Current Events > The house point system in Hogwarts is the stupidest thing

(+) Yeah! (+)

"Bawww Slytherin always wins the house cup every year and we don't know why"

"50 points from MY OWN HOUSE......EACH"

This system makes absolutely no sense if the teachers are affiliated with a house and can freely give/remove points

Smh, another year, another reminder of why my beloved Harry Potter books are hacks
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It's a hack cause Dumblydore chose favorites and awarded Gryffindor 160 points for breaking school rules so that they'd beat Slytherin.
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harry potter is bad
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Well if this isnt the biggest plot hole ever
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drunkmuggle posted...

harry potter is bad

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"You defeated an ancient evil and saved the entire school. 200 points."
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No the points system is fairly reasonable as a quirk of such an old school. The fact that teachers are allowed to show blatant favoritism isn't.

"You hit puberty. 300 points!"
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Phantom_Nook posted...

"You defeated an ancient evil and saved the entire school. 200 points."

"You personally defeated an ancient evil and saved the entire school because you were literally destined to do so. That's definitely the whole house's contribution"
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"you made out with someone out of your league.

But that is considered rape so your house loses 400 points."
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You snuck out at night for some undisclosed reason
50 points each

No fucking wonder yall keep losing, Slytherin students are probably the only ones who act fucking normal
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JE19426 posted...

No the points system is fairly reasonable as a quirk of such an old school. The fact that teachers are allowed to show blatant favoritism isn't.

People keep saying this but what high schools did you all go to? At my school the same teacher could hand out a suspension to kid A while giving kid B a playful punch on the arm and a "don't do it again" while winking over the exact same crime, all because kid B was captain of the hockey team.
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pinky0926 posted...

JE19426 posted...

No the points system is fairly reasonable as a quirk of such an old school. The fact that teachers are allowed to show blatant favoritism isn't.

People keep saying this but what high schools did you all go to? At my school the same teacher could hand out a suspension to kid A while giving kid B a playful punch on the arm and a "don't do it again" while winking over the exact same crime, all because kid B was captain of the hockey team.

Serious question: do Scottish high schools really serve whisky
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pinky0926 posted...

People keep saying this but what high schools did you all go to? At my school the same teacher could hand out a suspension to kid A while giving kid B a playful punch on the arm and a "don't do it again" while winking over the exact same crime, all because kid B was captain of the hockey team.

Up until I read this post I'd have said that my school was a terrible one. Since my school didn't allow such blatant favoritism, I guess it wasn't so bad.

You realize this system is something that is in place in actual schools over there...

GiftedACIII posted...

You personally defeated an ancient evil and saved the entire school because you were literally destined to do so. That's definitely the whole house's contribution"

Also wat.
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josifrees posted...

Serious question: do Scottish high schools really serve whisky

In your final year when you're 18 I could see whisky being served with dinner, maybe as gravy for haggis. And no I'm not fucking with you, but it would have to be a special occasion and a posh school. I seem to remember having whisky with a Burns supper at some point.

JE19426 posted...

Up until I read this post I'd have said that my school was a terrible one. Since my school didn't allow such blatant favoritism, I guess it wasn't so bad.

Case in point to this entire discussion. My older brother was the perceived model student. Head of house, good at sports, not that academic but all round tried hard at most things. And I was the bohemian reprobate. Good academically and at arts and music but usually didn't hand my homework in and had nothing to do with sports.

My brother told me once that a certain teacher said to him "If I walked into the room and you had a glass of brandy and a cigar, I'd think that's a classy way to have a vice and I'd turn around and walk right back out." Why does this story piss me off so much? Because that exact same teacher treated me like shit for years after he "busted" me smoking a cigarette in the woods behind school.

I say "busted" because he just saw a kid from a distance with similar hair to me running away. I never smoked in my life. Not like my brother, who went through a pack of cigarettes every week and didn't get the ire of any teachers in his entire time there.

So yeah, I completely had no problems believing in Snape's blatant favouritism because it was exactly like that at my school.
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Xelltrix posted...

Also wat.

What's getting you confused? Harry was literally destined in a prophecy to defeat Voldemort and his house gets to cash in on that when he gets points for doing so.
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Holy shit Scottish schools give you dinner
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GiftedACIII posted...

What's getting you confused? Harry was literally destined in a prophecy to defeat Voldemort and his house gets to cash in on that when he gets points for doing so.

I'm "wat"-ing because House points aren't about the entire House doing something, it's about a person in the House doing something... How would they only award House points if the entire house contributed to something?
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It's not nearly as bad as the point system in Quiddich, where the game can literally go on for days and ultimately catching the snitch makes nearly everything else a waste of time.
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Quidditch rules were stupid af, lol.
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Xelltrix posted...

GiftedACIII posted...

What's getting you confused? Harry was literally destined in a prophecy to defeat Voldemort and his house gets to cash in on that when he gets points for doing so.

I'm "wat"-ing because House points aren't about the entire House doing something, it's about a person in the House doing something... How would they only award House points if the entire house contributed to something?

