Quoted for Truth

There’s a reason why Madeleine L'Engle’s stories are not only pushed on young readers, but also frequently devoured by them with relish. Like C.S. Lewis and A.A. Milne, her books are engaging diversion when you’re young, and a surprising source of wisdom when you reflect back upon them later in life.

A snippet with implications for RPGs, both table-top and online:

“But I don't believe it and the Happy Medium doesn't believe it, either."

"Can't she see what is going to happen?" Calvin asked.

"Oh, not in this kind of thing," Mrs. Whatsit sounded surprised at his question. "If we knew ahead of time what was going to happen we'd be- we'd be like the people on Camazotz, with no lives of our own, with everything all planned and done for us. How can I explain it to you? Oh, I know. In your language you have a form of poetry called the sonnet."

"Yes, yes," Calvin said impatiently, "What's that got to do with the Happy Medium?"

"Kindly pay me the courtesy of listening to me." Mrs. Whatsit's voice was stern, and for a moment, Calvin stopped pawing the ground like a nervous colt, "It is a very strict form of poetry, is it not?"

"Yes."

"There are fourteen lines, I believe, all in iambic pentameter. There's a very strict rhythm or meter, yes?"

"Yes." Calvin nodded.

"And each line has to end with a rigid rhyme pattern. And if the poet does not do it exactly this way, it is not a sonnet, is it?"

"No."

"But within this strict form the poet has complete freedom to say whatever he wants, doesn't he?"

"Yes." Calvin nodded, again.

"So." Mrs. Whatsit said.

"So what?"

"Oh, do not be stupid, boy!" Mrs. Whatsit scolded. "You know perfectly well what I am driving at!"

"You mean you're comparing our lives to a sonnet? A strict form but freedom within it?"

"Yes," Mrs. Whatsit said. "You're given the form, but you have to write the sonnet yourself. What you say is completely up to you."

- Madeleine L'Engle, A Wrinkle in Time

Thanks to Judd for the reminder, by way of Mr. Donoghue.

Perfidius Ptolus Pics

Don’t let the picture at the top of the page fool you; this is, indeed, another review of the Ptolus campaign setting, and not the comic. And it's a positive review to boot. I suspect we’ll be seeing more of these as reviewers begin to wade through the mountain of material in this product. If you hear of any more, be sure to drop me a line, and I'll pass it on.

Storn’s Before and After

I’m fascinated by the creative process. Storn, art-pusher-in-residence over at RPG.net, recently posted a very detailed character description he received from a client, the pic that he created based upon that description, and a short analysis of both, especially highlighting the differences between the description and the art, and the reasons for them.

And yeah, I'm also a sucker for the Gibson girl look, as well as jackets with shoulderpads. The 80's left us with a generation of warped and twisted young men, I tell you. ;)

Storn’s Catspaw comic also continues to be updated on Wednesdays. Be sure to check it out.

Ptolus Roundup

Those of you that have already taken a gander at the Ptolus review that isn’t here may want to glance back at “Kill the Wizard First”. Mr. Vogel has started a Ptolus campaign and has posted a synopsis of the first game. There are also a handful of mini-reviews of Ptolus to be found in the forums of “Fear the Boot”.

In other news involving exceptionally thick texts and unlimited potential for adventure, Mr. Ralya of “Treasure Tables” got himself married just this past Saturday. Be sure to stop by and wish him and his bride all the best.

Go Tell the Spartans...

At this rate, Frank Miller is going to become known as the most filmable creator in comic books.

I keep watching this trailer. It’s beautifully stylized. It hits the high points of Spartan culture subtly, brushes on the historic significance of the battle of Thermopylae, and the insane courage of the three hundred who stood in that narrow place. It’s an awesome story, all the more amazing for being true, and Frank Miller did incredible work with it.

The Spartans themselves were one of those peoples that make modern historians have little fits. You can see them as the exceptions that make the rules, or the truth that shatters many popular myths: that matriarchal societies are peaceful and gentle, that freedom is a weakness in a violent world, and individuals are powerless in the grip of history.

