I know I may be getting in well over my neck on this issue, but still. I’ve been audacious before, so why stop now?
The thing is, I consider a series – of anything: movies, books, comics – to be good only when all instalments are consistent. Which means that you don’t invent things for sequels that weren’t mentioned at all in the prequels. For reasons I shall explain later, I will call this the Horcrux problem.
I’m not saying all elements of the storyline of all instalments should be known beforehand. That is impossible. All I’m saying is, elements that are crucial to the climax/denouement/unravelling-of-plot of any story must be – and repeat MUST BE – elements well known, and they must have been introduced right from the beginning. All right, I’ll explain. Any story has certain elements in it which are needed for the ending or the solution of that story.
Think of them as analogous to the clues in a detective story. And like in any good detective tale, these ‘clues’ – to continue the metaphor – must be mentioned early on. Sherlock Holmes doesn’t solve a case with a single clue he found five minutes before telling us the solution, which clue is mentioned for the first time only when he finds it. That clue may be found to have a bearing on the case only later, but it is introduced as an element early on in the story. We know it's there. It's not a total surprise.
Thus, Clues must be present from the beginning, even if they aren’t introduced as such. In other words, it is enough if we know of the prior existence of the clue, even if it's importance remained unknown. This knowledge is what makes the solution – to borrow a term mathematicians are fond of – so elegant.
For example, suppose we have a story in which a villain must be killed. And we all know that there is some special way in which he must be killed. Forget what that way is, we know he cannot be killed by normal means. Example – Dracula and the stake. This is a crucial element. Hence, we must know about this from the first, even if we have no idea what the way is to kill him till the last story in the instalment.
Or, assume that a Secret Service agent is introduced in Issue 17. We must know of the existence of the Secret Service from Issue 1 itself (at least, within Issue 5). No point introducing the agent and then saying, “Whoops! Sorry we didn’t tell you, you see, there is this Secret Service…” It won’t do.
I hope you’ve got the point.
Now, the reason why I bring this up: I find that of late, too many books and movies violate this rule. I'll get to why I call it the Horcrux Problem:
The Horcruxes in the Harry Potter books are the best example of such errors.
See, there have been six Harry Potter books. Now we avid readers know that the main Villain is one Lord Voldemort. We know that there are absolute LEGIONS of very immensely powerful wizards who have dedicated their lives to killing this evil thing. But it isn’t until Book Five (if I remember right) that we learn about Horcruxes. Then we are told that destroying these things is essential to Voldy’s death.
Bit of trivia for buffs: Voldemort literally means “Flee From Death” of “Flight From Death” in French.
And we are also told that Dumbledore knew about these from the first.
All right, I admit that old Harry is too young to learn about this, but, how come none of the other characters ever mentions this? Not the muggles, not the Dark Followers of the Flee-er From Death, not the Good Wizards, NO ONE???
And this is strange, because half the novels centre on Harry solving something by total fluke, and mostly from overhearing things he never should have heard, being so young and nice and cute and all. So, why weren’t these essentials mentioned at all? Harry is told so much about Voldy, except the trivial detail that Voldy’s mouldering soul is contained in these Horcruxii and he can’t be killed without destroying the evil thingummies first.
Classic case of the Problem. Hence the name.
Another glaring case of the Horcrux Problem in the Harry Potter books:
Spells: It is believable that since in each book, Harry learns tougher and more deadly incantations because he is now in a higher class, he didn't know them from the beginning. All right. What about all the others? The seniors? The lecturers? Why don’t they all use these complicated mantras from the first book onwards? I'm not saying they must use it thrice every page, but at least once? They surely knew them? They didn’t learn them all only when Harry did? So why doesn’t anyone use any powerful spells till Harry learns them?
(Now everyone will say that once we know them, we learn in retrospect that they had been used before, or that things unexplained in the previous books are explained now that we know this. Like, once we know about the Avada Kedavra, we are told that Harry's mom and dad died due to that. Right.
I call that bad writing. Hah. That's a laugh. A bad writer on about bad writing. Right.
“Oh, Harry, now that you know what an Avada Kedavra Curse is – what? No, Harry, dear one, it is not a Tamil swear word, it’s a very bad curse – yes, that one. Good boy. Now that you know what it is, I just thought I might tell you – in passing, what? En passant, as the French say, and all that – your momma was popped off by that one. Yes, right, it’s definitely not cricket. Oh, by all means, have another cup of tea, old chap!”
It won’t do.)
I’ll give you another sample:
The Pirate Lords in the Pirates of the Caribbean series: Introduced only in the third movie. If Four Main Characters – Sparrow, Jones, Barbossa, Tia Dalma – are involved, and three of them are actually Lords, how come no one mentions it????
Another one, same source:
Calypso: If all sailors are as obsessed with the GODDESS as they are in At World’s End, how come they never mention her in the other two movies? I mean, she’s supposed to be the Goddess of the Seas and all that, right?
I'll stop here.
And as for you, off you go and find more cases of the Horcrux Problem.
And, before anyone calls me a nitpicker, I’ll get out of here.
See ya.
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