What If...

I love this addition so much!!!!!

This scenario would inherently be Jedi friendly I think. Because this Anakin is suspicious and the Jedi prove time and time again that they are not that kind of master and do not chip people. That doesn’t happen by being neglectful or systematically disadvantaging people.

Even then, however, I am not too sure that Anakin would admit to or share this particular habit with anybody even in therapy. After all, if they know this is how he checks, they might get sneaky.Maybe he learns about the concept of compulsion via a different manifestation of his trauma and applies the same logic to his scanners? Still, Vokara would probably know as well and happily indulge his focus on medical scanners without showing her knowledge. She knows this kid’s scanner designs. He won’t hurt anybody. So three people know about Anakin’s habit. Only one of them knows about all three. Maybe, to get to your absolutely wonderfully drawn up scene, she shares that info with him upon his knighting.

Can we talk about the emotional journey here though???? IT’S GENIUS!

“sheesh I really have some solid compulsion, maybe I should get onto that after this war?” to “wait what? I found something?” to “Dear Obi-Wan and Council, we have a problem” to “you said they were free” to “you keep slaves. i trusted you and you keep slaves bred for war”

Everything I wanted out of this and you put it into words in such a compelling way.

You are amazing. This is amazing. Somebody write this!

Imagine an Anakin Skywalker who is freed from his slave chip, but doesn’t rest until he has built a scanner and checked for himself.

Imagine an Anakin Skywalker who only relaxes in the Jedi order once he was able to sneakily scan every Padawan in reach for a chip. They call their teachers “Master”, but they are not kept through explosives.

Proving absence is hard, so every year Anakin builds a new and more detailed scanner and tests it on himself and Obi-Wan and the crechelings and and and. Obi-Wan is the only one who notices Anakin’s continued occupation with chips. Anybody with less exposure, who doesn’t see Anakin fiddle with metal detectors and density measurements on the daily, who doesn’t clean Anakin’s small work station if the scraps tower too high, will not learn about it. Or, to be fair, who did not wake up in the middle of the night of Anakin’s padawanship anniversary to a child sneaking into one’s bedroom, scan one’s supposedly sleeping body, and sneak back out again for three years and counting. About this, Anakin does not talk, he acts. So Obi-Wan talks to Vokara Che and gets his padawan access to all medical equipment and himself a handbook on mechanics. He wants to support his student and give him room to expand his knowledge.

Both Anakin’s skill and the machines in the Halls of Healing improve significantly.

But still Anakin builds a new scanner every year. Still he checks every new dynamic for a chip as subtly as he can. He may not be a subtle conversationalist, but he can do sleight of hand.

As much as it pains him to suspect, he doesn’t rest until he checks Padme’s servants once he meets her again. Her as well, just for good measure.

And when he is knighted with the start of a war and placed in charge of a group of identical looking men bred for combat, he scans his captain. Who has something in his brain. As do the other squad leaders. And the medics. And every other clone he gets close enough to in the hallways.

Nothing good comes from chips in people.

Nothing.

So he does something about it. And on this, he does not sway.

My favorite thing about hobbits is how no other race has any idea how they work so they can just… bullshit their way through literally anything? Bilbo turns invisible and the dwarves just go “Yeah sounds about right, Gandalf did say they’re very sneaky” and don’t guess about the Ring. Frodo gets stabbed by a troll spear and survives unharmed and Aragorn goes “Oh right, hobbits are supposed to be resilient, that checks out. Very impressive!” and nobody thinks to ask if he’s got perhaps some kind of armor. I need to know what the line is. How weird does a hobbit need to get before they get called out??

Owl-post. Anybody know how this works?

I’ve been trying to piece together how the owl mail works in the Harry Potter world and can’t find explaining passages and everything I think I know is probably from fic.

Do owls magically know where the intended recipient is? Do they only need the name?

We know there are magical locating spells that presumably work automatically (see Harry’s letter with the frankly disturbing accuracy and more disturbing location named). So post owls could have a similar spell in their very being and find the person on name alone.

On the other hand, I don’t remember this ever being explicitly stated. So every letter sending scene could be with the addresses known to the sender. Harry’s correspondence with Ron and Hermione happens while he would definitively know both their addresses. With Sirius I believe he answers with the birds Sirius sent in the first place.