My point is more on how it shouldn't be given school points for doing that in the first place since it should be about school things
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GiftedACIII posted...

My point is more on how it shouldn't be given school points for doing that in the first place since it should be about school things

Well yeah, that would be a more sensible critique rather than your initial post, lol. But at the same time, they wanted to award him somehow, and it's not like the House Cup is really all that important anyway. They all basically stop caring about it in later years anyway.
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s0nicfan posted...

It's not nearly as bad as the point system in Quiddich, where the game can literally go on for days and ultimately catching the snitch makes nearly everything else a waste of time.

Catching the snitch only makes everything else a waste of time if it's caught early on. If it goes on for days the points from the snitch won't be enough to counteract the point gained beforehand.

Why anyone would want a game to last for days is beyond me. It does seem to be what the game is designed around however.

To be fair I don't really think Rowling gave much of a fuck beyond making it fit into the plot.
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JE19426 posted...

s0nicfan posted...

It's not nearly as bad as the point system in Quiddich, where the game can literally go on for days and ultimately catching the snitch makes nearly everything else a waste of time.

Catching the snitch only makes everything else a waste of time if it's caught early on. If it goes on for days the points from the snitch won't be enough to counteract the point gained beforehand.

Why anyone would want a game to last for days is beyond me. It does seem to be what the game is designed around however.

Wizards clearly live longer (though their age of majority is lower, go figure) so that might have something to do with it.
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s0nicfan posted...

It's not nearly as bad as the point system in Quiddich, where the game can literally go on for days and ultimately catching the snitch makes nearly everything else a waste of time.

Except for the Quidditch World Cup that ended well...you know
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s0nicfan posted...

It's not nearly as bad as the point system in Quiddich, where the game can literally go on for days and ultimately catching the snitch makes nearly everything else a waste of time.

Nah, a caught snitch might still mean a losing team if the points aren't high enough.

I can't remember if the match only ends then, but it so then THAT'S pretty bad lol
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AvantgardeAClue posted...

I can't remember if the match only ends then, but it so then THAT'S pretty bad lol

I think both captains can agree to end the game but otherwise they need to catch it.

I can't believe Harry Potter is such a conservative book promoting competition, hatred, and inequality in the school system we should probably ban it
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AngelsNAirwav3s posted...

I can't believe Harry Potter is such a conservative book promoting competition, hatred, and inequality in the school system we should probably ban it

Maybe now I understand why JK tried to present Cursed Child as progressive
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AvantgardeAClue posted...

s0nicfan posted...

It's not nearly as bad as the point system in Quiddich, where the game can literally go on for days and ultimately catching the snitch makes nearly everything else a waste of time.

Nah, a caught snitch might still mean a losing team if the points aren't high enough.

I can't remember if the match only ends then, but it so then THAT'S pretty bad lol

Yea, the game only ends when the snitch is caught. IIRC in one of the first books when Harry is still learning how to play someone mentions that a game went on for a month or something stupid like that.

EDIT: It's 3 months, but the game can end if both teams agree to it.
http://harrypotter.wikia.com/wiki/Quidditch

The game ends when the Snitch is caught or an agreement is reached between the captains of both teams. Some games can go on for many days if the Snitch is not caught (the record, according to Quidditch Through the Ages , is three months).

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krazychao5 posted...

It's a hack cause Dumblydore chose favorites and awarded Gryffindor 160 points for breaking school rules so that they'd beat Slytherin.

Well there wasnt a single Slytherin trying to help matters.
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And the stipulation with the Snitch is that whoever catches it wins 150 points and the game ends. You can catch the Snitch and still lose the game.
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MrBobGray posted...

And the stipulation with the Snitch is that whoever catches it wins 150 points and the game ends. You can catch the Snitch and still lose the game.

Bruh, that's still an incredibly dumb rule that completely invalidates the rest of the game 90% of the time.
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MrBobGray posted...

And the stipulation with the Snitch is that whoever catches it wins 150 points and the game ends. You can catch the Snitch and still lose the game.

I mean you can shoot into your own goal in soccer, it just makes you an idiot.

Any player who lost the game basicly on purpose by grabbing the snitch while down 150 points would be kicked off the team and never play again.
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the franchise as a whole suffers from poor execution choices. The foundation is solid but a lot of the choices following them aren't.
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charey posted...

Any player who lost the game basicly on purpose by grabbing the snitch while down 150 points would be kicked off the team and never play again.

Not really. The one time this happens in the series, the Seeker does it because he realizes the other team's Chasers are so much better than his own that they're just dragging the game out
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Theres a lot to pick at in Harry Potter, but later in the series its revealed that Quidditch is "scored" over the course of the season. Theres a plot point one book where Harry has to wait until theyre far enough ahead, because they could win that game, but lose the championship.

Quidditch is still a sloppily designed game meant to show how wizards are whimsical and fun and Harry is at least talented at one thing, but the scoring was eventually made to make sense >_>
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