Minor Peace Talks spoilers to follow.
Isn't it annoying when Harry is trying to figure something out, but a mentor figure has a vague reason why they can't tell him?
Examples:
In Turn Coat, (in Ebeneezer's journal entry), Rashid tells Ebeneezer not to tell Harry about Demonreach, because it won't make a difference?
PEACE TALKS EXAMPLE:
In Peace Talks, River Shoulders say that he's not the right person/it's not the right time to tell Harry about wizards who are hanging on, or about starborn things.
Ebeneezer suddenly decides in Peace Talks that it's "time to start teaching you about this starborn business."
to which Harry responds, "You're going to start talking about it now?" As if Harry has tried to ask him about it before but got stonewalled.
Then, after the cornerhound fight, Harry presses Eb for more info.
Eb responds, "I already said more'n I should've."
What are other examples of this happening in the series?
I'm sure there's some with Uriel, but the reasons that he can't tell Harry things are probably more cosmic limitationsy than what is restricting others.
I understand the Doylist reason why people don't just tell Harry stuff about being a starborn/demonreach: narrative tension, mystery, etc.
But what could be the in-universe reason for why people won't tell him things? What is keeping these mentor figures from telling? Why is it a bad idea?
In extension, what is the
right time and person to tell Harry these things? Is there some kind of starborn tutorial that he'll get in the future, and they don't want to spoil it?
Some ideas for why this could be happening:
FORESIGHT:
It reminds me to the Harry/Bob conversation in Proven Guilty, where the Gatekeeper has given Harry a vague note. Bob explains that it is vague likely so it doesn't mess too much with the timestream, as the Gatekeeper got the knowledge from the future.
If the people like Ebeneezer, River Shoulders, and the Gatekeeper got their knowledge from the future, this could work. However, that's sketchy because that's a lot of specific knowledge that a lot of people have.
ANTI-SELF-FULFILLING PROPHECY:
A self fulfilling prophecy is when you hearing the prophecy causes the prophecy. (You hear a prophecy that your son will kill you so you lock up your son, thus making him angry enough to kill you, which he does.)
Perhaps the mentors are worried that if Harry knows about the starborn prophecy, he'll just end up messing it up and not fulfilling it.
For example, it gives him motivation to turn evil? It will scare him into giving up before he even starts if he knows how hard it will be?
STRICT NEED-TO-KNOW CONSPIRACY:
The secrets of starbornness are protected by a conspiracy? The more people who know about it, the more risk it is. So, it's very strictly need-to-know.
That's hard to believe, because wouldn't being Starborn be the definition of someone who needs to know about being a starborn?
This could work if they are unsure if he's really a starborn/the warden of Demonreach, etc. The evidence points that way, but they are still waiting for it to be 100% confirmed before they tell them something.
However, that's hard to believe because it would make Ebeneezer's actions in Peace Talks very confusing:
Like, he's desperate with the Cornerhounds after them, and he's only 90% sure that Harry's starborn, so he tells him to bind the hounds, just hoping that he's not wrong. Because if Harry isn't starborn, that could give him psychic trauma.
However, afterwards he's still only 95% sure that Harry is starborn, because a non-starborn could have done it, so he clams up and won't tell Harry anything else?
The conspiracy could make a little more sense if the people brought into it were required to take a magic oath of secrecy. Like they literally can't tell Harry any more, even if they want to and think he should know (similar to the restrictions we see on Lily/Fix in Proven Guilty).
What are your ideas? Why won't people tell Harry things?
And what is the thing that they won't tell him?
