Animagi, whiskers and antlers

[Melody]

No: HPFGUIDX 45920

Audra:
>Alright, let's see how much we can agree on here,

Me:
Seems a fair amount but we are stuck on that one point...


Audra:
>The argument is whether the brain physically transforms to the
>animal's or remains human.  Indulge me in my case once more...

Me:
Aaaah.  We were so close.  Ok, I'll indulge you...a bit.  ;)


>Okay, "convince the Dementors he was not of sound mind," you say?  As
>I see it, this view can only jive with your shrunken human brain
>theory in one of two ways.
>1.) Sirius actively exercised control over his emotions to purposely
>fool the Dementors into perceiving him as unsound, or
>2.) there is something about the dog body that filters the emotions
>differently, as in possibly Amanda's Vatican-inspired
>light-through-a-colored-glass idea.

Me:
I subscribe to #2.  The emotions were filtered in a way that dementors
could not tell (a)he was a dog and (b)he was strong enough and of
sound mind to escape.  And I do not see how you can read that passage
any other way?  Black escaped because he fooled the dementors to
believe he was weaker.  Whether or not his mind was "filtered" or
"hiding behind" does not change that the fact he *did* convince the
dementors he was not strong enough to escape.  They did not let him
escape because they thought he was a dog.

But anyway, how this physically happened is where we really clash.  So
let's just move on to that...


Audra presented her theory (with a little snipping on my part):
>The shrinky-dink brain would have to shrink even smaller in size to
>fit proportionally in the animal skull, and jostling around at
>strange angles.  I'm not even getting into the problems of the rest
>of the nervous system that would have to go along with the brain.

>A second reason is that having a shrunken human brain, the Animagus
>would miss out on some great advantages of some animals'
>brains--extraordinarily developed senses of smell, sight, hearing,
>balance...

Me:
Well, if we want to get anatomy and physics into this, what happens to
the food in Skeeter's stomach when her stomach changes into the insect
digestion system?  Can Black see color when his eyes change into the
dog's monochromatic colorblind eyes?  How can McGonagall use her
whiskers if her "shrunken brain" does not have that receiver part of
her brain?  If someone is transfigured into a cow, do they have to eat
grass since their four cow stomaches can only digest grass? [what is
the plural for 'stomach' anyway?  It is not in the dictionary.]

Hmmm, I see your point, but do wizards transfigure themselves animals
so they can also have animal inner traits/gifts?  Do we have any canon
evidence that an animagus has their chosen animal's inner gifts?  We
have proof of the physical.  Yes, Skeeter can fly.  Yes, Black can
swim and walk on all fours.  Yes, McGonagall can swish her tail.  And
I am sure James *loved* showing off his antlers.  But, do any of them
have animal-like traits like bug:multi-eyes or dog:keen sense of smell
or cat/rat:sensory use of whiskers?  I see no canon evidence that they
do.  They are just able to use the animal body in the same manor that
the wizard would as human form.

I am not sure we can reach a common ground here.  Physically there are
many issues with transfiguration.  Not being able to dissect a
animagus wizard, I don't think we will ever know.  But if you find
canon to show that an animagus has those non-human inner traits,
please do point them out.  I would like the challenge to try and work
that into the "shrinky-dink brain" I've drawn in the snow.  :)


Melody