As someone who has loved mythology since childhood, I eagerly await “Pan’s Labyrinth”. As a history and anthropology geek, I can’t wait to see “Apocalypto”. But right now, “300” is the movie I want to see the most.

Update: And of course right after I post, iFilm takes the video down. Phooey! Keep your eyes open for this one, folks. It looks great.

Don't Go There!

I’d hoped to introduce Fredrik K.T. Andersson’s comic “Pawn” to y’all when he next updated. But that’s not likely to happen soon according to this recent update:

In short, Pawn has attracted more traffic than I expected. With my current webhotel this extra traffic means extra expenses that are way too high. Until I have managed to arrange something more economically feasible I have to temporary take down the site until the problem can be fixed.

This is one of the prices we pay for free goodies on the net. Scott Kurtz early in the life of his comic, "PvP", discussed how success could paradoxically strangle an up-and-coming web comic. Hits eat bandwidth, and somebody has to pay for it. If you’re not able to charge your audience every time they look at your comic, you have to find a way to make up those costs, or pay them directly out of your own pocket.

Mr. Kurtz, and many others, have overcome these obstacles by tackling the funding issue head-on, and treating their comics as profit-making ventures. “PvP” doesn’t get knocked off the net due to heavy traffic because it makes money, which Mr. Kurtz pumps back into comic to buy more bandwidth. In addition, because it makes enough income for him to live on, he can devote more time to it. “PvP” gets updated daily. “Girl Genius”, also a professional, for-profit comic, gets updated three times a week, (six times, if you count the republication of the older material originally released in dead-tree form). Interruptions are rare, quality is high, fans are happy.

Compare this with strictly for-fun web comics. I love “Outsider” and it’s my favorite online comic right now. But updates are infrequent. Arioch needs to eat, pay his bills, all that other fun stuff. “Outsider” gets worked on when Arioch can fit it in, and so it’s probably fairly low on his list of priorities. That’s not to say it’s not important to him. But before he can even put pen to paper, he’s got to make certain there’s food in the fridge and the lights stay on. When Kurtz and Phoglio work on their web comics, they’re doing just that. But every minute Arioch devotes to “Outsider” is costing him money. It’s a minute he could be using to earn cash, or improve his earning potential through education, the maintenance of his health, or finding ways to lower his costs of living. And this sets up a vicious cycle. Money he doesn’t earn can’t be spent on improving the tools he uses to create his comic. Spending time drawing forces him to wait longer to upgrade his computer, or improve his work space, or maintain his health, all of which could make him a more prolific artist and writer.

Part of the problem with “Pawn” stems from the time Mr. Andersson can spend on it. As he says:

I weren't prepared for that BIG bill they dropped on me, since I weren't aware of how much traffic Pawn really attracts. This is my own fault. I should’ve done my homework better.

It’s not that hard to monitor the traffic your website gets. I know right now that the vast majority of my readers hit this blog right now looking for a review of Ptolus. It’s insane how many of you have been coming by to read the Ptolus review I don’t have. (But I’m sure Mr. Vogel has appreciated the traffic I’ve sent his way.) If it wasn’t for Ptolus and succubus porn, and a bit of Dragonlance movie traffic, I’d be all alone in my little troll cave, sobbing softly that nobody ever visited me.

Which is why I don’t agree with Mr. Andersson’s statement that reader donations “would just be a big waste of generous readers’ money.” I disagree. I’d be willing to pay for new “Pawn” material, if I knew that it would be produced more frequently. I wouldn’t pay a lot for it, mind you, but he seems to have enough readers that he might, with judicious marketing, be able to earn enough with “Pawn” that he won’t have to worry about bandwidth costs. Mr. Andersson might even be able to afford to spend more time on it. If Mr. Andersson is adverse to making people pay for the comic itself, he can go the same route as Mr. Phoglio and sell related merchandise. He could also sell advertising on his page, though the mildly erotic themes of his work might make that a tad more difficult.

