Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality

[Cain]

I'm not so sure.  Yudowsky explicitly said that Quirinius Quirrell placed a horcrux on the space probe they were talking about in one of the chapters, and well...that definitely suggests Voldemort, although not certainly, I will admit, since QQ is a Slytherin wannabe Dark Lord himself, by his own admission. 

[Jasper]

Well, until Voldemort actually shows up, I'm not taking anything QQ says at face value.

It was too foreboding when he said "One higher than you" when asked what level a player he was.

[Zyzyx]

Methods of Rationality was awesome, still waiting for updates.

[Cain]

The more I think about it, the more sure I am that QQ is Voldemort in this text as well.  I think his overriding fear is that Harry will become another Dark Lord and, because of his obvious intelligence and skill, present a formidable threat to Voldemort.  Therefore, in teaching him how to lose etc he is trying to stop him from becoming a Dark Lord while at the same time taking further stock of his potential opponent.  Remember what he said about submitting to someone's dominance in order to better control them and later take vengeance?  QQ is his superior, in academic and magical terms, but if he tried to treat Harry in the way Snape did, for example, he'd get nothing useful out of him and possibly push him further along the path to becoming a rival (well, a more dangerous rival anyway, given Teh Prophecy).

[Jasper]

Definitely.  Although I'm still not sure if there's something that's different in this text from the original that's making QQ less pathetic.  I mean, he was really pathetic in Rowling's.

[Cain]

Well in this, QQ is a fully fledged Battle Mage with experience in martial arts, a keen mind and what seems to be an extraordinarily genre savvy villain sitting in his head.

In the book, as I recall, Rowling was writing for young children, and thus scary and competent were rarely allowed to meet, except in the special case of Snape who wasn't ever a villain anyway.

[Jasper]

There's that too.  In this rewrite, almost everyone is scary competent.  Makes for a fun read.

[Kai]

Wastelands of Time was awesome. I love how the author doesn't reveal everything near the beginning, so as time goes on, more and more amazing shit starts happening. By the time the end of the Atlantis sequence is over, breaking and entering a millennia old roman library seems like a walk in the park. And lo, Potter, nearly a god, having destroyed Time and remade it in his image, stands on the bridge of a flying Atlantean battlecruiser with 8 wands floating around him saying "bring it" to a city sized demon, high above London.

Pretty good fucking set up for an epic battle.

[Cain]

Yudowsky favourited another fic which is quite similar to The Wastelands of Time, Backwards With Purpose.  Same basic premise of time travel, but going back further and only once.  Slowly but steadily going somewhere.

Also finally recognized where I knew Yudowsky's name and writing style from.  Turns out I've had a paper of his on my HD for the past three years, documenting cognitive biases and how they impact on the assessment of global risks.

[Cain]

"Professor Quirrell, this is insanity," Draco said flatly. "This isn't Slytherin any more, it's just..." Draco was at a loss for words. He waved his hands helplessly. "You can't possibly do any real plots with all this stuff going on. Last battle, one of my soldiers faked his own suicide. We have Hufflepuffs trying to plot, and they think they can, but they can't. Things just happen at random now, it doesn't have anything to do with who's cleverest, or which army fights best, it's..." He couldn't even describe it.

"I agree with Mr. Malfoy," said Granger in the tones of someone who hadn't ever expected to hear herself saying those words. "Allowing traitors isn't working, Professor Quirrell."

Draco had tried forbidding anyone in his army to plot except him, and that had just driven the plots underground, no one wanted to be left out when the soldiers in other armies got to plot. After miserably losing their last battle, he'd finally given in and revoked his decree; but by then his soldiers had already started setting their own personal plans in motion, without any sort of central coordination.

After being told all the plans, or what his soldiers claimed were their plans, Draco had tried to sketch a plot to win the final battle. It had required considerably more than three different things to go right, and Draco had used Incendio on the paper and Everto to vanish the ashes, because if Father had seen it he would have been disowned.

Professor Quirrell's eyelids were half-closed, his chin resting on his hands as he leaned forward onto his desk. "And you, Mr. Potter?" said the Defense Professor. "Are you likewise in agreement?"

"All we'd need to do is shoot Franz Ferdinand and we could start World War One," said Harry. "It's gone to complete chaos. I'm all for it."

I laffed, hard.  This Harry Potter is so totally a Discordian.

Edit: I should really read the whole thing before quoting extracts, because this reminds me of something at my University:

Professor Quirrell's eyes moved beneath their lids to regard Draco, and then Granger. "In truth, Mr. Malfoy, Miss Granger, I simply could not live with myself if I shut down the grand debacle before its climax. One of your soldiers has even become a quadruple agent."

"Quadruple?" said Granger. "But there's only three sides in the war!"

"Yes," said Professor Quirrell, "you'd think that, wouldn't you. I am not sure that there has ever in history been a quadruple agent, or any army with such a high fraction of real and pretended traitors. We are exploring new realms, Miss Granger, and we cannot turn back now."

[Juana]

This chapter was awesome.  And there was a line reminiscent of imposition of order = escalation of disorder. One word difference, practically.

[Cain]

Our University games of Assassin generally dissolved into Thirty Xanatos Pileups like that.  They were good times.

[Jasper]

This chapter totally made me want to start work on a throne. 

[Kai]

Our University games of Assassin generally dissolved into Thirty Xanatos Pileups like that.  They were good times.

But this is the most amazing Thirty Xanatos Pileup I've ever seen. 

I'm calling that blaise shoots himself for both chaos and dragon. 

[Kai]

WAIT, what if he killed himself for a different army than the three?