A nice touch when Harry is fighting the troll: When he engages his killer instinct, from then on the troll is only referred to as the “enemy”, in one case even with a capital E.
Interestingly, while Harry explicitly mentions “censors off” (concerning no more screening off of potential killing methods), that mode of thinking also engages other filters, dehumanizing (de-troll-izing) the creature he’s fighting and only seeing it as “the Enemy”.
My explicit hope is that Harry is doing that intentionally, after carefully determining whether the troll needs to die or not. For (what I think is) the purpose of increasing his chance of success. He seems exactly the kind of guy who’d temporarily manipulate and self-decieve himself for high instrumental utility, and has demonstrated the ability in the past (with the Dementors in TSPE). The main competing hypothesis is rationalizations from an influential Dark Side, which seems less likely. (~10%)
A nice touch when Harry is fighting the troll: When he engages his killer instinct, from then on the troll is only referred to as the “enemy”, in one case even with a capital E.
Interestingly, while Harry explicitly mentions “censors off” (concerning no more screening off of potential killing methods), that mode of thinking also engages other filters, dehumanizing (de-troll-izing) the creature he’s fighting and only seeing it as “the Enemy”.
Another nice touch: Quirrell’s thoughts do the same.
My explicit hope is that Harry is doing that intentionally, after carefully determining whether the troll needs to die or not. For (what I think is) the purpose of increasing his chance of success. He seems exactly the kind of guy who’d temporarily manipulate and self-decieve himself for high instrumental utility, and has demonstrated the ability in the past (with the Dementors in TSPE). The main competing hypothesis is rationalizations from an influential Dark Side, which seems less likely. (~10%)
He’d already thought “action.run: twins get eaten”. so...yeah.