My point is, making money off a web comic isn’t selling out. Perverting the comic against its basic themes in order to make more money would be. But cashing in on its current popularity seems like a win-win scenario: fans get more “Pawn” and Mr. Andersson gets to spend more time pursuing his art.

Cool Quote

I always felt though that I wanted to live a brilliant life you know and I sort of figured why bother living if you’re not going to try to like do something wonderful. - David Winer

Find the entire interview this quote came from, and others like it, here.

No Ptolus Review Here

Sorry, but I simply don't have the sort of disposable income required to pick up a book like that, especially one I'm unlikely to use. Only once have I DMed a campaign out of a box, and only briefly at that. Still, it does look like a yummy thing, full of cool ideas, so I'm eager to hear what others are saying about it myself.

With any luck, we may have a review at Kill the Wizard First, sometime in the near future.

No pressure, Mr. Vogel. ;)

UPDATE: Get your Ptolus review right here: My god, it's full of awesome.

AKA, one more excuse to finally do what you know you want to do, have wanted to do since you first got a glimmer of what Monte was up to. Yes, I can feel your RPG-book lust flow through you. Type in Monte's URL and your journey to the dark side will be complete! ;D

True20 Feats Categorized

Over on the True20 forums, Bhikku writes:

If you're anything like me, you're using True 20 to introduce new players to your favorite hobby. But if your new players are anything like mine, they're a little overwhelmed by a huge menu of choices - particularly when it comes to feats. Sure, the role-specific feat lists are elegant yet comprehensive, but my players have been prone to passing up general feats that would serve their concepts quite well simply because the list is a little intimidating. And so many of the feats are combat-oriented that a player looking to enhance her hero's integration into the setting & its societies has difficulty locating her kind of feats - while, on the other hand, the adept who wants to gain a slight edge in combat wants to see all of his preferred feats at once.

There's no perfect solution, but here's at least a decent one. I've broken the General Feats list down into a few smaller, thematic lists.

What follows is a categorized list of the general feats. It certainly looks much friendlier to me. If you're a True20 fan, check it out.

Dragonlance Movie Concept Art

Finally, we get a hint of what some of the major characters will look like. Keep in mind that this is black-and-white concept art still. Not final versions. Frankly, we won't be able to say much about the quality until we can see the final versions on the final background moving about. Animation is tricky that way. Something that looks great standing still could be horrible in motion, and vice versa.

That said, what I see here strongly reminds me of the old Hanna-Barbera stuff from the 80's. No, not the wonky Captain Caveman much loved by the Trollwife, but the more realistic, "dramatic" shapes. Anyone worried about a strong anime influence can probably relax. Not an oversized eye to be seen. And I'm not seeing much toy-manufacturer influence either; the weapons are properly proportioned to the bodies, instead of being oversized and unwieldy. This makes me even more curious about how the characters will move. If I never see anyone do a summersault through the air during a battle scene, I'll be a much happier Troll. ;)

Things That Make You Go, "Maybe Cool."

First, there’s this from Microsoft, via f13. Stephen Zepp of Garage Games has this to say in the comments:

Basically what it boils down to is that this version of the framework is not intended to make game developers money in the short term. You cannot sell your games via the Express version, and you cannot (currently) even distribute outside of the Live Arcade interface. the purpose behind this is to get the power and money of Microsoft behind a gaming industry grass roots movment back towards innovation and gameplay instead of sequels and multi-million dollar budgets.

This might be a big deal. And it might not. This isn’t a magical ap that allows you to build a game without coding. It is the magical ap that allows people who want to code the opportunity to share their joy with x-box users. It will allow the kid today who wants to be a game programmer the chance to show up for his first job interview with a portfolio in hand. It will probably allow the half-mad genius with the new spin on computer gaming the desperately needed opportunity to break into the mainstream.

I’m still trying to decide if that’s a good idea or not. It probably is. Mainstream computer games certainly need the shot in the arm.

