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As both @F1Krazy and @Rasdashan say, it's not unrealistic for a character not to realise what is clear to the reader. In a way, the character actively refuses to connect the dots, she has a strong ...
Answer
#4: Attribution notice removed
by
System
·
2019-12-12T21:57:32Z (about 5 years ago)
Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/41248 License name: CC BY-SA 3.0 License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
#3: Attribution notice added
by
System
·
2019-12-08T10:34:21Z (about 5 years ago)
Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/41248 License name: CC BY-SA 3.0 License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
#2: Initial revision
As both @F1Krazy and @Rasdashan say, it's not unrealistic for a character not to realise what is clear to the reader. In a way, the character actively refuses to connect the dots, she has a strong impetus to respond this way, whereas the readers would have no inhibition to understanding what's going on. However, since for the reader there is no mystery, you cannot rely on mystery to create tension. I remember reading a particular fantasy book which has received wide acclaim, but was built around a single mystery the characters were trying to solve. Having deduced the answer two hundred pages before the MCs, I found myself bored to tears, waiting for the characters to finally figure it out. The author provided nothing else to engage me, other than the search for the solution which I have already found. It follows, that **you would have to provide something else to engage the reader, instead of the mystery of "what happened to Eris's parents"**. A tension-building question that would engage the readers could be who / how many would get hurt because Eris refuses to realise what she's doing.
#1: Imported from external source
by
System
·
2019-01-12T19:54:31Z (almost 6 years ago)
Original score: 6