And yet, he did an entire arc about the role of a hero and supporting characters. I don’t think we can be sure that his decisions won’t be influenced by story concerns.
Of course his decisions are influenced by story concerns: the way to make the point “this is not a story” is to do it in a sickening matter. Let people pattern-match on “this is the bleak moment where Harry will do the impossible and win,” and then reveal that the impossible is, in fact, impossible.
(Note there is a problem with the “you have five days to come up with a solution” approach if EY has taken this plan- EY would have to be pretty confident that no plan existed to hope that fans would not come up with one.)
I am aware. My point is that if you say “X is impossible” and then someone points out a way to do X, you now have a plot hole / have to admit that the fan is cleverer than the character or author. That’s genre savvy evidence against the prediction that EY will say “X is impossible,” whereas “he would end the chapter on a downer” isn’t because he would get the desired effect more strongly if he ended the chapter on a cliffhanger, and then had the character fall off the cliff.
And yet, he did an entire arc about the role of a hero and supporting characters. I don’t think we can be sure that his decisions won’t be influenced by story concerns.
Of course his decisions are influenced by story concerns: the way to make the point “this is not a story” is to do it in a sickening matter. Let people pattern-match on “this is the bleak moment where Harry will do the impossible and win,” and then reveal that the impossible is, in fact, impossible.
(Note there is a problem with the “you have five days to come up with a solution” approach if EY has taken this plan- EY would have to be pretty confident that no plan existed to hope that fans would not come up with one.)
Read above. There is a True End planned and pre-written.
I am aware. My point is that if you say “X is impossible” and then someone points out a way to do X, you now have a plot hole / have to admit that the fan is cleverer than the character or author. That’s genre savvy evidence against the prediction that EY will say “X is impossible,” whereas “he would end the chapter on a downer” isn’t because he would get the desired effect more strongly if he ended the chapter on a cliffhanger, and then had the character fall off the cliff.