And speaking of shots in the arm, two of my favorite computer game makers, Bioware and Simutronics, aren’t exactly teaming up, but do seem to be splashing in the same puddles here. (Via the Ziggurat of Doom!) I like that Bioware isn’t interested in spending resources reinventing the wheel. But we’ll have to see if this here HeroEngine thingy is what Bioware needs and if it’s stable enough and easy enough to use for it to actually be useful. Neither outfit is a bunch of young punks hacking code in a basement. So ease of use and stability are probably there. I’m very curious to see what Bioware, a company famous for the depth and story of their RPGs, does with a MMOG. I doubt it will be the online LARP I’m waiting for, but I’m hopeful.

Catching Up with the Dragonlance Movie

Ugh! I let myself get sick, and I fall so far behind. :p

Ok, lots of movement on the Dragonlance movie since last I updated. First, Keifer “Jack Bauer” Sutherland is voicing Raistlin. A good choice, I think. He may be the man from “24” to most folks, but I’ll always think of him as the leader of the “Lost Boys”. The rest of the cast list can be found here, complete with links to their IMDB profiles. Just clicking a few at random, it looks like almost all of them have pretty heavy voice acting résumés.

On the art front, there’s still not much info yet. Kunoichi Creative, the company handling the animation, did post on the official forums to try to quiet fears of a “manga” style Dragonlance. Frankly, I wouldn’t have minded something reminiscent of “Record of Lodoss War”, but I can certainly understand how some people feel anime is a fad whose time has passed. I don’t agree, mind you, but it is everywhere these days in the USA.

Words are nice, but nothing compares to seeing the actual work itself. As it so happens, both Weis and Hickman make “cameo” appearances in the movie, and you can see how they were rendered by the artists here. Not bad. I certainly don’t want to stab my eyes out. The clothing is the odd, anachronistic mishmash one expects to find at Renaissance faires, which is a tad disappointing. I doubt we’ll see much, if any, influence from Elmore or Caldwell. There’s some concern that they look too bright and clean, but I suspect we see them early in the movie before all the horror and war have begun. Still, I'm not expecting to see a Frazetta brought to life here. I very much want to catch of glimpse of these figures in motion, what the backgrounds will look like, and I’m especially curious about the dragons. Dragons are not easy to draw well, and I’ve seen some real stinkers, even from professionals who make their livings creating fantasy art. (My favorite dragons are those done by Den Beauvais, especially the ones appearing on the covers of Dragon Magazine back in the ‘80’s.)

Build Your Own Space Opera Show

Over on her live journal, 3jane wrote:

So, having bitched about SG1/SGA, I then sat down to think about what I do and don't like about them, which blends nicely with my tendency to wander back and forth from campus while listening to various geek mixes on my iPod and contemplating what I do and don't like about other space operas. And so, in the spirit of how I vaguely understand fantasy football to work, I'm attempting a fantasy space opera, pulling elements I like from individual shows. (And because one can't play fantasy football/fantasy space opera alone, I hereby invite others to play.)

So, limiting myself to TV, just as a matter of practical necessity, what do I choose?

Dr. Who: Diverse cultures, alien aliens, extended stories that aren’t tied up all nice and neat at the end of an episode, likeable but not always understandable heroes, and a slightly offbeat sense of humor and fashion.

Blake’s 7: Utter scoundrels for “heroes” like Avon, and sleek, cool villains like Servelan who you still admire, even as you recognize that both sorts are moral cripples.

Original Star Trek: Being out on the edge, pushing the envelope, seeing things that no one else has ever seen before. The mutability of cultures. The importance of principles. Starships and faster-than-light travel, though I think I prefer the hyperspace technology of…

Babylon 5: Oh, where to start? Talk about an embarrassment of riches! The courage to not be what everyone expects. A real, serial story with a beginning, middle, and end. Mystery and ancient civilizations. Romance. Moral dilemma that can’t be easily resolved. Facing the tough choices and then enduring the consequences of those choices. Aliens that don’t act like people. Aliens that don’t look like people. Real science. No magical shields. Exceptional music. Better-than-average special effects. Original starship designs. Great costuming. Truth. The willingness to do unpleasant things to characters, cultures, entire planets when the story demands it. Heart-lifting victory. Heart-rending tragedy.

