Bad Guy/Creature.  The apprenticeship, then the mastery, then
  peering into the lonely future that awaits all superheroes.....



  -----Original Message-----
  From: Brooks R [mailto:brooksar at indy.net]
  Sent: Friday, September 01, 2000 9:38 AM
  To: HPforGrownups at egroups.com
  Subject: [HPforGrownups] Why on earth....

  ....are some of the various protections along the route to the
  Sorceror's/Philosopher's Stone, puzzles at all?

  The Sphynx riddle in the maze in GoF fits in.  The competition SHOULD
  be a puzzle.  But in SS/PS, they are trying to protect something of
  great value and dangerous power.  So why use solvable puzzles?

  Is this some inconvenient wizardly honor code?  To a SMALL extent it
  can be explained as a precaution, so someone else can retrieve the
  Stone in case something happens to Dumbledore.  That way some other
  smart good guy can get through them if needed.  It gave lots of
  nice quest/adventure/tension for the climax of the plot for Our
  Heroes.

  But why have puzzles that *bad guys can solve too*?

  Think about it!

  Fluffy is a reasonable guard - he can be diverted, the only puzzle if
  finding out how.

  The snareweed also falls into the category of a perfectly reasonable
  trap.

  The Troll too is a dumb guard, and the heroes, conveniently, do not
  have to face him anyway.

  The Flying Keys are more of a stretch, but somewhat reasonable.
  Someone could be expected to try all of a large selection of keys
  until they find the right one, if they are just sitting there.
  Eventually even a clumsy wizard might be able to catch the right key.

  OTOH, what if you made several keys  of different heads still fit,
  but
  some of them lock the door more tightly, so that even if you find the
  right key you may not know it because you need now to use it more than
  once?

  But the chess game?  Why bother?  Why not just transfigure a set of
  statues or something into guards, with some kind of password
  programmed into them?

  Similarly, why bother with the logic puzzle of the potions?
  Just put a bunch of bottles in there and let someone take their
  chances!  The person who sets it up knows the correct ones; other
  than that what does it matter?

  On the other hand, Dumbledore is right about the Mirror of Erised.
  It does work nicely as a protection.  Although it is really not clear
  what kind of spell is used to get the stone hidden in it that way.
  Alternately, this may be a not-specific alternate power of the mirror
  itself - perhaps there is a spell to conceal something by placing it
  into a mirror's image, which after all might be a parallel universe.

  So of all the protections, two of them seem quite inadequate against
  a smart bad guy, and the Flying Key could almost certainly be caught
  eventually.  It seems like the puzzles are counterproductive as
  protections.

  Brooks


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