I know exactly what you mean, although I don’t recall it happening during HPMOR (possibly because it’s been so long since I read it.) Out of curiosity, what caused it to fail this test for you?
First let me say that I hold HPMoR, being what it is, to a higher standard than I hold, say, The Dresden Files. HPMoR is in no small part a tract preaching a position regarding rationality. Harry Dresden doing something excessively deontoloical is a minor irritant but MoR!Harry doing something irrational (if combined with narrator approval) is enough to make me put the fanfic aside for a few weeks till the foul taste dissipates.
The most notable example is the chapter when Hermione panics in response to finding out that Harry is experimenting with transfiguration. This is (so far, from what I have seen) given full endorsement as the sane thing for Hermione to do. But to me it seems insanely reckless. She runs in and disrupts an active transfiguration experiment by doing exactly the thing that could result in the potentially disastrous consequences. (I have most likely written up what Hermione could have done to actually mitigate risk once she noticed the danger.)
The morals of that chapter were (apparently):
Doing experiments like what Harry was doing is irresponsible. Don’t! (Good lesson.)
When you notice a threat you should PANIC! Take your fight and flight instincts, lock them in ‘fight’ and proceed to turn off all your higher brain functions. Don’t worry if your ‘solution’ is itself destructive, dangerous or batshit insane. (Bad lesson.)
Ah, right. I assumed that was Hermione being Hermione, and not being endorsed just because Harry was, in fact, being irresponsible.
Thinking back, I think I was giving EY noticeably more in the way of “benefit of the doubt” than I usually would, probably because the rest had been so, well, rational. (That said, I was quite annoyed at the retcons made to reinforce the narrative of “The Enlightenment versus Death”.)
First let me say that I hold HPMoR, being what it is, to a higher standard than I hold, say, The Dresden Files. HPMoR is in no small part a tract preaching a position regarding rationality. Harry Dresden doing something excessively deontoloical is a minor irritant but MoR!Harry doing something irrational (if combined with narrator approval) is enough to make me put the fanfic aside for a few weeks till the foul taste dissipates.
The most notable example is the chapter when Hermione panics in response to finding out that Harry is experimenting with transfiguration. This is (so far, from what I have seen) given full endorsement as the sane thing for Hermione to do. But to me it seems insanely reckless. She runs in and disrupts an active transfiguration experiment by doing exactly the thing that could result in the potentially disastrous consequences. (I have most likely written up what Hermione could have done to actually mitigate risk once she noticed the danger.)
The morals of that chapter were (apparently):
Doing experiments like what Harry was doing is irresponsible. Don’t! (Good lesson.)
When you notice a threat you should PANIC! Take your fight and flight instincts, lock them in ‘fight’ and proceed to turn off all your higher brain functions. Don’t worry if your ‘solution’ is itself destructive, dangerous or batshit insane. (Bad lesson.)
Ah, right. I assumed that was Hermione being Hermione, and not being endorsed just because Harry was, in fact, being irresponsible.
Thinking back, I think I was giving EY noticeably more in the way of “benefit of the doubt” than I usually would, probably because the rest had been so, well, rational. (That said, I was quite annoyed at the retcons made to reinforce the narrative of “The Enlightenment versus Death”.)