Harry Potter The Conveyor Belt of Plot Necessity

[Bart Lidofsky]

No: HPFGUIDX 179324

MusicalBetsy here:
> Ah, Alla, you must have read my mind. I actually just finished the 
> Dark is Rising series (again - I've read it many times), and I too 
> thought about that when I read the harp scenes!  And yet, like you, I 
> thought, "But, oh, it's so interesting and fun to see how the boys 
> get to the place where the meet the lords of High Magic and the hoops 
> they have to go through...it's such beautiful reading, so who 
> cares?" 

	Based on what I read in this list (and I happened to have the omnibus 
collection on my shelf anyway), I just read that series for the first time.

	In the design of role-playing game modules, there is a feature called a 
"Conveyor Belt", which is to be avoided when possible, and hidden from 
the players when not. As one might figure out from the name, it is when 
the characters must choose a specific set of actions, or else the story 
ends, especially if those actions place the characters into a 
temporarily disadvantageous situation. More simply, it's when the plot 
is conveying the characters, rather than the characters conveying the 
plot. Often, it requires the characters to do something that does not 
make sense. My major problem with the Dark is Rising series is that it's 
just too easy to see the conveyor belt. "If you don't do this exactly 
right, all is lost, but we're not even going to give you a hint as to 
the right thing to do. Yay! You did the right thing!"

	JKR does a better job at hiding the conveyor belt, but she does not 
always succeed; particularly in DH, and I would guess because she was in 
too much of a hurry to finish the story, it pops up here and there. 
Snape's timing has to be perfectly bad in POA for the plot to come out 
the way JKR wanted it to come out. Morty's plan in GOF is also dependent 
on far too many things going right, and specific actions on Harry's part 
(however, JKR countered this a bit by Harry doing his best to jump off 
the conveyor belt, albeit without knowing that he's on one). In OOP, JKR 
does a much better job, with Morty taking advantage of circumstances 
rather than depending on them (it takes the whole book to get Harry to 
the Hall of Prophecy not because the plan takes that long, but because 
of all the failed attempts).

	However, in DH, JKR makes the conveyor belt WAY too obvious, with her 
unnecessary puzzles, the largely unnecessary Deathly Hallows, and 
notably by the "Voldemort" trap, because if the trio need to get 
captured and escape in order to find the rest of the Horcurxes (knowing 
that the Goblet is in Trixie's vault, getting the aid of a goblin who 
happened to have worked at the bank, etc.). And, as I have mentioned 
before, the characters illogically start calling Morty "You-know-who", 
instead of a name that would come much more easily to Hermoine and 
Harry, like "Tommy", "Riddle", the fan favorite, "Voldy", or my 
favorite, "Morty". Or that nobody even thinks of using the "Voldemort" 
trap as a way of luring DE's into booby traps, rendering it useless.

	Bart