Discussion InformedAbility / Literature

In Heart Of Darkness, it's the point how the Darkest Africa has corrupted even the ideal colonist Kurtz was supposed to be.

Cleaned up some from Harry Potter

• Even Lord Voldemort falls victim to this as he becomes more integral to the series. He's the Evil Overlord, The Evil Genius, the leader of the Death Eaters, who's so frightening that even the mention of his name sends people into panic. It is true that Voldemort is extremely powerful, to the point where the only person in the series to fight him evenly is Dumbledore. But he's also holding the Villain Ball quite often throughout the series. He does things like hiding his Soul Jars in places connected to his past.

Tom showed his power when he cursed the freaking name to show who's using it, is implied to have cursed a job and showed very impressive duel with Albus. He was just as badass sorcerer as described. And we've seen his skills as The Chessmaster when he managed to take control over the ministry. The Villain Ball in question did not undermine what we've seen nor made any of his atributes informed, he simply had some flaws which were also mentioned, like his arrogance, lack of trust in others, and his willingness to collect trophies. Just because he's not perfect Villain Sue doesn't mean any of his abilities are informed.

• Dumbledore is reported to hold the position of, essentially, the Head of the Supreme Court of magical Britain. Yet he never uses his authority to resolve any of the occurring cases when innocent people are being accused by the incredibly flawed wizardry judicial system. However, this may be a subversion, as Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban hints that the magical supreme court is corrupt. When Dumbledore does use his influence, he's immediately vilified by the other politicians and kicked out of office.
  • By the time of the Order of Phoenix there is no "maybe" corrupt anymore; Fudge manages to call a full criminal hearing, the type of which normally reserved for Death Eater-level murderers, for a simple case of under-age magic which at most carries a relatively minor sentence such as expulsion from Hogwarts. Related to the example above, Dumbledore does indeed use his knowledge of wizarding law to get Harry out of it, so it would appear his abilities are not quite as informed as they seemed before.

This entry assumes that whoever is in charge of a court can make people go in and out of Azkaban whenever he wants. He may be inportant in the court but he still needs to prove someone's innocence if he wants him out. He tried to do this with Morfin, by proving that Tom visited him just before Riddles died and Morfin was stunned, but he didn't make it in time because Morfin has died. And as Justifying Edit shows he does have extensive knowledge of wizarding law and used it to defend Harry.

• The Nimbus Two Thousand and One is introduced as superior to every other model of racing broom ever invented - up until the Firebolt in Book 3. According to Draco, it Outstrips the Nimbus Two Thousand by a considerable degree and completely wipes the floor with the Cleansweeps. So you would naturally assume that a whole team equipped with these fantastic brooms would be the equivalent of the Brazil soccer team going up against Samoa right? Well, no, actually. Though it is reported early on that the Slytherin team resembles a series of green blurs during their practice sessions, they never win the cup for the rest of the series, and we are never told of them ever having a scoreline against an opposing team that is ever anything more than completely average.
  • The books imply that while the brooms the Slytherin team uses are superb, the players themselves are not. Malfoy buys his way onto the team, they frequently resort to cheating, and it's mentioned time and again that the Slytherin team seems to prefer thuggish brutality to skill.

As far as i remember second book Slytherins were kicking Griffindors's butts that year untill Harry caught Golden Snitch (which he only did because Malfoy messed up, which wasn't broom's fault), and entry assumes that whoever has better brooms will allways win regardless of skills, when skills are just as if not more important than brooms. Considering that one of the twins was clearly impressed by their speed i'd say their capabilities were not informed.

Cut this section from Literature, under The Fault in Our Stars:

• The (fictional) book by Peter van Houten is often stated as the only book that properly describes what it's like to have cancer yet we see no proof of it.
• Hazel and Gus even suffer from Informed Illness. Neither one of them ever suffers any symptomps of their diseases or side-effects of treatments except for a few scenes here and there when it's plot convenient. Hazel, who apparently needs a bi-pap and oxygen through cannula 24/7, is perfectly able to run around malls and airports, climb several flights of stairs, have sex and push people around in wheelchairs. Sometimes the text does state that she feels out of breath but she shouldn't be able to do any of those things in the first place. Not to mentions she never has any symptoms of any kind from her primary tumor. As for Gus, his symptoms never show up until the dramatic reveal, then he proceeds to have several symptoms that don't match the kind of cancer he's supposedly dying from. All in all, this book feels like it's written by someone who merely took a guess as to how cancer works.

The first bullet point is not this trope, it's Take Our Word for It. The second bullet point also doesn't belong on this page, because illnesses are not abilities, and for the same reason it was taken from the Fault in Our Stars YMMV tab: saying that "the cancer only shows up when the plot requires it" is not the same thing as "we are told about the cancer but it is never shown."

• Used to be a very common in the romance genre. Most typically, the heroine would be described in the first chapter by the author as intelligent, assertive, strong-willed and independent, but her dialogue, actions, etc. throughout the entire book portray her as a weak, hollow shell of a woman with the mind of a tuna sandwich.
  • Noted by George Eliot in "Silly Novels by Lady Novelists," where she says, "In her recorded conversations [the typical Mary Sue] is amazingly eloquent, and in her unrecorded conversations, amazingly witty" — the implication being that the writers of these books can do Author Filibusters but not jokes.

While very true, this is a general example, and needs some specific filled-in examples. (If you want romance novels where the ladies have brains, try Beatrice Small's historical romantic fiction.)

Coming back to where you started is not the same as never leaving. -Terry Pratchett