Andromeda: Peoples who are not nice, but must be dealt with, and not merely as villains.

Babylon 5 – Crusade: The mythic quest, in almost Arthurian style.

Legend of the Galactic Heroes: Broad, sweeping saga, huge cast, conflicted heroes, opposing heroes who are both worthy of victory, and the evil of corrupted and powerful individuals.

Vision of Escaflowne: Personal tragedy, swashbuckling adventure, fanciful technology, giant mecha, personal redemption, and science that acts like magic, tinkering with the very forces of fate itself.

Macross – Plus: Stories about people! Not machines or technologies or special effects.

Ghost in the Shell: Blurring the lines between people and machines. ;)

Firefly: Rogues, barely scraping by and holding their ship together with duct-tape and chickenwire. The nobility of common people, commerce, and trust.

Got a list of your own?

"If you ever wanted to go and live on Babylon 5, you will have your chance."

So there’s talk now about a Babylon 5 massively multiplayer game. It’s all rumor right now, so of course I’m going to jump into the feeding frenzy, such as it is, with both feet.

I love B5. It may be the best TV I’ve ever watched. It certainly ranks up there in the top three for fiction. But I’ve rarely felt compelled to roleplay in the B5 universe. What would I do? Oh, I suppose finishing out the “Crusade” storyline could be fun, and there are lots of neat avenues to explore, places to go, that sort of thing. But there are also some pretty strict limits on what you can do in that universe, and they chafe a bit when I think about building a campaign. So my opinion here might be biased. That being said:

What the hell do you do in a Babylon 5 MMORPG?

Seriously. I mean, most MMORPGs are the worst parts of computer RPGs, yielding an endless sequence of killing things and taking their stuff. Story and consequence (beyond your own advancement) are non-existent. It’s like computer RPG makers can’t even conceive of anything that isn’t firmly railroaded, so if you can’t railroad, there’s no point in creating anything that looks like a story. If you’re coming at these games from a table top perspective, it’s enough to make you cry.

But story is the heart of B5. It’s always been about making the tough choices, having your convictions and beliefs challenged, about growing as a person. Who are you? And what do your answers to that question mean? What do you want? And how much are you willing to give up for it?

That last is very important. Mr. Straczynski was enamored of the lone man in the narrow place, holding it against the endless horde of enemies. Horatius at the bridge, the Spartans at Thermopylae, the Alamo, where a handful stood against far greater numbers and withheld the charge. That’s what all the ramming was about. It wasn’t that crashing ships together was a great tactic, but rather it showed just what the captain and crew of the ramming ship were willing to lose in order to achieve their desire. It demonstrated in unequivocal terms exactly what was at stake, and how dearly the combatants held to what they believed in.

But what does that mean in your average MMORPG, where everyone is effectively immortal? Will ships ram together, only for their crews to rez and then rush into each other again? How do you ‘level up’ in the universe of Babylon 5? What will you kill? What will you take from dead? I can’t see where B5 offers any sort of easy, recursive entertainment which to date has been the hallmark of MMORPGs. I don’t see how you can create B5 entertainment without addressing the issues of loss and sacrifice. I don’t see how you can create a MMORPG that will touch either loss or sacrifice in any meaningful way with a ten foot pole. I love B5, but with the current state of the computer game industry, B5 feels like an even worse theme for a MMORPG than Star Trek.

DMing for Dummies

Steve S. has posted a review of another “…for Dummies” book aimed at the RPG market, Dungeon Master for Dummies. He gives it a fairly glowing review:

I am a little surprised at my reaction to this book. Considering the size of the book and the quality of the contents, Dungeon Master for Dummies may be the best "how to run a role playing game" book published to date.

I haven’t read it myself, but I’m a fan of some of Mr. Baker’s other work. There are only two reviews so far at Amazon, and they’re split. I’ve had good experience with other Dummies books in the past, so I’m curious about this one. Steve’s review certainly makes it seem a lot meatier than I would have expected.

