Before the date change, there was a legitimate chance that the reader would come away from the discussion thinking that the person Bones was describing actually was Riddle, and that both Bones and Quirrell understood her to have been talking about Riddle. Which if unintended is a far greater problem than “thinking Bones was about to name Riddle, then it turns out no”. This was, in fact, my reading when I was actually going through the chapter.
(tl;dr: It’s not a “tease” that Bones was about to name Riddle that’s the problem, the problem is that it wasn’t resolved with a clear indication that they’re not talking about Riddle)
Changing the date fixes this because the reader can go look it up and realize that it can’t be Riddle after all.
Changing the date fixes this because the reader can go look it up and realize that it can’t be Riddle after all.
“OhmygodohmygodOHMYGOD! Bones is going to figure out Quirrell is Voldemort! OHMYGOD! What’s he going to do?!?! He’s surrounded by aurors, he’s in DMLE headquarters!… Oh my GOD! Those aurors are so screwed!!”
“Oh, hm. That’s not Riddle then. I wonder who it is?”
...
Are you really suggesting that EY means the reader to do this? He said he wasn’t going to lie to us anymore. See’s low-probability theory of tease and WHAM involves EY lying to his readers, but your take on it that they were supposed to be totally tricked until the look it up online (?!?!) is turns that up to ridiculous levels.
The fact that the conversation doesn’t end with her actually saying Riddle is what would prompt readers to look it up. Are you saying that readers that are still with the fic after eighty chapters haven’t learned enough about rationality to take two minutes to verify an assumption after noticing they are confused?
He said he wasn’t going to lie to us anymore.
If that meant he couldn’t ever make a conversation that seems to be going one way but turns out to be different a few paragraphs later, it would lead to a VERY boring story.
P.S. My point was that the problem that EY fixed was that the obvious thing to check (looking up canon!Riddle’s biography) leads to an apparent confirmation.
Before the date change, there was a legitimate chance that the reader would come away from the discussion thinking that the person Bones was describing actually was Riddle, and that both Bones and Quirrell understood her to have been talking about Riddle. Which if unintended is a far greater problem than “thinking Bones was about to name Riddle, then it turns out no”. This was, in fact, my reading when I was actually going through the chapter.
(tl;dr: It’s not a “tease” that Bones was about to name Riddle that’s the problem, the problem is that it wasn’t resolved with a clear indication that they’re not talking about Riddle)
Changing the date fixes this because the reader can go look it up and realize that it can’t be Riddle after all.
“OhmygodohmygodOHMYGOD! Bones is going to figure out Quirrell is Voldemort! OHMYGOD! What’s he going to do?!?! He’s surrounded by aurors, he’s in DMLE headquarters!… Oh my GOD! Those aurors are so screwed!!”
looks up Tom Riddle online because that’s totally what all readers would do
“Oh, hm. That’s not Riddle then. I wonder who it is?”
...
Are you really suggesting that EY means the reader to do this? He said he wasn’t going to lie to us anymore. See’s low-probability theory of tease and WHAM involves EY lying to his readers, but your take on it that they were supposed to be totally tricked until the look it up online (?!?!) is turns that up to ridiculous levels.
The fact that the conversation doesn’t end with her actually saying Riddle is what would prompt readers to look it up. Are you saying that readers that are still with the fic after eighty chapters haven’t learned enough about rationality to take two minutes to verify an assumption after noticing they are confused?
If that meant he couldn’t ever make a conversation that seems to be going one way but turns out to be different a few paragraphs later, it would lead to a VERY boring story.
P.S. My point was that the problem that EY fixed was that the obvious thing to check (looking up canon!Riddle’s biography) leads to an apparent confirmation.