Question Why dafuq do some authors mention future events in the story?

Stating the obvious for a word count.

 

It's of course to annoy the readers! It's the author's duty to torture us!

 

It is because the author will not go into depth about it latter on. Like for instance, "in future would be full of entanglements with the Li family", there will be like one entanglement and that is it. It is just the author fluffing up the content of their story without going into detail, in the end it means nothing. I have seen it done a lot in novels, if you have too... think back have they actually played out like the author said? Maybe briefly or touched on it but not in depth.

I have seen one novel mention future events that never get covered that I am currently reading, it is always about someone or something that will happen in future but will never mentioned again.

 

Well, in Tales of Reincarnated Lord, the mc is quite serious in playing the part of a loyal vassal to protect his reputation, but in the foreshadowing he's described as the founding emperor, basically he stopped being a vassal and established his own empire

 

In my opinion, the authors do that as a shortcut. It makes the users look forward to the future chapters.

In some cases, it's used to tell of future events where such exposition is suitable, without actually writing the chapter itself. For example, an author wants to make Abram a god in 2000 years, but he can't write all the way to 2000 years later, considering that he's been writing Abram's weekly adventures, not even he will live that long. So he added those little footnotes, to tell that this event will be important 2000 years later, without actually going through writing the chapter itself.

BTW, western published authors do this too. Without going to far into naming the instances, just watch Stranger Than Fiction. "Little did he/she/they know..." is often used in western literature.

 

Shitty foreshadowing is still foreshadowing...just shittier. What can you expect from basically amateur writers with no editors or training. For every good one there 10+ shitty writers and that's considering that we only get the best/most interesting stories translated.

 

So, now people have started complaining about supposedly "Spoilers" of future events that Author themselves add in their own story?

First of all, its their story and they can write it any way they like, whats wrong if they want to add in some future references in it. And if you hate spoilers that the author themselves added in, then better stop reading the story and look for another one.

Also, why do people so much despise "Spoilers"? For me, reading Spoilers only increases the fun of the story.

 

Luffy declaring that he intend to become Pirate King is very different from the plots narration straight up telling you that something will happen.
One Piece could very well end without anyone becoming Pirate King at all.

 

'Little did they know' and the like are actually pretty standard literary devices to create dramatic irony, and can generally be found anywhere, be it web novels or literature.
Telling the reader to expect certain events but not actually describing it creates a sense of anticipation and adds a level of foreshadowing, and can't really be considered spoiling anythjng since it doesn't really go into detail as to what happens. In cases that do, like 'little did they know this would be the last time they speak to each other', it's usually for dramatic irony, as I mentioned above. The sense of anticipation is heightened as the reader learns more about new events and tries to guess how it will lead to the predetermined outcome.
In some cases, it can be used to subvert the readers expectations, like telling you two people will never meet each other again, but end up sending one somewhere without killing them or revive them somehow, thus creating a twist by both fulfilling the prediction and subverting expectations at the same time.
In any case, it's not a bad trope by any means. If it's used badly it's not a reflection of the device itself, but more of the author's skill

 

Haven't really took much notice of this but I've heard/read this a lot in anime and mangas so doesn't really bother me.

 

This.

I'm not sure why people would have this problem. It's been around in books since long time ago and is just there to build up anticipation while waiting for it to happen. Also it's not like it spoiled everything... I mean, if the author wrote "little did he know that there would be trouble brewing from this encounter..." then do you know what troubles that encounter will bring in the future at this point? I just think you're being too sensitive about this.

 

Like with all other literary devices there are both good and bad examples though.
If not done carefully an author can risk ruining the tension in other parts of the story unintentionally.
For example if you mention that two characters will meet again far in the future, then you have pretty much told the reader that both characters have plot armour and can't die before that meeting, which can be a problem if the author later want to make the reader think that one of those characters might die in a fight.

 

For the holy word count they have to include something to set some readers off. It's to build hype for it usually.

 

Worst spoilers an author has written is starting the story. Just by telling me that the MC is the MC, he's done told me the MC is going to do MC things. Horrible writers.

For those that actually remember their English classes, wouldn't the example be closer to a flash-forward rather than foreshadowing? It can be done properly at times. The given example does seem unnecessary. On the other hand, I've enjoyed ones that are a bit more specific. When done properly it's a good way of mentioning the impact that the current event or person is going to have on th world.

 

I've been reading a bunch of Chinese language novels recently and have seen this device used fairly often. This and brief summaries of future events for more minor characters/places, along with a line like, 'Of course, that's a story for the future.'

I've found it isn't as jarring in the original language as it is in English, probably in part because of tenses. With Chinese, there's no tense conjugation.

I think this is also something that doesn't translate that well as it has to do with the tone these stories are told in. With modern western novels, you don't see this device used very much as they're written to sound like the events are happening as they're being told from the POV of the characters, but with Chinese novels there's often a feeling like the story is being narrated by a storyteller. Not sure how to explain it.

 

I personally don't like it, but I've seen a lot worse.

In one novel I translated a few chapters of, the MC had an adopted daughter and a slime pet, and both seemed harmless... Then, the author makes a character roster and says the daughter has the blessing of the spirit king and the slime is secretly leveling without anyone's notice.

... I decided to scrap those 2 parts of the translation altogether, it felt pretty annoying to me, and it removed all the tension of the moment the daughter was kidnapped a few chapters later.

 

Personally it’s a tactic to hook you in.

I write a novel myself and showing the glimpse of the future is the tactic is to create subversion or a twist of expectation

(Still looking for active comment or in my novel )

 

I noticed the author gives out too many spoilers that you can't even ship any other guy with FL anymore. So, I don't really like the 'foreshadowing'.

This is like Naruto telling everyone that he will be Hokage in future. Not really spoilers. The spoiler would refer to telling outright that Naruto will end up as the 7th Hokage.

 

Sarcasm is like food, not everyone gets it.

 

In chinese ver. though, luffy actually wants to become the pirate king's husband