#witch switch

For my database needs, I write notes for every instance of canon errors and guides to fuzzy points whenever they appear in the series - you all know this by now I'm sure. I feel that my previous rant here about the Witch Switch TLSQ was not nearly enough to illustrate just how hideous it was, so I'm going to copypaste my 'canon error' file for that quest below. I simply cannot stress enough how badly written this quest is.

Note how I was gracious and didn't even go into the whole 'Hufflepuff's locket' crap, that could at least be justified in a skilled writer's hands. But needless to say, this TLSQ doesn't even know what skill is, much less actually have it.

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this TLSQ is particularly riddled with errors - starting right up from the numerous spelling and grammar errors and the copious overuse of italics. more to the point, the MC's personality and and event timeline cannot be reconciled with the main story MC, leaving no choice but for them to be the quidditch story MC, and furthermore every single one of the characters in this quest behave in a strangely OOC manner and reference things that have never happened and were never true before.

there is good and justified suspicion that this quest was strung together by a LLM (commonly called 'AI').

who is the MC? a large part of the MC confusion is due to the students present in the initial Transfiguration class - the main story MC's class consists of the MC's house and Ravenclaws. As the main story MC can canonically only be a Ravenclaw or Hufflepuff, the presence of Merula and the Gryffindors in that class marks the MC as being someone else - notably, the quidditch MC canonically has to be a Hufflepuff which explains Penny's presence in the class, and it being a different class entirely explains why it has a combination of minimum three houses present in the class when the main story MC's Transfiguration class only has 1-2 houses.

add in how the MC in this quest is scared to contact the authorities for help which they never have been in the main quests or majority of the TLSQs, and on numerous occasions acts like a self-sacrificial Hero of the World who blames themselves for everything that everyone else around them does and considers every unjust consequence of their failure to reach that lofty goal to be in fact justified, and the personality is hugely incompatible with the personality of the main story MC. the quidditch MC is much more of a blank slate, therefore this sacrificial guilt-ridden fool must be the quidditch MC for lack of any other options.

when does it take place? it would be even more extremely odd for Penny and Merula to behave like five-year-olds if they were in their late teens, which means that this quest likely takes place before Y5 - which is the year that Switching spells were canonically taught to MC's year. this means that Switching spells must be new to the characters in this quest. however, at the conclusion of the story the MC, Penny, and Merula are forced to cast a Switching spell with no instruction, no preparation, and certainly no practice - and perfectly synchronized no less. that very event would already mark the conclusion of the story as non-canon if it happens at any time before at least Y6-7, which means the necessity of the characters being certainly no older than Y4 due to their toddler-like behavior (and indeed, being marked as a Y2 quest in the game) makes it simply an out of the planet impossibility. however, things being what they are it must instead take place as close to Y5 as possible to at least make them developmentally capable of learning Switching spells with relative ease - which is to say, this quest is unlikely to take place before Y4. note that this already puts the characters at 14-15 years old, underlining their extreme immaturity and OOCness.

there is no way to resolve their extreme immaturity with their prodigious act of synchronizing their first attempt ever at a Switching spell and succeeding.

the extremes of OOCness in the duration of this TLSQ, various characters behave extremely unlike themselves. it starts right in the first part, with the good student committee leader Penny leaning across her seatmate to shout-talk to the MC, who is seated on the next aisle. it's immediately followed by McGonagall not putting a stop to her having a shouted conversation in the middle of class while she's attempting to give a lecture, despite being known as a strict disciplinarian. the second(!!!) time that Penny does that, Merula also turns around and joins the conversation. McGonagall still fails to take disciplinary action, despite Merula sitting in the front row making it perfectly impossible for McGonagall not to have noticed what she's doing, if Penny and the MC's shouting at each other in the back had somehow eluded her attention.

at this point, it becomes apparent that Penny and Merula supposedly now have a long-standing grudge and they cannot stand so much as the sight of each other. this is not established lore. Merula might be unpleasant to everyone, but Penny is just as firmly pleasant to everyone. there has never been so much as a hint of any other anger or grudge within her except perhaps against Emily Tyler who tried to tar and feather her reputation to get the student committee leader position for herself during the Celestial Ball. it is unclear what Merula is supposed to have done to cause this issue, if the blame is even supposed to lie with Merula in the first place. all particulars are a complete unknown as this is an invented bit of lore specifically for this TLSQ and Penny and Merula otherwise have always gotten along as much as Merula can get along with anyone.

the next moment Penny springs to her feet when Merula starts insulting her back. strict disciplinarian McGonagall still takes no action. Merula springs to her feet too. McGonagall still takes no action. the rest of the class get on their feet and gather around Penny and Merula. still no reaction whatsoever from McGonagall. the two draw their wands and cast at each other. still no reaction from McGonagall. the MC rushes over. it's only at that point that McGonagall has any reaction at all. and instead of chewing them out so badly they'd never forget it and assigning detention every day for the rest of the year, or something equally in character, she sends them to Dumbledore, sealing the farce of the first part.

the TLSQ continues the way it started. Dumbledore fails to discipline them either in any major way, and seems to disagree with McGonagall on the MC not being at fault for anything as he assigns the MC the same punishments as Penny and Merula. later on, the MC is scared to contact authority figures after an accidentally found enchanted object activates and targets Penny and Merula. perhaps they are justified in that fear, as in this TLSQ there is only blame to be handed out, no help. which is aptly demonstrated soon after by Penny and Merula getting into a public duel, which Snape blames on the MC despite everyone telling Snape that they weren't involved. The MC is taken for a detention-not-called-by-that-word regardless and the two duelling culprits are let off without so much as a warning. even after Snape lets the MC go it is with a warning that they should be grateful he didn't assign actual detention. Penny later agrees with Snape's sentiment, even as she, one of the actual participants in said duel, received no consequence whatsoever.

there are also unexplained time jumps in this quest. the first Transfiguration class, the cleaning of the artefact room, and 'Penny' (actually Merula) babysitting Hagrid's niffler are clearly all meant to take place on the same day from the characters' lines in the quest. However, before 'Penny' babysitting the niffler happens, curfew has already come and is in effect with full darkness having fallen - and this explicitly happens mere minutes before the MC goes to check on how the niffler babysitting is going. what initially may be thought of as a minor incongruent detail when Hagrid's cabin's windows show it's light outside, is instead revealed as a time skip having impossibly taken place in those few minutes it took to walk from the greenhouses to Hagrid's cabin, as at the end of the babysitting it is not only daytime but time to go to class before they're late.

and of course, the cherry on top being the culmination of the quest, with the MC, Penny, and Merula all flawlessly casting their first Switching spell ever with no practice, no preparation, no instruction, and still perfectly timed together. note how none of them have ever been described as being Transfiguration prodigies.

conclusion there is no world in which anything in this TLSQ can be considered canon with the rest of the game without breaking lore and characterisation all over the place. due to the incoherency of the timeline and severe OOCness of characters it is perhaps the safest approach to dismiss it as AI slop and move on.

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