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While I don't really agree with it, I suspect the thinking was something along the lines of "Hey dumbasses, JK Rowling didn't invent the idea. See all these examples from before she wrote her first word?". The phrasing of several examples supports that interpretation, btw.
It is allowed, but I don't see the need to encourage that for this particular trope. Please inform the cleanup thread
if you decide to reorder the examples.
Soft-splitting by "before/after Harry Potter" might be one of the few soft-splits I could get behind, just to make it clear that JKR didn't invent the damn trope.
Buuuut it's not an important distinction. Hell, it's not really a distinction at all, it's just to prove the point that "before Harry Potter" is a fairly massive category.
Trouble Cube continues to be a general-purpose forum for those who desire such a thing.
Would adding a "no, Harry Potter didn't invent it" type sentence somewhere in the description whenever I have a jab at the classification change be of any use?
Edited by Nazetrime
Not necessarily, many people want evidence not just assertions. I think this discussion would be better served by TRS or the discussion page, however.
"For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for Nature cannot be fooled." - Richard Feynman
I'll stick to at least starting the reorder then, I know from the few times I joined that repair-type discussions bring out an aspect of my ego that I don't want to encourage too much.
I just noticed that Wizarding School classifies Literature examples and only Literature examples by publication date of the work. As far as I know, the only accepted classifications are alphabet and "latest addition at the end", with some exceptions if relevant to the trope (like the classification by number of installments for Archive Panic examples, which I'm aware of because I'm on the tail end of a fling with a webcomic).
Is that classification allowed?
Edited by Nazetrime