Why did Crouch teach Harry the Imperius Curse (yet again!); and did he tell Voldemort about Harry's rare talent at resisting it? Also, a bit of happy shared Crouch sympathizing with a fellow admirer of young Barty's ("He had so much fun!").
Discussion of the precise nature of Crouch's, errr...reforms to the WW's judicial system - specifically of the use of the Unforgivable Curses on suspects - and speculation that Wilkes may have died in custody at the hands of Frank Longbottom, followed by a list of reasons that Snape might be so very hostile towards Neville.
Is there a connection between wandless and Dark magic?
Polemic on those mean nasty bullies, Fred and George. A post that caused a good deal of trouble, really.
An attempt to clear up misapprehensions (some of them downright *weird*) about bullying and bullies on route to defending my belief that the twins are depicted as bullying types.
Objection to the prevalence of "my instinctive reading is spontaneous and natural ...but *your* instinctive reading is over-analyzing the text!" sentiment floating about on the Twins thread. Emphasis on the subjectivity of humour and a challenge to the notion that comedic or "toonish" scenes do not reveal character or have deeper significance, using as an example GoF's Ton Tongue Toffee scene and its role as a precursor to both the QWC and Pensieve scenes.
A bit of a reprise of "What does it mean to 'like' a character?" this, itemizing factors contributing to my strongly negative reader response to the Twins. Also raises the issue of the double-standard in list etiquette, according to which it is acceptable to abuse unpopular characters in the harshest of imaginable terms, while polemic directed at popular characters raises objections of unkind behavior and "vituperative language."
Defense of the (now canonically-established) theory that MWPP really *did* bully Snape back in their school days, followed by a thematic analysis of Snape's Grudge, the Train Stomp, and the end game of PoA.
More on the extent to which characters' canonical behavior is revelatory of character, regardless of whether or not they are portrayed as "Toons," and a disussion of the thematic significance of the Ton Tongue Toffee scene.
A bit more on the Twins as bullies and the Twins' relationship to Percy, followed by a discussion of humor and its relationship to character analysis: aren't the characters' actions revelatory of their character regardless of whether or not said actions are *funny?* And why on earth would someone cease to find something funny merely because they have come to believe that it is cruel? Have none of these people ever heard of black humour?!
Harry balks at killing Sirius in the Shrieking Shack, thus demonstrating that he has already made an inchoate and unconscious decision to reject the ethos of vengeance at the end of PoA.
