Winncast, episode 2

[tawg]

Episode 2, right-click-save

If at any point you wonder why we're talking about past events in the present tense, it's because this was recorded sometime back in January.

Comments

[tawg]

In HP you have a conflict against what is essentially an uber-nationalistic guerilla cell fucking some shit up here and there. Like, their biggest battle was against a school. And you can argue that they infiltrated the wizarding government, but it's implied that the wizarding government is a democracy, and you can't overthrow another state's democratically elected government just for lolz. There is nothing in the HP series that actually warrants international militaristic intervention. Aid? Maaaaaybe but unlikely since the biggest battle was against a high school. Sympathy, probably. But in all honesty, the US or Aus or even Scandinavia turning up and taking on Voldie at any point during the books would be an act of violent oppression against a minority, and an act of war against the UK.

In international relations no conflict is the responsibility of the outside world until it effects the outside world. If the UK wizards can't manage themselves? That's their problem. If the UK government is overthrown? Not anyone else's fault. If people are being killed en masse? Very unfortunate, but it's a time of upheaval and we've long been allies. And when you think about the books, not a lot actually happens in terms of large-scale conflict. It's all small battles and political power struggles. Nothing to justify international intervention.

[dark_dreymer]

Voldemort wasn't necessarily leading armies across the country but he and his death eaters certainly made a lot of high profile assassinations and some big incidents of "OMG Teh Horror!" magic blowing the shit outta stuff. If nothing else, I think the global magical community would need to pay attention because the muggles were noticing something was up. Of course, there were lots of mundane explanation given to keep them quiet, but maintaining the masquerade seems to be the most important priority for all wizards and having some power-hungry, muggle-hating nutjob wandering around recruiting giants, acromantula, dementors and all manner of other nasty magic beasties to fight for him seems like the kind of thing you'd want to nip in the bud before their cover is blown.

[tawg]

Voldemort wasn't necessarily leading armies across the country but he and his death eaters certainly made a lot of high profile assassinations and some big incidents of "OMG Teh Horror!"
Like what? Seriously, their biggest attack was against a freaking school. Some Chechen rebels did that in the late nineties and no one actually knows what happened next - certainly no other nations or states got involved. Voldie was doing small stuff. With a big impact? We can only assume so, as that's what the books presented. But there was nothing actually very big in there. Don't a lot of the general population still think he's dead for most of if not all of the last book?

[dark_dreymer]

There's stuff that made it into the muggle news, the muggle prime minister complains about how he's having to find explainations for preposterous events like a bridge being exploded with magic or a group of giants taking a destructive stroll through a residential area. Again, keeping things hushed up would be a big priority and so I don't think it'd be too unreasonable to send a few agents in from allied countries to bolster the good guy ranks during the struggle.

At the start of the sixth book the ministry is sending pamphlets to people's homes telling them to be on alert for suspicious activity, set up safe words to guard against polyjuice potion etc. I think believing whether Voldemort is alive again or not is rather moot, people knew there was a war going on; it wasn't strictly important which guy was in charge.

[adams_ransom]

My argument boils down to "it wasn't actually a war that was happening".

This was a few years ago (ie, more than five, I think) but when the war on terror started pamphlets got sent out here, and info packs. There were fridge magnets with the number to call if you saw anything suspicious. I honestly think that kind of thing is to look productive rather than to achieve anything.

[dark_dreymer]

I guess my argument boils down to: The global wizarding community has a collective responsibility to keep their world hidden from the muggles. The British ministry was crippled by the actions (or lack of action, rather) taken by Fudge and so Scrimgeour should have been within his rights to request help from other wizarding nations in assisting the Aurors (Who seemed to be spread a bit thin due to some of their number being taken out, others being held up with protection duties of the muggle PM, the Dursleys, etc.) to apprehend a rogue faction who were putting the wizarding masquerade at risk.

Also, how the hell did we get this far off topic? XD

[tawg]

And my response is: that's not how anything actually works.

[dark_dreymer]

My response to that would be that they're fucking wizards and wizard rules don't necesarily have to work the way our legal system and political policies work. I honestly don't give a shit about this one way or the other and was trying to put an end to the debate. Can we just agree to disagree on the matter for now and get back to talking about Glee? Please?

[tawg]

No, because you're wrong :p

Seriously, if you ever want to end a conversation with me, just stop replying. I can guarantee I won't be crying myself to sleep at night because I've been snubbed or anything.

[dark_dreymer]

It's a bit unfair to call me wrong considering the entire subject up for debate is totally hypothetical. None of what I said was anywhere near as outlandish as many of the details that are treated as entirely mundane within the canon.

It's not that I want to end the conversation, I've just grown weary of debating a pointless detail of the HP series. As much as I love the books, I've got nowhere near the tolerance I once had for them and it actually takes a great deal to make me pick one of them up anymore because I get very little joy out of rereading them.

[tawg]

I was teasing, and as a symbol of our friendship - boom, topic closed.