Voldemort

[black-dog.livejournal.com]

Hello, alt_fen! This looks fun.

There have been a couple of interesting comments about the game’s Voldemort lately. [Bad username or site: @ livejournal.com] in the post below suggests that Voldemort may still be consolidating his power if he’s only recently abolished Muggle Studies, and [Bad username or site: @ livejournal.com] in an associated comment, reminds us that “Voldemort is claiming to be the good guy, who protects and cares for his subjects.”

I'm not sure we have enough info to really run with this yet -- but there’s a really interesting issue here that bears watching as the game develops. And that is that Voldemort as Gothic Bogeyman cannot really survive the experience of Voldemort in Power. This game’s Voldemort is necessarily a politician. He may have dictatorial ambitions, but he has to work with and through other people, other powers. And some of them are potentially independent, unruly, tricky to manage from day to day. This is going to be fascinating to follow along with.

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Point of Parliamentary Inquiry

[black-dog.livejournal.com]

Not sure if this is a legitimate comment or an opportunity for clarifying the alt_fen rules:

In the first version of Hermione's post this morning, she mentioned in detail the elaborate breakfast the House Elves made for her. But the current version has been edited to be more discreet about signs of kindness that might get the Elves -- or someone else -- into trouble.

Is this a case of the "15 minute rule," so that the edit should not be noticed or remarked upon? The indiscretion -- and her second thoughts -- say interesting things about Hermione's character and situation; but this sort of thing may not be legitimately in play for the watcher community. Guidance appreciated!

BLACK

[lapin-agile.livejournal.com]

Interesting update from Lucius!

I remain interested in whether the Order Only spell is working, and on its face, this post would seem (by its account of a Ministry crisis at dark-thirty o'clock; by Lucius' apparent outrage; by its assertion that the Protector's circle has been monitoring Sirius Black's posts, but that they've until now found them benign and judged them likely to alienate rather than draw readers) to indicate that Lucius and Voldemort are wholly unaware of Sirius' Order Only posts.

However.

Might alt_lucius not post exactly this if he and Voldemort have been reading ALL the posts all along? Obviously, Sirius expects to get some reaction: this gives him a predictable and satisfying reaction. Obviously, Voldemort and Lucius have a vested interest in bringing Sirius to ground, in bringing his threat to a quick head that will enable them to crush it once and for all: so it would do no good to tip that they are reading his secret posts, and this response robustly suggests they have not.


I'm not really suggesting that I think the Order Only spell doesn't work. I think it's most likely that it works just as billed. And I suspect that we can take Lucius at his word when he writes, "Meanwhile, this alerts the Ministry to a drawback to the journals, namely their ability to spread rumour, lie, and blatant treason if anyone is so foolish as young Black."


But.

I want to keep myself mindful that there IS another possibility. A possibility that would be fully consistent with Slytherin-style, Death Eater-ish, Dark Lordly behaviour.