Speaking of Amazon, while I was convalescing, I reread Fritz Leiber’s Swords of Lankhmar. Amazon, amazingly enough, seemed to be lacking a review of that book, so I rectified the situation.

New Blog on the Block

There's a new voice in the blogosphere. J. Vogel has just created "Kill the Wizard First", his new blog, which is a bit more focused on actually playing RPGs than Trollsmyth. The first post gives us a clear indication of Vogel's point of view:

Chargen

That magical time when you take the brilliant, original, and interesting concept in your head, then grab a sledgehammer and crowbar and try to wedge it into a system that was clearly written for emotionally immature powergamers, then run it by your GM who promptly starts thinking up all the horrible ways it can be killed, then introduce it to the rest of the party and realize that your dark, amoral pragmatist is in a group with a paladin and a cleric of holy light.

Anyway, the point is, I have a new blog. And here it is.

Clearly, this is someone who actually games. And I love the url: http://www.diepointyhat.com/

Behold the Lego Carnage!

This has got to be one of the coolest things I’ve ever seen. If you think Vincent “Lumpley” Baker is too submerged in his world of cant and theory to actually recall that games are supposed to be, you know, fun, this should change your mind. A table-top fighting mecha Lego game. I haven’t played it yet, but I am in awe of the rules. Elegant, simple, and slick. You can see how these hang together, how choosing each option is an exercise in weighing costs and benefits. It’s a work of art. But better than some old stuffy panting of red square meets blue circle hanging in the Guggenheim, this work of art encourages you to buy Legos and taunt your friends as you deliver unto them your unholy plastic brick smackdown!

Weis Approves of Dragonlance Movie Script

SciFi.com, quickly becoming the best alternative source for news on the Dragonlance movies, has posted a few comments from Margaret Weis. Her words almost seem to be in response to some fan consternation about Dragonlance being turned into “a cartoon”. Weis, however, remains unpeturbed:

Author Margaret Weis told SCI FI Wire that the upcoming film version of her book Dragons of Autumn Twilight necessarily cuts a lot of the book's plot to make it fit into 90 minutes, but, she added: "I read the script, and I like it. It's very faithful to the book."

This generally fits the vague statements coming from Hickman in his podcasts. Still no examples of character design or artwork. If any of you see something before we do, be sure to let us trolls know.

American Superheroes - Happy Birthday to the USA

Over at Aint It Cool News the crew have each listed the ten movies that best represent America to them. The Superman movies, of course, made the list for many of them. In spite of the intentions of the makers of the current movie, Superman remains an American hero: an immigrant who has embraced the ideals, rituals, and mythology of his adopted home, while bringing the best of his original home with him. It has often been said the USA is a nation not of tribe, but of ideas. The only thing necessary to truly be an American is to adopt and hold dear the ideas upon which our country is founded, described best in the preamble to our Declaration of Independence. Actual citizenship is a legal technicality. I suspect there are undocumented Americans scattered across the globe.

I am shocked, shocked, that “Casablanca” wasn’t listed by any of them. Is there a more apt idealization of America? A little rough around the edges, not quite respectable, with a tortured past best not talked about. Looking for the good life, and doing what it takes to build a seedy little paradise of excess and good times upon a foundation of tight-fisted finances and an almost puritan work ethic. Being dragged into the messes of the wider world, knowing it’s the right thing to do, knowing old friendships require it and the future demands it, but dammit, just wanting to be left alone to pursue the dreams kept for decades, now a little worn around the edges and tarnished, but still there, beneath the pillow, kissed every night before settling in to sleep.

But that was then, and today, few Americans hold so fast to the ideals of seclusion and ignorance that seemed so seductive in the nineteen-thirties. Today, if you asked me to point to one movie that looked like America to me, I’d go back to the superheroes, and choose the second of the Spider-Man movies. Doing the right thing is a bitch, and Peter Parker’s tired of it. It’s making him ill, and even those amazing powers that at first imposed extra responsibility on him seem to have deserted him. Wouldn’t it be better to just leave it all behind and nurture those smaller, more pleasant dreams, and pretend that the waking nightmares of the world aren’t our problem?

