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drethelin comments on "Stupid" questions thread - Less Wrong Discussion

40 Post author: gothgirl420666 13 July 2013 02:42AM

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Comment author: drethelin 10 April 2014 12:31:00AM 0 points [-]

It's similar to the Mary Sue problem and Eliezer's rule of fanfiction. If you give Harry Potter knowledge of the future, you have to give it to Voldemort too, but that can render both of their sets of knowledge irrelevant and become a self referential clusterfuck to write so probably just don't. If only the main character has knowledge of the future, it tends to become a Mary Sue fic where you replace power with knowledge.

https://www.fanfiction.net/s/9658524/1/Branches-on-the-Tree-of-Time is an example of a surprisingly well-written story that takes recursive time-travel and future knowledge to its logical conclusion.