flash bastard

This journal is now only used for commenting. All old entries are friendslocked and I no longer really add anyone. Thanks for the memories!

You can now find me at http://amber.dreamdwidth.org
I don't crosspost, but you can add dw_bentley to read my Dreamwidth entries.
I still read this Friends List but I don't spend as much time or attention on it.

If you are linked to a locked entry and want it unlocked, feel free to comment here and ask.

( links, fanlistings, & credit )

every so often I feel the need to update my LJ because I'm worried if I don't it will just get deactivated, even though I know there are journals sitting unused on the site since 1999 with about 4 entries.

I fell out of fandom a little bit but I do like to read about your lives and interesting political views etc etc etc. meanwhile I am, what? working, 80% of the time. writing bits of scripts on my iPhone and watching too much TV in the rest.

there is like this list of tiny fandoms I still voraciously want to read good fic for: Community, The Big Bang Theory, Misfits, Wolf House, The Hunger Games, misc RPF. I fell out of Merlin fandom but I keep getting reviews in my inbox - nothing makes me feel guilty like pleas for some of the kinkmeme fic I wrote anonymously and abandoned.

I update Dreamwidth like a fraction more than I post here, haha. mostly Tumblr and Twitter are my social network of choice, because I can be fannish and interactive without a lot of time/effort.

insert meme here. yeah.

I've had a LiveJournal for almost eight years now. I've given them hundreds of dollars, made thousands of posts and tens of thousands of comments, helped out in Support, brought in new users, created alternate journals and multiple communities, and generally made it my home on the internet, the base from which all my other online activities extend.

So why the hell am I moving to Dreamwidth?

( In two words? It's better. Want more? How about five reasons. )

When I actually get a journal there, I'll post a guide to how you can follow and comment on my posts without having to create your own Dreamwidth identity. The site is in Closed Beta at the moment, and when it moves to Open Beta accounts will only available with an invite code or through buying a Paid Account (minimum US$3.) I plan on doing the latter. I'll be prioritizing close friends and people I want to see on the site for invite codes when they're scarce, but later I'll be posting again here offering a code for anyone who wants one, regardless of whether or not I know you (as I did for Inksome.)

So that's why I'm moving to Dreamwidth! And why I'm so incredibly excited about it (this entry doesn't have nearly as many caps and exclamation points as it deserves). Despite the fact that me moving and you staying wouldn't make any difference to our interactions, I hope you choose to follow me in creating and using an account there, for whatever reason.

Dear fandom, internet, and geek population at large.

Liking things is not a competition. It doesn't matter whether you saw it first or know more obscure references. It's nice of you to share, of course, but there are no nerd-ranks, no prizes for having played more video games or read more DC or for liking a character the most. Boasting won't help you win friends and influence people.

Unless you created it yourself, you're still just a fan amongst hundreds of fans. It's nice to know other people like things you like, and it's nice to try and introduce them to other stuff they'll like. But don't expect accolades for having had the good fortune to hear about a show/band/comic/movie/book/etc first.

Not everyone noticed that minor artistic detail on page #239 which has completely changed the way you interpreted Character Z. In fact, not everyone interprets things "correctly" (ie, the way you do.) That doesn't make you a superior person. You're still writing fanfiction, or pretending to be a character on the internet, or any number of things that baffle the "normal" population of the world.

Instead of acting like insecure children one-upping each other, let's all just share, and enjoy, and have fun in our hobby, okay? There are more important things.

♥, Greenie.

Last time I did this, it was to argue that Remus was evil, and that was Moony’s fault as well.

The following contains references to all five books, and under the cut is an extract from JKR’s website and an analysis of the American cover of HBP that may be construed, for the very paranoid, as spoilers. You have been warned.

This sacrifice turned out to be vitally important, for it was the ancient magic of this act that protected the child. When Voldemort's Avada Kedavra curse hit Harry, the protection of Lily's sacrifice made the curse rebound onto Voldemort, who was all but killed. The curse left a curse scar in the shape of a lightning bolt on Harry's forehead.
- from the Harry Potter Lexicon.

Recently, I asked my friends list why they thought Voldemort was "killed" that night in Godric's Hollow. (Or at least, injured enough to need to possess animals and disappear for about ten years.) The answer was basically the same as what the Lexicon has to say. However I believe that this is another example of fanon, fandom and the movies digging into the perception of canon.

Dumbledore says: “Your mother died to save you. If there is one thing Voldemort cannot understand, it is love. He didn’t realise that a love so powerful as your mother’s for you leaves its own mark. Not a scar, not a visible sign… to have been loved so deeply, even though the person who loved us is gone, will give us some protection forever. It is in your very skin. Quirrell, full of hatred, greed and ambition could not touch you for this reason. It was agony to touch a person marked by something so good.” [PS/SS.]

However I do not believe that this “marking” is why the curse injured Voldemort – nor indeed that is the true reason the curse rebounded and set the prophecy in motion in the first place.

So what was the real reason? Dumbledore says “We can only guess… we may never know.” [PS/SS.] JKR says “for some mysterious reason, the curse didn't work on Harry.” Dumbledore is unsure about it for so long in the books – surely the solution of Lily dying for Harry would have been obvious from the very first? Voldemort, too, is confused as to why the curse rebounded and killed him.

It is Harry who makes the assumption that fandom believes as fact. “No-one knows why you lost your powers when you attacked me,” said Harry abruptly. “I don’t know myself. But I know why you couldn’t kill me. Because my mother died to save me.” [CoS.]

Riddle muses on this, believing that it was just pure luck. However numerous interviews from JKR state that this is not the case at all; that Harry is an exceptionally powerful wizard who is growing into his powers, and that Voldemort's non-death is important to the future plot.

( a short theory for the contents of HBP )