In OotP, Dumbledore alludes to “missing the owl on the way to the ministry” during the trial. This could go either way: owl was sent to Hogwarts OR Dumbledore apparated and the poor owl suddenly felt a tug in the opposite reaction, since their traveling time is longer than near-instant.

Ron sends a letter to Azkaban to free Hagrid in 2nd year. I don’t believe a thirteen year old knows the exact address for the prison to the point of remembering it after a highly stressful and traumatic event.

So does anybody know if the owls have to be told an address to deliver letters? Or if the sender’s intent alone works?

On the Order of the Phoenix

At some point in time between the third task in GoF and Harry getting picked up during the summer the Order of the Phoenix was called back into existence and subsequently moved into Grimmauld Place.

Presumably, Dumbledore vouched for Sirius' innocence around that time as otherwise I doubt Molly Weasley would allow her children in that place and Sirius would probably get attacked by three competent aurors at varying stages of their careers.

Speaking of which:

Three competent aurors with a drive to do good (as evident in their joining a militia against Riddle) learned of Sirius' innocence and wrongful incarceration. And not one of them did anything about the gross miscarriage of justice under their noses. Which sounds off to me.

We have a very young auror at the beginning of her career and a blood relation to Sirius, so overall with very limited influence on the topic in Tonks. A retired auror known to be close with Dumbledore, who is subject to a smear campaign at that point, and a known paranoid bastard in Mad-Eye Moody. And an auror established in his career in Kingsley Shaklebolt. In my eyes the most likely candidate to attempt something.

From what we see of Kingsley he is well respected in the Ministry and regarded by the Minister himself. Fudge brings him along to try and arrest Dumbledore later in the year which speaks to a certain level of social and political aptitute. Additional evidence in this direction are Kingsley being appointed magical bodyguard to the muggle PM during Scrimgeour's term and Kingsley's own election to Minister of Magic following the Battle of Hogwarts. So we can assume him to be well-connected and able to raise topics at opportune moments in a way accessible to his audience.

The Ministry at this point in time is having an awful time and has been for pretty exactly two years. Starting with Sirius' escape, which rattled faith in Azkaban, the dementors and the aurors specifically who failed to re-apprehend him. Continuing with the repeated issues with the dementors at Hogwarts. Continuing on further with the embarassment of the Quidditch World Cup being overrun by deatheaters. And finally, most recently, the desaster the Triwizard Tournament ended up being with the UK having two champions, audience-unfriendly tasks, a judge disappearing, a champion dying and finally the claims the magical world's latest terrorist was returning from the presumed dead. And of course, the initial escapee was still on the run. The Ministry was scrambling to at least appear in control of everything, both domestically and internationally. Hence the attempts to discredit Dumbledore and Harry as the other regional public figures and seize control over Hogwarts.

Kingsley could absolutely go up to the ambitious Scrimgeour, I doubt his aspirations were unknown, and suggest building a small task force to catch Sirius Black. After all, the Ministry and especially the Aurors needed a win in the public eye and with all the other things going on Black wouldn't expect it. So if he could maybe have access to all files pertaining Black? The potential for Fudge becoming the scapegoat for all the recent troubles and Scrimgeour emerging as a new and trusted leader based on achievements remains unsaid yet is understood by all.

Potentially Scrimgeour takes the idea and runs with it himself. After all, the Ministry is adamant about aurors not being actively needed at the moment, he has the time. And he reads every single document on the case Black. Including any trial records and evidence filed. Which is astonishingly little.

Concerningly little.

Promisingly little.

Especially since Fudge was personally involved in the case and has been publicly bragging about it (see PoA in the Three Broomsticks). So it would very naturally reflect badly especially on Fudge and his administration if Black's guilt were to be re-exmined. And Scrimgeour himself would not only be a fresh face, but one righting the wrongs of his predecessors. With the support of a notorious house if the only surviving bearer of the name Black owed him a favour. It would also neatly subvert the issue called Potter. He'd probably be very busy getting acclimated to a new godfather if custody was transferred from that muggle family. Fewer claims of a second coming of that bloody bastard. All the better. Smear campaigns against children were never a good look on anyone. Now to get that innocence established, weren't there statements Fudge ignored last year...