But of course, that’s never really an option. With great power does come great responsibility. Spider-Man is motivated, like America, by a complex mingling of compassion, righteous indignation, hope, and self interest. He can’t save the world, and even when choosing the right thing, he sometimes has to do an evil thing, like kill his best friend’s father. And he knows he’ll have to pay for that, some day. Doing the right thing is never easy. But the world needs heroes.

And those heroes must live by a code. Both Spider-Man and Superman are bedeviled by foes who seek to use their compassion against them. Rescuing innocent bystanders strains Spider-Man to his limits. But that is no weakness. It is a strength. Today, we hear how our infatuation with rights leaves us weak and divided before our enemies. Well, back during the Cold War, we were told that our infatuation with freedom left us disorganized and weak-willed in the face of communism’s disciplined and efficient central planning. We all know how that turned out. The frothy chaos of free enterprise gave birth to the computer revolution, the internet, biochemistry, and other wonders that didn’t even exist twenty years ago, while in the Soviet Union, the people pretended to work and the government pretended to pay them. Central planning ground its victims into dust, and then choked in that stale, grey cloud.

So yeah, we’ll argue vigorously, even viciously, about what to do and how to do it. Which means we won’t move without forethought, and we won’t rest in our ruts. We will always be questioning, weighing, planning, thinking, and dreaming of new and better ways to achieve our goals. We’ll build smarter weapons, train smarter soldiers, worry about getting it wrong, and we will get it wrong. Many times. But we’ll try not to make the same mistakes again. Our enemies won’t care, and so they won’t improve. Conserving effort is only half the equation in efficiency. The other half is increasing effectiveness.

So we’ll muddle through the problems of having a free press and not wanting to harm the innocent. Like Spider-Man’s effort to save the train, it’s gonna hurt, and it won’t be easy. But we’ll be better for it, in the end. Freedom and compassion are not weaknesses. The fact that our enemies think they are is the primary reason they must be fought.

Potter Speculatin'

There’s been a lot of talk lately about Rowling’s intimations of the death of Harry Potter in the last book. Most of the conversation appears to be coming from a moral viewpoint; what sort of lesson does it teach if Harry dies?

I haven’t seen much tackling the literary aspects of it. Frankly, I’ve been pretty certain that either Harry or Ron was going to die before the end of the series. There have been some strong intimations of it since the first book. Remember the life-sized chess match, when Harry, Ron, and Hermione were trying to get to the philosopher’s stone? The one where Harry had to sacrifice Ron in order to make it through?

Yeah.

And how far would Harry go, do you think, to slay Voldemort? Or, heavens help us, poor Snape? (C’mon, surely everyone has figured out what was really going on between Snape and Dumbledore in the Headmaster’s final moments. One wonders if Draco will prove worthy of the sacrifice.) Harry’s had a very dark streak in him since day one, and it’s only gotten worse as he’s gotten older. How much of it is just himself, and how much is his link to Voldemort?

Would Voldemort be willing to die if by such an act he corrupted Harry enough to continue his work? Or, for that matter, can Voldemort be slain without killing Harry? I think this is an even more vital issue. The two are linked, by Voldemort’s attempt to slay Harry and the later ritual that used some of Harry’s blood to resurrect Voldemort. Over the course of the books, it’s almost seemed to me that you can’t kill one without killing the other. But can Voldemort be imprisoned? The baleful guards of Azkaban have already proven their allegiance to Voldemort, and so he clearly cannot be incarcerated there. Is there another way, a safe way, to seal him away where he can never escape again?

The triangle is the most unstable shape in literature. Even with the addition of Ginny to the Ron-Harry-Hermione matrix, the shape still feels untrustworthy. But then, misdirection of this sort has always been one of Rowling’s great strengths as an author. What sort of a fall have we been set up for this time? We all know how these sorts of stories are supposed to end. How is Rowling using our expectations to distract us from the important matters at hand? I, for one, can’t wait to find out.