Cleanup: Harry Potter Chekhov's Gun page

Tried to post this under the Trope Repair shop, got redirected here by Berrenta.

Going down the list, a lot of the examples on this page do not seem like proper Chekhov's Guns (e.g., smaller things set up for a big payoff later).

• Some entries are just foreshadowing ("You'd be mad to rob Gringotts" is cited as an example)
• Some entries were just expanded on via Pottermore or the later movies/expanded books ("Quidditch Through The Ages" existing as a book before being defictionalized, the trolley witch)
• Some of them are just "This person has a name, and later exists" like Madam Pomfrey.

Personally, I feel like these Chekhov's Guns should be confined to the main book series, and not pay off in any of the expanded material, ince those are simply Rowling taking a thing from the books and exploring it more later, rather than her setting it up to go off much later down a long, planned story, but that is up for discussion. However, there are a couple of instances of something first appearing in one of those expanded books and coming into play later, and those are fine.

Examples don't necessarily have to have a major impact on things, but I feel like they should be more than just "This person exists, and here they are later".

I wonder. Do the other Potter pages have consistent issues besides this one? If so, this could be expanded into a Potter cleanup in general. Though I haven't checked in detail so they definitely need a look first before we do that.

I would wager yes, though I can't confirm. The HP series, popular as it is, is going to attract tropers, eager to contribute, and their examples may or may not be contrived.

I know the HP Headscratcher Pages have always driven me insane for several reasons. I'd support a fullscale HP cleanup.

If we do make this a Potter general cleanup I could be of assistance. I was a big Potter fan for many years, and I still know quite a bit about the series.

Should this be a long-term project instead if we're gonna systematically go through the entirety of the HP pages and clean out all the fluff, blather, and space-fillers there are?

We typically don't put work cleanups in Long-Term, though I do wish Short-Term got more activity.

Edited by jandn2014 on Apr 1st 2021 at 10:21:40 AM

Nah, it might take a little longer than other short term projects, but it has a definable end point.

Cool. I'll do the Chekhov's Gun page.

Does my definition at the top sound good? Remove all CG's that aren't confined to the main book series (outside of tiny ones that are first mentioned in the expanded books that come into play later), remove all examples of foreshadowing misapplied, and make sure they're more substantial than just "This person exists"?

First bit of page clean-up has been done. Feel free to have a look-see here, and remove any examples (or re-add ones you feel were unfairly cut).

I also left a nice note to future editors at the top of the edit page, informing them of the clean-up and being a little more definitive with what should be posted.

I highly encourage you to be a little too vigorous in removing stuff, though. We can always add it back later after discussion, but it's best to get all the grime out.

Edited by Rytex on Apr 2nd 2021 at 10:45:56 AM

Bumping this. There had been some agreement that this could become a potential Harry Potter cleanup. Is that still the case? I can look for bad examples if we do agree to it.

Wouldn't it be easier to just make a proper Harry Potter cleanup?

Maybe. What recurring problems do the pages have? I need that info for the OP of the cleanup.

It would probably be better to just repurpose the thread for a general cleanup of all the "Chekhov's Tropes"

Or...if we wanna keep this in short term, Harry Potter general cleanup is fine too.

Edited by AudioSpeaks2 on Nov 23rd 2023 at 2:45:21 AM