Kingsley is very happy to stand back and watch self-interest get the right thing done. Scrimgeour would remember who gave him the idea and the Order would gain a powerful supporter and fighter. Wins across the board in his book.

TL;DR: Kingsley not doing something about Sirius' innocence is bullshit. Especially not when at that point everybody was ready to see Fudge go and establishing Sirius as innocent would be a perfect thing for him to fall over. Political intrigue accidentally fixing problems ensues

Something I still don’t get is how the entire wizarding world knew to identify Harry by his scar. It seems a little counterproductive to have a distinctive mark of a person supposedly kept from the wizarding world be common knowledge.

Nobody should even suspect there would be a mark - Avada Kedavra famously leaves no trace. And since Harry’s location is a guarded secret, chances are slim that some wizard/witch recognizes him on the streets (because he looks like James maybe), sees the scar, and promptly spreads the word. So that is probably not how the scar gained it’s notoriety.

That leaves the magical people who saw him on November first and second-Hagrid, McGonagall, and Dumbledore. Sirius might have gotten close enough to spot the wound, but Hagrid was the one to get him out, so Sirius likely didn’t know about the scar. He is also out as the one having spread the word because, well, Azkaban.

Hagrid and McGonagall are unlikely to be questioned directly about the events of Halloween or Harry Potter and both heed Dumbledore’s orders to keep mum about Harry’s whereabouts. That leaves one person knowing about the scar and having access to the wizarding world.

...Dumbledore explain.

hey, doyle, please don’t say watson keeps his stethoscope in his hat like that’s a normal thing, i refuse to believe that’s a normal thing

best thing about uncle iroh is that if you pay attention he is actually just as much of an idiot as zuko but has just mastered the art of coming across as a wise old man. the even better thing is that zuko is the only one on the planet who somewhat realizes this and no one would ever believe him because he's zuko

I relate to Cho Chang because I too would start crying at random times that do not require crying

I’m at the point in my kid’s obsession with Cats The Musical (1998) that I’m like desperately trying to see what’s going on with the cats the camera isn’t focusing on.

What is Jennyanydots doing during the opening number?

What exactly is Rum Tum Tugger doing up there during Skimbleshanks?

Who is doing what parts during the Pekes & the Pollicles?

Where does Mistoffelees go after the beginning of Old Gumbie Cat? Is he a beetle? (I don’t think so, I’ve looked pretty hard at the legs…)

Like it is actively upsetting to me that these camera angles are all that exists and I can’t watch the whole stage when I want to.

This post has been brought to you by my Cats The Musical (1998) brain rot.

How would the conversation among Severus Snape and Lily and James Potter be in the afterlife?

Here’s how I imagine would go:

Snape arrives in afterlife. Then someone runs up to him and slaps him across the face. Lily is furious.

Snape: Lily?

Lily: You don’t get to call me that you disgusting bastard!

Snape: I protected your son!

Lily: (Laugh coldly) Since when is “protect” to make him feel as miserable as he can, humiliate him, be totally unfair to him?

Snape: I did that all for you!

Lily: For me? For me! No. You did that because you were obsessed over me. You deprived my son his chance of family and the least you could have done is treat him fairly. I didn’t expect you to treat him like a king. Was it so hard to treat him fairly?

James: That’s enough Lily. (Looks at Snape) You’re sick you know that? I know I bullied you at school but tell me. What did Harry do to you? You punished a son for his father’s wrong doings? A father he never got to meet because you ran along to your master to tell him the prophecy?

James and Lily walks away together. Sirius comes and says “You’re an amazing Occlumency teacher. You know that?” and spits at him. Remus and Nymphadora just looks at him coldly, Mad Eye looks at him with disdain.

Dobby comes and says “You is a bad teacher! For hurting Great Harry Potter sir!” Charity Burbage punches him in the face “How does it feel to get killed by a snake? Not pleasant right?”

Fred comes and sniggers. “Snivellus? Never knew that before.” and the victims of the first war all give them handful of yelling. “Death eater scum!” (Snape had no problem being a death eater in the first war until Lily was involved.)

Finally, Longbottom family comes, cracking their knuckles. “What did Neville ever do to you?”

Yes, Snape did good things, but he was only ever on the good side for selfish reasons. But he also did countless bad things. Just saying “Hey, you saved my son! Thanks! (hug)” just doesn’t make sense to me.